Welcome back to another
episode of Books of the Book.
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I'm Pastor Mark Howard
and director of the Emmanuel
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Institute of evangelism
in the Michigan conferences
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Seventh-day Adventist as
well as the Pastor of the
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Gobels Seventh-day Adventist
church in Gobels Michigan.
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I'm here at my
co-host, my younger brother Jim.
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Yes, my name is Jim
Howard and I too am a Pastor
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in the Michigan conference.
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I pastor the Detroit
Metropolitan and South Lyons
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Seventh-day Adventist churches.
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We have been going through the
book of Galatians and you know
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Jim it has been a pleasure,
working with my kid brother
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on the Galatians book as we
been going through and studying.
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We had some really great
discussions on so many powerful
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truths in the book of Galatians.
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- yes we have.
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Today is going to be no
different, we're studying in the
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book of Galatians
and will be in Chapter 5.
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If you're watching at home
you will need to have a Bible
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nearby I would encourage
you to pick it up and follow
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along with us.
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We are going to Galatians
5 and you will find it in the
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New Testament starting
with Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
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Acts, Romans, 1 and 2
Corinthians and then Galatians.
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We're going to Galatians 5:13.
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This is something we
haven't commented a lot on.
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We are going to pick up
on here were the apostle Paul
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writes in Galatians 5:13,
"for you, brother, have been
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"called to liberty;
only do not use liberty as an
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"opportunity for the flesh,
but through love serve one
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"another. 14. For all the
law is fulfilled in one word,
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"even in this: 'you shall
love your neighbor as yourself'.
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"But if you bite and devour
one another, beware lest you
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"be consumed by one another!"
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Now the point that Paul
is trying to make is this.
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The Judaizing teachers
have come in and pushed a false
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gospel upon the Galatians,
the gospel of circumcision.
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And so as we have discussed
this Jim, the Galatians
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have accepted this false
gospel and Paul is trying to
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point out is that there
is a disconnect with their
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behavior and their faith.
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There is always going to
be a corresponding action
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to your belief system.
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There is going to be a
corresponding lifestyle and Paul
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is trying to help them to
see that their lifestyle is
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not Christian and that
should clue them in to the fact
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that something is
wrong in this situation.
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Now one of the things he
brings up here Jim, in this
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passage is, we need to
touch on this, this idea that
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so many people miss the
point when Paul is saying,
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all the law is
fulfilling one word, even this
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you should love your
neighbor as yourself.
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They take that as
Paul saying that really the
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Ten Commandments don't
exist anymore as long as
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we love each other.
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I think you were
going to comment on that.
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Yes, there is a verse in
Romans 13 that is a parallel
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verse to this and I
wonder if we could turn there
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together, Romans 13:8.
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The apostle Paul here
writing also and is expounding
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in a different
way to the Romans.
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He says, "owe no one anything
except to love one another,
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"for he who loves another
has fulfilled the law. For the
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"Commandments, you shall
not commit adultery, you shall
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"not murder, you shall not
steal, you shall not bear false
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"witness, you shall not
covet, and if there is any other
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"Commandment, are all
summed up in this saying namely,
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"you shall love your
neighbor as yourself.
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Love does no harm to a
neighbor; therefore love is the
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"fulfillment of the law. "
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So here he uses a word here
that I think is very important.
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He says, they are all summed
up in this saying, you shall
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love your neighbor as yourself.
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Basically what he is
saying is look, if you love your
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neighbor, you are not
going to sin against them.
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You're not going to get
into an adulterous relationship.
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You are not going to lie
to them, you're not going to
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harm them and so the
idea of loving your neighbor
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you would naturally be
keeping those commandments if
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you were loving your neighbor.
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The idea here is not that
love replaces the law, but that
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the love sums up the law.
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There is a very
clear distinction.
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The other thing that is worth
noting here is that he says,
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you shall love your
neighbor as yourself and that is
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actually found in the Old
Testament in Leviticus 19.
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So to say that you shall
love your neighbor as yourself
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replaces the Ten Commandments
would be kind of silly.
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Back in the Old Testament
they had this same command,
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love your neighbor as
yourself in Leviticus 19:18 and
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yet that did not do away
with the Ten Commandments back
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then so why would
it do away with it now?
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So the apostle Paul is
simply making the point in
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Galatians that love will sum
up the law and those who love
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will fulfill the law.
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That's right, we have already
seen that Paul is positive about
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the Ten Commandments,
it's just the misuse
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of the Ten Commandments
that he is concerned with.
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The same thing in the
teachings of Jesus which made me
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think of that
when you said that.
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Matthew 22:35 the Bible says,
then one of them, a lawyer"
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one who specialized in
this case religious law.
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"He asked him a question
testing him and saying Teacher,
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"which is the great Commandment
in the law? Jesus said to
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"him, you shall love the
Lord your God with all your
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"heart, with all your
soul, and with all your mind.
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"This is the first
and great Commandment. "
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Now if we wanted to be a
realistic with what Paul just
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said, we could say that
Paul really took away even one
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of these commandments of Jesus.
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He didn't bring that one
up, he only brought the next one
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where Jesus says, "and the
second is like it: you shall
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"love your
neighbor as yourself. "
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Now the point is Paul was
trying to focus on an aspect,
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let's read verse 40
where Jesus says, "on these two
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Commandments hang all
the Law and the Prophets. "
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All he is trying to say is
this purity like the law is
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summed up in these two
principles, but first one love
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God with all your
heart, mind, soul and strength.
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That sums up the first
four commandments dealing
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with our love to God.
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Our service to God
that kind of thing.
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The last six commandments
of the 10 are summed up in
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loving your
neighbor as yourself.
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Of course Paul was dealing
specifically in the context
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in Galatians with the way
they were treating one another
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and so he highlights
the importance of love.
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It is easy for us to get
caught up in certain duties.
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Okay I'm not going to
steal and I'm not going to lie,
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but in our heart we can
harbor malice or bitterness.
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So that was what was
happening in Galatia and Paul
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highlighted that as a
problem that was going on there.
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Certainly he wasn't
negating the importance of the
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Commandments of God anymore
than Jesus was right here
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as He talked to this lawyer
about the great Commandments.
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If you look back in Galatians
in Chapter 5, the apostle
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Paul is beginning to talk
about this principle of love,
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which is really only
possible through the new birth.
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We can't truly love someone
unless we have a union with
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Christ who is love.
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You know that makes
me think of this Jim.
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Because it is true as we
were just commenting, I've heard
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people say I don't think it
is so important that we keep
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the Ten Commandments anymore
and usually if I ask why?
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Because it is impossible
for us to keep the commandments
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and what we need
to do is to just love.
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That betrays the misconception
of the carnal mind to
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believe it would be any
easier for us to love the way
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God wants us to
love, then it would be to
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keep the Ten Commandments.
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It would be easier in a
sense, I was going to say would
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be easier to keep the Ten
Commandments but the reality
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is it is one and the same.
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Is that love that
prompts the true keeping of the
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Commandments and it's impossible
for us to love our neighbor as
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ourself unless we have
a born-again experience.
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That's right, and that is
exactly where the apostle Paul
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goes, and as we continue through
this episode and the next
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we are going to see the
apostle Paul gets more and more
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practical, helping them to
see that this experience of
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the gospel should
change the way that they live.
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He draws that out in
verse 16 of Galatians 5.
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I would like to read
there and it says, "I say then:
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"walk in the Spirit, and
you shall not fulfill the lust
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"of the flesh. For the
flesh lusts against the Spirit,
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"and the Spirit against
flesh; and these are contrary to
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"one another, so that you
do not do the things that you
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"wish. But if you are
led by the Spirit, you are
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"not under the law. "
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Now here in these few
verses he starts by saying walk
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in the Spirit, so walking
denotes in your life a very
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practical
instruction that he is giving.
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The way that you live
should be in the Spirit.
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He draws this contrast,
the Spirit is going to fight
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against the flesh,
and the flesh is going
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to fight against the Spirit.
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The idea here is that even
for someone who is a converted
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Christian, meaning
someone who has been born again
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and have had
that change of heart.
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The pride has been
subdued, humility has come in
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and they have seen
Christ lifted up and they have
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a love and affection for Him.
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Even though that is
there, the flesh is still there.
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That carnal selfish
heart is still there.
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What it does is that it fights
against the divine nature,
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the Spirit of God
that is inside of us.
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There is this war,
this battle that goes on.
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So whatever happens, whatever
choices we have to make in
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life, it is not like we
have no resistance from the
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inside, that
flesh is still there.
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What the apostle Paul is
telling us, walk in the Spirit
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and keep that flesh subdued.
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That's right, in fact we
actually see a really clear
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picture of that in
Romans 7 where the apostle Paul
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spells this out a
little more clearly.
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All he says in Galatians is
that the flesh and the Spirit
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are contrary so you don't
do the things you want to do,
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or the things you
would or wish to do.
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We see that played
out in Romans 7:14.
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I'm going to start at
first 14 were here Paul says,
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"for we know that the
law is spiritual, but I am
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"carnal, sold under sin. "
So we already see to contrary
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things, we see
spiritual and carnal.
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What happens there? He
says, "15. For what I am doing,
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"I do not understand. For
what I will to do, that I do
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"not practice; but what I
hate, that I do. 16. If, then,
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"I do what I will not to
do, I agree with the law that it
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"is good. 17. But now, it
is no longer I who do it, but
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"sin that dwells in me.
18. For I know that in me (that
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"is, in my flesh) nothing
good dwells; for to will is
00:11:07.54\00:11:11.17
"present with me, but how
to perform what is good I do
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"not find. 19. For the
good that I will to do, I do not
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"do; but the evil I will
not to do, that I practice. "
00:11:17.99\00:11:21.08
So the whole point Paul is
making is he has this internal
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battle, he wants to do
right but he does wrong.
00:11:24.21\00:11:27.35
He wants to resist
wrong, but he does it anyway.
00:11:27.38\00:11:30.45
He has this conflict and
he says in the course of this,
00:11:30.48\00:11:34.53
because the law points
out things that he can see are
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wrong he
realizes the law is good.
00:11:38.61\00:11:41.02
I agree with the law that it
is good, the only problem is,
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and this is interesting, he
is not battling against the law
00:11:44.82\00:11:48.09
now, he is not saying I
don't think we need to keep the
00:11:48.12\00:11:51.35
law, he realizes we
do need to keep the law.
00:11:51.38\00:11:54.24
The only problem is my
flesh isn't subject to the law.
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I can't find how to keep
the law and so he is stuck in
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this experience where it said
in Galatians that the person
00:12:02.20\00:12:06.20
who is led by the
Spirit is not under the law.
00:12:06.23\00:12:07.95
We have talked about the
person who is under the law,
00:12:07.99\00:12:09.95
under the dominion of sin.
00:12:09.99\00:12:11.24
Romans 6:14 says, you are
not under law but under grace,
00:12:11.28\00:12:15.22
sin shall not have dominion
over you because you are
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not under law but under grace.
00:12:19.21\00:12:20.57
When sin has dominion
over you that means you are
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a slave to sin and what
is the description here of
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this man's struggle
except that he is a slave.
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He can even do his own will.
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He has to
everything his master says,
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and his master is the flesh.
00:12:31.23\00:12:32.68
Wow if you keep reading in
this passage it gets even more
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practical, when you look at
verse 20 he says, "now if I do
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"what I will not to do, it
is no longer I who do it, but
00:12:42.53\00:12:46.80
"sin that dwells in me. 21.
I find then a law, that evil
00:12:46.84\00:12:50.36
"was present with me, the
one who wills a to do good.
00:12:50.39\00:12:53.54
"For I delight in the law
of God according to the inward
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"man. 23 but I see another
law in my members, warring
00:12:56.57\00:12:59.20
"against the law of my
mind, and bringing me into
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"captivity to the law of
sin which is in my members.
00:13:01.85\00:13:04.36
"O wretched man that I am!
Who would deliver me from this
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"body of death? 25. I thank
God-through Jesus Christ our
00:13:08.13\00:13:11.97
"Lord! So then, with the
mind I myself serve the law of
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"God, but with the
flesh the law of sin. "
00:13:15.85\00:13:18.55
Now this is a powerful
passage in one of the key points
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here that I would like to
draw out is that many people
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read here and say that is me.
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I delight in the law of God
according to the inward man.
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I will to do good but I'm not.
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That is just like the apostle
Paul so that should be just
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fine, in other words my
good intentions are really
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all that God needs.
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He knows that inside I
know what is right, even though
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I may not be doing right.
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They take Romans 7 as a
stopping place. - that's right,
00:13:47.40\00:13:50.60
that's right but we recognize
that according to Jesus,
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He says that not everyone
says to me Lord, Lord will be in
00:13:54.33\00:13:57.95
the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the will of My
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Father in heaven.
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Good intentions is not
exactly what God is seeking for.
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We are going to dive a little
deeper into this in just a
00:14:04.10\00:14:06.69
moment, but right now
we need to go to break and
00:14:06.72\00:14:08.80
we will be right back with you.
00:14:08.83\00:14:10.07