Galatians 5:13-25 Walk by the Spirit

Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan, where you can grow in faith, community and service. We're currently studying Galatians in a series called Off the Chain, Finding Freedom in Galatians.

Here's Pastor Don Filcik.

The Fruit of the Spirit Is Not a Checklist

Shifting gears here, we have three more weeks in the book of Galatians, and then we're going to wrap this book up. We've been in it for a while. And the passage that we're going to look at today in Galatians 5 is probably the one that most people think of when they think of the book of Galatians, right?

There's some passages that you hear about a lot. Paul's going to talk about the fruit of the Spirit. Now, how many of you are familiar with that phrase, fruit of the Spirit? Okay, some of you have heard multiple sermons on this already.

And so it's going to be interesting as we move forward to see if there's anything new for you here. And I'm guessing there will be. We're going to see a list of positive qualities that should exist in the life of a believer.

And I'm convinced that often that list overshadows the main point that Paul is trying to get to us here in the text. Paul is not interested in giving us a checklist of things to work on. And yet many times I think I've heard a sermon on the fruit of the Spirit, I've heard a lesson, or I've heard a little snippet on the radio, and I've walked away and gone, man, I'm not very patient.

I need more patience. Or I need more of this in my life. Or I need more of that. Or I need to really work on this. And we've missed some of the point of what Paul is getting at. As a matter of fact, we can walk away with the exact opposite of what Paul is trying to get at in this text if we walk away with a works list, a checklist of things to accomplish in our lives.

But I would dare say that many of us have walked away from a sermon or a message or a book about this and gone, boy, I just need to work harder at this Christian life without an understanding of really what Paul is getting at here, and we're going to look through this.

He's not interested in giving us a checklist. But when we see a list, I mean in our hearts, when we see a list of bad things, which we're going to see in the text, the works of the flesh, and then the fruit of the Spirit, we have a tendency to latch onto those things as a list of do's and don'ts.

And that is the exact opposite of what Paul is trying to communicate. He wants us to walk away from this passage with an understanding that a life lived for Jesus is a life lived by the power of the Spirit, Him providing the growth by connection to Him through the cross of Jesus Christ.

It is the work of the Spirit that is going to produce these things in us. And there are some things that we can do, I think, to fuel the fire of the Spirit in our lives, to, if you will, fertilize the plant so that the fruit grows.

But when it comes to working on the fruit itself, that's the work of the Spirit in our lives, and it's us doing some things to yield ourselves to the Spirit's work. So I want you to open your Bibles to Galatians 5, and we're going to look at verses 13 -25.

That's page 836 in the Bible that's back in front of you. So open that Bible, turn to 836, and we will read verses 13, I think I said 25, but all the way through the end of the chapter through verse 26.

The word of the Lord to us this morning, Galatians 5, 13 -26. 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. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. 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. For 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, dissension, 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 walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Let's pray. Father, I glory in this list of things, and I recognize that our tendency in our hearts is to look at lists, and to focus on ourselves, and to bring it around to us, and to analyze, and there's some reality in which these are diagnostic things.

We ought to be looking to see if those things are in our lives. But Father, it is only through connection with you, through the cross, through your word, through a dependent life of prayer upon you that these things are going to work out.

Sure, we can be kind once in a while, but our life will not be categorized or characterized by kindness until your Spirit works that into our lives. We will not be patient people. We can act patient from time to time, but it's going to be the power of your Spirit transforming us and changing us in the long haul to create in us a desire and a hunger for faithfulness, and gentleness, and love, and peace, and all of these things.

And so Father, I ask by a movement of your Spirit this morning that you would open our eyes, and open our minds, and open our hearts to what you desire to communicate to us, that you desire to change us from the inside out, not just us acting these things out, but actually becoming these things by the power of your Spirit.

Father, that you would push aside from us the flesh. And Father, as we come to you in worship, that you would be honored and glorified from hearts that are given over to you by the power of Jesus Christ, and in his name we pray.

Amen. Well, big thanks to the band for leading us in worship. I know they put in a lot of time, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to come before God in worship together. Hopefully you worship throughout the week as well.

Salvation by Grace Through Faith, Not by Works

I can't review everything that Paula said in the text up to this point in the book of Galatians. We'd be here all morning, and we'd never get to our text if I gave it a healthy review. But I do want to catch you up just a little bit, reminding you, because I know it's been a couple of weeks since we've been together in the book of Galatians.

We spent the last dozen or so weeks covering Galatians, and Paula's weaved together argument after argument, argument on top of argument, point upon point, that the way that a person is brought into a correct relationship with God is by faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, by putting your trust in that.

It is a gift. It is based on grace. That's what the word grace means, is a gift. It is not by doing good works. It is not because we did enough, we gave enough, we came to church enough, we have done enough good things to our family or to our neighbors to warrant his salvation.

It is strictly his gift. But running through the letter has also been another point that runs kind of in tandem with that concept, and that is that after a person is brought into a relationship with God, remembering that the Galatians that he's writing to are already in the faith, they have already put their trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, that running along with that is that after a person is brought into relationship with God, our lives are no longer lived by law.

Law is not the basis. Rules and regulations are not the basis of the way that we grow in this walk with God, but we live by faith in the ongoing work of God through his spirit in our lives, and that's what Paul is going to zero in on in our text today.

How do we then live by the spirit? If it's not by laws, if it's not by rules, if it's not by shoring up our lives in that way, then what is it? So in verse 13, Paul takes on a very simple notion that many of us have wondered.

Think about this concept. If we are set free, if we have been set free from sin and from the law by Jesus Christ, then does that mean we can live any way that we want? Well, this is the way that Paul says it in verse 13.

For you were called to freedom, brothers. And we've already established that. A few weeks ago, we talked about how it is for freedom that we have been set free. Therefore, stand for a minute. But now he goes on to say, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

The freedom we have been granted could be abused. It's something we could use in a wrong fashion. Someone who understands the gospel accurately could say, then wait a minute. If I've been saved by grace as though it has nothing to do with what I have done, it's not because I've been good enough, and I'm saved, and I'm guaranteed that I'm okay with God based on the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, then is there a logical, carnal, fleshly question that starts to crop up in the back of our minds?

Like, well, then can't I just do anything that I want? Can't I live any way that I want? Have any of you ever either heard that or maybe even felt that well up within you? I mean, I guess I could kind of get away with some things, right?

Anybody with me on that, or are you going to leave me hanging? A handful of us have actually thought that way or have at least heard that from someone else. But here Paul commands that we not use our freedom in that way.

As a matter of fact, he says that through love we are called, therefore, to freedom to serve one another through love. There is a reason for our freedom. There's a reason we've been set free, and that reason is to love and serve others.

I talked about before the freedom that is the twin tracks of the train engine. Train engine not on the tracks doesn't go anywhere, but the one track that the train sits on is loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

The other track is love your neighbor as yourself, and that's what Paul is zeroing in on. Love your neighbor as yourself. As a matter of fact, Paul summarizes. He says, I can summarize the entire law in one word.

Do you see that in the text? I can summarize the entire law in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And apparently Paul was more into humanities than he was into mathematics. One word. How many did he get there?

I think you get the point, though. He's saying in one phrase, in one sentence, in one thing here verbally, I can express the entirety of the law. He says we are saved ultimately into relationship, not into isolation.

And I think we in the West and in our current culture have so personalized salvation. Now, is salvation a personal thing? Is it a decision that everybody has to make? Your parents can't make it for you?

Your neighbor can't make it for you? Your kids can't make that decision for you? It is personal, but we've so personalized the event that we have not understood that we are saved into community. We are saved into the community of the body of Christ, not into isolation, so that one of the reasons that God brought you into faith was not just fire insurance, get out of hell free card.

It wasn't that. It was that you might engage in the way that God created humanity to live, the way that God created humanity to exist, and that is genuine, authentic relationships that are going to be exhibited.

We're going to see some fruit of the Spirit here that is awesome when you think about those things being applied in our midst, when you think about those things actually being worked out in our relationships with one another is a beautiful thing.

We need each other in community. The Christian life as it was intended to be lived cannot be lived alone. If you are living a life in isolation, I recognize that, okay, you might say, well, Don, I'm here right now, so I must be living in community.

Coming to church does not guarantee that you're living in community. Did you know that? Just because you're sitting here in these chairs does not mean that you're living in community, that you're opening your life up to others and allowing them to open up your life to you.

All across America this morning are people gathering to hear a message and walking out the door unaffected by others around them and trying not to be affected by others around them, trying to get out the door as fast as they can.

So many in our culture have rejected the church. They would identify themselves as spiritual, but would say organized religion is not for me. That's almost a mantra in our culture. How many of you have heard that stated from somebody before?

I'm spiritual, I'm religious, but organized religion is not for me. There's a whole class of people in our culture, and it's a growing class. There was actually a USA Today, when you're traveling around the nation and your hotel has the USA Today.

There was a front page article about this growing trend of people who don't attend a church, but are calling themselves spiritual, and it made a national newspaper. That's what's going on in our culture.

People have been burned by people in the church, and they would rather just get up early on a Sunday morning, or maybe even sleep in, and then watch a preacher on TV, read some books about God, and call that religion.

But I'm convinced that it is the very difficulties of interpersonal relationships that God wants us to endure and work through that causes us to grow. It's by our community. How many of you admit that maybe living in family, just take it at the base level, the bedrock of relationship, easy or difficult?

Pretty difficult at multiple levels, right? There's a tendency to pull, and I just don't need this anymore. I want out of this. I want out of that. God has given us relationships with others to sharpen us, to hone us, to make us stronger.

Have you thought about that within the context of the church? There are going to be people, maybe some people in this room, who rub each other the wrong way on a regular basis, and God wants that. He wants you to work through those issues.

I'm not saying He wants you to stay in that, but He wants you to work through it and be fashioned based on some of the fruit of the Spirit that we're going to look at here in a minute. But if we give up on church every time a difficulty arises, we might be missing an opportunity to grow.

And I don't know if you've ever considered this, but have you ever thought that maybe you might be the difficult person that has been placed in somebody else's life to sharpen them? Just think about that.

Apparently in Galatia things had come to a head, and things were getting very hostile. So that's something we haven't really seen addressed yet in the text. We've seen Paul kind of getting on them about this whole...

Obviously some Jews or people from a Jewish background had come in and said, you need to follow the Old Testament law in order to be saved and in order to be okay with God, and you need to add on all these laws.

But what we haven't seen until this verse is that there's some hostility happening in verse 15. And he uses some violent words in verse 15, words in Greek that are used for wild animals tearing at a carcass.

If the Galatians, he says, continue to bite and devour one another, they will be consumed and destroy each other. Do you think there's some animosity? Do you think there's some difficulty going on in that context?

Any of you ever watch Shark Week? You ever watch the shark show? Okay, any of you into sharks? Maybe a couple people like sharks, okay. Can you picture in your mind a feeding frenzy? They drop a chunk of meat in the ocean and boom, and the sharks show up and they're feeding.

And it's been actually known that at times sharks will actually consume other sharks in the midst of a feeding frenzy. They'll actually eat each other. Paul is using that as an illustration. That's like wild animals going at it.

And it's ugly. And they're literally harming each other and consuming each other. And so you might ask yourself, maybe Paul's getting a little exaggerated in his analogy. Like, do churches ever really get that bad?

I mean, could it really get that ugly? I praise God that it hasn't been that way here at Recast. I mean, anybody else agree with me on that? I mean, we've experienced a great sense of unity. I've been joyful.

I pray for that consistently. But things can indeed get that bad. As a matter of fact, probably not very far from here, where we sit right now, that is going on with brothers and sisters in Christ who are devouring one another, who are consuming one another.

Unfortunately, as a pastor in this community, I've become... I have an ear, and I hear, and people come to me and talk with me, and other pastors, and there are a lot of difficulties going on that we ought to be praying for our other brothers and sisters in other churches that are struggling and are hurting.

I pray, again, I pray that God would maintain our unity, that he would protect us from the kind of hostility that's mentioned here in 15 by helping us to grasp what we see in this next verse, in verse 16.

Walk by the Spirit in the Battle Between Flesh and Spirit

Because what Paul says next is the central point of the entire book of Galatians, in verse 16, and it's ultimately the main thing we need to understand about the Christian life. As a matter of fact, I would go so far to say if we don't get verse 16, if we're not understanding that, if we're not operating out of that, then we can barely say that we're living...

What we're living is called the Christian life. Because what he's going to say is this is the center, this is the heart, this is the core of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. This is where it's all at.

The solution to the Galatians' hostility, says Paul, is that they should walk by the Spirit. Now, walking is a metaphor all throughout Scripture in both Hebrew and Greek for living, for living the life.

And we even use it in English for walking the walk of life. You'll hear that phrase used once in a way, his walk, his behavior, his actions. And Paul says, if we walk by the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

The solution to the problems in Galatia and the problems in our lives, the solution is not more rules. The solution is not more laws. The solution is not work harder or walk away from difficulty or problems or act nicer or act more patient or act more loving.

The solution is to consider the Spirit of God which is alive in you, who are believers, and follow Him. Walk in the guidance of the Spirit. Walk in His strength. And we're going to talk about some specific things that I think drive towards that in relationship.

Because this is about a relationship with the Spirit. This is not about trying to bring Him down into your life, trying to get His attention by doing certain things. It's about a relationship with Him, submitting to Him.

Yielding to Him. Now, it seems a bit simplistic. For anyone here who has struggled with any formidable sin in your lives, for me to just say, oh, just follow the Spirit and everything will work out, does that seem a little simplistic?

Some of you are still wrestling with sins and issues and struggles and difficulties that you've faced in life. Well, verse 17 is one of the most authentic and raw verses that Paul ever penned. He understood me.

And I think that as you read it, you're going to recognize yourself in the verse too. The author of Scripture, who is ultimately the Spirit of God, who revealed it to Paul and to the other authors, intimately understands human nature, intimately understands what goes on inside us.

It's one of the keys to Scripture is just understanding it. Have any of you ever just picked up the Bible and read something and it was like, that's me. That's what's going on in here. In one sense, it confirms to me that this book interprets me.

I don't interpret this book. Do you get what I'm saying? I mean, I read the pages of this and it makes sense of who I am. Paul speaks in terms of an ongoing battle that's going on inside the believer.

We all have desires of the flesh, he says, the flesh being the sinful, corrupt and broken natural tendencies that we have all inherited. Every single one of us has a broken nature. He refers to it as the flesh.

Now, he's not talking about flesh and bone. He's talking about a specific theological concept that within each one of us resides an evil natural tendency. It's the part of your nature that hungers for sin and delights in sin.

And every one of us has it. Every one of us has that nature. I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, because the only people who don't raise their hand would be those who haven't realized that yet. We all have that and we've all faced it.

And have you ever seen yourself? Has there ever come that point where you've looked at yourself in that proverbial mirror and gone, that is grotesque. That is ugly. That is hideous. And I don't like that.

That's the flesh. That's that nature that is at war against the Spirit of God in our lives. And part of my nature is still alive, producing desires that are contrary to the Spirit. And yet, we're going to see some things that Paul says about that here in a minute, that it's been wounded, that it's been injured, that it is being put down and we need to continually be putting it down.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Once a person becomes a follower of Jesus, the Spirit also comes in. So now we have this flesh in us and we have the Spirit alive now in us. The Holy Spirit, the capital S, Spirit of God, comes in and produces desires that are now contrary to the flesh.

This makes sense of the way that I can both hate my sin and love my sin simultaneously. Have any of you been there? You don't sin unless you desire it. Nobody goes, okay, I don't really feel like doing that, but okay, I'll just do it.

It's a desire in you that wells up and leads you astray, but simultaneously you can be going, I don't want to do this. I don't want to be here. I don't want to be doing that. I don't want to talk bad that way about that person.

I don't want to be creating enmity or strife or all these works or deeds of the flesh that we're going to be looking at. But can you relate to that battle that goes on inside of you, both hatred for your sin and a little bit of kind of enjoying it?

That's the reality of what's going on inside our hearts, and that's what Paul is getting at in verse 17. So that Spirit is now alive in us. And the battle lines, there is a battle raging inside each one of us, and the battle lines are drawn and they cut right across the center of each Christian's heart.

And I say Christian's heart because how many of you know that there's a different kind of battle going on inside unbelievers than believers? Because now we have the Spirit at war with the flesh, but as an unbeliever we have the flesh.

And so the flesh wins. The flesh reigns. The flesh rules in our hearts. It's not to say that everybody who is an unbeliever is as wicked as they possibly could be. We know that that's not the case. But it is to say that an unbeliever is primarily ruled and reigned by their flesh, by their sinful natural tendencies that are within them.

But I want to point out we are not inanimate bystanders in this battleground, sitting back watching the battle hoping for a positive outcome. We're in here sitting on a hill, sipping a glass of cold water, watching this battle rage down below us like some of the generals used to do in the Civil War, and watching this battle rage going, I hope this side wins.

That's not the way that it's going. We are either yielding our lives to the Spirit, or we are yielding our lives to the flesh. We are either feeding the work of the Spirit, we are either fertilizing the plant that is the Spirit of God, or we are giving food and nourishment to the flesh, feeding it so that it might grow.

And our lives are characterized right now as we sit in these chairs by one of those two realities. Either we are primarily at a state in our lives where we are feeding the flesh, or we are fertilizing and yielding to the Spirit's work in our lives.

When we yield to the Spirit, He keeps us from doing the things our flesh wants to do, it says at the end of 17. But conversely, when we yield to the flesh, the flesh prevents us from doing the good that we want to do.

So that's the nature of the battle. And in verse 18, Paul straight up declares that if we are yielding to the Spirit's work, if we are putting fire, putting wood to the fire of the Spirit's work in our lives, we are not under the law.

If we are operating out of this category of Spirit, letting the Spirit work and yielding to the Spirit, then we are not under law. Now, I want you to think about this for a minute. How does the law figure into the battle that's going on in our hearts?

You have flesh on one side, Spirit on the other. What's the law got to do with this battle? It doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't factor in, in a sense. I mean, it's a tool that either side can wield. Either we are living out of the power of the Spirit in us, or we are living out of our own flesh.

Those are the two categories given, flesh or Spirit, one or the other. Ironically, the law is a neutral third party that can be wielded by either side in the battle to the end of the flesh or to the end of the Spirit.

Think about this. The flesh can wield the law in our lives as a tool that leads us into self-righteousness, that leads us into thinking we're okay because we did this, this, or this. Do you see how the law can be used by the flesh against the Spirit?

It's a neutral third party. Just like anything that's been given that Satan can corrupt for bad. The television, relatively neutral thing. But can it be used for evil? Can it be used for good? Yes. And equally, the law can be used by the Spirit to draw us towards humility, to show us how we fall short.

In that sense, it's a beautiful thing. It can show us the glory of what God desires for us and who He is. But the law is a lifeless thing. Without the power of the Spirit using it to convict us accurately, it can be a dangerous thing.

The Works of the Flesh and the Fruit of the Spirit

And now in 19 through 23, Paul is going to give us two famous lists. He wants us to contrast the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. This is not primarily for the purpose of giving us an exhaustive list of do's and don'ts.

That's not what Paul is getting at here. Paul wants ultimately to give us some concrete examples of the types of things the flesh will produce in our lives if we yield to it. If we feed the flesh, if we are constantly yielding to the flesh and giving ourselves over to the flesh and doing things that lead into the strength of the flesh.

These are examples. The list is not exhaustive. As a matter of fact, he's going to say that. And as I walk through this list, I want you to consider that this is the pathway of yielding to the flesh, walking according to your own strength, feeding the flesh, and doing what comes naturally as fallen humans.

This is the logical outcome of a life lived in the flesh. The first thing he mentions is sexual immorality. Is anybody surprised that that made the list? Nobody? Okay, nobody's surprised that that one's on the list.

You see, in reality, we are all broken sexually in some way. That is reality about our lives. And if we're honest with ourselves, we have a tendency to look at certain sexual deviancies as more problematic than others, but I guarantee that it's not your own sexual deviancy that you think is the worst.

Are you getting what I'm saying? It's somebody else's. Somebody else has the real problem. But what about us? The desires of the flesh will produce sexual deviance in our hearts, in our lives, and only by God's grace are we protected from acting out on those things.

Sin is always a corruption of that which was meant to be good, and sexual immorality is no different. Sex, which was created to be a beautiful and awesome thing, is corrupted in our society and in our culture and in our own hearts.

That is what is meant by sexual immorality in this list. That's the product of a life that is lived by feeding the flesh, by yielding to the flesh. Impurity is the second one. This refers to extreme filth.

It's ironic. When you read down this list, it can be an uncomfortable list, and it ought to be an uncomfortable list, but impurity is a funny Greek word that ultimately has some sexual overtones, but it's the notion of unmentionable deviance, of things that they don't even want to give a word to, and that's the notion of this word impurity in Greek.

So filthy, you don't talk about it. We don't want to name it, so we call it impurity. That's the notion behind this Greek word. And then when you read through Scripture and think about what they're willing to name, it makes it all the more scary.

This is a dark and dangerous word, impurity. Sensuality, a rough translation, again has really mild sexual overtones, but it's not merely a sexual sin. It's the kind of sin that says, I don't care what God thinks about it, and I don't even care what others think about it.

It's a brash, almost pride of sin, like that guy in 1 Corinthians who is boasting because he has his father's wife. That's the kind of word that this is here, this sensuality, this kind of like, I don't really care what others think, I just do what I do.

That's the way I roll. Are you getting what that's saying? This is, again, a dark kind of sin. Idolatry, worshiping that which is not God, a sin that has changed in its outward manifestation, but has not changed in its primary grip on the human heart.

So it is not very common in the world today to bow to idols, maybe in some isolated places. But even in the places where that's the centerpiece, where like in Hinduism or something like that, even modern culture is moving away from that in some of those Hindu cultures where they literally bow and sacrifice to idols.

But are there idols? Do Americans have idols? Do we have idols? Do we have things that we worship outside of God? Absolutely. Sorcery, a word that has shifted significantly over the course of time, and how many of you know the word shift?

So sorcery, this meant kind of spiritism, demonic worship, that kind of stuff, offering sacrifices to idols and things like that, but even a darker notion behind it and kind of like a wizardry and amulets and spells and all that stuff.

So where'd we get the word pharmacy from? It's pharma. So you can see how that's kind of morphed over time to actually, in Greek culture, over the centuries, it morphed into a word that primarily had to do with medicinal things, and that's where we get our word pharmacy from.

But in here, in this list of vices, this list of works of the flesh, it is sorcery. Enmity, just when you think the word enmity, think hatred. It's a great translation of that word. Enmity is hatred towards others.

Strife, the opposite of peace, even a dissatisfaction or a discontentment. This can be an internal, strife can be a word for the internal state of a human soul, or it can be the way that that human soul then in turn interacts with others.

Probably both are in play when you have strife. If you have external strife with others, you probably have some, would you agree, some internal strife in yourself. Jealousy, an interesting Greek word that just basically means misapplied zeal.

It's actually a word that is listed sometimes as a virtue, the actual direct word. It's not like it's anti-something. It's the word that we get zeal from, but it's a misapplied zeal in this context, a fervor about the wrong things.