Walk by the Spirit (Part 2)

Please turn with me this morning to Galatians chapter 5. We'll begin at verse 25. We'll read through verse 10 of chapter 6. These verses are part of the application section of Paul's letter. It's his exhortation to the Christians in Galatia in light of the doctrine that he's been defending in the first part of the letter. In light of the doctrine of justification by faith, this is what the Christians in Galatia and the Christians in Harrisburg ought to begin giving themselves to.

Galatians 5 beginning at verse 25 through chapter 6 verse 10. 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. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself.

Lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor, for each will have to bear his own load. Let the one who has taught the Word share all good things with the one who teaches.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Let's pray. Father, we are of the Spirit because you say we are of the Spirit. And yet, how often we live like children of wrath, conceited and self-centered, envious people who think too highly of ourselves and think little of others. Father, forgive us and cleanse us.

Make us truly a Spirit-led people in practice. Lord, thank you that the grace that is ours in Christ is so strong. It is sufficient that even when we fall into the very sins condemned in the verses before us today, you cover those sins with the blood of your Son. So may our lives not make a mockery of that great sacrifice, but rather may our lives give evidence of the sufficiency of that great sacrifice. Lord, make us a holy people who are led by your Holy Spirit in and through the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

Well, as we read these verses here at the end of Paul's letter to Galatia, it seems like they contain a string of sort of unrelated commands, commands that seem unrelated to each other and unrelated maybe to the rest of the letter. It sort of reads like a speech that parents might give to their children as they leave their kids with a babysitter for the night. You all get along with each other while we're gone. Don't forget to brush your teeth before you go to bed. Lock the doors when we leave. No TV or video games.

Don't stay up too late. Because tomorrow is a school day. Is that what Paul is doing here? Is he just kind of saying everything that needs to be said but hasn't found its way into the letter yet?

I don't think we have to assume that's what's going on. I think a better approach would be to assume that these commands are related and logically flow from what Paul's been addressing in the earlier parts of his letter. So before we jump into the actual text, let's just think for a minute about the relationship between these commands and the letter as a whole. And I think this will give us some guard rails and direction for interpreting our text today. Paul has been addressing the Galatian church's embrace of a false gospel of works. He's defended the true gospel against a false gospel. And he's pointed out that the true gospel is grounded in the Spirit, not in the flesh.

In the previous paragraph that we looked at last week, he began describing what the Spirit-led life looked like in the Spirit-led life looks like. And while there would be any number of I guess descriptions or points of emphasis that he could make in describing the Spirit-led life, Paul presumably addresses the kinds of virtues that Galatian needed to pursue. And the kinds of vices that were perhaps most typical of the Galatian church, vices that made them susceptible to this false gospel of works. So if that's how Paul is choosing which virtues to highlight in the exhortation section of his letter, then we may rightly assume that the virtues he encourages and their opposite vices are the key, particularly for the Galatians, to not falling prey to a false works oriented gospel. In other words, the unifying theme of these seemingly random and unrelated commands is the Christian's susceptibility to a false gospel of works and their need to live a Spirit-led life. Paul begins then with a clear exhortation to live a life that is led by in step with the Holy Spirit of God.

We see this in verse 25. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is our source of faithful Christian living, if walking by the Spirit is the key to justification, and sanctification, and ultimately glorification, then we had better follow God's Spirit.

He needs to be our leader, our commander. We need to get our marching orders from the Spirit of God. And so as we do so there will be practical, visible evidence of the fact that the Spirit is indeed leading our lives and that we are following Him. Now Paul has already hinted at what that visible evidence of the Spirit-led life looks like. The quintessential characteristic of walking by the Spirit is love for others.

Paul said as much back in chapter 5 verses 13 and 14. Through love serve one another for the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. So love for others is the sort of litmus test for walking by the Spirit. It is the most visible demonstration of a Spirit-led life. So walking by the Spirit is essential for the Christian. Walking by the Spirit is most visibly demonstrated in the love we have for others.

What then does that love look like in action? That's what Paul is addressing in our text today. He's getting even more specific, more practical in describing the fruit of the Spirit as it works itself out in our loving other people.

Now Paul has a common tendency in the exhortation sections of all of his letters of stating what the application is, and of what the application is not. He lists things we ought to be doing and pursuing. And he often includes lists of things we ought not to be doing, things we ought to be avoiding. So last Sunday we saw that Paul not only includes a list of the fruit of the Spirit, he also included a list of the works of the flesh. Give yourself to these things, give yourself to the flesh.

Give yourself to these things, don't give yourself to those things. His exhortations are often positive and negative. So if love towards others is the quintessential virtue of the Spirit-led life, what is the quintessential vice of the flesh-led life? Well, it's pride. Verse 26, God has not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. The opposite of love, Paul says, is not hate, but self-centered pride. Conceit that leads to provoking and envying others instead of loving and serving others. So the exhortation is to live a Spirit-led life by loving others rather than loving yourself above others.

What then does this loving humility look like in my relationship with other people? How does it flesh itself out in practice? In verses one through six of chapter six, Paul answers this question by describing for us the characteristics of a Spirit-led life.

And he describes it in very practical terms. He structures his description of these characteristics around three sort of case studies in the Christian life. First, there's the relationships with the other people, particularly with people who are struggling with sin. There's the relationship we have with ourselves, how we view self in the context of this sinful fallen world. And finally, there's the relationship we have with those who disciple us in the faith, our teachers, our pastors. And again, we don't need to assume that these are just random case studies that Paul pulled out of his hat. We can assume that he picked these specific scenarios because very few people in the Christian life have had the same experiences. These represent points of weakness or misunderstanding or failure within the Galatian church.

Let's look at each of these. First, Paul asserts that the Spirit-led person demonstrates gentleness towards others, particularly towards those who are struggling with sin. Verse one, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Now as we work through these next few verses, you'll begin to notice that many if not all of the virtues Paul mentioned in the list of the fruit of the Spirit back in chapter five are gonna show up again in these practical examples. So here in verse one, we see the character quality of gentleness.

It's one of the fruits of the Spirit. I wanna read a definition of gentleness. I wanna read a definition of the word gentleness that I came across in a Greek dictionary this past week. Gentleness is the ability to show courtesy and considerateness to others because you are not overly impressed by a sense of your own self-importance. Just let that definition sink in and hurt a little bit. The ability to show courtesy to others because you're not overly impressed by a sense of your own self-importance.

That's so convicting. What makes us brusque and short with people? I think we often tell ourselves that we're short with people because they are so thick-headed and incorrigible and hopeless. We blame our lack of gentleness on other people's stupidity, which simply masks the fact that the reason we view other people as hopelessly messed up is because we have an elevated sense of our own togetherness.

We're overly impressed by a sense of our own self-importance. But Paul says a Spirit-led person is not characterized by conceit in dealing with others but by a supernatural ability to treat other sinners with gentleness, courtesy, considerateness, care, love. And this response of gentleness is extended even to sinners who Paul says are caught in their transgression. He doesn't qualify gentleness on the condition that the recipient of my gentleness deserves it because they've demonstrated adequate repentance. No, the Spirit-led person's gentleness is originating from the Holy Spirit, not from the merit of the sinner who needs restoring.

That's hard. In fact, that's impossible for us to do except for the Holy Spirit who resides in the life of the believer, enabling us to show the humility and love and gentleness to sinners. When Paul says you who are spiritual, he's not describing a super saint, he's simply describing a Christian who is walking by the Spirit. And Paul adds an extra exhortation here because he knows that at any time any believer can stumble into any sin.

Paul adds keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. If we understood that we are all susceptible at any moment to the sinful works of the flesh, it would temper our harshness towards others. The humility of recognizing my own susceptibility towards sin produces gentleness in my dealing with other people entrapped by sin. It's a characteristic of a Spirit-led life. In verse 2 Paul describes this gentleness as a bearing of one another's burdens.

A bearing of one another's burdens. People are going to sin. Christians are going to sin.

Life in a fallen world is going to involve the inconveniences and the disappointments and the drama of people sinning. Which means that our ability to absorb the consequences of other people's sin will be a frequent necessity. Paul is not calling us to sweep sin under the rug, or act like sin doesn't matter, or doesn't do damage.

No, Paul has a high view of holiness and expects Christians to repent of their sin, not just excuse it away. But what Paul is calling Spirit-led Christians to is a life of not letting other people's sins get the best of you. Don't let the negative results of other people's sin bring you to a point of just checking out and saying, I refuse to love you, brother or sister in Christ.

You don't deserve my love anymore. No, Paul calls us instead to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. The law of Christ is that great commandment that Paul referenced just a few verses earlier to love your neighbor as yourself. Part of loving my neighbor as I love myself is walking with sinners all the way through to repentance. The Spirit-led person demonstrates gentleness towards others in that process. And someone who can't deal gently with sinful Christians is susceptible, like the Galatians were, to a false gospel of works.

Why is that? Well, because the lack of gentleness is indicative of a self-righteous sense of self-importance that leads to confidence in the flesh. We see Paul's second case study then in verses three through five. Here Paul turns his attention to our relationship with ourselves. How do I view me?

How should I view me? Well, Paul indicates that the Spirit-led person demonstrates humility towards himself. Verse three, if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. If you cannot deal gently with other sinners, it's an indicator that you have too high an opinion of yourself. You're self-deceived into thinking you're something when Paul says you're really nothing. It's conceit.

It's lack of humility, which is to say it's a lack of love. This conceited view of self had made the Galatian Christians susceptible to a false gospel that looks to self for salvation. Self-conceit and works salvation go hand in hand. So what does Paul call for as an alternative response to pride?

In other words, what is the Spirit-filled response? Verse four, but he let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor, for each will have to bear his own load. Now, verses four and five are a bit confusing I suspect. It seems like Paul is contradicting himself here. He's just spent an entire letter calling for humility and reliance upon Christ and the Holy Spirit for salvation. Yet he says in verse four, do this and you'll have reason to boast. Also he's just called for us to bear one another's burdens in verse two, yet he says in verse five everyone will need to bear his own burden. What is Paul saying?

How are these not contradictions? The context of these verses is one in which Paul is addressing man's tendency to compare himself to others. If he discovers that someone else is more entrenched in sin than himself, he despises that person and thinks highly of himself. But his estimation, both of himself and others, is based entirely on the comparison of essentially one worm to another worm.

At least I'm not as wormy as you are, so he gets puffed up with pride. Not because he's innocent, but merely because he's less guilty than the next sinner. But that's the wrong measuring stick isn't it? The correct measuring stick for righteousness, in fact the only measuring stick for righteousness is God's law.

God's righteousness. When we stand before God on judgment day, we stand alone and are judged by the perfect standard of his holiness. So in verse four, Paul tells us to measure ourselves, test our own work, according to God's standard of measurement and not according to how well we compare to other sinners. God doesn't grade on a curve, and so we should not grade ourselves on a curve. We should test ourselves according to God's law.

Why? Because on judgment day we will give an account for our own sin. We'll have to bear our own load. If on that day we are found to be innocent, it will not be because we are just a little better than sinner number two or three or four. It will be because and only because the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ is covering our guilt. If that's the grounds of our approval before God, then by all means we have reason to boast. But we're not boasting in our own inherent righteousness.

No, we're boasting in the imputed righteousness of Christ to us. I'm not saved by the works I perform or by how well I stack up against other sinners. If I am saved, I am saved by an alien righteousness, a perfection that's given to me, not one that originates in me. And God's assessment of my righteousness on judgment day then will be accurate and sufficient because it will be based on God's standard of holiness rather than on a faulty comparison of my virtue to my neighbor's virtue. And so the spirit led person relates to other sinners with gentleness and relates to himself and his own sin with honest humility. If I lack the humility of gentleness with others, I will hold sinners who are by my estimation less upright than myself to an impossible standard before I will help them or love them or serve them. If I lack the humility of honesty about my own sin, I will hold myself when I perceive myself to be more upright than others to an unrighteously low standard before seeking accountability, humility, or repentance. In the case of the former, I'm refusing to bear the burden of others because I don't think they deserve my help. In the case of the latter, I'm refusing to bear my own burden because I think I deserve God's approval. The solution to both extremes is chapter 5 verse 26 to stop being conceited, provocative, and envious.

In other words, to start fixing my gaze on Christ rather than on other people's vices or my own presumed virtues. The third case study describes how the spirit led person demonstrates gratitude towards his teachers. And once again we don't need to assume that this was just some random topic that Paul chose to address. We can assume that if Paul addressed this it was probably because the Galatians were being neglectful of the ministry of biblical teachers.

We know that they were enamored with false teachers. It stands to reason then that they were not properly submitting themselves to the godly teachers that God had provided them with. And someone who does not value godly teaching is susceptible to a false gospel. Look with me at verse 6. Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

And that phrase, all good things, has material financial connotation. Take care to meet the material needs of the one who disciples you in the faith, Paul is saying. Isn't it easy for us to get enamored with well-spoken teachers and preachers particularly when they are safely out there and away from our immediate company of saints? It's more palatable for me to submit myself to the teaching of a man on a radio or the internet because I don't have to really know him up close and personally. There's a safety and security to being fan boys of Bible teachers who I've never observed interacting with real world problems and difficult people.

My admiration of them can stay intact because there's very little chance I'll ever see them exhibit their sinful nature. I remember a friend of mine who had an unhealthy admiration of a particularly famous preacher and author. And to be honest this preacher was excellent at what he did.

He was orthodox, he was eloquent, he was clever. Well my friend had an opportunity to go hear his idol in person one day and so he went with high expectations. And after hearing him preach my friend walked up to the front of the room to see if he could meet this LeBron James of preachers. And he actually got to meet him but that's when everything went south. Because it turned out this preacher was less than hospitable toward my friend. He sort of waved him off and didn't really even give him the time of day.

My friend was devastated at this response. His hero, his idol as it turns out was merely human. Just a sinner like the rest of us. We're not called to worship the preachers we like. We are called to listen to the preachers God raises up for the edification of the church. And to the degree that they teach the word of God, verse 6, we are to heed what they say and even care for their material needs so that they may devote themselves to prayer and the study of the word.

It's another visible demonstration of a spirit led life. So if we were to sort of summarize what Paul is saying in these three case studies it might go something like this. The person who is well on their way to embracing a false gospel is the person who has cut himself off from the communion of the saints, verses 1 and 2.

And cut himself off from the ordinary means of grace, verse 6, because he is thinking far too highly of himself, verses 3 through 5. Instead we should be characterized by the humility that accompanies a spirit led life. Well finally Paul speaks of the pursuit of a spirit led life in verses 7 through 10. And I think the purpose of these final verses is to provide the motivation that we need to pursue this humble spirit led life. Paul points to the law of the harvest, verse 7. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever one sows that will he also reap. If you sow to the spirit you get humility and love and gentleness and all the rest of the fruit of the spirit, not the least of which is eternal life mentioned there at the end of verse 8. Of course the opposite is also true if you sow to the flesh you get what the flesh produces, conceit, provocation, envy, susceptibility to false gospels and all the rest. Verse 9 reminds us that the harvest is not immediate, it takes time. If you plant a kernel of corn on Monday you won't be eating corn on the cob on Tuesday.

You have to wait for several weeks before the corn will be ripe. So it is with the spirit led life. Walk in the spirit and the fruit will come but it might be a while before you notice the fruit. So don't grow weary, don't give up Paul says. And I think it behooves us to stop here and just recognize that there are multiple ways in which our pursuit of the spirit led life can get derailed.

Paul's mentioned several of them. Our pride and conceit, verse 26, are often the things that keep us from keeping in step with the spirit. We need to keep our pride in check. Other people and their annoying sin problems, verse 1, are often the things that get in our way of keeping in step with the spirit. We need to be aware of that obstacle and not let it get the best of us. But sometimes, according to verse 9, the biggest obstacle of our walking by the spirit is just the sheer mundaneness of it all. The tedium of reading through the Bible for the umpteenth time. The routineness of spending all my Sundays in corporate worship when I could be fishing or working in the yard or relaxing with friends. The ordinariness of just doing the next right thing.

It's like we have a spiritual attention deficit disorder. We get tired of the same old, same old. Paul's wise apostolic counsel to us to help us counter this tendency of growing weary and doing the right thing is don't. Don't grow weary of doing good.

Why? Because in due season, you will reap a harvest of fruit that will not disappoint. It's what you were created for. It's why you exist.

So plow the next row, weed the next bed, water the next bean sprout. The harvest will come. Perhaps we need to be reminded once again that though there is a harvest of good things yet to come, that harvest is in no way God's payment to us for the good works that we have performed. Rather our good works are the result of God's grace in our lives. God is in fact so gracious that he rewards us for the good works that he himself produces in us through the spirit. Brothers and sisters, that is grace upon grace upon grace.

Well this brings us to the last verse of our text this morning. Verse 10 says, So then, in light of the fact that there is a harvest for those who by grace persevere, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith. In our relationships to other Christians, even Christians caught in transgression, let's do good to them by dealing with them in gentleness. In our relationship to ourselves, let's do good by holding ourselves in humility up to God's perfect standard of righteousness, relying on Christ's sufficiency and the Holy Spirit's power to make us holy. In our relationship to those God has raised up to preach the gospel to us and to hold our feet to the fire so to speak, let us do the good of showing our gratitude for and submission to their ministry by caring for their physical needs, welcoming it as being from the Lord.

And I think that last statement Paul makes is interesting. That's probably worth a whole sermon in its own. He qualifies his command for us to do good by saying, do good to everyone but especially those who are of the household of faith. In your treating others with humility, in your serving others through love, prioritize those in the church above those outside of the church. Does that strike you as selfish or self-serving?

It shouldn't. Remember the purpose of Paul's letter is to get the church to not be self-centered. But what is the godly alternative to the self-centeredness of a work's salvation according to Paul's letter? It's Christ-centeredness, right? It's being focused on Christ. Christ is preoccupied with his bride. Christ is preoccupied with the church. It is the church for which he became incarnate and died on the cross. It is for the church that he will return and take us home to be with him for all eternity.

The world will be judged. The church will be saved. And so the Christ-centered response is one that gives priority to that august and privileged company of sinners turned saints that the Bible calls his church.

A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. There's nothing selfish about giving preference and priority to those for whom Christ died. That's not to say we don't love and serve unbelievers.

We do. Paul says we're called to do good to everyone, but there is a priority, a pecking order. Our affections belong first to the saints and then to the unbeliever. John Calvin put it this way. He said, There are duties which we owe to all men arising out of a common nature, but the tie of a more sacred relationship established by God himself binds us to believers. You are bound to each other, care for one another, love each other, serve one another.

So the conclusion is this. Mortify your pride by gently loving others, by holding yourself up to the scrutiny of God's perfect righteousness, and by submitting to God's word and to those whom God has raised up to teach you that word. And in all of these things, do not grow weary of doing what is right and good, because on the promise of God, it will bear fruit in due time. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the rich promises of your word. Thank you that when we keep in step with your spirit, you lead us in the way in which we should go. So now help us to trust that promise. Help us to not grow weary in trusting that promise. And may our lives culminate in a joyous meeting with you on the last day by your spirit. And in the name of Christ, we pray. Amen.