Galatians 5:16–26

0:00 Well, good morning. Brothers and sisters, it is a joy once again to be with you this morning. I said it last week, and I will say again, I love singing with this church. Your boisterous singing, as it were, is such an encouragement to me, and so I'm so thankful this morning to be with you, to sing with you, and now the honor to bring the Word of God to you. Last week, I was in Galatians chapter 1, and we looked at a gospel that comes from God and not man, The uniqueness of that gospel and its power to save even the worst of sinners.

0:33 That was last week. This week we're going to be looking more towards the end of Galatians in chapter 5 and looking at the work of the Spirit in the life of the believer. Oftentimes in life we have a great focus as Christians and a right focus on what God has done to save us in Christ. But we oftentimes can feel like, okay, once we're saved, what do we do? What do we do until we make it to the end? And that's what I want to think about with you this morning. I want to think about the work of the Spirit in the life of the believer. So it's almost a two-part sermon series on justification and sanctification in some way.

1:09 So we're going to be in Galatians chapter 5. That's on page 975 in your pew Bibles. If you want to turn there, if you want to turn there, we'll be in that text for sure. So my family, from time to time, we like to go on these hikes. We'll go to Jefferson Memorial Forest or whatever. And all of my kids like hikes except for my youngest, Phoebe. She's three. She doesn't really like hikes. She likes being held. She doesn't like walking. And so we'll go on these hikes from time to time. And I find it a right and good thing to take my daughter and set her down and let her exercise her little legs.

1:40 But the tricky thing about trail walking is that you have these branches and these roots and these big stones and all these things. And she's small. Her little legs often trip and fall. And then she gets angry and cries. And so we help her out. And so what I do as a father, joyfully, is I begin to hold her hand as we're walking along. I hold her hand as we're walking. And the thing about holding your child's hand when you're walking on a trail is not that the child trips and falls less. They trip and fall just as often. They stumble over everything on and on.

2:11 The difference is that because I'm holding Phoebe's hand, she doesn't actually fall all the way. She's sustained by something. She's helped by something even in the midst of stumbling and falling. And brother, sister, I think that's a picture of who the Spirit is for you, that as you walk this path, as you walk this road, this trail to the new heavens and the new earth with all its stumbling and falling, there is a hand, there is a God, there is the Spirit who is there holding and sustaining you that entire walk. It is a great gift and one that we don't think about often enough, and that's what I want to ponder and look at with you this morning. To quickly review Galatians like I did last week. The purpose of this letter that Paul writes is to call Christians back from the brink of losing the gospel. Some false teachers named the Judaizers had come into the church and they said, yeah, Jesus is great. Faith is great, but you need to get back to the law. You need circumcision as well in order to stand right before God. And Paul is just having none of it.

3:11 He rips off this letter to them and says, do not go back to the law. Do not return to circumcision. In fact, if you do, you will be severed from Christ. You'll be cut off from Christ. That's the book of Galatians. It's pastoral. It's wonderful. It's great. Chapters 1 to 2, like I said last week, is the gospel coming from God, not man. 3 and 4 is an argument for justification by faith alone from the Old Testament. And then 5 and 6, what we're in today, is this new life that comes up by the Spirit. And that's what we'll be looking at this morning. So let's read our text and dive into it.

3:43 We're going to be starting in verse 16 of chapter 5. 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're led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. Now, the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual morality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

4:19 I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

4:51 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. The main idea, I think, of this passage that we're going to look at this morning is simply this. Christian, praise God. Christian, praise God. He has given you the gift of His Spirit. So walk with Him. Christian, praise God, he has given you the gift of his spirit, so walk with him. I'm going to break that down into two points. It's two contrasts that I see in the text. The first is the contrast between the flesh and the spirit. You can say flesh versus spirit. That's contrast number one, the flesh versus the spirit. We're going to be looking at that war. The second point is going to be fruit versus works. Fruit versus works. There's a contrast there. There's a difference between the too, and we'll be looking at that in the second point. This is what I'm going for this morning.

5:43 Christians, rightly, make a huge deal out of justification by faith alone. Praise God, that's a good thing. But I think that we often don't make as big a deal out of the sheer grace of God to give us his spirit to walk with us. And what I want to explore with you this morning is the mind-boggling, world-shaping reality that God has given his very spirit to indwell you and to push you and help you and sustain you towards holiness and to the new heavens and the new earth. Christian, you are not alone in this walk to the promised land. You walk with and by the Spirit.

6:15 And I hope this sermon will help you to see that, be amazed by that, and continue to walk with him. That's what we're looking at this morning. Let's look at point number one, the Spirit versus the flesh. So again, this letter is absolutely amazing. And I said last week you should try and read the letter this week. And I hope some of you took me up on my homework assignment to you. and read the letter of Galatians this past week, and I hope you're encouraged by it. And our text this morning comes on the heels of Paul arguing that Christ died for our freedom. So if you look there in 5.1, to set some context, he says, for freedom Christ has set us free.

6:50 For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. The yoke of slavery in Galatians would be the yoke of the law, thinking that you can impress God, that you can obey God, that you can get to God through the law. That's slavery, Paul says. No, what Paul says that Christ was after in your salvation was your freedom. Far from slavery that some people accuse Christianity of being. No, it's freedom that we're after. We're saying that Christ makes men free. And per last week, not only is a man-made religion, not only is man-made religion dependent on the person for salvation, but man-made religion is enslaving at its core.

7:28 Because it says you just have to keep obeying the master and hopefully he'll have favor on you. It's slavery. But what Christ has done is he has freed us. It's for freedom that he has set us free. Paul continues on there and he basically makes a quick argument saying like, look, Galatians, if you return to circumcision, you're going to be severed from Christ. You're going to be cut off from Christ. There's no hope in returning back to the law. And then he circles back around to this idea of freedom again in verse 13. For you are called to freedom, brothers.

8:00 Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. So Paul wants believers to be free from the authority and the burden of the law, but he also, as you see in verse 13 there, he doesn't want them for that to become an opportunity for the flesh. In other words, he doesn't want Christians to say, okay, well, if I'm free from the law, then I can go do whatever I want. If I'm free from the law, I can just live however I want. He says, no, Paul is both against the legalism of the law, but he's also against the license of the freedom that we have in Christ.

8:36 He doesn't want Christians to say, hey, I'm free, therefore I can go do whatever I want. And that is what this entire section on the Spirit is about. It's about how, in your freedom that you have in Christ, it's about how you do not go to license to sin. Over against legalism, over against license, is walking by the Spirit. That is what Paul is trying to get at with bringing up the Spirit here. And notice quickly also the structure of the passage that we're looking at. I know Greg is into this like chiasm thing. He really likes chiasms. This is a chiasm as well.

9:07 I heard chiasms explained like hamburgers, okay? So you have like the two rolls, the two pieces of bread at the beginning and the end. You can see there, walk by the Spirit, verse 16 and verse 25, live by the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit. That's like the two like hamburger rolls, okay? And then when you get to the center of this chiasm, the center of the passage, you get the meat, you get the burger. That's the point. That's the thing that you're after. You want the burger. And luckily, in this passage, it's a double burger, which is great, all right? So, it's two burgers in this one. It's the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, the double burger.

9:39 So, my outline is basically the two points I'm making is kind of the rolls and then the burgers in the center, if that makes sense to you. Okay, so my two points are looking at that sort of structure. Okay, verse 16, let's dive into it. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Paul just comes out swinging here, over against this idea of maybe having license. He says, no, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. This is a great promise.

10:11 This is a great promise. Brother, sister, do you sometimes wonder how sanctification works? Do you sometimes wonder how to become holy? Well, Paul gives you the whole thing right here. If you go to Paul and say, how do I not gratify the desires of the flesh? He would say to you, walk by the Spirit. And he actually doubles down in the text right there. You can't see it in your translation. It says, you will not. It's actually a double no there. It's like, you will not not. You will no not. No, no way. No, no. You will certainly not gratify the desires of the flesh. It's a promise.

10:47 If you walk by the Spirit, there's no way that you're going to gratify the desires of the flesh. Now, that makes probably all of us who are Christians in this room, like, we perk up and we say, okay, that sounds great, but Paul, how does that work? How does that work? Because I feel like I'm still struggling, so how does that work? And Paul says, you know what, I want to tell you how, I want to tell you how, but I first want to tell you why. And that's what verse 18 is, he gives the reason, you see, or verse 17 is, he gives the reason. For, that's because the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. The answer that he gives is that there is a war within you between the spirit and the flesh. That's why if you side with the spirit, you will not go with the flesh because you've chosen a side. But what does that mean? What does that look like? Well, let's open it up a little bit more. Let's define some things.

11:43 So what is the flesh? The flesh is, first off, if you're new to Christianity, the flesh is categorically not like your physical body, right? Paul's not talking about your physical body as if the physical body is bad and the spiritual life is good. Christianity is not trying to say that we're trying to escape the physical to enter into some spiritual realm or something like that. The resurrection of the Son of God proves the opposite, and the fact that all bodies will be resurrected in the end means that Christianity thinks that bodies are good things. So it's not this dualist view or Gnostic view that says, oh, the body is bad and the spiritual is good and we just need to flee the body. That's not what Paul's talking about. No, Paul is using the word flesh to speak about evil desires and actions that are at work on the believer. In other words, it's the old man, as he might say elsewhere. Even though, Christian, you have been given new life in Christ, there is still this old enemy called the flesh that is constantly working on you to bring sin to fruition. It lures. It entices. It tempts. It whispers. It cajoles. It distracts. It manipulates.

12:49 It lies. In other words, it has a singular mission. And the mission of the flesh is to get you to abandon the good God of the universe and of your salvation for cheap, vacuous, sinful rebellion. That's what Paul means by the desires of the flesh. You see, the flesh has these desires. It wants something. And Paul defines those desires as against the spirit. The flesh does not want to see the work of the Spirit of God in you to mature and grow you. His desires are contrary to the work of the Spirit. Now at first that's actually somewhat disheartening, right? So Paul, what you're telling me is that God has saved me and he's made great promises, but you're also telling me that before Christ returns, I'm now going to live all my days in battle against the flesh. He's going to be a constant companion, repeatedly and mercilessly trying to get me to abandon the God of my salvation. Is that what you're saying, Paul? And the answer is, yeah.

13:45 Buckle up. That's the Christian life 101. The flesh is going to be present with you until the new heavens and the new earth. I had a great joy a couple weeks ago of sitting down with our brother Nathaniel, who we just voted in to membership this past Wednesday. He remembers me. He's 16 years old. We read What is the Gospel Together. It was an absolute joy. So encouraged by that young brother, right? In talking with him, I learned something. He struggles with the flesh. he's a sinner he struggles with the flesh this past week I had the opportunity to sit down with our brother John Lovett over coffee also a wonderful brother a great time very encouraging but I can tell you this John Lovett struggles with the flesh whether you're young thank you brother you proved my point whether you're young or old the flesh will be with you for life yes Paul is saying that But that's not all that Paul is saying here.

14:42 That's not everything. Look at the text again. You see the Spirit has desires as well. The Spirit wants something. He's after something as well. As much as the flesh is at war with the Spirit, surprise of surprise, glory beyond glory, the Spirit has got some weapons, and He's striking back. He's at war against the flesh within you. In fact, the real surprise here is the word, the same word is used of both of them. the word desire is used of both the spirit and the flesh the old translation of that word is the lust the lust of the flesh and therefore the lust of the spirit lust is not necessarily just a bad thing lust is talking about the depth of desire this isn't like yeah i want ice cream after dinner this is like i want this more than anything else and i will move heaven and hell to get this the flesh wants to move heaven and hell to get you to hell the spirit is fighting back The Spirit is at war against the flesh within you.

15:43 Christian, do you realize that the war going on in you is not just you versus you or you versus the flesh? You weren't left alone in this. I think we get discouraged because we're tempted to think that we are, in fact, alone in the fight. But Paul here envisions a war that's inside of us, that is not us against the flesh, but the Spirit against the flesh. Look, if God saved you and then said, look, the flesh is going to wage war on you, and you just need to figure out how to beat it. I'll see you again someday. That would be so discouraging.

16:14 But as always, as we look into Scripture deeper and deeper, we see that God has graciously provided for us every inch of the journey of the Christian life. From eternity past, when he chose you, to the present, when he has saved you and given you his spirit, to the very end, when he brings you to the new heavens and new earth, God is with you every single step of the way, ordaining the entire process. He has never left you to your own devices, not once. That's his grace in your life. And this passage is a reminder that he indwells you by his spirit, and it is the spirit that goes to war with your flesh.

16:51 I mean, this speaks true to life, right? How many times have you experienced this? The strong pull of the flesh towards sin, towards gossip or gluttony or sexual lust or whatever. The pull so strong, so overpowering, so overwhelming, and many times you don't say no. But you also feel a pool in a different direction. Your mind races with, I've been born anew by the Spirit. God is my Father. Why would I run to that sin when Christ was crucified for it? That pool, that war, is what God is describing here. It's not just you. It's not just dependent on you.

17:22 The Spirit is at work. You know, there's another huge encouragement embedded in that, in this text. And that's asking the question again, okay, wait, who's at war with the Spirit? Who is it? Or who's at war with the flesh? It's the Spirit. Like, think on that again. Like, the Holy Spirit of God. Like, the third person of the Godhead is the one who is at war with your flesh. It's like you have an announcer at a boxing ring. It's like, oh, in this corner, in corner number one, we have the flesh. The flesh has been deceiving and calling humans to rebellion against God since the beginning.

17:56 It's responsible for the fall, all the sins of Israel, and the Old Testament. It was raging at the Son of God when he was on earth. It is at least in part responsible for the crucifixion of the Son of God. Okay, that's a big foe. Like, he's huge. He's intimidating. If he has taken down so many people, like millions, billions of people, what shot do I have against him? And you expect the announcer to turn and say, in corner number two, we have Chris Game. He's this weak, pathetic guy. This isn't even a contest. But he doesn't. In corner two, we have God himself.

18:31 Wait, what? God has chosen to be the one to fight the flesh. Yes, God the Holy Spirit. There was never a time when the Holy Spirit wasn't. He's the eternal God, one with the Father and the Son. He filled and empowered Jesus Christ as he walked on earth. He ordains all things that come to pass. He has been given as a gift to all believers that trust in Jesus Christ. He is the Spirit of God that has adopted sinners into the family of God. He is the one to take on the flesh. You know, honestly, all of a sudden you start saying, well, that doesn't seem like a fair fight at all.

19:03 You almost start to feel bad for the flesh, almost. You really don't. I mean, the flesh picked a fight with the eternal God. And God says, no, this is my child, and I'm the one who's going to fight back. He, the flesh, is going to get KO'd in this fight. That's the end of it. Christian, God has stacked the deck in your favor in your fight against sin. In fact, he has based your entire sanctification not in your hands, but in the hands of his spirit. It is the spirit whose desire is the contrary to the flesh.

19:34 Paul finishes this thought by saying, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. That's a notoriously difficult phrase to understand what he's saying. Is he saying that we want to do fleshly things and the spirit keeps you from them? Is he saying that you want to do spiritual things and the flesh keeps you from them? There's a bunch of grammar things too that make it really difficult to understand. I take it that what Paul is doing is what he's been saying the whole time. When you're heading towards the flesh, when you seem to be in obedience to the flesh, it's the spirit that's pulling you back from that. So this is what you want to do, but the spirit is keeping you.

20:05 And when you're heading towards the spirit, the flesh is at work to pull you back from that. He's just doubling down on the battle and the war inside. That's what I think he's saying there. Okay, so to review so far, if you want to not gratify the desires of the flesh, you need to walk by the spirit. Why? Because it's the Spirit that is waging war against your flesh. Walking with him is like a younger brother walking with his older brother to school, past all the bullies that pick on the younger brother. If you got the older brother with you, they're not going to win.

20:37 That's what the Spirit is doing. And then you have verse 18. If you're led by the Spirit, you're no longer under the law. And sometimes with Paul, you're like, where did that come from? Why are we talking about the law all of a sudden? I thought we were talking about the Spirit versus the flesh. why bring up the law? Why say you're no longer under the law? It's a surprising drop for the law to come in here. But I think what Paul is doing is he's reminding us of what he taught us before in Galatians 4. Galatians 4, 4 to 6. Let me read it for you. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born, what's our phrase, under the law, to redeem those who were, what's our phrase, under the law, so that you might receive adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, so you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, an heir through God. You see, the problem with the law, the guardian, as Paul calls it, is that the law could tell you when you were in the wrong. It could

21:40 tell you what you ought to do. It could chastise you. It could rebuke you. It could shame you. It could do all those things. But the one thing that the law was never capable of doing was actually changing you. It's actually conforming you into the image of God. The law was incapable of doing it. And this is the glory of having the Spirit. Because the Spirit doesn't just help us conform outwardly to the will of God, but the Spirit can actually change our hearts. The Spirit can actually want us, can actually change us to want to obey and love God. That's the great hope of being led by the spirit. The spirit can change you all the way down. And he's the only one who can.

22:22 At our dinner table at night after we're done eating, I always say to the kids, okay, let's clean off the table, go do the dishes. And for all the times I've said that, the hundreds, thousands of times that I've said that now in life, I don't think I've ever once seen my children have a face of being like, this is what I want to do. I want to do this, right? They don't look like that. I'd be amazed, actually, if I said, all right, children, let's clean off the table, and tears well up in their eyes, and they look at my wife, and they say, Mom, the grace and love that you have to make us this wonderful meal, and then they look at me, and bigger tears well up, and oh, Father, the work that you do, and the love that you show us, it would bring us no greater joy than to love you and Mom by cleaning off this table.

23:11 that would be amazing. I would love that. Many of you parents probably would. That is what the spirit is trying to build in the life of the believer. He's trying to build a heart that says, God, I love you. And I would happily obey. I would happily serve. I would happily engage. This is what the spirit does. And the law was never capable of it. And so you're no longer under the law. You're with the spirit. Paul reminds you that we're no longer under that authority of the law. Think Mosaic law there. It's not the one calling the shots in your life anymore. Christ has died, rose again, and the Spirit has been sent into your hearts to come to God as a father. You're not coming to the law as a master. You're coming to God who is your father. You come as a son. You see, who you are changes how you fight. Who you are changes how you fight. There's this scene in the movie Kingdom of Heaven. It's an old movie back when Orlando Bloom was like cute and everybody liked him. He starred in this movie called, it's true, The Kingdom of Heaven. And this movie was about a Muslim invasion of Jerusalem and Orlando Bloom's

24:14 like this knight or something that's trying to defend Jerusalem. And near the end of the movie, he doesn't have enough soldiers, right? So he gets in this room with a bunch of kind of kids and older men and others. And he basically, he just knights them all on the spot. He just kind of says to all of them, you're all now knights. He walks through some ritual and knights them all. And there's this priest that's there, and the priest says, you think just by calling them knights, you'll make them better fighters? And Orlando Bloom, in his Orlando-bloomy way, looks at him and says, yes. And Orlando Bloom is exactly right.

24:44 Who you are changes how you fight. But the glory of this passage is that God has not just said you're a son. He has actually adopted you as his son. And therefore, as a son, you fight the fight of faith, not as a slave. All right, so what do we say about all this? Well, if all this is true, that the Spirit is at war with the flesh in you, well, what should you do? Well, two things. First, remind yourself of the gospel. Remind yourself of the gospel.

25:14 Now, I know that's kind of low-hanging fruit, but I want you to think about this. Note the flip side of this chiasm. Look down at verse 24. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If you are in Christ, the flesh has been crucified. It's no longer your master. No more. You are a new creation in Christ. The old is gone. The new has come. That's gospel. That's good news. It's no longer ruling over you. Paul even says in chapter 2 that he has been crucified with Christ. It's no longer him that lives. He's a new creation.

25:54 And now God has given you his spirit to wage war against the remaining evil desires of that enemy. You need, brother, sister, keep reminding yourself of all that God has done for you in Christ and who you are in Christ, and that will help in your fight against sin. God loves you, and he has done so much for you. Secondly, obey the command, the very original command of this text, to walk by the Spirit or to keep in step with the Spirit. Paul's theology of the Spirit here, that it is war with the flesh and that being under the authority of the Spirit means that you're not under the authority of the law is meant to encourage you to keep in step with him. Freedom for the Christian from legalism or license is a life walking by the Spirit. Now Paul is not intending to teach with everything that I just said, he's not intending to teach that because it's ultimately a war between the Spirit and the flesh that you're somehow now free from responsibility. You're just out and you just watch this war happen. That's not what he's saying. These commands are telling you that you

26:55 need to choose a side. You need to walk by the Spirit. You need to keep in step with the Spirit. He's saying that because God is fighting for you, you should get on His side and work with Him, not against Him. Now, I'll get into some more practicalities of that in the second point, but just some quick ones here for you. What does it mean to walk by the Spirit? Well, it's to take the promptings and the conviction of the Spirit through the Word, by the word, and to start to obey what he says. Like he says, hide his word in your heart, and you won't sin against him. Well, brother, sister, do that. He's given that to you as something that you can walk by the Spirit, and it would help in your fight. Or he says, confess your sins to one another so you will not be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. And brother, sister, if you're here this morning, maybe even hearing those words makes you feel nervous. Well, I would say that's a great indication that the Spirit wants you to confess your sins to others so that you will not be hardened. It would be a way that you walk by the Spirit. Or he says to gather with God's people so that they can

27:56 encourage and rebuke and warn and do all these things in your life. Don't push that off. The gathering of the church and sitting underneath the preached Word of God is a means that the Spirit uses to awaken us. And opening ourselves up to it is walking with the Spirit. This isn't legalism. This isn't law. This is us saying, God, you are so good. I want to embrace the Spirit and walk with him. Those would be three things for you. But for this passage here, what does Paul think about walking with the Spirit? What does that look like? Well, that brings us to our second point, works versus fruit. Works versus fruit. That's going to be verses 19 to 26. In the center of this passage, Paul gets into the weeds of what this battle actually looks like, and how he frames this battle is actually just so utterly instructive and helpful to us. He first lists out the works of the flesh there in verse 19 the works of the flesh are evident sexual morality impurity sensuality so on so on there's a there's four categories of sins that paul deals with there the first is sexual sexual morality impurity sensuality the second is sins dealing with like

29:02 idols idolatry sorcery the third is this long list of sins dealing with disunity enmity strife jealousy fits of anger rivalries dissensions divisions envy there's a lot there there's a reason for that. We'll come back to it. And the fourth category is just wild living, drunkenness and orgies. And you should know that Paul is not just riffing off a list of pet peeves that he has. He's not sitting there just saying like, oh, these are the things that make me angry in life. I'm just going to write them down or something. That's not, that's not Paul. That's not how he works.

29:36 No, rather when the gospel came slamming into the pagan Greco-Roman world, that's the world it came into. That's the world of the Galatians. This list, if anything, gives you an idea of the climate and culture of what those first Galatian Christians were living in. And interestingly enough, it kind of sounds familiar to our day and age. But it's also a list of sins that those first Christians were coming out of. You do realize that the first Christians were ex-Greco-Roman pagans.

30:07 this is what they were doing. This defined their lives. You see, Paul isn't wasting his breath talking about sins that aren't being committed in the church, and he's certainly not wasting his breath by talking about sins that are not tempting to the Galatians. This list is to be helpful to them. Every believer in these churches in Galatia found things on that list that were tempting to them, that the flesh wanted to bring to fruition in their lives. This is why, by the way, we have what are called the vice list in Scripture, the lists of vices, these lists of sins.

30:40 Paul's trying to help us. He's trying to help believers. For one, he's being clear about sin. When we get saved out of the world, like these Galatians were being saved out of the world, sometimes we don't even know what sin is. And isn't it clarifying and helpful for the Apostle Paul to tell us this is what sin is? But two, they're convicting believers about indwelling sin. Maybe you're here this morning and you're reading that list and you say, man, that hurts. Well, good, it's supposed to. It's supposed to convict us. It's supposed to work on us.

31:11 But third, it reminds the believers that there is no sin that cannot be overcome by walking in the Spirit. The Spirit can overcome all of these sins. I think the thing that's helpful about these vice lists is that they remind you that there's no sin that has gripped you that is not common to man. One of the lies that you can believe and that I have believed in life is that I'm the only Christian or you're the only Christian who has ever been tempted by that one thing. That thing there has me and nobody else does and so nobody can relate and I'm just stuck.

31:44 But these lists in the New Testament are telling you that there have been tons of Christians at that time and throughout all of Christian history who have struggled with these things. Brother, sister, is your sin vile and disgusting and reprehensible? Yeah, for sure it is. so is mine. But is it also why Jesus died for you, just like he did for all his other people? Yeah, it's true. And there's something so freeing about admitting and confessing that, yes, these are my sins, this is who I am, and Christ is a great Savior, and the Spirit can overcome even these things.

32:20 That's why Paul puts these lists here. So, do you war with the flesh over sexual temptation? Paul wants you to know that if you walk by the Spirit, you will not gratify those desires. Are you given to mystical, new-agey, idolatrous stuff? Paul wants you to know that if you walk by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Are you just angry, hateful, deep bitterness, can't get that person out of your head? Well, Paul wants you to know that if you walk by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

32:56 Are you tempted by or indulging in wild living? Paul wants you to know that if you walk by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. You see, by bringing all these up, he's calling them out as wrong and telling you that there is freedom for you, even you, Christian, over your most embarrassing, deepest, shameful, darkest sins. That's why Paul puts this list here. He ends this vice list with a warning, and it's a massive warning. Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul here is talking about persons whose lives are defined by such things.

33:31 And this is a warning, brother. This is a warning, sister, for you and for me. If your life is defined by an embrace of sinful living with no repentance, no war, no turning from sin. In other words, if you are keeping in step with the flesh, then this warning needs to land on you this morning. Some of you today need to hear this. You've been walking too long with hidden sins and pet sins. no fight. Brother, sister, this list is here, and Paul is saying to you, confess, repent, turn, stop stonewalling God, get in step with the Spirit, walk by the Spirit.

34:11 But there's other brothers and sisters here who actually read a line like that and feel the weight of that falling on their shoulders, just feel it so heavy. And they say, I feel like I'm trying to fight, but man, I was envious last week, and therefore, will I inherit the kingdom of God? Well, Paul's not talking about you. If you are fleeing to the mercies of Christ, if you are confessing your sin, in other words, if we look at your life, and we see the smoke of battle, that's not who Paul is talking about. And this is why it's so important to be in the community of the church. Because one of the reasons I think that I'm a Christian is because you guys tell me I am.

34:48 And that is an encouragement to me, because if it's just my mind thinking about these things, man, I get so confused. But when I tell others my sins and they say, brother, you're a brother in Christ. You love Christ. Man, how encouraging that is. Don't just fight that fight in your head. Bring it up to others. Use others to help you think through these things. Or maybe you're here this morning and you're actually not a Christian. You're not a Christian. And Paul here says to you, if these things define your life, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. And that definitely means that you will be under the judgment of God and be separated from him for eternity in hell.

35:30 That's what that means. Now, maybe you're sitting here and you say, I see it. I agree. What do I do? Well, maybe what I need to do is I just need to stop doing the things on this list. That is not what Paul would tell you to do. Paul would tell you, as he does in this entire letter, to go to Christ, to flee to Christ, to find in Christ mercy and forgiveness for your sins. You cannot work your way into the kingdom of God. Only Christ alone can get you there. So don't turn to yourself. Turn to Christ. The offer is for you. Come and believe in him. Amen. Verse 22, them, the glorious part of this passage. But the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. The first thing I want you to notice about this, and it's the most important thing to notice, is that there's this subtle but super important contrast going on here. Why does Paul call the works of the flesh works, but the fruit

36:35 of the Spirit fruit. Why doesn't he say the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, or the works of the flesh and the works of the Spirit? Why is there a contrast into what he even calls them works versus fruit? Well, it's because how the Spirit works and grows these things in you is different than how the flesh works these things in you. There's even a contrast in their methods. You see, the language of works, works of the flesh, is basically mechanical language. It's just what the flesh does. You get in your car, you turn the key, the engine starts, it just runs the exact same. The pistons are moving up and down. Most of you probably don't know how engines work, but you know, the engine's running and doing its thing, and it's not alive. It's not growing. It's not changing. It's not morphing. It's just working. It's mechanical. But fruit isn't mechanical.

37:27 It's botanical. And Paul wants us to reflect on the difference. You see, fruit is something that's alive. It's something that's being changed and can grow. And we often want the Spirit to be mechanical in our lives. We often want to just go up to the Spirit and say, look, if I just put in three coins and pull this lever, can this sin just disappear? Well, that would be mechanical, but that's not how the Spirit works. That's legalism. The Spirit doesn't work like that. The Spirit grows holiness in the lives of believers because the Spirit is alive. And therefore, you don't control him. Like Jesus says in John 3, the wind blows where it wants, and that's like the Spirit. The Spirit does what he wants. You're not in control here. The Spirit is the one who grows the fruit in your life. So four things that we learn about the fruit of the Spirit from this passage. First, the growth in holiness in the Christian is actually outside of your control.

38:20 It's his fruit, not yours. It is not called the fruit of the Christian. It is called the fruit of spirit. This botanical language reminds us of so many places elsewhere in scripture where we're told that fruitfulness is from the Lord. I planted, Apollos watered, the Lord gave growth. Or a different image in the Psalms, it says, unless the Lord builds the house, in vain the builders strive. Unless the Lord's behind it, it's not going to go anywhere. Even Isaiah 55 that we read last week, the rain comes down from heaven, the word comes down from heaven, waters the earth, and returns a crop back to the Lord. It's all from the Lord. The Bible is always teaching that farmers plant seeds, but it's the Lord that makes it grow. The fruit of the Spirit is His fruit. It's the same with the Spirit. Brother, sister, you plant the seed. You walk by the Spirit. You obey His commands.

39:08 But underneath all of that is the Spirit at work to change you. Because the most frustrating thing about the Christian life, if we're honest, is that we just can't change our own desires. We just can't do it. I can't just look at a desire and say, I don't want that to be my desire. It's like saying, don't think of a pink elephant. You think of a pink elephant. I don't want that to be my desire, but it is. It is only the Spirit who can change our desires. It is only the Spirit who can morph us. And as we keep in step and walk with Him, He gives that fruit. It's on His timetable.

39:39 He changes believers from the inside out. Secondly, fruit of the Spirit, growth is slow, but still measurable. It's slow, but it's measurable. This botanical image also tells us, over against the works of the mechanical image, that growth is often slow. And at first, that can be actually discouraging, but it shouldn't be. Yes, you should keep yearning for growth, but understand that actually all of life is teaching this lesson.

40:09 Like, you did not walk on the first day of your life. You weren't born, and your parents set you down and said, all right, let's see, and he falls, oh, he's a failure. You know, that's not how it works. It takes time to learn how to walk. You didn't make your first shot with a basketball. Some of you still haven't made a shot with a basketball. You didn't learn to read on your first try. Growth takes time, and so does sanctification. The Spirit often doesn't seem as rushed as we do to see certain sins conquered, because what the Spirit knows is what we so quickly forget. Quick growth is a better description of weeds, not of trees. Here today, gone tomorrow.

40:49 The sun scorches, it just dies. Brother, sister, you don't want your growth to be weedy growth. You want it to be deep growth. You want the long, slow process of grain stitching together to become hardwood that can withstand waves and storms and wind and drought. That's what you want. And you only get that growth if it's slow. What the Spirit wants are oak trees of Christian maturity, but that doesn't grow overnight. And yet, still, the growth is measurable. Just because it's slow doesn't mean it's not measurable. If you go look at a tree right now, and then three weeks later go look at that tree, it'll probably look about the same. But if you look at that tree right now, and then 10 years later look at that tree, it will look very, very, very different. Because even though it's slow, it in fact does grow. Brother, sister, start thinking in terms of sanctification over the long haul of life. Start thinking about who you were five years ago, not just who you were last week. And you will start to see that if the Spirit is at work in your life, you will see growth.

41:49 Because growth is slow, but still measurable. Third, growth in the Christian life is quenchable, but unstoppable. Quenchable, but unstoppable. We're given warnings in scripture to not quench the spirit, to not push back against him, to use the botanical image, not to use like grass killer and weed killer and to throw it on the spirit. That would be like you feel convicted that you should confess your sin or ask for an apology, or the word of God is telling you to do something you don't want to do, and you just keep on stifling. That's quenching the spirit. You're just, no, I'm just not going to do it. Yes, we can quench the spirit, but in calling it fruit, Paul is also showing us that the work of the Spirit cannot be stopped in the Christian life.

42:32 If you are born again by the Spirit, He is going to sanctify you, period, full stop. There's this TV show when I was a, I don't know, a teenager or something. It came on, and I only ever saw two episodes of it. But it asked the question, if all human life disappeared from planet Earth right now, and all that was left was the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom, What would New York City look like in a year? Five years, 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, 100 years? What would it look like? And the truth of the matter is, in really cool 90s graphics that the show worked with, the truth of the matter is, is that New York City in 100 years would not look like New York City at all.

43:13 The roads would be ripped to shreds. Trees would be growing up through all these roads in the concrete. The buildings would be covered in vines. If you open the door of a building, you would find entire ecosystems inside of it because botanical growth is basically unstoppable. The only thing you can do is push it back, but you cannot stop it. It will keep going, and such it is with the Spirit. He is at work in you, and he will keep pushing for holiness. Brother, sister, it might feel in your stage in life that the flesh has poured like a thousand gallons of concrete over your soul on an issue, and there's no way that you will ever see fruit.

43:53 But the spirit's unstoppable. Botany is unstoppable. Give it time, and the seeds will work their way under that concrete. Little shoots will start coming up through. They'll expand out and start forming cracks. Larger cracks will form, and an acorn will get down in there. It will bust that apart. It's unstoppable. The spirit will not quit on that process in your life. His entire purpose in your life is to bring the fruition of holiness to you, and he is more powerful than the flesh fourthly the yield is life-giving at the end of all this what god desires through his spirit's work in you is that you would become the tree that we see in psalm one it's playing by streams of water it yields its fruit in season as fire does not wither and everything he does he prospers god wants your life to be a life-giving life notice that most of the fruit of the spirit there are things that are practiced in community like love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. These are not things that are just you on an individual silo with God

44:57 becoming holy. These are things to be practiced and shown in a community, shown with others. Because the Spirit's not interested in you just being an individual Christian. He wants you to bless others. He wants you to grow in maturity for the sake of other people. And that's no surprise because we see in Scripture a God of love who is constantly reaching to his fallen creatures in love. And therefore it would follow, it would make sense that this God through his Spirit indwelling believers would too want to transform people who would love others, who would be more interested than others than in themselves.

45:33 The fruit of the Spirit shows us that God wants to make us into people who love others, who are in community and are becoming better people by the power of the Spirit. I mean, contrast this fruit of the Spirit with the deeds of the flesh. Contrast that. I mean, every one of the deeds of the flesh is just utterly and completely self-serving. That's all they are. It's just like, I want this thing, and so I'm just going to get it. I want this thing, and so I'm just going to get it. But the Christian life and the work of the Spirit is to start thinking way less about yourself and way more about others, to start caring and loving others as God does.

46:09 It's Edenic language. It's returning us back to the garden. it's returning us to a world where the love of God is primary, and it flows out into the love of other people. That's what the Spirit wants to grow in you. The yield is life-giving. Do you want to live in a world, or even a church, where everyone is just looking out for number one? The only question that matters is me. Or do you want to live in a world, or church, that's characterized eyes by the fruit of the Spirit. I mean, look at that list. Look at that list and punt it out. That's the world that I want to live in. That's the world that is promised in the new heavens and new earth.

46:50 That's the world that the Spirit is growing in this church right now. So when you come to church on a Sunday morning, are you here for you? Or are you here for love of others? Is the Spirit of God at work in you to show up with love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and, sorry, Sorry, kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. Those things beginning to mark you more and more so that as you gather with the people of God, as you meet throughout the week with the people of God, these things are on display.

47:22 The Spirit wants to give life. He's not interested in death. So those are the four things that the fruit of the Spirit tells us. The fruit versus the deeds. Last thought on this whole text. Look there at verse 15. right above our text. He says, if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you're not consumed by one another. And go down to the very end of our text, verse 26. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. But what brackets the fruit of the Spirit, on the outside of this passage about the fruit of the Spirit, is language of devouring one another, being at war with one another. And then, as I mentioned before, the longest list of sins that puts in the deeds of the flesh are sins of devouring one another, envy and divisions and rivalries and anger and jealousy. Paul seems really, really focused in this letter on those particular sins. The fruit of the Spirit seems to be an answer to those particular sins. Why are

48:22 they prevalent? Why are they going on in Galatia? Well, the answer is because as the people of God there are rejecting justification by faith alone. They are beginning to say, look, I rightly stand with God because of me, and therefore I can start looking at everybody else and saying, that person doesn't, or that person does. And that is horrendous for a church to start to do that. If we lose the doctrine that we are all wretches, and the only hope that we have is the mercies of Jesus Christ, we will become a church that has nothing but backbiting and anger and division among us.

49:00 This is a massive warning for us all, brothers and sisters. We cannot lose this gospel. Because if we lose this gospel, we will become those type of people. We will no longer be led by the Spirit. We will no longer even have the love that is supposed to be exhibited in the church. But brother, sister, when we hold to that gospel, when we're reminded that the only reason we stand before God is His grace and His mercy alone, and then we humbly walk with the Spirit, the joy of the fruit of the Spirit will be among us, and he will grow us as a church unto glory.

49:35 Let's pray. Father, we are so thankful for this text. We're so thankful, again, that your Spirit has enabled us as believers to walk before your face in holiness. Father, we pray again for those this morning who are under the weight of sin. We pray, Father, that even a passage like this would help them to fight their sin and to realize that it's not just them, but your Spirit is at work in them. Father, for those this morning who even as I was preaching felt deep shame and the weight of hidden sin, Father, we pray that that would come out. We pray that you would encourage them to confess their sin, and through that they would begin to see the work of the Spirit in their lives towards holiness. Because God, what we want is you. We want eternity with you. We want your smile on us. We want to walk by the Spirit and to see you for eternity and one another. Do this good work in us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.