All right, Galatians 5 is where we're going to be this evening. Galatians 5, we're going to read verses 16 through 26. If I was doing like a full exposition, this might take a few weeks, but we're not going to do all that tonight. We'll try to keep it as simple as possible. Galatians 5, verses 16 through 26. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. These are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Alright, there's a lot there. Like I said, if I was going full exposition, we could stay there for a long time. But there's just a few things I noticed in reading through this passage, and really what's interesting is I was reading a different passage And I got to thinking on that, and then it led me here. So I started one place, it took me here, and this is kind of where I dwelled on for a little bit. So I was like, this has to be the Lord leading me to speak on this. So that's where we're at. There's something, I don't, I'm assuming most of you are familiar with Galatians and why Galatians was even written by Paul. Just a very short summary of the book. There were people in the Galatian churches. Now, something interesting about Galatians is it's not written to one specific church. It was written to the churches in Galatia, okay? So it was written to churches in an area. So not one specific church. But there were people who were promoting and teaching and requiring certain things of the believers there, of the churches, saying, you have to do this thing. You have to perform this work in order to be saved. And that flies in the face of what Paul's been preaching. It flies in the face of the gospel, right? Because salvation or justification comes by what? Faith, not by works, all right? So these people are coming at the churches, they're infiltrating the churches and they're saying, no, no, no, you have to be circumcised, you have to be this, you have to do that in order to be a Christian in order to be saved. And Paul says, no, no, no, no, no. That misses the gospel. The gospel is you must have faith in Jesus Christ to be saved, all right? Now, works do play a part in the Christian life, but they're not the saving part, okay? They're a fruit. We read about fruit, right? They're an evidence of salvation, okay? And that's kind of what Paul's been going at here. He spent a few chapters talking about that. He even talks about... Paul is angry. He's angry writing this letter. If you want proof, we can go back earlier in this chapter. in verse 12, and he says, I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves. That's how serious this is. I had to read that passage, by the way. I was like, that makes the point. That's how serious it is. He's saying, I wish you were, get rid of your manhood. That's how serious this is. So what brings me to this? I was reading the passage earlier in Galatians, Galatians 2.20. And you guys, when I read the first part, you're gonna be like, oh yeah, heard that a thousand times. But I wonder how many of us have really paid attention to the second part of that verse. Sorry, my fingers are pretty dry, so flipping these pages is not gonna be easy. So Galatians 2.20. Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. We know that part really well, don't we? Well, what's the rest of it say? In the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. We probably have heard that, but it's not as familiar to us as the first part of the verse, but it hit me. It's like, how am I, okay, how are we to live as Christians? Well, we're to live by faith, okay? The just shall live by faith, right? The just live lives that say, I believe in Jesus Christ. Well, what's that look like? It looks like in this daily battle, which is described in chapter five, of war on the flesh, we're living by faith. Okay, as we battle the fleshly desires, the sin nature. All right, and that's what, that's what we're kinda at here in Galatians. He, Paul's made the argument. Faith, salvation is by faith. Justification is by faith. All right, not by works. But he's also making the point that Christ has set us free from the slavery of sin. He set us free from having to try to work for our salvation. All right? Because all of us know, the more you try to work for something that you can't accomplish, it's futile. It's frustrating. And the point is, we can't earn our own salvation. And for us to pretend and act like we can do things to earn it and to achieve it, it just leads to frustration. And in reality, it leads to more sin. It does not glorify God. So he says, Christ has set us free from that. But free to do what? Free to, okay, now that we don't have to work to earn our salvation, We, you know, salvation is a gift. It's a free gift. Well, does that free us to sin more? Should we sin more now that we have this gift? He makes that argument in chapter six. He's like, somebody might say, all right, if I've received this gift of salvation, then, you know, what part of sin? Like, should I just sin more so that grace may abound? Obviously not, okay? Obviously not. And that's kind of where he's at here. If you read verses 13 through 15 of this chapter, chapter 5, he says, for you were called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. But through love, serve one another, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And he goes on, but if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. So what's he saying? You have freedom in Christ, but the freedom is meant to push you towards love, to push you towards love of your neighbor, obviously love of God, all right? And that fulfills the law. So let's get into our passage. and see what it means to walk by the Spirit. So verse one, or not verse one, but verse 16 says, but I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Sounds simple enough, right? Okay, walk by the Spirit and you're not gonna sin. That's what it's saying. Because it's impossible to sin. If you're being led by the Spirit, you're not gonna sin. Well, what's the struggle here? Well, the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do. We still live in our fleshly bodies. Our sinful nature is still there. But what's happening in Christ? Christ has set us free. We're not enslaved any longer to the sin nature, so now the Spirit works within us to lead us to good works, to pursue love, to pursue Christ. So what he's saying is you're not bound anymore, so if you walk by the Spirit, You're not going to gratify those desires, but no, he understands, but there's still a struggle. There's still a tug of war, right, between the flesh and the spirit. My kids watch a lot of the Dude Perfect stuff. I don't know if you guys are familiar with Dude Perfect. In my mind, it's just a whole bunch of older guys yelling a whole lot and doing crazy stuff. But they do a whole lot of competitions. They do trick shots, all this kind of stuff. Well, there was one episode of the show, and they had two teams in two different boats, and they had a rope tied to it. And they were trying to, they were doing a tug of war. So one team was rolling that way, one team was rolling that way, and they were just trying to get to a certain point in the river. And that just reminded me, I was like, that's a tug of war, because they kept going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, until finally one of the teams just gave out. It was exhausting, okay? In the tug of war, that is ourselves, between the flesh, between the sinful desires and the desires of the spirit. It's a constant tug of war, but guess who's gonna win out? The spirit. Nobody can defeat the spirit, all right? So walk in the spirit. Well, what's that mean? What does it mean, I guess, what's it look like to walk in the spirit? We look at walking, we understand walking's a pretty good image. And you picture, just picture walking down the aisle here, walking in the Spirit is like the Spirit's beside you, you're in tandem, right? Later in the passage he says, in verse 25, if we live by the Spirit, Let us also keep in step with the Spirit. So you're walking with the Spirit, okay? It means conducting your life according to the Holy Spirit, according to what He is leading and guiding. Well, how do you find out where He's leading and guiding? You spend time in the Word, the inspired Word. You spend time in prayer. You spend time saying, I can't do this myself. I need the Spirit to work within me, to lead me and guide me in this life. So walking by the Spirit is conducting our lives. It's trusting Him and His leading. The opposite of that is a phrase I know we all have heard is you've heard somebody who marches to the beat of their own drum, right? They're just doing whatever they want to do. We can't live lives like that as Christians. It's going to end in defeat, and it's going to end in just more sin. It's probably going to end in this list here that we see in Galatians 5 of the evidence of the flesh. All right, so let's keep going here. So we know it's walking, it's a constant tug of war, and then the identifying features of those, of the flesh and those of the spirit. So verse 18, sorry, verse 19, says, now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, and so on. I think we all understand that these things are not, things we want to be associated with, right? It's evil, it's associated with the works of the devil, of sin, but also Revelation 21, Revelation 22 are two passages. So in Revelation 21, seven through eight, I'm gonna flip there really quick and read it. Revelation 21, 7 and 8 says the one who conquers will have this heritage. He's referring back to one who's going to be Thirsty, but he's gonna give from the spring of water. All right, so it's a picture of the new heavens and the new earth It's a picture of those who conquer those who are gonna be with Christ and the lamb and then those who are not so the one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son, but As for the cowardly the faithless the detestable as for murderers the sexually immoral sorcerers idolaters and all liars Where's their portion gonna be? In the lake of fire. The lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. Likewise, in chapter 22, which is another description of this, in verses 14 and 15, he says, blessed are those who wash their robes. Okay, blessed are those who are covered with the righteousness of Christ. Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and that they may enter the city by the gates. But outside the city are the dogs, and sorcerers, and the sexually immoral, and murderers, and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. All right, so these won't be part of the eternal people of God. They're gonna be outside. And I think equated with those who are going to be sent to the lake of fire, all right? That's what this list in Galatians is describing, all right? He kind of makes that statement. He says, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit what? The kingdom of God, okay? No part. No part in the kingdom of God if your life is characterized by these things. So it's a warning. I mean, he says it right there, I warn you. And he's talking to the Galatian churches. He's talking to people who profess to be believers, Christians. They say, oh, I have the spirit. Well, you don't look like you do. If this is you, I'm warning you, you're not going to have part in the kingdom of God. But what's he say? But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now we all know these because of that silly song, right? a silly song that we sing. You know, the kids sing it at VBS every year. It's silly, but it does at least get us to remember these are the fruits of the Spirit. But I will say, if we're not careful, we might impose these things on our children and say, this is how you need to live in order to be a Christian, without really making the connection that, okay, no, no, no, you can't do this. Suzie, Johnny, unless the spirit is working within you. Sometimes we separate the two. We say, no, no, no, you need to be gentle. You need to be good. You need to be loving, joyful, without first saying, no, you need the spirit to do that. You need to be changed in order to live this way. I'm not saying the song's bad, I'm just saying we need to be mindful. And I was thinking about that a little bit. I was like, am I guilty of doing these things with my kids, saying, you need to be this, you need to be that, without first praying and teaching them that, no, no, no, it's the Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit that Christ gives. to His people, that is gonna change them, all right? It's that that's gonna work within them. And we just need to remember that apart from the Spirit, these things are impossible. It's impossible to truly love, to truly have joy, to truly be kind, be good, be faithful, gentle, to be self-controlled. Without the Spirit, you can't. And I think that's part of the point here, is keep in tandem with the Spirit. Keep in step with the Spirit, and you will walk this way. You will be characterized by these things. Verse 24, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. So what's he saying? He's saying, If you belong to Jesus Christ, those things that Paul's saying, I mentioned before, the sexual immorality, the sensuality, all those things. If you belong to Christ, you've crucified the flesh with those passions. So it's another way of saying, if you're doing those things, you're not living like it. You shouldn't be living like it. you belong to Jesus Christ, if you've crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. What's kind of fascinating here is Paul says in other places, well, the passage we read in chapter two, he says, I have been crucified with Christ. It's not I who live, but Christ within me. What's he saying here? Those who belong to Jesus Christ, those have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. It sounds like there's a different actor here. It's not Christ crucifying your flesh, it's the believer crucifying the flesh. So what's he trying to get at? He's trying to get at a life that is led by the Spirit is a life that is actively crucifying the flesh. It's an ongoing process. In theology, two things. Justification, right? I almost gave you guys the finger. Justification. That is the declaration that you're in a right relationship with Christ. Sanctification is the outworking of that right relationship with Christ. What we're having described to us is what sanctification looks like, okay? This is the ongoing process of what it looks like to be a believer. And I just think we need to keep that in mind. So, verse 25, if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Why would somebody be conceited? That almost seems kind of out of place to me. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. What do you think he's saying? I think what he's getting at is, let's not let the guy who looks like he's got it all together, his walk is strong, we know the term, he's on fire, right? Let him not look at Joe over here on the third pew, who doesn't seem like he's got it all together, and become conceited and say, I've got it together, but he doesn't. I'm better than he is. I think that's what he's getting at. Not provoking one another. Not enemying one another. So, the same thing. Joe Blow over here, he doesn't have it all together just yet. He's still a saint-defying process, right? He's still in the process. He's just not as mature as the guy over here. but he may be envying this guy. And envying is, it's a sinful passion, right? We need to be cautious of that, of looking at one another and saying, they ain't got it all together. Like, what's wrong with them? No. When we see our brother or sister who doesn't seem to have it all together, what should be said of us? It's in the passage here. Oh, they should be characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Why? There's no law against these things. I want to get to that in a second. I skipped right over it. But against these things, there is no law. That should be our characteristic as Christians, as brothers and sisters, where we don't look down on one another, we don't envy one another, but no, we live lives of the fruit of the Spirit towards one another. So I'm gonna go back to this thing about against such there is no law. Why do you think there's no law against the fruit of the spirit? It costs us the fruit of the spirit. The law shows us the transgression, right? The law, well, pastor's been teaching on the Ten Commandments. He's gotten us through the Ten Commandments in Exodus. And the Ten Commandments are a revelation of the moral will of God, all right? And a lot of them are prohibitions, right? Don't steal, don't murder, don't do these things. Why have such laws? Well, because without them, well, we're gonna lie, steal, cheat, we're gonna do all those things because we're sinful human beings, right? But there's no transgression, there's no transgressing of a law until the law is laid down, all right? Until you know, you don't know that you're transgressing until there's a law. All right, but what I find interesting about these is that there's no law against these. I guess the simple way to do this is to ask the question, how many of you would look at somebody else who's loving you and say, eh, I wish that guy would stop loving me. I wish that person would stop with all that love and all that joy. I wish that person would stop with all their kindness and all their goodness. It's really bothering me. It's hurting me. We wouldn't do that. There's no law against these things because They're good. They're right. It is, I mean, it's coming from who? It's coming from God. That's why there's no law against it. So let these characteristics be your characteristics as Christians, but do it relying on the spirit working within your life. I'm gonna end with just a few things. Just, let's see, six things for us to remember. The struggle is real. Struggle for a believer is very real. And I would maybe caution and say, if there is no struggle, then... Seek that out and figure out why is there no struggle? Why am I not struggling against the flesh? Or why is the spirit not struggling against the flesh within me? Maybe there is no spirit within me. That's just an evaluation thing. Just know that the struggle is real for the believer. Number two, true freedom. only comes when we become slaves to God. So the passage is in context of what does true freedom look like, and I've kind of explained that. True freedom looks like this. It looks like a life lived in the spirit. But Romans 6.22, 6.22 says, Actually, I'm going to read verse 20. It says, For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, there you go. When you're set free from sin, you're set free from one bondage, what do you become? Slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. So true freedom only comes when you become a slave to God. Slaves to God have true freedom. Number three, too often, I think, that we think we can muster up the willpower to live a life pleasing to God. And this is ultimately to our detriment and the detriment of others, our brothers and sisters. And what am I saying? I'm saying too many times we try to live our lives as if we can do everything on our own. We have the strength and the power to just pick ourselves up. That's the phrase, right? Pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps, right? Well, we can't. We can't. We know that that life is futile. So the opposite of that is don't rely on your own willpower. Rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to work within you, to lead you to these things. Number four, if we as believers are going to live lives which please God, then we must rely on the Holy Spirit to empower us to do so, not our own willpower. That's what I just said, but I skipped ahead. So no such thing as the self-made man in Christianity. No such thing. No such thing as the man who just has done everything for himself and created, I don't know, his own little empire, right? No, no such thing in the Christian life, in the Christian church. We're all the workmanship of Jesus Christ. We're all built up in him and by him through the spirit. Number five, living in the spirit produces the fruit of the spirit. Against such, there is no law because it is the fulfillment of the law. There are no prohibitions needed against the fruit of the Spirit. And then number six, there's no winning of the war against the desires of the flesh without the Spirit working in us. So, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your great gift of salvation, that you have worked for us in Jesus Christ and what he has done in his life, his death and resurrection, Lord, for our sins, to give us new life, Lord. We thank you for your Holy Spirit, who has enlightened our minds to understand your word, to understand the gospel. to make us see Jesus Christ for who he truly is. Lord, I pray you'll just work in each and every one of our lives, Lord, to daily crucify the flesh, Lord, and live within your spirit or live in tandem with your spirit, Lord, who dwells in us. So we thank you for that. We thank you for the spirit's leading, Convicting and powering Lord so I pray that we'll just leave here tonight trusting in you trusting that All that you have ahead of us is for our good and for you