Man, the title of my sermon tonight is the schoolmaster versus the spirit.
The schoolmaster versus the spirit.
Now this is not a salvation sermon tonight.
This sermon is not about being saved or that salvation is all by faith.
Although that is a major theme in the book of Galatians,
I'm going to cover another major theme in the book of Galatians
that I think is sometimes overlooked
because we get really focused on the salvation side of things,
which is obviously the most important thing.
But if you actually read the book of Galatians
and you walk away understanding that salvation is by faith alone,
not by the works of the law,
well that's the most important thing.
But guess what?
You've only gotten half of the message of the book of Galatians
because I want to focus in right there in chapter 3 verse 3 on this statement.
And then we're going to back up and go through the whole book of Galatians.
It says in verse 3,
Are you so foolish, having begun in the spirit,
are you now made perfect by the flesh?
And this is what I want to focus on tonight.
This idea that not only is salvation not by the works of the law,
but rather by faith,
but also sanctification is not by the works of the law,
but through the spirit.
It's not just salvation, but also sanctification that is not achieved by the law.
And so Paul is making both points throughout Galatians.
And if you only get the salvation by faith aspect of it,
you're getting half the message.
And tonight I'm going to give you the other half, okay?
So first of all, if we back up to chapter 2,
we understand that in Galatians the argument is made that salvation is by faith and not by works.
So I'm just going to briefly touch on that
and then I'm going to roll into what I really want to talk about.
Of course, in chapter 1, Paul marvels that they have been removed
from him that called them into the grace of Christ onto another gospel.
And he says there are some that would pervert the gospel of Christ.
They're preaching another gospel.
And of course, that's the gospel of salvation by works.
Look at Galatians chapter 2 verse 16,
knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law,
but by the faith of Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ
that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law.
For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Saying, look, we have believed in Jesus Christ,
which makes us justified by the faith of Christ, not by the deeds of the law.
And then in verse 21, he says, I do not frustrate the grace of God
for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
So our salvation is based on the finished work of Jesus Christ,
his death, burial, and resurrection, not by works of righteousness, which we have done.
Of course, that's all over the book of John.
It's all over Romans, all over the Bible.
So I'm not going to focus on that.
Now, when we come off of that argument at the end of chapter 2,
they're talking about how we're saved by faith, not by works.
If we roll right into chapter 3, verse 1, he says, Oh, foolish Galatians,
who had bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before it was eyes.
Jesus Christ had evidently been set forth, crucified among you.
This only would I learn of you received you the spirit by the works of the law
or by the fearing of faith.
Now stop and think about this.
When you get saved, you receive the Holy Spirit.
How did you get the Holy Spirit?
He's saying, did you get that by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?
I mean, when you got saved, was it because you did the works of the law
or was it because you heard the word of God and faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God.
And you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead and you're saved.
Did that happen through the works of the law or did it happen by the hearing of faith?
And the obvious answer is it had nothing to do with the works of the law.
It was the hearing of faith.
So here's the key statement here.
Are you so foolish having begun in the spirit?
Are you now made perfect in the flesh?
So if you got saved by the spirit, if everything started with the spirit,
if your life in Christ began with the spirit,
if salvation was by the spirit and it was not by the works of the law,
how are the works of the law going to perfect you
or make you sanctified or bring maturity and Christian growth to you?
It doesn't make any sense.
In fact, Paul is saying it's stupid.
You're foolish if you think that.
If you think that following the rules of the Bible,
following the law of God, following the commandments is going to perfect you,
then it's foolish because if you didn't even start with that,
you're not going to end with that, right?
If you've begun in the spirit, are you going to be made perfect by the flesh,
by just physical actions that you do, actions that you take in the flesh?
The answer is no.
He says, have you suffered so many things in vain?
If it be yet in vain, he therefore that ministered to you the spirit
and worketh miracles among you doeth he it by the works of the law
or by the hearing of faith.
Okay, so the work of God is done by the spirit.
It's not done in the flesh.
Okay, now jump down if you would to verse 22.
He says, but the scripture has concluded all under sin
that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
So there's the salvation doctrine, right?
Eternal life comes by faith to those that believe.
Verse 23, but before faith came, we were kept under the law,
shut up under the faith, which should afterwards be revealed.
Wherefore the law was our school master to bring us unto Christ
that we might be justified by faith.
But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a school master
for you're all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
So what does this mean when it says that the law was our school master
to bring us to Christ?
Well, here's the thing.
In order to know that we're a sinner, the law has to tell us that
because sin is the transgression of the law.
So the law demonstrates to us and shows us our sinful condition.
Obviously the law can't save us.
All the law does is condemn us by showing us we're a sinner.
That's why we need Christ to save us.
We need faith to save us, not the law.
The law condemns us.
Now the law helps us get saved because it's our school master to bring us to Christ.
It shows us our sinful condition that we might come to Christ and be saved by faith.
But after that faith is come, the Bible says we are no longer under a school master.
So that's what the Bible is saying over and over again.
We're not under the law, but under grace.
Now look at chapter four, verse one.
Now I say that the air, so that was the salvation again
that we saw there at the end of chapter three.
He's going back and forth and dealing with salvation over here and sanctification over here.
Look at chapter four, verse one.
Now I say that the air, as long as he is a child,
differs nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all.
Meaning that you could be the royal family.
You can be slated to be the next King of Scotland or King of England,
like little King James as a child.
But guess what?
King James as a child didn't go do whatever he wanted.
Okay.
He was under tutors and governors.
There was a Regency in place that was actually doing the ruling.
He had somebody punishing him and making him do his schoolwork and making him work hard.
He actually had a very strict schoolmaster if you study the history on him.
But that could go for any king, even if he's the Lord of all, right?
Even if he is some kind of a royalty or an important family or whatever.
If he's a child, he differed nothing from a servant in the sense that he has to obey,
do what he's told, he's under tutors and governors, right?
Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.
But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons.
And because you are sons, God had sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father.
Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son.
And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
So he's saying here, look, the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.
But once we believe in Christ, once we're saved, we're not under that schoolmaster anymore.
We're not under the law.
When we were a child, quote unquote, referring to the fact before we were saved,
we're under tutors and governors.
But then once we grow up, we don't need that anymore, okay?
Because we are no longer as a servant.
Now we are as a son, okay?
Follow me.
It's all going to make sense in a moment.
Now, in chapter five, verse one, flip over to chapter five.
I'm kind of just giving you the overview of Galatians here,
and I'm going to put this all together.
It says in verse one, stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ had made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Now, what is the bondage?
The bondage is being under the law.
The liberty is being under grace, right?
He says, stand fast in the liberty, don't be entangled again in the yoke of bondage.
And then just to jump forward, and we're going to come back and cover this.
He says in verse 16, this I say then, walk in the spirit,
and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
He says in verse 13, for brethren, you've been called unto liberty.
Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh,
but by love serve one another for all the laws fulfilled in one word.
Even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Now, look, before I get into more scripture,
I've hit you with a whole bunch of scripture here.
You've kind of been bombarded with scripture right there.
Now, let me just explain this to you in my own words to help you understand the concept
of what Paul is teaching here when he says, look, if you began in the spirit,
you're not going to be made perfect in the flesh.
Salvation is by faith in Christ.
But once we're saved, how do we grow as a Christian?
How do we become a better person?
How do we grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?
He doesn't want us to stay a babe in Christ.
He doesn't want us to continue in sin.
God forbid that we would continue in sin, right?
He wants us to grow and become perfected and mature and become complete in our walk with God.
How do we get there?
How do we arrive?
Is it the works of the law that are going to get us there?
Let me ask you this.
Do you become a great Christian by reading all the commandments in the Bible and deciding,
I'm going to obey these commandments and forcing yourself to obey commandments?
Is that the way to become a great Christian?
Well, if you think so, you're being like the foolish Galatians at that point, okay?
If you're going to sit there and say, yeah, you just, you get the list of,
this is what I'm supposed to do.
This is what I'm not supposed to do.
And then if I force myself to follow these rules,
I'm going to be a good Christian at that point.
Is that what the book of Galatians is teaching?
No, the book of Galatians is teaching that the way to be a good Christian is to walk in the Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit changes you from the inside and then you follow the commandments.
You love God.
You love your neighbor.
You see, all the law is fulfilled in this one word.
Namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbor.
Therefore, love is the fulfilling law.
See, according to the Bible, if your heart is right, you don't even need the law.
Why?
Because you're not going to steal.
You're not going to kill.
You're not going to commit adultery.
You're not going to covet.
You're not going to bear false witness.
Those are all things that come from the wrong heart.
When you're walking in the Spirit, when you're led of the Spirit,
you will intuitively do the right thing.
You will by nature do the right thing when you're walking in the new nature,
when you're walking in the new man, when you're walking in the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the one that is going to give you victory over sin in your life,
that's going to lead you into a righteous life.
The works of law can't get you there.
Just like the law can't get you saved, the law can't get you sanctified either.
Just having a list of rules.
Look, let me ask you this, if you're skeptical,
and I'm going to show you a lot of scripture on this,
but let me just ask you this, if you're a mature Christian,
if you're advanced in your Christian life,
do you really go through life saying,
well, I'd like to kill, but I'm not going to because the Bible says thou shall not kill.
I'd like to steal, but I'm not going to because the Bible says not to.
I'd like to lie and cheat.
I would love to commit adultery, but you know what?
The Bible says not to.
I mean, I would love to stay home from church and skip soul winning and not read my Bible,
but the Bible says I have to, so I'm going to.
Is that a mature Christian life?
No, the mature Christian doesn't even want to steal.
He doesn't want to kill.
He doesn't want to commit adultery.
He wants to read his Bible.
He wants to go to church.
He wants to do what's right because his heart is filled with love for God
and love for his neighbor through the working of the Holy Spirit.
Now, you're not going to be perfect, and if anybody tells you
that you get to a point where you're perfect and sinless, they're a liar.
He's the apostle Paul who's writing the book wasn't even there.
He had a struggle with sin, according to Romans 7 that we'll get to later.
He struggled with sin.
He tells us in the book of Galatians, the flesh lusteth against the spirit,
the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one to the other
so that you cannot do the things that you would.
There's a battle going on.
There's a war going on.
You've got to mortify the flesh.
You've got to walk in the spirit.
You've got to die daily.
So don't let somebody tell you, oh yeah, you just get to a point
where you're totally without sin.
You're not going to be sinlessly perfect.
John said, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us.
God chastens those whom he loves and scourges every son whom he receiveth.
Well, guess what?
If you were doing everything right, you wouldn't need to be chastened and scourged.
He's not beating you for doing a good job.
That's when you mess up, right?
But you're a son of God.
You're being disciplined like a father disciplines a son.
But the point is that if we walk in the spirit,
we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
So if somebody's fulfilling the lust of the flesh, stealing, lying, lusting,
bearing false witness, whatever, that's just a guarantee.
That person's not walking in the spirit while they're doing that.
That's the flesh doing that.
That's a work of the flesh, right?
And the works of the flesh are manifest.
And the works of the spirit are manifest in this chapter as well.
So that's the difference.
Now, think about this.
The Galatians are trying to grow spiritually, okay?
Paul's writing them this letter because there's a problem.
They're being deceived.
They're being fooled.
Now, he's not sure whether all of them are even saved
because there are times in the book of Galatians where he doubts their salvation and says,
you know, have I bestowed labor on you in vain?
I'm afraid of you, you know, where he's even questioning the salvation.
So some of the things in the book are geared toward salvation because he's hoping that
they're not so confused that they're even mixed up on salvation.
But a lot of it doesn't have to do with salvation.
A lot of it's about sanctification and saying, hey, look, if you began with the spirit,
you're not going to be made perfect by the law.
You're going to be made perfect by the spirit, just like you got saved by the spirit.
But here's the problem in the church, okay, or churches of Galatia.
They had false teachers coming in and doing the Judaizing and telling them you've got
to be circumcised.
You've got to keep the law of Moses and these different things.
So picture this.
You have the Christians of Galatia.
They're saved.
They're on their way to heaven, and they want to grow.
They want to become a better Christian.
They want to walk with God, and here's what they do.
Here's how we're going to get closer to God.
We're going to get circumcised.
Here's how we're going to grow and get closer to God.
We're going to keep the Sabbath.
Here's how we're going to grow to the next level of our Christianity.
We're going to go to the Hebrew roots, right?
We're going to start keeping the feast days.
We're going to blow a trumpet on the new moon.
That's going to get us closer to God.
Oh, I know how we'll get closer to God.
We're going to do the Passover.
We're going to do the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
We're going to do the Feast of Tabernacles.
We're going to put a little fringe on our garment, right?
We're going to go to all these Hebrew roots, rituals.
That's going to get us closer to God, and Paul is saying,
You fool!
If you began in the Spirit, how's the law?
How are the weak and beggarly elements of this world
going to get you to the finish line of being a great Christian?
Look what the Bible says in chapter 4, verse 8.
Because in chapters 1 through 7, he talked about being under the tutors and governors,
being under the schoolmaster.
But how, look, once you grow up, you don't need that stuff anymore, right?
You don't need to be under the schoolmaster anymore.
So he says in verse 8,
How be it then when you knew not God?
Because being under the schoolmaster is talking about before you're saved.
Okay.
When you knew not God, you did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
But now after that you've known God, or rather are known of God,
how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements whereinto
you desire again to be in bondage?
You observe days and months and times and years.
I'm afraid of you lest I bestow upon you labor in vain.
Here's what he's saying.
School is a type of bondage.
Because when you're at school, you're not free at school.
They're telling you, look, you've got to be here at this time.
You're going to follow these rules.
You're going to sit down.
You're going to shut up.
You're going to read what we tell you to read.
You're going to do the work that we tell you to read.
There's not a lot of freedom in school.
There might even be a uniform.
There are all kinds of rules, and there are tutors and governors
breathing down your neck telling you exactly what to do.
Am I right?
Would you consider a school child experiencing the pinnacle of liberty?
When you graduate from school, you're stepping into liberty in that sense, aren't you?
And that's the illustration Paul's using.
He's saying, look, you were under the school master.
That's the law.
Getting out of school, graduating from school, that is now walking in the spirit,
being the born again Christian who walks in the spirit.
Now let me give you some illustrations on this.
Let's say riding a bike.
Let's say you don't know how to ride a bike.
You can't ride a bike.
So what do you use?
Training wheels.
Training wheels are for the guy that can't ride a bike.
Nobody who knows how to ride a bike uses training wheels.
Am I right?
It's that simple.
So the law are the training wheels.
Okay?
Basically, once we learn how to ride the bike, we don't need the training wheels anymore.
Okay?
Once we're saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, we don't need the law anymore to be our
school master to bring us to Christ because we're already there.
Okay.
So imagine this.
I use the training wheels.
I learned how to ride a bike.
Now I'm riding a bike without training wheels.
Okay?
And let's say I finished a 100-mile ride, a century ride.
And then imagine somebody coming to me after I complete that century ride and saying,
hey, listen, let me tell you how to take your bike riding to a whole new level.
Put these training wheels on your bike.
You're going to go to a higher level of bike riding by putting on these training wheels.
Those training wheels cannot improve your bike riding skills.
And it would be stupid to put them on your bike.
Am I right?
Okay.
Well, guess what?
That's exactly what Paul is saying here.
Hey, hey, you guys want to be a better Christian?
You want to be godly?
You want to be spiritual?
You want to overcome the flesh?
You want to do great works for God?
Here, put on this training wheel called the Sabbath.
Put on these training wheels called being circumcised.
Put on these training wheels called the feast days and the new moons and the trumpet.
Here's an animal sacrifice into the bargain.
Folks, those are the training wheels that those of us that are in Christ don't need.
We're not under the law.
And you say, well, what about the laws that, that, that still apply?
You know, thou shalt not kill.
Thou shall not see.
Hey, guess what?
We're already doing those things intuitively when we walk in the spirit anyway.
We're not out looking to murder and steal and do those things because we're,
if we walk in the spirit, we're not fulfilling the lust of flesh anyway.
Okay.
So when people try to come at you with these weak and beggarly elements of times, days,
years, months, the Sabbath, or they want to get you circumcised.
What they're trying to do, you've already graduated from school.
They're trying to put you back in kindergarten.
They want to enforce a nap on you when you don't need to take a nap.
I'm 37 years old.
I don't need a nap.
But what they're trying to do is tell you, hey, you need to take a nap.
You need your blanket.
You need your baba.
You need to go back to school.
You need to work on the alphabet.
I don't need the alphabet friend.
I already know how to read.
Don't try to put me back in some bondage where I'm locked in a classroom from 7 30
AM to four o'clock PM.
Hey, I've been there.
I've done that.
I've graduated from that.
I don't need that.
Okay.
I'm past that.
Don't try to take me backward and put me in that bondage of wasting seven hours of my
day sitting in school to learn something that I already know.
And that's what they're trying to do here.
And that's what Paul's preaching against in Galatians.
Let me give you another illustration.
Let's say I become a swimmer and I'm learning how to swim and I'm doing well.
And somebody says, hey, let me help you take your swimming to a new level.
Put on these water wings, put these sucker, put on this life jacket, man.
You're going to be a great swimmer.
Is that going to help?
No, that's for people who don't know how to swim.
I know how to swim.
Okay.
The school master is for those that are not yet to Christ and inhabited by the Holy Spirit.
They need the school master.
Okay.
How about this?
You just finished precalculus, right?
You've done geometry, trigonometry, algebra two, precalculus.
Hey, let me get you on these multiplication tables.
Let's put you in third grade math for two hours a day.
Is that what you need?
Folks, that's the Hebrew roots movement right there.
That's this Judaizing movement.
That's this movement that wants to take you back under the law, bring you back into bondage.
But you know what?
It's not just the Judaizers, friend.
It's anybody who thinks that they're going to become a great Christian simply by following
rules.
Following rules is not going to make you a great Christian.
Now, being a great Christian is going to make you follow the rules.
Amen.
Look, if I'm a great Christian, I'm going to follow the rules.
I'm not going to lie.
I'm not going to steal.
I'm not going to murder.
I'm not going to commit adultery.
But is following the rules going to make me a great Christian?
No.
You see how this is a one-way valve.
Walking in the Spirit causes me to fulfill the law of God.
If I walk in the Spirit and I'm walking in love, the Bible says love is the fulfillment
of the law and love worketh no ill to his neighbor.
So I'm going to fulfill the law by walking in the Spirit.
But is fulfilling the law going to make me walk in the Spirit?
No.
Is following a rule going to make me walk in the Spirit?
No.
But is walking in the Spirit going to make me follow the rule?
And I won't even know that I'm following the rule necessarily.
I'm just walking in the Spirit.
See, the law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient, for ungodly
and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers,
manslayers, liars, perjured persons.
That's who the law is made for.
The righteous man is not under the law, right?
He doesn't have to sit there and worry about, oh, what are the do's and don'ts?
Because you know what?
He already knows what the do's and don'ts are and he's already walking in the Spirit.
Now, I know that you might not fully explain yet what I'm saying and that's why the sermon's
not over, okay?
So I'm going to explain this further, okay?
God uses the illustration here in chapter four of the schoolmaster, the tutors, the
governors, right?
Getting us to salvation and then, okay, we graduate and we're no longer under those things.
Let's go to that actual illustration and think about like school, okay?
I was thinking about Bible college, okay?
When I was in Bible college, they had some strict rules.
You know, you had to be clean-shaven.
Now, is that a biblical rule or is that an arbitrary rule?
That is an arbitrary rule.
The Bible doesn't say, thou shalt shave, okay?
So that was an arbitrary rule that they had.
Shave, you have to dress a certain way.
Some schools even have a school uniform, right?
There are all these rules at school and then they're also dictating to me what I had to
learn.
You know, I had to go to an English class and learn English.
I have to go to this Bible class and learn this about the Bible.
You know, just whatever the classes, science, history, whatever, those classes and that
curriculum was dictated to me by someone else.
I didn't just go to school every day and learn what I wanted to learn.
They're saying, no, this is what you're going to learn.
I didn't show up when I wanted to show up.
They said, you show up at eight o'clock.
I didn't show up looking how I wanted to look.
They said, you're going to show up clean-shaven and you're going to be wearing a suit and
tie.
There's no choice.
Is that freedom or bondage?
That's bondage because I'm under their rules, under their authority, having to follow their
arbitrary rules.
Now while I'm there, I'm being taught how to learn.
I'm being taught certain subjects.
I'm also being taught how to act, how to dress, how to have character, showing up on
time.
I'm learning how to work and be a hard worker.
I'm learning how to study, whatever.
Okay, when I graduate from that institution, now I'm free, right?
No, I didn't graduate.
I left.
But anyway, that's another story.
So when I get out of that institution, I'm not going to shave anymore.
Why?
Because that's an arbitrary rule.
I don't need to shave to be a good preacher or a good Christian or anything.
I'm going to have a beard, okay?
I don't need to follow every rule that they had for me.
But the things that they taught me there are going to guide me going forward in the sense
of, okay, yeah, they're making me learn X, Y, and Z.
When I get out of there, now I have freedom.
I'm not going to be studying necessarily X, Y, and Z, but I am going to be studying A,
B, and C.
Why?
Because I am going to choose what I'm going to study now.
Now imagine this.
What if I went to school or college or whatever and I got out of school and I said, you know
what?
I'm done learning.
I'm never going to read a book again.
I'm never going to study ever again.
I'm going to do everything the opposite of what I was taught.
Well, wouldn't that be stupid?
And you know what that would show?
I didn't learn what I needed to learn there.
Okay.
But if I graduate and I walk in liberty and walk in freedom and I say, hey, I'm still
studying, but I'm studying what I want to study.
I'm still living a godly life, but I'm doing it on my terms, not on someone else's terms.
I have my own walk with God.
I don't need them to tell me exactly how to do my walk with God because now I'm on
my own doing my walk with God and it's between me and him and I'm not following arbitrary
rules.
I'm following the Bible's rules and my own rules that jive with the Bible.
Does everybody see what I'm saying?
What about your parents?
When you grow up with your parents, your parents have rules for you.
What are your parents doing?
Your parents are teaching you how to live your life.
When you leave home, do you just do everything the opposite of what they taught you?
No.
You continue to do what they taught you, but your parents have certain arbitrary rules
that you may not continue doing once you get out of the house because now you have more
freedom.
Look, when you're living at home, do you have total freedom?
No.
Your parents will have rules that are sometimes arbitrary, what time to get up, what time
to go to bed.
Now, let's say your parents are telling you, hey, you got to brush your teeth and they're
enforcing that.
Brush your teeth.
Does that mean, yes, I'm out of the house, never going to brush my teeth again?
The difference is I don't need somebody to tell me to brush my teeth.
I'm brushing my teeth anyway.
I don't need my mom.
Now, my mom's here tonight.
She's not going to tell me tonight, now, Steven, brush your teeth before bed, right?
Is that what she's going to say?
She taught me a lot of things that are truths that I need to continue doing.
I'm not just going to stop doing and stop living the way that she taught me to live
my life.
The way that she taught me to live my life is the way I'm going to continue living my
life.
But what about certain arbitrary rules that she had?
Now, I had a hard time thinking of arbitrary rules because she had good rules that made
sense.
But, you know, I was thinking about some of the arbitrary rules that she had.
Like, for example, only four cookies.
Okay, she just had a rule that you maxed out at four cookies.
Now, here's the thing.
That doesn't mean that I'm just going to go through the rest of my life saying, you know,
I can only have four cookies, four cookies, just four cookies, no more than four.
Mom said no more than four.
I'm not, that'd be ridiculous, wouldn't it?
But here's the thing.
The principle, I'm still going to follow the principle.
Don't overeat.
Don't be a glutton.
Don't indulge.
Okay.
Or what about this?
You know, my parents had a rule.
Sorry about some of these stories, mom.
But my parents had a rule.
You know, when we went out to eat or fast food or whatever, you got what's on sale.
Whatever's the special, whatever's the sale item, you don't just order whatever.
We didn't just walk in, just order whatever we want.
It was get what's on sale, right?
Who's ever been in a house where that was the rule, right?
Yeah, of course.
See?
So does that mean for the rest of my life, anytime I walk in a restaurant, it's like,
I got to get what's on sale.
Now, I'm still going to follow the principle of, you know, being frugal, not just blowing
money, not being wasteful or indulgent or a hedonist.
But I'm not necessarily going to follow the letter of that arbitrary law of get what's
on sale, only four cookies.
Although the principle is something I'm still going to follow.
And in general, I'm going to live my life the way my parents taught me to live my life.
But do I need to go back under my mom's rules?
Do I need to say, okay, mom, you're here for the week.
Can you please just tell me what to do all week?
Can you make sure I brush my teeth?
Can you tell me when to get up?
Can you tell me when to go to bed?
Can you please dictate my life to me?
And in fact, let's revisit that year that you homeschooled me.
And I want you to homeschool me this week.
I want you to teach me tumbling class like you did for PE where we did the headstands
and the tripod and the back handsprings and all that that you taught me.
Let's do that again.
Folks, that would be silly, wouldn't it?
Because I'm not under the schoolmaster anymore.
My mom comes and visits me.
She doesn't have to give me a spanking and make me do my work.
It's ridiculous, right?
But you know what?
That's what the Judaizers are doing in Galatians.
And that's even what, even people that aren't Judaizers,
people think that not only does salvation come by the law,
but what about the people who think, well, we're saved by grace through faith,
but sanctification comes by the law.
We're made perfect.
We start out in the spirit, right?
We start out with the hearing of faith, but we're made perfect by the flesh.
We're made perfect by following a set of rules.
Go to church three times a week.
Read your Bible every day for this amount of time, right?
Pray this amount of time.
Don't sin.
Don't do this.
Don't do that.
Do this.
Do that.
Folks, that's not how you're made perfect, okay?
You're made perfect by the spirit.
Now what is it like to walk in the spirit?
And by the way, another word on the arbitrary rules when you're growing up.
Some of those rules made sense at the time,
but they don't make sense anymore in 2019 or at this stage in my life.
Like, for example, there was a rule in our house,
no long-distance phone calls, you know?
And when I grew up in Sacramento, California,
there's a river that cuts Sacramento in half.
You could literally see someone's house,
but if they're on the other side of the river, it's long distance.
They could live two miles away,
but if they're on the other side of the river,
you must first dial a one before making this call.
So if you dial the seven digits without the one, it'll warn you,
hey, you need to dial a one.
And then when you dial a one, that means you're paying.
And I'm not talking about the area code
because if they were in a different area code,
then you have to go one, five, three, oh, and then the phone number.
But even if they're in your same 916 Sacramento area code,
if they're on the other side of the river,
you have to dial a one first, okay?
So my parents, they didn't want us making long-distance calls.
And even if I said to my parents, I'll pay for it.
They said, we don't want it on our phone bill.
We don't want to mess with it.
Just don't make any long-distance calls, okay?
Now, look, does that rule make sense in 2019 to say,
you know, if they live on the other side of the river,
don't call them because long distance isn't even a thing anymore.
Long distance across that river doesn't even exist.
I mean, if you lived in Sacramento right now
and somebody lives on the other side of the river,
you can call them no problem.
It's not going to cost you any money.
But when we were a kid, you know, local phone calls,
that was a tight area, at least in Sacramento.
Okay, well, here's the thing.
The laws of God in the Old Testament, the meats, the drinks,
the carnal ordinances, the divers washings, the Sabbath, the new moon, the feast days,
they made sense at the time, but they don't make sense anymore.
They made sense when there's a temple at Jerusalem.
They made sense when Christ hasn't died on the cross yet
and we're figuring, pre-figuring and pointing people to Christ.
So we're doing these rituals as a picture,
pointing us to Christ, the shadow of things to come.
Hey, that made sense for the children of Israel to offer a burnt offering.
It doesn't make any sense for us today to offer a burnt offering,
just like it doesn't make any sense for me to say,
I can't call you because you live on the other side of the river.
That doesn't make any sense.
Well, it makes just as little sense to offer a burnt offering.
And you know what?
You say, well, we're not going to offer a burnt offering.
We're just going to get circumcised.
Well, you know what?
If you get circumcised, you're a debtor to do the whole law.
That's what it says in Galatians 5, verse 2, right?
Hey, if you are circumcised, you are a debtor to do the whole law.
You can't just pick and choose and say,
well, I'm just going to do the circumcision, the new moon.
I'll take a side of Passover and sprinkle on a little bit of trumpet sounding and ram's horn
and give me Shabbat Shalom.
OK, well then, you know what?
Do a burnt offering too.
Do the whole thing or else do nothing.
You can't just piecemeal it, folks.
If you're circumcised, you're a debtor to do the whole law.
Because circumcision is not a right and wrong moral issue that you take with you for the
rest of your life.
It was an arbitrary thing that was imposed on them until, until, until the time of Reformation.
But Christ being come, guess what?
It's not imposed on us anymore.
There's nothing intrinsically wrong about working on a Saturday.
There's nothing intrinsically wrong about having a foreskin.
There's nothing intrinsically wrong about not blowing a trumpet when the new moon comes out.
Those were things that were arbitrarily imposed on them.
The meats, the drinks, the washings, the divers.
Look, they don't apply anymore.
You want to be brought under those weak and beggarly elements because you think it's going
to bring you closer to God and you're foolish if you think that.
These Judaizers, why do they want to get into the Sabbath?
Why do they want to get into the unleavened bread?
Why do they want to get into, you know, keeping these carnal ordinances of the Hebrew roots
movement?
I'll tell you why.
Because they think it's going to bring them closer to God.
They think it makes them more righteous.
You know what?
Are training wheels going to make you a better bike rider?
Is, is me being homeschooled by my mom going to make me a better scholar if she goes back
and says, all right, you know, we're going to do multiplication tables today so I can
be a better pastor so I can preach better and be more intelligent and a better scholar.
She's going to take me back to school homeschool this week and I can become a better athlete
by her teaching me tumbling again, tumbling.
That was my homeschool PE.
That was my favorite class when I was homeschooled tumbling.
Now let me give you an example of what it's like to, to walk in the spirit.
Okay.
Now the Bible says, if you will flip over to Galatians five, of course the Bible tells
us that we're called the Liberty, but don't use Liberty for an occasion to the flesh.
I'll use Liberty for an occasion of the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Verse 16, this I say, then walk in the spirit and you should not fulfill the lust of the
flesh for the flesh lusted against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.
And these are contrary to one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you
would, meaning that when you're in the flesh, you can't do the things that you want to do
the right things.
You can't do those things when you're walking in the flesh.
That's why you got to die daily and walk in the spirit and put off the works of the flesh.
Watch verse 18.
But if you be led of the spirit, you're not under the law.
Folks, when you're led of the spirit, you're not under the law.
He says, now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies, envies, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like.
Now stop and think about this.
What if somebody tells me I'm walking in the spirit, but then they're doing these things.
They're committing sins.
Because he said, and such like, it's not just this one list.
Don't do this stuff on this list.
Anything like that.
He's just giving examples.
These are examples of works of the flesh.
Okay.
Anything like that is the same story.
And he says, of the which I tell you before is I've also told you in time past that they
would do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Now that's not saying, hey, if you ever sin, you're not going to because everybody says,
but here's the part of us that sins is the flesh and the flesh is not going to inherit
the kingdom of God.
The old Steven Anderson's not inherited the kingdom of God.
Only the new Steven Anderson is going to inherit the kingdom of God.
The old Steven Anderson is going to have to die off.
Okay.
But right now there's both.
There's the flesh and the spirit, old man, new man.
I'll get that a little bit more in a moment, but I think everybody understands the doctrine
that I've laid out so far in the sermon.
Right.
I think it makes sense.
Now, let me tell you how this doctrine gets abused.
It's a great doctrine.
I mean, it's what Galatians is all about.
Here's where the doctrine gets abused is where the liberal crowd, the new evangelical crowd,
here's what they'll say.
They'll say, hey man, we're free in Christ.
We're not under the law.
And then you see them going out and doing what?
Committing a bunch of sin.
So you see them, they're out there, they're drinking, they're getting a tattoo, they're
fornicating, they're walking in the flesh.
And here's what they say.
Hey man, I'm free in Christ.
And then you try to tell them, hey, wait a minute.
Didn't the Bible tell you to abstain from fornication?
Didn't the Bible tell you not to print any marks on your body?
Didn't the Bible tell you not to be drunk with wine?
Didn't the Bible tell you that a man should not put on a woman's garment?
And here's what they'll say.
Whoa, man, you're trying to bring me back under bondage.
I'm free in Christ.
But hold on a second.
You're not under the law if you're walking in the Spirit.
Are you walking in the Spirit when you're committing sins?
When you're doing stuff that the Bible specifically says, don't do this.
How can you then turn around and say, oh, I'm walking in the Spirit right now.
So the Spirit led you into the bar?
So the Spirit led you to the casino to gamble?
Whoa, you're a legalist.
Wait a minute, buddy.
I don't want you to be under the law.
I want you to walk in the Spirit.
I don't want you under the schoolmaster.
But you know what?
When you're going to the casino, when you're going to the bar,
when I see you just carnal and fulfilling, lust after lust after lust,
and you're a drunk, you're a glutton, you're a fornicator, you're gambling,
you're doing, look, the Spirit didn't lead you to do that stuff.
So who are you kidding?
Now, let me give an example on this.
Think about the English language.
At some point, you have to learn English grammar.
You have to learn what is right grammar and what is wrong grammar.
But then you get to a point where you understand English grammar,
and you don't need to learn those things anymore because you already know them, right?
Now, let me ask you this.
When you spoke English today, throughout the day,
were you constantly like, subject, verb, indirect object, direct object,
adverb, adjective, you know?
Were you like parsing every verb and diagramming every sentence as you spoke?
No.
When you speak English, you speak it intuitively.
It just comes naturally to you.
You just speak English.
How are you doing that?
Because I know English.
So I'm just speaking English.
And it comes naturally.
It's called being fluent.
It just flows.
The language just flows out of your mouth.
Why?
Because you learned it in the past.
Now you know English.
Now, do I have to carry around a grammar book with me
and keep looking up grammatical rules to form a sentence?
I know how to speak English.
Okay?
Am I going to become a better preacher by learning what a noun and a verb is?
No, because I already know what a noun and a verb are.
If I had to spend eight hours tomorrow in a seminar on what adjectives, verbs,
nouns, and prepositions are, that would be a waste of my time.
It would be bondage because I'm past that.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
But what if somebody says, he hasn't even went to school?
Does that person need a grammar book?
He hasn't even went to school for that.
He hasn't went.
You can't say has went.
You say has gone.
Okay?
Has went is back.
Now, if somebody's butchering the English language and somebody says, you need to stop.
And you need to understand how to speak English.
You're not speaking English right.
Whoa, man.
I'm free in English.
You're trying to bring me the bondage of all this grammar, all these dos and don'ts, man.
I don't want to just go around thinking about nouns and verbs all day, man.
I just want to talk.
I want you to talk, too.
Right.
I don't want you to think about nouns.
I don't want you to think about verbs.
I don't want you to think about adjectives or adverbs.
But I want you to speak in a coherent sentence that makes sense.
And I don't want you to butcher the English language.
And you know, the reason somebody has to tell you about your grammar.
Oh, you grammar Nazi, grammar Nazi, legalist.
No, you're destroying the language.
So this is what it's like when this doctrine gets abused and people just go around just
butchering the language and they say, oh, man, we don't need all the grammar, man.
It's about relationship with the language.
You have a dysfunctional relationship with the English language.
OK, you do need to go back to school.
It's the same way with people who try to claim that they're walking in the spirit.
But then here they are fulfilling the lust of the flesh.
They're not loving one another.
They're not serving one another.
They're doing ill to their neighbor.
They're doing ill to the Lord instead of serving the Lord.
They're defiling the temple of God.
Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
They're defiling the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Folks, that's not the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
That's not being led to the spirit.
That's not walking in the spirit.
Because if you walk in the spirit, you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
So how do I know if I'm walking in the spirit?
Because I'm doing the right things, and I'm not fulfilling the lust of the flesh.
Right?
How do I know if I'm in the flesh?
Because I'm doing the works of the flesh.
They're manifest, meaning they're not hidden.
We know what they are.
And when we're doing them, that's the flesh.
And when we're doing the right things, that's the spirit.
OK, and you say, what does this have to do with salvation?
So basically, we need to walk in the grammatical spirit
and will not fulfill the bastardization of the language.
Do you see what I'm saying?
To use that illustration, OK?
And by the way, let me just go off on a little tangent here.
You know these Bible colleges with their Greek professors
and the pastors who get up and go back to the Greek behind the pulpit?
They don't know Greek.
So when they read the Bible in Greek or look up a verse in Greek,
they don't just pick up the Bible and just read it in Greek,
like someone who actually knew the language.
You know what they're doing?
They're having to get out a lexicon, and they're having to parse every verb,
and they have to solve it like a Sudoku puzzle.
To read one verse in the Bible is like doing a puzzle to them.
Versus the person who actually knows Greek just picks up the Greek New Testament
and just reads it for pleasure, just reads it for a daily devotion,
just reads it to just enjoy and have God speak to them.
They don't have to be like, oh man, you know, look, it's a lot of work
when you don't know the language and you're trying to pretend that you do.
Whereas if you actually know it, it becomes a pleasure.
It's a joy.
You're reaching for it.
You want to read.
You want to enjoy.
Why?
Because language is intuitive.
Now you start out under the schoolmaster, you learn the grammar, you learn the vocab.
Then it becomes intuitive, and then you become fluent, and you flow.
You can read fully, you can speak fully.
Does everybody see the difference?
Well, how about your Christian life?
What you want to do is be fluent in your Christian life,
and you don't have to follow strict rules.
Now here's the thing, this is not teaching loose living.
If you think it is, then let's go back a couple minutes in the sermon.
We talked about the abuse of this doctrine.
The abuse of this doctrine lives a loose life and then says, look at me, I'm walking in the spirit.
Really?
Because that's not what walking in the spirit looks like.
If I look at your life and it matches up with the word of God, then you're walking in the spirit.
But when I look at your life and it looks carnal, it looks fleshly, worldly, serving yourself,
serving sin, you're the servant of sin.
I'm free in Christ.
No, you're a servant to sin.
You're in bondage to sin is what you're doing when you live loose with your life.
I'm not saying live loose.
What I'm saying is walk in the spirit and you'll find yourself wanting to do what's right
and doing what's right intuitively, not having to sit there and think, okay,
what does God command in this instance?
You'll intuitively do it right because you love God and you love her.
Do you honestly think for one second that if you had total love for God in your heart
and total love for your neighbor in your heart, you're going to do anything wrong?
No, anytime you do wrong, it's a heart failure.
It's the love toward God failing or the love toward your neighbor failing.
That's what causes you to do wrong.
It's the walking in the flesh.
Don't tell me you're walking in the spirit and you're just going to do wrong
while in the spirit.
That doesn't make sense.
Now where the false doctrine comes in is where people teach,
Hey, I'm in the spirit all the time.
No, you're not because the Paul wasn't.
John wasn't.
We have to die daily.
This isn't a one time thing.
Every day we have to put on the new man walk in the spirit.
So you say, well, pastor Anderson, you know, why even, why even read the Bible then?
You know, why read the Bible if the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ and
we're already to Christ, shouldn't we just walk in the spirit?
What do we need to read about?
Here's why you read the Bible.
Because reading the Bible is part of how you get in the spirit.
Okay.
The Bible says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom, teaching and
admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs in the parallel passage
that says be filled with the spirit, speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs.
So letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom is connected to being
filled with the spirit.
How do we even walk in the spirit?
Now that's a whole nother sermon.
How to walk in the spirit.
But tonight's sermon is about the necessity of walking in the spirit versus doing commandments
in order to become a great Christian.
I'm saying get your heart right to become a great Christian.
Walk in the spirit to become a great Christian.
Love God to become a great Christian.
Love your neighbor to become a great Christian.
Be filled with the spirit.
You'll never be made perfect by the works of law.
Just like you didn't get saved by the works of law, you're not going to be made perfect
by the works of the law.
It's the spirit that gets you to B, C, D, all the way down the Christian life.
It's all done through the spirit.
Reading the Bible is part of how we walk in the spirit.
Praying is part of how we walk in the spirit.
Singing hymns is part of how we walk in the spirit.
I mean, how do we get there, folks?
Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
How do we get there?
Reading the Bible.
How do we get there?
Going to church.
How do we get there?
Praying.
That's how we get there, folks.
But you can't just force yourself to keep rules and beat yourself into submission like
a Catholic, like, you know, do these rules and starve yourself and go lay on a concrete
slab and be celibate and everything.
Folks, that's not the answer.
Walking in the spirit is the answer.
Be led of the spirit.
That's the answer.
Folks, the scripture is clear.
Let's look at scripture now.
What does it say in Galatians 5, verse 1?
Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Behold, I, Paul, saying to you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he's a debtor to do the whole law.
Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law.
You're fallen from grace.
For we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith, for in Jesus Christ,
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by
love.
Is circumcision going to bring you closer to God?
No.
Is blowing a trumpet on the new moon going to bring you closer to God?
No.
What's going to bring you closer to God?
Faith which worketh by love.
Is going to bring you closer to God.
Verse 13, for brethren, you've been called unto liberty.
Only use not liberty for an occasion of the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Verse 18, but if you be led of the spirit, you're not under the law.
Look at verse 22, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such.
There is no law.
Look, when you're walking in the spirit, you fulfill the law.
You don't break the law.
What does the Bible say in verse 24?
They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.
Look at verse 12 of chapter 6.
Chapter 6, verse 12.
I'm trying to hurry up and get done here, but I want to flip over to Romans right after
this and show you that not only does Galatians teach this, but Romans teaches the exact
same thing, just to get a second witness that we're not just relying on Galatians alone,
but Romans is teaching the exact same doctrine.
Galatians 6, 12.
As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised,
only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ, for neither they themselves
who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory
in your flesh.
But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.
How is Paul such a great Christian?
Is it because he was just really good at following the rules?
He just forced himself to follow the rules?
He just made a list of the rules, the dos and the don'ts, and just said, I got to do
this stuff?
Or is it because he's crucified unto the world and the world's crucified unto him because
he's in Christ, he's walking in the Spirit?
Now, let me make this clear at this point.
Getting saved does not automatically mean, oh, I'm not under the law anymore.
I can just, you know, I'm just going to intuitively do right now.
Getting saved gives you the ability to walk in the Spirit.
You can't walk in the Spirit when you're unsaved.
Can an unsaved person walk in the Spirit?
No, they don't even have the Spirit.
Getting saved gets you access to the Holy Spirit's transformative power, and it gives
you the new creature, the new man.
Now you can put on the new man.
Now you can walk in the Spirit.
Now you can put on the new man and put off the old man.
So here's the thing.
That's why he said, when you get saved, now you're no longer under the schoolmaster
because, boom, now you got the Holy Spirit, which is superior to the schoolmaster.
So you got the schoolmaster.
Here's a more excellent way than just following dos and don'ts.
Walking in the Spirit is the next level.
So does it make sense to say, all right, I was following dos and don'ts.
My parents told me, do this, do that.
The law of God told me, do this, do that.
Now I'm saved.
Now I have the ability to walk in the Spirit.
All right, let's go back under the schoolmaster.
Does that make sense?
All right, let's go back to school.
Let's go back into bondage.
Does that make any sense?
No, now that we've got the Spirit, let's walk in the Spirit.
And that's our path to Christian greatness is through the Spirit, not the works of the
law.
Okay, he says they want you to be circumcised.
But look, I'm only going to glory in the cross of Christ.
Look at verse 15.
Here's the key.
For in Christ, Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything.
What is availeth anything?
It means makes anything available, right?
Makes, you know, how do I get, how do I unlock the next level of Christianity?
How do I unlock the next level?
Oh, it's by getting circumcised.
Wrong.
How do I move to the next level?
Oh, it's by observing the Sabbath and wearing a funny hat.
Wrong.
Because circumcision doesn't, it doesn't unlock any new levels.
That key unlocks no doors.
Circumcision doesn't avail anything.
Uncircumcision doesn't avail anything.
But a new creature, you know what, that avails.
That opens up a whole world of serving God and following Christ and doing right and being
a great person.
The new creature.
Boy, the new creature unlocks every, all the potential.
We have the ability now to walk in the spirit and to do right and to grow in the Lord.
Look, you started with the spirit.
Are you going to be made perfect by the works of the law?
You may be made perfect by the flesh.
No way.
He says a new creature and as many as walk according to this rule, peace beyond them
and mercy and upon the Israel God.
Go to Romans seven and I'll be done.
Romans chapter seven.
We're just going to quickly read through Romans.
I want you to think about everything that I just taught you from Galatians.
So I just explained all this doctrine from Galatians.
I showed you chapter two, chapter three, chapter four, chapter five, chapter six, and if you
read Galatians with this in mind, instead of just only focusing on the salvation message,
which that's the most important message, but guess what?
We're saved.
Ninety some percent of people are already saved.
Let's learn the other message that Galatians has for us that teaches us how to go to the
next level spiritually, what it means to walk in the spirit and not be under the law.
Now with everything I just explained to you, all the illustrations I gave you, I use the
school master illustration and I elaborated on that and you've heard all that.
You understand all that.
Now I just want you to read with me Romans chapter eight with everything I just explained
to you from Galatians in mind and just see how it makes perfect sense.
Now look at Romans seven, 25.
I want to start there because Romans seven, we're not going to talk about, but it's the
battle where Paul talks about, man, I want to do the right thing and I ended up doing
the wrong thing.
Who's going to deliver me from the body?
Listen, anybody who teaches that this is retrospective is a heretic.
This is talking about the struggle that Paul was currently struggling with.
They're like, Oh, that was before he was safe.
Like what?
Paul had no sin.
They want to teach that Paul had no sin because they're a heretic because they believe in
work salvation because they believe in sinless perfection or whatever the garbage doctrine.
Anybody I've ever heard who tried to turn Romans seven on said, in fact, I think I'll
preach a sermon called turning Romans seven on its head.
Oh yeah, I already did.
I preached a whole sermon called turning Romans seven on its head.
Everybody who I've ever heard teach that is unsaved because why would they even have a
motive to twist scripture that bad?
They don't want to accept the fact that people still sin after they're saved and they want
to teach this Lordship salvation heresy.
That's what's going on.
But if you actually read Romans seven, Paul's talking about the battle going on and here's
the proof.
You know, remember Jesse Lee Peterson when I took him to school and I bet and he basically,
how can you serve two masters?
How can you serve two masters?
You can't ride two horses.
How can you serve two mess?
Look at Romans seven, 25.
I thank God through Christ Jesus, our Lord.
So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin.
So what's Paul saying?
According to the inward man, I delight in the law of God, but there's another law I
find in my members warring against the law by bringing me into captivity, the sinful
flesh, the sinful nature.
Oh, that's before he was safe.
Oh really?
So before he was saved, he delighted in the law of God up the inward man.
Before he was saved, he served God with the inward man.
Don't be a fool.
Okay.
He's got the inward man right because he's saved, but the flesh is still there.
That's why Paul said in my flesh dwell in no good thing.
So let's roll into chapter eight.
Now with that in mind, verse one, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin
and death.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his
own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after
the spirit.
Look, we fulfill the law of God.
How?
By walking in the spirit.
It's fulfilled.
The law couldn't do it.
Not only could the law not save us, the law couldn't even sanctify us.
But what the law could not do, Christ's death, burial, and resurrection did by saving us,
giving us the spirit, and now by walking in the spirit we end up fulfilling the law.
How?
Through the flesh, through the works of the law?
No, through walking in the spirit.
He says, for they that are after the flesh, verse five, do mind the things of the flesh,
but they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit, for to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is amity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
You can try to do those do's and don'ts as hard as you want, but if you're walking in
the flesh, you will fail.
You have to walk in the spirit.
It's the only way.
The law can't sanctify you.
Only the Holy Spirit can sanctify you, because the carnal mind is amity with God.
Did I read verse six?
I'm sorry.
I already read verse seven.
Okay, verse eight.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God, but ye are not in the flesh, but
in the spirit, if so be the spirit of God dwell in you.
Now, if any men have not the spirit of Christ, he's none of his.
You don't have the Holy Spirit, you're not even saved.
Everybody who's saved has the spirit, so they have the ability to walk in the spirit.
Doesn't mean they're always going to do it, but now they have access to that.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin.
Your body hasn't been quickened yet.
Your body is still the same old sinful flesh that it was before, but the spirit is life
because of righteousness.
But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth
in you.
Therefore, brethren, here's the key, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after
the flesh.
Look, we are debtors, not to live after the flesh, but to live after the spirit.
That's what we ought to be doing.
Is it automatic?
No.
Is the flesh gone?
Is the sinful nature gone?
Now we just intuitively do right.
If we walk in the spirit, we intuitively do right.
We walk in the spirit, we don't fulfill the lust of the flesh.
But if we're in the flesh, you're going to do the sins that you did before you were saved.
Look, if someone walks in the flesh, they will be exactly like they were before they
were saved.
They will be exactly, look, if someone gets saved, the old man doesn't change at all,
the flesh doesn't change at all.
If you walk in the flesh, you will be like you were before you were saved.
If you walk in the spirit, you'll be a totally different person.
You're the new man, the new creature.
But you can't reform the old man.
You say, no, no, no, I think about walking in the flesh, I'll still be a little better
than, oh, really?
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God and cannot be subject to the laws of God.
So it sounds like he's the same old guy he was before you were saved.
He can't be reformed.
And not only that, you say, well, it's retrospective of back before he was saved.
Oh, really?
Because even in chapter 8, he still talks about waiting.
Look at verse 23.
Not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves
groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body.
Look, we're still groaning.
Why?
Because we still have sin.
Because we still have the flesh.
Because our body is death.
But the spirit is life.
But we have both a sinful body and a godly spirit.
We're groaning, waiting for that day.
Isn't it going to be great when we shed this sinful flesh and we never sin again?
Wouldn't it be great to be just completely free from sin?
I mean, total liberty from sin, no lust, no desire to do wrong, but rather just a total
sinless perfection.
Well, you know what?
When you die, that's what you're going to experience.
When you go to heaven, you'll have no sin.
You'll never sin again.
Or if you make it to the second coming of Christ, same thing.
You know, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
So you see how Romans 8 makes perfect sense.
You know, once you get that right teaching from Galatians, we could have done the whole
sermon in Romans and then said, hey, let's go back this up from Galatians now.
Okay.
And we would have ended up at the same destination.
We could have got salvation by faith from Romans.
And then we could have got this doctrine that says, hey, look, you're perfected in the
spirit.
Okay.
So what's the practical message here?
The practical message is that if you want to grow as a Christian, if you want to be
made perfect, if you want to be to the next level spiritually, which look, if you didn't
want that, you probably wouldn't be in church on a Sunday night.
The reason you're in church on a Sunday night is because of the fact that you want to grow.
You want to move to the next level.
You want to achieve higher levels of spiritual growth.
You want to be a better person.
You want to be a better Christian.
You want to be a better father, a better mother, a better brother, a better sister, a better
employee, a better.
Look, you want to be a great Christian.
Don't be a fool that goes to these weak and beggarly elements where you think that
keeping some holiday or trimming some flesh off your body or some carnal thing or even
just listing out all God's commandments and saying, you know what, I'm just going to
force myself to do this stuff.
You know what, you're barking up the wrong tree.
You want to go to the next level spiritually, you get into your Bible and read it to commune
with God, to love God, to be filled with the Spirit of God.
Sing hymns to commune with God, to worship God, to love God, love God, love your neighbor,
walk in the Spirit, sing the hymns and let your heart burn within you as you sing the
hymns.
Read the Bible and let your heart burn within you as you read the Bible.
Love the Bible.
Love it.
Not just, well, I got to read my Bible.
You know what, if you spend the rest of your life forcing yourself to do what's right,
you know what, you're not going to last long because your willpower is going to run out.
Eventually willpower runs out.
You know, have you ever noticed that people who hate going to the gym, but they force
themselves to go to the gym anyway, quit pretty fast?
You know who continues going to the gym or continues working out?
People who love working out.
Am I right?
The people who keep on staying in shape is because they love staying in shape.
The people who keep reading the Bible are the people who love reading the Bible.
The people who keep going to church are the people who love going to church.
The people who get the sin out of their life are the people who hate sin.
They hate sin.
That's why you say, well, I just don't feel that way.
Then you better get on your knees and beg God and say, you know what, God, I'm saved.
I know I'm saved.
I believe in Christ.
God, I want to love you.
I want to love church.
I want to love the word of God.
I want to hate sin.
I want to do what's right because I'm walking in the spirit, not because I'm just following
a rule book.
And you know what?
If you ask, it shall be given unto you.
Nobody seeks God and doesn't find him.
Everyone that asketh receiveth.
Everyone that seeketh findeth.
And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened unto him.
If you get on your face before God and seek God and pray to God and say, change me,
from the inside, make me a new creature.
Hey, look, you're already saved, but you know what?
You're never going to walk and live like a new creature until you put on that new man.
You know, you could have the best suit in the world, but if it's in your closet on the
hanger, it doesn't make you look any better until you put it on.
Am I right?
You own it.
It's there.
It belongs to you, but are you wearing it?
That's how the new man is.
If you're saved, the new man's there, pull it out of the closet and put it on.
And you'll never convince me that somebody gets on their knees and begs God, fill me
with the Spirit.
Oh, God, fill me with the Holy Spirit, God.
I love you, God.
Help me to love your word.
Help me to love church.
Help me to love your people.
Help me to love my neighbor.
Help me to love Christ.
Nobody's going to get on their knees and beg God and then open their Bible and read
their Bible and then show up for church and then just say, well, I just don't feel anything.
Well, then you're not even saved.
You must not even be saved because the new man must not even be there.
The Holy Spirit must not even be there.
If you could go through all that and just nothing happens and you just don't care, I
still don't care, then you know what?
You need to get saved because if you're saved, the new man's there.
Paul said, I delight in the law of God.
There's no such thing as a saved person who doesn't delight in the law of God.
If the inward man.
Now there are a lot of saved people who do a lot of bad stuff and you might look at their
life and say, that person doesn't even, you know, I can't even see a difference between
them in the world.
Why?
Because they're in the old man.
But if you're saved, the love of God's down there somewhere.
And if you search your heart and you can't find the love of God anywhere, if you search
your heart and can't find a desire to live for God anywhere, you are not saved.
It is that simple because being saved is a transformation of the spirit.
And if your spirit is regenerated, then you have the love of God in there.
You have a desire to live for God.
Now it might be quenched.
It might be so crowded with all the thorns and weeds of all the worldliness.
You might've just pumped your mind full of so much worldliness that is being, it's being
drowned out.
You know, it'd be like if the Holy Spirit were talking to you, it'd be like if Christ
is trying to talk to you in a room where there's this music blasting.
It's just and you just, you just see Christ talking to you.
Like what?
What did you say?
I can't hear you.
You know, that's how some of your life is.
That's why you need to turn it off.
Turn off the junk, turn off the TV, turn off the music, turn everything off.
And listen, and open the Bible and listen, get on your knees and pray.
And, and then you know what?
You'll find that desire.
And if you don't, if you search your heart and can't find it, then it isn't there.
And then you need to figure out why you're not saved.
Then you need to have someone take you aside, come to me and say, I have no desire for things.
I have no love for God.
Help me get saved.
And I'll show you how to be saved.
I'll show you the gospel.
And if I show you the gospel and you're still not saved, then you're a reprobate.
Folks, the Holy Spirit indwells every believer.
And that is the key to living for God.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Lord, we thank you so much for this, this powerful passage in your word and Galatians,
this powerful passage in Romans eight, Lord God.
I pray that the truth would sink in Lord.
I know that I didn't do as well as I could have in delivering the truth.
I tried to explain these, these deep things and these unsearchable riches, but Lord, I
pray that you would just work through my weakness tonight and just allow the truth that I've
preached to somehow sink in Lord and that everyone would understand it.
And that this will be a life changing transformative sermon for people to understand that they
need to get their heart right in order to get their life right.
They need to be changed from the inside.
Lord, help us all to walk in the spirit, to be filled with the spirit, to be led of the
spirit Lord, so that we're not just forcing ourselves to do your work as a chore and to
abstain from sin as a chore.
In Jesus name, we pray.