In Your Relationships, Rest in God

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Galatians 5:15–26 (ESV)

15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Opening Prayer

Battling, but Secure

C.S. Lewis once said...

Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

Sanctification is God plucking us out of such a sad history...

And, placing us on the firm ground of eternal happiness in Him.

In this life, while in this fallen world with this fallen body/nature...

There is a battle.

R.C. Sproul states it like this...

This battle is that our natural inclinations (sinful inclinations) are at war with the transformation that the Holy Spirit is constantly moving us towards as Christians.

The battle of sanctification is to maintain a “resting in God.”

We have to rest in God, which enables our mind to delight in Him...

And enables our decisions to pursue obedience to God...

Which is happiness and joy.

We must remember that if there is a struggle for sin...

If there is a godly sorrow in you that leads you to repentance...

If we have a desire to obey God...

A desire to put sin to death...

If repentance is evident in your life...

Then know this, says Paul...

Galatians 5:18 (ESV)

18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

You are not under the Law.

You’re free from the legal demands of the Law.

You’re being led by the Spirit.

Your sin is not bringing a curse upon you.

Christ has already paid for your curse, in full...

All of the stated evidences assure us of this truth...

So, rejoice.

Rejoice in the gospel.

Rejoice in the Savior of the gospel.

Feel that deep, abiding, eternal security...

And, press on to the upward calling of God...

With security and happiness.

Now, notice with me...

Paul gives us another detail regarding an important component within this battle.

Galatians 5:17 (ESV)

17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

What does Paul mean here?

What is keeping what from doing the things you want to do?

Paul is stating the fact that the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit...

And, the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.

So, there’s the battle.

But, what is keeping what from happening?

I think what Paul is teaching us is this...

As Christians who have this battle going on within us...

And, this battle exists only in Christians because we’ve been freed from the dominion of sin...

But, not yet, delivered from the experience of sin.

So, in this life, Paul is saying...

As Christians, the Holy Spirit is leading us in transformation...

A transformation in which we are becoming more and more like Christ...

When we slip into sin…the Holy Spirit will not allow us to stay in the sin...

And, yet at the same time, as we seek to obey God...

The flesh keeps us from obeying perfectly...

The flesh causes us to stumble...

To go back and forth, at times, in our sanctification...

Progress slower than we’d like in our transformation.

This is the picture of the Christian life...

And, the good news is, there’s a day coming when this battle will end...

And, we will experience full Victory by the Holy Spirit...

The Victory in Jesus.

But, and I hope you’ve noticed how I keep coming back to this, we need to remember...

18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Again, and this is important...

I cannot stress this enough...

So that we can keep our eyes fixed on Christ and the good news of the gospel...

That we’ve been made participants by the HS...

If you are bothered by sin.

If you’re bothered by not obeying God perfectly.

If you’re bothered by inconsistently living out the Christian life.

Then you have assurance that you are led by the Spirit...

And, hence, the Law has no claim upon you for your transgressions against God’s Law.

Why?

Because Christ has atoned for them fully, on the cross.

Now, look at Paul’s next statement, which is...

Paul’s Reminder

Galatians 5:24–25 (ESV)

24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Paul is reminding them of who they are in Christ.

Remember all the riches you have in Christ.

Remember the freedom you have in Christ.

The forgiveness of all your sins.

The reconciliation you have with God.

The eternal life you’ve been given.

The inheritance you have of eternity with God as His adopted child.

Pursue who you are positionally…in your daily experience.

What we have in Christ already, positionally...

Should be believed daily...

And sought to be lived out daily.

Romans 7:1–2 (ESV)

1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.

This is beautiful.

Paul is using the analogy of the law regarding marriage as a picture of our relationship to the Law of God.

Our new relationship, in Christ, is that the demands of the Law are dead to us...

Not the goodness of the Law...

But the demands of the Law are dead to us.

We used to be married to the Law.

We were pledged to the keeping of the Law.

We were bound to keep the Law perfectly or die.

But, now the demands of the Law are dead to us.

And, Paul literally states this in...

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

If we are alive by the Spirit.

If we’ve been born again by the Spirit.

We’ve been made to walk in newness of life.

We have a new groom, Jesus.

We are no longer married to the demands of the Law...

We are married to Christ.

So, we should love like the bride of Christ.

Our allegiance, only to Him.

Our love, solely for Him.

Our eyes, fixed on Him.

Our desire, to be with Him.

Our joy, found in Him.

He is our all in all...Forever.

Now, I want to take us back in order to see something...

Relating to Others

If we look back at...

Galatians 5:6 (ESV)

6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

So, true faith produces good works...

And, faith is the remedy to legalism.

Legalism is the foundation to what Paul says here...

Galatians 5:15 (ESV)

15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

This is what works righteousness produces.

This is what legalism produces.

Consuming one another.

Because everything is about self...

And, self being right.

And, so opinions become Divine.

Matthew 15:7–9 (ESV)

Jesus speaking to the legalistic religious leaders of the day...

7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

In legalism...

Man’s opinions become as/more important than Divine commands.

And people are devoured in the wake of legalism.

So Paul gives another warning ten verses after v.15 by stating...

Galatians 5:26 (ESV)

26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

The Law of God is meant to teach us how to relate to God and to man…our neighbors.

The Fall of man and our sinful nature destroyed our desire to do so.

The care for others the way we were designed to care for others has gone away.

Everything is about self.

Everything is used for self.

But now, in Christ, by the regenerating and sanctifying power of God, the Holy Spirit...

We are being renewed and taught anew...

How to relate to God and our neighbor.

That’s sanctification.

Learning how to rest in God...

Which produces the ability to selflessly love others.

Galatians 5:26 (ESV)

26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

We must not forget our justification is by faith alone in Christ alone...

And, we must not forget that our sanctification is...

The gracious work of the Holy Spirit applying the work of Christ to us in our life.

Forgetting those two truths:

Leads us to pride.

Leads us to self-righteous attitudes.

Leads us to conceit.

Leads us to provoke one another.

Leads us to envy others in our perception of them.

But, the gospel cures us of these things.

The gospel leads us to rest in God.

Justification grounds us in the work of God.

Sanctification teaches us to keep resting in God...

Which is foundational and the conduit to love our neighbors as ourself.

Relationally speaking, the litmus test is...

Are your relationships being built up or used up?

If you’re loving your neighbor as yourself...

Then your building the person up according to what God delights in.

Are your relationships all about you and your way?

Or do you take into account and work for the good of the other person in the relationship.

If the we are in Christ, a care for others...

And, the expressions of that care will manifest itself.

And, that is critical in community.

Next week, we will look at ways in which faith expresses itself towards others as we begin to look at Chapter 6.

Closing Prayer