WEBVTT 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:22.640 We would like to invite you to open up your Bibles and turn to our scripture reading for this morning, which is found in the New Testament book of Galatians, chapter 3, and we'll be looking at portions from verses 1 through 14. 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:33.600 If you don't have your Bible with you, there should you be able to find a Pew Bible in front of you, and on page 973, you'll find our scripture reading. 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:49.119 Galatians 3, beginning in verse 1. 00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:56.560 Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:05.439 It was before your very eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 00:01:06.319 --> 00:01:13.840 Let me ask you only this: did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:22.719 Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:28.239 Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:38.879 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:42.239 And then skip down to verse 10. 00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:56.879 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:06.480 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:12.400 But the law is not based on faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them. 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:22.000 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. 00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:41.360 For it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. 00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:44.800 Here ends the reading of God's Word. 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:54.800 Well, last week we had a uh question and answer time. 00:02:55.199 --> 00:03:01.439 You all were allowed to come with um questions off the cuff to Pastor Dave, who's on vacation today. 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:11.840 And uh we we thought it was only right that uh the pastors should today be able to circulate through the uh the congregation and ask you questions off the cuff. 00:03:14.879 --> 00:03:19.599 Not really, but actually I did think that would be a great idea for a sermon today. 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:26.879 Really, the sermon today is gonna be a little bit different. 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:32.400 Um it's different than I planned, and it's different than what um maybe we would normally uh have here. 00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:48.560 Um as I was working on uh this text, and uh I really had, you know, kind of a usual kind of plan for attacking it, and um you know, I really had the sense that I wanted to do something a little different. 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:51.919 I wanted to do something more practical with this text. 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:59.039 I wanted to take some of the application of this text and to bring it home in a different kind of way. 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:21.360 Uh this summer we have been, we have been looking, if you were in uh some of you were in a sunny summer school, uh sorry, a uh a summer Sunday school for adults, and together we were just on this journey of looking at some of the dynamics of real spiritual growth in the Christian life. 00:04:21.519 --> 00:04:22.959 What does that really look like? 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:51.600 And we we contrasted that a lot with what we have been taught, and not only that, but a lot with what really goes on under the cover of the um of the facade that we have and that we put on, and we we we began to delve into that a little bit, and um it was a time of really an eye-opening time for me as I journeyed with uh you all in that class. 00:04:52.240 --> 00:05:21.279 And what I'd like us to focus on this morning in this text is this this key phrase that you find in verse 3 of chapter 3, where Paul tells the Galatian Christians, are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:29.680 And maybe I'll just take a minute and um and just kind of set the stage for what that phrase really means. 00:05:29.839 --> 00:05:36.000 There is a world of meaning in that phrase that is important for us. 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:58.720 Um basically the Galatians were a group of Gentile Christians who had been converted by the Apostle Paul at a time in history when Gentiles were just now becoming converted in a way that they were equal with Jews on the same footing. 00:05:58.959 --> 00:06:01.759 Um the gospel had been proclaimed. 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:10.399 Jesus had died, he's risen from the dead, and Paul had gone around proclaiming that truth, and now Gentiles were becoming believers. 00:06:10.800 --> 00:06:30.879 And uh some of the zealous Jewish uh people uh began to feel deeply threatened by that, and began to feel like, wow, these these new these pagan Gentiles, um, they are not uh going to be accepted before God just on the basis of faith in Christ. 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:40.079 They need to become Jews, they need to start following the law, they need to do the things that God has said in the law of Moses. 00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:50.480 And um so they began troubling these new believers, and some of them were actually beginning to just start uh trying to obey the law to please the Lord. 00:06:50.720 --> 00:07:01.040 And so Paul writes this one of the most shocking letters in the New Testament, and he's very forceful about how he he deals with this. 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:02.879 Now, here's what I want to say. 00:07:02.959 --> 00:07:05.439 That's really all I really want to say about that. 00:07:06.319 --> 00:07:10.000 I want to just say, beginning by the Spirit. 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:14.480 What that means is coming to faith in Christ. 00:07:14.639 --> 00:07:16.959 That's a work of the Holy Spirit. 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:21.120 That is an absolute miraculous work of the Holy Spirit. 00:07:21.279 --> 00:07:23.279 That's what Scripture says. 00:07:24.560 --> 00:07:32.480 No one just reasons in their own mind and comes to a logical conclusion on their own that Christ is the way. 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:43.360 There's a brokenness and a conviction and an initiated work that God works in us that brings us to faith in Christ. 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:45.600 And we're awakened. 00:07:46.079 --> 00:07:48.240 Our eyes are opened. 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:53.279 We begin to see and taste the light and that the Lord is good. 00:07:53.519 --> 00:08:03.360 So beginning by the Spirit, these Galatian Christians began to be on a road. 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:08.959 They were choosing a road of being perfected by the flesh. 00:08:09.279 --> 00:08:33.840 And in Scripture, the flesh means our own unaided power and strength, our own desires that belong to us, that we were born with, that have developed the sinful habits and nature that is the real us uh deep down, apart from the Spirit of God or apart from any power of God on us. 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:37.759 The flesh, it's just what we do in human strength, right? 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:47.600 It's using our gifting and it's it's using um it's working it, it's working what we have to make our way in this world. 00:08:47.919 --> 00:08:54.000 And so the Galatians, they were trying, uh really, let's put it in some different terms. 00:08:54.320 --> 00:08:57.200 They were looking to grow as Christians. 00:08:57.360 --> 00:09:13.360 They were looking to come close to God now that they initiated this relationship with Him by the works of the flesh, by their own strength, by what they were going to do, by obeying laws, uh, by conforming to externals. 00:09:13.919 --> 00:09:17.759 And um, Paul will have none of it. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:20.799 The Lord will have none of it. 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:27.360 This is not an isolated problem with the Galatian Christians. 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:31.919 So here's where we're going to try to go today. 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:38.240 This is a huge problem today in this location right here. 00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:41.840 It's been a problem all through church history. 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:47.120 And it's a problem in my heart today. 00:09:47.440 --> 00:09:50.240 It's a problem in your heart today. 00:09:52.320 --> 00:10:15.200 This is a massive structural dynamic problem that we have, even as Christians, as redeemed men and women, that the scriptures are in so many places highlighting for us and pointing it out and leading us to go in a better direction. 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:28.320 There is just uh there is just something in the DNA of our of our fallenness that has just wired us. 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:41.279 That even as we've come to faith by a work of God, there's something in us that's wired to try to advance that by our own effort. 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:51.200 And I'm sure some of you are hearing me now, and there's something that's um that's beginning, some energy maybe that's starting to create inside of you, and that's good. 00:10:51.279 --> 00:10:57.120 Just let that energy percolate there and begin to see where that's really coming from. 00:10:57.519 --> 00:11:01.200 Because when I hear this kind of language, I start getting a little defensive. 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:06.720 Well, of course, God calls us to be doing things, he calls us to obedience. 00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:09.679 He doesn't call us to just hang out under the tree. 00:11:09.759 --> 00:11:14.240 Uh he calls us to be moving and acting and using, right? 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:16.399 And serving and loving. 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:22.960 All of those things reflect a component of human effort and human work. 00:11:23.519 --> 00:11:25.279 And we're called to that. 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:41.279 But the dynamic that's going on in this text, and this twisted dynamic that our fallenness brings us into, um, takes us, it takes this whole thing in a different direction. 00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:46.720 And it causes enormous harm. 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:51.440 It hinders us in so many ways. 00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:59.679 It puts us in a place that you could say, man, I've been a Christian for 30 years. 00:12:02.399 --> 00:12:10.399 I can say this, and standing here in front of you, I can say, you know, I've been a Christian for yeah, more than 30 years now. 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:13.840 And I've been a pastor for two decades. 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:22.879 I've been to seminary, um, I've done all kinds of things to grind it out, to be in the race. 00:12:23.200 --> 00:12:25.840 And the Lord has used a lot of that. 00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:41.039 But I have missed, I have missed for so long so much of what is really the core, core, core of what we're called to do and be as Christians. 00:12:42.960 --> 00:12:47.200 And it is a wearying road and journey. 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:53.200 And some of you, maybe many of you here today, are on that road. 00:12:53.519 --> 00:12:56.399 And you are so tired. 00:12:57.600 --> 00:13:00.879 And some of you have given up on that road. 00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:04.399 You completely given up. 00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:07.120 You are here this morning, who knows why? 00:13:08.240 --> 00:13:11.519 But you know in your spirits, you have given up. 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:13.120 You really have. 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:15.360 It's not working for you. 00:13:15.519 --> 00:13:26.000 What you heard in the scriptures promised, these um these living waters, uh, it just hasn't been your experience. 00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:34.799 And others of us, others of you here, you're you're not ready to give up yet. 00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:36.720 You're still working it. 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:45.519 And you still have hopes that you're gonna you're gonna conquer and you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna get on top of this thing. 00:13:45.919 --> 00:13:50.159 Uh, this thing of of really what amounts to living by the flesh. 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:57.440 So let me begin to try to try to unravel this a little bit and put some skin on what I'm really talking about here. 00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:05.039 There were two things that struck me this summer, and um both of these relate to our text profoundly. 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:10.720 The first thing is the weakness of the human will. 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:15.519 How weak is the human will. 00:14:18.799 --> 00:14:23.519 The human will is profoundly weak. 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:28.240 The flesh, it's profoundly weak. 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:38.320 It is absolutely powerless to do what the Lord asks us to do on its own. 00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:46.000 And that's even true for the redeemed Christian. 00:14:46.639 --> 00:15:01.120 That's even true for someone who has the spirit of the living God inside of them, who has a new nature, if you want to put it in those terms, who has new instincts and new desires and new hungers. 00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:13.039 You we still have something called the flesh that is profoundly influencing who we are, and it is so incredibly weak. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:15.759 It is untamable. 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:20.159 Someone said this in scripture. 00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:28.240 The tongue is a restless evil full of deadly poison. 00:15:28.799 --> 00:15:35.519 No man or woman or young person can control the tongue. 00:15:36.879 --> 00:15:37.840 Why not? 00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:40.639 Why not? 00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:44.639 Can't you just say, you know what? 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:48.399 I am gonna get a handle on my mouth. 00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:52.320 I'm tired of saying toxic things. 00:15:52.480 --> 00:16:07.120 I'm tired of saying angry things, hurtful things, bitter things, um dark things, evil things, brutal things, cutting things, sarcastic things. 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:08.799 I'm just sick of it. 00:16:08.960 --> 00:16:10.960 It's ruining my life. 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:23.360 I am going to focus on this sin this year, and I am going to get a handle on this tongue of mine this year. 00:16:25.600 --> 00:16:29.440 I wonder how many of you have ever tried that journey. 00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:34.639 Those kinds of things, but that's happening below the conscience. 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:47.600 You know, we may not think that's what we're really doing, but deep down inside your heart, ask the question is that really what's going on in the structure of how I'm living my Christian life? 00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:52.399 And maybe it's not the tongue that's an issue for you. 00:16:52.559 --> 00:17:03.039 Maybe it's um, maybe it's worry or anxiety or lying or any number of other kinds of things. 00:17:06.160 --> 00:17:10.480 The human will is so incredibly weak. 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:20.720 I've also been reading this summer in Deuteronomy, and I am blown away. 00:17:20.799 --> 00:17:25.039 I don't know, I've never had Deuteronomy hit me like it's hit me this summer. 00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:34.640 What God asked the Israelites to do in the law, the giving of the law of Moses, is really clear. 00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:48.000 I mean, you could not say this more clearly than Moses says it in um 20 plus chapters over and over and over and over again. 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:53.759 What God is looking for in the law of Moses. 00:17:55.279 --> 00:17:58.319 So let me let me just read a summary here for you. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:13.680 And I'd like you to kind of think, try to picture yourself sitting with Moses as an Israelite in and hearing these words and knowing this is what God has told Moses to tell them. 00:18:13.839 --> 00:18:16.640 Moses is just a mouthpiece, this is straight from God. 00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:25.759 And try to imagine yourself hearing this, these words, and try to think what would be going on in your mind when you're hearing these. 00:18:26.720 --> 00:18:32.400 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? 00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:42.799 But, and I love that but it's amazing, but just this. 00:18:43.839 --> 00:19:06.640 But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I'm commanding you today for your good. 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:10.480 That's all the Lord has asked of you. 00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:18.160 Behold, to the Lord your God belongs the heavens and the heaven of the heavens, and all that's in them. 00:19:18.319 --> 00:19:35.920 And not only that, not only is God the creator of everything and at the top of all things, but the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them above all the peoples of the earth. 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:39.119 You owe it to him. 00:19:39.920 --> 00:19:45.119 He put his love on you and passed over everybody else. 00:19:46.480 --> 00:19:52.319 So circumcise your hearts today and no longer be stubborn. 00:19:53.200 --> 00:20:02.480 Because the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, and he's great and mighty, and he's awesome, and he's not partial, and he takes no bribes. 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:06.400 What are you thinking when you hear that? 00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:17.519 You're at the foot of the mountain, or you're, this is a recapitulation from Moses years later of uh before they're getting ready to enter the land. 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:20.799 This is Moses' farewell address to the Israelites. 00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:32.640 There is no possible way that the Israelites could have obeyed that law. 00:20:34.480 --> 00:20:36.400 Is it the law's fault? 00:20:37.279 --> 00:20:41.359 It's not, because God's holiness is immense. 00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:44.960 That's who God is. 00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:52.720 And our weakness in no way diminishes who He is and what He requires. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:21:02.640 But there is no way on the planet that the Israelites could even begin to follow these laws. 00:21:06.799 --> 00:21:10.640 And that's exactly where the New Testament begins to go over and over again. 00:21:10.799 --> 00:21:12.880 What was the purpose of the law? 00:21:13.119 --> 00:21:15.119 It was to reveal sin. 00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:22.160 It's the law of God that opens up the door for us to see failure. 00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:23.839 We fail the law. 00:21:24.079 --> 00:21:27.680 And it's in that failing is where the growth is. 00:21:29.039 --> 00:21:31.599 If we have eyes to see it. 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:35.359 It's in the failing is where the growth is. 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:46.400 The Israelites, you know, they who knows all the different structures that were going on in different people's minds, but the Israelites are like, yeah, okay, we'll do this. 00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:47.920 We can do this thing. 00:21:48.079 --> 00:21:49.119 Let's roll. 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:55.119 And you know, you know the history when you read the Old Testament, it's wearying. 00:21:55.359 --> 00:21:59.599 It's wearying to read over and over and over again. 00:22:01.599 --> 00:22:04.880 And then not only this, but God set something up. 00:22:05.039 --> 00:22:11.119 He said, When you come into the land, after they wandered 40 years, they're coming into the land, they're going to take the land, right? 00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:12.720 Flowing with milk and honey. 00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:25.680 I want to split up the tribes, half the tribes on Mount Gerizim, the other half tribes on Mount Ebal, these two mountains, kind of low plateau mountains, and a big valley in the middle. 00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:32.480 And they were to speak blessings and cursings related to this law. 00:22:32.799 --> 00:22:35.359 And half the tribes were to say, blessings. 00:22:35.599 --> 00:22:44.960 If you obey the law, the Lord is going to do this for you and that for you, and it's all going to go so well for you as a nation. 00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:49.920 And the other people were to pronounce the curses of the law. 00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:55.359 And that's what Paul quotes in Roman, I mean in Galatians, in our text today. 00:22:56.240 --> 00:22:59.119 At the summation of all of these curses. 00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:08.799 Cursed are you, Israel, if you don't do this, if you don't do this, if you do cross this line and cross that line. 00:23:09.119 --> 00:23:10.640 Cursed are you. 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:18.799 And at the very end, cursed is everyone who doesn't abide by all things in the book of the law. 00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:20.240 Cursed. 00:23:20.559 --> 00:23:22.799 A curse of God upon you. 00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:36.640 You know, in some sense, when we become believers, we have an understanding of this. 00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:39.519 Because we wouldn't be believers if we didn't. 00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:44.880 When we become Christians, there is something that the Spirit of God moves in us. 00:23:45.119 --> 00:23:48.000 He works a certain kind of brokenness in us. 00:23:48.480 --> 00:23:50.559 We do come to the end of our rope. 00:23:50.640 --> 00:23:53.920 At some level, we we really give up. 00:23:54.799 --> 00:23:57.359 We own our stuff at some level. 00:23:57.599 --> 00:24:06.400 And I say I'm putting qualifiers here because the whole Christian life is a journey in understanding just what we really were saved from. 00:24:06.559 --> 00:24:11.200 And when we become Christians, we don't know the very first part of it. 00:24:12.079 --> 00:24:18.799 But to the degree that we know, we we we come to the Lord and we cast ourselves on his mercy, right? 00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:23.359 And then we start the Christian life, and it's it's great. 00:24:23.599 --> 00:24:25.759 We've tasted forgiveness. 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:28.640 Isn't that it's just amazing? 00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:35.119 And the Lord gives us his Holy Spirit, and we have a new desire implanted inside of us. 00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:40.799 And we start on that road of the Christian life. 00:24:42.640 --> 00:24:44.240 And there's the law of God. 00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:45.359 Not the law of Moses. 00:24:45.599 --> 00:24:47.119 That's done away, that's nailed, man. 00:24:47.200 --> 00:24:48.480 That's nailed on the cross. 00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:50.799 Praise God, that's gone. 00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:53.119 But we have the law of Christ. 00:24:55.519 --> 00:24:58.559 And if anything, the law of Christ is even more. 00:24:59.440 --> 00:25:13.759 It's even more in one way, as far as laws go, because the law of Christ highlights what maybe was implied in the law of Moses, and that it's the heart, it's the sins in the heart that's our real issue. 00:25:14.559 --> 00:25:19.599 And that what God was always calling his people to was to love. 00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:28.640 That's why loving God and loving the people summarizes all of the law because love gets down deep into who we really are. 00:25:28.720 --> 00:25:32.000 And if we what it what does it take to love someone? 00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:36.319 Well, let that just let that uh unwind this week in your mind. 00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:42.240 What does it take for you to truly love someone else? 00:25:43.680 --> 00:25:44.960 Or to love God. 00:25:46.079 --> 00:25:50.000 It requires something profound within us. 00:25:52.160 --> 00:26:06.079 But we begin this Christian life and we have the law, and somewhere early on in this life, a transition starts to happen with many of us, maybe all of us. 00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:10.559 The commands are out here beckoning us. 00:26:11.599 --> 00:26:24.400 We're hearing it from the pulpit, we're hearing it in our Bible classes, we're hearing it on Christian radio, we're reading in our Bibles that God is calling us to a high level of obedience, right? 00:26:25.279 --> 00:26:27.039 Make no mistake about it. 00:26:27.359 --> 00:26:37.680 God is all about our coming into conformity with his word and with his own heart, which is what his word is. 00:26:37.839 --> 00:26:39.920 That's what God is all about. 00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:54.799 There's no minimizing going on here in my mind this morning, that the commandments of Scripture can be kind of laid aside in some kind of way. 00:26:56.960 --> 00:27:14.160 But what the Galatians didn't understand and where we have trouble is we began to think ever so subtly, below our conscious level at many points, that we can do this in our own strength. 00:27:15.119 --> 00:27:17.599 We can do this in our own strength. 00:27:18.880 --> 00:27:40.000 We can quit saying toxic words if we put our mind to it, if we are disciplined enough, if we do the right studies, but there is no amount there's no amount of human effort that will change my toxic tongue. 00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:42.240 It won't happen. 00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:44.720 Because the tongue's not the problem. 00:27:45.839 --> 00:27:51.039 It's the deep inside hidden heart that is the problem. 00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:56.880 And there's no lever or switch for the heart. 00:27:58.160 --> 00:28:00.400 The heart just comes out, right? 00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:02.400 It just comes out. 00:28:02.559 --> 00:28:09.759 And the language we use, I picked this up from uh John Coe, who's just influenced a lot of uh our study this summer on this. 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:12.240 He used this language of leaking. 00:28:13.200 --> 00:28:18.880 How often does it happen in our lives that all we need is just the right trigger? 00:28:20.160 --> 00:28:21.920 And out it comes. 00:28:22.400 --> 00:28:25.039 It just like the snake in the can, right? 00:28:25.119 --> 00:28:29.200 It ja but we can't even stop it, and it's on the table. 00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:32.000 We leaked. 00:28:32.640 --> 00:28:33.920 We just leaked. 00:28:34.079 --> 00:28:38.640 And that's the heart, and it and it leaked out, and it and it's out there on the table now. 00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:45.279 And so this this leads me to a second a second thing that um that I've been really struck with. 00:28:45.440 --> 00:28:49.599 The first was the weakness of the human will, it is so incredibly weak. 00:28:49.759 --> 00:28:57.519 Our yes to God is so much weaker than what is in our hearts. 00:28:58.400 --> 00:29:04.559 It is so much weaker than the flesh and the depravity that lives within our hearts. 00:29:04.720 --> 00:29:14.799 And we are fooling ourselves to think that we can will to do the will of God in our own strength. 00:29:15.599 --> 00:29:25.759 So the second thing that really strikes me, it just builds on this, the instinct to hide and cover and repress the truth of my bad. 00:29:28.640 --> 00:29:46.000 There is just this instinct that is in us when we leak, to close the door on it, okay, to not go there, to not investigate it, to not bring it before the Lord. 00:29:46.319 --> 00:29:53.440 We hide it from ourselves, we hide it from God, and we hide it from other people. 00:29:54.559 --> 00:29:57.680 That's why blame is such a big deal, right? 00:29:59.839 --> 00:30:04.640 You know, we what did the first our first parents do in the garden? 00:30:06.720 --> 00:30:14.319 They leaked, if you will, but they they were perfect prior to that, and then they sinned, and what happened? 00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:20.400 Just immediately, they're covering, they're covering everything physically as a symbol for what they're really doing. 00:30:20.559 --> 00:30:27.759 You know, they're covering inside, they're going, they're submerging and going underground with God, with each other, they're blaming. 00:30:27.920 --> 00:30:30.160 They're they're like, we can't go there. 00:30:32.400 --> 00:30:44.559 And um, and it ends up in the Christian life that we do this, we are such masters at this, aren't we? 00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:53.039 And it leads us in our lives to begin to focus on what is good. 00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:55.519 That's what we can focus on, right? 00:30:55.599 --> 00:31:01.759 We'll focus on the good to do, and we won't focus on what's really in our heart. 00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:12.079 And um and so, sermon after sermon, book after book, study after study, we hear these principles. 00:31:16.799 --> 00:31:20.880 And we go in a different direction than the direction we really need to go. 00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:27.759 You see, we just don't really want to know how bad it really is down there, do we? 00:31:30.960 --> 00:31:35.599 We'll feel a lot better about ourselves if we'll stay at the surface level. 00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:40.559 And we might even go, we might even kind of do a halfway approach to this. 00:31:40.720 --> 00:31:45.200 And uh, this is what the author I mentioned earlier, what he calls prayers of magic. 00:31:45.359 --> 00:31:47.359 You know, it's really repression. 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:53.279 That bitter word comes out of our mouth, we've leaked, and what do we do? 00:31:53.519 --> 00:31:55.920 Father, take away my bitterness. 00:31:56.480 --> 00:31:57.599 Take it away. 00:31:57.839 --> 00:31:59.119 I confess it. 00:31:59.920 --> 00:32:02.000 Honey, what's for dinner tonight? 00:32:05.519 --> 00:32:06.960 We won't go there. 00:32:07.359 --> 00:32:12.640 We just ask God to magically take away what took us a lifetime to build. 00:32:13.279 --> 00:32:17.759 A deep, sinful habit that is so much a part of who. 00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:24.559 It's like a tumor that's just it's got its roots all through our system. 00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:35.200 And we're just gonna treat it at the surface level, and we will not go there because we're afraid if we do. 00:32:35.599 --> 00:32:37.839 We're afraid of what that will say about us. 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:40.160 We're afraid of what other people will think of us. 00:32:40.319 --> 00:32:41.920 They really won't love us. 00:32:42.319 --> 00:32:47.680 We're afraid we won't measure up with God if we actually own this with the Lord. 00:32:48.799 --> 00:32:50.640 People won't respect us. 00:32:51.119 --> 00:32:54.720 And this is the exact opposite that we're called to do. 00:32:54.880 --> 00:33:00.720 It's the exact opposite of what's in our text today in the language that Paul's using here. 00:33:01.839 --> 00:33:07.440 He's talking in this passage about receiving the Spirit of God. 00:33:10.480 --> 00:33:12.880 And it's interesting if we had time to look. 00:33:13.279 --> 00:33:20.160 We're not going to have time for this this morning, but if we had the time, look at the rest of Galatians. 00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:25.759 And those of you who have studied Scripture a lot, you know, where's the practical section of Galatians, right? 00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:27.599 Chapters five and six. 00:33:27.839 --> 00:33:29.200 Go to chapter five. 00:33:29.759 --> 00:33:31.519 That's where the rubber meets the road, right? 00:33:31.599 --> 00:33:43.039 If there was ever a place that you would expect to find Scripture saying, you know what, I want you to get a handle on this and get a handle on that and take care of this and take care of that, right? 00:33:43.279 --> 00:33:47.279 The law is that's where it's laid out in chapter five. 00:33:48.240 --> 00:33:49.839 But how's it put in chapter five? 00:33:49.920 --> 00:33:50.960 Well, I'll just do this. 00:33:51.119 --> 00:33:53.200 How's it put in chapter 5? 00:33:54.319 --> 00:33:56.319 Look in chapter 5, 16. 00:34:00.720 --> 00:34:11.119 But I say, walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 00:34:12.159 --> 00:34:12.480 Okay. 00:34:12.960 --> 00:34:15.920 He goes on and says that like five different times. 00:34:16.480 --> 00:34:19.440 Walk by the spirit. 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:22.719 Our problem is we don't know what that means. 00:34:23.519 --> 00:34:26.559 We've got some kind of vague idea what that means. 00:34:26.719 --> 00:34:28.400 We don't know what that means. 00:34:28.559 --> 00:34:31.679 All we focus on is the commandments, right? 00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:33.679 Do this, don't do that. 00:34:33.840 --> 00:34:37.840 And we try to be good, and it doesn't work. 00:34:38.320 --> 00:34:42.000 And it is wearying, wearying, wearying. 00:34:42.559 --> 00:34:47.280 And you know what's going to happen to us in what happens in the church? 00:34:47.679 --> 00:34:51.440 Is you're going to have a kind of parting of the ways eventually. 00:34:51.760 --> 00:34:53.519 And you're going to have this in your own life. 00:34:53.599 --> 00:34:56.320 You're going to see this in any church. 00:34:56.639 --> 00:34:58.480 The commandments are there. 00:34:58.800 --> 00:35:05.039 And you're going to have people who are going to become, we use the term legalists. 00:35:06.960 --> 00:35:10.239 People don't like that terminology, but it's kind of a good term that means law. 00:35:10.320 --> 00:35:12.000 And it'd be people of the law. 00:35:12.079 --> 00:35:15.199 And the people who are focused on the external law. 00:35:15.280 --> 00:35:19.119 And that's all they're focused on in their lives are the externals. 00:35:19.280 --> 00:35:21.679 Do this, do this, don't do that. 00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:26.159 And it's completely missing what God is calling us to. 00:35:27.280 --> 00:35:32.159 It's only like the very tip of the iceberg, and it's missing the whole deal. 00:35:33.199 --> 00:35:40.880 And these kind of people become very judgmental of everyone else because everyone else isn't quite measure up to what they're doing. 00:35:42.239 --> 00:35:47.840 But it's the heart that counts, not the external in itself. 00:35:49.119 --> 00:35:53.199 The other people, the other reaction you can take is you can just give up. 00:35:53.760 --> 00:35:55.599 You can just give up. 00:35:56.079 --> 00:35:58.800 I've had enough of this Christianity stuff. 00:35:58.960 --> 00:36:01.440 Some of you young people are right there. 00:36:01.840 --> 00:36:06.239 Some of you in high school and in college, your parents have brought you in. 00:36:06.559 --> 00:36:09.440 Christianity is not working for you very well. 00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:15.519 And maybe you're tired, and maybe you've been around a lot of externals in Christianity. 00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:18.800 And you're sick of it, and you know it doesn't work. 00:36:19.360 --> 00:36:20.960 You can't stop it. 00:36:21.280 --> 00:36:23.199 And so you're done with it. 00:36:24.559 --> 00:36:28.960 And that's why one reason why a lot of our young people are leaving the church. 00:36:29.679 --> 00:36:36.320 It's because we become a church of legal, not this church necessarily, but the church with the capital C. 00:36:37.519 --> 00:36:43.199 Evangelicalism is ripe with legalism in a lot of ways. 00:36:43.920 --> 00:36:49.599 And it doesn't mean God's not using it and we're because we're always going to fail no matter where we are. 00:36:51.840 --> 00:36:54.000 But it's not the external. 00:36:56.719 --> 00:36:59.599 It's the exact opposite of what God wants us to do. 00:36:59.840 --> 00:37:01.679 He wants us to walk in the spirit. 00:37:01.920 --> 00:37:03.920 He wants us to walk in dependence. 00:37:04.079 --> 00:37:12.960 He wants us to walk in a way that relies upon a power outside of ourselves, alien to us, to do what He's asked us to do. 00:37:13.199 --> 00:37:17.360 But the problem is we have a long way to go to get there. 00:37:17.840 --> 00:37:18.960 So here's an example. 00:37:19.119 --> 00:37:20.400 This example from yesterday. 00:37:20.480 --> 00:37:25.039 I'm going to give you the freshest example I could find that I can speak about. 00:37:25.280 --> 00:37:27.920 A lot of examples I don't feel comfortable saying up here. 00:37:28.079 --> 00:37:29.679 But I'll give you this one. 00:37:30.320 --> 00:37:37.440 I had an opportunity yesterday to bless another family with something. 00:37:37.679 --> 00:37:42.719 And my wife jumped on that and said, Hey, we're going to do this thing. 00:37:42.800 --> 00:37:44.480 And, you know, is it okay? 00:37:45.519 --> 00:37:45.760 Good. 00:37:45.840 --> 00:37:47.920 And I'm like, gulp. 00:37:50.800 --> 00:37:51.679 The law. 00:37:51.840 --> 00:37:53.840 You know, be loving, be giving. 00:37:54.559 --> 00:37:56.400 It's more blessed to give than to receive, right? 00:37:56.480 --> 00:37:57.840 Oh, I know that command. 00:37:58.000 --> 00:37:59.360 The command is right there. 00:37:59.519 --> 00:38:00.079 I know it. 00:38:00.239 --> 00:38:01.519 I've taught it. 00:38:02.079 --> 00:38:03.760 Okay, let's do it. 00:38:04.400 --> 00:38:05.840 I'm good now, right? 00:38:06.079 --> 00:38:07.039 I'm good. 00:38:07.519 --> 00:38:08.320 We're good. 00:38:08.559 --> 00:38:09.039 We're good. 00:38:09.920 --> 00:38:10.800 We did this thing. 00:38:10.880 --> 00:38:11.920 We made the decision. 00:38:12.159 --> 00:38:13.119 We did it. 00:38:13.519 --> 00:38:14.400 We're good. 00:38:16.159 --> 00:38:19.199 That's not necessarily walking by the Spirit. 00:38:19.519 --> 00:38:22.719 Here's what walking by the Spirit looks like, I think. 00:38:24.320 --> 00:38:26.800 Well, Father, did you just feel that energy in me? 00:38:27.119 --> 00:38:28.559 Oh, what was that? 00:38:29.119 --> 00:38:30.719 Oh, I feel scared. 00:38:31.039 --> 00:38:33.280 I feel something. 00:38:33.760 --> 00:38:35.280 It feels like I don't want to do this. 00:38:35.440 --> 00:38:36.320 I don't want to do this. 00:38:36.400 --> 00:38:38.800 It's like you're asking, this is asking a lot. 00:38:39.039 --> 00:38:40.159 This is big, maybe. 00:38:40.480 --> 00:38:40.960 Feels big. 00:38:41.280 --> 00:38:42.559 I don't want to do this. 00:38:42.880 --> 00:38:46.320 Um Father, what is that? 00:38:46.800 --> 00:38:49.039 What is that in my heart? 00:38:51.039 --> 00:38:59.199 That makes me afraid to just open-handedly give like you give. 00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:03.360 What makes me not value that like you value that? 00:39:06.559 --> 00:39:08.000 What is going on? 00:39:08.480 --> 00:39:09.920 I don't believe. 00:39:10.239 --> 00:39:12.320 I don't believe you're big enough. 00:39:12.559 --> 00:39:14.000 That's what I really don't believe. 00:39:14.159 --> 00:39:15.840 I don't believe you're big enough. 00:39:16.159 --> 00:39:17.679 You gave me this thing. 00:39:18.400 --> 00:39:20.159 I didn't even work for it. 00:39:20.320 --> 00:39:20.960 You gave it to me. 00:39:21.039 --> 00:39:22.800 And even if I did work for it, you gave me the strength. 00:39:22.880 --> 00:39:27.280 And now you're just asking me, and and all I can focus on is the external. 00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:28.800 I'm good. 00:39:29.039 --> 00:39:30.000 But I'm not good. 00:39:30.079 --> 00:39:31.920 I'm so not good. 00:39:33.119 --> 00:39:35.360 Because the heart is not there. 00:39:36.159 --> 00:39:37.679 It's coming along. 00:39:38.000 --> 00:39:40.159 But I need the spirit of the living God. 00:39:40.239 --> 00:39:46.239