The School of Christ with Chip Brogden
25. The Gospel of Grace, Part 3
(upbeat music) - Support for this program comes from listeners like you. To find out more, visit us online at theschoolofcryst.org. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Living in the New Covenant, part 25 of the series and part three of the series within the series, I'm calling the Gospel of Grace. We've been going through the book of Galatians as we come to the conclusion of the study. We're not quite there yet. We need to finish Galatians this evening. Then we need to take a look at Romans and then we'll take a look at Hebrews and then the series will be wrapped up and completed and we'll move on to the next thing that the Lord has for us. Again, for purposes of the recording, I am still a little bit under the weather, whether you can tell it or not, I can certainly feel it. And I appreciate your patience and your grace as we go through this wonderful study together. The Gospel of Grace, part three and in the previous two messages, parts one and two, we discussed the situation in Galatia and how the early ecclesia was beginning to, beginning to deal with the reality that people who were not Jewish were becoming believers in Jesus. And what does that mean for the Jewish religion? Does it mean that if you believe in a Jewish Messiah, you must be Jewish yourself? How does that affect these non-Jewish believers? Or do they need to be circumcised? Do they need to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved? Do we need to bring them into the nation of Israel? Exactly, how does this work? And these are the kinds of things that the early believers were struggling with. And so that set up a controversy that they dealt with in the book of Acts to try and figure out what to do with these believers in Jesus who were not Jewish. The Holy Spirit had already spoken very clearly and very plainly by reason of the fact that He came upon them and filled them with His Spirit and they spoke in tongues and they prophesied simply through faith, not because they pledged allegiance to the law of Moses and not because they were circumcised, but because they simply expressed their faith and trust in Christ and lo and behold, the Spirit came upon the Gentiles just as the Spirit came upon the Jews. So God just moved in through divine intervention and just swept away all resistance to the Gentiles of becoming believers in Christ because those Jewish believers in Jesus didn't preach Jesus to anyone but the Jews. Yeah, they didn't have a concept that all the world means all the world. That had not advanced to that point yet. They were still within the guardrails, the very limited narrow focus of Judaism and Christianity had not even been born. Christians were, there were no such thing. We say early Christians but in those first few chapters of Acts representing the first 10 to 14 years from the day of Pentecost, they only preached Jesus to the Jews. The house of Cornelius was a departure, it was divine intervention. And so now we see them preaching Jesus to anyone and everyone, even the ones who are not Jewish, they are believing and they are receiving salvation and as evidence by the gift of the Holy Spirit being poured out upon them. And so this set up a controversy, what to do with them. Book of Galatians, the letter to the Galatians, that is the context for addressing these issues. So previously, as we looked at the impact of this on the early ecclesia, we talked about Noah the gospel, dead to the law, law versus grace. And I encourage you to go back and listen to those messages if you have not already heard them. As we conclude this evening with Galatians, we'll go to this final section here in the table of contents, walk in the spirit. And this is essentially what it means to be living in the new covenant. It means that we are governed by the Holy Spirit or as I like to say, we are being adjusted to the government of the Holy Spirit but that's the whole idea behind walking in the spirit. As opposed to trying to walk in the flesh or submitting yourself to law and legalism and thinking that through the force of willpower and religiosity that you will somehow be pleasing to God. So very briefly, because we've touched on this every time we start a new message in the series and hopefully by now you can teach this as good as I can. The word covenant is first found in Genesis. It's the Hebrew word barith and it's an alliance. It's a treaty, a pledge that brings two or more parties together as one. The marriage covenant is a great example but most of the covenants in the Bible are between God and man. And the ultimate and final covenant is the one sealed by the blood of Jesus. It's referred to as the everlasting covenant and I sometimes like to call it the only covenant because it's the only option we have now. The Gentiles never had a covenant to begin with and so this is the only covenant they've ever had. I say they, we, I'm a Gentile. I'm not, I'm not Jewish and I'm not connected to the nation of Israel by ancestry. And so this is the only covenant I have ever enjoyed. The only way and possibility for me to be saved is through this everlasting covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus. Now with the Jews, you might say that this is a new covenant compared to the old covenant, but that can also give the impression that they have a choice. Hey, if you want to step over here and be saved through this new covenant as believers in Jesus, you're welcome, but if not, you still have this old covenant sitting over here that God made with you that you can, you can still keep that or if you prefer, you can do a little bit of both. You can have all the benefits of the new covenant and faith in Jesus and you can still observe and keep and teach the old covenant law and even teach Gentiles like me and straighten me out and explain to me where I'm going wrong because I'm not under the law as you are. And you are free to do that. It's like a fast food chain in the United States, Burger King, you can have it your way. So you can have it your way. You can relate to God under the old covenant. You can try to be saved under the new covenant or you can create a mish-mash hodge-podge potpourri and just pick and choose what you like, have it your way. And whatever you want to do is fine. Well, it's not fine and that is not what scripture teaches. It teaches that the Gentiles are not under the law and it also teaches that the Jews can't be saved under that law because they already broke that covenant and God says, I'm going to make a new covenant and this new covenant will not be according to the covenant that I may be with your fathers when I brought them out of Egypt because they failed to keep that. So that covenant's broken, that covenant is dead, that covenant is long gone. And even if it were in place, it's through obedience, even if you wanted to go back, even if you could keep it, that whole old covenant system has been replaced, has been superseded, has been transfigured, translated. Christ has preeminence now with this new covenant sealed by his blood and scripture calls that the everlasting covenant. Why do people still cling to the old? We'll talk about that here in just a minute. But again, let me put up my five major biblical covenants maps so that you can see all the hard work God has done to bring us into this wonderful new covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus. From the knowic, to the Abrahamic, to the Mosaic, to the Davidic, and then to the new covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus. All of these moving forward, all of these pointing to Christ, one building upon the other, and now scripture teaches, since we have the reality of Christ, we don't need the things that pointed us to him anymore. In the same way, listen, it's the same way as, I'm here on earth, I'm pointing you to Christ, I'm fulfilling the work God has given me to do in writing and teaching and in prayer. And when my time is done, I'll leave, and by then hopefully you have already been pointed to Christ and once you're there, you don't need me anymore. And that is exactly how God has done with this progressive revelation and unveiling of these five major biblical covenants. And again, keeping in mind, most of these were centered upon Israel. Only the new covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus is for everybody, for Jew and for Gentile, all over the world. So it's a tremendous, wonderful thing. Most people, however, don't have the full appreciation of everything that's in that covenant. And so they're not benefiting from the terrible price that was paid so that they could get the benefit of living in that new covenant. That's what we're trying to do through this teaching, is to help people better appreciate what God has done for them in Christ and to become Christ-centered and to live in a new covenant and not keep reaching backwards into the old testament through ignorance and through fear and through wrong teaching. So it brings up something I wanted to address and I mentioned this in the email. Why is this so hard for people to embrace? There is a reason why folks have a hard time giving up the old covenant for the new covenant. There's something about a list of rules and regulations that really attracts religious people. If you could just spell it out for me, it doesn't matter if it's 613 mittsfoot or if it's 10 commandments. People just love to have rules and regulations spelled out for them. I think there's a couple of reasons for that. One reason is it gives them safety, it gives them security, it helps to set guardrails around them so that they know what is and what is not acceptable. They like having rules and regulations to keep them in a place of comfort. It's comforting to know that you know exactly what you should and should not do, what you can and cannot do, what you must and must not do, the shall not and thou shalt. All of these things, 613 commandments or as the Jews call them mittsfoot in the law of Moses, it's very comforting that you have these rules and regulations and everything all spelled out. So people like the safety and security of having the rules and regulations all spelled out for them. I think the other thing that they enjoy about this is it gives them a fail-safe way to evaluate everything and everyone else around them. Are other people living up to this standard? You know what the standard is, you have the rule book, you have it right there and it's a very small step to apply that to everyone around you and then begin to point out where you're not doing something right. This is not what the law says, this is not what the rules are. You're going against the rules, you're going against the regulations, you're violating the law of Moses. And so this also gives people a feeling of power and a feeling of comfort and it begins to lift them up and then pride and in hypocrisy as if they are keeping all of the rules and regulations. Here's all the other people who are not measuring up and so it's their duty to point that out to them. But it also puts them in the position of being God's spokesperson, of being the Holy Spirit law enforcement officer to point out where everyone else is falling short. And so what you end up with is a spirit of religion that is exactly what they had in Israel in Jerusalem with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes at the time that Jesus became flesh and lived among them. So it is hard for people who have been exposed to that to give that up, even folks who were never under the old covenant, which is 99% of us, still find it hard not to be pulled into it. It's very attractive, it's very compelling, especially if you have someone teaching you that you're not making God happy unless you're fulfilling all of these old covenant obligations or you can't be saved. You're going to go to hell unless you keep all of these commandments or it would really make God happy if you kept all these commandments. You can still be a believer in Jesus, but we need you to be circumcised, we need you to keep the Sabbath, we need you to pay your tithes, we need you to submit to the Sanhedrin or submit to the Rabbi or whatever the regulation and the rule is. When Jesus confronted that entire system of death, he says, "You Pharisees are like white-washed graves. You look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside you're full of dead men's bones and death and decay. You nullify the word of God with your tradition." And so this is where the spirit of religion leads us. And this is why God provided a new covenant so that it's 100% not based on merit. It's not based on works, it's not based on knowing the rules and following the rules. It is based simply on what Christ has done, not what I can do, but then it's based on the fact that the two have become one in this new covenant. And now what I could not do before I'm able to do in Christ. But that's hard for people because it doesn't come with a list of 613 rules and regulations and it doesn't even rely upon 10 commandments to tell you. I mean, listen, if you need a commandment that says thou shalt not kill, if you need somebody to spell that out for you, something's wrong, you've got a serious problem. If the only thing preventing you from murder is the fact that it's one of the 10 commandments that says thou shalt not murder. You've got a serious problem. If you need God to spell out for you, hey, don't commit adultery. If you need somebody to spell that out for you in the form of a commandment or a rule or a regulation or a Bible verse, something is wrong because as a born-again believer and as a spirit-filled believer, the spirit himself teaches you right from wrong. And that is even more trustworthy and more reliable than the rule. Why do I say that? Because the Jews found novel ways and creative ways and inventive ways to get around what God really wanted and create a whole nother layer of rules and regulations that had nothing to do with what God was asking for in the first place. So you can rationalize rules and regulations, but you can't rationalize the spirit saying giving his blessing or the spirit not being there. You can't make that up. You can't rationalize it. Either the spirit bears witness or it does not, but that is frightening for people in the religious spirit. The other thing is you can't really judge other people. You can't give them a list of rules and regulations and then hold them accountable to it. So that means you can't really be lording yourself over everyone else and cracking the whip of legalism on their backside to keep them in line. So it is absolutely 100% disruptive to the religious spirit. Therefore, it is a threat to the religious system. Religious systems are created for the benefit of the religious spirit. And people with a religious spirit are attracted into these systems that become enslaved to these systems and these traditions of men. So there is a reason why folks have a hard time giving all of that up. Luke 539, Jesus tells us the reason. He says that no man also having drunk old wine straightaway desireth new for he saith the old is better. That's Luke 539 in the King James version. So no one having drunk old wine straightaway desires the new. This is in the context of the parable where he's talking about old wine has to be poured into old wineskins. New wine is for new wineskins. So that's the King James version. New King James is a little better. It says no one having drunk old wine immediately desires new for he says the old is better. New living translation says no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. The old is just fine, they say. The old is just fine. Why do I want the new? New English translation says no one after drinking old wine wants the new for he says the old is good enough. Reminds me of a song reminds me of a hymn I think it's a southern gospel song. Give me that old time religion. Give me that old time religion. Give me that old time religion. It's good enough for me. It was good enough for my momma, good enough for my daddy, good enough for grandpappy and grandmammy. It was good enough for them. It is good enough for me that old time religion. You know what? We don't need any more old time religion. I've had it up to my ears in old time religion. What we need is spirit and truth. No more religion, no more legalism, no more hypocrisy. But the reality of the situation is, so long as we are drunk on the old wine and we're continually drinking from that old wine skin, we're not going to desire the new because the old is better. The old is just fine. The old is good enough. So launching out into the deep with the spirit as your guide, that's more difficult than just show me the Bible verses with the 10 commandments and tell me what to do or the 613 commandments. You know, most people who have no understanding and think that we are supposed to keep the commandments, we who, who's supposed to keep them? Israel will suppose to keep them. That's who they were given to. But whether you think the 10 commandments or whether you realize it or not, 613 commandments, most of those commandments cannot be fulfilled today. They can't be kept today. So when you say keep the commandments, the question is who and the question is how many? How many are valid for today? 200, 300, 500, 10? That there is no consensus on any of these things because all of it is just the same old, same old, that old-time religion, it's good enough for me. No one having drunk the old wine immediately desires the new. Nobody who is hung up on the mosaic law and the old covenant is going to immediately desire something new and fresh and transformative and living because wow, that is scary. That's different, that's not so comfortable. So my observations and answered the question of why it's so hard are these. No one who keeps drinking the old wants the new. If they keep filling their cup from Moses, there won't be room for Jesus, that's the bottom line. Second observation is the old is better and good enough to the ones who keep drinking the old because it's easier for them to follow the religious spirit than it is to follow the Holy Spirit. The religious spirit is easy to follow if you are religious. It's a terrible burden to bear and most people can't bear it. The ones who are able to bear it become taskmasters and lording over others with the false pretense that they are somehow superior. They're like the Pharisees standing in the temple and praying with himself, God, I thank you, that I am not as other men are, or even as this tax collector standing over there because I fast twice in the week and I give a tenth of all my possessions. Jesus says he stood and prayed with himself. He thought he was praying with God, but he was really just praying with himself. Having a good old time with his old time religion, praying with himself, looking down on everyone else, and there's the tax collector beating his breasts and saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. Well, that's the one that went home justified before God. The Pharisee with his religiosity got nothing. He justified himself. He was not justified by God and that's what we are doing anytime we try to apply the law to ourselves or to other people and try to measure up or measure them or measure ourselves against other people or vice versa. It's easy to do and that's why people stick with the old rather than launch into the unknown of the Spirit. And the final thing I'd say about that is that there is hope as I like the way Jesus put it, no one drinking the old immediately desires the new, but it does not mean they never will. Maybe they will get tired of the old and maybe they will eventually desire the new. Jesus says it doesn't happen right away. It's, listen, it's easier to give someone the new wine who has never tasted the old. But when someone has had a taste of religion and then you try to teach them relationship, it's difficult. When someone has lived with a church-centered faith, their entire life, it's difficult to transition them into a Christ-centered faith. That doesn't mean it's impossible. No one drinking the old immediately desires the new, but it does not mean that they never will if they're willing. And if you are willing listening to me now, if you are willing to follow the truth, wherever the truth may lead, you may eventually try the new and learn to prefer the new over the old. You may find that you enjoy walking after the spirit more than you enjoy following after the religious spirit and being part of the religious system. You may find that love is enough and that where you fail to measure up under the laws of men and the laws of God, the law of love is sufficient and more than enough to keep you in the straight and narrow way. But that assumes you are willing to follow the truth wherever the truth may lead, even if it contradicts what you've been taught and everything that you think you know. But so long as people keep offering them the old wine, it will be harder for them to desire the new wine. So long as there's people out there that keep saying, hey, here's this old wine. The old wine is better and God likes you better and God loves you more. When you drink the old wine, if you keep offering that to people, it will be harder and harder for them to desire the new. And that was the situation in Galatia that precipitated the letter to the Galatians. It's also the situation in the early Ekklesia. We just have an example of it here in the province of Galatia. This had already happened in Antioch. Now it was happening in Galatia and the next province over and everywhere Paul went and everywhere people believed on Jesus. Here comes certain men coming up behind Paul and saying it is necessary for you to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. And they would say probably Jesus is a Jewish Messiah. You have no right to believe in Jesus unless you are Jewish. And here's what you have to do to be saved. And Paul says this is another gospel. It's a false gospel that's been perpetrated by false brothers sneaking in unawares, spying out the liberty that we have in Christ and trying to bring you into bondage to something that they can't even fulfill themselves. And so he gives quite a series of arguments in the letter of Galatians, the letter to the Galatians. But you see in Acts 15 when they were having this council to discuss this and to debate this, that it was some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed who rose up saying it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. Some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed. So see, they're still drinking the old wine, even though they claim to be followers of Jesus, they believed, but they were still of the sect of the Pharisees. They had not forsaken their religion. They still enjoyed walking around in the long robes and everyone called them Rabbi Rabbi, but they accepted that Jesus was the Messiah, but they brought their spirit of religion into everything. And now they wanted to lay a burden upon the Gentiles that God himself had not even burdened them with. It is necessary, they say, to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And so previously we went through some of those points that Paul would make to be justified by laws to fall from grace. Faith working by love is more important than circumcision. He made lots of points along those lines. And then we came to the big objection to grace. Okay, Paul, maybe the Gentiles don't need to be circumcised or keep the law of Moses to be saved. You know, a lot of people have figured that part out. You're saved by grace. Okay, we get it, but it would really make God happy if you keep these commandments, especially the Sabbath day. But the objection that people raise at this point, among others, besides the fact that Paul was a false teacher and he contradicted Jesus. So you can't listen to what Paul says. That's a common objection to this entire thing. If you can't work out the contradiction to your satisfaction, then it's easier just to label somebody as false. I get those objections every week. I'm not singling any one person out if you've made that objection to me. That's fine. You can object all that you want. It doesn't make you correct. It just means that you have conveniently figured out a way not to resolve what you think are contradictions. It's really just a question of your interpretation or your lack of understanding. But we're not allowed. We're not permitted. It's not wise just to say something is false because we can't figure it out. I mean, honestly, that's about the most arrogant thing that anyone could do. I can't figure out this seeming contradiction. So I'm going to reject this whole part of the Bible or this whole part of the New Testament. I'm gonna consider Paul as a false teacher. Well, that's what a lot of the Messianic Jews do. But that's the best they can come up with. Paul was a false teacher. Paul was a false apostle. He was the anti-Christ. That's the best they can come up with. Seriously, you have no spiritual discernment. You have no ability to reconcile what you say are contradictions. You know what it is? It's not that Paul contradicts Jesus. It's just that Paul contradicts you. Contradicts your view of things, contradicts your interpretation, contradicts your love of religion. Contradicts, you're being possessed by a spirit of religion. That's what Paul is contradicting. And that's why they hated him then. They hate him now. Nothing's changed. One of the objections as well, if you get rid of the 10 commandments, you're telling people it's okay to sin. When you say you're dead to the law, are you saying it's okay to commit murder? Okay to commit adultery? Okay to commit blasphemy? My response to that is if you need a commandment to tell you not to do those things, you probably don't know Jesus at all. You probably don't have the Holy Spirit. The law is for people who are under the law. The law is for people who don't have the Holy Spirit to teach them right from wrong and to lead them into all truth. Didn't Jesus say that when the Spirit comes, He will lead you into all truth? Didn't He say that? Well, if that's the case, then why is it that we have to have a commandment to put people under that says they'll shall not commit murder, they'll shall not not commit adultery. Do you seriously have to spell that out for people? You only have to spell it out for them if they don't have the Holy Spirit as their governor, as their teacher, as their comforter, as their counselor, as their helper. And that is the context in which these laws were written so many thousands of years ago. But the cloud has moved on, honey. The pillar of fire and smoke has moved on. Why haven't you moved on? You're still camped out there in the desert. You still need God to spell it all out for you. The Holy Spirit teaches us right from wrong. The Holy Spirit teaches us to walk in love in the fruit of the Spirit is love. So when you say to get rid of the law is to make all of the things that the law forbids, okay, then that's just an ignorant perspective. It just is. To say that without the law, people will say and do whatever they please. And a lot of people will say, well, you're giving people a license to sin. If you say they don't have to follow the law, it will be a license to sin. And I like what one brother says, I don't need a license to sin. I sin without a license. (laughs) (laughs) But we need the law and we need the commandments to keep sin in check and to make God happy. So we covered this last time. Speed limit doesn't prevent anyone from speeding. The 613 mittsfoot did not keep Israel from sin, rebellion and rejection of Christ. Tablets of stone cannot change hearts of stone. God says, I'm gonna give you a new heart. I'm gonna put my spirit in you and I'll teach you right from wrong. You won't be relying upon tablets of stone, 613 commandments or 10 commandments to teach you right from wrong. 'Cause I'll give you a new heart and I'll put a new spirit within you and then you'll obey me. You'll follow me Ezekiel 36, 26. Right there in the Old Testament. Hello, right there in the Old Covenant. There it is. God tells you, he spells it out what he's gonna do. He tells you. I'll give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. That is what Jesus accomplished. That's what the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter two fulfilled this and then the rest of Acts and the rest of the epistles is all trying to figure out what just happened. What did God just do? What is the essence of living in this new covenant all about? It's the literal fulfillment of exactly what God said he would do. You broke the old and so I'm gonna do something new and it was fulfilled. Now, we are learning what it means to walk in the spirit. Galatians chapter five, we might as well go there and turn to what Galatians five beginning in verse one. Stand fast Paul says, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed I say, I Paul say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ. You who attempt to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace or we through the spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love. You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from him who calls you. A little 11, 11's the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord or I have confidence in you and the Lord. That you will have no other mind but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment whoever he is. And I brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off. For you brethren have been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh but through love serve one another. For all the law, all the law, all the law is fulfilled in one word even in this. You shall love your neighbor as yourself but if you bite and devour one another be where lest you be consumed by one another. I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish but if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Repeat it out loud, shout it out loud. Do it as often as you need to do it to convince yourself and be persuaded if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now remember he's talking to Gentiles here and he's telling them if you have Jesus you don't need anything else. You don't need law, you don't need commandments, you don't need circumcision, you don't need law of Moses, you don't need Sabbath day. God poured out his spirit upon you and saved you just as you were based on faith, based on grace and that is sufficient. Now walk in love, which is to walk in the spirit, 613 mittsfoot under the law of Moses are fulfilled in one command, which is love. You're called to liberty, he says. The liberty to love and to serve one another. See, that's the objection. Well, if you get rid of the law and you tell these Gentiles there's no law, there's nothing to prevent them from just doing whatever they want to do and sinning to their hearts content. Well, how is that different from Israel's history with God? An entire history of rebellion, they had the law and they failed to keep it. They had the law, they knew what sin was and they still rebelled against him. To the point that God says, "Leave me alone Moses, "I'm going to destroy this nation and start over with you "and make a new nation." And because of Moses' intercession, the anger of the Lord was not, he didn't stir up all of his wrath, it says in the book of Psalms. But they limited the Holy One of Israel through their rebellion, through their disobedience. So the law didn't keep them sinless and perfect. So why do we think putting anyone under the law would accomplish that? You see the evidence that it doesn't work. That wasn't the purpose of the law to begin with. But all of these things Paul says are fulfilled in one command, which is you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The other point he makes is that how do we overcome sin? It's not by keeping the law, it's by walking in the spirit. If you walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh, Galatians 5, 16. See, this all comes down to are we following the commandments or are we following the spirit? The spirit's not going to lead us in a way that is displeasing to the Lord. But the commandment, no matter how hard we try, we find that we're not able to keep it because we don't have the spirit empowering us to keep it. Now again, we have to be careful because in this habit, your way, a world that we live in, some people want to do both. Now they want the spirit to help them keep the 10 commandments and that is mixing oil and water. It's mixing gasoline and fire. It's just going to be a big mess. It's not the way it works. Paul says, if you're walking in the spirit, you're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. And he lists what those works of the flesh are. And he says, it's obvious, adultery, fornication and cleanness, luteness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, revelries and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you didn't time pass, those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. You can't live any way that you want to live and think that you're going to enter the kingdom of God. It doesn't matter if you have a law that tells you not to or if you just have a conscience that tells you not to, if you violate the law or if you violate your conscience or if you don't walk in the spirit and you do these things anyway, you follow after the lust of the flesh, you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God. So this isn't about living in grace, it's not about free to do whatever I want to do, it's really about freedom from doing whatever I want to do. When I do whatever I want to do, I get myself in trouble, I fall into the flesh. Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Well, the law doesn't prevent you from doing it, it just tells you not to. Your conscience doesn't prevent you from doing it, it just convicts you if you have a conscience when you violate it. And the spirit's not going to force you to walk after the spirit, spirit's not going to force you to do anything, that's why he says walk in the spirit. If you walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And then he says the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, huge fruit of the spirit. I don't have self-control in myself, I don't have enough willpower in myself, but the fruit of the spirit, as I walk in the spirit, among other things, self-control. We don't have a sin problem, we have a love problem. Love keeps us from sin. We love God more than we love our sin, when we love God more than we love our sin, more than we love our flesh, more than we love ourselves, then we will live a holy life. That's what it comes down to. Not whether you have a law that tells you, not whether your conscience tells you this, that or the other, not whether you have a teaching that says it's okay or it's not okay. That comes down too. Do you love God more than you love yourself? Do you love your sin more than you love him? And if the answer is yes, I do love my sin more than I love him. Be honest enough to confess it as sin so that he can cleanse you and heal you and forgive you. And as you learn to walk in the spirit, you will overcome sin. Not by keeping the law, the law is there already. See, if you're walking in the spirit, you won't fulfill the lesson of the flesh. But just giving you the law that says, hey, don't do this. That never prevented anyone from doing it. That's the point. But if you walk in the spirit, that will prevent you. If you walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. It's the only hope that we have for any kind of a holy life. It's not I, but Christ. It's not my willpower, it's his spirit. Not by might, not by power, but by his spirit. So walk in the spirit. You cannot be on another point. You cannot be under law and led by the spirit at the same time. For those who want to have it their way and have the best of both worlds and a little bit of both, you can't be under the law and be led by the spirit at the same time. That's why everyone bragging about being Torah observant, they can't be led by the spirit. 'Cause if they were led by the spirit, they wouldn't be under the law. And if you can't be under the law and led by the spirit at the same time, then it also follows that you can't be led by the spirit and be under the law. It's one or the other. Galatians 5, 18, if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Another point, Galatians 6, 1, the law of Christ means love is our only obligation. If we love one another, we're not going to lie to one another. We're not going to steal from one another. I'm not going to cheat on my wife. I'm not going to blaspheme or be a false witness because of love. So the only law that we are obligated to is the law of Christ, Galatians 6, 1, brethren. If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted, bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. See, it doesn't say you'll never make a mistake. It doesn't say you'll never fall short, but I tell you what, you're on a path towards actual practical holiness when you're walking in the spirit, even if you stumble here and there, or even if you stumble a lot. Your trajectory is more important than where you are at any particular point. It's whether you are growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. That's more important than how far you have grown or have not grown at this exact moment. Where the fact that you're moving in the right direction is more important than how far you've come or how far you still have left to go. I hope that encourages someone. And by all means, don't measure your progress compared to someone else's. That's apples and oranges also. So it considers the possibility that we're going to send, that we're going to fall short, that there's going to be weakness, that there's going to be times when we're not walking perfectly in the spirit as we ought to. So you who are spiritual, instead of getting hypocritical, instead of trying to throw the law at them and judge them and condemn them, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Gentleness is also a fruit of the spirit. Considering yourself lest you also be tempted, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill, the law of Christ. There's nothing in the law of Moses about bearing one another's burdens. Whatever you do, you're responsible for. But in this new covenant of grace with the law of Christ, we bear one another's burdens. What a tremendous thing that is. Walk in the spirit, another point. Is that Torah observance is nothing but religious pride and fleshly boasting? When someone presents themselves in that manner, it tells me right away that they are motivated by a religious spirit, that they are proud, that they are in the flesh, that they can't be led by the spirit and that they need to be delivered from a spirit of religion. Galatians 6, 12, Paul says, "As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer the persecution for the cross of Christ, for not even those who are circumcised keep the law." And he would know because he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, not even those who are circumcised keep the law. See, that's where it ends up. Well, the law says they'll shall not kill, but these people are preaching Jesus and they're committing blasphemy and it's up to me to go and lock them up and stone them. And has anyone ever noticed that contradiction? They'll shall not kill, but here's all the things that you can stone people for if they violate the law. Has anyone noticed that? Well, see, we need to move beyond all of that, I for an I tooth for tooth. You realize that's what Jesus was talking about when he mentioned that? Then he says, "Don't resist evil." He's talking about I for I tooth for tooth, only leaves everyone blind and toothless. But that's the law. You who say that you are a Torah observant. How many people have you stoned this week? If you're a Torah observant, you should have stoned everyone that you caught in adultery. Every teenager who cursed his parents or rebelled against their parents. All of your neighbors that you saw working in the yard, you have a response a bit on Sunday or Saturday or whenever you decide that the Sabbath is supposed to be observed, you have a duty to stoned them. All of you Torah observant people, how many people have you stoned this week? Well, if you haven't, if the answer is none, you're not observing the law of Moses. So now you are a law breaker and now I guess we should stoned you. So this is where Torah observance is just a downward spiral of destruction. Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, not even those who claim to be Torah observant keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh or they desire for you to be under the Torah, under the law like they are, so that they can boast in your flesh and boast in their followers. Does it really come down to that? Yeah, it really does, it really comes down to pride. Couple more points here as we close, only the cross and the new creation matters in this new covenant that you and I are privileged to be a part of, Galatians 6, 14 and 15. God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. It's not that Paul just decided one day, and I've had it with Judaism, I'm gonna go off in this strange direction over here and just repudiate everything I used to be. What happened to Paul is that he discovered something that transcended Judaism, transcended religion, transcended his personal belief system and what he discovered on the road to Damascus was a person, and that's why he says in Galatians 6, 15, "For in Christ Jesus." Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation. This new heart, this new spirit that I have in Christ, that's more important and that's the only thing that matters, not circumcision or uncircumcision, not sabbath, today, not eating pork or not. All these things have been subsumed and transcended by Christ and this new creation. The Gospel of Grace, final point, last point, before we close. The Gospel of Grace defines the new Israel and new Jerusalem. That's what we're talking about, the good news of grace. Not slavish obedience to the law, but the good news of grace. And this Gospel of Grace actually defines the new Israel and the new Jerusalem. Maybe you've heard of the new Jerusalem that's coming down out of heaven in the book of Revelation. It is not the old Jerusalem that we're trying to maintain or build up from the earth. It is a new Jerusalem coming down from heaven. And with a new Jerusalem, there's a new Israel. Galatians 6, 16, "As many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God." See, that's the new Israel. The Israel that is saved by grace through faith. The new Israel, under a new covenant with a new high priest, who is sealed that covenant forever with his blood. So it's not the old Israel, it's not the old covenant, it's not the old law. All of that is passing away and all of it did pass away. They had no idea, maybe they did. Maybe the ones who really paid attention to Jesus and to his teaching in Matthew 24 and other places saw that Jerusalem, the temple, the priesthood, Israel itself was heading for destruction. And that destruction would come to pass before very many years after this. Paul is already focused on a new Israel, a new Jerusalem in Christ, and that's the vision, the same vision that John shared in the book of Revelation of a new heaven and earth and a new Jerusalem coming down from heaven. In anticipation of this and of the fulfillment that all the things Jesus said would come upon Israel and upon Jerusalem, Paul says, as many as walk, according to this rule, according to what rule? According to the regulation, the understanding, the revelation that in Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation. People who live according to that, they are the Israel of God. Alleluia. So remember in Galatians, Paul is teaching Gentiles why they have no obligation to the law of Moses, but only to the law of Christ, which is faith working by love. But who is laying this guilt trip on the Gentiles? It's the Jewish believers, especially the ones from the Pharisees, but for any Jewish believer in Jesus to put this burden of the law on the Gentiles means they are still carrying the burden themselves. They feel some obligation to the law, and so they're trying to bring the Gentiles into a similar obligation, but why? What is missing in their Jesus experience that they can't let go of the past? And how will Paul address those Jewish believers who still feel some moral, spiritual, religious or nationalistic zeal to the law of Moses? We will begin to consider that in the next message. If you'd like to get additional teachings, audio recordings, books and other Christ-centered resources to help you grow spiritually, visit us online at theschoolofChrist.org.