The Means of Brotherly Love

Rory Mosley

017 The Means of Brotherly Love

Galatians 5:16-25

July 6, 2014

This morning we examined an important reminder for the Christian life.

Namely that as Christians we are free, but that freedom is for the purpose

Of serving your brother, not gratifying your flesh.

As believers we are called to sacrifice self, to put others first,

And to do this continually.

We are foot washers

We closed this morning with a verse

I would like to pull back to your attention.

Philippians 2:1-4 “Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”

That is one of the more convicting passages in Scripture.

To remind us that it is never about me.

· There is never a time when selfishness is ok

· There is never a time when empty conceit is ok

· There is never a time to just look out for number one

I am called to love my brother as myself.

And Paul warned us this morning that failure to do that

Can easily result in spiritual cannibalism.

Galatians 5:15 “But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.”

We are called to love our brother, we are called to love our neighbor.

This reality brings to mind one of the most famous stories in Scripture.

TURN TO: Luke 10:25-37

By now you know the story of the Good Samaritan.

This was a shocking story because Jews didn’t think much of Samaritans.

But in that story Jesus plainly asks, “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?”

And of course the answer:

“And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”

That is simple enough right?

5 little words

Easy to read, near impossible to perform.

“Go and do the same.”

“Go and delay your plans for a man you don’t know…”

“Go and give your money for a person who is beaten…”

“Go and put yourself in danger for someone who probably got what they deserved...”

“Go and make yourself unclean for someone who wouldn’t do it for you…”

You follow my point?

We read that story in church and love it,

But wait until you pass that person on the street

And that story will haunt you.

Wait until you are in a hurry and at the most inconvenient time you find that person on the side of the road. And all of a sudden, “Go and do the same”

Is one of the hardest commands you will ever come across.

But isn’t that what Paul just told us to do this morning?

Didn’t he tell us to use our freedom to serve someone else?

Didn’t Paul tell us to love our neighbor AS OURSELF?

Didn’t Paul tell us to serve one another?

Easy words to read, hard words to live.

No, really, they are impossible words to live.

A few years ago Leo and I did a revival in Joy, TX and after one of the services, he made the statement. “Sometimes I think it is impossible to be the type of Christian Rory talks about.”

HE’S RIGHT – IT ABSOLUTELY IS IMPOSSIBLE!

Matthew 19:25-26 “When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, "Then who can be saved?" And looking at them Jesus said to them, "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

It is impossible for you and I to do

All the things the Bible says a Christian should do.

The question is HOW IN THE WORLD AM I SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO LIVE LIKE THAT?

Well, welcome to the second leg of Paul’s message

On dying to self and loving your brother.

Tonight we find “THE MEANS OF BROTHERLY LOVE”

Tonight we find how you find the ability to do that.

Paul spells it out, so let’s look at it together.

3 main points

#1 THE STRATEGY

Galatians 5:16-18

And there it is, really simple.

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

We talked about that verse a couple of times

During our recent study on the Holy Spirit.

It is really a phenomenal verse when you think about it.

We all have in us “the flesh”

It is our fallen human nature.

It is what makes us greedy and selfish

And without fail, every time the opportunity arises,

You can count on the flesh to want to do

Only what is in its best interest.

Our flesh had a will, our flesh has desires,

AND IT IS NEVER THE SAME AS GOD’S WILL.

Romans 8:7-8 “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

My flesh never wants to do the will of God

(and neither does yours)

It is that dead man that Paul lamented back in Romans 7.

Romans 7:24 “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”

Romans 7:14 “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.”

Romans 7:18 “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.”

Your flesh chooses wrong every time,

And that is what makes a command like love your neighbor so hard.

Your flesh knows all about loving self,

But it doesn’t know anything about loving your neighbor.

So we have this flesh that goes left every time we should go right.

How in the world am I supposed to sacrifice myself for the good of another when my flesh refuses to do so?

“walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire the flesh.”

The answer is: THE HOLY SPIRIT

· He is God in us

· He is the One who gives you the ability to obey the commands of God.

· He is the One who is at work within you to help you obey God.

Right after that difficult passage in Philippians

About considering others as more important than yourself.

Paul wrote:

Philippians 2:12-13 “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

On your own, you’ll never beat the flesh,

But the Holy Spirit within you can.

And Paul says, you need to “walk by the Spirit”

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

I hope you remember this from our study, if not go back and listen.

There are two different commands given in regard to the Spirit.

· “be filled with the Spirit”

“walk by the Spirit”

“be filled with the Spirit” if you will remember was a phrase Paul used in Ephesians 5 where he talked about speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

He then used an alternative phrase for the same thing in Colossians 3 where He said, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.”

So being filled with the Spirit is akin to

Letting the words of Christ dwell within you.

You fill up with the Spirit when you fill up with the word of God.

The other command is to “walk by the Spirit”

If you are to get up out of that pew and walk down the aisle,

It is going to take two things.

1) Your brain will have to send the signal to your legs to move

(That is the mental part – like letting the word dwell within you)

2) Your muscles will have to receive the signal and actually move

(That is the physical part – like walking by the Spirit)

So what Paul is referring to here in Galatians

Is not KNOWING what you should do, that is obvious.

What Paul is referring to is where to find the strength to do it,

And that is from the Holy Spirit.

In other words, the signal has already been sent from your brain,

(that was this morning with the command you understood)

Now your muscles must actually move.

You find the ability to do that through the Holy Spirit.

NOW, IS IT POSSIBLE FOR A CHRISTIAN TO NOT WALK BY THE SPIRIT?

Apparently, or else Paul would not have commanded us to walk by the Spirit.

We have two choices.

· We either walk in the strength of our flesh (failure since the flesh

doesn’t want to do it)

· Or we walk by the strength of the Spirit.

One requires human effort and ability

The other requires faith and submission

Walking by the Spirit means I am letting His word guide me (Scripture) and I am trusting His power to help me obey it.

And Paul says, If I do that, I “will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”

WHY?

(17) “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these in are opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”

Now this verse can be a little tricky,

Because Romans 7 is stuck in the back of our minds.

In Romans 7 Paul says, “I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.”

There, the flesh keeps us from doing what we want.

And we take that verse and sort of read it in to this one.

And so we assume here that again Paul is talking about the flesh keeping us from doing the things we want, but the Spirit can help us.

But that is not true.

In fact the reverse is true here.

In this passage the desire is something we are trying to defeat.

We are dealing with (16) “the desire of the flesh”

Here we are NOT talking about one of those moments where you don’t want to do bad, but you do it anyway.

Here we are talking about one of those moments where you

(or your flesh) actually do want to do bad.

(We have those moments don’t we?)

Those moments, where if I am honest,

The problem is that right now I do want to do it.

How do you keep from doing “the things that you please”?

The answer is: THE HOLY SPIRIT

He is “against the flesh”

He is in opposition to the flesh,

And He keeps you from doing those things that the flesh wants to do.

It is the Holy Spirit who keeps you from doing what you please.

PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION:

You are driving down the road and you see the man in the ditch, having been beaten by robbers and you want to pass him by. But it is the Holy Spirit who will not let you.

At that moment, in order to walk by the Spirit

You need FAITH and you need SUBMISSION and He will do it in you.

That is what we are talking about.

Let the Holy Spirit do what your flesh would not and could not.

And that is what Paul means here:

(18) “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.”

In other words, when you are walking by the Spirit, then you are no longer like a man under the Law doing everything by the power of his flesh.

That man doesn’t have a chance at obedience.

We saw the Levite and the priest pass that beaten man by.

When you are “under the Law” and doing it all in your own strength,

There is no way you are going to be able to love like Paul is talking about.

The flesh is too strong.

But when you walk by the Spirit and follow His leading,

He will not let you listen to the flesh.

So our strategy for living obedient lives is simple.

We will “walk by the Spirit” and we “will not carry out the desires of the flesh” namely because the Spirit won’t let us.

IT REALLY IS THAT SIMPLE.

I talk to people from time to time in my office about this,

And it used to grieve me because I guess I was afraid to give them

The straight up answer.

A generic conversation, but it goes something like this.

“I know I’m a Christian, and I love God, and I’m in His word, and I’m trusting the Holy Spirit, but there is this sin that I just can’t defeat.”

If you come in my office and you tell me that,

I’m likely to tell you that you either lying to me or you are lying to yourself.

I used to just sort of sit there stumped and say,

“well, let’s pray about it, that’s a tough one.”

But it’s not a tough one!

If you have sin you can’t kick, here is the problem.

You either are not saved (do not have the Holy Spirit)

Or you are saved and are not walking in submission to the Holy Spirit

Because if you were walking by the Spirit,

You would not carry out the desire of the flesh.

It is a fool proof strategy.

So there is the strategy, now let’s look at point number two.

The Strategy

#2 THE CLARITY

Galatians 5:19-23

This is for that person who isn’t sure if

They are walking by the flesh or if they are walking by the Spirit.

This is for that person who adamantly claims to be a Christian and love God, but is obviously self-deceived.

Paul here will clarify for you if you are walking by the flesh or by the Spirit.

And incidentally, if you are walking by the flesh,

Here is what Scripture says:

Romans 8:13 “for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

This is not a trivial matter.

Paul is going to spell it out for you as plainly as he can

To help you see which you are doing.

1) THE FLESH (19-21)

First Paul talks about “the deeds of the flesh” and notice that they are “evident”

You won’t find any of these attributes repeated in the list on the Spirit.

If these are you, you are in the flesh.

SEXUAL SINS

“immorality, impurity, sensuality”

Those sins which characterize adultery and sexual perversion.

· These are things like premarital sex

· These are things like pornography

· These are things like adultery

· Any sins designed to stimulate you sexually

God has given one outlet for a man and a woman to express sexual desire

And that is through the marriage bed.

Anything beyond that is sexual sin and an indicates walking by the flesh.

SPIRITUAL SINS

“idolatry, sorcery”

“Idolatry” we understand as giving God’s glory to another, or even allowing something else to take God’s rightful place in your life.

This can even be greed, which Paul says in Colossians amounts to idolatry.

Love of money, desire for glory, selfish ambition, these are all deeds of the flesh.

“sorcery” (PHARMAKEIA) from where we get our word for pharmacy, it refers to drugs.

In Paul’s day it was acquainted with spiritual sin because many cults

Used them in order to heighten their worship experience.

Obviously any of this is walking by the flesh, not the Spirit.

SOCIAL SINS

“enimities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these”

And these are really self-explanatory.

Most speak of relational struggles akin to not showing love to a brother.

They even expand into drunkenness and carousing

Which are also socially disturbing sins.

Paul spends more time on social sins

Because the point of the passage is loving your brother.

But you get the picture of what it looks like when you walk by the flesh,

And if that is you, then you should know, “that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

In other words:

Those actions are neither indicative of a person headed to heaven,

Nor are they a means by which you will get there.

If those sins or “things like” them are in your life,

You are walking by the flesh and that is a horribly bad thing.

Now let’s look at the Spirit led life.

2) THE SPIRIT (22-23)

Now whereas we could separate the deeds of the flesh

Into sexual, spiritual, and social sins,

You will notice that we don’t do that with these characteristics.

That is because all of these characteristics fully apply in all three areas.

If doesn’t matter if you are talking about a sexual area, a spiritual area, or a social area, these are the attributes of the Spirit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”

And let me ask you,

Is there any way the man of flesh stops and helps the man in the ditch?

No, he’s too selfish, and too bent on his own desires.

Is there any way the man filled with the Spirit could possibly pass him by?

And again the answer is no.

See, it’s obvious that the Spirit and the flesh

Are walking in two different direction.

And just as the man of flesh will not inherit the kingdom of heaven,

Paul says in regard to the fruit of the Spirit

“against such things there is no law.”

In other words, if you are looking to fulfill the law (like loving your neighbor as yourself) then the Spirit will never lead you down the wrong path.

If you follow His lead and walk in His strength,

He’ll keep you right in line with the will of God all the time.

So hopefully your life just received a little clarity.

#3 THE VICTORY

Galatians 5:24-25

And you will notice the victory mentioned here explicitly.

“Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

We already identified that the flesh is the problem.

It has “passions and desires”

The only way to handle the flesh is to kill it.

Colossians 3:5-6 “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,”

The flesh must die.

And if the flesh is dead, then it obviously has less power

To take us where we don’t need to go.

Well notice what Paul says here.

“those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh”

Not “will crucify”…

Not “can crucify”…

But “have crucified”

HOW CAN PAUL SAY THAT?

Because Paul understands what real salvation entails.

We have so much of this “token” salvation in our culture today.

· Walk an aisle

· Admit your sin is a bad thing

· Pray a prayer

· Agree to go to heaven

· Get baptized

And bingo, you’re a Christian!

But friends, it doesn’t work that way.

Actions like that may indeed get your name put on a church roll,

But we are talking about killing the flesh.

And none of those actions kill the flesh.

· You can’t just walk an aisle – you must be humble; poor in spirit

· You can’t just admit your sin – you must hate it and turn from it

· You can’t just pray a prayer – you must put your trust wholly in Christ

· You can’t just agree to go to heaven – you must commit to follow Christ

· You can’t just get baptized in water – you must be baptized with God’s Spirit

In short, to become a Christian a death must occur; your death.

Paul said it so eloquently earlier in this letter:

Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

You must die to self so that Christ can give you life.

If you try to keep your old life, and add Christ to it, it will not work.

Jesus said:

Matthew 16:24-25 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

That is salvation.

Dying to your old life, receiving new life in Christ.

I hope you notice Paul had a different phrase for it here in Galatians 5.

He said, “those who belong to Christ”

In that verse Paul didn’t describe a Christian as those who TRUST Christ,

Or as those who LOVE Christ, or as those who DESIRE Christ.

(all of those things may be true)

But here Paul described a Christian as “those who belong to Christ”

· There is an ownership implied there

· There is a slavery implied there

· There is a complete forfeiture of personal rights there

A Christian has kissed his old life good-bye, has died,

And now belongs to Christ.

And Paul says when that transaction has occurred in your life,

You “have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

The only way to stop the flesh is to die.

And then Christ can give you new life after death.

And that is where the victory is found.

Do you want to know why so many people fail to defeat the flesh?

· They have never killed the flesh…

· They have never been given new life in Christ…

· They do not have the Holy Spirit within them fighting the battle…

It is that simple.

God never intended for Christians to lose the battle against the flesh.

Romans 8:1-4 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

That is why we have victory over the flesh.

We have a crucified Lord who condemned sin

We have an abiding Spirit who battles sin

The result is that we have victory.

In the context of this passage, that means that

We can most certainly love our neighbor as ourselves.

In this context, through the death and resurrection of Jesus

And the Holy Spirit who lives within us,

We can definitely “through love serve one another.”

We are now able to do it.

And that leads us to one final statement by Paul.

(It is the choice)