Participants: Ty Gibson, James Rafferty, David Asscherick, Jeffrey Rosario
Series Code: TT
Program Code: TT000026
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00:01 [Music]
00:12 [Music] 00:20 --David, right before we're starting this program, broke the 00:23 slinky. 00:24 --I did. 00:25 I didn't even know that it was breakable and I've broken it. 00:26 --You broke the slinky. 00:27 You're gonna be tempted to fix the slinky the whole time. 00:30 --I'll set it on the floor so that I don't fix it while we're, 00:32 but that's a good illustration because we're broken. 00:36 --Here we go. 00:37 --And some of us are slinky's 00:38 --But none of us are set on the floor by God. 00:42 --Amen. 00:44 --He keeps us on the table. 00:47 --This is number 13. 00:49 --I'm glad I broke the slinky. 00:50 --Number 13. 00:52 Isn't that something? 00:53 --It's amazing. 00:54 --This is the righteousness by faith series and we have now 00:58 come to the conclusion of this conversation. 01:01 We've decided that in this particular conversation, we're 01:05 going to pursue an extremely important line of thinking in 01:11 Galatians chapter 5. 01:12 So, we wanna get our bibles open to Galatians 5, and we're just 01:15 gonna. 01:16 --Before we go to Galatians 5, I just have about 19 points I'd 01:19 like to quickly make to bring this series to close. 01:22 It'll just take a few moments. 01:24 --Let's go to Galatians 5. 01:25 Absolutely not. 01:26 --He is kidding. 01:28 --The slinky is broken, okay. 01:29 --So, Galatians 5, but here's the title that we've given to 01:34 this conversation, faith that works by love, and we're gonna 01:38 find this very language in the passage, but the surrounding 01:42 text, wow. 01:45 The Apostle Paul is communicating something 01:47 tremendous here, and we just wanna delve into the text and 01:51 understand it and those who are sitting in with us on the 01:56 conversation, we wanna encourage them also to just get the bible 01:58 open and look at it with us. 02:00 We'll just start in verse 1, who wants to take us there? 02:02 --So, just to be clear, we're gonna go through Galatians 5 in 02:05 the same kind of way that we went through 2 Corinthians 3. 02:10 Let's do it. 02:11 --I don't know if we'll get all of the way through, but we'll 02:13 try. 02:14 --If Jeffery reads, he might have enough time in our hour 02:17 long conversation to actually read it. 02:19 -The bible is meant to be read carefully and slowly. 02:22 Verse 1 in Galatians chapter 5. 02:25 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made 02:30 us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 02:36 --Okay, I wanna pause right there. 02:37 --That's a great place to pause. 02:39 --So, there's a lot in this text we have here the idea of 02:44 standing in the liberty by which Christ has, past tense, made us 02:52 free. 02:53 So, clearly in Paul's understanding, there is an 02:56 objective foundation to the gospel. 02:59 Do you see that there? 03:01 --That has already taken place and been a reality. 03:04 Past tense. 03:05 --We've called it, somebody called it the holy history of 03:08 Jesus. 03:09 --Something that jumps out to me about this text, we've quoted 03:11 this text before and we mentioned that in most of the 03:14 modern translations, in fact, even in my marginal reading 03:16 here, it says, for freedom, Christ has made us free, stand 03:21 fast therefore, etc. etc. For freedom, for the purpose of 03:23 freedom, Christ has set us free. 03:27 And the thing that I just absolutely love about this is 03:29 that he sets that in contrast with the yoke of bondage. 03:32 So, there's freedom, liberation, we often talk about salvation, 03:36 but the language that scripture often uses, especially Jesus, 03:40 for salvation, was the language of liberation, emancipation, 03:44 beings, if the son shall make you free, you shall be free 03:47 indeed. 03:49 That's not just freedom from something, in this case, freedom 03:52 from the yoke of bondage. 03:53 As we're gonna discover, in Paul's line of reasoning, it's 03:56 freedom for something or to something, to an end. 03:59 --Freedom to be who you were created to be. 04:02 Another point of this is stand fast. 04:05 So, this freedom that we're given that we experience, we're 04:08 supposed to stand fast in it. 04:10 In other words, there's some intentionality here. 04:12 There's some focus to make sure that we're still in the right 04:16 paradigm of what this all means. 04:19 So, stand fast in it and do not be entangled again. 04:22 --Totally, because we're jumping in here at Galatians 5, of 04:25 course, there's 5 and 6 and then the book is done, Paul, in 1, 2, 04:28 3, and 4 has developed that very point. 04:31 He has made his case for Christian liberty. 04:33 And he spent a lot of time, by the way, talking about Abraham, 04:35 which we've spent a lot of time talking about Abraham, which 04:37 makes me feel really good, that we're moving in a very biblical 04:40 direction here. 04:41 --So, do you think that with this language, I don't wanna 04:43 spend too much time, I know we got a lot to cover, but when we 04:46 talk of righteousness by faith, we've been emphasizing, it's 04:49 centered in God, it's centered in God, not in what I do, not in 04:53 what I do. 04:54 Somebody might mishear that to indicate carelessness. 05:01 Right, it's all about God. 05:02 --License to sin. 05:04 --Because this says that there's a part to play that the believer 05:07 plays, and that is to be careful that you don't lose that 05:11 liberty, or to be careful that you don't lose that thing. 05:15 --The concern that you're identifying there is the very 05:18 concern that Paul is going to address in Galatians 5, because 05:21 as he brings this to a close, he's gonna talk about walking in 05:24 the spirit and staying away from what he calls the works of the 05:27 flesh. 05:28 --And one of the reasons why he addresses that concern is 05:30 because he was accused of preaching cheap grace. 05:33 And I think it's really interesting, that fact is really 05:35 interesting because how many of us, how many preachers today 05:39 could be accused of the same thing? 05:41 Not that we ought to push ourselves to that t level 05:44 deliberately, but I think it's important to recognize that Paul 05:48 so emphasized Christ and so emphasized the gospel and the 05:51 freeing power of the gospel to take us out of legalism and out 05:55 of righteousness by works that he was accused of preaching 05:59 cheap grace. 06:00 --But for Paul, there's not a sharp segregation, it's a 06:02 package, it's an envelope, it's a continuum. 06:06 Stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made you free 06:10 is essentially saying there is a subjective, that is an 06:14 experiential aspect and there is an objective aspect that is 06:19 achieved in the historical Christ event, and for Paul, the 06:23 one generates or produces the other. 06:27 And when he says do not be entangled again with the yoke of 06:30 bondage, the most elementary immediate definition we wanna 06:35 give to that is don't sin. 06:38 But in his context, as David just pointed out, in chapters 06:41 1-4, but in the immediate context as well, the yoke of 06:44 bondage is defined and we'll read it all, but it's defined in 06:48 verse 4 as attempting to be justified by the law. 06:51 --That's right. 06:52 --That's the yoke of bondage. 06:53 The bondage is an orientation to God through the law. 06:59 He's trying to shift us in the gospel to an orientation toward 07:04 God through Christ which gives a different kind or quality of 07:08 relation to the law, which he's gonna be bringing out very 07:11 clearly. 07:12 --So, the language that you're using there, Ty, brings to my 07:14 mind the picture of a tight rope. 07:16 Paul has to walk a fine line whereby he draws people out of a 07:20 legal religion, out of a yoke of bondage, but not pendulously, 07:24 recklessly swing, that was your word, recklessly swing over into 07:28 lawlessness. 07:31 But then he also has to emphasize that what Jesus does 07:33 for us does not cause us to disregard or make obsolete the 07:38 law. 07:39 So, he's walking, and I think when Paul erred, and this is 07:42 just my hunch from having spent hours and years reading his 07:44 writings that if he was going to err, he erred on the side of 07:48 emphasizing Christ, and here's how we know that. 07:51 The point you just made, James, is a point that I absolutely 07:53 love, and that is that, let me just say it from Paul's own 07:57 text, when he's sort of making his point back in Romans, he 08:01 asked this very interesting question, he says in verse 31, 08:03 do we then make void the law through faith, certainly not, we 08:06 establish the law. 08:07 Here's my point, if our preaching of the gospel doesn't 08:10 generate these kinds of questions, we're not preaching 08:14 Paul's gospel. 08:16 --So, the questions don't indicate a lack of balance on 08:20 his part, it indicates he was hitting the point. 08:23 --And Paul's not even aiming so much in our current academic way 08:29 of thinking, he's not so much aiming for balance, even, he's 08:33 aiming for a communication of a holistic picture. 08:36 So, he's not, for Paul, he's not thinking, Jesus, Jesus, 08:40 salvation by grace, but also, you need to get her done. 08:45 You need to obey, you need to, don't forget that part, no, Paul 08:48 is thinking more like this, he's saying, if you engage with 08:53 Christ, if your focus is there, if you participate in the 08:56 storyline of God's covenant faithfulness, he's saying, you 09:00 will be free and you will experience liberty, it's not so 09:04 much that obedience is necessary, it's obedience to the 09:09 law is inevitable in the light of the gospel. 09:12 --And so, his point is, stand fast, be careful, not so much to 09:15 do the right thing or to the letter or to the law, but be 09:20 careful to maintain the healthiness of how you're 09:23 relating to God. 09:24 It's basically, so I'm talking to this girl who's wanting a 09:29 boyfriend, and I'm trying to discourage her from wanting a 09:32 boyfriend, and I tell her that guys are terrible, that guys 09:36 will break your heart. 09:37 --And you know this firsthand. 09:38 --I'm telling her that, you know, look around you, look at 09:41 society, look at the media, and I'm building this up, and she 09:44 looks at me and she says, so, how in the world do you and your 09:49 wife work? 09:50 And then she just caught me off guard. 09:53 And I was like, well, I just threw myself under the bus. 09:56 But, I said... 09:57 --Here's the answer you should've given, we have a new 09:59 covenant marriage. 10:00 --Essentially, that's what I told her. 10:02 I said, I don't have to wake up in the morning before I leave my 10:04 home and try not to cheat on my wife. 10:09 I'm not trying not to be unfaithful to my wife, the 10:14 thought is just not really, I don't glow in the dark, I'm not 10:18 saying... 10:20 --We know this. 10:21 --We know you don't glow in the dark. 10:22 --You're in love. 10:23 --Absolutely. 10:26 So, to me, I don't have to focus, if I can stand fast in 10:30 maintaining a healthy relationship with my wife, I 10:34 don't have to worry about this thing. 10:37 So, I think that's what he's saying, stand fast in that 10:39 beautiful thing you have, don't get entangled with focusing on 10:43 the right thing. 10:44 Okay, we're in verse 2, right? 10:46 --And we're climbing on verses 2 and 3 and 4 and 5, so we need to 10:47 read. 10:49 --Read straight to verse 6, Jeffrey, without us interrupting 10:52 you. 10:53 --That'll be interesting. 10:54 --Do it, do it, do it. 10:55 -- Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, 11:00 Christ will profit you nothing. 11:02 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he 11:05 is a debtor to keep the whole law. 11:07 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be 11:12 justified by law; you have fallen from grace. 11:16 For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of 11:20 righteousness by faith. 11:21 For in Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor 11:25 uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. 11:30 --These are such powerful verses. 11:33 Look at these verses, the whole focus of this series is 11:36 encapsulated in verse 5, and it's done in such a way that it 11:39 so beautiful, for we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope 11:43 of righteousness by faith. 11:44 We see that in the scriptures we see that as the goal, we see 11:49 that as the gift but we also recognize when we look in the 11:53 mirror, we recognize how far short we fall, how far we fall 11:58 short. 11:59 --That's not easy to say. 12:00 --Say that 5 times really fast. 12:01 --And I love this, now, I like the way the King James says 12:05 verse 4, Christ has become of no effect to you who are justified 12:11 by the law. 12:12 --The word in the New King James is estranged, or do you have 12:16 estranged in yours? 12:17 --No, it's estranged. 12:18 --It's estranged in the New King James Version, and the point is 12:21 powerful, the attempt to be made right with God through the law 12:30 as your primary medium of self-rectification and 12:33 correction automatically causes you to be estranged from Christ. 12:38 --I just had a really fascinating though on that. 12:41 We all know the passage there in Matthew chapter 7 where Jesus is 12:45 bringing the Sermon on the Mount to the close, he says, many will 12:48 say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, didn't we do this? 12:50 And we did this, and we did this, and we did this, and then 12:52 he says, depart from me, I don't know you. 12:54 We could say, you're a stranger to me. 12:56 So, here, it's very interesting that he says... 12:59 --But they're religious. 13:00 --Well, he's describing here people that are religious. 13:02 Circumcision is a religious act. 13:05 --Okay, let's stop the meeting while I take some notes here. 13:06 --Isn't that kind of a fascinating idea? 13:08 --They're doers. 13:09 Doing, didn't we do this, that, and the other thing? 13:12 --There's something I have to, have to, have to say, you go 13:14 ahead first. 13:16 --I do, too, and that is this, it's really interesting. 13:17 These people are workers of iniquity, which we can look 13:20 through the bible, we can define that as people who didn't keep 13:22 the law of God, but at the same time they are presenting their 13:27 other works of casting out devils as the reason why they 13:31 should be entrance into the kingdom. 13:33 They're legalists. 13:34 --That's the point. 13:35 --Even outside of law keeping, they're legalists. 13:38 --When Paul describes what he calls here the yoke of bondage, 13:40 especially in the context of not only Galatians, but all of 13:43 Paul's writings. 13:44 We need to make a very important point, we had our last program 13:48 on the new covenant, and that is that the new covenant and the 13:51 old covenant is not primarily a chronological point. 13:56 It's not, well that was the 1987 model, and this is the 1988 14:00 model, that's older, this is newer. 14:03 The old covenant, in a sense, was older, but it's interesting, 14:06 the first covenant that God made with the archetypal, the 14:09 archetypal covenant was made with Abraham, but that's the 14:12 oldest covenant in this sense, and yet, Abraham had a new 14:15 covenant experience because he believed God. 14:19 --David, your point is right in Galatians 4. 14:22 Right in Galatian 4, the outline of the new and the old covenant 14:28 comes from the same person. 14:30 It's not New Testament, Old Testament, it's Abraham with 14:33 Hagar and Abraham with Sarah. 14:35 --So, let's just say the obvious thing here. 14:37 People in the Old Testament, like Abraham, Moses, and others, 14:40 could have a new covenant experience. 14:42 Of course, the new covenant text is right out of Jeremiah, which 14:44 is in the Old Testament, but it's also true that people in 14:47 the New Testament time, when Paul is writing about these 14:50 people, can have an old covenant experience. 14:53 --In our very time. 14:55 --2014. 14:56 --In fact, it's entirely possible and highly likely that 15:00 every one of us have experienced both an old covenant experience, 15:07 orientation, and a new covenant orientation. 15:12 And you can literally fluctuate between the two in a single day. 15:14 [Laughter] 15:16 --In a single conversation. 15:18 --I don't wanna jump too far ahead, but I think that it's 15:20 important for us to understand, for our viewers, those who are 15:24 listening in, that there is a way, again, to identify, one way 15:29 you can identify which covenant you're under, which is actually 15:32 going to be the central focus of the verses we're yet to read, 15:35 but going back to chapter 4 of Galatians, verse 29, when Paul 15:39 outlines these 2 covenants, these 2 ways of relating to God 15:43 and thinking about God. 15:44 He summarizes the way that we identify the difference between 15:48 the 2, in verse 29 where he says, but as then, he that was 15:53 born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the 15:56 spirit, even so it is now. 15:58 Those who are under old covenant were persecuting. 16:01 Luke 18, verse 9, despise, persecute, look down upon. 16:07 We can know if we're under new covenant because we have a 16:09 completely different attitude toward people, we don't see them 16:13 according to the flesh and toward God, and old covenant we 16:15 persecute and look down on. 16:17 --James, you used the word legalism. 16:21 That's a word that gets thrown around quite a bit. 16:23 I wanna just say a couple of things about legalism. 16:26 First of all, legalism is not the same as heartfelt obedience. 16:33 So, obedience and legalism are not one in the same thing, 16:37 right? 16:38 And Paul's gonna make that clear. 16:40 But I wanna say something else about legalism. 16:41 Legalism is, again, an orientation toward God and 16:46 salvation that is self-centered rather than Christ-centered 16:50 because people tend to very simplistically think that 16:54 legalism only occurs on the conservative end of the 16:57 spectrum, on the conservative end of the religious spectrum. 17:00 The fact is, that it's a framework, it's a frame of mind, 17:04 and there is liberal legalism, and there is conservative 17:08 legalism. 17:09 There is what we might call short list legalism and long 17:12 list legalism. 17:14 But in character and quality, it is legalism. 17:17 It's the same stuff, because it's a particular way of 17:20 attempting to relate to God through law rather than through 17:24 Christ. 17:25 --Can I ask a question here of the group, what is, for the 17:31 benefit not only of us here at the table, but for our viewers, 17:33 what is, in verse 5, the hope of righteousness by faith? 17:36 --That's so powerful. 17:38 --And I have my own thinking on that, but I think we should just 17:41 address that phrase. 17:43 --I can tell you that the parallel passage, because Paul 17:45 has written many New Testament epistles is chapter 5 of Romans, 17:49 and you could hold your hand there and just go over to Romans 17:51 5, and I'll just read it really quickly, he says, Therefore, 17:54 having been justified by faith, verse 1, we have peace with God 17:57 through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access 18:01 by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice... 18:04 --There's the word stand. 18:06 --Yeah, stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 18:10 It's the same basic idea. 18:12 --And then he describes the process or the sequence. 18:13 --One more verse, I think it's really clear, and that's Romans 18:16 8 verse 24, and I think the verse you shared is really 18:18 clear, but here's one more verse that I really love. 18:20 For we are saved, we're talking about salvation here, by hope, 18:24 but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man sees, why 18:28 does he yet hope for it? 18:29 In other words, when I look in the mirror, when I look at my 18:32 life, when I look at myself at the end of the day... 18:34 --You're looking good, by the way. 18:36 --Physically, thank you. 18:37 --The facial hair goes over good. 18:40 --We're distracting him. 18:43 --There's a lot of things that I see at the end of the day that I 18:46 don't like, that are not righteousness by faith, that are 18:49 not the fruit of salvation in Jesus Christ. 18:52 So, I don't see it, but I hope for it, I'm waiting and I'm 18:56 longing for that, I'm not giving up on that. 18:57 I'm not lowering that standard, I'm not going to compromise the 19:01 standard of righteousness that God has given to me as a gift 19:05 just because I fall short of it. 19:08 I hope for it, I wait for it, and I know that my salvation, my 19:11 title and my fitness for heaven are found in the righteousness 19:14 of Jesus Christ. 19:16 --I think Paul is describing, along the lines of what you're 19:18 saying, David's question, I think that he is describing an 19:23 ongoing process. 19:24 The believer is in a state of constant eager anticipation of 19:30 righteousness by faith, experientially, and in verse 6, 19:35 he describes what that process looks like in action when he 19:39 says, for in Jesus Christ, neither circumcision avails 19:42 anything nor uncircumcision, but faith working or faith that 19:46 works by love. 19:47 So, here, just bringing verses 5 and 6 together, he says, what we 19:51 as believers are really hoping for, eagerly, is righteousness 19:55 by faith, and then he says, and faith works by love. 20:00 And the word works there is energeo in the Greek. 20:04 Energy, it's the same, we could read the verse like this, we 20:08 believe, we hope for righteousness by faith and 20:11 faith, Paul qualifies, is energized by love, it's 20:15 activated, it's empowered, it's brought into action and motion 20:23 by vital contact with God's love. 20:24 God's love is the actuating force. 20:27 God's love is the vital energy that causes our faith to wake up 20:33 to action, because Paul has this idea that every human being has 20:37 been given a measure of faith. 20:39 It's like a sleeping giant of possibility right there as a 20:44 gift from God initially. 20:45 --I like that language. 20:47 --We all have faith before we come into contact with God's 20:51 love in a dormant state, let's say. 20:53 --Hibernating. 20:54 --Hibernating. 20:55 But then, God's love comes to us, we see that love, we 20:59 perceive God's love, his covenantal faithfulness toward 21:02 us, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 21:06 And the kiss of God's love wakes up to action the faith that then 21:13 eagerly hopes for, pursues, and engages in the process of 21:17 righteousness. 21:18 --I love it. 21:19 I think about Philippians 3:12, too. 21:23 --Some sleeping beauty analogy there. 21:26 --The bible says that in Christ, what is it, mercy and truth 21:30 kiss. 21:31 --I liked it. 21:32 I'll take it. 21:33 --Paul's just giving a record of his entire history, his 21:36 religious history, I'm a tribe of the Benjamin, and then he 21:39 says this, not as though I had already attained, neither were 21:43 already perfect, but I follow after if that I may apprehend 21:48 that. 21:49 Brethren, I count not myself, verse 13, to have apprehended, 21:51 but forget but this one thing I do, this one thing. 21:55 What does he do? 21:56 What things? 21:58 --The past. 21:59 --What past? 22:00 What kind of past. 22:02 --All past, everything that you've done. 22:03 --But, specifically, in the context, what past? 22:04 Because we always think about, we always think about, in this 22:08 context, what kind of past do we think about when we say, I wanna 22:10 forget those things. 22:11 What do we think about? 22:12 --His efforts to attain righteousness through the law. 22:15 --He is forgetting the things that were damaging, which were 22:19 his attainments. 22:21 Now, this is the key, I think, to righteousness by faith versus 22:23 legalism. 22:25 Legalism does not wanna forget attainments, and that's the 22:28 greatest competition. 22:29 I remember, when I first came to Jesus, nothing in my hand I 22:34 bring, simply to thy cross I cling. 22:36 And I'm telling you what, you know what first love experience 22:39 is like because you give him nothing and he gives you 22:41 everything. 22:43 But after a week of being a Christian, after a month of 22:45 being a Christian, after a year of being a Christian. 22:47 --You were a legalist, I remember, automatically. 22:49 --And I was attracted to other legalists, and together we 22:54 formed a little hub of legalists. 22:56 Now, but here's the point, it becomes more difficult to forget 23:03 those things which we've attained. 23:05 I've been doing this and this and this and this. 23:07 Paul here is talking about how that damaged his experience, and 23:11 he says, you know what, righteousness by faith forgets 23:13 those things which you've attained to and we press toward 23:16 the mark, and as we see Jesus, we see a fuller, I wanna say 23:22 standard, a higher standard than simply the checklist. 23:26 And that's what I believe. 23:28 And so, Paul sees more of Christ. 23:29 He says, you know what, I'm waiting in hope for that 23:32 experience, because I know in me there's no good thing, and at 23:35 the end of his life in a prison in Rome, he writes to Timothy 23:38 and he says, you know what, I am the chief of sinners. 23:42 --While you're expounding grace, I don't want to be, but I'm the 23:44 law, I have to say we take a break because there's a clock 23:48 that we're watching so, a little bit of law. 23:52 Pause and we'll come right back and continue expounding grace. 23:56 [Music] 23:59 --This is the story of Niyima, who took a bus to the doctor and 24:03 found a piece of paper with words of hope about Jesus, which 24:08 was left by a church member who unpacked a box that came from a 24:13 truck which drove in from Durban where a ship was docked that 24:17 sailed from Seattle, loaded with containers stacked high with 24:22 millions of tracts, trucked in from the Light Bearers 24:26 Publishing House, where more than 600 million pieces of 24:29 gospel literature have been printed in 42 languages. 24:34 Here's the amazing thing, Light Bearers distributes this 24:38 literature free of charge all over the world, and each piece 24:42 costs only 5 pennies to print, transport, and deliver. 24:47 Every day, millions of people buy a $5 cup of coffee, $5 a 24:53 cup, 5 days a week. 24:56 It adds up fast. 24:58 But at just 5 cents apiece, that same $25 can also ship 500 25:04 pieces of literature and give hope to people like Niyima, who 25:11 shared that paper with a classmate, who gave it to her 25:14 cousin, who shared it with his boss, who passed it to her 25:18 grandmother, who left it on another bus, where it will be 25:23 found by someone else. 25:25 And the story continues. 25:28 Five cents doesn't buy a lot these days, but in other parts 25:33 of the world, your nickel could change someone's life. 25:36 Your gift of $25 a month sends out 6,000 pieces of gospel 25:41 literature each year. 25:44 Fifty dollars sends out 12,000, and $100 a month sends out 25:49 24,000 messages of hope every year, all over the world. 25:56 Empower Light Bearers to continue the story. 25:59 Send your gift through lightbearers.org, or by calling 26:02 877-585-1111. 26:07 Who knew 5 little pennies could do so much? 26:12 [Music] 26:18 --Working our way through Galatians 5, we've come to verse 26:21 7, Jeffery's our reader. 26:23 --How far you want me to read? 26:25 --I think you can go all the way to verse 15 this time. 26:26 --You think so? 26:27 --We won't stop you, do it, 7-15. 26:30 --If the spirit stops me, that's okay. 26:32 --I think we should stop in verse 14, that's a good stopping 26:34 point. 26:36 --Yeah, that's a good point, stop at 14. 26:38 --Verse 7, you ran well. 26:41 Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 26:44 This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you. 26:48 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 26:51 I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no 26:54 other mind, but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, 26:58 whoever he is. 26:59 I love that. 27:01 And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I 27:05 still suffer persecution? 27:08 Then the offense of the cross has ceased. 27:11 I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut 27:14 themselves off. 27:16 --Mercy. 27:17 --For you, brethren, have been called to liberty, only do not 27:22 use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love 27:26 serve one another. 27:28 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you 27:31 shall love your neighbor as yourself. 27:35 --We're stopping right there, but the next word is but. 27:38 --But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be 27:42 consumed by one another. 27:43 --That's the vital contrast, but anyway, going back to verse 7, 27:47 there's a lot here. 27:48 --There's a whole lot here, and we can say, safely... 27:51 --He was flexing his muscles there. 27:52 --Well, verse 12 is brutal. 27:55 --Paul is not a wimp. 27:57 --Verse 12 is one of the most brutal passages, I don't know if 28:01 brutal is the word, but that's some straight talk, because I 28:03 don't know if everybody in the conversation is catching it, but 28:07 he's saying something strong here. 28:09 --What he's saying is, is if they're so sold on circumcision 28:16 and they're trying to persuade you that that's the way to be in 28:18 a right relationship with God, the next time they're 28:20 circumcising, say, themself, I hope the knife slips, is 28:25 basically what he's saying, he's saying, they mutilate 28:27 themselves. 28:28 This is strong language, basically. 28:30 But he's not saying this for any vengeful purpose or anything 28:33 like, but he is deeply concerned. 28:35 He's like, look, if anybody's preaching another gospel to you, 28:39 even an angel or anybody preaches another gospel to you 28:44 than the gospel that you've heard, which is the life, death, 28:45 and resurrection of Jesus, he's like, may they be cursed. 28:49 --Which is actually stronger than the circumcision. 28:52 --I got the phrase that cut off is, yeah, it's a curse, is like, 28:55 cut off like lost. 28:57 --It literally means mutilated. 28:59 --The context here is he's talking about circumcision and 29:02 he's, yeah. 29:04 --The margin of the reference... 29:06 --You were about to say, we don't have to dwell on that 29:10 point. 29:11 --It's a physical thing, not a spiritual thing. 29:12 --Well, obviously, it had spiritual implications, but he's 29:14 basically speaking as a man here, I mean, he's just kinda 29:18 fired up. 29:19 You see this in the Psalms with David. 29:21 You know, David will say, may the evildoers be eaten by 29:23 jackals or whatever it might be. 29:25 And you know, for us, for those of us that have the teddy bear 29:29 view of God and all is, that's not a biblical view of God. 29:32 God is angry at sin. 29:34 He's not angry at sinners. 29:35 --Let's open this up just a little bit more, because I like 29:38 the way that you brought in David. 29:39 David did say that, in fact, he specifically said that about 29:42 Saul, at times when Saul was chasing and trying to kill him, 29:46 but when he encountered Saul, it was a little bit different, but 29:49 the point I'm making here is this. 29:52 I think that Paul is qualified to say this, I want our viewers 29:54 to understand, I want us to look at this a little bit. 29:56 I think he qualifies himself in saying this, not because he's 29:59 being mean and anti-Christian, which sometimes, a fundamental 30:03 aspect, I mean a fundamentalist approach and perspective of 30:08 Christians, the way that we're viewed and the way that we come 30:10 across is, yeah, we wish you just were cursed, but the idea 30:13 that you get in the context for example of Romans 9 is where 30:17 Paul says, I have great heaviness and continual sorrow 30:21 in my heart for I could wish that myself were accursed from 30:24 Christ, for my kinsmen, and my breath according to the flesh. 30:28 In other words, the only way that Paul, I think, qualifies 30:31 himself to be able to say this in Christian grace is that he 30:35 has a love that would sacrifice himself. 30:39 Jesus was the same way. 30:40 Jesus could say very hard things, Steven could say very 30:44 hard things, Paul can say very hard things to the Jews who want 30:49 these guys to be in the bondage of circumcision, etc. 30:52 --Not all Jews, but these ones. 30:53 --Because he was willing to die for them. 30:56 I think he was qualified in that sense. 30:58 --It's implicit in the actual text, too, verse 13 at the end, 31:02 serve through love, serve one another, verse 15, don't bite 31:06 and devour one another, so he's obviously not setting a... 31:10 --I might be stepping out on a limb, I think everything that 31:12 James said is true and I think that's Paul's heart, but I think 31:15 Paul is also a real person, a real man who has been 31:20 shepherding this flock and he sees them threatened and he's 31:25 very protective and I don't think he is wishing that anybody 31:29 be eternally lost, and I think that he's speaking, he's doing 31:33 what we often do, people do, he's speaking with exaggeration 31:38 for effect. 31:39 He's not going after anybody with a knife, he's basically 31:43 just saying, in this way, I feel very strongly about this that 31:46 this whole orientation of approaching God through the law 31:51 is very damaging and I feel so strong about it and I think it's 31:55 just that simple. 31:56 But I think that everything you said, that's his heart. 31:59 --To transition away from that, to go to verse 13, for me, the 32:02 entire book of Galatians is summarized in that one verse. 32:05 --Really? 32:06 The whole book? 32:07 --The whole book is 5:13. 32:08 For, you brethren, have been called to liberty. 32:11 That's what Christ has called us to, only do not use that liberty 32:15 as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one 32:19 another. 32:20 That takes us all the way back to the Garden of Eden if you 32:21 wanted to go back that far. 32:22 God could've easily said to Adam and Eve, children, you have been 32:25 called to liberty. 32:27 Only, don't use this liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. 32:31 For the things that I'm actually steering you from. 32:34 But, through love, Adam, Eve, and your descendants that are to 32:37 come, serve one another. 32:38 Here, in the gospel context, he's basically saying, if Christ 32:42 has made you free, you will be free indeed, but freedom is not 32:46 a freedom to disobey. 32:48 This goes back to the question you were asking in our last 32:50 presentation. 32:51 What would the world look like, what would Christianity look 32:53 like if the law were literally actually done away with as some 32:56 confusingly maintain? 32:59 It's just absurd. 33:00 It doesn't make any sense, and Paul's point here is this, yes, 33:03 you're free, not just free from sin, and not just free from 33:06 death, but you're free to do the thing that you were created to 33:10 do, that's to love and to serve. 33:13 You're a social being, love. 33:15 --He's making it very clear, because he's saying, don't use 33:21 your liberty as an occasion for the flesh. 33:23 In other words, don't take the grace of God as license to sin, 33:27 it's not. 33:28 It's actually the exact opposite, isn't it? 33:31 --It's freedom to obey. 33:33 --But you went all the way to verse 13, can I back up to verse 33:37 7? 33:38 Where Jeffery began in this segment? 33:39 And that is that Paul uses very fascinating language here, he 33:43 says, you ran well, who hindered you from obeying the truth? 33:48 I wanna make a point because Paul, in other places, speaks of 33:52 obedience to the gospel or obeying the gospel. 33:57 How do you obey truth? 34:00 How do you obey the gospel? 34:02 He's, later on, in verse 10, saying that he is hoping that we 34:07 will be of the same mind and he speaks in verse 11 about the 34:11 offense of the cross. 34:14 So, it's not an obedience that is merely an outward obedience 34:20 that is rendered to the letter of the law that he's concerned 34:23 with, it's an inward obedience of theology. 34:26 It's an obedience of orientation. 34:29 It's an obedience of mind, yeah, think this way about God and 34:35 Christ and salvation and yourself and the relation 34:37 between the two. 34:38 The gospel can be obeyed in the way we think. 34:42 The truth can be obeyed. 34:43 --And disobeyed in the way we think. 34:45 --And there's another passage where Paul actually talks about 34:48 that he prays that every thought would be brought into captivity 34:53 to the obedience of Christ. 34:55 Where is it? 34:56 --2 Corinthians 10. 34:58 --Yeah, so, thoughts can be brought into obedience and he, 35:00 in that same context, talks about the fact that there are 35:04 those who are coming up with arguments against the gospel. 35:09 --That exalt themselves against the good news of the gospel of 35:12 Christ. 35:13 --So, this is powerful. 35:14 Obedience to the gospel produces the only kind of obedience to 35:17 the law that's worth anything. 35:19 --And you were saying that it's theological obedience in your 35:22 mind and obviously, the reason that's such a great concern is 35:26 because what you think in your head will manifest itself in 35:30 life, and that's what he's dealing with here. 35:33 Because you're of this mindset, now I have to deal with all your 35:36 bitterness and all your, you know, consuming and devouring 35:39 one another, it's because of the way they think. 35:41 --He's going to spell that out. 35:43 --Maybe, in fact, we should just read, if we're done with that, 35:45 because he's going to spell out expressly those things that end 35:49 up in the fingers and the toes and the mouths of people who are 35:52 thinking wrong. 35:53 --You mean beyond verse 16? 35:55 What about... 35:56 --No, just starting in verse 16. 35:57 --Well, we should comment, though, on, this is pretty 36:00 amazing here in verses 14 and 15. 36:03 --Yeah, go ahead, yeah. 36:04 --I mean, here, Paul is basically saying that the whole 36:08 law, verse 14, is summarized in a single idea and that is to 36:14 love your neighbor as yourself and he says that if you don't 36:17 have this kind of relationship with God that is grounded in 36:21 love and an obedience that is basically love, he says, you're 36:25 going to bite and devour one another and, as a result, you're 36:30 gonna consume one another. 36:31 Not literally with our teeth, but with our words and our 36:34 attitudes. 36:35 Have you ever been in a social circle, have you ever been in a 36:38 community, have you ever been in a church? 36:41 Have you ever been in any kind of spiritual setting where 36:43 people are biting and devouring one another kind of a spiritual 36:47 or religious cannibalism. 36:49 --Those very words you just said, this is a bit of a theme 36:52 in Paul in Romans 13, he says, to love one another is to 36:57 fulfill the law. 36:59 He lists the commandments, and then he says, love does no harm, 37:01 verse 10, Romans 13, to a neighbor, love does no harm to a 37:05 neighbor, therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. 37:08 It's a common theme in this. 37:09 --And by the way, that's an Old Testament truth, an Old 37:11 Testament reality comes right out of Leviticus 19. 37:14 The whole concept is right there, but I love this because, 37:16 you asked the question, Ty, have you ever been in an atmosphere, 37:20 have you ever been in an environment, and I would have to 37:22 say yes and participated in it. 37:24 And sometimes, in a joking way, sometimes in a, but then later 37:28 reflecting on it and thinking, why did I say that? 37:31 Why was I, you know, and many times I think it is as natural 37:36 for us as breathing. 37:38 I'm not aware of my breathing, I just do it. 37:40 --Because it's all about self-preservation. 37:41 --It's self-preservation, it's, and it's just part of the 37:44 atmosphere, you wanna fit in, you know, you wanna be part, so 37:46 one person gets started, pretty soon, you're just taking chunks 37:50 out of it. 37:51 --I have a sermon that I preached called because of those 37:53 who sat, and in there, I talk about how peer pressure should 37:56 be called peerless pressure because there's nothing 37:59 stronger. 38:00 It has no peer. 38:01 It is the strongest pressure that can be brought to bear upon 38:04 a person because we long to fit in, we don't like to be 38:08 naturally the one that's standing out, the one that's by 38:10 himself, the one that's alone. 38:12 So, when the crowd goes this way, whether it's smoking or 38:14 drinking or gossip, our natural inclination that has to be 38:17 resisted and it's a difficult thing to resist, is to fit in, 38:20 we wanna fit in. 38:22 You mentioned that this is a theme in Paul's writings, you 38:25 mentioned that this is a theme in the Old Testament. 38:26 Jesus says the exact same thing in Matthew 7:12, therefore, 38:31 whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, and then 38:35 he says, because this is the law in the prophets. 38:38 Translation, that's the Old Testament. 38:40 The Old Testament is to do unto others as you would have them do 38:44 unto you. 38:45 --Contrary to popular opinion. 38:47 --That's right, the more secure and free I am in Christ, the 38:52 less inclined I am going to be to bite and devour others with 38:55 criticism and condemnation and judgment. 38:58 Condemnation dissipates precisely to the degree that I 39:04 am filled up with a sense of God's love for me, right? 39:08 And that's the remedy. 39:10 The remedy isn't simply to try hard never to cute anyone down, 39:14 the remedy is to drink in the good news of the gospel, right? 39:17 And that's the remedy. 39:20 --I hope that that's what we've been communicating. 39:21 --I think we have, I really do think we have. 39:24 The secret to this whole faith and works equation is not the 39:29 absence of a thing. 39:31 It's not, you're stopping that and you stopped that and you 39:33 stopped that and you stopped that and you stopped that. 39:35 That's a part of it, but it's because of the presence of a 39:37 person. 39:39 And that person is Jesus. 39:41 I loved a couple conversations ago, they all blur together now, 39:44 you used this great illustration about how it just takes up the 39:46 space. 39:47 --All the emotional space, all the mental space. 39:49 --When Jesus is in our hearts, it just squeezes out like a 39:53 balloon that's filling up a space, it just squeezes out the 39:56 adjacent, that's what we want. 39:58 We want Christ in us. 40:00 --That's why I love this title, with this emphasis. 40:02 Faith works by love. 40:04 --We have to take a break, one more break, we're coming back. 40:08 --For our final session of the series. 40:12 --That's right. 40:13 [Music] 40:14 --The Light Bearers Story is a short award-winning video that 40:18 gives an inside look at one of the boldest and most effective 40:20 missionary ventures of our time. 40:23 You will see how multiple millions of gospel publications 40:26 are flooding the nations free of charge by surprisingly simple 40:29 means. 40:30 For your free copy of the Light Bearers Story, call 40:33 877-585-1111, or write to Light Bearers, 37457 Jasper Lowell 40:41 Road, Jasper, Oregon 97438. 40:45 Once again, for your free copy of the Light Bearers Story, call 40:48 877-585-1111 or write to Light Bearers 37457 Jasper Lowell 40:56 Road, Jasper, Oregon 97438. 41:00 Simply ask for the Light Bearers Story. 41:07 [Music] 41:11 --We're coming back on verse 16 of Galatians 5, David, why don't 41:14 you take us and just read through the whole passage to 41:16 verse 26. 41:17 --Sixteen to 26? 41:18 --Yeah. 41:19 --Not too fast, though, please. 41:20 --Okay, so like, medium fast. 41:22 --Half the people you preach to don't understand what you're 41:23 saying. 41:24 I'm your boy, I gotta tell you that. 41:26 Go ahead. 41:27 --I'll take it. 41:28 Hey, give me some love. 41:29 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the 41:31 lust of the flesh. 41:33 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against 41:36 the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that 41:39 you do not do the things that you wish. 41:41 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the 41:44 law. 41:45 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, 41:48 fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, 41:52 hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish 41:56 ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, 42:00 drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you 42:04 beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who 42:07 practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 42:10 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, 42:15 kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, 42:19 self-control. 42:20 Against such there is no law. 42:22 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its 42:24 passions and desires. 42:26 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 42:29 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying 42:32 one another. 42:33 --Powerful. 42:34 --Okay, something jumped out at me immediately when you said 42:37 your first thing. 42:38 I had underlined 4 words in verse 16. 42:42 --I wonder if they're the same as mine. 42:43 --If it is, too bad, because... 42:45 --No, I just wanna know if we're on the same page. 42:48 I know we're on the same page. 42:49 --And you shall not. 42:51 --That's it, that's what I had. 42:52 --So, the powerful thing here, do you remember, I forget what 42:55 our conversation was, we were talking about the 10 42:57 commandments and how. 42:58 --Conversation 7, section 2. 43:01 --We were talking about the 10 commandments and how the prelude 43:04 is actually, not even the prelude, it's part of the code, 43:08 right? 43:09 I am the Lord thy God who brought you out of the land of 43:10 Egypt. 43:12 So, something God does now produces something. 43:15 We also spoke about this idea of prophesying, how the gospel 43:19 prophesies into our souls and basically creates us into what 43:24 God, remember that whole thing? 43:26 It's right there, right? 43:27 Walk in the spirit, and then try really hard not to, it says, and 43:31 you shall not. 43:32 So, all the commandments, somebody said... 43:36 --Are promises. 43:37 --You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, as we were 43:40 mentioning. 43:41 So, that's powerful. 43:42 --And the liberty factor is there, because in the 10 43:44 commandments, as you just said, the 10 commandments don't begin 43:47 with thou shalt not have no other gods before me or you 43:50 shall have no other gods before me, the 10 commandments begin 43:52 with, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land. 43:55 --I have liberated you. 43:56 --I've set you free, and this is what freedom looks like. 43:58 --So, stand in the liberty where with I made you free. 44:02 Paul is almost quoting from that whole concept of Exodus chapter 44:06 20 verses 1 and 2. 44:08 --You could actually put a tone to it to make the point. 44:12 Either you hear the law of God with old covenant ears or you 44:15 hear the law of God with new covenant ears. 44:17 You hear the law of God saying thou shalt not, you had better 44:21 not, don't, don't, don't, or you hear the law of God saying, I've 44:24 liberated you, I've set you free, so I promise you, you will 44:31 not, you will not, you will not. 44:34 It's 2 totally different tones, isn't it? 44:36 --That first verse is enough for me, like, that, we could've 44:39 ended it with that. 44:40 That's beautiful. 44:41 --Okay, so, I'm a Christian, okay? 44:44 And I'm in love with Christ and then I encounter Adventists and 44:47 I encounter these guys that go to church on Saturday of all 44:50 days, I mean, I'm a raised Catholic, I don't, never heard 44:52 of this before. 44:53 But I study the bible, I find out the change, I find out about 44:56 prophecy, I find out about everything I look on the 44:58 calendar, indeed the seventh day is the Sabbath, so I'm convinced 45:01 intellectually. 45:03 So, I start keeping the law. 45:05 Years go by as I'm law keeping and doing the things I'm 45:09 supposed to do, etc., because I love Christ, okay, then I read, 45:14 as I'm studying the bible, I read Galatians chapter 5, I've 45:17 been keeping the law for years, I read Galatians chapter 5 and I 45:21 start reading all of the manifestations of the spirit in 45:24 the language of verses 19 and 20 and 21 in contrast to, of 45:29 course, 22. 45:31 In other words, I start reading the specifics and I start 45:35 recognizing in me these manifestations of the flesh. 45:41 Not that I haven't kept the fourth commandment or kept the 45:44 third commandment or kept, you know what I'm saying? 45:47 But I've got envy and... 45:49 --Outbursts of wrath, jealous. 45:52 --I'm thinking, whoa, am I or aren't I walking? 45:56 Paul is going deep here. 45:58 The word of God is going deep here, and that's what I think 46:01 Paul's been talking about in the context of the letter versus the 46:04 spirit. 46:05 --Watch this trajectory in the light of what you just shared, 46:09 James, and the way that Jeffry just unpacked verse 16, notice 46:14 how this reads and see if you agree with this interpretation, 46:16 verses 16 and 17 again and watch the grammar. 46:19 I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the 46:24 lust of the flesh, for the flesh lusts against the spirit and the 46:31 spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to one 46:35 another, so that you do not do the things that you would or 46:40 wish. 46:43 Question, that last phrase, is he saying that as this 46:45 conflict between spirit and flesh is waged inside of us. 46:51 When he says, you will not do the things that you would, but 46:54 you wish, is he talking about you will not do the things of 46:58 the flesh or you will not do the things of the spirit? 47:01 --Yes 47:02 --I think it's both. 47:05 --Is it? 47:06 --That's my answer, yes, what do you think, David? 47:09 --I think, in the context, I'm not sure I even fully understand 47:12 the question. 47:13 --Here's the question, David, here's the question, there's a 47:15 war in verse 17 between the flesh and the spirit and he 47:19 says, essentially that if you're in the spirit, you shall not do 47:26 the things of the flesh or you will not do the things of the 47:31 spirit if you're not in? 47:32 --The emphasis is the spirit. 47:36 --Grammatically and in verse 16, he seems to be saying to me that 47:41 if you walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the 47:44 flesh, right, if you walk in the spirit, there's gonna be a war, 47:47 but you're not going to be able to go contrary to the promptings 47:52 of the spirit, I mean, you will, you have freedom of choice, of 47:55 course, but he's saying... 47:57 --Something's constraining you. 47:58 --I now understand the question. 47:59 --So, the love of Christ is constraining you. 48:02 --That's completely consistent with the thing that Jeffery 48:05 brought up in verse 16, you will not. 48:07 --But sometimes people will say, and if you walk in the lust of 48:10 the flesh, you cannot do the things of the spirit, which is 48:14 true in a sense, but that's not his emphasis. 48:18 That's not his emphasis. 48:19 His emphasis, and I think that it's an important emphasis, his 48:21 emphasis is on freedom. 48:22 --You're about to say verse 18 already covers that, therefore, 48:26 verse 17 is not talking about the flesh or the spirit, I 48:29 agree. 48:31 Verse 18, but if you're led by the spirit, you are not under 48:33 the law. 48:35 So... 48:36 --Not under, you go ahead. 48:38 --No, you go ahead. 48:39 --No, you go ahead. 48:40 --No, you go ahead. 48:41 --I think that, and this is just now occurring in my thinking, 48:47 when I first asked the question and James said yes as in both, I 48:50 think both are true. 48:52 Both are true, but the emphasis, the point that Paul is making is 48:56 that the new covenant establishes an obedience, a 49:01 fruitfulness in relation to God that's solid and you begin to 49:06 move toward God. 49:08 --Was it by design that you just used the word fruitfulness? 49:11 Because that's the very language that Paul will use here when he 49:14 speaks of the fruit of the spirit. 49:16 --Actually, it was an accident, but yeah, it's there. 49:17 --That's awesome, I'm glad it was an accident, because that 49:19 shows that the way that you're thinking is, when you're in this 49:22 kind of a relationship, it's fruitfulness and Paul is 49:27 thinking in the same way, I mean, not that, you know, Paul 49:29 is obviously not emulating your thinking since he's sleeping in 49:31 the grave, but the idea is that that's the natural way to think 49:34 about how works happen. 49:37 As fruit. 49:38 I mean, it really takes us back to John 15 and there's many of 49:40 these sort of agricultural examples in the Old Testament, 49:44 you know, if you're in the vine, Jesus says, you can do things, 49:47 you grow, you're fruitful. 49:49 But if you're detached from the vine, without me, you can't do 49:52 anything. 49:53 --A bad tree doesn't bear good fruit and all of those 49:55 analogies. 49:56 --How much effort does it take for a pear tree to bear pears, 49:59 to create pears? 50:00 Well, the answer would be, well, I don't know, I'm not a pear 50:04 tree, of course, but it would be natural, that's the point. 50:05 It's a natural think. 50:08 That's a different story. 50:09 It's a natural thing. 50:12 If you cut the branch off and set it over here and say, okay, 50:15 now, produce pears, that's not gonna happen. 50:17 If it's not connected, it can't do it. 50:19 But when we are connected to Christ, the natural fruit, and 50:21 then he goes to this list of 9 characteristics. 50:25 My point, the reason I was kind of confused on the 17, 18, I was 50:27 reading over and over again 22, 23 because I wanted to make a 50:30 point there, but we'll get there eventually. 50:32 --Go there right now. 50:33 I made the point on 16 and 17. 50:36 --Okay, something that I really like about this is that there 50:39 are 9 characteristics that identify the fruit of the spirit 50:43 and maybe you've heard it said before, and I think it's a valid 50:45 point, that it's not the fruits of the spirit in the plural, 50:47 whereby, I'll take 1 and 3, 6 and 7, but I don't want any 2, 50:52 4, you know that kind of a thing. 50:54 If you have this, you have all of the characteristics. 50:56 The thing that I love here is that I think you have 3 groups 51:00 of 3, okay, you have a triad here, and tell me if you follow 51:05 this, the triad consists of 3 directions of the fruit of the 51:11 spirit. 51:12 I think Paul is being intentional here. 51:13 The first is largely toward God, the second is largely toward 51:17 others and the third triad is largely toward ourselves, and 51:21 these are not hard and fast categories, but watch how this 51:24 works, the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, right? 51:27 We relate to God with love, he is the joy and rejoicing in our 51:31 heart and we have peace with God through Christ. 51:32 Now, I'm gonna treat others with longsuffering, kindness, and 51:36 goodness, and that will produce in me faithfulness, gentleness, 51:42 and self-control. 51:43 --I like it. 51:44 --It's cool, isn't it? 51:45 It's always helped me when I studied this years and years 51:47 ago. 51:49 I was trying to think of some way whereby I could remember 51:51 what they were. 51:52 And I said, man, there's a bit of a triad here, the way that I 51:54 relate to God, the way that I relate to others, and the virtue 51:58 that actually happens in myself, temperance, faithfulness, 52:01 gentleness. 52:02 --And then the last part of verse 23 is very fascinating 52:05 language. 52:07 Paul has said so much in these words after listing the fruit of 52:11 the spirit, he says, against such there is no law. 52:16 --I'd like to comment on that when you're done. 52:18 --Please do. 52:19 --Well, that verse, to me, verse 23, hooks back to verse 18. 52:22 In verse 18, but if you are led by the spirit, you are not under 52:25 the law, a very misunderstood phrase. 52:28 Paul is either saying that you're not under the law as in 52:32 you're not saved by keeping the law, you don't have to be under 52:35 the obligation to keep the law, which doesn't seem to be what 52:38 we've come to in the whole picture that we've been looking 52:41 at, or he's saying, if you were led by the spirit, you're not 52:44 under the condemnation of the law. 52:46 Now, if you see it that way, you're not under the 52:48 condemnation of the law, and you go back to verse 23, meekness, 52:51 temperance, against such, there is no law. 52:54 There's no law against that. 52:56 There is a law against various and heresy and strife and 53:01 murdering, there's a law against that. 53:03 And when you do those things, you come under the condemnation 53:06 of that law, but when you reveal the fruit of the spirit, there's 53:09 no law against that, so you're not under any condemnation. 53:12 --That's good. 53:13 --Yeah, think of it like this, against such, there is no law, 53:15 in God's kingdom, in God's universe, in God's character and 53:21 his relationship, there is no you shall not love, no peace, no 53:27 joy, no kindness, no self-control allowed in my 53:33 universe. 53:34 --I love that. 53:35 Let me go straight to this way, I'm driving down the road, this 53:38 is in my early Christian experience, I'm driving down the 53:41 road and I see a police car and I immediately, can anyone tell 53:45 me what I do when I see a police car? 53:46 --You press on the brakes. 53:47 --I immediately take my foot off the gas and put my foot on the 53:49 brake pedal. 53:50 For years that happened, year after year. 53:52 And then finally, I realized, there's no law against driving 53:55 the speed limit, so quit taking your foot off the gas and 53:59 putting it on the brake pedal. 54:01 You are under, you are not breaking the law, you are 54:04 walking in the spirit and so there's, you are no longer 54:07 under, you're no longer under the condemnation of the law. 54:11 There's no law against that. 54:12 --I'm glad you're there, James, I'm still in process on this. 54:15 --I was gonna say, I've not reached that level of 54:18 sanctification. 54:19 --My wife has a Prius and even in the Prius, I can get up some 54:21 speed. 54:22 --It's awesome to be driving and just be like, here's something 54:27 that's really funny. 54:28 Have you ever experienced this? 54:30 --You drive under the speed limit. 54:32 --I know, I'm a slow driver. 54:34 --You're driving down the freeway and all these cars are 54:36 passing you and you're driving the speed limit. 54:38 Let's say I'm driving 57 in a 55. 54:41 Okay, I'm driving, so I'm driving along and all these cars 54:44 are passing me and then all of a sudden, they all slow down, and 54:46 they're like, pulling over into my lane, and so, I pull over 54:50 into the fast lane, and I keep driving my 57 or 58 past all 54:54 these cars that were passing me and then down the road, I see 54:57 why they're all slowing down, there's a police officer right 54:59 there, and I just cruise on by. 55:01 Have you ever experienced that? 55:02 They're all slowing down and you just keep on going. 55:04 --You're rebuking my conscience. 55:07 I, this probably isn't good reasoning, but I've always seen 55:10 myself as a new covenant driver. 55:13 I obey the spirit of the law not the letter of the law 55:17 necessarily because the spirit of the law is safety, right? 55:20 And so safety is the issue. 55:23 I don't wanna go there. 55:24 But here we are, we have 3 minutes left, maybe 4 minutes 55:28 left and we've had this incredible discussion about 55:32 righteousness by faith. 55:34 What's the takeaway for you guys, is there anything that 55:37 stands out in the moments that remain from the series? 55:40 --Like a highlight? 55:42 --Yeah. 55:43 --Personally, to me, many highlights, obviously, but the 55:48 one thing that I really appreciate is this whole idea 55:51 that the truth of righteousness by faith helps us properly 55:58 understand who God is and by properly understanding who God 56:02 is and what he's like, we're able to understand who we are. 56:07 To me, I don't know why, but to me, that's just so, to me that 56:13 just hits home for me. 56:15 I need to know who I am, I need to understand who I am. 56:18 --I can see what's hit me in very short phrase, I mean, it's 56:22 a lot, but the main thing that's hit me is that the Old Testament 56:26 and the New Testament is a continuum of one story. 56:32 That's been huge for me in seeing that. 56:37 --You know, when I look back, I loved those 2 or 3 56:41 conversations, I love them all, but that we had about the 56:44 gospels themselves that the time that we spent walking through 56:48 Jesus's recapitulation, his history, I just loved that, 56:52 especially when we looked at, you know, how he's just leaning 56:56 so strongly on Daniel and the parable of Matthew 21 there and 56:59 just that transition because sometimes the transition for the 57:03 believer out of the Old Testament and into the New 57:06 Testament is, it feels awkward, but in this conversation, it 57:11 just felt exactly as I think it was intended to feel, as the 57:15 natural outgrowth of the religion that God had given to 57:18 Abraham, that God had given to Moses. 57:20 I loved that language there when we had the page between the Old 57:24 and the New Testaments and we're saying, you know, this is just 57:26 the most useless page in the scripture, and I feel like we 57:28 didn't just say that, but in those conversations, we modeled 57:32 it. 57:33 There really is the natural flow from the Old Testament, so 57:38 called Old into the New. 57:39 So, that's, for me, that's a highlight. 57:41 --There's a lot that stands out to me, but the idea that is 57:47 looming large in my mind and in my heart is the idea that when 57:52 we speak of the righteousness of God, we're talking about 57:56 covenant faithfulness. 57:58 We're talking about faithful love. 58:01 God is a God who makes and keeps promises and the big colossal 58:08 massive promise that the God of the universe has made to us as 58:13 fallen human beings is to save us at any cost to himself. 58:18 And in Christ, that covenant faithfulness came to complete 58:23 manifestation. 58:24 Jesus at the cross proves beyond all shadow of a doubt that God 58:30 literally loves the likes of you and me more than his own life, 58:34 more than his own existence. 58:37 He loves us to the point of death. 58:40 In John 13, it says, I think in verse 2 that he loved them to 58:46 the end, to the end of himself. 58:48 This is powerful and suddenly, you're in a position where 58:54 you're attracted to God. 58:56 You're drawn, there's something powerful that's taking place in 59:00 your heart and... 59:01 --It's voluntary, it's not obligatory. 59:03 --I love that, not just that you love God, and you do, but you 59:09 like what you see in his character and now you're in a 59:13 voluntary love relationship with him. 59:15 That's powerful, and that really is the bottom line when we talk 59:19 about righteousness by faith. 59:22 --Hallelujah. 59:23 [Music] |
Revised 2014-12-17