Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Where.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: Where do you guys. Where are we? What chapter are we in?
Galatians 5. That's right.
We started Galatians 5 last week, or we kind of got it two weeks ago, just the first verse, but now we're continuing through, and I think we'll probably have at least one more, maybe two more weeks in these verses before we get to the last chapter of Galatians. So we are getting near the end.
Can anybody please, for the group, summarize to this point what is happening in this book?
Yes.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: So basically, Paul goes to the church in Galatia. Galatia. Is that how you say it?
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Galatia? Yeah. Well.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: And so he basically says to them that they're being, like, legalistic.
And the reason. Part of the reason they're being legalistic is because, like, it doesn't. Because the gospel that he's sharing comes from Jesus.
Like, and so it's. Right, because from Jesus.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: And it.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: It's like, it says that you're saved by faith alone.
But they're, like, trying to add on that. Like, add, like, weird laws to, like, being safe.
[00:01:35] Speaker B: Yeah. And even some, you know, laws that were held up to this point. But, yeah, they're trying to force Christians to be, we could say a real Christian. They wouldn't have said it quite that way. But to be a real Christian, you need to do this. You need to be circumcised, you need to follow the law. Paul repeatedly tells us one why that's not the biblical foundation of salvation. It is rather faith, not works. Justification by faith, not by works. He gives us examples from Abraham, the promise to him before the coming of the law.
That's kind of a big focal point.
And he kind of, you know, summarizes all that argument, saying that we are free in Christ. Christ has set us free from the law by giving us now salvation and justification through faith. And so now he's kind of, you know, last week we were talking, seeing how he kind of expanded on this freedom we have in Christ.
And since we are free in Christ, I think what he starts to do in this section we're about to cover is not necessarily answering a question, but it could be a natural question. You might say, okay, so we're not justified by the law by faith. Instead, and we don't want to turn then and say, cool, we can do what we want. We can sin and sin and sin, and there will just be more and more grace.
Paul addresses that even more specifically in another book, but he kind of says, so this is how we should and shouldn't live, there are still rights and wrongs, sins and pure and good things to do. And so that's kind of what he's kind of turning to here is how do we live a life pleasing to God if we're not just bound to the law?
So he is going to tell us to walk by the Spirit and kind of explain what does that not look like and what does that look like? And that should help us have faith in Christ, be justified by that faith, not be justified by works, but still live a life pleasing to God.
So here we are in chapter five, verse 16.
I'm going to read through verse 21, because I think that's where we can cover. Today. Paul continues saying, but I say what? Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.
For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.
I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So let's walk through these. Verse 16, he says, Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
So I think we've mentioned this before, but in the New Testament, what does walk signify?
Typically.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: Christian's spiritual journey?
[00:05:14] Speaker B: Yeah, a journey, a life, a Christian life, a spiritual journey.
You know, we can probably read and assume we're not, you know, very literally walking. And he's just saying, just walk, you know, with the spirit. He's saying this word is often actually just translated as live.
So this is where we get the term my Christian walk. And we're talking about our life, the journey we've lived. We get this from this word. So he's talking about, you know, a life. So what does it mean to walk or live by the spirit?
[00:06:13] Speaker A: To rewind the spirit for your guide?
[00:06:16] Speaker B: Yeah, using this, relying on the Spirit as a guide. I think that's well put.
I do think that's. That's right. And I would maybe just also add to this that we want to live in such a way that is pleasing to the Spirit. So the spirit guiding and we are doing what God desires of us. That is how we can live or walk by the Spirit.
Now, Paul uses this term, the desires of the flesh.
What does that mean?
What are the desires of the flesh?
Sin.
Sin, that's right, yeah. And he gives a list. But we should remember that he is referring to sin broadly. He's not attempting to say these are the only desires and works of the flesh. These are the only sins that are bad.
He is saying these are examples. And we could probably assume that a lot of these are very relevant examples to the audience, though it's hard to know that in every case.
So he continues, the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these two are opposed to each other.
So we've assumed that the Spirit is referring to the Holy Spirit, and I think that's appropriate. But how do we know that?
So he's saying spirit, you see a capital S.
It's not really, you know, the way it was written originally. It doesn't indicate whether this is a capital letter or not.
In fact, everything was a capital letter.
So how do we know that we're talking about the Holy Spirit?
Are there any clues in the context of the book that might help us?
[00:09:05] Speaker A: I don't know if this is a stretch, but, like, the main conflict of the book is legalism.
But, like, spiritual guidance is like the opposite of that. It's like physical works and then spiritual guidance.
So is that like a clue?
[00:09:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. I think you're. You're kind of right onto something there.
And is this kind of what you're getting at? Let me just maybe rephrase it, see if I understand.
I think.
Are you saying that, you know, so this. If. If we're talking about the human spirit, the human spirit is just as sinful as the human body.
And so if we were to turn from legalism to following the Spirit, but then we're just following ourselves, that wouldn't really be a solution. Are you kind of getting there, kind of. No. You're saying something different.
I think that is one way we can think of it is just theologically, what spirit is going to guide us away from sin and towards holiness?
It's not your own spirit.
But what were you. Is there another way to word that or.
That's okay. That's okay.
Yeah.
The Holy Spirit is mentioned throughout, you know, through the Spirit, by faith. We ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. And so this is also kind of showing us that this isn't our own spirit. He talks about the Spirit multiple times through the book. And so I think he's picking up on that. Again, I think we kind of understand that. I just don't want us to assume without kind of looking in to double check to make sure we're reading rightly. So Paul is showing us that there is a spiritual battle in the life of the believer.
Now, we know this battle isn't just some back and forth between God. I don't think that's what he's saying. You know, the.
Like the trench warfare, you know, they're going back and forth, gaining ground on each other.
Because God doesn't struggle against sin. He's not, you know, sometimes losing the battle and sometimes winning the battle, but they are opposed to one another.
Sin, the flesh and the spirit.
So that's how we know the battle or the conflict that's taking place is within the believer.
This is a battle within each Christian where sinful flesh and a renewed heart and the indwelling spirit meet in one person.
So we might relate to this and understand. Yeah, there is a battle. If you're a Christian, you instinctually understand that there is a conflict between desires and wants. Within me, it's like oil and water, you know, within our souls. It doesn't. It doesn't mix. There is opposition there, enmity there.
So the responsibility of anyone who calls himself or herself a Christian is to walk with the spirit and not the flesh.
That is a whole big chunk of the Christian life, right, is making decisions, seeking to walk by the spirit and not walk by the flesh. Yet it's a conflict. And we make those wrong steps and we are called to repentance and we go, try to walk again. This is a constant back and forth in our lives.
Now, these two things are opposed to each other. He then says to keep you from doing the things you want to do, to keep you so to stop you from doing what you want to do.
Can anyone explain this?
What does that mean?
Keep you from following through with temptations?
Yeah, I think you're right, because I think there can be, you know, two ways to read this.
You could think, well, I want to do good things and this is keeping me from doing those. Or in my flesh, I want to do bad things and the spirit's keeping me from doing those. So it is kind of difficult to read this phrase. So I'll admit I don't know for sure exactly which way it could be going. I do think both could fit.
But here's what I think. We should understand the battle.
It's something felt, so we should feel Conviction, conflict in your soul when you sin, so do you, do you feel the conflict in yourself?
Do you feel that conviction?
This is an intentional design by God. I think it's a mercy and a grace that we feel such conflict within us when we sin, so we don't continue to do it unashamedly and on and on and on. But it makes sinning difficult when we walk with the spirit. So that gut feeling reminds us to walk by the Spirit.
That feeling that you are doing something wrong, guilt and shame are, are something that God has programmed into you so you know to not gratify the desires of the flesh, but to instead walk by the Spirit.
And again, like we discussed last week, this is a different way to understand what freedom really means. What is freedom in Christ?
This book says, for freedom, Christ has set us free.
But the Bible defines freedom for us.
So one might ask, if we're free, then why has God set this up so that we don't do the things we want to do? Is that not freedom, doing whatever you want to do?
I don't think that's how the Bible is telling us we should think of freedom.
What is being said here is that the flesh battles the Spirit by pulling us that way, and the Spirit pulls us. The other humans are most free when we walk with the Spirit, when we don't do evil, when we do what is good.
Evil constrains you. It constrains others around you. It constrains the world and society. But living by the Spirit frees you and others up to pursue that which is good and perfect.
And so true freedom is loving and following Christ by faith, not merely doing whatever we want to do which will destroy us.
If sin and evil is not restrained by God by grace, then the world is far more chaotic than we could imagine.
But thank God it's not that he does restrain it and he gives believers his Spirit that they can walk with the Spirit instead and pursue what is good for themselves and for others.
So you must walk by the Spirit and avoid doing what your flesh merely desires.
Now, verse 18, he says, but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Why can't you be led by the Spirit and be under the law?
Yeah.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: Frees you. And the law is like, like.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: Like slavery.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: You just like, you're always like, oh man. Like, gotta do this, gotta do that, gotta do this.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Christ has freed us from the law through the Spirit. And I think it's, it's helpful for us to clarify the way that Paul is talking about the law is probably more, almost certainly more tied to how it's being applied by the Judaizers and the false teachers in Galatia. Because Paul doesn't think the law is bad. He doesn't think it's evil. It is holy and good. It was given by God, it reflects his heart and all of morality.
But the way it was being used to bind people when really they all not justified through that. So when it's used for justification purposes, when justification only comes through faith, then the law is being distorted. And that use of the law is incompatible with life by the Spirit. You can't be bound to seeking your own justification under the law if you are truly living with the Spirit. Because if you're living with the Spirit means you have faith in Christ. If you have faith in Christ, then you've been justified through that faith.
So those don't mix.
So with the Spirit, then we don't need the law to tell us when we've gone astray, though it can still be useful for that purpose.
But now it's the role of the Spirit primarily in the Christian life to alert us when we've gone astray.
So Paul's going to give us a much better ruler.
That's what the law often works as. Like a ruler you hold it up to, to see if you're going straight. That's how a lot of ways we can use it. But he's going to give us something better, a better litmus test. Instead of aligning your life to the law to see if you're pleasing God, align your life with the fruit of the Spirit to see if you are pleasing God.
And you conversely, will also want to align your life and see, am I aligned with the works of the flesh, which is what we're going to focus on today.
And so he gets into these. In verses 19 through 21, the works of the flesh are evident.
Paul says that the works of the flesh are evident, which means they're obvious to anyone with any amount of discernment.
But how should we make sense of that in a time where obvious sins like sexual perversions and such are affirmed as good? How can we make sense of that if these are evident?
Did that make sense?
Felt a little wordy.
He's saying the works of the flesh are evident.
Many people today do works of the flesh and affirm them as good, and they don't think it's evidently a sin.
Can you make that make sense?
Go to Romans 1. I think this will help us.
And you're probably familiar with this but we're going to read through it anyway.
So that's not too far to the left of where we are. Romans 1. We're going to look in verses 18 and kind of read on from there.
So just follow along. As I read this again is Paul to another church saying, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
So they suppress the truth.
For what can be known about God is plain to them.
So it is evident, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world. And the things that have been made so they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they knew him. They did not honor him as God or give thanks to Him. But they became futile in their thinking. Their foolish hearts were darkened. Their thinking in their hearts continued to darken and become futile and go further and further into sin. Continuing claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the mortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable bastions, for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They're full of envy, murder, strive to see maliciousness.
They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.
So the debased mind of sinners. So he's talking broadly about people throughout history, and I think we can see that trend he's reflecting on continue past his life. And we can look back and even around today and see this same trend of sin. So the debased mind of sinners just gradually melts away into utter foolishness where they dishonor God, they deny obvious and evident truths. So it shouldn't surprise us that these works of the flesh are evident to these Galatian Christians, but are affirmed as good and refused to be acknowledged by many people we see today.
And we also would notice if you were listening to Romans 1, that it's so closely linked with sexual sin in particular, which takes up the first little bit of Paul's list in Galatians 5, which I think he does intentionally. He sees this connection following the desires of the flesh breaks down your ability to even know right from wrong, as you continue to fool yourself into thinking that you know better, that you think this is right and this is wrong.
And it's depicted as loving yourself so much that you worship yourself and pursue those who look like you sexually, men pursuing men, and vice versa. That's the connection Paul is drawing. It is a form of self worship. And all of these sins are self worship in at least some way. So again, it's not surprising that he starts with this in his works of the flesh in Galatians 5.
So we'll just kind of go through these, make sure we understand them. They're not all exactly what they might appear on the surface. So we'll just make sure we understand.
He starts sexual immorality.
So you may have heard a lot about this, as our pastor has specialized in this topic, but he has taught many times that this is referring to any sexual or sexual adjacent act done outside of marriage between one man and one woman. And it would even include sexual, actually evil things done within marriage.
So I think we can see this in so many ways. We. We don't even. It really does not take a lot of creativity to think of how we are encountering this sin each and every day of our lives.
The biggest is pornography, of course, including images, videos, and even many popular books.
He goes on to say impurity. Now impurity can refer to kind of a general moral evil, not acting virtuously, but it's very typically paired with sexual sins, as we see here.
He talks about sensuality related to sexual immorality, but it more emphasizes just a lack of restraint, a flamboyancy in sexuality.
Moving on after these, he kind of gets into more different categories away from the sexual, but he does kind of return to that. But he goes on to say idolatry. So worshiping idols. And I'm sure we understand that we can worship Idols and not call them idols. We can devote our love and attention and desires for different things or people or groups or accomplishments, and we can idolize those things in the same way.
Sorcery, the Greek word actually more literally refers to the use of drugs, specifically psychotropic drugs.
And the reason that these are kind of paired together and it's translated this way, is that in historical context, these drugs were used alongside sorcery.
But again, that's not actually that much different than today. Many drugs that kind of make you hallucinate and have these visions are used by people spiritually.
Now I've met people that did this and think that they have some experience and now they actually know God because they took this drug and had this experience with him, when in reality they probably are fooled by demons taking advantage of their open mind under the drug.
And so this is sorcery. It may sound something far off, but could be something a bit nearer to us than we might know.
Enmity.
This has the connotation of causing fights, causing fights and quarrels, especially among communities, churches or friend groups or schools. Just being someone who's a pot stirrer.
Strife.
This word in the Greek is also the name of a Greek goddess who stirred up a contest between Aphrodite, Athena and Hera by offering a golden apple to the winner.
This is the perfect example. Strife comes from self centered competition that leads to the erosion of community.
That's where this word comes from. And it does have overlap with enmity.
Jealousy.
Jealousy wants what others have because the person selfishly thinks that he or she deserves it. Again, we can see how this is a problem for communities. Are you seeing how the unity of a community is also kind of a central theme in these? It continues to be so.
Next he lists fits of anger.
Seems clear enough.
So do you struggle with angry outbursts?
Is this something that you struggle with? This is a work of the flesh.
Rivalries.
This comes from the action of kind of self seeking and self promotion to the point where different factions or groups become divided.
You can think maybe in a cynical way, you can think like a politician, you know, to self promote, to create enmity between groups to help yourself rise above Creating rivalries. That's what this word is referring to.
Dissensions, you know, emphasizes disagreements between people that lead to divisions.
So again, a ton of overlap. And then divisions, it means the same thing, but more specifically between groups of peoples. Not just disagreements between individuals that lead to a division, but between groups. Although again, there's a lot of overlap in these.
The unity and Love and humility in a group, especially in a church, is so important. I hope you're getting that in these.
Next, he says, envy, you know, whereas jealousy can sometimes have a positive light, as even God is described as jealous, envy never does. I know we use it lightheartedly a lot. Say, oh, man, I'm envious of you. I always say this.
Envy is a sin and never has a positive light. Envy is, in its true form, bitterness towards someone else for his or her success. Success. It's bitterness.
I mean, I have a personal example of my own mv.
And funny enough, I was in seminary. I applied for a preaching award, and someone else won. Someone else won. Kitty would remember this.
And I was envious of him. I thought, you know, in the moment, I didn't care that much. But I realized in my heart I was envious. I was bitter because I thought I deserved it more than him after hearing him.
And though he never knew it, it caused great discomfort within me.
So envy, while it can eat at a relationship, it can also just eat at you.
So it's not worth holding onto.
Next is drunkenness refers to. Not to alcoholic drinking, but excessive alcoholic drinking to the point of losing control of your body and senses.
And then orgies. This word is actually.
And the word prior, the word for drunkenness, are typically actually paired together in a lot of texts around this era because it kind of described just a party scene. They would describe people who party simply by over drinking, overeating, overindulging in any other way, especially sexually in this case. And so it describes this crazy, sinful, overindulgent partying.
And he says here at the end, after listing all of these vices, says, I warn you, as I warned you before. So he's done this before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
They won't inherit the kingdom of God. So I want you to take this seriously.
He is saying this. A lot of times we look at this and feel the need to explain it away, say, because we're afraid that. Well, is he saying that they can lose their salvation? I. I don't think that's what we need to be focusing on. He's saying, if you do these things, you will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Now, again, you cannot undo the work that Christ accomplished on the cross. I don't think you can undo it if you've had your sins covered. I believe they are covered by him. The enemy cannot pluck anyone from God's hand. But this is not just Paul going too far. He's not being legalistic. That would be ironic.
It's a litmus test. It is a ruler.
I actually, I looked up. Does anyone know what a litmus test is, like, what that refers to? I had to look it up.
So I don't know. Maybe someone's smarter than me.
This is what I found. In chemistry, litmus paper is used to test the acidity of a substance. Right. So it will just change the color.
So in this way, I think this is a good illustration. A person of the Spirit, someone born through faith by the Spirit will react to these works of the flesh differently than someone who is not a Christian.
So, like, the paper changes different colors.
You will respond differently. When you recognize envy in your life or something else in your life, you'll respond differently if you are a person of the Spirit.
So how would a Christian respond to either temptation or to the action of doing these things?
What do you think?
What do you think? How would a Christian respond to these things?
Yeah.
Yeah. The immediate response should be repentance and faith.
That should be the response.
Like we said last week, the hatred of sin and the desire to repent is the best means of assurance for the Christian life. If you have that desire, you need. You hate your sin and you need to turn from it.
That is good news for you.
If you habitually, without conviction, do these things, any number of them, even just one of these things on the list, and you do it without conviction all the time, then take this passage as a serious warning to check yourself.
It's a warning that you have no reason to think that you'll inherit the kingdom of God if you carelessly do these things on and on and on. If you feel no discomfort with that, you have no reason to be assured that you're inheriting the kingdom of God.
So I want us to take that seriously.
But then marvel at the grace of God, that if you find yourself in that position, you can turn from it and have faith in him and he will forgive it all, all of it. That's a wonderful thing.
So, as you know, I'm stopping here. It feels like a very low note.
The tone of this passage is positive as it continues. We just don't have time to get to it today.
So this is optimistic. Paul has been super optimistic in this letter. He believes that the Lord will convict and lead these Galatians out of legalism. He believes that the Lord will do it.
And if you're realizing that you lack conviction and that you don't walk with the Spirit, it's not too late. You've not done too many of these things. You could have done all of those things a million times. But the grace of Christ on the cross is sufficient.
But you must turn from them and put your faith in Christ and walk by the Spirit, which we'll talk a little bit more about in coming weeks.
Let's pray.
Oh, Lord, thank you for your word and for the grace of Christ. Lord, help us today by your Spirit to recognize the works of the flesh and wicked desires within us and help us to hate those and to turn from them.
Lord, rid us of those. Help us to not walk into temptation, but instead to walk with you by the Spirit.
Lord, thank you for Jesus and what he has done. And God, we pray that those who are unsure of where they land and how they feel about these sins, God, we pray that you would break their hearts over these sins and that you would call them to repentance and faith. We pray this in your Son's name. Amen.
