Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (2010)

Walk by the Spirit Rev. Toby Byrd

Galatians 5:1, 13-25 (ESV)

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. [14] For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." [15] But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

[16] But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. [17] For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. [18] But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. [19] Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, [20] idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, [21] envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. [22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. [24] And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

[25] If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

As all of you know, the church was violated by thieves last Thursday evening. Six of our air-conditioning units were damaged as thieves made off with the condenser coils. Driven by Satan to violate the Seventh Commandment, obviously the temptation was too great for them to say to Satan, “Get behind me.” The possibility of gaining a few dollars outweighed their sense of goodness and overcame their guilt, shame, and fear. Thus, there is no question these thieves succumbed to Satan as they were led and controlled by the flesh to rob and steal from God’s house, without remorse or shame. Yet, even as their plans were to steal all we had, God had other plans and scared the thieves off before they could get all our air-conditioners. God is truly merciful.

It’s at times like these most people mutter to themselves, “I don’t think I can love a neighbor who would rob and steal from me?” So it may be kind of difficult this morning to listen to a sermon which advocates avoiding the temptation of the flesh while Walking by the Spirit, but that’s the lesson for today.

Now, it’s not unusual, when we experience personal harm either of our person or property to react in a negative way, satisfying the desires of the flesh by listening to our own sinful voice or the voice of sinful men; seeking some form of retaliation or satisfaction. Forgetting what love commands and following the desires of the flesh, our sinful nature begins to bite and devour us, leading us to ignore God’s Word and to follow the ways of the world, clamoring for retribution. However, St. Paul tells us in today’s Epistle Reading, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (v. 16). Moreover, we are reminded that it’s not our place to extract vengeance, this belongs solely to God. St. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’ ” (Romans 12:19 ESV). And again, God’s word from Ecclesiastes says, “I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work” (Eccles. 3:17 ESV). Therefore, today and everyday, let us Walk by the Spirit rejecting the desire of the flesh for vengeance. God will judge and God will punish those who would desecrate His house of prayer.

In his opening remarks of this chapter, St. Paul says, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (v. 1). In these words St. Paul gives clear warning not to try and live according to the law. Satan would like nothing better than to pull you back under the mantle of the law, trying to earn your salvation through your work. But by His life, death, and resurrection, Christ has freed you from the shackles of the law. Yet, when you fail to Walk by the Spirit, seeking to gratify the desires of the flesh, you place yourself back under the law.

“Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (v. 16). St. Paul’s words are quite clear, yet some people, wanting to connect the dots from verse 16 to verse 22 where St. Paul begins to define the fruits of the Spirit, infer from these words that if St. Paul is saying that love is the fulfilling of the law, it follows then that love is righteousness and that if we love, we are righteous. This is a foolish conclusion.

It is true that we ought to fulfill the law and by fulfilling it, we could be justified. However, sin prevents us from doing what we think we ought to do. It simply does not follow that just because the law commands us to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves, that we can actually do it. In fact, just the opposite is true. No one in the world loves God and neighbor as the law requires. Only in the life to come shall we be thoroughly cleansed from all sin and be made pure, loving perfectly; being righteous through perfect love. In this life, however, the purity we seek is hindered by our sinful nature. In this life sin remains in our sinful nature, and our corrupt love of self is powerful enough to overcome the love of God and neighbor. In this life, the flesh fights with the Spirit, winning all too often.

But thanks be to God, in this life, He makes us righteous through faith in Christ. It is through faith in Christ that we have a mercy-seat and a throne of Grace; and because we believe in Him, sin is not imputed to us. Faith, therefore, is our righteousness in this life; but in the life to come, when we are thoroughly cleansed and delivered from sins, we shall have no more need of faith and hope because we shall live in a kingdom of perfection, experiencing the promises and life we hoped for in this world. In the life to come we shall live perfectly, flesh and Spirit in perfect harmony and the desires of the flesh shall only be to worship and please God. However, in this world, our lives are flawed by sin and any true goodness coming from us emanates solely from the Spirit because of faith.

When St. Paul writes, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (v. 22), these wonderful words are often interpreted to imply that living the sanctified life is something we do, that these attributes are acts of righteousness performed by our efforts because we’re Christian. Therefore, solely through our own effort we become what God wants us to be. Again, this would be a foolish interpretation of the text.

Sanctification is solely the work of the Holy Spirit. Living the sanctified life is living a life led by the Spirit and controlled by the Spirit. To attribute justification, sanctification, or righteousness to our ability to love, is attributing these divine works to a human action. It is true that in the work of sanctification the human has an active role in performing these works of the Spirit. However, the working of God and the working of the sanctified man are not co-ordinate, as is a team of horses pulling together equally. No, the activity of the sanctified man is always subordinated to the activity of the Spirit. The sanctified man is always the organ of the Holy Spirit. St. Paul makes this clear in his letter to the church at Ephesus, when he tells us, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10 ESV). Our love, if it is anything, is never great enough to pacify God. Our love, because it is human, is imperfect and impure. Furthermore, we know from Scripture, nothing unclean will enter the kingdom of God (Rev. 21:27). We must never forget our natural inclination is to rebel against the Spirit and succumb to the desires of the flesh.

In today’s text, St. Paul, teaching what our Lord Jesus taught, has given us the rule that we should serve one another in love that we should bear one another’s burdens and infirmities, and that we should forgive one another. Without this bearing and forbearing in love, it is impossible for love and harmony to continue among those who call themselves Christians. Now there is no question that we will often offend each other and be offended by one another. Yet, if we do not bear with one another in love, there will be no end of dissension, discord, envy, hatred, and malice; those things which are expressly contrary to the fruits of the Spirit.

St. Paul would have us to Walk by the Spirit lest we fulfill the desires of the sinful nature. Our brother does not cease to be our brother simply because he slips or offends us; in fact that’s when he needs our love the most. Loving our neighbor as our self means that we should not obey the sinful nature, which when it is offended hates, bites and devours the object of its anger. Instead, we should wrestle against it by the Spirit and continue to love our neighbor, although we find nothing worthy of love in him. Our righteousness is much more abundant than our sin, because the holiness and righteousness of Christ our Mediator far exceeds the sin of the whole world and the forgiveness of sins that we have through him is so great that it easily swallows up all our sins, so long as we Walk by the Spirit.

Now some might argue, hey pastor, how about those who do not serve Christ, are we to love them? Yes, even such as those, we love and we willing hold out our hand of peace ready to forgive. Yet, we also must obey God’s Word as given us through St. Paul, who tells us, “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them” (Romans 16:17 ESV). All who teach contrary to God’s Word, leading people away from Christ, if they persist in this unworthy manner, are to be avoided.

Christ has set us free from the law and the wrath of God. As a consequence of this freedom He calls on us to serve one another out of love while reminding us that this can only be accomplished through the efforts of the Spirit. Moreover, He also reminds us that our sinful flesh rebels in opposition to the Spirit constantly seeking worldly solutions over heavenly remedies. Yet, “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (v. 24). Fortified by faith, those who belong to Christ steadfastly resist the desires of the flesh, crucifying the sinful nature through contrition and repentance while affirming with St. Paul, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (v. 25). Amen.

May the Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.