1095. Not Under the Law

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything so he established daily chapel services. Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from the University Chapel platform. Today on The Daily Platform, we're continuing a study series entitled Walking in the Spirit, which is a study of Galatians chapter 5. Through this study, we'll see how believers can have freedom in Christ as they walk with him each day.

If you would like to follow along in the study booklet, you can get one on Kindle or you can order a printed copy from the website thedailyplatform.com. Let's listen to today's message where Steve will guide us through the relationship of the law to the believer from Galatians chapter 5. I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles this morning please and turn with me to the book of Galatians. Galatians chapter 5, as we continue our series of Walking in the Spirit.

I hope that these have been a blessing to you. I hope the Lord is using God's Word daily working in and through your heart. We have been looking at the beautiful blessing that God has given us called Christian liberty. We have an incredible freedom from the law, the Bible says, as a means of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

That is, we don't earn salvation, but salvation is gifted to us. But we've also been learning here in the book of Galatians chapter 5 where Paul warns us that Christian liberty can be easily misused because of the nature of our flesh. And Paul exposes the frightening reality that our flesh is so self-centered that it can take God's grace and twist it for its own selfish purposes. And so Paul tells us that the answer to Christian liberty, the way it works, is by walking in the Spirit. And walking in the Spirit is the only way to overcome the flesh and nothing else is going to work. And so last week we looked at verses 16 and 17. And just to remind you of what it was saying, Paul is confirming in verse 16 that if we walk in the Spirit it's impossible for any believer to fulfill the desires of his flesh. If you're walking in the Spirit you cannot be in the flesh. And then we saw verse 17 where he explains the reason why we have this confidence of overcoming the flesh. And that is because there's two natures.

The flesh, indwelling sin, and the Holy Spirit, God's indwelling Son. They are mutual opposites. These natures are bitter enemies. They are totally against one another. It's like a civil war going on in your soul. So that if you follow one you cannot be following the other. The desires of the flesh and spirit completely contrast one another. They contradict each other.

They are in conflict to one another. So that the flesh is anti-spirit and the spirit is anti-flesh. And that brings us here this morning to verse 18 where Paul writes these words, but if you be led of the Spirit you are not under the law.

Now I want us to look at that this morning. And I believe that the key to understanding this verse, and I want you to follow with me, I'm going to follow just a form of logic this morning in explaining the verse, that this verse, the key to understanding this verse is to recognize that this is not an isolated standalone statement, but rather it's a continuation of what Paul has been saying since verse 16. Where Paul says the only way to deal with the Spirit, the only way that the Spirit can deal, let me say it this way, that only the Spirit can deal with the flesh.

Okay, so he's following that way of thinking. And now he brings us to the theme of the law. And there are two primary truths that I want to draw your attention to today as I speak to you on this theme, victory by the Spirit and not by the law. That is the victory over sin is always by God's Spirit and it's not by God's law.

And there are two truths I want us to see. And the first one is this, that victory over the flesh requires that we be freed from the authority of the law. Victory over the flesh requires that we be freed from the authority or the jurisdiction of the law. Or you could say it this way, we cannot have victory over our sin nature by trying to keep the law in our own self effort. As long as we are under the law, we are slaves to our own flesh. You say, well, how is this so?

And the answer is really quite simple. It's because of our flesh. That is, our sin nature is so bad that God's laws do not motivate us to obey. They actually provoke us to sin more and more. The giving of the law provokes us.

It irritates us. It rises rebellion up in our heart. Now I want to show you this this morning by asking you to take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 7. Paul is helping us to understand that victory over the sin nature is not by the law, it's by the Spirit. And he tells us the relationship our flesh has with the law. Look at Romans chapter 7 and notice if you will please verse 7. What shall we say then? Is the law sin?

God forbid, nay, no. I have not known sin, he says, but by the law. What is he saying? The way I come to understand my sinfulness is actually by God's law. Notice what he said, for I had not known lust, that's evil desire, except the law had said thou shalt not covet. In other words, and we understand this, that the moment you tell somebody to not do something, what do they want to do? If I say you can't have this, what does my heart say? I want it. If I say this is forbidden, then there is something within me that is so provoked that actually I want the very thing that is forbidden.

Have you ever heard of advertisement in commercials? They create within you desires? The law actually motivates me to want what I'm commanded to not have. Notice verse 8, he says, but sin taking occasion or opportunity by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, and the word concupiscence is the same word for lust. What he is saying is my sin nature takes the commandment, the opportunity of the commandment, and it works in me all kinds of evil desires.

Read on, he says, for without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death for sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me. My sin nature took the opportunity of the commandment and it deceived me. You say, well how am I deceived?

Because I thought I could keep it. And in the end I found out that actually it killed me. It created within me evil desires. I fulfilled those desires and I sinned against God. So notice verse 12, wherefore the law is holy and the commandment is holy and just and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me?

In other words, is there a problem with the law? And he said, God forbid. But sin that it might appear sin, that is seen to be sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. He's simply saying this, that the law exposes how utterly sinful I am in my heart. So notice conclusion, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. So Paul is saying, what does the law do to us?

It actually provokes us to sin. Have you ever babysat a two-year-old? And you looked at them and you said, no, no, no. What did they do? They looked at you and they said, yes, yes, yes.

Now let me ask you a question. Do you think that's changed in your heart now that you're older? What Paul is saying is the law provokes us to sin. Furthermore, we're so bad that the harder we try to keep the law, the worse we get. And in either case, whether the flesh is being provoked to sin or we try to keep the law and we get worse, it becomes evident that the desires of the flesh are sin nature cannot be overcome by a Christian remaining under the law. A believer needs to be freed from the law.

And let me say that this should deeply humble all of us in two ways. Number one, because by our nature, we hate and rebel against the very law that God says is holy, just and good. It should humble us that we actually hate God's law by nature. And secondly, by our nature, the more we try to keep the law, the worse we become.

That is self-effort. Strength of our own nature is not sufficient. We cannot keep God's law, for the mind that is set on the flesh is always hostile to God. It will not submit to God. It cannot submit to God and therefore victory over the flesh can only take place if we're freed from the law. So the question is, how are we freed from the law? And stay in Romans chapter 7 and go back to verse 1 and Paul explains it. Notice he begins at verse 1 and he says, as long as you are alive, the law is your master. Verse 1, know you not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth.

That is, as long as you're alive, you're under a law. But Paul shows through the illustration of marriage how a relationship can change through death. Look at verse 2, for the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives, but if the husband is dead, be dead, she's loose from the law of her husband.

All right, here's a man, here's a woman. They commit themselves to marriage. They're under the law to stay faithful to one another. But what if the husband dies? Then the woman by the law is freed.

She's free from that law to stay married to her husband and now she can be married to another. So here's what Paul does. He explains our relationship to the law has changed because we died to the law when we died with Christ. Look at verse 4, wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. So when you and I put our faith in Christ, we were connected to Christ, we were united to Christ, we are in union with him. And as he died, so we died with him. Now, he says, we can be connected or married to someone else.

Who's that someone else? It's Jesus Christ. Look at verse 4, that you should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead. So here's what Paul is saying, because of our death with Christ, we are now disconnected from the old life under the law.

And what is the result of that? We have entered into a new life that is now in the spirit. And now that we are in the spirit, we actually can bear spiritual fruit unto God.

Notice the second half beginning in verse 4, the second half of verse 4. He says that we should bring forth fruit unto God for when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, those evil desires which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. In other words, the law provoked the flesh and the flesh gave into sin and we died. But notice he says, but now we are delivered from the law that being dead, wherein we were held, we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

He's saying that now we have been freed from that law, we have been freed from that law, and now we have God's spirit living inside of us. And now this spirit can bring forth spiritual fruit. So what is the fruit that the spirit brings forth? Take your Bibles and go back to Galatians chapter 5 and note if you will please verse 22. He says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith or faithfulness, meekness, and temperance. What is the work of the Holy Spirit?

It is to produce within us these character qualities from the inside out. But notice the last phrase of verse 23. He says, against such there is no law.

Do you know what? There are no laws that are written against the fruit of the spirit. There's no law against love or joy or peace.

Furthermore, there are no laws that can create this fruit. You can't put people under a law and say thou shalt be good or thou shalt be faithful. That this can only be created by the inner life of the Spirit of God working in the believer's heart. So the teaching of the New Testament is this, that you and I cannot be spiritual if we are living under a law because that law provokes our flesh, we need a higher power to overcome our sin nature.

And that leads me to the second truth. And what Paul is saying here is something that is quite amazing, something truly wonderful and even miraculous, and it is this, that only the Spirit can actually fulfill the law in my life. Now we've already had it made plain that the Spirit can overcome the flesh, that's clear. But now Paul is saying something wonderful, that the Spirit of God is so life transforming that if we walk in the Spirit we will have both the internal desire and the spiritual dynamic to keep the law without being under the authority of the law. We are freed from the law in Christ but we fulfill the law by the Holy Spirit. Romans chapter 8 verse 3, for what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, we've already seen that, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin can condemn sin in the flesh. That the righteousness of the law might not be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. What does the Spirit do?

It doesn't lead us to be law breakers, it leads us to be law keepers. That's the beauty of the ministry of the Spirit of God. Now let's go back and look at verse 18 now more carefully. He says, but if you are led of the Spirit you're not in the law. So what does this mean?

He said the word if there is not something that is conditional is actually a statement of fact, it's referring to something that's happening right now. You could read it this way, since you are being led by the Spirit. Now go back, he says in verse 16, walk in the Spirit, that's a command. Here in verse 18 he says led, being led of the Spirit, that's the idea of being dependent or being guided by. And what Paul is saying is you are now as a believer in a new relationship with God where you're being guided, directed, and compelled by the Spirit. You are freed from the law but by the Spirit you are actually fulfilling the law. So you say well which law is it that we're keeping and he's already told us. Look at verse 14, he says for all the law is fulfilled in one word even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Do you see the beauty of it? The Holy Spirit is not going to lead you to be disobedient rebellious, that's your flesh. But the Spirit of God is actually going to so work in our heart that we will actually fulfill the law by the working of God in our heart to love and serve one another. So when we go back and understand Christian liberty what do we understand?

It's a lifestyle of love. It's a lifestyle that is controlled by God's Spirit and we are free from the law. I like what John Stott wrote with regards to the Christian and the law. He said these words, God has never done away with this law his basic commands have not changed his will for our lives as expressed in the moral law is eternal. Although we cannot gain acceptance by keeping the law yet once we have been accepted we shall keep the law out of love for him for it reflects who he is who has accepted us and has given us his Spirit to enable us to keep it. Why do we keep the law of God? Because God's love was poured into our hearts and therefore we love him. So I don't want to lie. I don't want to steal.

I do not want to be unfaithful because God's Spirit has now been poured into my heart. Now let me give you two illustrations hopefully that will put all this together. The first illustration has to do with my wife and I.

We were married on the 16th of August 1980 and so this past summer we celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary. When my wife and I got married and we set up our home I did not take a sign and post it up on the refrigerator that said this, you must keep these laws if you're going to stay married to me. And then I made a list of all the laws my wife has to keep. She has to cook. She has to clean. She has to wash. She has to iron. She has to sweep. She has to vacuum. She has to all to do all these things and if my wife if I wrote that, sweetheart, if you keep these laws I will love you and stay married to you.

Now let me ask you a question. How well do you think she would have received that? What would that have done to her? It would have provoked her and if you know my wife it would have really provoked her. I asked my wife one day do you love me and she said yes. And I said yes. Do you love me? And she said of course. I said why do you love me?

I was waiting for a response like because you're handsome, because you have a wonderful personality. And she looked at me she said I love you because God told me to. Well it's not very romantic, but it sure holds you in pretty good stead in life. My wife loves me. My wife does these things not to keep or maintain a relationship, but it flows out of a heart of love. That's what walking in the Spirit is all about.

And that is God has freed us from the law, brought us into relationship with His Son and with our Father, a love relationship, and therefore we look at the law as something we actually want to do. All right let me bring you a second illustration that I think is slightly closer to home. When my son came here to Bob Jones University, I sat down with him and I said son I want you to know how to be happy at BJU. And I said to him, I said son it's not focusing on the rules, because if you spent all your time thinking about the rules of Bob Jones University, one of two things are going to happen. Number one, either it's going to provoke you to irritation. Now let's be honest, how many of you have ever been provoked to irritation at Bob Jones University by at least one rule? Don't lie, God is watching you. Raise your hand.

Okay sure. I mean it's like duh. Either it's going to provoke you or number two, you are going to live in a constant fear of failure.

When my wife came here as a student, she was not provoked by the rules, she lived in fear. She says I think I'm breaking them all the time and I don't even know it. This is what I said to my son, I said son I'm going to make it simple.

Here's how to go to Bob Jones University and be happy. It's real simple, it's called love. Jesus said if you love me, keep what? My commandments.

It's simple. If I come here and I walk in the spirit and I choose to love, and by the way, I'm choosing to love, then I'm going to love my RA. I'm going to love my roommates. I'm going to love my dean.

Man I think the deans are cool. I love them. And how do I love anyone? I love them by serving them.

And what is the best way for me to serve them? By being a student that is supportive, that is a part of what's going on. I'm here, God's put me here, God's put me around these people and either I can love the people, I can serve the people, or I can fall back into a self-centered way of thinking, start focusing on how the school affects me and what I don't like and why this and why that and all of these things, or I can love God, God's put his spirit in me and I can love the people here.

And guess what's the result of that? Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, meekness, faithfulness, self-control against such there are no laws. So God has made a way for us to have victory over the flesh, not by the law, but by the spirit that he's put within our hearts. May God help us to walk in the spirit. Father, thank you for your word. Help us to walk in it. Help us to be urgent about daily surrendering our hearts to you in Jesus' name.

Amen. God bless you. You've been listening to a sermon from the study series in Galatians chapter five by Dr. Steve Pettit, president of Bob Jones University. For more information on Dr. Pettit's series, visit our website, thedailyplatform.com, where you can get a copy of Steve's study booklet entitled Walking in the Spirit. A Kindle version is also available. Thanks for listening and join us again next week as we study God's word together on The Daily Platform.