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Turn in your Bible to the book of Galatians, The book of Galatians and chapter 5, I was in college one day getting ready to teach a class and I always said, turn in your Bible and the whole class got up and walked up to their front and put their Bible all over the communion table. I really don’t want you to turn in your Bible. I want you to keep your Bible but turn in your Bible to a certain scripture.

The book of Galatians. It’s interesting that we happen to have a good verse that deals with freedom. And of course, talking about the 4th of July and our freedom, Declaration of Independence. And here we are, 200 and something years later. God has been good to us better than we deserve, that’s for sure. In the book of Galatians in chapter 5, I want you to look there in verse 1. fast therefore in the Liberty where with Christ hath made us free may not entangle again with the yoke of bondage.

Now the law has a purpose. It’s to help us to restrain ourselves, to understand the consequences of breaking God’s law. The law wasn’t given to save us. But there is a spirit of the law or the the intent of the law. God has a reason why he gave the law. For example, if there’s a big old fire over there where she’s at, and I say, thou shalt not play in the fire. Well, that’s a law. Thou shalt not play in the fire.

So I make some little ordinances and I put a bench across here and I tell the kids don’t go on the other side of that bench. So the purpose and the intent is because I love the kid and I don’t want to get burn up in the fire over there. So I they don’t go past it because if you don’t go past this you won’t get that far. Well there’s people who are always trying to find a way around a law.

If you really want to do something you’re looking for a loophole and buddy we have a lot of legislators that know how to make something with Luke hold in them. And then there’s always people who because they had no intention of keeping the law kind of find a way to skirt around it. Now when you and I got married, I mean I didn’t marry you, I mean you didn’t marry me, I mean but when we got married, we got a little piece of paper, you know the mayor certificate, you had to get a license and so forth.

I’ve done a lot of these weddings. And this is the legal document supposed to be filed at the courthouse since blah blah blah. Well if this is the only thing that you have that makes you be faithful to your wife or your wife faithful to you, when you lose your love for the law, you’re gonna try to find a way to get around the law and look for a loophole. And today we have lawyers who make loopholes so that you can get out of anything that you got into.

But they have destroyed the intent of the law until death do us part. But then after a while, see, when you no longer have the same purpose in mind, you’ve lost the intent of this piece of paper. It’s just a reveal that you are and that you made a commit the nora vowel, there’s um… Within an individual, the desire to want to break the law. And God says, you can’t make people do right just by passing more laws. If you just keep passing laws, which is what Congress says today, we keep passing more laws and more laws and more laws.

But people have lost the desire to keep the law. So it doesn’t matter how many laws you pass, you don’t want to do it, you ain’t going to do it. So the spirit of the law has been broken. People don’t want to. Now if that happens with an individual where I have the law of God that is designed for my first birth, my flesh birth, it was not designed for the second birth. You’ll see the second birth is born of God, has no sinful nature, can’t sin, doesn’t need the law.

But my first birth, I was born with a sinful nature and I want to do wrong. And so God gave the law to control the flesh. And so there’s people who have trusted Christ’s Savior. And so God says that in Christ, you met the righteous demands of the law and you died and paid for your sins. Of course, you didn’t do it. He did it in your place. So So you died and was buried and came back again from the dead.

So he says, don’t go back to that. Don’t go back to the law. Well how do you go back to the law and become entangled with the law by walking after the flesh? And so when you choose to walk after the flesh, you destroyed the spirit of the new birth. The reason that God sets you free is so that you would be free to serve the Lord, not free to live like you please, not to go your own way.

There’s people in our country today who do not want freedom to serve God. They want freedom to live as they please. And it can never be. Because anyway, time that you do away with the law and people want to do like ever they want, you lose your freedom. And little by little in America because we’ve done away with that which constrains a man, then we’re going to have rebellion. And it’s getting worse and worse and worse. our public schools, college kids, even adults, we have lost the intent, the purpose of why God says what He says.

So people want to do away with the Bible. And so we have lost the original spirit and the purpose of the law, the main law. It is still good to have a law, thou shalt not steal. There’s nothing wrong with that law. did not come to destroy the law, he came and fulfilled the law. The law is still just. There’s nothing wrong with the law. The law is good. It is holy. It is just. It is spiritual. God says so in the book of Romans in chapter 7.

So here in verse 1 it says to the Christian, stand fast therefore in the Liberty where with Christ has major free. You are free from the curse of the law that you might freely serve the Lord because you love him because of all that he’s done for you. So it’s not because you have to, but if you really think about it, you should want to. God wants you and he wants me to serve him. So he says, now, don’t be deceived.

God is not mocked. So how do you mock God? My mocking sin. that I can walk in the flesh, go my own way without suffering the consequences. That’s mocking God. See there in chapter 6 and verse 7 of the book of Galatians, he says, Be not deceived, God is not mocked for whatsoever man soeth that shall he also reap. So he’s talking to the Christian, to the believer. So you as a child of God cannot live as you please and get a way with it.

So the Lord tells us that if you’re trying to save yourself by the law, Christ has become of no effect. If you’re trying to keep yourself saved after you trust the Lord, by your works, Christ is no effect. And neither is Christ having power in your life when you seek to walk in the flesh. So you’re a loser, loser, loser. When you don’t do things God way. So he says in verse seven, he says, he did run well. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth?

So he’s talking to the believers about not obeying the truth about how to live, how to run your race, how that you have run well. In other words, you start good, but can you finish? You start to race. Can you finish? I decided years ago when I started serving the Lord, I wanted to serve the Lord all my life. I wanted to give the Lord all of my twenties and all of my life. of my 30s and all of my 40s and all of my 50s and all of my 60s.

Well, I got about a year and a half to go in my 60s. Then when I get my 70s, I want to give them all of my 70s. And then when I get to my 80s, I want to give them all of my 80s. When I get to my 90s, I want to give them all of my 90s. When I get to 100, I want to give them all of those. When I get to 150, I want to give them all of those.

Say, aren’t you planning on dying? Never! Now if I do it’s going to really surprise me. It’s really going to blow my mind. Because I’m looking for the Lord to take me up in the rapture. And a way a lot of people to talk and I think it’s going to be this fall. That would be well who it may. That’d be fine. But now look here because I want you to see this in verse 13. He’s talking to the Christians about how you and I are supposed to live.

In verse 13, for brethren to the believer, you have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, flesh. But my love served one another. So you and I, after we trust Christ as our Savior, are not supposed to use this liberty that God gave to us as an occasion to live the way I want to live, to live in the flesh, for the lust of the flesh, of the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life.

That’s not supposed to be my purpose in life. It’s supposed to be whatever God wants for me. Now it’s only what God wants. And so when you accept that, then you’d be surprised how you can face things. And he makes his statement. In verse 14, for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even it is, thou shalt love thy neighbor as by self. Because if you love your neighbor, then you don’t rob from your neighbor. You love your neighbor.

You don’t kill your neighbor. You love your neighbor. You don’t take anything it has. You don’t become in this in jealous and all that. It solves a lot of problems. Now the reason we have to have so many more laws passed and legislators are always in session and never is our freedoms in such jeopardy is when Congress is in session. Because anytime and they pass the law, it’s something else we can’t do. They said, they’re doing all this force.

No, they’re not doing anything for us, they’re doing it to us. That’s another sermon. And verse 15, he says, for if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another. In other words, a lot of Christians become cannibals. You know, they eat you alive. They’re always chewing you up, saying things against somebody, trying to tear them down and biting and devouring one another, gossiping. Those are not Christ-honoring things. So in verse 16, he says, this I say to you.

Now, this verse 16 is because of what we’ve already done read. And he makes the statement, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So we still have the lust of the flesh. We still have an oath sent for nature. So walking in the spirit is our constraint upon the flesh for Phil and his desires. You and I don’t walk under the law to restrain the flesh. We’re looking for the Holy Spirit to give us the power to control the flesh because I’m no longer under the law.

I’ve been delivered from that. So I’m not I have the Holy Spirit given to me so that I can can walk in the Spirit and control the flesh. Now if you don’t walk in the Spirit, you have no power to control the flesh. There is none. You are at its mercy and there is no mercy. And you are going to sow the seeds of corruption. You’re going to walk in the flesh and God like this. I’m not so, in other words, I sow corn and you expect to reap cotton.

It won’t work. If you sow corn, you’re going to reap corn. If you sow cotton, you’ll reap cotton. He says, you’re going to reap what you sow. Be careful what you sow. So the Christian has the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit is the Lord of the person’s life, and he says, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, freedom. And it’s the thing that gives us the freedom from the lust of the flesh destroying our lives.

Now nobody can make you walk in the spirit. How do you walk in the spirit? Walking in the spirit is simply walking in obedience to the Lord. So the Holy Spirit that indwells you teaches you the Word of God so that you can walk according to His will. And so you must know the Word of God in order to know the will of God. So it is the will of God to know the Word of God. So you know the will of God, ain’t that clear?

And everybody always prays, Lord, lead God in direct, lead God in direct, and you never opened up the Scriptures. You’re a joke. He leads and guides and directs according to his word, but if you don’t ever study the word then you won’t know how to be led and guided. It’s a prayer, but you don’t mean it. If you don’t spend no time in this book learning the Word of God, this is what the Holy Spirit uses to bring to you remembers the things that you’ve studied.

Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly divided in the Word of Truth. Study! Well, I ain’t got time. You ain’t got time not to. So I can’t afford it yet. You can’t afford not to. It’s costing you dearly. You just don’t know it yet until you get to heaven and find out what it costs you. Now, verse 17 talks about a battle it goes on in the Christian’s life. This is after you trust the Lord.

For the flesh lusses against the spirit, spirit against the flesh. These are contrary to one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you should would or should. But if you be led by the Spirit you’re not under the what? You’re not under the law. The Spirit of God, if you yield to that then the Holy Spirit can give you the power to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit and you don’t have to fulfill the lust of the flesh.

But without doing that, see there’s nothing to constrain you. Have you ever wondered what you would do if you really had no restraints and no consequences. What would you really do? If you knew it really didn’t matter. There was no accountability. What would you really do? That’s what you really are without the power of the Holy Spirit you like. Because if you don’t want to serve the Lord and do what’s right, then do whatever you want. Who cares? What difference will it make?

But when you love the Lord and you want God’s will for your life and you want God’s blessing. Everything matters. Everything matters. And you can pass all the laws you want to, but it cannot make you holy and godly. Only by yielding to the Lord do you get the strength and the grace that you need to restrain the flesh. Now say for example here you are and you trusted Christ, your Savior, your God’s child, you’ve You know walking with the Lord for 30 years.

Your love for the Lord can help you to be faithful to your life. When that good looking bombshell walks by. But your love for the Lord can be greater than the lust of the flesh. And it restrains you. When somebody does you wrong and you want to just let them know how you really feel. I preached a sermon one day and this lady came out the door and she looked at me and she said, Why don’t you tell us how you really feel?

Thought I did. I thought I told how I really fell and you want to just unleash your fury well What can constrain you hold you back and The flesh wants to do this and you think The Lord has something else in mind and he can give you the power that you need now I want to show you some a little illustration then I want to give you some Scriptures on the notes that I gave you. I may get to those.

I may not. It don’t matter. You got them now. That’s why I like giving you some notes. It makes the Sunday school lesson twice as long. You got to listen to me now and instead of those later. But now look up here. Now you see me do this before but follow it one more time. This is the flesh. Born into this world, our physical birth. That which is born of the flesh flesh. So this birth came with a sinful nature and that’s why we sin naturally.

Nobody has to teach anybody how to sin. So, unnatural. So because of this sinful nature we all sin and because we all sin we all die. So God says that this one here these are not the children of God flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So you have to be born again. So this man can’t go to heaven. Because you see you’ve got to be perfect to go to heaven and if we went to heaven just the way we are, well we, we’re lying still and cheating.

We turn heaven and this is what we did down here. Look what we did to the Garden of Aidan. Look at this world. Hello. Now, this is the flesh. When you trust Christ as your Savior, He doesn’t change this one. Many people think getting saved is God converting you and. You know, taking that garage where you put a car and we’re going to convert it into a living room. Well, the garage is God. Well, this is not God. God isn’t converting this.

Oh, man. When you trust Christ’s Savior, God gives you a new birth. This is not this one converted. This is a new birth. This one is born of God. And as many as received Him, the them gave He the power to become the sons of God. You must be born again. So this is the spirit birth. That which is born of the flesh, flesh, that which is born of the spirit. Spirit. So this is a new one. This one here is born of God.

So if it’s born of God, then God’s the Father. And God’s the Father, then I’m the child. And if I’m the child of the Father, well, he doesn’t have a sinful nature. Neither this is one. Since it doesn’t have a sinful nature, can’t sin. And if it can’t sin, it can’t die. It can’t die. How long will you be a child of God? Forever. So that’s why you can know that you’re going to heaven when you die. So when you trust in Christ, you say, if God gave you a new birth, You see, but I still got these old desires.

I want to do things wrong. Of course, that’s the first birth. You’ve had two of them, remember? One when you were born into the world. For example, myself. 69 years ago. 69? 68. I pick a whole hand. Oh, well, it don’t matter. This one was born. They had stopped laughing. And then when I trusted Christ as my Savior, when I was 18 years old, this was 49 years later. So, at a different age, this is the new one, this is the old one.

Now, these two births only got one body. Now, I’m going to get my body later to go with this one, but I haven’t got it yet. So this one here, you got to live in the same body with this guy. So they both live inside of me. So now, I only got one body. If this person died on its way up, I ain’t got no body. I can’t make that. But here you… I get sidetracked so easy. It’s so easy.

You didn’t know, if you don’t learn to laugh and have a little humor, you’re not going to live long. But you have these two natures living inside of you. And guess what they do? They fight. What are they fighting over? Who gets to use the body? Only got one, but they’re fighting over who gets to use it. Now the flesh wants to use it But he wants to use it so Who gets to win? The one that I say second to I mean I’ve got these two birth living inside of me and so God says if you will Walk in the spirit.

You will not fulfill the lust of the flesh It’s like you know here you have the body and that’s the car and you have Been driving into wheel all these years You trust that Christ is Savior, you’ve got a new birth and He gets in on the passenger side and God says, oh, I want you to drive. Well my old nature doesn’t want to give up the steering wheel. It wants to go where it wants to go, do what it wants to do and the speed it wants to do and it’s all about Him.

Well then now I got my new birth and God says I want you to turn to the right. And this one said I’m going to turn left. You’ve got a problem. And so you have these two next. So this one is the flesh, this is the spirit and you have got to make up your mind which when you’re going to feed. And so whenever you satisfy the desires of this one, you’re going to have the fruit of the spirit.

And if you don’t, you’re going to have the works of the flesh. So he says here in verse 17, the flesh and the spirit battle, they war against each other. Well, where do they live inside of your body? Get what else he said. In verse 19, now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. And it talks about and tells us which ones these are. And as you go down through here, it says, adultery, fornication and cleanness, la ceviousness, idolatore witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, murders, drunken and reveling, such like.

I’ll do it that day before that, totally in time, and fact that they would do such things, not inherit the kingdom of God. Look over here. The flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So I told you that before, I’m telling that again. So why should a Christian walk in the flesh? Shouldn’t. But what do you want for your life? You want the worst of the flesh? Be not deceived. You can’t walk in the flesh and produce the fruit of the Spirit.

In verse 22 and 23, talks about the fruit of the Spirit. And this is what you can have if you let the Holy Spirit have control of your life. It’s your choice. Nobody can make you do this. And you think more laws will make you do it. And this is why you can lay down all the laws you want to your wife, to your kids, to the church, country. You can’t make somebody spiritual. It’s an inside job. It’s got to be something they want.

And that’s why it’s so important, the education that the children receive when they’re small. But anyway, that’s another sermon that I might get into this morning. Like, might not, but might. But anyway, you have the notes on this, and I think they’re important for you to keep, and study that chapter a little bit more. All the things that are listed there in the works of the flesh, you are capable of producing. But you can have the fruit of the Spirit if you so desire.

It is your choice. Take your Bible now and turn there to the book of Corinthians. 1 Corinthians in chapter 11. Remember, as we have gone through some of this about the flesh and the Spirit, God wants you to learn His Word so that you can discern. You know, sometimes it seems like it’s kind of hard to distinguish between, am I walking in this flesh or am I walking in this spirit? And sometimes it gets kind of tricky. Sometimes you think, I think I am, but I’m not real sure.

But I believe that if you are seeking to do what’s right, it’s not right. God will reveal that to you. And whenever you find out you made the wrong decision, what should you do? Make the right one. Do you realize that the perfect will of God for your life is as close as the next decision you make? Did you know that the complete out of the will of God for your life is as close as the next decision you make?

That’s how long it takes. Don’t take very long. So anyway, here in the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 11, he tells us that he wants us to examine ourselves. So if you were to examine yourself, and if you picked up that little piece of paper, and you look at all the things concerning the flesh, do you see yourself there? Or when it shows you the signs of the fruit of the Spirit, do you see yourself there? Which one you think categorizes you the best?

If there’s something in your life that you need to correct, don’t you think you should? And yes, why he says, examine yourself and talk to the Lord and get that corrected. Let’s pray, Sha’am. Father, we do thank you so much for your lessons to us, but it’s time together. Let’s each person here, no doubt, a lot of individuals are having a rough time. It’s a hard part in your life. we know that something’s always going on. And I pray that you’ll be real to them.

That you’ll take care of them, but you’re going to bottom and let them go to your love and Christ in every prayer. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, You can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free 1-800-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page. If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryuptampa.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now we’re closing thoughts from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. We will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon. And just keep looking up.