1621. The Law and the Believer

I've been re-reminded of how important it is, like I knew already, but these messages really help me re-center and re-focus myself in walking in the Spirit. I've learned from Chapel that I'm dead to the world and the world is dead to me. I'm to live like a dead person, but I can't do that without walking in the Spirit.

When he was going through the fruits of the Spirit, that was probably my favorite message specifically about love and that being the root of all of the other ones and how that plays into everyday life. Definitely just that if you're walking in the Spirit, you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. It's just so easy to be led astray by your own desires. I mean, James 1.14, but if you're following God and you're taking the next right step, then you're not going to be anxious about what's ahead of you.

You're not going to give in to those desires that are there because you have that knowledge and you're putting that into application. That I need to constantly die to myself and actively choose to walk in the Spirit. I've learned how to really walk in the Spirit, that we need to live our lives how we start. Walking in the Spirit is something that I've kind of heard my whole life, just like different fruit of the Spirit, but I've kind of looked more on like the Christian Liberty side of just our freedom that we have in Christ. A lot of people think being a Christian, it's a lot of set of rules and it's, you know, not just all about the rules and the guardrails.

You actually get to experience things even as a believer. The importance of God's spiritual help in terms of living a life walking in His way. If I'm not dying to my flesh daily, then my life is never going to reflect Christ because I need to die to what I want every day and I need to follow the Lord. And that means staying in the Word because how am I ever going to grow and treat people to the way that Christ did if I'm not reading the very words that He said.

It's been a really good series. I really appreciate how Dr. Pettit has been clearly explaining the different ways to have like Christian purity and he has been addressing a lot of difficult issues that I think a lot of Christians tend to shy away from. We're not just on our earth to live our lives. We're here to honor and glorify God in all that we say and do. Welcome to The Daily Platform, a radio program featuring chapel messages from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. You just heard several BJU students talking about chapel programs preached from the Book of Galatians. For the next several days on The Daily Platform, we'll be hearing Dr. Steve Pettit lead us through a study in the Book of Galatians called Walking in the Spirit. Would you take your Bibles and turn with me please to the Book of Galatians, Chapter 5. We've been working through our theme this semester of Walking in the Spirit.

I've tried to do this particular theme every four years so that every student that comes to Bob Jones can at least hear this series, which may be probably the most important series that I can deliver to you as a student over the course of a semester. And that is learning what it means to be a spirit-filled, walking in the spirit believer. The theme of the Book of Galatians is God's beautiful blessing of Christian liberty. We have been, we have this incredible freedom from the law as a means of salvation as already been mentioned by Ellie. We also have a freedom from our lust to the indwelling Holy Spirit so we don't have to be slave to our sins.

And so you could sum it all up saying that we definitely have a freedom that lasts. And as Paul is explaining this in the Book of Galatians, he also warns us that this liberty can be easily abused or misused, especially because of the nature of our own indwelling sinfulness. And Paul exposes this frightening reality that we have the flesh. We still are saved, but we're also still sinners. And we are still by nature self-centered. And we can take the grace of God, and if we're not careful, we can twist it for our own selfish purposes. So Paul tells us that there is an answer for all of this and it's learning to walk in the spirit.

I've said it many times, living the Christian life is like driving down a highway in Louisiana. If you go on one side or the other, you're going to end up in a ditch, in a swamp. You can go to the right, to the legal side. You can go to more of the loose side or the liberty side, the licensed side.

But really you want to stay right in the middle. Christian liberty as it is taught in the Bible. And walking in the spirit is the only way to overcome the flesh and really nothing else is going to work. And so last week we looked at verse 16 where we finished up what it means to walk in the spirit. And if we walk in the spirit, it's impossible for us to live out the desires of the flesh.

And for us, that is a tremendous confidence builder. That I don't have to be enslaved to my sin nature because I have a greater power. And that is the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. There is the flesh which is anti-spirit and there's the spirit which is anti-flesh. There's a civil war of the soul. They are bitter enemies between the flesh and the spirit. They contrast each other.

They contradict each other and they are in conflict with one another. But we learn that the power of the Holy Spirit is greater than the power of your sin nature. Therefore, as a Christian, we should realize that we are not victims.

We are not slaves. We don't have to say that what has happened in my life or what my past is that I am a victim of that because we really do have victory in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. And the greatest victory is the resurrection. Jesus Christ overcame sin, death, and the grave because ultimately, in life, everything leads to the grave.

Everything leads to death. But we are alive in Jesus Christ because we have the victory of the resurrection. So now, we come this morning to verse 18.

You're kind of, oh yeah, give me, yeah, there we go, good. Verse 18. And we're going to look at this verse this morning because it's a very simple verse but oftentimes, it's a misunderstood verse.

Notice what he says. He says, but if you be led of the spirit, that's in the present tense. If you are being led by the spirit, he says you are not, that's the present tense, you are not under, literally, under the control of the law.

My theme this morning is victory by the spirit and not by the law. And as we look at verse 18, we have to understand that this verse is not a standalone, isolated verse. It's not like you just take this verse, pull it out, and look at it.

You look at it in the whole context. It is a continuation of what Paul has already said in verse 16 that only by the spirit can we deal with the sinful desires of our flesh. And so there are two primary truths I want to draw your attention to this morning as we seek to really grasp and understand what Paul is saying here. And first of all, he's telling us this, that the victory over the flesh requires that we be freed from the authority of the law. Or let me put it this way, you cannot have victory over the flesh if you're living under the jurisdiction or the power of the law. You and I cannot overcome the flesh by trying to keep the law. And the reason for that is because of our flesh.

And there are two reasons for that. Number one, our flesh is so bad, our flesh is so sinful that God's law actually provokes us to sin more and more. In other words, when you bring the law in, which by the way, there's no problem with the law, the problem's not the law, the problem's you.

You are the problem, okay? You and I are so bad that the moment we bring the law in, it provokes us, it irritates us, it incites us, it arouses us to disobey the law. That's what's wrong with our own hearts. Now, I want you to take your Bibles and turn with me to Romans chapter seven, because Romans seven really is kind of the unfolding of this whole idea. And I want us to look beginning in verse seven, and we're going to look at why it is that the law provokes us to sin more and more. And Paul's writing about this. And notice what he says in verse seven.

He says, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? Is there something sinful about the law?

And the answer is of course, God forbid. He said, no, I didn't even know what sin was, but by the law, that is the law tells me what sin is. Then he said, for I had not known lust, except the law has said thou shalt not covet. Now, what is he talking about here?

He's talking about the idea that when you bring the law in to our own lives, it creates the desire to have or do what is forbidden. For example, if you see a sign that says, do not enter, what do you want to do? What do you want to do? You want to enter in. If you see a sign, let's say you go in a shop and they got a sign that says do not touch, you know, the little curio sitting there, what do you want to do?

You want to touch it. Now, why are you that way? What is it about that that provokes you? If somebody looks at you and says to you, you can't, is there not something on the inside of you that says can too? Why are we that way?

Why is it that we actually are naturally that way? Well, the answer is the sin of our own heart. Look at what he says in verse eight. He says, but sin taking occasion or opportunity by the commandment, wrought in me, literally worked in me, all manner of concupiscence. Now we don't use the word concupiscence, it's used in the King James version here.

It's the Greek word epithymia, which just simply means covetousness or evil desires. And what he's simply saying is that when the commandment entered in, sin, that is my own sinful nature, actually takes that and works within me the desire to do that, which is wrong. And look at what he says in verse 11. He says, for sin taking occasion or opportunity by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me. What is he saying here? He's saying that, that I am actually deceived by the law because my flesh actually tells me that I think I can keep it.

I think if I, I can do this. And the problem is if I try to keep the law, I can't keep it. What the law does is it kills me because I can't obey the law. And is the law bad?

The answer is no. The law reflects the nature of God. The law tells us what sin is like. We come to understand God by the law, but the law cannot make me holy because it cannot change what I am. The law is holy. The commandment is holy and just and good. And then notice what he says in verse 12. Was then that which is good made death unto me. And then he says, God forbid, but sin that it might be, might appear sin literally unmasked.

It's like he's ripping off the mask and showing you your own heart. Think about it this way. The law is like a mirror. When you look at yourself in the morning, you see yourself in the mirror. You see what you look like, but the mirror has no power to change your face.

Think about that one. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could just look in the mirror and your face could change? Your nose could be shaped differently. Your cheeks, you get little cute dimples.

You know, your ears shrink, whatever. I don't know. Well, there's nothing in the mirror. There's no power in the mirror to change you. And when you look into the law of God and understand the law of God, it simply reflects what you look like, but it has no power to change you. So notice what he says in verse 14. He says, for we know that the law is spiritual, but here's the conclusion, but I'm carnal, sold under sin.

Let's put it in simple language. He says, I'm bad to the bone. That's what he's saying. He says, this law worked death in me. That which is good killed me. And what it does is it shows that I am exceedingly sinful. I am really bad.

Now, sometimes you'll meet certain people say, well, I actually think people are born good. Well, you know what your problem is? You've never worked in a church nursery. How many of you have ever worked in a church nursery? Raise your hand.

Okay. My dearly beloved, sweet and most wonderful wife is not with me. She is in Salt Lake City, Utah, and she is watching my four grandsons for two weeks because my son flew to Jerusalem, Israel to do a filming project. And my daughter-in-law flew to Japan to see her parents that they have, she's not seen in seven years. So my wife is watching four boys, seven and under. It's a two hour difference. And I talked to her every morning at seven 30. That's five 30 her time. She's up every morning at five o'clock.

I said, what are the boys like? She said, they are sinners in every imaginable way. But they did not realize it that when grandma showed up, she is the law. And, you know, we were probably a little stricter than my children are.

It's just kind of the way that it works. So grandma is cracking the whip. And the law reveals our own sinfulness. Now is the problem with the law?

No, the problem is with me. So first of all, what do we discover? We discover that the law actually provokes us to sin. But secondly, let me say this, that we're so bad that the harder we try to keep the law, the worse we get.

The harder we try to keep the law, the worse we get because the more we focus on the law, the more we want to break the law. I'll prove it to you. How many of you have ever decided to go on a diet? Come on, be honest. How many of you have ever decided to go on a diet? Okay. How many of you, the moment you decided to go on a diet, you got like super hungry?

Raise your hand. Yeah, why is that? I mean, I can go all day long without eating and lose two or three or four pounds or whatever and not even think about it. And I'm like already dieting, but the moment I wake up to say I'm dieting, by nine o'clock in the morning, I'm starving. Why are we like that? Because there's something inside of our nature that the harder we try to keep the law, the worse that we actually get. And what Paul is trying to tell us is that the law provokes us to sin and the law makes it so that we can't even keep it because of the nature of our flesh. Now, you know what this ought to do to all of us?

It should humble us to show us what we're really like and to show us how perfect God is and how desperately we need his grace in our lives. So how are we free from the law? Well, let's look at Romans chapter seven, look at what he says in verse one. Notice he says that as long as you are alive under the law, the law is your master. Verse one, know you not brethren for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law has dominion or it rules over a man as long as he lives. So it's just a basic principle. We understand that when you're under the law, it rules your life, all right? But Paul now is getting ready to show an illustration of how that law can change. Verse two, for a woman which hath a husband is under the authority or bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives.

Okay, so we understand that. You get married, you're under the law of marriage. But if the husband be dead, if the husband suddenly dies, she is released from the law of her husband. In other words, she is freed so that she no longer has to stay married to him because he's dead and now she's free to remarry.

So what is Paul doing? He's using this as an illustration to explain how our relationship with the law has changed. Look at verse four, wherefore my brethren, you also have become dead to the law by the body of Christ. What he means by the body of Christ is Christ died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose again from the dead. And when we believe in Jesus, we literally are immersed into or baptized into the body of Jesus Christ, which is the church. We are now connected and married to Christ.

So notice what he says in verse four, that you should be married to another, even to him who has been raised from the dead. Because of our death, our death with Christ, we're disconnected from the old life. And we are now connected to a new life. We are disconnected from the law and we now have life in the spirit. So look at what he says at the end of verse four, that we should, what's the result of this? That we should bring forth fruit unto God, for when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

In other words, our sin nature was always leading us to do sinful things. But now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. What is he talking about? He's saying there's been a change. It's like, it's like you've got a new engine, you got a new heart, you got a new life. And now what the change is, is God is working in us to produce something that's very different.

What is it that he's trying to produce? Go back to Galatians five and that's what he means in verse 22. He said, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, meekness, temperance, faith, against which, against such there is no law.

He says the work of the Holy Spirit is the production of fruit in our life that the law can't produce. The law can't produce love. The law can't produce joy. The law can't produce peace.

Only the Holy Spirit can do that. And he tells us that there are no laws against this kind of fruit and there are no laws that can create this fruit. And that leads me to the second truth I want to share this morning and that is that something amazing and wonderful and miraculous has taken place in our life and that is only by the Spirit, only through a lifestyle freed from the law can we actually fulfill the law.

Let me say that again. Only a lifestyle freed from the law can actually fulfill the law. We have been already made alive by the Spirit and it is the Spirit of God that gives us that desire and that power to keep the law. Paul writes in Romans eight, he says the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. The Spirit of God does not lead us to be law breakers.

It leads us to be law keepers. That's why when he says if you are led of the Spirit in verse 18, you are not under the law. He says it is the Spirit of God that is bringing about a change in my life where I actually want to keep the law.

He works that within me and it's not because I'm under it. It's actually because the law is under me. And so what is the law that we are now to keep? What is the law of the Christian?

Think about it. What is the law? And he tells us in Galatians 5 14 for all the law is fulfilled in one word.

This is the fulfillment of the law. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. What is the driving motivation and heart and desire to live right?

What is it? It has to be love. The fruit of the Spirit is love. So when you look at all the commandments of God thou shalt nots all the thou shalt nots can actually be summed up positively and if you'll say I will love. If I love I'm not going to lie. If I love I'm not going to steal. If I love I'm going to honor my parents. If I love I'm not going to commit adultery. If I love I'm not going to kill.

If I love I'm not going to be discontent and want what everybody else has got. If I love I'm not going to take God's name in vain. And what he does is he flips it upside down and says there's one great commandment for the child of God and that commandment is to love. And it is that love that the Holy Spirit puts in our heart when we get saved.

He sheds abroad in our hearts God's love. And so now our motivation is to live out of love. I use the illustration about my wife and I when we got married and my wife does not, if I can say it this way, doesn't serve me because I require it of her. And if she doesn't keep my commandments I'm going to divorce her. It doesn't work that way.

She loves me therefore she motivates. Let me close with a very simple illustration because it's the illustration that I gave my son Steven who graduated in 2014 and I told him how to survive at Bob Jones University. I said because Bob Jones University actually has rules. How many of you ever noticed that we have rules here?

Raise your hand. Okay yeah we have rules. And you know what it doesn't matter how many rules that we have students are going to complain. It doesn't matter. I mean you know people my age think like you guys are like wimpy because the rules that we had here 40 years ago are like you know astronomically more than what you have. But it doesn't matter.

If you have three rules human nature is not going to like them no matter what. And so I said to my son how do you survive at Bob Jones University? I said it's actually really really really easy. I said just choose to love. If I love my school then I'm going to live my life in such a way as to serve them and do the very best that I can for them. If I love my RA and my RA would like me to clean my room then what am I going to do?

I'm going to love him and clean my room. If the if the rule says this and I love people and I'm going to serve them then I just love them and serve them and it's a blessing and I give myself to them and you know where I get the power to do that? I get the power to do that from Jesus. Because Jesus came unto his own and what did he do? He came to serve. He came to give his life a ransom for many. Maybe you think well I don't deserve to live this way.

Well did Jesus deserve to die on the cross? And his whole life can be summed up in that he loved his father and he loved his neighbor and he served them. And love is the higher motivation. That's what it means to walk in the Spirit. So you can live a life of frustration trying to live under rules and regulations and constantly being either provoked, rebellious, or you actually could live a life of fear that I'm always failing. And none of those are happy lives. Or you can live a life of love and serve those people around you and do it in the power of the Holy Spirit.

I mean it's like awesome. God changed my heart and he's given me love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, meekness, temperance, faith against which there is no law. That's called freedom.

And that's a freedom that lasts. Next week we're going to unfold in a deeper way what it means to walk in the Spirit and what are the works of the flesh. Father thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for the freedom that lasts in the Spirit of God to live our lives for you. In Jesus' name.

Amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached by Dr. Steve Pettit from the study series in Galatians called Walking in the Spirit. Steve is now utilizing his gifts as a compelling communicator and expositor of Scripture and travels to local churches with preaching, concerts and conferences emphasizing Gospel-centered evangelism and Christian leadership development. You can get more information about Steve's ministry at StevePettit.com. If you would like to re-listen to any of the sermons preached at Bob Jones University or want to share them on social media, go to our website, TheDailyPlatform.com. Thanks for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue the study in the book of Galatians preached from the Bob Jones University Chapel in Galatians.