What Are You Practicing?
Rev. Res Spears
Galatians: Be FREE! • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Well, who watched the big game on Sunday?
For a variety of reasons, some of which you’ve heard before, we stopped watching professional football altogether about 20 years ago.
But I still appreciate the game, and I’m impressed by the athleticism of the huge men who play it. And I’m interested in what the commercials and halftime entertainment reveal about our culture.
So, this year, we sat down as a family and watched Super Bowl 59, especially enjoying the fact that we didn’t really care who won or lost.
And, as so often happens when I’m watching a football game, I was taken back to my years on the NSA football team.
Relax, though. This isn’t going to be some nostalgic account of my long-lost glory days.
I’m not going to talk about our team going undefeated TWICE while I was at NSA. I’m not going to talk about stepping in during my senior season to fill the role of starting left tackle when my first-string classmate was injured.
I’m not going to talk about the award my coaches gave me or the records we set or the colleges that recruited our players. I COULD talk about those things, but I’m trying to be humble here.
Anyway, what I WANT to talk about this morning is football PRACTICE.
You see, when I joined the football team at NSA, I was a short, chubby, slow kid with no experience and even less talent. I was a lot of things, but a football player wasn’t among them.
And for most of the three seasons I played, practice was the only time I got to even ACT like a football player. And so, I practiced.
So, let me ask you: What does it mean to practice something?
In high school football, it meant spending countless hours in the summer heat and the chill of autumn, running sprints, tackling dummies, pushing the blocking sled from one side of the field to the other, rehearsing plays, and getting my facemask smashed into the dust.
And what’s the purpose of practice? Well, for most of the guys on my team, the purpose was to get better at their positions and to learn how to work together as a team.
For me, it was a little bit different, since I’d come to the team with no athletic skills to speak of and no experience on the football field.
For me, all those hours of practice were about helping me to become something I was not: a football player.
It’s like the old joke: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. Want to become a concert pianist? Practice. Want to become a great football player? Practice. Want to be the best at whatever it is you like to do? Practice, practice, practice.
And today, as we continue our study in the Book of Galatians, we’re going to see the Apostle Paul talk about the importance of practice in the context of the Christian life.
And what I want you to understand is that we tend to become what we practice.
We’re going to be looking at verses 16-21 of Galatians, chapter 5, this morning. But as you’re turning there, let me remind you how we got to where we are in this letter.
Remember that Paul wrote this letter to the churches he and Barnabas had planted in what’s now western Turkey.
After they’d left, they heard that men from Jerusalem had come to those churches preaching a false gospel.
These so-called Judaizers claimed that Christianity was just a type of Judaism. They said that faith in Jesus was good, but it wasn’t enough to bring salvation.
To be truly saved, they said, the mostly Gentile new believers in Galatia would ALSO have to submit themselves to the restrictions and requirements of the Mosaic Law, especially concerning circumcision, diet, and the feast days.
So, Paul spent most of the first five chapters of this letter arguing for the truth of the gospel of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
He reminded the people in the Galatian churches of their freedom in Christ. They were no longer boxed in by the Mosaic Law.
The Law was good in that it taught them how to live as people who’d been set apart for service to God. But keeping the Law couldn’t save them.
The Law could only show them the extent of their sinfulness and the condemnation we all face as those who’ve sinned against God.
Only God’s grace, working through faith, can save us from the just punishment each one of us deserves for our rebellion against God.
But in the passage we studied last week, Paul warned that trying to justify ourselves before God through our own meager righteous actions is just one of two dangers to followers of Jesus.
It’s just one of two ditches followers of Jesus can find themselves in if we veer off the narrow path that leads to abundant life in Christ.
The other ditch is lawlessness. Lawlessness is giving in to the temptations of the flesh, living as if what we do here on earth no longer matters, because we’ve already been forgiven for our sins as a result of our faith in Jesus.
Stay out of the ditches, I warned you last week. And then I said you can’t do that — at least not on your own.
Today, as we look at this next passage in chapter 5, we’ll see how Paul says we CAN stay on that narrow path and out of the ditches that appear on either side of it.
And we’ll talk a little bit more about this idea that we become what we practice.
Let’s take a look at this passage together.
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,
21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Stay out of the ditches, and stay ON the narrow path. But how can we be sure to stay ON the narrow path? And what does it look like to walk the narrow path?
The original Greek version of verse 16 reads something like this: “I say, but keep on Spirit-walking, and the desires and lusts of the flesh you will not carry out.”
Keep on Spirit-walking. In other words, walk according to the Spirit — walk IN the Spirit, walk spiritually, walk in the power of the Spirit. I think all these things are parts of the “Spirit-walk” that Paul commands here.
We’re called to live our lives as believers in and through and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to be godly as the Spirit within us is God Himself.
When we’re walking by the Spirit, we’re living our lives in perfect trust in God. We’re living in complete surrender to His will and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We’re allowing ourselves to be directed and controlled by the Spirit in every moment of our lives.
“This [doesn’t mean we] must be constantly thinking about [our] dependence on God in order to be walking in the Spirit. It is, of course, impossible to be thinking about this all the time. Nevertheless we should be trusting in Him all the time. The more that we acknowledge our dependence on God, the more consistent we will be in trusting in Him and in walking by the Spirit.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Ga 5:16.]
And when we live this way, we’ll find that — as we trust Jesus more and more — as we love Him more and more — we are less and less likely to carry out the desires of the flesh.
The more we walk the Spirit-walk, the less likely we are to walk the flesh-walk, the less likely we are to give in to the temptations of the flesh.
Just as we’d find it impossible to imagine our holy and righteous and just God performing the sinful deeds of verse 19-21, it would be impossible for a believer walking by the Spirit to practice them.
So, Paul contrasts the Spirit with the flesh here. And in verse 17, he describes the ongoing battle between the two.
But it’s important to note that this conflict isn’t between two natures within the believer.
Instead, this is a conflict between God Himself, in the Person of His Holy Spirit, and our sinful natures. This is a conflict between God and the desire we all have to gratify ourselves and glorify ourselves.
Despite the fact that we’ve seen the emptiness of self-gratification — Despite the fact that we’ve seen the worthlessness of self-glorification — Despite the fact that we’ve witnessed the hurt that our sins cause others and ourselves —
Despite all those things, we continue to have within us the desire to do what WE want to do, regardless of who might be hurt in the process. And when we give in to those desires, that’s sin.
As with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we want to decide for ourselves what’s good and what’s evil. We want to put ourselves in the position that only God can occupy. Our nature as sinful, fallen beings is bent toward self.
But the Holy Spirit was given to you as a follower of Jesus to begin bending you back toward God. To remove the self that we’ve all placed on the throne of our hearts and replace it with Jesus.
To shatter the sinful image of the world with all its lusts that we’ve taken as our own and conform us, instead, to the image of Jesus. This is sanctification.
And I want you to see here that, although our sanctification is God’s work in us through the Holy Spirit, we DO have a role to play. We have to choose which side of this conflict we’re going to join.
Are you going to walk by the Spirit? Or are you going to carry out — to complete, to fulfill — the desires of the flesh?
Even after we’ve placed our trust in Jesus, the desires, the temptations of the flesh, will continue, Paul implies here. The question is whether we’ll carry them out or flee from them.
Will we align ourselves with God and His righteousness or with the world and its unrighteousness?
Will Jesus rule your heart? Or will you try to maintain control over it yourself? Will you be led by your sinful desires, or will you be led by the Spirit?
And this is a choice we must make continually, from day to the next — sometimes, even, from one moment to the next.
So, Paul contrasts the Holy Spirit with the flesh in the first three verses of this passage. But take a look at verse 18.
Here, Paul contrasts the Spirit with the Law.
Remember that there are two ditches followers of Jesus are called to avoid as we walk the narrow path that leads to abundant life in Christ.
And those ditches represent two different manifestations of the infatuation we have for ourselves.
The one Paul has spent most of this letter warning about — the one the Judaizers were encouraging the Galatians to carry out — is legalism, the idea that we can somehow do something to earn God’s favor.
This is the idea that my own meager righteousness somehow puts God in debt to me. The idea that I can be good enough that He’ll just HAVE to accept me into His kingdom.
Can you see how arrogant that is? And can you see how it actually amounts to a rejection of His grace?
This is the opposite of grace. This is contrary to the Spirit of God. And that’s why Paul says here that if you’re being led by the Spirit, you’re not under law.
If you’re being led by the Spirit, you’re under GRACE, not under the Law. So, stay on the narrow path and out of the ditch of legalism.
But, as Paul put it in the passage we studied last week, we also need to be careful not to let our freedom from the law become an excuse for living lawlessly.
Don’t allow your freedom in Christ to become a temptation toward living submitted to the flesh, living as one controlled by his sinful desires.
In other words, while you’re keeping out of the ditch of legalism, watch out for the ditch of lawlessness on the other side of the path.
Whereas legalism prides itself in its supposed righteousness, lawlessness ignores righteousness altogether.
Legalism says I can make God owe me something, while lawlessness says I don’t owe God anything. Legalism rejects God’s grace, while lawlessness makes a mockery of it.
Lawlessness says, “I’m covered by God’s grace, so I can do whatever I want.” It says, “It doesn’t matter whether I chase after my fleshly desires, because my sins are covered by the blood of Jesus.”
But remember, you’re either walking by the Spirit or carrying out the desires of the flesh. You can’t do both, although we all tend to alternate between one and the other from time to time.
And Paul gives us a helpful list in verses 19-21 of the kinds of things people do who carry out the desires of the flesh.
Now what we have in these verses is a list of 15 sins that are typical of those who won’t enter the kingdom of heaven. They encompass sexual sins of all types — religious sins, social sins, and sins of self-indulgence.
And, just in case he’s left anything out, Paul uses the phrase “and things like these” to point out that whatever sin you practice is opposed to the Holy Spirit’s work in you.
It’s hard to draw a line connecting all these sins, but one thing they all seem to have in common is the self-centeredness from which they all grow.
Self-gratification. Self-glorification. Self-justification. Self-righteousness. Self-certainty. Self-sufficiency.
These are the sins of people who live as if there is no God, as if the only thing that matters in life is oneSELF.
Which is the opposite of how Jesus said His followers should live. Remember this?
24 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.
Deny yourself. Self-DENIAL — not self-sufficiency or self-righteousness or self-glorification — is the mark of a true follower of Christ.
And what Paul’s saying here is that “practicing the deeds of the flesh is typical behavior of those who will not enter heaven, so it is certainly inappropriate for believers.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003).]
He’s also reminding us that we were once slaves to sin. We practiced it, just as every other person who hasn’t turned to Jesus in faith practices it.
But now that we’ve been freed from slavery to sin, we are free to practice righteousness, but only to the extent that we’re walking by the Spirit.
Following Jesus and being remade into His righteous image is all about practice.
It’s about practicing how to trust Him. Practicing how to love Him. Practicing how to love others. Practicing how to wait on Him. Practicing how to walk by the Spirit.
And practicing these things not in an effort to place God in our debt. Rather, practicing them because we love Jesus and want to be like Him. To become what we were not: righteous in Him.
Listen, we all practice something. We either practice how to follow Jesus — how to walk by the Spirit — or we practice giving in to the desires of the flesh.
And remember that we tend to become what we practice. So, if you’re practicing how to follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit will make you more like Jesus.
But if you’re practicing the deeds of the flesh — if you’re practicing how to gratify yourself, how to glorify yourself, then you’re going to be just like the rest of this self-centered world.
If you’re a follower of Jesus, there shouldn’t be any question which practice is appropriate.
And, as we’ll see next week, as we walk by the Spirit, this practice will bear fruit that’s completely different and infinitely better than the rotten fruit of sin that grows when we give in to the desires of the flesh.
So, let me leave you today with these questions: What are YOU practicing? And what are you becoming?
If you want to be more like Jesus — and that’s something every Christian should desire — then you’re going to need to start practicing being like Him.
That means loving your enemies. Praying for those who persecute you. Loving your neighbor — even the rude one — as yourself. Spending time with God in prayer and Bible study. Surrendering yourself to His will for your life. Denying yourself.
NO, you can’t stay out of the ditches on your own. But you CAN do it as you walk in the Spirit. And as you surrender yourself to Him more and more completely, you’ll find that trusting Him gets easier and easier.
You’ll find that the narrow path that leads to abundant life in Christ is easier to follow. You’ll find that it’s easier to avoid the ditches.
But you have to be practicing the right things. So, let me ask you again: What ARE you practicing?
