 Let's begin reading at verse 13. I'll read verses 13 through 15 and we'll get into our study. Galatians chapter 5 verses 13 through 15. Paul writes, 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 is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another. So I want you to notice with me even as we begin, how Paul begins here in verse 13 by saying, You brethren have been called to liberty. He's been contrasting the grace of God with the law of Moses. And he's making it very clear here in verse 13 that we have been called. And what we have been called by is we have been called by the gospel. It's a gospel message that has called us into a relationship with God because the gospel message is what has been called an invitation to freedom. When we heard the message of the gospel, Jesus said, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. Jesus was teaching us and calling us to liberty in him, to freedom in him. And that comes through the grace of God. It didn't come through following the law. It didn't come through the ritual observation of the law. It didn't come through making sure that certain things were sacrificed and certain ceremonies were held fast to. That freedom doesn't come in that way. The freedom that we have comes through a relationship with God that was declared to us and clarified for us, that was made possible for us. Through what is called the gospel message. In Luke chapter 4, in verses 17 through 19, Luke writes, The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Jesus. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written. The spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. The Lord Jesus said he has come to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. And that's what we have been called to. We've been called by the gospel to the liberty that comes through grace, the liberty that comes through knowing Jesus Christ. Now false messages delivered by false teachers will never set you free. And that's because the false messages are built on false promises. When Peter was writing in 2 Peter 2 18 and 19, he said they mow the empty boastful words and by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. He said they promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. So trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ sets you free from the bondage of sin and results in spiritual liberty. Now we have been called to freedom even as he says in verse 13. You brethren have been called to liberty or to freedom in Christ. We're not free to do whatever we want to do whenever we want to do it. Grace hasn't been given to us so that we might just continue in sin. You know, you were a drunk or you were a person who was sleeping around or you're doing your drugs or violent, whatever it may have been, whatever your testimony is. And then you hear the gospel message and you say, oh great, now I can be saved and continue doing these things? No, that's not how it works. I didn't get saved so I could continue being a drunk and doing my drugs and the other things. I got saved to be set free from the bondage to those things. Grace hasn't been given to me so that I can continue in sin. I can't claim to be a Christian and continue living in the flesh habitually. I need to know that grace has been given to me to set me free so that I can proclaim Christ who sets the one free. The captives can be set free by Jesus Christ and the newness of life can be experienced by those who just hold fast to him, who believe in him, who take him at his word. When he says that he'll forgive you, he will. When he says you can be a new creation and old things are passed away, that's true. When he says your name will be written in my book of life, that's a fact. We can take him at his word, you see. And we adhere to him. We believe in him. We trust in him. That's how it works in Christianity. It isn't some ritual or religious system. It's a relationship with God that we have through faith in Christ. And Jesus said, I came to set you free and that's what he does. But during the time of the writing of the book of Romans, the apostle Paul was emphasizing the grace of God in his ministry and some had begun to say things about Paul saying, well, what Paul is actually saying is that you can continue in sin habitually and go to heaven. And they were saying that his teaching concerning the grace of God actually undermined a holy life. They were arguing that his approach to grace amounted to giving people permission to sin. In Romans chapter three in verse eight, Paul said, why not say, let us do evil that good may come as we have slanderously reported and some affirm that we say. Just continue in sin and grace is going to abound. He said, no, that's not what we do. You see, he made it very clear that grace is intended to set you free. What is it that drove you to Christ anyway? What is it that drove you to the cross? Why did you get saved in the first place? I got saved for a lot of reasons, but one of the main reasons is I was just sick of being sick. I was just tired of being tired. I was just tired of the life I was living. I was just sick of being sick of being tired. That's it. I wanted to get out. I wanted a new life. I wanted a new chance. I wanted something different. I wanted something fresh. I wanted a new start. I didn't want to claim to be a Christian and continue drinking. I didn't want to claim to be a Christian and continue doing the drugs and the things that I was doing at that time. I wanted out of that. I didn't want it anymore. I was tired of it. I hated it. I was just bored with it. I was pretty much over it, but I didn't have any alternative. And so when somebody came and shared with me that you could have life, you could have joy, you could have peace, you could have love, you could have the things that you desire, the things that you really long for and it comes through faith in Christ. Well, that's good news. That's gospel. That's good news. You mean I can be forgiven of my sins? Yes. Every one of them? Yes. Absolutely. Totally. Yes. How does that happen? The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses you from all sin. I can have a new life. How does that happen? If you're born again, if the Lord Jesus Christ comes into your life, you're a new creation. Bible promises that. And so I don't know about you, but I didn't get saved to continue in sin. I got saved because I was tired of being beaten up by sin and being in bondage to sin. Well, when Paul was out there teaching and saying, listen, the grace of God is sufficient. Abraham was saved by faith and it comes through the grace of God. There were those who were arguing at that time that he was preaching a cheap grace, giving to you permission to continue in sin. And that's why he said that's not true at all. In Romans chapter six, verses one and two, he said, what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? God forbid, by no means. He said, we died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? How can we who have died to sin live any longer under its domination? Because when you're saved, it literally means that you have died to sin. When you die to sin, it means you have nothing to do with it, that you're separated from it. At one time, you were dead in sin, but now because of Christ, you are dead to the power of sin over you. And so what happens when we have died is, one, is we're dead to sin's dominance in our lives. We have power to resist. We can actually have victory. And then second, we're dead to the judicial guilt that results in judgment and eternal separation because we've been saved by the grace of God. So when you get saved, you don't have that excuse anymore where you say, well, the devil made me do it. Or, yeah, I do that because that's just a habit of my flesh. No. We begin to understand Philippians 4-13 where Paul says, I can do all things through Christ to strengthen me. We begin to realize that if we resist the devil, he will flee from us. And that we actually can become overcomers, that we can be what Scripture calls more than conquerors through Jesus Christ. And we can actually walk from victory to victory, from glory to glory when we trust in him. And that all comes by grace. So grace gives us freedom from sin, not freedom to sin. Again, some reinterpret grace to mean permission, but you don't find that in the New Testament. In Colossians chapter 3, verses 5 through 9, Paul said, put to death, therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature. And then he gives a whole list of things that belong to our flesh. Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. And then he goes on to say, you used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these. Rid yourself of anger, rid yourself of rage, of malice, of slander, and filthy language from your lips. You know, Christians sometimes use filthy language. He says, rid yourself of that. I've had people come up and ask for prayer, and then they cuss at me as they're asking for prayer. And I say, you've gotten me mistaken for wrong. He does that. But he goes on to say, do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices. You see, we need to understand that. We need to see that we've been set free by the grace of God and no longer does sin have domination over us. We have to see that. We are free from the judicial guilt because we were guilty before God. Therefore, when we stand before the great judge, he would see us as guilty because we have sinned and fallen short of his glory. So you stand before a righteous judge, and he's going to judge you based on the life that you lived and how you dealt with the gospel as you've heard it. Did you receive or reject? And so when I got saved, that judicial guilty issue of being guilty before God was dealt with. He says, now you are not guilty. Jesus is my advocate. He is my defense attorney. He stands in my stead and he pleads my cause. I have received forgiveness. I stand before God. God looks at me through Christ and says, not guilty. So I don't have to continue living under the domination of sin. I can now live a life that is separated, a life that is referred to by scripture as holy. And by God's grace, we're empowered to live lives that glorify the Lord and have victory over sin. We've been given his power through the Holy Spirit. We receive his directions by his word. And the Bible tells us in 1 John 3, 6, no one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. It's not that you don't fall or fail. Of course, every day we do in one way or another. But it's not the habit of your life anymore. It's not the longing of your desire. It's not that anymore. You have changed. It's not that you don't sin again. It simply means we have victory in Christ and we have victory over its domination. And that's what Paul is speaking about here in Galatians chapter 5. And he's saying, don't use this liberty that God has given to you through the gospel of Jesus Christ, as noticed as an opportunity for the flesh. Now when he speaks concerning that word opportunity, don't use liberty as an opportunity. That word opportunity is a base of operations. It's a place from which a movement or attack is made. Don't allow the flesh, the impulses and cravings that satisfy the natural desires. Don't allow that to have domination in your life, is what he's saying. Don't use your Christian liberty and allow it to become a base of operation for sin. Instead of habitually sinning, we need to do something different. It's interesting how he contrasts this. He says, you brethren have been called to liberty only. Don't use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Interesting. Now why would he say that? As an opportunity for the flesh. Because the number one priority that every human being has is to take care of himself. Number one. You remember the book of Job. You remember the story of Job, how that the devil was talking to God. And as the devil was talking to God, God had said to him, have you considered my servant Job? He's a just man. He hates evil. Have you considered him? Have you investigated him? Have you looked for a weakness in him? Have you been scrutinizing him? God of course knows that Satan had been desiring to get his hands on Job for a long time. And so God asks the question, have you observed him? Have you seen him? Where have you been? God had said to Satan, I've been going to and fro throughout the earth. Oh, that means you've been looking for something no good to do, haven't you? Have you seen my servant Job? Have you scrutinized him? Have you looked at him closely? Have you tried to find a weakness in him? Well yeah, I've seen him. Satan says, I can't touch him. You basically have put a hedge around him. And we know what happens in the first two chapters of Job. God speaking to Satan, and Satan speaking back to God concerning Job, and that ultimately God gives him permission to sift him. But Satan had said to him, as he was speaking to the Lord, Satan had said that God had been protecting him. But he said, skin for skin. All that a man has, he will give for his life. What he was saying is, just let me touch his body, and he will curse you to your face. The point he was making is that man has a tendency of loving himself. That's what Paul says in Ephesians chapter five. No man has ever hated his own flesh, but he loves it, he cherishes, he nourishes it. He takes care of his body. We have a tendency of doing that. That's why when the Lord God gives us commands about love, it talks about loving God with all of our heart and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Because it's a love where, like Jesus said, great love has no man, then man lay down his life for his friends. Because most of us, all of us in this room, starting with me, take care of ourselves. And what we learn to do is we learn to care for others. And so grace is given to us so that we stop caring so much for ourselves that we neglect caring for other people. We were saved to serve. We were saved to serve God, and we were saved to serve one another. That's what he's saying here. You've been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Instead of me being so concerned about serving myself, I need to learn to serve somebody else. You know, when you look at the apostles and unbelievable men, and you look at those men, the 11 who remained faithful, and then the apostle Paul, you see men that were unbelievably faithful to God. But were they always that way? Well, obviously they weren't. One of the things that I find repeated several times in Scripture is really an attitude of selfish ambition that was really there within the band of those men. You can look and you can see them, and they had this issue that was really something that was repeated more than once. You see it in Mark chapter 9. In Mark chapter 9 verses 31 through 34, it says, He taught His disciples and said to them, The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after He's killed, He will rise the third day. But they did not understand this saying, and were afraid to ask Him. Then He came to Capernaum, and when He was in the house, He asked them, What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road? But they kept silent. For on the road, they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. That was a constant argument amongst them. It was, He loves me more than He loves you. It was that kind of attitude. Na, na, na, na, I'm His special one. And that's the way they were with one another. Who is the greatest? And they would argue amongst themselves, Who is the greatest? This was a dispute that continued on and on, and it's interesting how that Mark says, This happened after Jesus said, I'm gonna die. Now you would be thinking that these men would be discussing amongst themselves what Jesus had told them. He's gonna die. Isn't that worthy of discussion? Don't you think the men should have been speaking amongst themselves? What is he talking about? How's that gonna work? How's that gonna affect us? They were busy with something more important. I'm greater than you. And that's what they were arguing about. It's amazing, but it's true. It's amazing how many times we can have a Bible study. And after the study, we can go with our friends somewhere, and we don't even think to discuss what we heard in the Bible study. Because they're busy talking about other things. That's how these men work. And they had this great thing going on, Who is the greatest? Even after they had heard Jesus say, He's gonna die. Now later on, Matthew writes about it in chapter 20, verses 20 and 21. It says, The mother of Zebedee's sons came to him. Zebedee's sons are James and John. The mother of Zebedee's sons came to him with her sons kneeling down and asking something from him. He said to her, What do you wish? She said to him, Grant that these two sons of mine may sit one on your right hand and the other on your left in your kingdom. They're wanting positions of greatness. Any time someone would see Jesus on his throne, they would naturally have opportunity to see James and John there. They wanted positions of greatness. And in Matthew 20, 24, it says, When the 10 heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers. They were greatly displeased because they had made that request. James and John had made that request prior to them. Because they would definitely have wanted those positions. Now this carried on. This didn't stop. It even went into the events of the most solemn of nights. It says in Luke 22, 24 through 27, there was rivalry among them as to which of them should be considered the greatest. He said to them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors, not so among you. On the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger. And he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater? He who sits at the table or he who serves. Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the one who serves. This attitude of wanting to be served rather than serving is human nature. It's within us and we have to die to it. In Philippians 2, 3, and 4, it says, Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out, not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. You have to die to that. Listen, you've been set free by Jesus Christ. You have liberty in Christ, but that's not a liberty that has been given to you to enable you to do what you want, when you want, wherever you want, with no consideration for somebody else. Every married person in this room can tell you that one of the keys to having a good marriage is learning to serve one another. It's one of the keys, learning to serve one another. This attitude that some guys have, sometimes when they get married, they say, oh boy, I finally married my maid. That's really not a good attitude. When you get married, you serve one another. You do things for one another. You know, it's a mutual submission in many ways, where you're working together to make a home. And if I have this attitude that my wife is there to make sure all my needs are met, but I don't have to be concerned for anything for her, then that marriage isn't going to make it. It just isn't going to happen, because she's going to get tired of being pushed around. But if I have this attitude, and she has the same kind of attitude of, I want to love you, and I want to show my love by service to you, my marriage is going to be a strong marriage that continues to grow over the years. And that's what happened with Marie and with me. That's one of the keys to our marriage, is we've learned to serve one another, to care for one another, to love one another, to take the liberty that God has given to us, the grace that God has given to us, and to actually extend it to one another. And so that's what we're supposed to do. We're to follow his example. We're to learn to serve each other. And when you do that, it breaks the habit, it breaks that entitlement mentality, that heart of consumerism that we Americans are plagued by. When you actually get saved and understand that you're saved to serve God, and you take this liberty to help and serve other people, it sets you free. It sets you free. I've been mentioning lately that, you know, I've been observing our Sunday morning services, and some of you come to second service, some may come to first. And we're definitely going to be having to go three services. And I have mentioned that recently. We're going to have to. We're going to have to go three services on Sunday morning. And, you know, and I know that people are a little concerned about that because there's so many things that need to be done. You know, the children's ministry is going to need to be restocked, if you will. We're going to need ushers. We're going to need people in the parking ministry and all. I'm encouraging you, even as I'm giving this message, to use your liberty for service. And that if this is your fellowship, and you want to see God move in your life, and you want to see God move in other people's lives, find an opportunity to serve, find a place to serve. And take that opportunity. Don't be a consumer. Don't be an individual who comes in entitled with this mentality of everything's for me. Have an attitude of, look at the Lord has been good to me and I want to be good to somebody else because that's what Paul's talking about here. He said, through love serve one another. In verse 14 he says, for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another. When he's speaking concerning service, it's easy to find examples of that. This freedom that God has given to us, and this service, well when Jesus was speaking concerning himself, he said, the greatest in the kingdom is the servant of all. Jesus Christ is the one who was the servant of all. He came and on the night he was betrayed, knelt down, took a basin of water, he took a towel, girded himself, and began to wash the feet of his disciples. He did that as an example to them. He said, you call me Lord and you call me Master, and it is true because that's what I am. If I then be in your Lord and Master who have washed your feet, you ought to wash the feet of one another. So the Lord taught us to do that. And that was an example of this royal law, this law that you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You see, serving reflects a mature knowledge of salvation. It also reflects a knowledge of the body of Christ and body life. It reveals that we know what Jesus has done for us. And as we serve with one another, it's only a demonstration that we understand that we need each other. You know, have you ever seen somebody whose car is broken down on the side of the road and they're by themselves, and it's a heavy car and they're trying to push it uphill? They can't do that by themselves. But if you can take the moment to climb out and help them, well, what one person couldn't do, two people can do. And that's how it works. In Ecclesiastes 4, 9 through 11, it says two are better than one because they have a good return for their work. If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up. Also, if two lie down together, they'll keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? And so what we do is we learn to serve. And he speaks of loving our neighbors. Now notice this. He says we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. That's difficult, isn't it? Here really is. We had somebody in our fellowship who came up to me one time. It's been a few years now. And he said, you know what? You were talking about loving my neighbor. I'm having a tough time doing that. Well, why is that? He says because my neighbor is a jerk. He said he's got a big dog and he keeps on throwing his dog's presence, my dad used to call them, into my backyard. He does it on purpose just to irritate me. He said my neighbor is constantly doing things to get me upset. You know, theoretically, here we are in this room and you pretty much chose where you're seated. You pretty much chose who's around you to some degree. And that's one thing here. You climb in your car. If you came with somebody, you're together. That's no problem. But man, when you get into traffic, and I was driving home from L.A. And I think of all you who drive home from from Orange County or from L.A. or from wherever and you're coming home at three, four in the afternoon, five in the afternoon, and I pity you. I do. I pray for you. I say, oh, Lord, I tell Marie, I can't believe it. This is what they go through every day. They drive this every day. And these people in, you know, oh, it's just amazing to me. It's just amazing the rudeness that people have, you know, the speeding up and tailgating and cutting you off and all of that wonderful stuff. And that's just in your driveway. That's not even when you're on the freeway. When you get on the freeway, it's worse. It's hard. It's easy to talk about loving one another. It's easy. But God knows it takes a lot of dying to self to really learn to do that, doesn't it? It really does. It takes a lot of prayer and dying to self. It takes a lot of disciplining yourself in the Lord and saying, God help me because, I'll be honest with you, Lord. The Bible says that we can lay hands on people and I want to lay hands on this person, but not in the biblical way. They're making me so angry. They're saying such dumb things. They're so mean and rude. I pray about, I have been praying, and I don't know that God has really answered this yet, but I have been praying to teach, for the Lord to teach me to love people since basically the day I got saved. It's 40 years. And I still see people sometimes and I still say, man. I get Old Testament in my prayers, though Lord break their teeth in Jesus' name. I'm amazed at how rude and how obnoxious that person can be. And so, yet, that's what we're called to do. It's called the Royal Law in the book of James chapter 2, verse 8. This particular verse here, verse 14, you shall love your neighbor as yourself is repeated several times. It's actually found originally in Luke, rather Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18. It's an Old Testament scripture. We know the situation there in the book of Matthew 2235 through 40 where the Lord Jesus Christ has someone approach him and ask the question, what is the great command in the law? And Jesus says to him, you're to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. He says, there's a second like unto the first. He says, you're to love your neighbor as yourself. So, Jesus repeats out of Leviticus 1918, what is referred to in James chapter 2, verse 8, as the Royal Law. You see it also repeated in Romans chapter 13, verse 9. If the Lord says something one time, it's important. If he says it twice, it's extremely important. If he repeats it several times, he wants us to know something. He wants us to know that we're to love our neighbor as our self. And so, the only way that I'm going to learn to care for somebody else is when I'm born again and I walk in the grace of God. That's the only way I can do it. And so, I pray every morning. I pray several times throughout the day. God, would you just allow me to walk in the Spirit? We're going to see this next time we're together when we look at verses 19 for the fruit of the Spirit. God, would you produce that in me? So that I might, as a Christian man, actually love people. I want to do that. Because, you see, in verse 15, he says, if you bite and devour one another, beware, lest you be consumed by one another. When he speaks about biting and devouring, it's another way of saying, if you're wounding and destroying each other, be careful that you don't devour or consume, rather, spend or use up each other. In other words, be careful that you don't destroy instead of build up. If you're serving Jesus with a pure heart, then more than likely, you're not destroying. And what is he saying? Well, he's saying liberty is never to be used to give us freedom to destroy somebody else. Our freedom in Jesus doesn't extend to hurting each other. Our freedom in Jesus is to give us the ability to love and to serve one another. Here's something for you. When I was a young believer, I had certain things that I thought I had freedoms in, and some people didn't feel that they had the same kind of freedom, and so they'd get upset. And so my response in my early days was, well, if it bothers you, then you ought to pray and seek the Lord and get over it. Because I've got freedom in Christ. And if I want to use my freedoms in this way, who are you to judge me? And I think I speak for a lot of people. That was my mentality, and there are a lot of people who still think that way. If you don't like what I'm doing, you know, the Bible doesn't say I can't do that. If you don't like it, it's really something you have to deal with. You know, some people think they have freedom to do a variety of things, and I discovered a long time ago the freedom God gave to me is not to be used to hurt somebody else. I was trying to illustrate this one time when our church was less than a year old. I was teaching, and I was talking about, some people have freedom to drink. I said, but let me ask you a question. And the church only had 60 people at that time, and I was a little more informal than I am today. So I said, let me ask you a question. What would you do if you came to my house, and you came in and opened up the refrigerator, and you found some alcohol that was in my house? What would you do? There was a guy in the front row, and he yells so everybody could hear him, but he was really talking to me, and he said, I'd help you drink it, pastor. That wasn't the point I was making. I'd help you drink it. Let me rephrase this. But there are people who do, yeah, I'll do a good deed. I'll help you drink it. How would you feel? How would you feel if you were at Costco, and I come walking by and I've got a cart, fill with beer? How would you feel? Would it be okay? Would that be okay? Why did you just say yes? No, no, why? Why? I'm over 21 considerably, and what if it's wine? What if it's Christian Brother wine? Would that stumble you? It would, wouldn't it? Let's be honest, it would stumble you. I've had people who've encountered me in the supermarket. The first thing they do is they look in the basket. I am not kidding you. That's okay because I'm looking in there. It's the truth. It's the truth. People will come and they see and they look because they expect me to live at a certain standard. I understand that. I've often wondered why they themselves don't live by the same standards. See, is it okay to stumble somebody or not? Or is it only pastors who aren't supposed to stumble people? But people who are just sheep, they can stumble whomever they want to because it's okay? Is that what Paul is teaching? Obviously not. That's my point. My point is this. Don't use your liberty to stumble somebody else. Don't use the freedoms that you have to destroy a brother whom Christ died for. And just because you feel you have freedom to do something doesn't mean that you should do that because it can cause somebody else great pain. In Romans chapter 15 verses 1 and 2, Paul said it like this. He said, We who are strong ought to bear the infirmities or the sensitivities of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good to build them up. See, that's what love is. It's getting past that me first, my freedoms, my walk, my life. Don't judge me. It's getting past that to the point where you actually care about other people. You actually care. And you restrict the perceived freedoms that you have based on how it affects other people because you want other people to walk solidly with Jesus Christ. That's what happens when you begin to grow, and that's what happens when you begin to actually love people. How can I do that? How is that made possible? Verse 16, I say then, Walk in the spirit, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Walking in the spirit. So in order for me to be able to live a life of love, I need to have the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. There are various disciplines that we as Christians can develop. Disciplines of the Christian life. We read our Bible. We pray. We worship God in song. We witness to other people. We have time of fellowship. We serve one another. We live by certain biblical standards. And all of that has an outer appearance of being mature. Yet people can do those kinds of things. They can read a Bible. They can pray worship. They can do all of those things, and still be legalistic or be unsaved or carnal. They're just doing outward things. It takes the Holy Spirit to produce a life of true righteousness. It takes the Holy Spirit to transform a person's life. It's the Holy Spirit who works within, who gives me the ability to do the things that I might not want to do. Beautiful Scripture, Ezekiel 36 verses 26 and 27. God says, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. I will put my spirit in you. I will give you a new heart. That comes through the power of the Holy Spirit. See, the law cannot give you a new heart. It doesn't give you the power to please God. It's the Spirit and we need to be energized by the Holy Spirit. That's why Paul to the Ephesians said, I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being. And so God wants to empower you and he wants to empower me with his Spirit. And we begin to walk in his Spirit and we begin to follow the Lord in that way spiritually. We are walking in the Spirit. We're to be led by the Spirit. When you get saved, the Holy Spirit begins to do a work in you and after a while you begin to familiarize yourself with the way he works, the way he moves, the way the Holy Spirit operates. You begin to become familiar with that. It occurs as you read in the Word of God and God begins to enlighten you as you study and you read and you say, so that's what, oh and how am I going to... It happens through prayer. It happens through speaking to Godly people and saying, you know, I've been thinking about this and I want to get your take on this. And you begin to learn how the Holy Spirit works in your life. The Holy Spirit is that invisible person of the Trinity who dwells within you and makes your body his temple. He lives within you. And Jesus said, you would receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you would be witnesses to him and Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, unto the most parts of the earth. The Holy Spirit who dwells within us, giving to us the power and writing God's Word on our hearts is what gives us the ability to obey. In the early church, the Holy Spirit is extremely active is you see the Book of Acts and you see how the Spirit moves throughout the Book of Acts. It gives to us the blueprint of what God intends to do in the church, through the ages of the church. If the Holy Spirit is present, you see God moving tremendously. When the Holy Spirit is not present, you see a lot of man's efforts and a lot of flesh. The work of God is done through the Spirit of God. But there's a battle. Notice verse 17 and 18, the flesh lust 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. There is that constant warfare that takes place where the Holy Spirit is leading you to do something and you are constantly saying no. And sometimes God wants to do something remarkable and you just quench him. You just say no. I've told you this before. It's a true story. My brother-in-law was at this time, one of my brothers-in-law was a young boy. He was about 14 or so. And Marie and I and two other couples were meeting at a location for a Christian concert and I had asked my brother-in-law if he would go with us because I wanted him to hear the message of the gospel. I'd shared with him but I wanted him to hear it from somebody else and so I said to him, would you like to go with us? And he said yes. And so we went to this concert hall. It was a theater in the round. It was not a theater in the round. It was the what do you call it? Anaheim Convention Center. So it's got this circular thing. And so we showed up there and as we showed up, our friends weren't there. They were coming from Norwalk and we were driving in from Chino. And so we said to them, we'll meet you there but we didn't set a place to meet them. And so Marie and I and her brother are there in the foyer and we don't know where our friends are and the lights are off inside the hall so there's no way that we can see them and we don't know if they've arrived. So I began to walk one way and I tell Marie, you walk the other way. And as we were walking, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said to me, tell him that you're all going to meet together at seven. I'll never forget this. Tell him that you're going to meet you're all going to meet together at seven. And I looked at my watch. It was five minutes to seven. And I said, no. If I said to myself, boy, what am I thinking? If I tell him that we're going to all connect at seven o'clock and what if we don't? That must be me. And so I didn't say anything. I didn't say anything. We just kept walking. So Marie walks away from me and I start walking. As we're walking, I'm stopping and I'm looking in. I'm trying to see my friends. I can't see if they're there walking around the whole thing. And as we go around, Marie's coming the other way and Marie connects with me. And Marie and I connect. And when we connect, we hear a knocking on a glass door. And as we hear the knocking on the door, we turn together at the same time. And there are our friends, two couples, knocking on the glass door for us to let them in. And I look down at my watch and it's seven o'clock on the dot, on the dot. And the Holy Spirit said, idiot. No, the Holy Spirit. And I was so bummed out. What an incredible testimony that would have been to my brother-in-law. God says we're going to meet at seven o'clock. So I should have told him, but I didn't. I just walked and Marie's going the opposite direction all that way. And then we connect and I look at her and I say, I don't, I don't see him. She says, I don't know where they're at. I didn't see him either. And then I hear knock, knock, knock, and we all turn in. There they are standing. They'll let us in. What a perfect moment. The Holy Spirit's power could have been shown. Over time, I've tried to learn move when he speaks. Move when he speaks. Because there are times God wants to do something that you can't even imagine. There are times that God wants to show you he's God. He wants to do something that is beyond you, that it's beyond logic. He wants to do it. And Paul is simply saying, listen, you need to walk in the Spirit. It needs to be the habit of your life. Listen, if you want to love one another and you want to serve one another in love and you want to avoid devouring one another, you need the power of the Spirit. You need to walk in the power of the Spirit. You need to be led by the Spirit of God. Because if you're led by the Spirit of God, you're not going to fulfill the desires of the flesh. The desires of the flesh are always longing to do things for myself. But when I'm walking in the Spirit, I learn to die to those things and I learn to serve God and serve other people. And if I'm going to be somebody who doesn't bite and devour other people, then I need to be somebody who's walking in the Spirit. And so Paul is speaking concerning that and he's saying, listen, the law that these false teachers are bringing, they're trying to bring you under, having you circumcised, having you observe all the ritual and all the ceremonial laws, will not produce in you the power of the Spirit that comes through the grace of God that gives you the freedom that you have in Jesus Christ. None of that does that. So walk, he says, in the Spirit. Be led by the Spirit and watch what God will do. I just pray that we, this church, will actually open up to what God wants to do by his Spirit in our midst.