Woe Unto Me
Woe Unto Me
WUM Galatians 5
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The penalty for sin is death. But what is the penalty for willfully returning to the Old Testament law? In today's episode Paul lays out the penalty for those Galatians who chose to add the Old Testament law to Christ.
The tired giggles.
SPEAKER_01Well, good morning, good afternoon, and good day. This is Will One to me. I'm Rod.
SPEAKER_00And I'm Butch, and we're back for another exciting episode, and we're excited to hop into Galatians 5 today.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. How you doing, man?
SPEAKER_00I am doing well. I'm glad we got the giggles out. Rod and I just had a tough time getting the intro in. We're tapping the ground and then slapping, like cut, start over. Right.
SPEAKER_01And then we just lost it and just um, but I I think they're all gone.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think our slap happiness is okay. We just we probably spent too much time whining that we were both tired. Right. It's like, I don't know, we set ourselves up for this.
SPEAKER_01Maybe that's the joy of the Lord saying, hey, just that's okay.
SPEAKER_00It is okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but we are in Galatians chapter 5 this week, after last week, when Paul did his very best to get these Jews to understand that they are free and that there's no need to go back to the bondage or slavery of the law. And he did his best, he gave them a couple of examples to help them see that you're free and that you are no longer slaves to the law. You are born, as Paul said, of the free woman. So enjoy your freedom.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, isn't it interesting because the way Paul uses this language throughout scripture too, but we were we were slaves, you're always slave to something, right? Either you're a slave to unrighteousness, which leads to destruction and eternal punishment, or you're a slave to righteousness. Yes. But the way that they say you're a slave to righteousness, I think is really cool in this chapter five. You get to see you're still slave, but it's a whole different ballgame. It's like you don't have the same, yeah, the same yoke. It's a very different yoke. And he doesn't even call it a yoke. That's another interesting thing, too.
SPEAKER_01Right, right. And so let's let's pick up in Galatians chapter 5, um, beginning in verse 1, where Paul says, it was for freedom that Christ set us free. Now, right off the bat, you'd think that'd be obvious that Christ set us free so that we could be free from sin, so that we could be free in this case from the law and not have to keep the law since he kept the law for us.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I've wondered if the reason why, and it kind of makes sense as you reread these next few verses, kind of feels like it's because we think that we're free before. While we have the yoke of slavery to unrighteousness, you feel like you're making a lot of good decisions on your own, or you're making bad decisions on your own, in your own freedom, in your own stupidity. And you that feels good, right? Yeah. I did it my way.
SPEAKER_01I was just thinking, Frank said. Right, yep. I did it my way to the right.
SPEAKER_00I did it my way, and you're like, Right. Yeah, and you ended up in this yoke of slavery to unrighteousness. Yeah. I think that's why he has to tell us like you weren't free. No, you were under a yoke of slavery to the law.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Not realizing that we were slaves to sin and slaves to the law.
SPEAKER_00I think that's what's so incredibly powerful when you do have the aha moment when you realize you are actually free. Not just hearing it in your head when people tell you, oh, when you Christ set you free, you're free indeed. Right?
SPEAKER_01Right. But when you know when that light bulb goes off and it's just like, wow, wait a minute, I I can re I can say no.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Wait a minute. I am I'm these chains are gone. Yes. Like, oh.
SPEAKER_01Right? That's a song somewhere. Right? Yeah. So it it was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, here's purpose statement. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not, here's the command, do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. And in this case, slavery to the law. But he says, keep standing firm. You know, hold your ground.
SPEAKER_00This is this is, I think, where a lot of us struggle. And when I say a lot of us, I mean me. I'm just gonna say, I'm my guess is I'm not the only one.
SPEAKER_01No, you're not.
SPEAKER_00When we have that aha moment, sometimes we get fooled into thinking, then we're done. We've arrived. We made it. Yeah. When he clearly says, oh, wait, this is just the beginning.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I need you to stand firm.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00Right? And I need you not to submit again to the yoke of slavery. So there's there is this incredible freedom, but then there's this power given to us to be able to stand firm. And the power given us to be able to keep that yoke of slavery, not submit to it again.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But that also means we're also free because we have freedom in Christ, we're free to put ourselves back under this bondage. And that is what Paul's warning them about. That's why he said so many times throughout this book why are you doing that? You foolish Galatians, why are you doing this? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Why are you going back to all these other crazy things? And he's going to talk about circumcision.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And you know, I think about this issue of going back under bondage and going back into slavery. And, you know, the over the weekend, um, in our in our in our sermon, in our text in Mark 4, Jesus says to take care, take care of what you hear. And when you think about these Judaizers who are influencing these Jews, no, I mean, you got to get circumcised, you got to keep the law. Yeah, I understand Jesus, but you got as a Jew, you have to do this. And I I I can see the wheels turning, because we do this today. You know, it's sometimes it's it's within the Christian church, it's it's Jesus, but we got to have works. And if you don't have works, then you're not saved. And I've heard this so many times.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I've heard you gotta follow the Ten Commandments. Yeah. And I'm like, wait, what? What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01Right? Or with others, you gotta keep the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And just like, well, he's been making this point. If you're gonna go back to the law and follow even that, maybe it's just keep the Sabbath. Maybe it's just the Ten Commandments. Yeah. If you're gonna do that, you have to keep it perfectly.
SPEAKER_01And he's going to make that point. You gotta keep not only perfectly, you gotta keep all of it.
SPEAKER_00663.
SPEAKER_01You can't just keep one tenant of it and say, Well, uh, I'm gonna I'm gonna follow circumcision or I'm gonna I'm gonna observe the Sabbath. You have to keep all of the law in its totality. And Paul points that out to these knuckleheads. All right, you want to.
SPEAKER_00Because we're because we're knuckleheads too. Yes, we are. Right? We can't. Because this book is written for us to uh yeah, so verse two, he says, Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, it almost feels like out of the blue. Right? But he wrote this to them because that he knows they're struggling with this. So he hops right in. It might seem weird to us to be like, what? If you accept circumcision, where'd he come in with this? This is because this is going on big time in Galatians. Right? The he knows that they're being told, yeah, yeah, accept Christ, but you also need to be circumcised.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00There was a bunch of other things added, right? So he said, Christ will be of no advantage to you. No advantage to you if you decide to go down this road of any part of the law. But he chooses to pick circumcision, because that's the heresy of the day. We can insert anything in here. We can insert baptism, which I've done that with a number of occasions when people tell me you have to be baptized to be saved. I'm like, well, you I could insert anything in here, and that fit. Right. The minute you say you have to do some kind of work, Christ will be of no advantage to you.
SPEAKER_01That is not a good thing, by the way.
SPEAKER_00And here's where he explains. Okay, because you might go, well, where where are we getting this? He says, Okay, I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep part of the law.
SPEAKER_01No, the whole law.
SPEAKER_00All of it. The whole kit and caboodle.
SPEAKER_01All of it.
SPEAKER_00Six hundred and sixty three laws.
SPEAKER_01Gotta keep it all testament. You have to keep all of it. Not just one tenant.
SPEAKER_00All the ceremonial things. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean the dietary, everything.
SPEAKER_00And Christ freed us from that. You and I are in big trouble because I see you cut the hair in front of your ears.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I don't have any locks. I've never been able to grow locks just for the reason.
SPEAKER_00What is that? Right. 27.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but it's all of it. It's if you want, if you really want to do this, understand you gotta do it all. There is no piecemealing, this thing.
SPEAKER_00And it's so important that he it what he says in verse 4. Like you are severed from Christ. You who would be justified, which is really, you're trying to be, you can't be justified. But he's saying, you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace.
SPEAKER_01Ouch. That's a very strong statement. To say that you have been severed from Christ.
SPEAKER_00Rod and I can't sit here and just play nicey nice about some of this stuff. This is why we want to share God's word with each other and with others. Because we've seen this. We've watched people go down this road. We sometimes go down this road. The warning is very this is severe. Very severe. It is. You are severed from Christ. You've fallen away from grace. This is not a oh hey, they're they're just going down a little path, and it's not that big of a deal. This is stuff that you should grab people by the scruff of their neck and say, What are you doing?
unknownWake up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, right. Wake up. You foolish surprisian or whatever city you're in. Whatever. You're crazy Phoenician or Georgian or whatever country you're in. Agreed. No, no, no, no, no. If it's not grace, then it is law. And if you're going down the road of law, you severed yourself from Christ.
SPEAKER_01That is a that is a that is a very strong statement there. You have been severed from Christ. You are you who are seeking to be justified by the law. You have fallen from Christ.
SPEAKER_00There's no mixing words here. It's not. Don't go down this road of the law. Trust in the finished work of Jesus, not your own works. Yes, works are works are something that we're supposed to do after we're saved. Yeah. But that does nothing for you for grace or for salvation.
SPEAKER_01Oh man, uh that's so I so agree. And these guys are putting themselves in an environment that will not be able to rescue them or save them because that's not what the law does. The law cannot save you, and it will not rescue you from yourself and from your sin. And they are putting themselves under the system that will not help them, will not save them.
SPEAKER_00And here's a distinction that I think we should keep in mind, right? If you're gonna go down this road, you're trying to be justified by the law. Instead of looking at the law the way Paul tells us to, that is our schoolmaster, right? It's supposed to be the thing that has us go, holy cow, I need to learn from that. I can't keep that. I can't keep 663 laws perfectly on my own. It's never, ever going to happen.
SPEAKER_01But I don't think the thought ever occurred to them, which is why Paul has to point this out. They're thinking, it's just circumcision. What's the big deal? Yeah, who cares? Yeah. Yeah. But don't hear us say, and don't hear Paul say that if you go back to circumcision, that up you've lost your salvation. But I like the way the writer of Hebrews uh puts it in Hebrews 6 4. Um, where he says, For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away. Here it is, to restore them again to not salvation, but repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. They are putting themselves in a place where there is no hope of repentance. So it's it's you're you're out there, buddy, and you're it's a dangerous place to be.
SPEAKER_00If you're gonna trust law, any aspect of it, yeah, you're away from grace. And grace is the only thing that brings us, right? It's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. Yes, Romans 2.
SPEAKER_01And just how how how much how much more clearer can Paul make this to these Galatians?
SPEAKER_00I don't know, he keeps going, right? You want to catch verse 5.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. He says, for we, through the Spirit, by works, no, it's by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything but faith working through love. Paul tells them, and he he includes them, we, for we, verse 5, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. Not the law, not through works. It is through the Spirit, it is by faith. And salvation has always been by faith. And he says that we are weak.
SPEAKER_00Right. That's righteousness. He was not righteous in and of himself. Right. It was counted, it was credited to his account.
SPEAKER_01Yes, because he believed God.
SPEAKER_00That's with us. We believe God through Jesus Christ in his work, and it's counted to us as righteousness. Yes. I am looked upon as if I've never sinned before.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Because I trust Christ's work.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Not because I trusted I got circumcised or I didn't get circumcised. Because Paul even says that. It's neither circumcision nor uncircumcision that counts for anything.
SPEAKER_01In Christ, it it it doesn't matter. It is by faith. And it says that we are waiting for the hope of righteousness. We are waiting for Christ, who is our hope. Not the law, not circumcision, not the Sabbath, not the Ten Commandments. Christ is our hope. The righteous one. Yeah. And he's the one that was.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. He deserved so he could show us favor.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00All that was done by Christ. Yes. Not me doing some dumb little thing, cutting foreskin off my penis. Right? Come on.
SPEAKER_01Right? And he satisfied God's wrath.
SPEAKER_00So doesn't it sound crazy when you say it that crass? And that's not crass. That's just being factual. It is. Somehow we think that that's gonna give us favor with God, like cutting a piece of skin off.
SPEAKER_01Well, you know, in the Old Testament, that's what they did as a sign of the covenant, and then we wanna, we wanna, we wanna be part of that sign of the covenant, so. No, there's a new covenant. That's the old covenant. There's a new covenant, a better covenant, and it is through Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_00So I love how Paul's like, listen, verse 7, we'll pick up here. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00This persuasion is not from him who calls you. He flat out says, Yeah, you ain't listening to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Him who calls you. Right. He's clearly going, This ain't from Jesus. Wait a minute here. You were running on the path of righteousness. You were walking in the light. He's running.
SPEAKER_01Right?
SPEAKER_00You're running in the light.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00Towards the light. And like all of a sudden, somebody tells you to go get circumcised?
SPEAKER_01Somebody got in your ear and said, You need to be circumcised. Here's why. Yada yada yada yada. And another thing, yada yada yada. And pretty soon they're going, Well, that makes sense. That sounds pretty logical. I I think I do need to be circumcised.
SPEAKER_00Did God really say my favorite phrase to smack myself in the face with? Because the devil has always done this. Yes. He has done this from day one when he tempted Adam and Eve. It was that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And he's still doing it.
SPEAKER_00He still does it. He did it to Jesus when he was tempted in the wilderness. Yes. He threw out scripture and misquoted it because that's what he does. So it's a hey, circumcision was in the Old Testament. You gotta be circumcised. And you're a Jew, right? Yeah. Come on. Doesn't that make sense?
SPEAKER_01And you're like, it's not gonna hurt anything.
SPEAKER_00Just you just wanna be you just come on to be a real Christ follower. Right. You gotta, you gotta keep the Sabbath. You gotta get baptized. Absolutely. You have to do X, Y, and Z. Keep the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_01No, not at all.
SPEAKER_00And he even I like this other little thing he throws in verse 9. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
SPEAKER_01That's right. Just a little bit of yeast works it way, its way through the whole lump of dough. And next thing you know, it's what's he saying here?
SPEAKER_00A little bit of false teaching, no matter how little, is still false teaching. It is. This stuff we are so I don't know why. We're so afraid to confront things and hit it right up front. And when somebody comes in and teaches this junk, we need to call it what it is. Yeah. This is leaven that leavens the whole lump. It it distrusts us from the real truth.
SPEAKER_01No, you're right. You're right. Right, verse 10. Paul says, I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view, but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment. Whoever he is. I love this. Um he doesn't even know who it is. No, and I don't think it really matters, because whoever it is, they're leading you the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's interesting because there's times where Paul catches false teaching and he literally calls him out. I Manius and Alexander and says, Oh man, I turned them over to Satan to be to be chastised so that they can repent and come back.
SPEAKER_01And they weren't the only one.
SPEAKER_00But here he doesn't have a name, and he's like, I don't know, whoever it is. I trust this is gonna happen to them.
SPEAKER_01Right? And he says, I trust, I he says, I have confidence verse 10 in you, in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view, that you don't do this.
SPEAKER_00This is powerful words. Powerful words of affirmation to the Lord. Right? Like I know it's in you, right? Because Christ's in you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but the one that's misleading you, that he will bear his judgment, whoever he is, don't matter who he is, but he needs to bear his judgment for misleading you and taking you down this path.
SPEAKER_00I can't believe how much power is in just verse 10 when you really think about this. Right. Look how often we we want justice and we want things to be meted out, and we forget. God doesn't forget. He chooses to overlook sometimes, and he chooses sometimes by his forbearance. He allows us to continue in our sins.
SPEAKER_01And his long suffering. Okay, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But he he does it because it's his goodness trying to lead you to repent.
SPEAKER_01Repentance.
SPEAKER_00Right. And who who cr who of us are crazy enough to think we're not gonna be judged?
SPEAKER_01Oh, there there are quite a number of us, because hey, I'm in, I'm just I'm in, I'm good, I got my ticket punched on my way. What else is there?
SPEAKER_00And Paul's just saying it with confidence. Hey, the one who's troubling you is gonna bear his penalty, whoever it is, right? It's almost Like, let's not focus on that guy, whoever whatever he's doing. Yeah. Let's just focus on you. What do you need to do?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, don't go that way. And I trust you won't go that way. In verse 11, he says, But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished. I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves. Ouch. Right.
SPEAKER_00Right? You don't hear messages like this reached very often. No, you know what? You really don't.
SPEAKER_01And Paul's not pulling any punches here.
SPEAKER_00False teachers, uh it's no joke. This is not something you just take lightly. Like, uh, just don't listen. Move on. He's like, well, they're gonna, God's gonna deal with them.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes, he will.
SPEAKER_00But his thought is, hey, I I hope that this happens to them. Like, this needs to happen to them. Yeah, because it's okay for us to pray for that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because you're tripping up this the the faith of these folks, and you're you're you're you're you turn their attention from Christ and you put them on a path where they won't have any hope. And you're putting them in that path of the law and being back under that yoke of the law. That Christ create Christ freed us from.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, all that he did for us to be free.
SPEAKER_01It's nullified because I'm going back to the law. I want the law. I think I need to go back to the law.
SPEAKER_00And here's somebody who's poured his heart, soul, right, and everything into them. Like, come on, man. You were called to freedom. Like verse 13. You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to through the for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
SPEAKER_01And I think that's key, because oftentimes our flesh will move us back away from Christ into something else that's not good for us, or something that we might think might be good for us, and it winds up eating us and hurting us. Agreed.
SPEAKER_00Same, same simple tricks that Satan's always up to.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Get us the question: are you really free? Did God really do that for you? Could he do that for you? Right. Right. Who are you? Yeah, well, we need the reminders, right? He calls them brothers. Paul's not going all the way back to say you're not even saved.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right. No, he hadn't said that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But he reminds them so many times, you've been called a freedom, freedom, brethren. But don't let your flesh make this an opportunity to just ensnare you. He says, But through love, serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word in the statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Because didn't Jesus say that there are two verses that the whole law hang on? Love God and love others.
SPEAKER_00He said, when he told him, What's the greatest commandment? Right, that question was asked. And he's like, Well, the first, he didn't just say the greatest. He said the first, and then he said, the second is almost identical.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he said, it's like it, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And you can't do one without the other, to be honest. You can't really love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength if you say you hate your brother.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_00But you can't really love your brother if you're not saying, I love God. It just you can't do that because love is from God and God is love. But we put some weird terms of love and some weird ways of devouring.
SPEAKER_01We try to rationalize that though.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Verse 15, right? But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. It's like, yeah, when we start biting and backfighting and all that stuff, and the church is unfortunately really good at this, we just end up consuming each other. So true. No, I agree. And that's not love.
SPEAKER_01Right? Or shoots their wounded.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, but we're called to love one another. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00Love one another and serve one another. Notice he says that. But through love, serve one another. And then I love most of the rest of this chapter, he just gets into. Okay. Let's just talk about what are we supposed to do then?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, how do we overcome this drive, this pull of the flesh to want to take us back to the law, want to take us back to the traditions of men that wants to take us back to doing that which is of no benefit to us.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the rest of this chapter seems like here's the practical application of it all right. We heard the legal aspect of don't go back to the law, here's why faith. And then he says, But I say, walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
SPEAKER_01Which wants to put you back under bondage. But the spirit has set us free.
SPEAKER_00Yep. Right. So if you're walking by the spirit, you're walking in freedom. You're not walking back by the law.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_00There's always that juxtaposition put out there, like, right, it's the law or it's grace. Yeah. It's walking by your flesh, it's walking by the spirit. Put just like that. They're at war against the five.
SPEAKER_01Yes, they are. And Paul makes that point. Yep. Um here we go. Verse 17, he says, For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that, purpose statement, you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the spirit, what are those next words?
SPEAKER_00You are not under the law?
SPEAKER_01Are not under the law. Well, what's it mean to be led by the spirit? What's it mean to be led by my flesh? Well, Paul tells us, verse 18, but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousies, uh, outburst of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envy and drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. If you live by the flesh, you will die by the flesh. If you live by the flesh, you will not inherit the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00This totally reminds me of 1 John chapter 2, 1 and 2. I was there just a couple weeks ago when I preached, and this is Paul saying the exact same thing, just in a different way.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right? I warned you that those who practice these things, who continue who makes a habit of doing all these things, not you whoops, I slipped, or I'm really convicted by it, but I keep going back to it. Romans 7 is different. If you just intend to be like, I love whatever this sin is and I'm gonna keep doing it, and there's nothing wrong with it.
SPEAKER_01And I don't care.
SPEAKER_00When you set yourself up that way, that sets you set yourself up for you probably aren't saved.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that's what Paul is talking about. Those who make this a continual daily habit, it's a part of their lifestyle, it's what they do, um, it characterizes who they are.
SPEAKER_00You don't feel the conviction of the sin. Yeah. Because a lot of times you'll have these, you'll have things that is a habitual sin, but you feel the conviction because the Spirit's job, right, is to convince the world, convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, you should be feeling that. So then he throws the juxtaposition about okay, if you're going down this road with all these sins, and it's funny, he doesn't list them all. He goes, and things like these.
SPEAKER_01And things like these. And and and we kind of get the idea like, oh, oh, that's more. Right, this isn't it.
SPEAKER_00This isn't a complete list.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00But then he says, but the fruit, which is singular, right? This this is one of my hot buttons. Right. People always say, the fruits of the spirit are like the spirit. There are no fruits. This is singular. It's just like the book of Revelation. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01No, there isn't the book of Revelation. It's revelation.
SPEAKER_00Singular. The revelation of Jesus Christ. Right. The fruit of the Spirit is holy cow, nine different aspects to this one fruit.
SPEAKER_01Oh man.
SPEAKER_00Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And then he says, against such things, there is no law.
SPEAKER_01None.
SPEAKER_00I've always thought how powerful that little phrase is.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So what I hear you saying is that if we live our lives by the Spirit of God and in submission to the Spirit of God, that the Spirit of God will produce this fruit in us. Joy, peace, pace, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And if He is producing this fruit in us, there's no law.
SPEAKER_00None. Against such, there is no law. All of this, all the 663 things that were supposed to be there for us to be our schoolmaster and to realize this isn't cutting it. Yeah. I'm doing all this, spinning my wheels. I'm not getting any closer to God. I don't feel any more love, joy, peace, generous goodness, patience, kindness, self-control. I don't feel any more of that by trying to follow the law. But by walking by the Spirit, we should have more of this in our life. That's what I thought was fascinating about 1 John. When John's giving all these reasons throughout the whole book about the reason why he's writing to them.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00One of them is so that they will know that they know him.
SPEAKER_01So that they might have some assurance.
SPEAKER_00And that they would have complete joy. That their joy would be complete. That's the first reason he gives in the book. You want to have joy in your life? Well, this is how.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Don't go down the road of the works of the law. Right. And don't do the works of the flesh, which are basically the same thing. Because usually, when you become so legalistic, you're trying to find the law. Yeah. Follow the law. You're usually trying to hide or cover up or get rid of some habitual sin in your life.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it didn't work. I've tried it. It doesn't. I've been the most legalistic in the 90s and 2000s, and guess what? It didn't work. Right? It just made feel like I had a bigger yoke on.
SPEAKER_01As hard as we try to work in our own strength to get rid of it, it's not the remedy.
SPEAKER_00The remedy is walk by the spirit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It is Jesus Christ, and it is walking by his spirit. As Paula says, against such things, there is no law.
SPEAKER_00You don't get any of this from the law.
SPEAKER_01No, not at all. You get just the opposite, trying to keep the law with frustration and and and just uh exacerbation because you can't keep it and you get frustrated.
SPEAKER_00And then he throws this one out here. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have what?
SPEAKER_01Have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Crucified him.
SPEAKER_00Put him to death.
SPEAKER_01Put it to death, nailed it to a cross. It's dead.
SPEAKER_00Gosh, this reminds me of when you preached, uh, and was it on these verses? And you you took, you wrote down, Rod did this thing where he had we used to have a cross sitting right behind the pulpit and big, rugged cross. And Rod wrote down a bunch of sins on this piece of paper and he nailed it to the cross during the message. You remember that. I remember that. Yep. I just that was so incredible of having the visual of that's all of my sin. All of my sins nailed up there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And his blood poured down upon all of it.
SPEAKER_01And took them all away. Didn't cover them.
SPEAKER_00Not some. Oh. Not part. Not the simple, easy ones. Even the most disgusting ones that I would never want to admit that I ever committed. All of them gone. Yeah. Propitiation. The righteous one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Took all of it away.
SPEAKER_01The satisfaction. Man. Yeah, he did. And look at verse 25. If we live by the spirit, let us also walk by the spirit. Let us not become boastful. Challenging one another. Envying one another. Sounds like this was happening as uh these men were considering and contemplating uh circumcision.
SPEAKER_00You know what, you know what this makes me think of when you really think of it living by the Spirit and staying, right? Or walking or keeping in step. So ESV says keep in step, still walking. If we're really realizing what is said in Romans 1 and 2, like look at all these things, these horrible Romans 1, a horrible list of sins that are going on. And who do we think we are that we're not going to be judged for our sin? And that we presume on his riches and the kindness that he has shown by overlooking them because we're storing up his wrath for the day of judgment.
SPEAKER_01That's what Peter says.
SPEAKER_00Like a exact exact picture is a damn holding back the wrath of God that was deserved on me.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00It's either poured out on Christ and the propitiation is taken away permanently, or he holds it back, and that propitiation for the sins of the whole world are just held back temporarily. But when that damn burst you pay for it for all eternity. So thinking of that, this makes it near impossible to feel like I should be envious because I think Rod preaches the word better than I do. I'm jealous. I wish I could communicate the way he teaches. It makes it near impossible to do that. When you stop and think about this, Christ crucified my flesh with its passions and desires. Yes. Who do I think that I am? That I would question what gift God has given to me.
SPEAKER_01Oh, absolutely. My wife always says, use the gift that God has given you. He's given you a particular gift, he's given others a particular gift. So you employ what he's given you. Because you're not so-and-so, and so-and-so isn't you. You you you grow right where God is planted. And I get Deborah's unwise woman. And I get snapped back into reality. Real quick.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, Miss Deborah.
SPEAKER_01Just like, yeah, you know what? And yeah, and she's right. Um, she's she's sorry, God has gifted me a particular way. Who am I to say, well, I want to be like so-and-so? No, this is where God, this is what God has done in your life, and he's going to use you, and he's going to use that gift.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, look at the men, look at the men that went before us that did the same thing. Moses did it. But Lord, I stutter. Aaron speak. He's like, I'm calling you to speak.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Peter, well, what's gonna happen to John? You know, and he's like, Don't worry about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. You follow me.
SPEAKER_00I have something for you to do, right? Here it is. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it's, I don't know. I I don't know why I went down there because that's not really the context of it. But I think that to me, that's helps solidify it. That if you're, if you really if I want to walk, like I hope the rest of you do too, want to walk in the spirit, walk by the spirit, have the fruit of the spirit be. I hate the word manifested because people are using that so weird these days, but that's the truth. If you want the fruit of the spirit to be manifested in your life, it seems to me the best way to do it is to recognize wait a minute here, all my sin has been crucified on the cross. I just choose to go back sometimes to things I shouldn't go back to.
SPEAKER_02That's true.
SPEAKER_00That's true. So I'm putting myself under a yoke of slavery when I have the power to walk in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01And to say no to the desires of the flesh. That's Romans chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00And what usually happens when we do that, then we have some conceit, we have some provocation, we have some kind of envying of other people. You start questioning what you have when you're like, God's given us everything we need for life and godliness. You're right.
SPEAKER_01And that's not love.
SPEAKER_00And how am I serving other people? If I just went and complained that I wish I could preach like Rod Tolls instead of proclaim the gospel the way I told you to do that. Yeah. Who is that to you? Right? I'm taking care of him. I got him.
SPEAKER_01And I got you.
SPEAKER_00There's only one of him, there's only one of you. Yeah. And that's where I think it for me it just clicked. Like, wow, you start putting this all together, then you start realizing that is just gratifying. That's starting to try you're trying to gratify something of the flesh, right? Because your flesh starts desiring something that God didn't intend for you. That's their ministry.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00And you've got your Ephesians 2 10 says that he created works for us before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00All he asked us to do was walk in them.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Ouch.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00But not an ouch like that stings, an ouch like, well, it's kind of dumb of me to complain about any of these things. And that's why he said don't become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Shouldn't we be serving one another and being like, go, brother, go, go, sister, come on.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Like Miss Deborah.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh. She reminds me. But that's what walking in the flesh will do. It'll cause us to focus on those things that will bring envying and division rather than unifying us like the Spirit does.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Amen, brother. And the last thing we want is to be divided over something like this, something that's not healthy for us. Something that will put us in a position that is harmful to our walk and harmful harmful to us spiritually.
SPEAKER_00So it shows who's approved. Like divisions happen on purpose. Right. And God allows us to see those. When they see the false teachers, he allows other believers to see it and to recognize it and to step in and call it out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that's what Paul is doing. And then that shows other people like, oh, that's a workman that's approved and doesn't need to be ashamed of the gospel because he's calling it out.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_00Paul did it here, and we're called to do the same thing. Amen.
SPEAKER_01That we are. We speak the truth in love.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. Well, I I sure hope you all got something out of this. I'm highly encouraged, and uh, I hope that my brother that you were too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, man, you're on fire today.
SPEAKER_00Man. I don't know about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I know you were on fire here.
SPEAKER_00This is what we need to do.
SPEAKER_01We need to sharpen each other and remind each other to keep living it. Don't go back under bondage to the law or to works or to some holy day. Jesus paid it all.
SPEAKER_00And if and if one of these sins popped out that you're like, oh, I am still struggling with the habitual thing here. Or something like this, right?
SPEAKER_01Things like these.
SPEAKER_00Just remember that it is by faith, right? It's faith working through love. That's what's gonna draw you out of this. Not works of the law, not being even more legalistic about things. It's walking by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01That's right. And if you do find yourself ensnared in one of these sins, today is a good day to repent and and to turn and to return to Christ. You can do that today. You can do that right now and change your life.
SPEAKER_00All he says is to agree with them, right? Confession is just agree. He already knows. Yeah. That's what's so dumb. We're so dumb sometimes. Like I get fooled by this. Confession is not some thing where I have to go meet somebody and be given a necklace and rub beads and other stuff, right? It's the I can just go, oh, I'm gonna agree with you. You're right.
SPEAKER_01I did sin. Yeah. This is sin, and it's wrong. Forgive me. If we confess our sins, first John 1-9, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Not some.
SPEAKER_01All. But we gotta confess our sins. And if that's you today and you've been living a life by the flesh, let me just encourage you to uh go to God and confess your sin to Him. He already knows. And it's not like we've done something in secret that He He didn't know about or didn't see. God says that everything that is done in the dark will be will be brought out into the light. So take care of it now. And as my mentor used to say, keep short accounts with God. Hope this has been encouraging to you. Um feel free to drop us a line. Uh you can email Butch and I at uh W MtheNumber2guys at Yahoo.com. Again, that's the uh WUMthe number two guys at yahoo.com. We love to hear from you and uh drop us a comment. Uh let us know how we're doing or or how we can help you in your spiritual journey.
SPEAKER_00Well, we appreciate you until next time. Lord bless you and keep you.
SPEAKER_01Take care, and we'll see you soon.
SPEAKER_00Look at the frog in my toe throat there at the end.