b-26
Galatians 5:23b-26 · Randy Peterman · Oct 31, 2010
Galatians (2010), No. 43
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926218244266

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, last week we almost finished the section of 523 and we kind of just touched on the very tip of the last half of that passage. And I'm going to go ahead and we'll read 523 and I've got it marked as B and all the way through 26. But just for the sake of continuity, we'll start in 22 and go through 26.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now 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 boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

And then it's that cliffhanger ending because 6-1 keeps going, but we'll stop there. So we talked about the fruits of the Spirit last week. We talked about how that's a continuous thought from starting in 5-1 with freedom that we have as believers and how we're not under the law. So the fruits of the Spirit were examples of the way that the Holy Spirit works in our lives for the edification of the body and the growth of the believer.

But he says in the last half of that verse 23 says, against such things there is no law. And the first thing I have here on the paper is a question. If we're not under the law, why would Paul say that against such things, the fruit, there is no law? and without reading the rest of the paragraph, why would Paul say those things if we're not under the law? Why would he say, hey we're not under the law, many times in Galatians, and then say, but there is no law against the fruit of the Spirit. If the law doesn't matter. This isn't a trick question per se, but it's a good question I think. Randy?

Isn't it because the fruit of the Spirit is directly from the Spirit? It's directly from God. It has nothing to do with deeds of men. It's a gift of God. Yes. The thing is that nothing that is in the law is going to contradict against the work of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit isn't going to lead us into things that are carnal. Bob? If we think of the purpose of the law, it's really to source that was in all of us in terms of these good things we might do. But now the law was our schoolmaster to bring us into a whole new life.

And that life is a life engaged and really energized by the Spirit. So these things have no standard. The fact that he puts it forth is something that I think it's important to recognize, and Bob said it, it's a life that we're measuring. And measuring is even the wrong word. It's a life that he is living through us. It's a manifestation of God's work. It's not compared to see if it's measuring up to God's work, because it is God's work. I've got here in the second half of that paragraph in italics, just because as I was thinking about it, I thought this was important.

The severed tie to the law due to death with Christ leads us to have no affiliation with the former ways, even if some of the external behaviors may look similar. Okay? You're going to have something, and that's legalism, when you draw it out in the Christian culture, legalism comes along and they're looking for these things that look a certain way. And what Paul is saying is that the Holy Spirit is going to work, and it's going to look similar on occasion. I think it exceeds that. We need to understand that the Holy Spirit leads us to righteousness that exceeds the law.

It may look similar, but the source is different. It's that life of Christ being lived through us and the Holy Spirit drawing us to relationship. So outward similarity in actions does not imply the same motive, the same life source, or the same eternal result.

If I have, and as a teenager I remember this, I could look like I was a chameleon. I could look like the people around me. I could do things like the people around me. And so when I went to church, I could do the churchy things. Maybe some of you have recognized this in your own lives, or maybe I'm alone, but I could do churchy things. I could look religious, I could be those ways, but it was me fitting into my surroundings. And it was me maybe being afraid of God, but not me walking in fellowship in the Spirit, moving through relationship in my life. And so I think that's an important detail, is to just recognize that it might look the same on the outside, but it's that motive. And so that's why... Why would Paul...

Okay, we already asked the first one. Why do humans focus on works as a proof of justification or sanctification? Why do we focus on those things? Because the old man needs a performance standard. And we want to take credit. So how can we take credit if we don't have a bar to try to reach? We have those things. Go ahead.

When you were mentioning motive, that's a key word. Like your dad said in a sermon not too long ago, The things or the works that we do, the actions that we take, we do because we are blessed, not to be blessed. And that's a huge, huge difference. I mean, we may be doing the same thing. We may bring dinner to somebody, or we may help somebody, or we may do lots of things. Non-believers may also do those kinds of things, but the motive is the key word there. Absolutely. Motive is a fundamental part. Stan?

And like with works, is it easier for a man to, say, look at a big building and guess how long one side of the building ruler and major. So the law is basically that Stanley ruler so that you can measure the size of things like works and you can boast about them. It's an easy outside parameter. The thing is that I can't judge your motive easily the same way as I can look and see, oh well I can check that off the checklist. And so that leads to the second question, or the third question on the PowerPoint.

Why is intimacy within the body a better method for both understanding sanctification as a principle and being sanctified? The Lord using it in the process of sanctification. I want to be careful when I say being sanctified that I clarify that. Why is intimacy within the body better for understanding sanctification and also being sanctified.

There's an intentional contrast there. I'll give you the answer I'm looking for and we can discuss it. If I'm looking for outward works I'm doing the evaluation. I am looking at you to evaluate you. In this third question, the idea is intimacy in the body means I'm getting to know you and you're getting to know me, and no judgment is actually taking place.

Instead, I'm learning about sanctification because as we fellowship, I get to learn what the Lord's doing in your life. You get to learn what the Lord's doing in my life. We are talking about God's Word. The other half of that is that we're being sanctified in that process, but at no point in time am I evaluating you looking for that one thing that I can go, oh man, that person is not on par with this one thing.

It's so good to be righteous. That just can't happen when it's not just outward works. Well, the intimacy implies really sound doctrinal theology. Ideally, yes. First of all, there's no expectations, because we all know that we have the sin nature in Adam, and we're born again or make mistakes. The new nature in us just accepts you for who you are, is born again like we are. And that relationship is a positional relationship that transcends the human experience. It's beautiful. We don't come in critically or skeptically. There's no expectation. It's grace. It really is. For me, that was the thing.

When I was walking under law, not understanding grace, not understanding these principles, I was constantly on the lookout for who am I around because it matters that you're on par with me or if you're not on par with me that I can come along and fix you up. I don't know about you, but I'm a stinky fixer-upper. In the flesh, I'm not so much of a fixer-upper. I'll just screw you up more in different ways.

I came up with some analogies to try to help people in counseling them. How did you do in college English, by the way? College English? Oh my gosh. Fixer-upper. Fixer-upper, yeah, there you go. That is the least of my English concerns. There's some irony in the conversation I had last night about English. I'm going to refrain from that rabbit trail.

When we don't understand the truth of God's Word and we're operating legalistically, we come inside and we end up damaging one another and hurting one another more than lifting one another up. But, if we're walking in grace and we're operating with the principle of intimacy with Christ and intimacy with one another, then these things become non-issues. Will it fit in with the principle against these things there is no law? Yeah, it fits in with that. but it's going to be edifying for the body and the Holy Spirit is going to work in our lives. Any other thoughts or questions on that section before we keep moving? Alright.

So the next section here, he says, so now those who belong to Christ, and Paul has talked about relationship with God the Father and relationship throughout the book of Galatians. That's been a major focus if you look at his attacks against the Judaizers and their position over and over again. It has been that they don't understand relationship with God, they don't understand relationship with Abraham, they don't understand the relationship with the law and the purpose of the law, and they certainly don't understand the relationship with Christ. And that's an important thing to consider as he comes into this. He says, now those who belong to Christ, you have a relationship. Okay, now what do you do, Judaizer? How do you attack this relationship with Christ? and still have the person think that you're on their side.

This being belonging to Christ is a dividing principle. If you go to a Mormon, or you go to a Jehovah's Witness, or you go to a Unitarian, or anyone with these cult theological ideas, belonging to Christ, in the intention that Paul had here, doesn't fit.

This is a wedge that's going to separate this identification principle. Obviously, as we go into more of this, the principles of identification are really, really, really important. And they're dividing. One of the biggest problems with division in the church is that we get afraid that division means that we're not unified under God. So how do we deal with this? Oh no. But when it comes to critical doctrine like being belonging to Christ. It's not something that you can just look past. It's not something that you can say, hey, we're okay with this.

Has anyone ever come into contact with somebody who seriously and frankly believes that Galatians doesn't teach that we're not under the law? There are people that teach that. They go through Galatians and they do gymnastics that I would be blown away by trying to pull off. where they get into the interpretation of Galatians and say we're not under the law.

Yeah, well actually Paul did. We are under the law still. Paul didn't mean it literally. He was just saying that the law is good and righteous and we're still under it but we're saved by faith. But we still have to do the law. And they do these gymnastic things that are mind-blowing and they don't recognize belonging to Christ. It is fundamentally part of the process of understanding Galatians and having that relationship that comes with that. Randy? Yeah. I have a question. Sure. Okay.

Is it really dividing or is it redirecting? It divides between those who want to measure you and live under the law. It separates doctrinally that point. Right, but Paul's trying to teach them that it's not the law that's the focus anymore, but it's God, which was intended in the first place to be the focus from the very beginning. So get your eyes off the law and go back to faith and focus on God. Because Paul said, I'm judged by no man. And he didn't care.

I agree with that. What I'm referring to is more, I'll give the example of John MacArthur. I think he gets picked on a lot at Holly Hills for good reason. John MacArthur has books and has written books, multiple books, talking about the value of the law in the life of the believer. So the division that comes about, when I'm talking about division, is to say that when you look at Galatians, and you look at it seriously and literally, you cannot walk away from it and not feel like you don't agree with John MacArthur. Because I agree with Paul, and I agree with the Holy Spirit, and I agree with Christ throughout the New Testament, and the rest of the authors of the New Testament, I'm divided from John MacArthur. and the people that follow him, which sadly are some friends. We don't see eye to eye on this.

Another thing that frequently happens is that some teachers ultimately look at Galatians and interpret it for what it's worth. other sections of Scripture. In other words, they can teach it for what it says, but then they contradict themselves by teaching other aspects of, why weren't you in church on Wednesday night? How many days of the week are you on your knees in prayer? In other words, They teach this as grace and no law, but yet in other aspects, so there's no ownership for this. I mean, they may be able to rightly divide the word of truth when they're in that section, but then they...

I mean, J. Vernon McGee is a perfect example of that. For the most part, he's very grace-oriented. But at times, there's this kind of legal set of things. Are you doing this? Are you doing that? I mean, I love him because I learned the Word of God on the way to work every morning just by listening to his tapes. But nevertheless, at times, he moves into legal aspects. I mean, the point is, he knows the Bible so well, and so I learn from it.

But yet, there's not that consistency 100% of the time. So here's the next question, and I don't have these on the slides, but one that I think, we talked about division, okay? We're doctrinally divided. Does that mean that we should be like the Jews and separate ourselves from those people and not engage with them? No. It means that we just make sure that we're, in God's words, studying it consistently, being fed, and then come alongside and present the scriptures to them. Paul says that we're not under the law. How do you take that? How do you be honest to the text and do it?

So the division is doctrinal but it doesn't mean that we necessarily stop associating with those who might hold that position. You know a lot of times it just takes a long time for people who are steeped in the law and that's all, even though they're believers, and that's all they've heard from any pulpit that they've been in.

And they really don't understand identification. They don't understand that we're not under the law because They can say, well, we're not under the law anymore. But then, as Bob said, when they say, well, but did you tithe and did you do this? It's so subtle. They don't really kind of equate that that's totally what the law that Paul is talking about here. I mean, they don't kind of get it. They don't have that distinction.

No. I mean, I know with my sister, it took 20 years. of talking to her about identification and what grace really was and what the law really was, for her to finally understand what that meant between those two things. She doesn't understand it either. Yeah, she does. She does understand. Yeah, she does understand. Yeah, she does. But it took...

The thing I find is, even in my own law, Even in my own walk, the Lord is constantly revealing to me places where grace and law are separate and opposite, that I have maybe made some assumptions or had some traditions. That happens every once in a while. Of course, you shouldn't do this or shouldn't do that. And it's like, no, this is under grace. That's a rabbit trail I'm about to ride. I think the one thing we need to avoid though is a sense of elitism.

Absolutely. There's no corner on the truth here. We're led by the Spirit. 26 is going to nail that. It's going to put the nails in that coffin if you will. 26 is going to make that absolutely clear. So the belonging to Christ is important. So the believer belongs to Christ and then because of that Then there's something, and this is, if there's ever anything that I've been most grateful for learning at Holly Hills, it's been the principle of reckoning. When sin comes and rears its ugly head, I know, oh, how do I respond to this? And it's not through psychology. The principle of reckoning. Having crucified the flesh.

And so, Romans 6, 1 through 14, I'm not sure what time it is. I can't see the clock. I'm going to just say I don't care if we run out of time, let's read Romans 6, 1-14 just because I think it is absolutely not only relevant to the passage, but it's just edifying. Every time you read it, you're not going to be disappointed that God's word is so powerful and rich in your life. Would somebody mind reading Romans 6, 1-14 out loud for us?

Romans 6.1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death.

In order that, as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, the body of sin might be done away with, and we should no longer be slaves to sin. For he who died is free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again, death no longer is master over him.

For the death that he died, he died to sin, once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lusts. And do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, Thank you, Roger.

If Paul were to exposit Galatians 5, 24 through 26, he would basically do Romans 6, 1 through 14. I think it is a longer restatement of the principles that we see in the Galatians passage. But all throughout that, he has words about our relationship with Christ. We belong to Christ is how he puts it in Galatians here.

We've been baptized into his death. We're buried with him. We're united with him. And we have this relationship with Christ and that leads to some consequences. And part of that is the consequence that we need to reckon. And so Paul says here in Galatians that these believers, those who belong to Christ, have crucified the flesh. And Paul states it factually. Hey, you're a believer, you've crucified the flesh.

And so what that leads us to having to do is figure out, okay, every once in a while I sin, you know, maybe on Mondays, right? Not Tuesday through Sunday, right? So we might every once in a while sin, and how do we deal with that? What does that look like?

What does this principle of the flesh already having been crucified look like in the daily conditional walk? I don't have the chart, it was given to me on a piece of paper, but Hal Malloy had drawn out this sophisticated chart and I have summarized it into textual form only. He called it the ABCs of Christianity and I think this was very very valuable and relevant. A, the believer is to understand abiding in Christ. As a young believer, we start to understand that abiding has to do with this concept of relationship and staying in fellowship with the Lord.

But as we grow, we discover 2 Corinthians 3.18 where the believer is to behold. So there's the B. A is abide, B is behold. Behold the Lord. Doyle kept saying, behold, on Wednesday nights at Bible study. And then we finished, I can't remember which book it was, and he said, let's do some question and answer time over the next couple weeks. And I said, Mike, will you please just teach about beholding the Lord.

Will you cover 2 Corinthians 3.18? And it was so exciting that I canceled what I was teaching in my Bible study the following week on Tuesday.

I said, you guys, this is the most amazing thing I've ever heard. We're not going to go over it. I think we're in Genesis. I said, we've got to talk about this. Beholding stuff is the coolest thing that's ever happened in theology. And so we talked about beholding the Lord, and I feel like the Lord is still working the beholding principle into my own life. But with beholding we have this sense of intimacy. I liken it to a bride and groom during the wedding ceremony. I remember staring at Jessica and just thinking this was the most amazing thing in my life and I could never take my eyes off this woman.

And that is how it is to be that we look at our groom Christ. So that if anybody were to step in, you know, be it the flesh or someone else trying to assault our attention, we would be like, hey, that is not my Savior. I am not beholding my Savior. This is wrong. And we're going to recognize that. And then the C in the ABC is that the believer ceases striving. We walk in the rest with the Lord and it becomes truly, it's just his life working through us and we don't find ourselves distracted so easily.

So that is represented there in 1 John 2.13 where he talks to the fathers and Colossians 1.29. where he says, I strive with the power of Christ. Christ strives through me.

I no longer am doing the work. I was just thinking, we so often emphasize the first part of verse 11. But being alive unto God, we sort of skate over that a lot of times. In fact, most of the time. Because we're concentrating in the passage on Which chapter are we at?

I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry, Romans 6. Oh, okay. Alright, I was in Galatians again and I was lost. I apologize. I'm still back here. That's good. And this abiding in number A, isn't that really, well, not just the abiding, but all of these things together, isn't that the focus of our aliveness toward God? We're focusing there instead of always saying, OK, I don't have to give in to my sin nature. We're saying, Lord, I'm with you. Yeah, well, and that's the life principle right there.

And the funny thing is that I find that for the babe in Christ, the principle of reckoning feels like one of the Rocky Mountains, one of the 14ers. Like, here's reckoning. This is a big deal. And then as we walk with the Lord, as He transforms us into the image of His Son, then we start to see the second half of that verse ever so clearly. And it's like, oh, now I get it.

And that's why sometimes I kind of reckon it to a baby learning how to walk. Sorry, I used the word reckon. Different context. I think of a baby learning how to walk where every muscle move is a mental battle. I'm like, okay, am I going to keep in balance? I'm going to do that. Sometimes the baby in Christ, it's that sense of, oh my gosh, this reckoning thing is so huge, but then you don't think about walking anymore. Then you're looking where you're going. Where am I going?

Then I'm looking at 11b, the second half, where it's that life of God. And I have to agree with you, it is probably under understood, misunderstood, less understood. The second half of that, and probably actually frankly within Christendom, the first half is also misunderstood as well. But when I saw this chart from Hal, the ABCs, it really kind of stuck out for me because I know...

I remember being excited about learning about abiding. Hey, this abiding thing is really cool. It means I can walk in relationship. It's not law. I can walk in relationship, that's really cool. And then I heard about beholding and I just shared with you how exciting that was. That was the coolest thing ever. And then I look at this ceasing thing and I pray, Lord, as I'm transformed into the image of your son, if it's your will, may that C part come sooner. So that I don't find myself fluctuating so much. Do you have a comment, Ben? Well the cool part is that you're not striving to have a relationship, you already have the relationship. I have the relationship.

And that was mentioned before. And that's, if we live by the Spirit in the next section I want to talk, that's one of the main points. I always love it when we get ahead because I know that we're on the, we understand Paul and we understand where we're going in the text.

The ceasing requires the in-depth understanding So that's abiding and beholding tied up into that concept and then ceasing becomes a natural consequence of that. Only that old guy still shows up, right? The point is that the ceasing really depends solidly on doctrinal truth. is fully accepted in the beloved. And you have to know, you fundamentally have to know what's true of you in Christ. And it begins with a rest, doesn't it? Ceasing is a rest. Absolutely. That resting is absolutely critical.

So I have two questions here. Why does it make sense to let the flesh, which has been crucified along with its passions and desires, have any foothold in the daily life of the believer? That's Paul's main thrust. I'm not asking that of you again because we just covered it. But if I had to restate it, why does it make sense for that to happen? It doesn't. It's logically inconsistent. And Paul draws that out.

What justifications do Christians give for walking in sin? Oh well, it's covered in grace, or I couldn't help myself. Justification of sin is ignoring what is true of you in Christ and letting the principles of bondage in the flesh have any weight at all in your evaluation of things.

And so those are more rhetorical questions, but they're just things to consider. All right, so Paul moves on and he says, if we live by the flesh, I'm sorry, if we live by the Spirit, if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Again, it's almost a restatement of what was there in the verse before. If we have the Holy Spirit and our life comes through that, it is logically consistent. There's that principle of logical imperatives. It's logically consistent that we also would walk by the Spirit. If your life is coming through this, it's going to show up in your walk. The Romans didn't use the term walk. That was an Israelite Jewish... Israelite's the wrong word. It's more of a Jewish term to say that you would walk if you walked by the Spirit.

Question, Randy. Yeah. really if, or is it since? It is, well, it's the, it's a rhetorical if. There's a name for it and I always forget those kinds of things because it required me to pay more attention. It's probably something called first class condition. It's assumed to be true for the sake of argument. Yeah, it is assumed to be true. And I looked at that, I looked to see because there's several if words in the Greek and this is the first class condition. the spirit, correct? Yeah, well it's factual just like the you crucified your flesh. It's a factual thing and that the factual nature is the part of it. Which leads us, I've got a quote here from J.B. Stoney. I came into contact with it from the Green Letters.

He says, progress is only advancing in the knowledge, the spiritual knowledge, of what we really possess at the outside. When we walk in the Spirit, it is only that we have this life of Christ and it's being lived out. But when we grow, when we have the spiritual growth moments, it's because they're already true of us in Christ. And we recognize those things. Like I was talking about, hey, boy, when I found out about the abiding, I was like, woo! It was already true of me. I can walk in relationship with God. Oh, it's already true of me, but I didn't realize that.

How many times have you run into people whose idea of spiritual growth involves push-ups? Involves the to-do list. Oh, that person must be more spiritual. I can tell because their checklist looks better than mine. They have a better resume. Yeah, their resume.

When they go to higher on with God, he's going to be really impressed with them, right? But instead, and I don't think that I could say that spiritual growth happens when we recognize what is already true of us enough times when I come into contact with young believers, because they want spiritual growth. Sometimes they're really hungry, and I'm grateful for that, but they always want, okay, what do I do next? Just study God's Word, find out what's true with you. I know, but there's more, right? There's something I've got to do.

No. It's already true of you and Christ. Rest in that. Well, the other cool part when you realize that, your prayer life changes because you're not praying for something you already have. If you already have it, you don't need to pray about it. Pray, Lord, help me to believe what I have. That's your prayer. Not the, Lord, give me more of this and more of that. No, I already have that.

Help me to see that and understand that. So the verb let, is that imperative? I don't have that in my notes and I don't recall from my studying. I try to look at the language but I don't always put everything in the notes. Well I mean in a sense it is a conditional statement.

This isn't a second blessing. No, it's not a second blessing. The baptism of the Spirit occurs at the time of salvation, right? So since we live in the Spirit, that's declared true. Lettuce, that's conditional. We don't have to walk in the Spirit. You may not do that. You may be bustled. You may be. It's not imperative to walk in the Spirit. That puts me under the law. I'm just wondering what the tense of that verb is.

I'm sure it was pretty hard for the Pharisees to understand when Jesus came to them and told them that their father was the devil. Absolutely. Our father is Abraham, they said. Well, but also the devil. And they would say, what the heck are you talking about? We follow the law. In fact, we not only follow the law, but we've added 613 commandments to it and we follow those as well.

So what are you talking about? Well, then in Ephesians, Paul talks about that being transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. And I think if you look at the tenses, that's a one-time transfer. You don't transfer back and forth. I mean, this is not a constant transferring.

It's like the metamorphosis in 12. It's positional. Right. Once the metamorphosis takes place, you aren't going to go back into the cocoon and become a caterpillar again. I mean, it's something that changes and you aren't going back. So what Bob's saying, it's not necessarily another blessing, it's a thing that happens when you, as Roger said at the funeral the other day, well it's an act, something, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou will be saved, period. You're transferred. You're no longer the devil or the flesh. He's no longer your father. But now, your father is God. Actually, in the New Testament, because of Jesus, he's daddy. And the Holy Spirit guides your life.

Am I wrong? No, that's it. It doesn't seem that complex. Walking in the flesh or walking in the spirit, those are present tenses, again, however you want to take it, whether it's habitual or lifestyle or whatever you want to say. It's a process of living this way. It's a lifestyle. And so Paul's saying, don't do that. Start listening to the spirit and walking as you're directed by the Spirit. Yeah.

One of the elements of, and I've got this in the notes here, but one of the elements of walking from the Old Testament and Jewish context was that basically the law was to be the thing that they were constantly having in front of them. And one of the things that the law says is that when you walk together, you're talking about the law. And so when they talked about the way you walked, it was intimately tied in with the law. So when Paul says, if you live by the Spirit, walk by the Spirit, the Jew would understand that.

But I think it's important to understand that contrast where if the Holy Spirit is the new way that you walk from a Jewish mindset, that meant that, okay, now when I go walking down the road, I'm going to talk with Roger or whomever I'm walking with, and we're going to be talking about our life in Christ.

We're not going to have the phylacteries that you know that have to be on your forehead or on your wrist where you've got the law written. I've always got the law with me. Instead, the Holy Spirit is with us all the time when we're talking with one another about it. All the time. It is part of our walk and it's part of our talk. It's part of our relationship vertically and it impacts our relationship horizontally.

It's hard as a believer, as you realize who you are in Christ, it's hard not to be talking about that with other believers and non-believers too. Last night we went over to the Rawlinson's house and they had some some other folks there including some neighbors who I don't believe were believers and I couldn't help but be talking about God's Word with other people there and this guy was just kind of not part of the conversation for a while and it was not like we're trying to be rude But it was a life of Christ. We just had to be talking about how cool it was to be learning about God's Word and the things that were there. And after a while the conversation turned I think to cheese. I made my own cheese at home and so somebody brought it up for some reason. It's moldy, but the idea is that the walk principle to a Jew would be, this is the thing we talk about, this is the thing, wherever we go we're surrounded by this principle of the Holy Spirit.

Isn't that also so true when you're with, you know, we're with other family members or whatever who are not believers and because we want to talk about the Lord all the time, pretty soon you realize, you know, How much can you talk about football and weather and how beautiful Colorado is? You know, and all those things.

That's why sports are about statistics anymore. I mean, there's no need. Pretty soon, you kind of go, this is such a shallow conversation because you're not really in there talking about the Word, which is what you want to do. It certainly doesn't have eternal value. I mean, let's talk about the World Series. It's all exciting until next spring. They won last year, but it's all a new season. You've got new players and new contracts. Or football comes into focus.

Along with that, one of my favorite passages, it said, Jesus explained the Scriptures to them. Oh, a stranger on the road to a Mass. Can you imagine that? I mean, walking along the road. But the message is there. He explained what? The scriptures. The plan of God.

He didn't explain someone else's viewpoint. He didn't explain what someone else said about this. He didn't explain the law and how it related to life and all the rest of that now. He explained the Scriptures, God's Word, which is living, and changes lives.

And Paul's doing the same thing to the Corinthian church that had a cultural problem. Maybe it was a sin problem as well, but they basically, as your father has said, it's a cultural problem because of the way that they lived before they came into the church. And so they needed someone to teach them what? The Scriptures, God's Word, and so long as you can focus on that, But I think the problem gets, many times, we start talking about things that really aren't in scripture or aren't in God's Word. Derivative theology like Calvinism and things like that.

And Paul says not to get into philosophies and genealogies and all the rest of that kind of stuff for a reason. Yeah. Well, if you think about the Jew who became a believer, genealogy was all about earthly things that no longer had your histories, Christ's history. Who cares? Now, as Paul said earlier in Galatians, your father is Abraham, but by faith. And that's the way that matters way more than having DNA. It's an important element. So let's, we've got a few minutes left here, we'll cover verse 26.

So he says, let us not become boastful, challenging one another, or envying one another. And really this leads into 6.1 so well, but I think Roger gets to teach that next week, and so I won't steal his thunder. But the thing is that he's building on, remember we've got liberty, we've got the works of the flesh and we've got the fruit of the Spirit and so he circles back around with this issue if you're thinking conditional things and things are conditional watch out for and do not be participating because it's not consistent with your walk by the Spirit boastfulness or challenging one another and envying one another Paul does talk about boasting he covered that in 2 Corinthians 11 he talks about boasting So what cause does the believer have to boast?

Is it in our own works, in our own good? Paul said he had more reason than most. But he considered it all rubbish. He says, I boast in my weakness. There we go. I sin more. I wrestle more. So that God can be strong. Not that we focus on those things, but that's the case.

If you're a Judaizer and you're coming into Galatia, you're going to say to these people, hey, you need to be proud of your righteousness because you are a Jew. You're a descendant of Abraham, and these silly Galatians, these Gauls, they don't know anything, and they don't have any special relationship with God, but oh, you were born a descendant of Abraham. Boast. Paul says, hey, boasting isn't part of what God has called you to. So the Judaizers are coming in saying, hey, hold on to this thing. And Paul's saying, let it go. It doesn't matter. And so he says, don't boast. Then he says, challenging one another. That's a big deal. Challenging one another.

If you were part of Judaism, there were lots of little sects within Judaism. And when you would go into the temple, usually the teachers would gather around different pillars. Remember the temple had a giant courtyard with lots of pillars so you could stand and scream and not everybody else would hear you because it was so big. So you have these guys that are teaching these different things and they're challenging one another constantly.

Don't do that. We talked about division with John MacArthur and legalism and things like that. Don't be challenging one another. The concept behind this is fighting and quarreling. Not that you're not standing up for truth. I want to make sure that that's not ambiguous or uncertain. But don't be challenging one another.

If you're in the body and you're fighting with one another all the time, how does the outside world perceive that? How does somebody that's moved from the area and is looking for a local body, perceive that. You come in and you've got your factions and your groups. And then he says, don't be in-being one another. Now, I think, Gail, you brought this up, but apologies if it's someone else.

We look for God's blessing. Ah, God's blessing of earthly things. How cool is that? God's blessing of earthly things. If you were a Jew, if you were righteous, God would bless you. That was the cultural mindset. So if you envied one another, it was only because you were envying somebody because God had blessed them.

That's a terrible, terrible problem. But in the church, it has no place whatsoever. That doesn't help. The thing that I have discovered over and over in my own life is that I have been blessed with an amazing job that I love to do. Most of the time. But if the Lord had me doing stinky things that I find less than exciting, I still have a job. I still have that moment-by-moment relationship with Him where I can be abiding, where I can be beholding, where hopefully He's working through me.

So that job that was stinky, I'm not striving to do anyways. It's Him living through me doing that job that the world would go, I don't understand. So the envy thing doesn't fit in with the Holy Spirit working in the life of the believer. So what do we do if we find somebody boasting in the church? you done that you didn't receive.

I mean, you know, it means the walk in the spirit really identifies the source of all of who we are, right? Absolutely. And if you think of athletic ability or musicianship or, you know, good looks or whatever, the world honors intelligence, you know, who gets credit for that? I mean, in a sense, we have a responsibility to respond to the gifts, if you will, that God gives every man. But nevertheless, this says there's no room for boasting. Absolutely. Particularly within the body and the leading of the spirit. So the body will be edified as we walk in the spirit and these things aren't going to show up.

When that does happen, we've got to figure out how do we respond? How do we respond to that? And the answer is what Roger is going to teach next week. got that assignment. He's the elder, so it's his job to fix everything. The Holy Spirit carefully considered this when he assigned the last assignment. The Lord set up the self-strategy to see... I'm really glad he's doing it. Yeah, well, me too. But how do we deal with that? We're going to go into that next... Roger's going to go into that next week. And I told Roger earlier, I can't wait for him to be able to teach this, because I think it's so edifying for the body. So, let's close in prayer, and we'll continue to edify one another past that.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your grace and your mercy, and we just ask that you would just continue to be drawing our hearts and minds to things above. Lord, that we may, in our transformation into the image of your Son, be abiding and beholding and then ceasing. Lord, thank you for your Holy Spirit in our lives daily and drawing our attention to you. And we just pray that you would continue to be drawing our hearts and minds to things above as we draw into the main service. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen.