Sermon Text:
Galatians 5:16-26
Now that we have been set free in Christ, the battle begins. The flesh and the Spirit are at war in our hearts, which one will you listen to?
Sermon Transcript:
(transcribed with AI)
Good morning. What, a lot of new faces last few weeks. So if you don't know me, my name is Justin. I serve as one of the elders here at Promontory, and every once in a while I get up here and preach. So you're stuck with me this morning. And this morning we're going to be continuing our sermon series through the book of Galatians, and I'm just going to dive right in here. So, if you've got your Bible with you are analog, and you want to read along, you can start turning to Galatians 5, starting in verse 16, giving you a little bit of a head start there.
So far we've been working through Galatians, and much of the theme of Galatians has been centered around being free from the law, and how we're saved by faith and not by the things or the rituals that we do. And we've talked about how we as non-Jewish people, as Gentiles are adopted into the lineage of Abraham through faith. Last week the emphasis was on the freedom we have in Christ now that we have been saved. But the question now remains and will be answered throughout the rest of the book is what are we to do with that freedom?
So you've been set free in Christ. But now what? We're kind of like it's like being an inmate that's been finally let out of prison or a veteran finally getting out of the military after years of service. It's like after years of being told where to go and when to go and what to do, these people often have a hard time integrating into the freedom of civilian life. Unfortunately, it's quite common for inmates to reoffend, turning back to their old familiar life. Veterans too have a hard time adjusting with higher than average rates of suicide and substance abuse. I have the image in my head from the movie American Sniper and there's this scene where the main character, he's back from deployment and he's sitting on a couch with a beer in his hand and he's staring at the TV. And then the camera pans around. And you can see the TV screen, and there's nothing but static on the screen. And they say that's how it can feel.
So when we're set free from our sin, we can sometimes find it hard or difficult to know what we are to do with our freedom. Some of us return back to our old bad habits because it's what we know, it's familiar. Some of us just sit on the couch, beer in hand, and stare at the screen. But we're made for so much more than that. We're not just set free from sin, but we're set free for a life lived in freedom.
Now the other mistake that we can make is to do the opposite of those things that we regress. Out of fear or complaints of complacency or backsliding or perhaps just out of a sense of having to repay God for our freedom, we can strive so hard to be perfect and do all the right things that we end up just as burdened as we would have been if we had just stayed under the law.
So how do we navigate this? How do we live in the freedom that Christ has given us? Well, the next few verses we're going to read are going to begin to unpack that for us, what the next step is in exercising this freedom so we don't get stuck on the couch or back in prison or we don't get stuck on this wheel of trying to be perfect and do it all ourselves again. So, let's find out. Let's read. Would you please stand with me for the reading of God's word? This is Galatians 5:16-26.
But I say walk in 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. 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. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
So far the reading of God's word, you may be seated.
Now there's a lot going on here. There's so much to unpack. I've heard entire sermon series on just the fruits of the spirit, like a sermon for each fruit, so we're going to be here for 6 hours. Buckle up, kids. No, just kidding, we're not doing that. But we're going to look at the most basic point of the passage, and it's written at the book ends of what we've read here. Verse 16 says walk by the spirit and verse 25 ends with keep in step with the spirit. So the simplest answer to how we're to live out our freedom in Christ is really simply just that walk by the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit.
Now I could just leave it there, but that would be pretty trite and not very helpful, would it? It would be pretty easy to take that the wrong way like, good luck. OK, walk with the spirit, guys, you got that? Perfect. There's a little bit more to it, right?
First we could be, one of the things that we could say or we could take that wrong is we'd say to ourselves, well, I'm free from the law. I'm saved. I'm just going to go wherever the wind blows, do whatever I feel like, because I know I'm saved and that's all that matters. The problem with that is that's self-indulgent and squanders your freedom and you eventually become that reoffending inmate or that guy stuck back on the couch. When you drift with the wind, you aren't so much free as you are a slave to wherever the wind blows. You're a slave either to the whims of your heart or to the apathy that settles in from drifting.
The second problem which we touched on earlier as well is that we look at a passage like this and we see a list of do's and don'ts. We try to follow it as if it's some kind of law. We begin to see anything that resembles the works of the flesh in ourselves or others as a sign of being apostate and judge others and ourselves. We try to force ourselves to accomplish all the fruits of the spirit and our pursuit of virtue becomes a new form of legalism.
But I believe that this passage is a lot more than just a list of do's and don'ts. In fact, I believe this passage is not prescribing a moral code, rather it's describing a spiritual reality. And it's an important part of when we read our Bibles is discerning whether a passage is descriptive or prescriptive.
What I mean by that is we as humans tend to read our Bibles very prescriptively. We often think of the Bible as a moral codebook that prescribes for us exactly how we're to do things, and we approach the Bible. We approach the text trying to glean some moral lesson out of it. But there are, and there are many passages that are prescriptive that are telling you how or how not to live, and there are plenty of passages that prescribe ways to handle conflict, how to conduct yourselves and make good choices. But the Bible is more than just a handbook on ethics. The main point of the Bible is trying to show us God and bring us closer to Him. It's trying to describe him to us in order that we can come to know him better.
So the Bible is oftentimes much more descriptive than prescriptive. The descriptive texts describe things. The most common example of descriptive texts are narratives or stories that they're not really making any real commands, but they're telling us a story. But descriptive texts aren't limited to narrative. Not all of the theological stuff is prescriptive. Sometimes the theological passages are more making a commentary describing something about human nature or describing something about God or some spiritual reality.
And I believe our passage this morning tends to lean a little bit more to the descriptive side of things than we often give it credit for. Because what our passage is highlighting is not a list of do's or do nots, rather it's describing the outcome of the spiritual conflict within us between the flesh and the Holy Spirit.
Verses 16 and 17 of our passage, put it this way.
But I say walk in 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 desires of the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
So we're introduced here in these couple of verses to this conflict between the flesh and the spirit. Our passage gives us two lists, works of the flesh and fruits of the spirit. And we're told that these two things are diametrically opposed to each other, and they're fighting within you to affect the things that you do.
Within the heart of the set free believer, there is still a battle between the flesh and the spirit. Now popular culture kind of portrays this conflict with like a little demon on one shoulder, a little angel on the other shoulder. But the Bible describes this not as angels versus demons, but rather the spirit versus the flesh.
So you see, when you become a believer and receive the Holy Spirit, you're not automatically possessed by the Spirit and only ever do good and never sin again. Rather, you're given the Holy Spirit to help you in the battle with the flesh to keep you from doing the things you want to do. The Holy Spirit is not a possessing spirit. You don't become a robot that's just controlled by the Holy Spirit. Rather, the Holy Spirit is an ally in the battle for your heart.
The fleshly part of us, our sinful nature wants to do evil. It wants the sex and the violence and to dominate and to have power and that whole list of the works of the flesh. It wants to do evil and the spirit wants to do good and wants to do the fruits of the spirit, and both are trying to stop each other from doing the thing they want to do.
The apostle Paul, who wrote Galatians that we're reading from and many of the other books in the Bible, we'd probably consider him probably one of the most on fire Christians probably ever. He writes this in Romans 7,
for I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
Even Paul, a great hero of the faith, admits that he struggles in his battle with the flesh. That he does evil that he doesn't want to do, that he fails to do good that he wishes to do.
You see, our Bible isn't prescribing moral perfection. Rather, it's describing spiritual conflict being waged within us. And the good news is that the ultimate outcome of that battle is already won. Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we're made right before God. Our sins are washed away and we are justified legally before Him. But just because we are justified before God, that doesn't mean we are automatically sanctified or made perfectly holy right away. Being justified is being made right legally, being sanctified is being made holy practically. We've been purchased by the blood of Christ. But oh boy did God sure buy some fixer uppers, didn't he?
The reality is we all still sin. We all still fall short. We fail to do good. Sometimes our sins and failures can make us feel like we don't have the Holy Spirit at all. Sometimes it feels like we're not bearing any fruit at all. It's easy to look at these two lists in our passage and despair. When I look at the list of the fruits of the spirit, I could tell you ways that I have fallen short on each and every single one of those just this week. And when I look at the works of the flesh, you know, I've managed to avoid sorcery and orgies and drunkenness this week. But my flesh wants to draw me into strife and anger and jealousy and impurity.
And this is terrifying because what's said in the latter part of the verse, in verse 21.
Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
I want to clarify what this means, it's not a one and done cancellation system. Like it's not like if you got angry yesterday, like boom, you're out. You had a moment of jealousy, like boom, straight to hell with you. No, that's not how it works. When it says that those who do such things, the verb tense in the original language connotes an ongoing action. Another way to translate it could be those who continually do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. It's saying if these things are your routine, if they are your habit. They're habits that you never repent of. These things are part of your lifestyle, then chances are you've not yet been saved and you're on the road to destruction.
So I want to encourage you, if you're like me, if you're grieved by your failings and you're frustrated that you just can't seem to do better. And perhaps it feels like your failings are stacked up against you enough to condemn you. Be assured your grief and your frustration is a sign that you're still in the fight. It's not the sign of ultimate failure. Rather, it's a sign that your enemy, the flesh is fighting hard to pin you down. The spirit in you is grieved and groaning by the weight of sin being applied against you. If it feels like you don't have the strength to fight this on your own. You're absolutely correct. And I don't mean that to be discouraging. I mean that in order to say that you cannot do it on your own. That's why God has given you the helper, the Holy Spirit. That's why we're called to be in step with the Holy Spirit. We need to be guided in step with him. We need that extra expert spiritual warrior if we're to succeed in this battle.
We don't just need to try really hard and avoid the works of the flesh and try really hard again to force ourselves to grow in the fruits of the spirit. Rather, we're called to walk by the spirit. What this means is that our first step is not to try really hard to be good people. Our first step is to find ways to listen to the spirit. This means to find time for prayer, find time for scripture, Christian fellowship, and find ways to meditate on those things to really soak them in.
I'm not just talking about consuming sermons, ticking a box on your Bible reading plan, or filling your brain with Christian podcasts. If you find those things helpful, praise God. But are we listening to the spirit when we do those things? James one puts it this way,
Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. He looks at himself and goes away and at once forget what he was like.
Are we taking to heart the things we hear in our Bible, in our sermons, the things that were taught through fellow believers? Are we listening for the spirit? You could read the Bible every day out of a sense of duty and not hear a thing. And it would be of no use to you. Someone else could hear the Bible for the very first time. Receive it with an open heart and let it change them, and it would be of more value to them than years of unresponsive religious reading.
Now I'm not saying you should stop your regular Bible reading, please don't hear me say that. What I am saying is that when you get the opportunity to be in the word. Or hear a sermon or engage in Christian community, however frequent or infrequent. Be listening for the spirit. Don't just do these things because it's the right thing to do. Tick the box and be done. Because that's legalism, that's law, that's common religion. Do it in order to hear from the one who wants to see you have victory in the battle with the flesh.
And as we learn to keep in step with the Holy Spirit, the rest will fall into place, as it says in verse 16, walk in the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. It's not saying walk in the spirit and don't gratify the desires of the flesh. Walk in the spirit and you will not. These things won't happen. The list of the works of the flesh and the list of the fruits of the spirit are describing the natural consequences of whether or not we keep in step with the spirit. When we don't keep in step with the spirit, the flesh gets the upper hand and we begin to see works of the flesh. When we keep in step with the spirit, we begin to see the fruits of the spirit.
If the tree is healthy, it's going to bear good fruit. You can't force a tree to bear fruit. You can't just go to the grocery store, buy a bunch of apples, hang them from the tree, and call it healthy fruit, or a healthy tree. You can't force yourself to have the fruits of the spirit by sheer willpower, nor can you fake it till you make it. You have to nurture that tree. You have to water it, you got to fertilize it, you got to prune it, and as a natural consequence, the fruit will grow. If you nurture a relationship with the living God, with the Holy Spirit, the result will be fruits of the Spirit. The fruits are not the goal in and of themselves, rather they are the indicators, they are the fruit, the fruits of a spiritual health of a person.
Now you may ask, and this is what I ask myself, like I know some unbelievers who are more gentle and kind and patient than some believers I know. What does that mean? What do we make of that? How does someone who doesn't have the spirit seem to show more fruits than someone who does?
First thing I want to remember is that the fruit of the spirit is not exclusive to the spirit. If you look at that list of the fruits of the spirit, they're really just objectively good virtues as our passage says against such things there is no law. The virtues that we call the fruits of the spirit are kind of universal across all cultures as good virtues to have. Meaning that the result of a good relationship with the Holy Spirit is an objective goodness that no one anywhere has a law against. It is a goodness that we can all agree on. And these virtues, they can be cultivated without necessarily having the Holy Spirit.
So yes, there are some unbelievers who seem to be better at the fruits of the spirit than even Christians are, but I would argue there's some Christians who show more fruit than some unbelievers depending on who you pick for your example. Now the reason a Christian might show less fruits than certain believers is this again I've said this before, but when we receive the Holy Spirit, we do not automatically become perfect and display all the gifts perfectly. We still need to grow in our relationship with God and as that relationship grows, so the fruit will grow. So it can sometimes be that a believer who is less mature in the faith or perhaps is going through a spiritual dry spell could potentially appear less virtuous than an unbeliever who has worked to cultivate some good virtues.
But yes, I do find it very convicting to find unbelievers who seem to display these attributes. They sometimes seem to outshine their believing counterparts. That should be a challenge to us. But it's important to remember that our virtues and our works don't save us. We could make the mistake of looking at these two lists, the works of the flesh and the fruits of the spirit. And start to think that we, or others are pretty great. We could think to ourselves, no sorcery, no orgies, no drunkenness, check. We could look at each of the fruits of the spirit and we probably could find some examples of how we've done each of those in our week. And I'm sure there are some who look at this passage and say to themselves, easy peasy, I got this. It's no problem. To that I would quote verse 26, let us not become conceited.
Now I don't want to disrespect some of you who may have a good handle on this. I know some of you are in a place of good spiritual health and you have the upper hand in your battle with the sin thanks to God you're producing fruit like praise God. And if that's you, you probably know better than to rest on your laurels and give yourself a pat on the back. Because some of us think we got it in the bag and we really don't.
One of our gravest errors we can make as believers is to put our faith in our work and our virtues. We can think to ourselves, I'm a good person. I don't do all that bad stuff for the most part, and I'm generally pretty kind, self-control and all of that. I think I'm doing pretty good. First of all, being a good person doesn't save you. Second, my personal experience with that feeling is that it usually comes just before God reveals yet another layer of sinfulness that I didn't know I had. When we get prideful or complacent of how well we think we're doing. That's when we're about to get humbled. When we become proud in our religious accomplishments, when we start getting that holier than thou attitude, that's when we start walking out of step with the spirit and we have to begin the cycle all over of getting back into step. That's why our passage warns us not to become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
You see, it can be easy for humans to create a hierarchy of goodness based on virtues and good works. We kind of do this automatically. When the most virtuous person at the top is looking down their nose at all the sinners below them. This begins to provoke things like envy and jealousy. I was listening to a John Piper lesson on the fruits of the spirit, and he pointed out that fruit comes from life and gives life. Well, what do you do with fruit? You eat it. Your fruit is not just a sign of a healthy spiritual life, but should provide nourishment for those who partake in it. But if we take our fruit, our virtues, and make them a source of pride and pridefulness produces envy, resentment, and others, then that's rotten fruit. Pride sours the fruit. It makes the fruit overripe, and you know what overripe fruit does to people that eat it? They get the runs. OK, so I pushed the analogy a little farther. But I hope you get my point.
If you are producing fruit by God's grace. And it's your responsibility not to look down on others who aren't producing as bountifully as you. But to share that fruit for the nourishment of those around you. You know, fruit is a plant's natural means of reproduction. Fruit is carried by people and animals, and the seeds are deposited elsewhere where they can potentially grow into fruit bearing plants themselves. So let's not sour our fruit with pride. Rather carry on humbly producing that fruit that gives life to others and multiplies out into the world.
So as we draw to a close here, it's my hope that you have not heard a simple moralistic lesson. I have to admit when I first read this passage, my simple mind kind of thought to myself, OK, like works of the flesh bad fruits of the spirit good, do the good, don't do bad stuff, do good stuff. Got it. OK, simple, easy. We can be done this thing in 5 minutes. That's a gross oversimplification of what's really going on here and it kind of misses the point of what the Bible is trying to teach us. It's not the side by side list of do's and do-nos. It's a description of the spiritual struggle going on in the hearts and minds of every believer.
The works of the flesh and the works of the spirit are just indicators of how that battle is going. The flesh opposes the spirit and the spirit opposes the flesh, and the evidence of that conflict plays out in the things that we do. At different moments in different seasons there may be an ebb and flow to the works of the flesh and the fruits of the spirit, but as we grow in relationship with God and tune ourselves to walk more closely with His spirit, the overall trend should be towards better and more fruit and fewer works of the flesh. This trend towards deeper relationship with God and consequently more and better fruit is part of the journey we call sanctification, being made holy.
And this journey doesn't earn us salvation. Rather, it's because we're saved, we can even begin this journey. While we were sinners, while we were still slaves to the flesh, Christ died to save us, to justify us before we ever produced a single fruit, Jesus saved us. We don't try to produce fruit in order to make friends with him in hopes that he will save us. He saved us so that we could have a relationship with him and bear fruit as a result, not the other way around. It's really as simple as that. You don't bear fruit in order to be set free. You've been set free in order to bear good fruit. Amen.
Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the gift of your spirit. We thank you that you come beside us. When we feel like we're struggling, when we feel like we're angry. When we feel like we're resentful, when we feel like we envy. Lord, we thank you that you send your spirit to push back against those things. Lord, we ask as we go into our week that you would tune us to your spirit, that we would have ears to listen. That we would hear what your spirit has to say to us, that your spirit would guide us in our battle with the flesh. Lord we pray that you would lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil and Lord, and you have, and you continue to do so. We thank you for that. We ask for your spirit, for everyone here. Your name we pray. Amen.