The book of Galatians was written by the great apostle Paul. It's the first book that Paul wrote. The big question is, why did he write the book of Galatians? The word Galatia was not a city like Philippi, Ephesus, and Rome. It was a region. It would be like maybe, you know, northern New Jersey or a western Pennsylvania. And it was a Roman province in southern central Turkey. And it was there that Paul the Apostle went with a man by the name of Barnabas to do a missionary trip or a missionary journey. And there Paul and Barnabas went to cities like Lystra, Derbe, Iconium. You can read about it. It's in the book of Acts chapter 13 and 14. And Paul and Barnabas went preaching the gospel of God's free grace, preaching salvation by grace through faith. And many, many Gentiles got saved. That's what happens when you preach the gospel. People get saved. People come to the Lord. People tell me today that I've heard people say people are so hardened to the gospel. Let me be frank with you. The world's always been hard to the gospel. What the real problem today is that Christians don't believe the gospel works. If we would preach the gospel, we will see people get saved. We may not see hundreds get saved, but God is faithful to his word. God saves people. God saves on the basis of gospel preaching. Now that's not my sermon tonight, so that's for free, because I figured you folks would need that. So Paul goes there and he's preaching the gospel. People get saved. And he leaves. He goes back to Antioch, gives the good news. But then suddenly, a little while later, he gets bad news and it comes out of Galatia. And what had happened is after he left, there were a group of preachers who came from the city of Jerusalem. And here they came to these same towns and they were professing Christians. And the churches there received them and they came in and they preached this message. Here's the message they preached. They preached Jesus was the Messiah. He was the promise of the Old Testament. That he lived a sinless life, that he died on a cross, that he resurrected from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and he is alive forevermore. and that you could be saved through putting your faith in Jesus Christ. You had to accept Jesus as your personal Savior. Then they said, now that you've received Jesus Christ, then you've experienced what God promised to Abraham, and that is, through Abraham, he would bless the nations of the earth. And that blessing was the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and you've received the blessing of the Abrahamic covenant. Now, God made a covenant with Abraham, And everybody that's going to be under the sign of the covenant has to do something. They have to be circumcised. That's just a part of the law. And since you Gentiles now have received the blessing of Abraham, and you've been saved, you've accepted Jesus as the Messiah, then you need to be circumcised. And if you're not circumcised, you can't have the blessing of God. Now, when Paul got that message, he sat down and wrote the book of Galatians. And I want you to know this is a no more Mr. Nice Guy letter. Because normally when Paul wrote, he wrote according to custom in Roman times. And he would write an introduction, introduce himself. I'm Paul. And he would say some things to the believers. He would thank God for them. And then he would pray for them and say what he was going to pray for. But when you read Galatians, he ain't thanking nobody for nothing. And he ain't doing no praying. He's preaching. And you know what he said? If anybody comes to you and preaches any other gospel than that which I preached to you, let that man come under the judgment of God, let him be accursed, whether he be an apostle or an angel. And in the first book of Paul's letters, the letter to the Galatians, he establishes the priority of the gospel over any man or any movement or any denomination, any group of people. It is the gospel first. Now, let me tell you something. I want you folks to know something. I'm a Baptist by conviction. And I don't mind being a Baptist, but I am not a Baptist first. And I want you folks to know that. You know what I'm first? I'm a gospel-believing Christian over any denomination over any man, over any movement. I don't get my orders from Jerusalem. I don't get my orders from Greenville. I don't get my orders from any other place on the planet. I get my orders from Jesus Christ and through his gospel because what Paul said is that the message is more important than any man, any movement, any place, any location. It's Jesus Christ first, the gospel first, and he established that in the very beginning of the writings of his letters. But Paul also reveals to us what was a problem in the early church, and it's the problem that persists today, and it is this, that within the umbrella of Christianity, and when I say in the umbrella of Christianity, I'm talking about how Christianity is viewed in the world today. We're talking about every denomination that believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Okay, so I am including in that umbrella. You may include something differently, but I'm going to include for example, the Roman Catholic Church. I'm going to include in that the Orthodox Church. I'm going to include in that the evangelical churches. I'm going to include in that all the denominational churches that are Protestant denominations. I'm going to include in that the Baptists. I'm going to include in that the Pentecostals. I'm going to include in that the Charismatics. And everybody who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, He died on a cross for our sins, He rose from the dead, He's the way to heaven under the umbrella of Christianity, What I want you to understand is that we have the same problem today that they had back then and what was the problem? These men came these men came preaching Jesus Plus Do you understand what I'm saying they came preaching that you had to be leave in Jesus and Plus. In this case, it was plus circumcision. Whether it was to be circumcised, to be saved, you had to be circumcised, or to be spiritual, you had to be circumcised. In either case, it was making an addition to the work of Jesus Christ. And folks, I want you to understand that Jesus plus something equals nothing. Because with Jesus is Jesus alone. Jesus plus nothing for the believer equals everything. Because folks, what can you add to Jesus? Jesus Christ is all sufficient. The Bible says that in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in him. When you get saved, you get everything that you need for life and godliness. Christ is all in all. He is all sufficient for all needs in everything throughout your life. So, what's the book of Galatians all about? The first four chapters. He deals with the historical problem of what we call legalism within the church. And what is legalism? It is adding to faith works for salvation or it is dependent on a particular kind of work that will produce sanctification in your life apart from Christ. And so he deals with four chapters of just dealing with it over and over and over. I mean, you read the book of Galatians. You come to chapter two. And guess what? You find an apostle named Peter who violated the truths of the gospel because he would eat Gentile believers until the James boys from Jerusalem showed up and he separated from the Gentiles and would no longer eat with them because they were uncircumcised and Paul got right in his face and said, Peter, you have compromised the gospel because the gospel teaches that Jews and Gentiles are one in Jesus Christ. Okay. By the way, you think we have racism in the United States of America? You ain't seen nothing. Because the greatest racism in history has been the problem between Jews and Gentiles. And the gospel of Jesus Christ breaks down the wall of separation and partition and brings into the body of Christ all men from all places and makes them one. Jew, Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all. So he deals with four chapters about dealing with the problem of legalism, that is, adding works to the grace of God. But then we come to chapter five and we see the second problem, and this has been a historical problem in the church, which is pretty typical for Christians, and that is we have this tendency to swing the pendulum. Now, think of it this way. Well, if you're saved, and you're under the grace of God, and you are liberated from sin, and you are now the child of God, and you're not going to lose your salvation if you don't keep up your works, and you know that you're saved, and you're secure in your salvation, then what's the natural thought process about how you could live your life? Now that I'm free and liberated from sin, what can I do? Go out and live my own life, do whatever I want to do. Do you know there are a lot of Christians in the world that believe you can lose your salvation and a part of the problem is they think, well, if you're really eternally secure in your salvation, then you won't keep up the good lifestyle and you can go out and live any way you want. And so there's a pendulum swing within the church and it's what we call, not legalism, it's called antinomianism. And that's where we come to Galatians chapter 5 and notice what he says in verse 13 for brethren. You have been called under liberty only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another. Now let me just stop here and go back to that word liberty because I haven't explained it very well to you. What the Apostle Paul is saying is he was dealing with legalism. And what he was really teaching is that when we get saved, we get what we call Christian liberty. What is Christian liberty? It is freedom from the law as a means of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Let me say it again. It is freedom from the law as a means of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. When Paul came and preached the gospel, he taught people that you're not saved by keeping the law. You are saved by believing in Jesus Christ who kept the law for you. And now that you're saved, you are liberated from a works-based salvation. God doesn't take his laws, bind them up in a covenant, hand them to you and say, you want to have a relationship with me, keep these laws. He doesn't work that way. You know why? Because nobody can keep the law. Because at some point in your life, because of the weakness of your own flesh, you're going to fail and you're not going to keep the law. But what Christ did is he came as a Jew, lived under the law, kept the law, lived in perfection under the law, went to the cross, and suffered the penalty of the law by being executed through crucifixion. And the moment that you receive Jesus Christ, what do you get? You get the benefits of His perfect life and the benefits of His sacrificial death. The moment you receive Jesus Christ, your sins are washed away through His death and His righteousness is imputed to your account and you stand before God righteous in Jesus Christ. That's called liberty. Now you think about that. For those who've grown up in a Bible preaching, Baptist church, Protestant church, where they've heard the gospel all their life, they don't appreciate it like people who grew up in a workspace religion, where you were taught you had to work your way to heaven. Work, work, work, work, work. And finally, somebody says, no, you don't get to heaven by works, you get to heaven by a gift. And suddenly, you get the gift, and you know that you're saved, and now that you're going to heaven, and it has nothing to do with your works. That's called liberty. We can take the concept of liberty and swing the pendulum and go to the other side. And all of a sudden now that I'm saved, I have Christian liberty. Christian liberty can be misinterpreted to mean I can do whatever I want. In history, you've always had Christians who are antinomians. What does that mean? It means that they're free under grace, therefore they can live any way they want to live. Dr. Les Ola said it this way, in the Christian life, you always have to be careful of the left ditch and the right ditch. The right ditch is legalism, the left ditch is antinomianism or libertarianism or loose living, however you want to say it. And the way you ought to live the Christian life is riding down the highway of Christian liberty. It's like driving down a highway in Louisiana. You know what you don't want to do in Louisiana? Get off the highway, because if you do, you're going to end up where? In a swamp. Folks, let me tell you something. There's only one way to live the Christian life, and that is understanding Christian liberty. Some people are afraid to preach Christian liberty because people will abuse it. Well, people have been abusing it for 2,000 years, but it didn't stop Paul from preaching and teaching it because if you don't understand Christian liberty, you won't understand how to live the Christian life. And so what does Paul say? He says, Brethren, you have been called to liberty, okay? But liberty should lead you to responsibility. But notice what he said. He said, use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh. That is, don't allow your sin nature to take the liberty and twist it and manipulate it to live a self-centered life. How do you know when a person gets Christian liberty right? And how do you know when a Christian gets Christian liberty wrong? The way you know somebody gets Christian liberty wrong is when they come up to you and when they start talking about Christian liberty, the first thing that comes out of their mouth is their rights. The emphasis is their rights. And the moment that comes out of their mouth, you can say that's wrong. Because the way you know a person gets Christian liberty right is actually they give up their rights. what does he say about a person who gets Christian liberty right? Notice what he says in verse 13, do not use your liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love, what? Serve one another. Notice the next verse, for all the laws fulfilled in one word even in this thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. What is the end result of Christian liberty? It is not only freedom from the law as a means of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, but it's also freedom from your lust, your sin nature, through dependence on the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit gives you the power to overcome your own sinfulness, and he gives you the power to walk in obedience to God, and he gives you the power to love and serve others. What is the end of the law? The end of the law is love. What is the manifestation of genuine faith? Faith works by love. When people get Christian liberty right, they give up their rights so that they can love and serve other people. And so notice what Paul says in verse 16, excuse me, verse 15, but if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one another. What's he talking about? He's talking about the churches of Galatia. And what did they have in the churches? They had two groups of people. Well, actually three groups of people. They had legalists, they had libertarians, and then they had people that were walking in the spirit. Now let me ask you a question. If you're a member of a church where a third of the church are legalists, believing and preaching, you've got to keep these laws to be saved and walk with God. And then a third of the church are libertarians who believe that you're so free under grace you can do anything you want and it doesn't matter. And then you've got a third of the church who understands Christian liberty and they're walking in spirit. When you've got a church made up like that, what's that church going to be like? Well, if you don't have a good answer, it's because you're naive. Let me tell you something. It's a disaster. And instead of the church operating under the law of love, you know how the church operates under the law of the jungle. They bite and devour one another. And Christians are notorious for being cannibals because they eat their own. and they attack them and they bite and they devour one another. So we come to verse 16 and notice what Paul says this I say then here's my advice walk in the spirit and what's going to happen. You're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. And what he is saying is this. If you want to. How do you live the Christian life? How do you how do you live out Christian liberty? There's only one way to do it. And you have to be a responsible Christian. You have to walk in the spirit. Walking in the spirit is the only way to live the Christian life. Nothing else works. Nothing else is going to work. By the way, if you are not walking in the spirit, then either you're a legalist or you're a libertarian. I'm telling you right now, if you're not walking in the spirit, you're a libertarian and you think it's OK for you to be backslidden. It's okay for you to sort of just kind of live in the world and have one foot in the church, one foot in the world. You're a libertarian. That's what you are. Or you're a legalist. You're trying to do it on your own, your own self-elf, your own strength. And you have to keep these rules and do these things in order for you to be rightly related to God. And your focal point is really no longer on Christ. It's on your laws that you're keeping, either one or the other. If you're not walking in the spirit, you are either a legalist or you're a libertarian. Paul is saying if you walk in the Spirit I want to assure you you are not going to fulfill the desires of the flesh it is an impossibility. Why? Notice what he says in verse 17 he says, for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. In other words what he is saying is that the two natures the flesh and the Spirit. What is the Spirit? It is the new life of Christ within you. What is the flesh? It is the old life of sin dwelling within you. OK. So in one case you have indwelling sin. The other one you have the indwelling sun. Both of them are inside of you. Every Christian understands this. You always have the conflict going on in your heart. And what he is saying is if you walk in the spirit you're not going to give in to the desires of the flesh. Why. Because the desires are mutually opposite. If you turn to the left you can't turn to the right. I grew up in the state of South Carolina and the state of South Carolina. There are only two football teams. Only two. Now, you say, no, there's a bunch more. Well, obviously, you're not from South Carolina. There's only two football teams. There are the Clemson Tigers. And they're the South Carolina Gamecocks. There are only two football teams. And you pull for one of the two, but you do not pull for both. Because if you pull for both, then you're not from South Carolina. Now, I was born in the capital city called Columbia, South Carolina. My dad, when I was a little boy, had tickets to the University of South Carolina Gamecock football team, the University of South Carolina basketball games. So folks growing up, it is in my DNA to be a Gamecock fan. And to me, the Clemson Tigers are only rednecks. That's the only kind of people they are. Well, you know what? I honestly I didn't think much about it for literally for years in the ministry. I was living up in Michigan. You know what, I didn't keep up with the football teams, all that kind of stuff until two years ago. And two years ago, I was able to get direct TV into my fifth wheel trailer and I could get ESPN for the first time in about 30 years. And so you know what I would do on Saturdays? I would DVR. You know what I mean by DVR? I would record football games and I would watch them later. And guess what? I recorded South Carolina Gamecocks and they were winning and they had a good day, a good season in their top 20. And I started watching Carolina games and getting excited, started to figure out who the players are, what's going on with and all of a sudden it reminded me of how much I hated Clemson. And now I rejoice when Clemson loses. And they got beat up so bad by Florida State a couple of weeks ago and I was just as happy as I could be. If I'm pulling for Carolina, I'm not gonna pull for Clemson. If I'm pulling for Clemson, I'm definitely not gonna pull for Carolina. And folks, when you're walking in the spirit, you can't be in the flesh. When you're in the flesh, you can't be walking the spirit. So what should be the focal point of the Christian life? To walk in the spirit. And notice what he tells us here. He says in verse 19, now the works of the flesh are manifest. That is, you don't have to have a rocket scientist degree to understand what the flesh is. And he goes through all the sins of the flesh. And then we come down to verse 22. He says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. And he begins to give the qualities of the Spirit. And there's no doubt that the fruit of these two natures are completely different. And then we come down to verse 24 and verse 25 and now he tells us how to walk in the Spirit. So that's been my introduction. I told you it would be a long introduction. But now we come down to what verse 24 and 25 are all about. And here he's telling us how to walk in the Spirit. And there are only two things that you really need to understand about walking in the Spirit. You need to understand that walking in the Spirit involves a crucifixion. And secondly, it involves a resurrection. It's that simple. It involves a crucifixion and it involves a resurrection. So what's the crucifixion? Verse 24, and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with affections and lust. Now, what does that verse mean? And those that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. First of all, when did this crucifixion take place? If those who are walking in the Spirit have crucified the flesh, when did the crucifixion take place? Well, let me suggest to you that this is a very crucial question, and I would like to suggest three reasons why I believe that this crucifixion takes place the moment that you get saved. First of all, because, he says, the ones who are possessed by Christ, they have crucified the flesh. When were you possessed by Christ? The moment that you were saved, that's when you became Christ. Secondly, it's written in what we call in the Greek tense, the eros tense, which is in reference to something that takes place at a point in time. Now, what is the uniform event in which all of us experience the same? It is salvation. That is, we are all saved the same way. We are all saved at different times, but the starting point of our Christian life all starts the moment that we believe and receive Jesus Christ. At the moment of salvation is the beginning of the Christian life. And so this crucifixion is a uniform event for us all. It takes place at the moment that we're saved. And then the third reason is because of the nature of spiritual growth. And that is Christian living is living out and experience what happens to you the moment that you get saved. It's not that you get saved and then all of a sudden two years or three years later something different happens to you that transforms your life. You know, in certain theologies, they emphasize later on events in the Christian life. For example, in the Pentecostal world, they emphasize the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Okay, you understand what I'm saying? I'm not being critical, I'm just helping you understand. And they emphasize events that take place later on after you get saved, so it somewhat diminishes the change that should take place at conversion, and it emphasizes something later on. Well, let me tell you something. The way the Christian life is lived is it all starts the moment you get saved. You don't get saved and then three years later your life changes. No, your life changes the moment you get saved. And what he is simply telling us here is that Christian living is living this out. And what he is saying is at the moment that you were saved a crucifixion took place. Death took place So what does he mean they that are Christ have crucified the flesh? What is that? And I want you to go back to Galatians chapter 2 in verse 20 because I want us to contrast two verses here Galatians 2 20 and then Galatians 5 24 and Galatians 2 20 is a very famous verse many of you probably Memorized it. All right. I am what I Crucified with Christ nevertheless. I live never nevertheless. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me in the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. All right now You would look at Galatians 2 20 and you look at Galatians 5 24 and you might think that the same thing But actually they're two different things And that is Galatians 2 20 is referring to what Paul is saying here that something was done to him by somebody else. In other words Paul is not crucifying himself. He's not the agent of crucifixion. God is the agent of crucifixion. Fact is it's written in what we call the passive mood. That means he didn't do it. Somebody did it to him. It's in the perfect tense, which means it takes place at a point in time, and it affects you the rest of your life. It's like when you get married. You get married at a point in time, but that affects you the rest of your life. So when he says in Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ, what he is saying is this. At the moment of his faith in Jesus Christ, God took Paul and he incorporated him in the Christ and when he came in the Christ he was crucified with Christ. So that literally God was the one that changed him. Paul was united to Jesus Christ at the moment of his conversion. It's like taking a plug and plugging it into a light socket in the wall and suddenly the moment it gets plugged in suddenly the electricity begins to flow. When you accept Jesus Christ, God plugs you, if I could say, into Christ. You are united to him. For example, the Bible uses a lot of illustrations of this. John 15, Jesus said, I am the vine and you are the, what? branches. So the branch is connected to the vine and the life of the vine flows into the branch. You and I were connected to Christ at the moment of our salvation so that his life now becomes our life. There's another illustration of this, everybody knows it, it's called marriage. And that is a man shall leave his father and mother and he shall come to his wife and he shall become connected to her. The two shall become one flesh. But what did Paul say? He said this is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church. And that is church, if you're a part of the body of Christ, the moment that you got saved, you got connected. The two became one. We became a part of him. Now what happened to Jesus? He died on the cross. That means that when he died, I died with him. When he rose, I rose with him. So what Paul is talking about is not something that he did to himself, but it is something that God did to him through Christ the moment he was saved. That's Galatians 2.20. So think of it. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life I'm living in this flesh that is in this body I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So I live my life in dependence on Christ. All right. Now that's a truth that most of you here probably have an understanding of. Now let's go to Galatians 5 24 and let's look at this point. He says, and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Now, Paul is saying something here that takes place at the moment that you're saved. But in this case, it's not something that is done to him, but is actually something done by him to himself. And what he is saying here is that the agent of crucifixion at this emphasis is not God, but it's actually the believer. What he is saying is that actually as a believer the moment you get saved you crucify yourself. Remember what Jesus said if any man would come after me let him deny himself take up his what cross and follow me. So what Paul is saying is actually that when you get saved you are making a conscientious decision to die. And what is it that you're dying to? Well, he tells us, and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. The word lust there has to do with your internal sinful desires, what we call your cravings, the evil of your heart, all right? Everybody understand that? The affections has to do with external passions, things that I'm drawn to from the lustfulness of my own heart, things that I want to live for. Now, here's what Paul is saying. When you get saved what you're actually doing is you're making a decision to leave your old life of sin to embrace a new life of faith. That happens to you not 15 years after you get saved. That happens to you the moment that you get saved. Now what do we call that in biblical terminology. Well we call it a number of things. Number one we call it repentance. What does it mean to repent. You know, sometimes people get the idea that repentance has nothing to do with sin. It only has to do with faith. I changed my mind about Jesus and I accept Jesus as my savior and sin has nothing to do with repentance. Now, you know what? I don't know what Bible you're reading, but you're not reading the one I'm reading. Because repentance historically has always had to do with the sinfulness of man and faith in Jesus Christ. It's like repentance and faith are inseparable. And when I repent, I am recognizing I'm leaving my old life of sin. Now let me just say this. Sometimes, for most of us, when we got saved, we didn't understand everything. For example, when I got saved at 19 years old, I didn't understand all that God would require of me, what God would tell me to not do any longer. But I can tell you this, that fundamentally when I began my Christian life, I knew that I was turning away from my own self to the Lord, that I was leaving my old life. By the way, why is it that I didn't want to get saved? I didn't want to get saved at 17. I wanted to go to heaven. I didn't want to go to hell. But I still wanted to live my own life. But at 19 years old, God had so worked in my heart. I wanted to leave the life I was living because I was sick of it. And I wanted God to change me. I wanted to be delivered. God had worked repentance in my heart. All right. What's another illustration? Baptism. If you've ever been baptized by immersion, you probably heard this statement when you get baptized. Buried in the likeness of his death, raised in the likeness of his resurrection, to what? Walk in what? Newness of life. What is that newness of life? Leaving the old, embracing the new. So when you get saved, what Paul is saying is you have put to death in your mind, the old life and you are leaving your own selfish lust and pride and all the things of the evil things of your heart. Now, how does that work out in daily experience? Well, if you're a Christian, you understand this. Because every one of us sitting in this room who are believers understands. That up, you know, how many times in the course of a day do you say no to yourself? How many times? All. Day. Long. All right. For example, how many of you, you don't have to raise your hand on this. How many of you today have been tempted to be lustful in your thoughts? How many of you have been tempted today to be ignorant? I mean, to be arrogant in your thoughts. How many of you today have been tempted to be impatient in your thoughts? How many of you today have had bubbling up in your soul, wrong desires, wrong thoughts, wrong emotions, all of those things that come up. Now, did you give into those things? The answer is, I'm hoping for most of you, no. So what did you do? You put into practice what you determined to do the day you got saved. You left the old life and you are saying no to what the flesh is wanting to say yes to. And that's what is involved in walking into spirit. Turn to Romans chapter 8 and verse 13. I want you to notice this. Sometimes we get the idea that walking in the spirit is this great emotional experience where I feel spiritual. I'll be honest with you, I don't always feel spiritual. The fact is, I don't feel spiritual a lot. Somebody said, do you bounce out of bed in the morning and shout glory? No, I resurrect from the dead. What about you? It takes a lot of Bible reading for me to feel spiritual in the morning, amen? After two good cups of coffee and about an hour worth of Bible reading, I feel semi-spiritual. Being spiritual has nothing to do with your feelings. What does Paul say? For if you live, verse 13, Romans 8, for if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. What does it mean to mortify? It means to put to death. And what he is saying is how do you live this Christian life every day all day all the time. I'm constantly applying to my life the crucifixion of Jesus Christ by denying my own selfish desires that are coming up. And you know that is that's called spiritual living. You are yielding to the spirit at that moment instead of yielding to the flesh. OK. How many of you have ever gotten how many of you have gotten mad and you decided not to give in to your emotions? But you said no to him. OK, that's called spirit filled living. And I do want you to understand that just because you said no today doesn't mean you're going to say no tomorrow. Because here's the problem with lust, and I'm not talking about sexual lust, I'm just talking about wrong desires. Lust never leaves you. You know when you're going to be free of your lust. the day you die and go to heaven. That's why heaven's a good deal. Amen. Not only do I get a new body but I get rid of the body that I got now. What I got living inside of me as Paul would almost say is ooh it's stinky smelly. It's the old man. He's nasty. Paul said Oh wretched man that I am. He said the good that I would do I don't do that which I don't want to do I do. He said I'm more confused than a termite in a yo-yo. One day I'm up, next day I'm down. One day I'm up, next day I'm down. Some days I feel spiritual, I want to live for God. Some days I actually want to give into my flesh. Some days I just want to throw my hat in, throw the towel in the ring and quit fighting and quit living for God. And that's my desires. But what does God do? God never leaves me. He never forsakes me. He comes to my rescue. He helps me. He strengthens me as I yield to him. So number one, how do I live the Christian life? It is a crucifixion. Now, when a man was crucified on the cross, he didn't die instantaneously. But it was gradual. It was painful. In some cases, it was shameful. And you know what? You're learning to change. For example, when a team member comes on the team, every every kid that comes on the team has issues that they got to overcome, don't you? Yeah. Yeah. Especially you, Allison. So they all have it. They all have it. And a lot of it has to do with the way their thinking is. They developed the wrong thinking and that wrong thinking leads to wrong actions. And the tendency they have to think, we all have to think, is that if I make a decision, I'm going to change, and I'm going to overcome it, and I'm never going to struggle with it again. Well, that doesn't happen. That's called dream world. It's not going to happen. How many of you would like to be instantaneously spiritual? How many of you would like to have some kind of spiritual zap? It all happens and suddenly I'm spiritual and I overcome temptation. How many of you would like to have that zap? Would you like to have that? I'd love to have that. You know what that's called? It's called instantaneous sanctification. And there are actually people who teach a theology that you can make a decision and suddenly, boom, everything's, you're in the victory. I don't believe that. I believe you choose and God will give you the grace. But it is a day by day process. And what happens is over time, the more you yield and the more you surrender and the more you depend on God, what he does is he has a he he he breaks down your thinking and he gives you victory quicker. For example, I've seen, you know, team members and I'm not speaking about anybody on our team now, but just over the last 20 years, I've watched them. They'll have a certain mental process and then they'll fall into a hole just like that. Boom. They're in. They're in. They're in a funk. You know what I'm saying? I mean, they're they're they're not right. They're thinking wrong. They're in a hole. But when I teach them the way of victory and I teach them to walk in the spirit and depend on the Holy Spirit, they get out of the hole. But what happens is over time, they sometimes fall in the hole and they stay in the hole and they don't even want to get out of the hole. Fact is, sometimes you like the hole. But over time, they learn to trust the Lord, and they get out faster, and they get out quicker, and they learn to walk in the Spirit and deny themselves. And what Paul is saying is, the way you live the Christian life, number one, is a crucifixion, and then notice, number two, there's a resurrection. He says, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Now, I want you to notice something. There are four key words in Galatians chapter five that have to do with the Holy Spirit. And what I want you to see is that they are all speaking about the same thing, but different aspects of the same thing. Notice what he says in verse 16, he says, walk in the spirit. Notice verse 18, if you be led of the Spirit. Notice verse 25, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. And the word walk in verse 25 is different than the word walk in verse 16. So what's the difference, okay? It's all talking about being a Spirit-controlled believer, but there are different aspects of it. For example, in verse 16, walking in the Spirit here has the idea of obedience. What does a Spirit-filled person? It's a person who obeys God. You know, a spirit-filled person is not a person who comes to church and they start waving their hands and jumping up and down and shouting and running around. That's not a spirit-filled person. I mean, it could be, but that's not the quality of a spirit-filled person. You know what a spirit-filled person is? God tells you to do something, you say, yes, Lord, and you do it. Obedience, all right? Then notice the second word, if you be led of the spirit. What's the difference? It has to do with walking in the spirit, but it's a different aspect. It's dependence. if you are willing to allow the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you. And everybody in this room that's a Christian understands that in the Christian life there's both sides. There's obedience and then there's dependence. We sing a song, trust and what? Obey. For there's no other way to live happy in the Jesus but to trust and obey. That's how we live. We obey God But at the same time, we realize that without him we can't do anything, so we depend on God. So there's obedience, then there's dependence. Then drop down, if you will, please, to verse 24. He says, if we live in the Spirit, that means if we've been born again, if we are alive, that means the Holy Spirit here has taken up his residency in us. So we have obedience, we have dependence, and now we have residence. He lives in us. Christ is coming to live inside of you, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Jesus is living within your heart. And then notice what he says in verse 25. Let us also walk in the spirit. Now that word walk there is different than verse 16. That word walk is a military term. It means to keep in step. Now, if you've ever been in the military, you understand you stand in formation. The platoon leader calls you to attention. He says forward march. And what do you do? You march. And what he's talking about here is keeping up with the spirit. For example, you take a class in college, and they give you a syllabus of all the things you have to do over the semester, all that you have to read, the reports you have to write, when you have to take tests, when you have to write these papers. And all of a sudden, you realize, I got a lot of work and I better be sure I keep up. You can't get behind. It's the same thing you do when you go to the gym. You want to go to the gym. You want to get in shape. You want to lose 25 pounds. You want to be the new you. And you walk into the gym and not only do you join the gym, but you slap the money down and you get yourself a trainer. And that trainer, you meet your trainer, and you walk up, and you look at that trainer, and you think, man, I'd like to look just like that guy. And that trainer looks at you, and that trainer thinks, fresh meat. And that trainer says, OK, come with me. And he walks you into the gym. He says, OK, this is going to take you 20 minutes. You think, 20 minutes, piece of cake. 20 minutes later, you think you're dead. And you go home and you wake up the next morning, how do you feel? Do you want to go down to the gym and see the trainer? No. But you know what? You go down to the gym and the trainer standing there and he looks at you and smiles and says, Come here. And he takes you over. And what do you do? You got to keep up. And what he's talking about here is he's not talking so much about obedience and dependence. He's talking about perseverance. Because walking in the Spirit means exactly what it means. It means to be consistent. And there are two aspects of walking in the Spirit here when he talks about, number one, he's talking about a disciplined pursuit of God. That is, you need to be consistent, keep up. Keep up with what? Reading your Bible. Keep up with what? Meditating on Scripture. Keep up with what? Prayer. Keep up with fellowship in the local church. Be consistent. Keep up with faithfulness and giving and tithing and serving and being involved. And you stay with it. You keep up. The Holy Spirit is constantly working in your heart. You need to obey Him. So number one, there's a disciplined pursuit. But number two, there's a spontaneous response. In other words, if the Holy Spirit lives in you, there is a subjective side to it. In other words, He's going to work in you. He's going to convict you. He's going to stir you up. He's going to put something on your heart. He's going to give you a burden for something. We're all a part of a body, but not everybody's a hand and not everybody's a foot. So the Holy Spirit gives each one of us gifts, abilities to serve him. And he's going to work in our heart. And we need to take those things that God works in our heart. And we need to go out and serve him. God's going to stir your heart up to pray. So what do you better do? You better pray. God's going to stir your heart up to make a decision. There are going to be certain things on your conscience. The Holy Spirit's not going to let you do. You know what you need to do? You need to obey. Paul warned believers, don't offend the conscience of another believer lest he stumble because we want him to grow and be strong as a Christian. So he says there's a spontaneous response to God. There is a disciplined pursuit of God. And if we show so to the spirit we shall reap from the spirit life everlasting. What does that mean. He's talking about your daily decisions to walk with God. Keep up with the spirit walk with him. And what will you do. You will continue to be faithful and you'll grow as a Christian. So. How do you live the Christian life? Number one, the crucifixion. Number two, the resurrection. Number one, there's going to be a daily decision to die to yourself and the Spirit of God will give you the power to overcome any sin habit in your life. Secondly, there has to be that daily walking with the Spirit day after day in the Word, letting the Spirit work in your heart, working through the Word of God as you obey Him. And that's how you walk in the spirit. And this is what God wants us to do. He wants us to keep on walking. Keep on walking. Keep on walking until one day. What do we do? We walk right into heaven. That's exactly what he wants. He wants us to be faithful in our walk with him. Until the day he calls us home. And we walk. Right into heaven. Walk in the spirit. you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.