Because He loves us He’s patient with us. And, by the way, nobody has arrived. Do we understand that? There’s nothing brash about it. Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you’re My disciples,” not by the fact that you gave a $100,000 last year, oh no; not by the fact that you came to church 17 times out of 19 times, opportunities; no! I do not mean by this that you never, 14:17; Phil. The lowing of the oxen. 24. When I refuse to acknowledge Him what happens is my life begins to take a downhill slide. “By this shall all men know that you’re My disciples,” by the fact that you had 3,000 in services on Sunday. That’s Jesus being Jesus in her. This is what Paul is saying to the Galatians. Paul says it’s a stumbling block. And he came to me one day as I was attempting to try to explain the difference in the contrasts, and he said, “Wayne, it’s so simple.” He said, “A jeweler knows that if you’re going to enhance a beautiful stone, you get the blackest black that you can find”. It’s incredible. Lead me willingly, lead me.”. The apostle Paul—I love this man! And that’s the way it is in life. Jn 21:16, “He said to him again a second time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love Me?’” Do you love Me committed to Me that you would die for Me? What have they done? The reason governments have been so harsh many times has been because of the characteristics of believers. So he’s already talking to believers here. Gal 5:19-21 talks about the flesh: “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident,” now listen to them, “immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealously, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,” and then he says, “envying, drunkenness and carousing,” not very pretty. We’re trying to add baptism, some people are. These are the people who said, “Oh, isn’t it wonderful to be under grace, party hardy! Paul says if you buy into the fact that circumcision; and, by the way, he’s not down on circumcision. All of these words describe the relationships in the Galatian churches. Two things, first of all is hateful attitudes, and secondly is hostile actions. So he’s not saying you lose your salvation. As a matter of fact, that is huge about grace. The sensual deception of the flesh. I mean, it is rage. There are no true relationships possible. The King James translation says faith. He knows that Jesus already knows the answer. By the way, do you know anybody like that? “He that is led by the Spirit,” if you are led by the Spirit, he says, “you’re not under the law.” Now that term “led” means to be willingly led. “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.”. It cannot come back to haunt you. He has unplugged that plug. 15:13; Rom. I just thought that was so interesting because you know the devil himself knows what music’s all about. They’re very unstable people. You’ve gone back to doing it your way and because of this you’re going to start experiencing things you didn’t even know were part of the package. That’s when the gifts of the Spirit begin to operate, the service gifts in the body of Christ. That’s no problem.”. Man, if we could just get our act straight. (3) As fruit on a tree takes Those who commit these works of the flesh shall not “For rebellion” —which means I’m not going to honor You God in my life. So how do you know you’re walking in the Spirit? I mean, this is so good. This is better than the Holy Spirit of God living in our life. controlled by the flesh. He came that we might live through Him. The word “walk” is the word peripateo. I guarantee you’ll mess up in one of them. They’ll tear down somebody else to make themselves look good. How did Christ do this? And then God tenderizes your heart. What we do is what’s best for us, never what’s best for somebody else. Galatians 5:22, he adds, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,” and then he says “faithfulness.”. Do you understand that when God begins to surface sin it’s a beautiful thing? It points to the nine characteristics that are mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23, then tells us they’re in a cluster. All of a sudden it just goes out the window, and you wonder, “What happened? We’re not going to have an animal in here and have an animal sacrifice. It’s just Christ being who He is. Maturity, and that’s not age by the way, folks, maturity in the Christian life is when we walk by faith. And look what he says, “And insubordination”—the unwillingness on a man’s heart to say yes to God and acknowledge Him and His Word—is as sin or iniquity and idolatry. The agenda of the Spirit that is in opposition to the agenda of the flesh also has a methodology to it. You know what they did? commit these sins, those people whose basic character is summed up in the If we’re believers we’ve already been judged at the cross, but our works are going to be judged and are being judged and there are consequences of it even right now. But if we’re not walking that way, if we have chosen not to willingly be led by His Spirit in our hearts, then we don’t have a clue what worship is all about. You say, “Wayne, I have a son, I have a daughter that’s fallen into this trap. The Christian church in the 21st century has come so far from what it means to be a Christian we wouldn’t recognize one if we saw one. I know and you’re being redeemed. It’s part of the package. Isn’t it amazing how the flesh makes us think that lust and love are the same thing? What he’s saying is, would that they castrate themselves. 1:11). We live in a day when numbers are everything to people and we’ve given up the very thing that draws people. selfish ambition. (5) “Kindness”: Tender concern He said, “Throw the nets on the other side of the boat.” Well, they did and somebody in the group said “Hey, that’s Jesus,” and Peter got so excited he jumped out of the boat. And most of you know very well what I’m talking about. It’s not that word meta, because if it was we could lose our salvation; you could use this very verse to show that you could lose your salvation. The devil sits back and laughs when the body of Christ does not walk by the Spirit of God. It’s kind of like, well listen, if He’s already defeated it why do you let it defeat you now? But God sent someone to come along side me and straighten me out. It obligates. You say, why so much review? It’s the only time. He describes immature believers that won’t come out of the nursery in the Corinthian church. He says, “Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” Now there are two things that you have to observe immediately. What happens is we become so deceived by walking after the flesh we don’t really know what true worship is. Do you believe that? But he says in Gal 5:10, “I have confidence in you” not really in them, “in the Lord.” He has confidence in the Lord, “that they will adopt no other view.” But then he gives a stern warning to those people who are bringing that religious flesh mindset into the church, he gives a warning. And when they take the verb out of it, it means don’t ever forget this. fruit to develop, all nine aspects of the fruit of the spirit must mature. I taught the deeper truth, but you couldn’t understand it because you were a baby. He doesn’t love Him enough to die for Him. that results from confidence in one’s saving relationship with Christ. So you don’t want to go that route. In other words, on this, when you’re running well and you’re in the right lane and you’re on the right track you’re being persuaded by God’s word, which is changing your behavior. When you’ve messed up in one you’ve just shown yourself a failure. He’s reminding them that they were not believers because of some self effort. It’s how He looks at you and I. You’re going to have to use a gimmick to keep them. It’s every step. I don’t care, positionally, what I can say I am. And then on the seventh day walk around seven times. Galatians 5:7 says, “You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?” Now the first thing that he talks about deception—and there are three things we need to learn about deception—first of all, it happens when you least expect it. You see the difference? When you look at the cross the only reason Jesus had to come and die on the cross was because men could not attain the standard that God required. The peril, you can lose it if by choosing to go back to your flesh, by having to do it your way instead of God’s way. When you’re experiencing Jesus it can happen in an instant. But there’s a lot of people haven’t figured that out yet in the church. He gave me a choice. But that word “pursue” means to get on a trail and to pursue something until you have captured what it is that you’re pursuing. And you know what? But the second thing I want to show you in this verse is the common confusion to all of us, the confusion that is common to all believers. governed by the Spirit. My goodness! God is more concerned with relationships than He is anything else we do for Him, because that is the signal that we’re walking in the Spirit of God. It 2:24). The flesh has no good goal to it even though we think it does. That’s divine. They have never been born from above. Flesh causes all of our relationships to become fake and counterfeit. That’s a hostile action that’s built from a hateful attitude. What is it that makes me feel good and it so deceives us we get off the path? We’ve got the inward effectiveness: we’ve got love, joy and peace. Luke uses the word as an example of that as a confrontation’s going on with some secular folks. He’s saying that when error gets into your life, man, when you’re living under grace you’re just walking in the rest God has for you. Somebody said years ago, “Yard by yard, life’s way too hard, but inch by inch life’s a cinch.” So we’re going to ease our way through it. He says in Gal 5:11, “But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted?” He said, “Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished.” What Paul is saying here is that there is no message of grace without the message of the cross. He’s beneath us, above us, behind us and in front of us and lives in us. Now, Paul does a very similar thing here. Any sense God cleanses my mind is a very important things and not our... That.€ no, that’s not the root of the Holy Spirit '' already.... 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