This is the text. We pray the Lord be pleased to speak to us from Galatians 5 16 through 25. I'm going to read the text again and then I will make a brief review of last Wednesday night. Try to clear up any confusion that I may have given you. And then we will pick up where we left off and see how far the Lord will allow us to go here in this text this evening. Galatians chapter 5 verses 16 to 25, we're talking about freedom to live holy. You have been set free not to do anything you want to do except to live holy. Now, as I said that I was reminded of Augustine's statement, love God and do whatever you please. And a lot of people have never, a lot of people don't like that statement because they say, well, that just sounds so antinomian. Antinomian is a big fancy word that simply means against the law that we can live lawless. We can live any way we want to, and we'll get to go to heaven. It doesn't matter if we live like the devil himself, but that's not what that means. Augustine meant if you love God, what you will please is to please him. And this is what this lesson's about. Freedom to be able to live like that. To do as you please, because you love God. Galatians 5, 16. Now, there are some of you have wrestled with that concept all of your Christian life. You do love God, but you find it hard to please God. And the reason you find it hard to please God is because you haven't gone deeper into the experience of himself, of God himself, and how good and how loving he is. I remember somebody come into my office, I think I might even refer to this last week, involved in ministry. This person was involved in full-time ministry and made an appointment with me, came to see me and said, I have a confession and I think you're the person that can help me. I struggle to believe that God is good. This was a person that loved God, who was saved, but they struggled with a perception of God, that God is not, but he's not good, but that he would be good to them. And this is what this text is about. He will be good to you, but you've got to know him in this way. All right, let's read our text. I say, then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh for the flesh lust against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. But If you're led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. All right, let's do a little review. What did we say the flesh is? Well, here Paul uses the word flesh to mean your natural powers, desires, and ability. your natural desires, power and abilities. Another way to describe flesh is real simple, human nature, human nature, not yet redeemed. And as I said, in answer to the question that was posed last week, you have always been a human being and you will always be a human being. Even in heaven glorified, you will still be a human person. You will not be divine in any shape, form or fashion. Only God is divine. We will never be gods. So that being the case, you have always had one nature and you still have one nature. Now this was where we perhaps were a little confusing. You have never had two natures and you will never have two natures. The two-nature theory is just that, a theory. You have only had a human nature. And before you were saved, that human nature was under the slavery and dominion of the old man, or sin. Therefore, the old person you were has died. And that person does not exist. Oh, you may even sin some of the same sins, but it's not the same you. Why? Because God has done a new work in you and made you a new creation, but you're still a human being. Now you have a divine nature within you. Here's again, part of the confusion, but that divine nature is not your nature. It's his. It's the Holy Spirit in you. That's the divine nature. And as 2 Peter 1 says, we get to be sharers or partakers of that divine nature, but you don't get divinity. All that means is you get to participate in God himself who dwells within you. So here's another way to look at this. Before you were saved, you were an old creation, totally depraved. Now that you're a Christian, you are a new creation, but not totally new. And you're still corrupt, but not totally. Does that make sense? You are a new creation, but God's not done. conforming you, creating you, making you into the image of Jesus Christ. So you're new, but not altogether yet new. There's still some residue of this thing we call flesh, this natural corruption that still remains with us. I'm still corrupt, but I'm not totally corrupt as I was because I've got a new spirit and new heart with the law of God written on my mind and heart. So therefore, does that make sense? Are we all clear now on that? Any questions about that? Any challenges? You know, it's good to be challenged, as long as we do it in the right spirit. Iron does sharpen iron. I don't want to be wrong, and if I am wrong, it's your responsibility to correct me. You can do that publicly, I have no problem with that. But be careful, make sure you know what you're talking about. Second Peter chapter 1 verse 4. Thank you. So what does it mean then to live according to the flesh? Well, it simply means anything you and I do in our own strength without the help of the Holy Spirit, that's living according to the flesh. Anything you do is flesh unless it's aided and helped by the Holy Spirit himself. See, I can stand up here and talk. Give me a subject. If I know anything about it, I can stand up here and talk. And I can do it quite well. Now, I'm not boasting. I'm just acknowledging what I understand on my gifts. My gifts have always been since I was a little child. My grandmother made the mistake. I would always spend the night, Saturday night, with my grandparents. And she taught our four and five-year-old class. And she made the mistake of teaching me, going over the lesson with me. Because the next Sunday morning, I don't remember this, but according to her testimony, I'd stand on the top of the table. And I wouldn't let her teach. I'd teach all my fellow kids. Students. Classmates. I preached my first sermon the day after my 15th birthday. I was thinking about Andrew Sunday. He turned 15. The next day on Monday was my first sermon. It had been your 15th birthday. That would have been Monday. That day I preached my first message. So I've always had an ability to stand up in front of people and talk. I can do that in my own natural strength and some people would never know, but spiritual people would. Spiritual people know. Those who are in tune with God, those who have the Spirit and they walk according to the Spirit, they know the difference between a natural ability and the life and power of the Holy Spirit. And that's what we're saying. Anything you do in your own strength, in your own abilities, no matter how good you might be able to do it, if it's not done with the help of the Holy Spirit, then you are living according to the flesh. And there's where the problem is. That's why he's writing the book of Galatians. Because these false teachers were telling these new Christians who were Gentiles that they had, in order to really be saved and ride with God, they had to start living according to the law. And so Paul says, living by the law is really living by the flesh. Trying to please God in your own natural abilities and strength living according to the law and as we brought out of the conclusion of last Wednesday night living by the flesh more often more often manifest itself among Christians not as some of these things we just read of in verse 19 and following, but actually manifests itself as moral, righteous, and good living. Much of what we do, I am sad to say, even in the life of a church, in the work and ministry of a church, is done in the power of the flesh and not the Holy Spirit. And one of the things that if I can impress upon my brothers and sisters, my church, before I leave, is that you would learn how to desperately depend upon the Holy Spirit who lives within you, how to work in conjunction with him, how to have a dynamic relationship with him, that your cooperation with him allows him to live his life through you and through this church. Listen to me. A church that is full of the Holy Spirit is a power that hell trembles before. Hell is not afraid of your prayers. We've often said, oh, prayer, the devil shakes at prayer. No, he doesn't shake at prayer. He shakes at prayer that's aided by the power of the Holy Spirit. He doesn't mind you have all the prayer meetings you want to have. You pray and according to your own natural abilities and your own strength, he's happy that you have prayer meetings because you'll be convinced you're doing the Lord's work when you're not, and he's content to leave you in that delusion. So living by the law is living by the flesh. And much what we do, and this is Paul, his concern with the Galatians, is done in the power of the flesh. Now, what I want to do tonight is to talk about freedom from the flesh. Since we're free to live holy, how do we experience freedom, not just from sin, we've already been free from sin, did you hear me? That wasn't last week's lesson, but we did touch upon it. You don't have to sin. Anybody here who is a Christian does not have to sin. You can't say the devil made me do it. You can't point the finger at Lucifer and say it's his fault. Not at all. The problem is not Lucifer. The problem's not demons. The problem's not even temptation. The problem lies within my own heart. and my choices and my affections, where does my desires lie? And Paul says there is this thing called the flesh that has strong cravings to do the very opposite of what the spirit does and craves. So the question is not how do I experience freedom from sin? Because I've already been delivered from sin. When Jesus died, I died. What's true about Christ is true about me. He died under sin once and now he lives under God. And so do I. So do you. The issue is how do you live free from the flesh? How do you live free from relying upon your own natural powers and abilities and strengths? Well, Paul answers real simply. Remember what I said last week. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. I'm just telling you the why behind it. When you tell your children, no, you can't do that. I learned a long time ago, a good parent explains why it's no. My daddy said, ah, because I said so. And that never satisfied me. And it doesn't satisfy your kids. No, a good parent wants to teach wisdom, wants to teach a child why they should make the decision to obey. And so I'm only, it's all I want to do tonight. I'm just going to tell you the why behind what you already know is true. Paul uses a word here called walk, verse 16, chapter five, verse 16. And this word walk means to, to, To deal with how you live. It doesn't refer to the exercise of putting one foot in front of the other. It's not referring to walking or being mobile. The word is used in the New Testament as a metaphor of the way we live. Another word is lifestyle. Paul is saying to the Galatians, live your life by the power source of the Holy Spirit. That's how you can be free from the flesh. Live by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's it, that's the answer. We can close the Bibles and go home now. Right? You want a little bit more than that though, don't you? How do I live by the power of the Holy Spirit? Well, let's first understand some things. We've been given life by the Spirit. We were dead in trespasses and sins. But the Spirit of God breathed new life on you, into your dead spirit. And now you have the life of God living in you. You are a new creation. You have new life within you. You have a new beginning. And Paul says in verse 25 that you are to live this new life by the same Spirit that has given you life. Look at verse 25. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. In other words, since you have been given life by the Spirit, now walk by the same Spirit. You see, the Holy Spirit comes to you and gives you life for one purpose, so that you can live the Christian life. We confuse this. We think that the Spirit comes as the seal of Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, and that proves that we are the children of God. Yes, that's certainly true. But that's not the only reason. That's almost superficial, if I can say it that way. The reason the Spirit of God comes and He actually occupies and indwells you is so you can live the Christian life. Because what is the Christian life supposed to be like? That's a question. Like Jesus. Well now tell me, how many of you really believe you can live like Jesus lived? And yet isn't that what the scripture says of you? Can it be said of you what's written about you? You know what's written about you? As He is, so are we in the world. That's found in 1 John. I believe it's the fifth chapter. As He is, present tense, as He is seated at the right hand of God the Father, in His glory, so are you in this world. What a tall order. Now, how are you going to pull that off? Now, am I going to pull that off? I can. I'm just telling you right now. I cannot pull that off. However, if the life of God is living within me, ah, that's a different story. And it is, because He is living in you. I mean, I can take the coat off. I'm sure you've seen and heard this illustration. I can take this jacket off. Well, let's go ahead and make sure some of you who are more practical object lesson learners, and I can tell this coat, swing your arms, and what's going to happen? Nothing. But if I put me inside this coat, and then I say, swing your arms, what happens? My arms begin to move. Why? Because there's a strength, there's a power inside this coat, me. You have been infiltrated and indwelled by the all-powerful God. Omnipotence is in you. And if that's true, and it is, then what is impossible to you? Or better question, what is possible to you? God's will. God's will is possible. Anything God commands you to do you can do because he omnipotence is within you That's why Paul is saying you've been saved. You've been given new life Don't stop there Live your life according to the same life power the Holy Spirit and we Baptists have done a poor job of understanding that in teaching that to our people and We're so afraid somebody's going to accuse us of being a Pentecostal or even worse a charismatic. I mean charismatic. Sometimes they seem to be on cruise, don't they? They just, they turn it on and there they go. I'll never forget the last time Karen and I was in a, quote, charismatic service. Of course, you know, we came from that background, Pentecostal. We weren't charismatic. We were classical Pentecostal, but we'd fallen into a bunch of charismatics. And we were in a service down in Murray. And the man stood up in the worship time and said, let's all now praise the Lord in our prayer languages. I mean, tongues is what that meant. And out loud, everybody started, quote, speaking in tongues. I literally felt, if they say you get so scared you feel the back of the hair on the back of your neck stand up, I think that's what exactly happened to me. I looked at Karen, I said, we're out of here, and we left. And we're afraid of that. And I am too. I don't want any of that. I don't want the disingenuous, but I certainly want the genuine. And the genuine says here, if you have been given life by the Holy Spirit and everybody that's saved in this room has been given life. You've been given new life. We call it the new birth. We call it the life of Christ. But you've been given new life. Why would we then say we're sufficient to live according to the life pattern of Jesus Christ in our own strength and ability? That is lunacy. It is putting upon your shoulders a yoke that you cannot bear. But Jesus said his yoke is easy. and his burden, his light. I wish, I wish we could be honest enough, take off the masks. I wish we, church, would take off our masks. You know, our Sunday mask, our Wednesday mask, and our Friday Bible study night masks, because we have Friday Bible study nights here, yeah. I wish we'd just take them off and be real with one another. And just be honest, how many of you feel that God demands things of you that you just cannot give? You try, you try, but your gas tank is empty and it almost seems like it stays that way. That's not what God saved you for. You weren't saved through that. That's what sin does. That's the mastery and slavery of sin. Sin always demands but never gives anything in return. God commands and gives the demand and the power to fulfill the demand. Being a Christian is one of the easiest things I've ever done. And I'm talking as a person who, for 26 years, tried to be a Christian. Remember, I started preaching when I was 15. I've never heard anybody ever say that in a public. You're the first. I've heard that one before. I remember when I first went to Oak Grove, they heard a lot of things for the first time. They marched in my office, I hadn't been there about a year, and they all marched in, about four or five of those guys, and it was like a firing squad, with their long list of accusations. You know, you preach things we've never heard before. And I said, that's why God sent me, about time you needed to hear it. It is easy to live the Christian life. That doesn't mean there's not difficulties in the Christian life. Don't confuse the two. I'm not saying there's not challenges, there's not trials, there's not temptations. But if my focus is proper and my relationship with Christ is in proper order, my dear friend, you have omnipotence living within you. And it's not you, but Christ in you. It is not I who lives, but Christ lives within me. And the life that I now live, I live in the flesh by the what? The faith of the Son of God who loved me gave himself for me. I've often analyzed Galatians 2.20 thinking, did Paul actually mean that he didn't even live by his own faith, but the very faith of the Son of God? The Christian life is never meant to be easy. And when you're struggling, now listen to me, there's a benefit in getting old. That's why I looked at Charlie. I don't know why. Subliminal, I think. Well, you're the oldest person here. This is a young crowd, so feel complimented. There is a benefit. Well, no, you're the oldest person in the crowd, aren't you? To give credit where credit's due. But one of the benefits of getting older is you have life experience, and you learn things along the way. You learn what doesn't work, and one of the things that doesn't work is trying to be a Christian. Again, remember, I spent 26 years before I was saved doing all the things that I thought God required of me, laboring to do that, and it was always a burden. It was always draining to me. You don't have to struggle. You don't have to be drained. And when it's draining, when it's a struggle, when you find it more than you are capable, then you're not being yoked to the same yoke of Christ. It's a law. It's not a wishful thought. Jesus said, my yoke is easy. and my burden is light. And that's what Paul wants these Galatians to understand. They're trying to put on a yoke that Jesus never commanded, and they'll never be able to pull what that yoke is attached to. You cannot live like Christ, but you can yoke to him. And when things become difficult, I know Michael well enough to know when I'm chafing under the yoke, and the chafing under the yoke means this is not God's will. This is not God's will. I am doing something God has not asked me to do. I thought this is what would please God. But you have the ability to do everything that God commands you to do. Again, I'm not saying, when I say it's easy, it doesn't mean it's not challenging. It doesn't mean that there won't be many sorrows along the way, but there is a power source. And we're going to talk about that part, so it's probably not tonight, it'll probably come up on Sunday night in the very last sermon before we leave on what we're talking about. Any questions thus far? Since it is new to you. So, How then do I live according to the power source of the Holy Spirit? Verse 18. I'm going to disappoint you. You're going to want to pick up something and throw at me right now. I'm telling you just before and I'm warning you, you're not going to like what I'm going to tell you. The solution is as simple as a choice to submit to the Holy Spirit. Now, why would you not be happy with that answer? Because it's too simple. You would rather it be more complex than that. You know why you'd rather it be more complex? Because the flesh wants to perform. That's why. You can't tell me I have been so dull-witted that I've missed it because it was that simple. Yes. Just like I missed it for a long time. I'll never, I cannot explain to you the agony of soul after I was converted for a while, having come from Pentecostal background, trying to figure out the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. I knew not everything I had heard was right. Those 26 years, I'd come to understand that. I'd come to read and understand the scriptures enough to know that a lot of that stuff was not necessarily true. And a lot of the experiences those people were having were not necessarily genuine God-given experiences. I'm not ruling out everything, but I'm just simply saying a lot of it wasn't. And I come to understand that. But I still read enough of the Bible and understood that there is a Holy Spirit. He is a real person and He is an intimate. He is somebody who desires to be intimate with you. You can't walk with him and have life by him without being intimate with him. And I struggled to try to figure out through the scriptures, what does that mean? And for years I labored thinking I was to have some kind of crisis experience. We'll talk about this coming Sunday night. Maybe that's what I was missing, this crisis experience. And when I begin to see in the scriptures years later that it is as simple as a choice, I know the feeling that you probably felt when you heard me say it a moment ago, it couldn't be that easy. You mean I have labored over these many years and it was just as easy as a choice. And the answer is yes, it is just that easy. Look at verse 18. But if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. You're not under the law. What does it mean to be led? That's a simple question. Somebody give me an answer. What does it mean to be led around? To be led about. To be led about. When you take Lydia's hand, And you lead her. What are you doing? Yeah. Well, she doesn't have much choice in one sense of the word because daddy's got her hand, but it's a control, but she can choose not to submit and she can drag and cry and scream. But daddy's stronger than her. He can still lead her. But our father doesn't work quite that way. He works more through influence. Why does he do that? Well, because the Christian life is supernatural. I know you're tired of hearing that, but it's true. This is what I feel like is part of the Real Truth Matters ministry. My ministry is to bring Christians back to the reality that the Christian life is a supernatural life. You can't live it any other way without the supernatural power of God. It's more than to live as one forgiven. It's to live as Christ lives because Christ lives in and through you. So this idea of by choice submitting myself Being led requires submission. I have to submit. I have to bring myself under God's leadership and control. And that's what Paul is saying here. By speaking of walking by the Spirit and being led by the Spirit, the Apostle Paul is showing us how we are to behave. Not by relating to laws and commandments. as the guiding influence, but relating to the Spirit as our guiding influence. Now here's what I want you to see. Paul's declaring that slavery in bondage is submitting to the desires of the flesh. Freedom, freedom comes through yielding yourself to the Holy Spirit. Freedom actually comes just the reverse way you would think about it. We think of freedom like a calf that's been let out onto a new pasture, kicking its heels, giddy, running around freely, having the whole pasture to roam. We think that. We think freedom is to be without any kind of restraints. No, it's not. It's not what freedom is. Freedom comes through in God's kingdom by yielding, by submission, by surrendering your rights. Freedom is supernatural. It cannot be achieved by human abilities. It's a work of God. It's a work of God, not man, not you, not me. And Paul says, if you will submit to the influence of the Holy Spirit, who does not make you submit, but requires you to want to submit, then you will experience true freedom. You will have the power to do what you want to do. Remember, before I went to Canada, I spoke, and I talked about trying to learn how to play the guitar. Remember that night? Yeah. Did I ever tell you how much that guitar cost? I was too embarrassed that night, but I've kind of gotten over that. I was pride. $3,000. I paid a luthier $3,000. I had saved and saved and saved. I didn't take it out of our budget. I'd go preach here and I'd save that money. I'd go over here and I'd save it for a couple years. I saved up $3,000. I had beautiful pearl inlay in the fretboard. It was just immaculate. It was gorgeous. And I thought, you know, that would help me to learn how to play. But it didn't. And why would it? Did it not? Well, forget that I probably didn't have the natural talent to begin with, but I didn't want to restrict my freedoms to practice like I should have. Hear me? Had I restricted my freedom to read or to sit down and watch television or spend time with the family, if I would have taken an hour a day, hour and a half a day, restricted my time, that all I had to do, all I was to do was play the guitar, I probably by now could play decently. I don't think I'd ever be as good as Kyle, but I could have played and could have satisfied my own desire to be able to have the freedom to play the guitar. So my freedom to play required a restriction of my freedoms in order to gain the ability to do so. And Paul is saying the way we don't give in to the flesh is by giving in to the Holy Spirit, by making a choice to yield yourself, by saying no to the flesh, restricting your freedom to indulge your flesh in order to experience the freedom of being able to do what God commands you to do. Isn't that beautiful? That's a choice. And Paul then now illustrates this in verses 13 to 15, preceding verses of our text. And then he's going to go back to verse 19 through 23. He's going to also show us the same thing in verses 13 to 15. He says to love others is to love and not to devour one another. There's a liberty. Don't use your liberty to devour, to bite and consume one another. Your liberty is an opportunity for the flesh, but to serve, to love and serve one another. Love cannot be accomplished by the flesh, not this kind of love. It's only through the power of the Holy Spirit. And he illustrates this in verses 19 through 23. All your human power can produce are the works of the flesh, right? What's living according to the flesh? trying to obey God in your own natural strength, abilities, and desires. And Paul says, you go that route, here's what's going to be produced. And let's look at this list. Now, the works of the flesh are evident, self-evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery. Paul is writing to Christians. And he's warning Christians, here's what's going to happen if you try to keep the law in your own strength and ability. You're going to break the law. Because the law will never give you the power to fulfill it. All it will do is aggravate the natural human desires. Now let me stop and see if I can explain this without confusion. I think I've got everybody on board tonight. I don't see any confusion tonight. But here I'm going to take a risk. I don't like playing safe. Gotta have some challenge. All of the desires of the flesh, that is our natural human ability, is given to you, not by the devil, but by God. Every human desire and need is given to you by God. However, the fall in the garden perverted all of them. Let me see if I give you an illustration. I always like to use pie, because I'm partial to sweets. Although I don't eat as many, I try not to, because I know that they are not good for you. But I still like them. I have a desire for sweets. And so let's say I had eaten dessert tonight, and then somebody had made a, well, I'll tell you what, there was a great dessert we had here Sunday, and I did eat some of that. Was it the death by chocolate? Was that what we had? We took you cheap. Yeah. She Karen got some of that stuff and took it home. We had desserts at home. It's cause we wanted to have coffee with it. So, uh, got home and we had our coffee in there. It was, and then she opened this big white styrofoam thing. It's just mouth death by chocolate. I understand. Now, I didn't want to eat a small portion, to be honest with you. My appetite, which is God-given, right? God gave Adam and Eve the desire and the need for food. Appetite is a God-given thing. But the problem after the fall is, human nature, not completely redeemed, Did you hear me? It didn't want to submit. It wants to satisfy its desires its way. And so you go back for the second piece. Or you eat the whole mountain of death by juggling and feel like you're dying. But there's a God-given emphasis. The love, the physical union between a man and wife, that's a God-given thing. But what does Paul say? You try to keep that contained on your own strength and ability, you're in trouble. Why? Because there's something in you called your nature that doesn't want to submit. Have you ever seen a sign that says, don't walk on the grass? What do people do? I mean, it's just almost like it's inviting them. You'd be better off not to put the sign or don't touch wet paint. It's just something irresistible. Is it really wet? I want to see. Oh, yeah, it is. There's something about a commandment that stirs up the, Paul says in Romans 7, the members and the passions of the body. Something stirs up when you say, don't do it. We were just talking about joy. Tell her not to do something. It's almost like a challenge to do it. That's how commandment works. And that is the inefficiency of the law when you're dealing with human nature. It's not that the law is bad or corrupt or unjust. No, it's that human ability can't submit and do it as God would do it. And so therefore, writing to Christians, he says, you go down the path of the law, here's what's going to happen. You're going to have marriages break up. because of adultery. You're going to have fornication, people prior to marriage committing sexual immorality, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, everything we associate with sin, all that bad stuff. But then notice what he says after that. Hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresy, envy. These are all, except for heresies, all deal with what? relationships one with another in the church and outside the church. You try to do God's will your way in your own strength and ability, this is what you're going to have. You're going to have hatred, you're going to have contentions, you're going to have jealousies, you're going to have outbursts, you're going to have selfish ambitions, you're going to have dissension, and you're going to have envy. Why? Because when the flesh tries to do God's will in its own strength, it also wants glory for doing so. And that's why you always try to put yourself above others. Or you envy others because you feel like you'll never be able to get to the level they are, and therefore you feel inferior. Are you with me? That make sense? That's where church divisions, this is where church strife comes. It's because people... I have sat down in my office or in somebody's home because they're having conflict in the church. And they all, both sides are claiming they're right and doing the will of God. Well now, both of them can't be doing the will of God. Both of them cannot be right. One of them might be, or both of them are wrong. That's the only options. Often both of them are wrong. Neither one were doing the will of God because neither one wanted to love the other and put the other above themselves. And why not? Because you can't do that very long by faking it. You cannot fake that very long. It finally catches up with you and you will not complete the task. Because you can't. What God is asking you to do, again, is impossible to this flesh. And then he warns, I've told you before that those who practice such things don't inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what saddens me and grieves me and frightens me, is that there are a lot of people sitting in churches who are good people, as we define goodness, trying to do the best they can, and they're gonna die and go to hell, doing the best they could do. Why? Because it was in their own strength and ability, and they could never pull it off, not to God's level, Only the Holy Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit. And you know what the fruit of the Spirit is? It's the character of our Lord Jesus. I'll go one step further. It's very, it is very character traits of his personality, the traits of his personality, as well as his character. It's just Jesus. But the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law. Real recently some, I don't know if I should share this, but recently Karen and I have felt dishonored by somebody very important to us, not in our immediate family. And I had to admit, I struggled with it, because I am a human being who's not totally yet redeemed. I have flesh. I have human nature. And I struggled with it. For days, I struggled with it. I even shared it with our pastor. I knew what God wanted. He wanted me to be humble, like Jesus. But there was something in me that didn't want to do that. Something in me said, no, I've been dishonored. This is not right. I would never do this to this person. Therefore, justice ought to take place. I need to step into this and correct this. I need to expose this. I need to bring about a reasonable solution to this. You know why I didn't do that? I have only one reason, not because I didn't want to, pardon me, but there was something else in me that wanted to be a lot more like Jesus than to be more like the old Michael Durham that I used to be. You know, you could say, well, you still sin because you had it in your heart. Well, yes, probably you're right. I won't argue that. But I'm thankful that God's Spirit can help us not to act on these thoughts and attitudes. If we make a choice, I know it sounds too simple, but it is as easy as making a choice. Not my will, thy will. Jesus, you endured more hardship than I'll ever do. You suffered more dishonor than I will ever experience. You suffered reproach and shame, and you didn't even deserve it. And if you could be this, if you could humble yourself and wash the proud and their feet, then Lord, I want to be like you. Help me to be humble. And God's helped. He's helped. He's helped. And the fruit of the spirit, against such there is no law. You know what that means? It means the law has nothing against you. There's no law against these nine things out there. In fact, all of those nine things fulfill the very law of God that these Gentiles were trying to keep. When you walk by the Spirit, the character of Jesus comes out and you are fulfilling what the law said all along. And this is the way you avoid the law. You void the law by not concentrating on the law. And when you don't concentrate on the law, you actually fulfill the law and therefore establish it. That's what Paul says at the end of Romans 3. Do we make void the law through the law of faith? No, we establish the law. How? By the Spirit. And to illustrate and I'll conclude. If there is a speed trap going home, you know what a speed trap is. A policeman sitting there with his radar waiting to find somebody goes by who's breaking the law and speeding. If I'm driving the speed limit, what can he do to me? Nothing. He cannot pull me over and give me a ticket. Why? Because I have made void the law by fulfilling the law. Paul says the only way you can keep the law love one another is by the power of the Holy Spirit Christ in you allowing him and you to work together in a perfect cooperation and His life will come through you and you will therefore fulfill the law the law will have no demand it can't say one thing against you it cannot do anything to you and That's how you live the Christian life Lord willing, we'll talk about even more detail how to walk in the Spirit and be filled with the Spirit if the Lord be pleased to do so Sunday night. Any questions or comments? Go ahead, if you have one. Anybody confused? Good. We love you. I'm not looking forward to Sunday to be honest with you. First Sunday I'm not looking forward to. You mean a great deal to Karen and I and we just can never, ever, ever. We often say leaving here, these folks will never know what they've done to us and for us. I don't know how to tell you. Well, I know this. I'm not talking about that right now. I'm talking about you all. You all have been so wonderful. And we're going to pray for you. And so let me pray right now. Our father, I want to thank you so much for these my brothers and sisters and what you've done in them and through them. Lord, teach us what we've heard tonight. I can teach, but Holy Spirit, you've got to help. You've got to help me and you've got to help us to understand what's been taught. I pray that there will be people who will rejoice in newfound freedom that they already had, but they had not yet discovered it. And if there's someone here tonight, Lord, who's not a Christian yet, May tonight give them hope to believe. May they see Jesus so beautifully that they'd say, I want to be like him. I want to be like him. Because truly, you are a man's man. There's never been one stronger than you. You bore the sin of the whole world on your shoulders and you were able to accomplish it and bring it to an end. You've overcome all enemies. You've triumphed as David triumphed in the field. You are our greater champion. You are the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. You are that most desirable one. You are the one who affectionately pursues us as the lover of our own souls. You care for us as a shepherd cares for the little lambs. Oh, how beautiful you are in all of your glory and all of your attributes and certainly your personality. These characteristics we've seen tonight, oh Lord, we wish to be more like this. And we confess tonight that we know the only way is through you and by you. We cannot do these things for you, it has to be by and through your own life lived in us. So as you've given us now life in the spirit, help us to now walk in the spirit. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.