The Spirit of the Gospel (Galatians 5:13-25)

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Well, good morning church. Good to see you all. If you want to go ahead, grab your Bibles, open up to Galatians five. Galatians five. We’ll be starting in verse 13. This morning. Galatians 5:13. As you’re turning there one of my favorite parts of church, Big C church, but also little c local congregation is its diversity. We know that Jesus is ransoming those from every tribe and language and nation and people. And I love that. I love that in part two, because I just I’m a big fan of cultures. I’m very interested in different cultures. I love different languages. And so I like trying to figure out where people are from, where they grew up, where their ancestors come from, whatever that may be. And there are different ways, of course, that you can do that. If you pay attention, of course, you could look at somebody’s name often give you some clues, last name or something kind of go That sounds pretty Italian, if I’m being honest, or sometimes even the first name. I play soccer with a diverse group of guys on Thursdays, and one of them, his name was junior. I was like, okay, so you’re name for your dad. He says, No, I was named for my older brother. He’s like, Okay, talk to me about that. He’s like, Well, where I come from, you are named for the day of the week on which you were born. So his name is Tuesday, not in English, but Tuesday. But his brother was born on Tuesday, so he’s Tuesday number two. Hence he’s Junior. I actually knew that that meant he was from Ghana, because I played with some other Ghanaians, and so we’d already had this conversation. I know a Tuesday and a Friday, five more, and I got the complete set, so we’re getting there. Course, accent is a huge one as well. Again, different parts of the world, but different parts of the country as well. Like I have aunt Sherry on my dad’s side and Aunt Sherry on my mom’s side, they’re just different parts of the world for sure. Or another really obvious one is the sports teams you cheer for. So I was made a friend down in Atlanta. He lives down in Atlanta, and he’s Chicago Cubs fan. I was like, Yeah, all right, exactly. He’s being redeemed. He’s being sanctified. Day by day. It’s amazing. This, this is what you clap for. Okay, well, it turns out, though he’s from the Chicago area. That’s where he was born and raised. Usually, sports team will tell you where you’re from, not always. Sometimes you’re a Detroit Lions fan because you were born in Nebraska and grew up in Iowa. I got nothing. I got nothing. The point is, if you want to know where someone’s from, though, you can probably figure it out by paying attention to their lives, and that’s basically Paul’s point in our passage this morning. How can you tell if people are living in the flesh or in the spirit? Will you pay attention to their lives? And you’ll be able to see this is a really important point that he gets to also because we spent four plus chapters now reminding ourselves that salvation is by grace, alone, through faith, alone, apart from your works. And so Paul anticipates the overreaction that could come to that truth, my works don’t matter, so I can do whatever I want. We know this was a problem in the early church, early early church, because Paul deals with it here in Galatians, even though he’s trying to teach the opposite truth. Really. We also have several other early, early books of the New Testament, like James and Jude that are written to counter this heresy. I mean, James says, Yeah, we’re saved by faith, but faith that doesn’t end up in works isn’t real faith. It’s dead. Jude says some people are turning grace into a license for immorality. And Paul is saying the same thing here, except he’s picking up on the language that he gave us last week in our passage last week. Remember, it’s for freedom that Christ set us free again, freedom. I can do whatever I want. But then we’re almost asking the question, is there any Grace driven constraint on the freedom I have in Christ. And Paul says, yes, absolutely. And he makes a careful argument we’re going to follow. We’re going to proceed by steps as we go through the problem, then the proof, and then the principle, at the end of which we’ll have our big idea. So let’s follow Paul’s argument here. We’ll start with the problem, says Galatians chapter five. Let me read verses 13 to 18 for us. You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh rather serve one another humbly in love for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command, love your neighbor as yourself. If you bite and devour each other, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, but the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit. And the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh, they are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. So Paul reminds us here again that we are called to be free, free from the crushing burden of self salvation, the crushing burden of trying to earn it on your own, keeping checklists. How did I do today? But that doesn’t mean that we can do whatever we want, because Paul gives us this important qualifier like, yes, you’ve been called to be free but, but don’t use your freedom to indulge your flesh, and here flesh meaning our sinful nature, really our inherent selfishness. Paul’s saying Christ came to set us free from sin. He did not come to set us free to sin. The Gospel rightly understood, like when we rightly understand all that God has done for us in the person and work of Jesus Christ, we rightly understand that it truly frees us from our sinful desires and does so at their root, that’s the key. Just take lying as an example. So you get caught doing something you weren’t supposed to do. Parents are starting to ask you questions, and you think, it’ll be easier if I just tell a lie right here, or maybe it’s with your group of friends. And you think, okay, if I tell I’m a telemor, and I saw that movie that everyone else saw, so that i It seems like I fit in, like I’m one of the cool kids. Also, what happens? All right? So take line first of all, everything we’ve learned in these four plus chapters, it means that when we lie, when we stumble and sin like this, we are free from guilt if we’re in Christ, that’s been that’s been taken away. We’ve been called innocent in Christ already, we’re free from fear of God punishing us for our sin, because Christ paid for that already. We’re free from the devastation that would come when we mess up like that, the devastation will come if you’re thinking, I need to be perfect so that God loves me, and then you’re not perfect. That’s devastating. We’re free from that also, but there’s a deeper freedom too, because we can think to ourselves, why did I tell the lie in the first place? Why did I want to lie? Really two reasons to lie, and you think about it, one is to get out of trouble, and the other one is to make yourself look better than you are okay. But think about what the gospel does to that you need to lie to get yourself out of trouble, the most important trouble, the deepest trouble that you’re in, the eternal trouble that you’re in that’s been taken care of already. You don’t need to fear that any longer. You want to save face make yourself look better, so that people accept and approve of you. God approves of you in Christ, so you can see we don’t need to lie, because everything a lie would give us we already have, only infinitely more so in Christ, so we’re not free to do whatever we want, to pursue selfishness instead, love constrains our freedom. Love constrains our freedom. Love always constrains freedom. If you don’t know that, get married, you’re gonna learn it real quick, right? You can picture like a new husband. Some of you about to go into this role. I’m gonna help you out here. Okay, so you’re knocking off work or something like that. It’s been a tough day. You think to yourself, you know what would be great right now, some wings and some football, like proper football, where they use their feet to play the game. So you just head over there and you’re there for a couple hours. You’re like, that was great. The wings were amazing. They’re settling. Well, this is a good day. I’m gonna get home. I know there’s the new Jason Statham movie on Netflix. I hear the plots really good. In this one, he gets angry at bad guys and kicks them and like, I need to see that. So when I get home, I’m gonna watch this movie, and then I’m going to bed. And then you remember, you’re married, and you make none of those choices. You think yourself. I should go home. I should connect with my wife. We should go for a walk. We can talk about how we’re doing emotionally, spiritually, that kind of way you make really different choices, because you’re not free to do whatever you want any longer, because love constrains your freedom. What an important word for our culture, because our culture pursues freedom above just about everything. Our personal autonomy is the highest good we can imagine. You do you and don’t let anyone stand in your way. You can see that take and do that to its logical. Conclusion that mentality makes love impossible, like you have no possibility of a stable marriage or a family, you’ve got no possibility of friendship or altruism if you do that, because, I mean, every one of those is going to make claims on your life at some point, a spouse, a kid is going to make demands of you that you’re going to go, oh, sorry, I’m doing me today. And so love becomes impossible. Marriages collapse, families collapse. Friendships end, even when we act lovingly, like even when we do go serve or something like that. We’re doing it then for our own sakes, because it’s giving us something we want. Maybe that’s kids, but maybe that’s just something to post on our Facebook page. And so all this pursuit of freedom will place limits on our love, which seems like a bad thing. Worse, it’s also slavery, when you think about it, because in the process of doing whatever you want, you are strengthening the flesh influence in your life. You’re strengthening your sinful impulse, in other words, so that eventually you’re going to find, even if you wanted to, you wouldn’t be able to stay faithful in marriage, because you’ve trained yourself to I just do whatever I want, which means I look at whatever I want to look at my pursuit. You know, you get the idea. The key point is that in in all honesty, we’re all going to choose a certain freedom and a certain slavery. So let’s choose our freedom and our slavery carefully. If you’re going to choose freedom to freedom to do whatever you want, you’re going to find yourself enslaved to yourself, or you can choose freedom from freedom from sin and from selfishness, in which case you’re going to find yourself enslaved to love. Feels like a better choice, also exactly what Paul says, rather, serve one another humbly in love, serve in love. Only the word there isn’t actually serve. I know why they translated it that way, but it’s the word enslave. Enslave yourself to love. Is what Paul says, the exact same word that he used all of Chapter Four when he said, We’re not children of the slave woman. We’re children of the free woman. And because we’re children of the free woman, saved by grace, we should become slaves to love. It’s this interesting paradox where we enter into the free people of God, enter into a willing slavery for others, finding our deepest joy in sacrificing self to serve others. And of course, that sounds like somebody we know, doesn’t it in that we are just following in our master’s footsteps, following his example. I don’t think Jesus wanted the cross if he had sinful flesh, he would not have wanted that in his sinful flesh, and yet, for the joy set before him, us our salvation, He endured the cross, Corning its shame. That’s what it looks like to be enslaved to love for the sake of others. In so doing, of course, we also fulfill the whole law, which is really interesting given where we’ve been in Galatians so far. Now it’s a different sort of fulfillment of the law, like we’re not trying to justify ourselves before God. Now we’re keeping the law willingly as a response to God’s love for us. He loved us so much that we’re going I just want to make him happy. How could I do anything else? And so we love him, and we love others in his name and for his sake. Now this sounds different. I will grant than chapter five, verse three, we looked at last week. Again, I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. Here we’re fulfilling the whole law. Is Paul contradicting himself in the space of a few paragraphs, probably not. We got something really different happening here. There’s no obligation in our case, because the debt has already been paid. Plus we’re not relying on those works of the law. Rather, we are free to fulfill the law because we have been changed. It’s ironic, but it’s when we stop relying on the law that we actually keep the law outwardly and inwardly. I don’t remember if you I don’t know if you remember the illustration Kyle shared back when he preached in Galatians three but of that lady who had, like the the abusive husband, with the lists that they were she was supposed to do every day, and she found she could never quite do it. But then, in this illustration, you know, she’s married to Christ, the perfect husband, and she just she realizes she was doing all the lists without even having a list, because she she wanted to serve her husband. Maybe. You had a similar experience. Maybe it was a class or something where you’re like, look, I don’t read books, I don’t study, I don’t devote myself to this kind of thing, because somebody’s telling me to do it. And then you graduated, and you found you’re actually reading more than you ever did in high school or college, because you’re doing it for the love of learning, as opposed to trying to earn a grade, which is bad motivation. Some of you are nodding, so I hit something there. Okay, so that’s what’s happening here, where we fulfill the law without having to rely on the law. The law just shows us how to please God, and we’re free to do it. At last, I find it interesting that Paul says that we are to love our neighbor, though, and not God. With all our heart, soul, mind and strength, Jesus says, you want to fulfill the whole law. The word is love, but it’s two directions, love, God, love neighbor. Paul only mentions neighbor because of the focus on relationships in Galatians, because the Jews and Gentiles are in conflict, so there’s some fighting. So he’s saying, let’s just talk about this one for now. That’s the key area, the heresy of self salvation, of thinking you can and need to save yourself, will pit people against each other. You can tell that a church is not rooted in the gospel when it’s insular and “judgey” and exclusive. And that’s what we have here in Galatia, and that’s why we get verse 15, which feels abrupt, but isn’t at all like this is what they’re doing the Galatians. They’re biting and devouring each other. They’re stepping on each other as they’re trying to get to heaven on their own. There is a better way, though, in verse 16, it is the Spirit’s way we live under the Spirit’s influence that’s our guiding power in life, and so we do that, we won’t be enslaved to the flesh again. There’s this willing surrender to the Spirit’s influence that is actual freedom, and freedom from what, well, from the desires of the flesh. And this is where the problem comes in. I said this section is the problem. The problem is that you got flesh and spirit going on inside of you, if you’re a Christian. And so there’s the problem. And the problem is the flesh. It’s not just that it desires. The word literally is over desires. And that makes sense. If you know anything about sin, that’s the whole problem is that we desire even good things too much. We over desire or we put them in the wrong order. So like, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting the approval of those around you, a parent, a teacher, a boss, but certainly we can all imagine when that becomes an over desire and idolatry or money, or money, it is not wrong to desire money. I desire money because I would love to be able to feed and shelter my family. But we all know what it looks like to over desire money when it becomes sin. So as Christians, this conflict rages within us, these contrary desires, what the flesh desires and what God would have us desire. You know what this is like in your own life. You get home after a long day, you see that there’s a work to be done. The kids need attention, and you think, I desire to plop down on the couch and take care of myself. Or you, you know, going over to a friend’s house or something like that, and you realize they just got their floors done, all new furniture, paint, all that kind of stuff, and you’re thinking, I desire what they have. My house doesn’t look like this. I wish it did. And so envy starts to creep up inside of you, or ministry, or you’re like, This is a good thing again. I desire to serve, but I also know at the same time that I desire the admiration that ministry wins for me makes me feel good about myself. Those aren’t hypothetical examples. I felt that conflict within me, all three of those at different points this week, pretty much every week, like that’s the battle raging within us. We’ve got these twin motivating forces in our lives. It’s like our hearts are compasses that point to north and south at the same time, the needle is just going like this. Now how it feels sometimes as a Christian and so the spirit and the flesh are each trying to sabotage each other’s efforts to win the battle. It’s a little disheartening. You may be at this point in the sermon going is that it? This is the Christian life until glory, one of just continuous defeat. If left to ourselves, the answer would be, yeah, yeah, exactly right. But we’re not left to ourselves, because we have the spirit we live in a war zone, but we have an almighty platoon leader, so we need to follow his lead. We are not under the law, which is cursed and ineffective, like somebody tossing you louts, The Art of War while you’re in the middle, you know, Taking heavy fire or something, not helpful there, not the time for it. That’s the law for us. We don’t need the law, though. We’re not under law because we’re under the spirit, and he’s the one who teaches us how to live. He’s the one who saves and empowers us to change which is where we go next. We got these, you know, two platoon leaders. Basically, it’s very obvious which one we’re under. And so that’s that second point the proof. Let me read verses 19 to 23 for us, the acts of the flesh are obvious, sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control against such things. There is no law. It’s not hard to tell whom you’re following when they’re telling you to go in opposite directions. So you’re there in the conflict, let’s say and you got your platoon leader saying, advance, push forward, take enemy territory. And then you got some other guy going, retreat, run away, flee for your lives. Which way do you start running? That’s the one you’re following. In that moment, it’s obvious which one you’re following. It’s obvious here. Also, like living under the reign of the flesh is obvious. You need only look at the evidence of your life. Paul gives us a list of the acts of the flesh here. They’re in four big groups. Pay attention to the semicolons in the NIV, at least, and know what the four groups are. The first group, the first three, there are sexual sins, basically synonyms, really kind of just saying, Yeah, any sort of sexual sin that’s an act of the flesh. The next two are spiritual sins, following the wrong gods in the wrong ways. And then by far, the largest group is social sins the largest because, again, that’s the conflict that’s there. In Galatia, the most obvious sin that they’re experiencing. We’re in Corinth, we’d get a lot more of the sexual sins and stuff. But in Galatia, it’s the social sins. It’s how they’re treating each other, even within the church. And then you get these personal sins, those last two, which is really a lack of self control, it’s drunkenness and then orgy is not what we think today, but these were Greco Roman drinking parties. So basically, the first century equivalent of a frat party is what’s being talked about here. Paul gives us this warning, these obvious acts of the flesh. And there’s this warning those who live like this will not inherit God’s kingdom. That word live is so important, because what we’re talking about is not an isolated lapse, but a habitual practice. That’s important to keep in mind, because I don’t want to do two things. First of all, I don’t want to crush hope. Here, some of you are struggling with sin. Some of the sins on this list, you can look back maybe even this week and go, I didn’t do so well here, reminded of the words spoken of Jesus that A bruised reed, he will not break in a smoldering wick, he will not snuff out. I don’t want to do that either. Even as Christians, we stumble because there’s this conflict within us, because the compass is pointing in both directions, and we have learned in five chapters now there is grace when you stumble. There is more grace in Christ than there is sin in you. You don’t have to put yourself in the dog house, as we talked about last week. I don’t want to crush hope at the same time, I don’t want to give false hope to those who are perishing eternally. And that might be some of you also. Again, freedom from the law is not freedom to sin. So people who think that, Paul says, People who live that way, prove that they are not saved. They are not trusting Jesus, following Jesus. And so it gets a little tricky when you struggle with sin, where you’re going at which 1am I like, how do I know the answer to that question is another question, what are you doing? About it? Is there fight in you? Are you taking the steps you can take, especially in your moments of strength, like even now take some of those steps. There is such a difference between a lapse in the face of temptation and a settled habit, and that’s what we’re talking about. You struggle with lust. You got somebody good looking and not wearing enough clothes walking by, and your mind goes there. Okay, I get that. You struggle with pornography. Okay, I met a lot of people like that. I’ve done that one myself for decades. I know what that looks like. What are you doing about it? You can struggle with pornography. Did you install accountability software on your computer? And if you’re going, Well, no, because I don’t really want to give that up. Okay, that’s a question. That’s when I’d go, Well, you might not be a Christian, whereas you got it and you’ve stumbled, and you’re calling your brothers and going, I can’t believe I did it again. And they’re going, let’s talk about grace, bro, that’s a different experience. You snap at your kids when you said you weren’t going to do it again. Kids are like, I love family. Worship Sunday. He’s yelling at my parents. Finally, how about this one juice asked your parents when you said you weren’t going to do that again. Okay, we’ve all done that. We’ve all done that. Have you ever apologize? Like, have you ever sat them down and said this is wrong? Like, that would be a step. That would be something you’d be doing to poison sin at the root. That’s the difference that we’re talking about here. What do you need to do, even now, take steps to put sin to death. The proof of the flesh is influence. Is obvious, but equally obvious is the Spirit’s influence, the fruit that he produces in his people. Tim Keller points out in his comments here in Galatians that that single word fruit, which of course, takes our minds immediately to the agricultural world, teaches four really important truths about growth in grace and godliness. First, it reminds us that our growth in godliness will be gradual, which is encouraging in light of everything we just said, it’s just it’s just slower than we would want. You cannot see a tree growing, but it is. And you watch that same tree across the decades, and you’ll notice it. You might look out and go, you know, I remember when they planted that tree in our Parkway, and I could get my hand around it almost. And now I can’t get my arms around it like it was growing. I’ve never noticed it grow before. That’s you. You might not have grown since yesterday. How are you doing compared to five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago? Are you able to look back and go, You know what? Now that I think about it, I never thought that I would be so patient, kind, bold in the proclamation of the gospel. I mean, on the flip side, of course, if you’re looking back 1020, 30 years going, No, I’m the same way, that’s a time for questions. Again, growth and Grace will be gradual, but it will be inevitable also. Growth and Grace will be inevitable if you are saved. If God has saved you, he will produce his fruit in you. And again, the agricultural world teaches us this, because there are these incredible things. You probably have seen some of them where you got concrete slabs that have a giant crack in them because a plant has come up in the middle. And you’re thinking, if I had to bet between a tender shoot and concrete, I’m choosing concrete and the shoot wins. You see trees that are like grown on boulders. Eventually the boulder splits. That’s a picture of your stony heart under the influence of grace. God wins every time in the life of his people. Third, the growth will be internal, like it starts down here. Stapling apples to a tree does not make it healthy, and that’s what happens when we focus on behavior like that’s keeping the law right there. It’s just stapling apples to the tree going, I don’t know why they got rotten again. What more do you want from me? Lord, the Lord’s going fix the roots. That’s what we need right there. If you are being nourished by gospel roots, you will see real life. It will lead to the fruit, but it will be because of internal change forth, and this is maybe the most interesting one. Growth in grace will be symmetrical. Paul says it’s the fruit. Fruit of the Spirit, not the fruits of the Spirit. That’s significant. There’s one fruit, not nine. And I say this is significant because all of us are going to be strong by our nature, by our temperament, by our personality, in some of these more than others, like some of you are just born nice. That is not the fruit of kindness in your life. That’s just your personality. Some of you are disciplined. You don’t need to be a Christian to be disciplined, though that’s not the fruit of self control. So the way you check is our all nine growing if you’re like, Well, you know, spirit’s doing a good work in me over here, in my faithfulness, I’m still bad. There’s no goodness in my life at all. Again, it’s the time to ask questions. Growth will be symmetrical. You see this a little bit in first John four, verse 20, this is talking about something else, not the fruit of the Spirit. But John makes a similar point. He says, Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar, because that would be one of those symmetrical sorts of things. So if you’re saying, I love God, and this isn’t growing, John doesn’t say we are out of balance. John says you’re wrong. You’re a liar. You can’t separate the two. We can’t separate the nine. You start to see also then why? Scripture emphasizes repeatedly that the mark of the Spirit’s influence in your life is your character and not your gifts. That’s important. The measure of maturity is the proof of salvation. Because you got people who are really good speakers, who do not know Jesus, and if I were to give them Christian talking points, they would pray. Points, they would preach the roof down here and there, and come to Jesus at the end of time and say, Lord, Lord, did I not preach the roof down? Didn’t I do all these things in your name? And Jesus will say, Depart from me. I never knew you. It’s not the gifts, but the character that is the proof of the Spirit’s work in your life, but the fruit is there. If you are God’s you will, over time, gradually, symmetrically, inevitably, all of these things love God and others as God loved you, the spirit will produce unflappable joy and peace, which is really a confidence in God’s purposes in all circumstances, you’ll be long suffering in circumstances and with others. In the same way that God’s long suffering with you for bearing with you, you will grow in service, which is what kindness is getting at, always doing what’s right. That’s the life of integrity. Is what goodness is getting at. Courageously loyal. That’s faithfulness, humble and meek, using strength in the right application and self controlled. Basically, you’re just gonna look more like Jesus. That’s all he’s saying here, you’re gonna look more like Jesus every day, and the law can’t produce any of that in you. The Spirit of Christ can and will and does if you belong to Christ, two things you got to think as we leave this section, number one, look at the evidence of your life, what’s obvious in your life. And then number two, move from accounting to action. It’s not enough to take stock do something about it. So how do we win the victory that has already been won for us in Christ? That’s the third section. Then the principle. Let me finish up chapter not quite finish up chapter five, verses, 24 and 25 for us, those who belong to Christ, Jesus, have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. This is what needs to happen. This is the how. This is the choice we need to make if we’re going to overcome sin by grace and in the spirit. Now if you’ve been tracking with us in Galatians, you think this verse sounds a little familiar, verse 24 because way back in chapter two, verse 20, Paul said, I have been crucified with Christ. There’s actually a key difference in these two passages. In 220 it was a passive experience. You can tell that because it’s written in the passive tense, grammar matters, okay? They don’t teach it in school anymore. Bums me out, partly because I’m English major, but partly because partly because we have to know God’s word, which means we got to pay attention to things like that. It’s in the passive tense. I have been crucified, which means somebody else crucified me. Of course, it had to be a passive experience, because it happened while I was dead in transgressions and sins and Dead people don’t act so God did this. God plucked us from death, united us with Christ, crucified us with Christ. We were buried with him in death, death to our sins, and then raised to new life in him. He had nothing to do with any of that. That’s a passive. Experience. That’s what God did. So here, this is more than just a restatement then, because now it’s in the active tense. We have crucified the flesh. We put sin to death, as Paul says in Romans eight. Now Paul is certainly borrowing from the imagery of Christ’s death, crucified as he was. But he’s also borrowing from Jesus’s teaching, because Jesus said, Mark 834, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Me, which following Jesus looks like getting nailed to a cross, because that’s what he did. Now he borrows this imagery and this teaching here because it’s such an apt metaphor for what needs to happen in our spiritual lives. So just like that word fruit taught four truths for us. John Stott draws out four implications for our battle against sin from this text. First, overcoming the flesh should be ruthless. The Romans reserved crucifixion as a means of execution for the very worst criminals. That’s how we’re supposed to treat sin. I don’t know that we have that seriousness always like, imagine you’re staring out your kitchen window, kids playing in the backyard. It’s fenced it’s fine, all that kind of stuff. You’re three or four year olds out there playing around, and you notice there’s a dog in the backyard, and it’s a fluffy dog with its tongue hanging out, just smiling the whole time. And you think to yourself, that’s weird. I should probably do something about that, but you’re not that worried. I think that’s how most of us think of sin. But picture that same scenario, except your four year old’s out there and there’s a rabid coyote in your backyard. What does your response look like now, Mama Bear, you’re packing it’s coming out, and if not, you’re getting a shovel like you are going to go to war against that thing to protect your child. Do you care that much about your soul and parents? Do you care that much about the souls of your children? How many of you are like I’ll tell you what it’s your 14th birthday. Here’s a rabid Coyote. Why don’t you keep in your back pocket you can play with it while you’re at school. Do we take sin seriously or not, are we ruthless? Jesus said, If you’re at right hand causing you to stumble, cut it off. Don’t pet it and say, Oh, what a good boy. Declare war on sin. Even today, I give you permission right now if you need to to take the rabid coyote out of your pocket, which I don’t normally give and text somebody if you need to do one. Are you in a relationship that you know is wrong and that is drawing you away from Christ? Ended in this moment, you’re falling into sexual temptation. You’re dating a non believer because you think that’s going to give you happiness instead of Christ. Be done with it. You got a money problem. You know what Jesus said to somebody who had a money problem? Sell everything you have because he said, You love money so much if you don’t let go of it, you’re going to take it with you into hell. And the person said, I’ll get back to you. And walked away from Jesus, maybe you need to quit your job, because you know it’s destroying your soul. Now, how many of you are thinking like, Do you know what you’re asking of me? Yeah, I know what you’re asking of you, because overcoming flesh should be ruthless. But second, it will be painful. Painful. Crucifixion was not meant to kill people. It was meant to torture people on their way to death. So that is the hard reminder that saying no to sin will hurt in very real ways. You will feel it when you cut your hand off and pluck your eye out. It will be should be ruthless. Will be painful. It will be slow. Dying by crucifixion took a long time. It could take days for someone to die by crucifixion. This is not lethal injection. Painless and quick was the opposite. It’s going to be slow, and that’s why the conflict rages within us, because you get these death spasms of the old self. That’s what sin is. But the decisive blow was dealt on the cross was appropriated at conversion. But should be no shock that the flesh rears its ugly head. It will be slow, but still fourth, it should be decisive. Decisive. Crucified criminals died without exception. They were going to die if they were left there. The only reason they posted guards was to make sure that nobody got them off the cross, because it was slow and. We need to post those guards as we try to crucify sin in our lives. That’s what Christian community is. So prayer is that’s what the Word of God is, guards. I mean, I just think sometimes we’re struggling with sin because we’re keeping sin alive. I mean, how many of us are heading back to the hill where we crucified our sin to offer a little water and some food, quick blood transfusion, hold the legs up so they can breathe easy for a little bit. You’re going, I can’t figure out why my sin isn’t dead yet, because you’re feeding it, because you’re keeping it alive. You’re struggling with discontent in your life, and you’re flipping through shopping catalogs, you’re on Zillow, looking at the houses around you that are for sale, going see their place is better than mine. Lord, I can’t figure out why I’m struggling with discontent because you just gave it water. You just gave it food. That’s why I’m trying to crucify lust in my life. So I don’t watch porn. I just watch steamy movies, and I can’t figure out why I’m being tempted back to porn. I just want the approval of everyone around me, because that’s where I get my sense of self worth. So I post on social media twice a day, every day and check every five minutes to see if I got any likes. Can’t figure out when my sin isn’t dead yet. It’s painful and slow, but it should be decisive and ruthless. Now how Paul tells us how we crucify not just our actions, but the passions and desires beneath those actions that as we crucify the motivation for sin as well. So what we do in the Gospel waltz, if you’re in Journey group, you know what this looks like, we repent of the sinful behavior, yes, but then we go say, what’s the sin beneath the sin? Like, what’s the root of this sin? What’s the desire that it’s springing from? We looked at lying already where that would come from. You’re in a bad relationship, a relationship you know you shouldn’t be in. What’s the desire? Almost certainly it’s love. I just want to get that deep need met. And I think this person will do that for me. You want to plop down on the couch when you get home from work instead of serve your spouse or your kids. Why? It’s just comfort. I just want to take care of me so you repent of the sin beneath to send them with then we apply the gospel to it. We see how Jesus offers more and better. You don’t need to be in a bad relationship to get love, because God loves you perfectly and infinitely already. You don’t need to be lazy wait for somebody to serve you, because guess what? The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve to give his life as a ransom money, he’s met your needs already. Then we obey. We don’t do it in our own strength. There’d be no hope there. Rather, we keep in step with the Spirit. What Paul says here again, this is not passive submission, to not let go and let God know. This is trust God and get going. It’s active, tense. We live by the Spirit. We keep in step with the Spirit. There’s purposeful action. Now, keeping in step with him. That’s a military metaphor. Makes sense. We’re in a war. So you keep in step in formation as you go on attack. If you don’t like the military metaphor, picture a marching band. I find that’s really helpful. You gotta keep in step with the people around you. Can’t spell Ohio in cursive if you’re not paying attention to the people around you, because you’re just constantly going like this, okay, where am I supposed to be now so that I’m still even that’s us with the Spirit. That’s also our big idea today. This is it. I’m borrowing from Johnny Cash. Okay, walk the line. Walk the Line. Just do better than Johnny Cash, though, that’s all I’m asking. Do better than Johnny Cash, because Johnny Cash saying I walk the line like I’m gonna do this my own strength. I’m gonna be faithful, my wife on my own, and it didn’t work for him. He got divorced. Did find Jesus eventually. We do better than cash, though, because we’re not going to walk the line. We’re going to walk in line with the spirit who empowers us to keep walking in line with him where he goes. He go where he stops. We stop when he starts running. We flee temptation when he nudges us into a conversation or toward a person or whatever. We obey the prompting and see again why we don’t need the law, because we’ve got the Spirit telling us what to do always. I know the question you’re asking. It’s the question I ask every day too, okay, but how do we do that, like, how do we strive actively to keep in step with the Spirit? And it’s tricky, and the answer is not going to be unfamiliar to you. It’s just something we’re always working on by faith. Well, certainly we do it by the word of God. We immerse ourselves in the Word of God. We want to know what the Spirit’s saying to us. We listen to what the Spirit says to us. The only way we can be 100% sure it’s God’s word to us is if it’s right here in the. His Word. So we pay attention to his word, we get under its influence, and then we pray. We pray apart from Jesus. We can do nothing. We want to draw strength from the vine to whom we are connected, His Spirit within us. So we cry out daily for help. Jesus taught us to do that lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. And what’s that prayer except help me to walk in line with your spirit today, Lord, so that if you start walking into temptation, you’re going, oh, there’s no way the Spirit led me here. Let me get back in step with him. Walk the Line, walk in step with the Spirit, so much so that everyone who knows you knows where you’re from. The acts of the flesh are obvious, but so is the gospel nourished fruit of the Spirit. Let’s ask God to produce it in us. Now, Lord, we pray that you would not just save us from the penalty of sin, but that you would transform us so that we are no longer under the power of sin, so that the presence of sin in our lives diminishes day by day, year by year, as your Spirit changes us from the inside out, Help us, Lord, to keep in step with your spirit, to go where he goes, to listen, to be sensitive to his leading that we might please and glorify You we ask in Christ’s name. Amen.