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Kevin Bennie

Jan 5, 2024 10:23 AM

Don’t double down - part 4 Keeping in Step

👇💥 FULL DEVO BELOW💥👇 All of Galatians 5 posted at the end of this devotional or copy/paste this link to see it: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gal%205&version=NLT For us, as we zoom out from our focus on verse 25, a couple of other things are coming into view. Paul is explaining some other things at work here in the two sections: There is another force at work, the law of Moses. The law functioned before the Holy Spirit was available to all people at the death and resurrection of Christ. What we talked about was the difference between the sinful nature and life in the Spirit. This is different. The option before the Spirit was either the law of Moses (if you were Jewish, which is the main thrust of the book of Galatians) or the sinful nature. If you were non-Jewish you followed whatever "law" or culture you were raised in, or the sinful nature. I don't want to get too far down that rabbit hole, because we're going to stay in the lane of the book of Galatians...moving onward... If you wanted to live "rightly", if you wanted life to go well for you, if you wanted to be in God's "good graces", the law - referring to the law of Moses laid out in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy - was the guide. Paul is saying over and over again, particularly in this book, but also Romans, there are some critical sections of Acts dedicated to this. We have a brand NEW way, a NEW covenant, What does this mean for us, as it relates to keeping in step with the Spirit? Today I want to focus on how the Law cannot bring about the life of the Spirit. Living by the Spirit is very different. It can AWAKEN us to our NEED for the Spirit. It can REVEAL greater areas of SIN or dysfunction or brokenness in our lives. The difficulty is that sometimes by sheer will and dedication to the law, to keeping the rules, we can LOOK like the life led by the Spirit. God made humanity pretty incredible and we can force a good amount of change on our lives. BUT notice the WAY Paul talks about life of the Spirit: - v.16 LET the Holy Spirit guide your lives - v.18 When you are DIRECTED by the Spirit - v.25 let us follow the Spirit's LEADING in every part of our lives Today, PRAY Ask God to reveal where in you attempt to live his way through gritting your teeth and doubling down, I'm just going to try harder. Galatians 5 So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. 2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3 I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. 4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. 5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. 7 You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? 8 It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. 9 This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough! 10 I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever he is, who has been confusing you. 11 Dear brothers and sisters, if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised—as some say I do—why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended. 12 I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves. 13 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. 14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another. Living by the Spirit’s Power 16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. 19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. 22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. 26 Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.

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Hey folks, we're in Galatians 5.25, Keeping in Step with the Spirit. We've been kind of zooming out on verses 16 through 26, and now we're looking at 1 through 26. There's some really rich content here, and we're going to spend some time in this. But today, just a brief touch on what's going on. Paul was saying that there is a sinful nature, and there is a life led by the Spirit. These are our two options. Well, he introduces actually a third option in the first section. And this is actually what he's been spending most of the book about, is life under the law, the law of Moses. Now, the law given to Moses from God, revealed in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, there are 613 of these laws, and if you were Jewish, these were how you walked in righteousness, in right standing, in right relationship with God, the Creator. This is everything. Well, Paul's saying, look, we don't live under the law anymore. He spends the majority of the book of Galatians, he talks about this quite a bit in Romans, and we see chunks of Acts, the book of Acts, dedicated to this. We're saying, we now live under a new law, a new covenant. The New Testament is the law of Christ. There was the law, there's the sinful nature, and these were your only options pre-Jesus. The law was way better than sinful nature. Sinful nature led to destruction, and heartache, and pain, and the law experienced some of that, but you could also experience a pretty good life under the law. Well, Paul's saying, look, there's a new way here. The new way is the Spirit. Today, I want us to really focus on just this one thing. The Jewish nation, their option is to follow the law. If I take all of these 613 rules and regulations for worship, and for community life, and whatever it might be, then my life will go well, and God will be pleased with me, and all of these things. That's a basic understanding of the God of the Old Testament, who's the same God as the New Testament, but that can become a very rigid system. Part of what Paul is saying is here that living under the law is not the same as living under the Spirit. In fact, living by the Spirit is very different. What's tricky is that we can often affect incredible amounts of change by sheer willpower. We can really see things that look like the Spirit, but Paul's saying life under the law cannot produce in you the life of the Spirit. They are separate things. Now, we have the law, we have sinful nature, and we have the Spirit. Let's look at the way that Paul describes life in the Spirit. Verse 16, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. 18, when you are directed by the Spirit. 25, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. Friends, as we go to prayer, I want you to ask God to reveal to you places in your life where instead of listening to the Spirit or being led by the Spirit, you try to bare knuckle down, just double down, pull up your bootstraps and try harder. Where are those places where you forget to appeal to the Spirit and invite the Spirit in, and instead just give it your best go? God bless you, friends. This is a long one. We'll get deeper into it and talk more about this. God bless you.

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