Thank you.

Thank you.

It’s a pleasure and a privilege to be here. Once again, I’m grateful that I can be considered to preach the Word to you. And I hope that as Brother Bill prayed, that it would be effectual and that God would work through it in us. So if you have your Bible, would you turn to the letter of Galatians again? We’re going to be in Paul’s letter to the Galatians for the remainder of the month. Elder Chris will be preaching over the next couple weeks while Pastor Chad is… on sabbatical. Just a reminder to keep praying for him, praying for his family, that the Lord would give them rest and renew him. We’re going to be in Galatians 5. We’ll start in verse 13.

This is what the Lord says through the Apostle. For you were called to freedom, brethren. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you’re not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 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. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

If you weren’t here last week, the thesis of the sermon was our gospel of grace is from God, and there is no other. And I hope at this point you have been convinced of the truth of that sermon, that our gospel of grace is the only gospel that can establish peace between you and God. Because this gospel is the proclamation that sinners are justified in His sight because of who Jesus is and what He has done on our behalf. I trust that I have established that salvation, that salvation is by faith alone, apart from any work whatsoever. Let that be poured in concrete in your heart. A firm foundation, never to be moved. And on that foundation, I hope to build and show you the relationship of that inward faith and the outward showing of it in your life. I hope to show you what it looks like for us as Christians to do good works, but only ones that flow from faith, working faith, through love. Even in the midst of trials and battles you’ll surely face as you endeavor to live out this Christian life. So, I’ll title this sermon, Love and War.

The gospel grants freedom to those who believe it. Jesus has set us free, period. What have we been freed from? A great privilege, a prison, to be sure. We’ve been freed from both the penalty of failing to obey the law, as well as the pressure of attempting that impossible feat. Because by faith, we believe that Jesus has done it for us. And in being united to him by faith, as a husband is united to his wife, and even more so, we possess in Jesus that righteousness required of us. He’s taken all of us, our sins, and himself, and nailed them to the cross. Commentators, numerous, they note that this freedom greatly consists in your conscience, in the fact that you know that there is now no condemnation for you because you failed to live up to the standard. What a great freedom that is. Because if you dwell, even for a short time, on the holiness of God, and his hatred of sin, his established justice against it, you should have sleepless nights and uncomfortable days. You should have a guilty conscience, a dread of meeting him one day, when all your deeds will be judged, and there will be that day. But for you, one who has tasted this gospel of grace, you know well that justice was satisfied on that cross. That cross where Jesus bled and he died in your place. So you no longer need to fear. Jesus has called us to freedom. So what will you do with such great freedom? The charge against the gospel that Paul preached was one that it was cheap grace. One that said those who receive it would only excuse themselves from living a holy life. Does that have any merit? For one who doesn’t have a full knowledge of what exactly it is that happens when Christ sets you free, I’d say it’s worth considering. And it’s a half-truth. And when I was a boy, my stepdad, he kept Labrador retrievers for hunting. He taught me how to hunt. I love my stepdad. There are two that I distinctly remember. Crystal, named for her extremely hyper behavior. And that was probably his favorite that I can remember. And at the same time, there was Woodrow. He was sort of the cousin Eddie, if you will. My brother and I, we had chores to do after school every day. Crush cans, bring them in and get money. And one of them was to wash out these dog pens. I dreaded it. Because we had to let the dogs out. And it was a chore in and of itself to get them back in. For me and my brother, they had zero regard for our commands to come back. We would holler and yell and chase them to no avail. Freedom. These dogs had a good country yard to run in. And they were going to take full advantage of it. But not just for us. I can remember them pushing Forrest, my stepdad, my kids call him Papa Tree. I remember those dogs pushing him to highly elevated blood pressure levels where more hollering and yelling happened. Especially in those early stages of training. When the dog is bound by the pen or by a training collar or a leash, they’re bound and they know it. But when that door is opened or that collar is opened, they’re bound and they know it. And they’re going to seize the opportunity. Ears in the wind, slobber slinging, owner yelling, sticks flying. It doesn’t matter where you’ve got to go or what you’ve got to do that day. It’ll have to wait. You don’t really matter at this point. We’ve got bushes to sniff, rabbits to chase, squirrels to bark at, and maybe even some kissing on the dog next door. Especially when the dog is bound by the pen and especially Woodrow. The nature of that dog is on full display. He’s doing what he does and he can’t help it. He doesn’t want to help it. He loves it. If you haven’t caught on by now, I’m comparing our bare human nature to dogs off of a leash. And you may find that distasteful, but I say it’s not far from the truth. In our fallen state, we’re certainly worth more than that dog. For we’re image bearers of God, even still. But we don’t act much different than they do, do we? The flesh is weak or it’s strong, depending on how you want to look at it. So valid then is the call for Paul to not give occasion to the flesh to act on the freedom that we now have in Christ. It’s necessary for Paul to say what he said. And it’s vital for us to hear it. Ask yourself, what might you do with so much freedom? What do you do with so much freedom? To think that the law has no claim over you and you’re not under its penalty. Would you abuse that? Would you do things that you know are wrong because you have forgiveness in Jesus? Even in the things that aren’t technically wrong, would you indulge in them at the expense of others? After all, you’re free, aren’t you? Under the law, there were those who were extremely zealous to keep it and so they outwardly showed some good but inwardly just hypocrites. In our freedom, it’s sort of the opposite. The flesh would have nothing else, than for you to become lazy in your pursuit of holiness and to be apathetic towards your sin. But we don’t allow the flesh to exploit our freedom. How do we prevent that? How do we live up to that call? We couldn’t do it before. How can we do it now? How can we do it now? Our gospel of grace, causes a change in the nature of the one who receives it. This change is evident in the inward desires of the heart and the outward working of the hands. Another aspect of this freedom that Christ grants to us is the freedom from the power and the rule and the reign of our fleshly fallen nature over our lives. Don’t give an occasion for your flesh. Don’t behave according to your sinful, fallen human nature. I’ll define the flesh as that. Every time I mention it, think about your fallen nature, your human original state.

Don’t allow who you were or what you were before Christ to determine what you do now that you’ve been set free in Christ. A fact that may be easily overlooked. Don’t miss what Paul says here. He implies that you can do this. He implies that you have the ability because he charges you to not give occasion to the flesh.

In Christ, you have a new nature with new desires. And the first evidence of this new nature in you will be that you prefer love of neighbor over self. You count yourself the things you desire, the things you lust after, the things you long for, the things you think you need as nothing. And you consider others as more significant than yourself. Self-denial and self-sacrifice over self-service and self-exaltation. In this, the whole law is fulfilled. But wait. I said we weren’t under the law, right? Yes. But the law is not in opposition to the lawgiver. Jesus said that all the law and the prophets are summed up in loving God with everything that you are and loving your neighbor as yourself. So when I love my neighbor, I prove that I love God and I fulfill the law. Because surely I can’t love God and hate my neighbor, right? But I’m not under law. No, you’re not if you’re in Christ. But if you say you’ve tasted of this gospel, then you’re a new creature. One who is both free and eager to love God and neighbor.

Do you serve one another out of love? Children, some of you are sleeping. Children, especially you who say you believe in Jesus. I want to ask you to consider something. The first commandment, you’ve learned this recently in Sunday school, I saw the sheet. The first commandment that was given to us has to do with our relationships with other people. What is it? It’s to honor your father and your mother. The scripture says, children, obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Do you love your parents? Do you prove it by obeying them and honoring them? And serving them? Do you know the price that it costs to give you godly parents?

Do you know the price that it costs to give you the ability to truly love them? You hear the gospel in Sunday school and you hear it in service every Sunday. Do you love this Jesus that you hear about? Rather, do you know how much Jesus, how much Jesus has loved you?

I want to ask you to ask him to give you a love for your parents more than you have for yourself. Ask him to help you prove it with your attitudes and how you speak to them and even what you think about them. What about your friends? Your friends come over, are you willing to give your friends the cozy chair when they come to play? Play at your house or the best snack if there’s only one left? Give your friends the good game controller. Give them the last juice box. Let them pick the movie. Those are small things but they’re training grounds for you.

Because when you grow older, they’ll help you. Do you love your friends? Do you love your friends more than yourself? You ladies, do you live in a state of indifference in your freedom and take on a small view of sin? Are you quick to snap at your children because you’ve had a hard day at work or a long day parenting or homeschooling or discipling? Do you excuse yourself in speech toward your husband that isn’t fitting for a Christian wife? Because you’d rather be in the seat that he sits in or you’d rather his position in your family and you don’t think he performs up to the standards that you’ve set for him. So you feel the freedom to speak to him however you see fit. Have you adopted that cheap view of grace that excuses you of gossip and slander? And bickering and slithery speech? Are you prone to scroll through your social media feed and envy every woman you see there? You envy the way she looks. You envy her family and their lifestyles and what their lifestyles afford them. And all of a sudden what your husband provides for you isn’t quite enough. And all of a sudden on the other hand are you wanting to scroll through your social media feed and think to yourself I’m glad I’m not like her. Glad I don’t look like her. Glad I don’t parent like her. I can’t believe she even has a family.

All under the banner of Jesus will forgive me, right? Man, do you think so little of the power of God or the power of the gospel to change hearts? Or is it that you’re so in love with yourself and do you love your wife and your kids so little that you’re willing to sit on the couch every night and watch while your wife cleans up after supper and brushes your kids’ teeth and reads them stories and prays with them all by herself? Do you love your hobbies and your free time so much and your work and your lazy boy that you’ll miss countless times and you’ll miss hours engulfed in whatever it is that’s consuming you? Are you so numb to sin that you don’t suit up in that armor of God every day and pray for the souls of your family and fight for their minds by teaching them the things of God and you plead before the throne of God for their souls and you learn for yourself the promises of God? Do you walk in and out of this church building with an assumption that through the work of the Sunday school teacher and the pastor that your kids will be saved? They may well be saved through that work but don’t let it be in spite of your laziness. Do you think the power of sin is so small and the flesh is so indifferent that you’re willing to allow TV programs to run in front of their minds that teach everything from celebrating adultery and scandalous lifestyles to thievery and lying? As if it’s not going to impact them. Do you love your co-workers and your friends so little that you’ll sit by them and work with them for hundreds upon hundreds of days and never tell them of the freedom that you found in Christ?

Do you hate your wife so much that you’re willing to dwell long on lustful thoughts and consume pornography? And allow your lies, your eyes to linger on other female bodies whether it be on your phone or at the store all because you’ve become fat on the false freedom of the modern church’s evangelical gospel.

Cheap grace indeed. Anyone, myself included, who is content to walk out this life with an attitude like that has no part in the kingdom of Christ. And surely they have not been affected in the heart like someone who has tasted of the sweetness and the goodness and the mighty, marvelous, emancipating work of Jesus. I mentioned only life in the family unit really with the exception of those you might work with because if we haven’t learned to love those we’re closest to and dearest to how will you ever love someone you barely know? Or more than that, how will you love your enemy?

It starts in the home. Don’t be preaching the gospel in the street corner if you’re not preaching the gospel to your family.

The flesh will seek every opportunity like this and more. Every time you choose to love yourself more than your neighbor you bite and you tear them apart. Sooner or later there won’t be anything left of them. If we’re all here for ourselves I mean here gathered together like this and we don’t have any concern for one another we’re going to fall apart and die. Providence Fellowship won’t be long remembered. Every lie against your fellow church member every slight and foul word every outburst of anger every casual dismissal of someone’s hurt if you don’t check it and bring it under the aim to deny the opportunity of your flesh it will result in the cannibalization of this church.

And then wherever you land after that it will just rinse and repeat and you’ll infect them love yourself less and love your neighbor more and so fulfill the law of Christ. The second evidence and I think really the source of all the evidences I’ll present is that you live your life in pursuit of the power of the spirit. This is the remedy to giving occasion to the flesh. Once again for Paul it’s a given that you have access to this power. The very reason you have a new nature a heart that would desire anything contrary to your flesh is that you’ve received the very person and spirit of God by faith and he’s made his way into your heart. You could by no other way have the freedom that Christ gives. You couldn’t be sure of any goodness that God might show to you. You couldn’t in the slightest believe that God has shown you mercy had not the spirit entered in and testified to you that you are in fact a child of God. And a heart that is occupied by the spirit of God cannot go unaffected such as a person can’t stand next to a fire and not feel its heat or put a log into that fire and not be consumed. Have you received the spirit by faith? Then you’re a new being. You’re a new creature. With new desires and new passions. New priorities. You’re a new tree with new fruit that gets produced on the branches of your life. And the fruit of the spirit will be evident. It’s love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self-control. You’re a new being. Walk in the spirit is to desire and to pursue and to ask for and to seek and to beg and to submit to that fruit being worked out in your life all by faith. If you do this you won’t carry out the desires of the flesh. Do you pursue this power?

When you get up in the morning are you eager to ask God to produce something in you that you’re not capable of producing on your own? The text says that the spirit in our hearts causes us to cry out to God Abba Father help me. I don’t want to live my life like this anymore. I don’t want to serve the flesh any longer. I want to live a life that is pleasing to you. I want to serve you. I want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. What might that look like? We’ve got 66 books. God breathed and profitable for everything you could need for walking in the spirit. You see the spirit and the word they’re inseparable in their operation in your life. So saturate yourself in the word and pursue the spirit and walk or do you prefer carrying out the desires of your flesh? Are you simply a hypocrite in here? Proven by lip service to Jesus and a hollow confession of his lordship. Proven by the evident deeds of the flesh in your life. If a dog can be trained to handle freedom off of a leash and to resist the temptation to do what it is he loves obeying commands for no other reward than his master’s approval can we who have been set free from such a penalty at such a payment with such lavishness can we not respond in love to the one who delivered us and prove it by nothing more than having a desire driven by love to please our master?

A.W. Pink says this The nature of Christ’s salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present day evangelist. He announces a savior from hell rather than a savior from sin. And that’s why so many are fatally deceived for there are multitudes who wish to escape the lake of fire who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and their worldliness. Last week I pled for you to know and believe that we care for your souls here at this church. And that’s why we would be so passionate to preserve and protect the purity of the gospel.

But I want you to see that we’re just as concerned with helping you to live a life to steal the word back from prosperity peddlers a victory a victorious life in the truest sense over sin and over the desires of your flesh to indulge in it. We’re passionate about that. If you remember some time ago the three of us Elder Chris and Pastor Chad and myself we drew names out of a hat sort of like casting lots. Trusting that the Lord would do what he desired to do with it. And on those names are written every family that belongs to this church and we take occasion to pray for you every day.

I don’t want to commend myself so I’ll leave myself out of it but this man right here prays for you. And he prays for you and he prays for you. He prays for you by name. I hear it with my ears every week. Friday morning we get in my office and pray. And he pleads with God to deliver you from the power of sin and to give you an effective ministry in your workplace and in your home faithfully. And I know it’s not just on Friday mornings. I know him better than that. And don’t worry you know sometimes I may miss a day or two but if you’re one of my families don’t worry. Elder Chris has got you covered nonetheless. He’s praying for everybody in here. Have you ever called Pastor Chad on the phone? You’d be hard pressed to get off of that phone conversation without him saying hey let me pray for you. And that’s just an evidence it just shows what he does on a regular basis. These men pray for you by name. And they love you deeply and dearly.

I’m not so arrogant or ignorant to think that we’re the only legitimate church in this town. But I’m also not naive to think that there aren’t masses around our city coming and going from church buildings this very day only to hear a shell of a gospel as Pink describes. Getting their ears tickled. And their senses excited. There are most certainly churches around this city who have better communicators in and out of the pulpit than us. There are churches who have administrative organization that will rival any thriving business in this nation. There are churches that have 15 Sunday school options for your kids. There are churches that have three and a half dozen Bible study in small groups to choose from. And they’ve all got crosses out front. But I wonder if there’s any actual substance of it being preached on Sunday.

If there’s one thing I’m sure of, here at Providence you’re going to hear the full gospel of grace preached every Sunday.

From the fact that God has loved us and loved you before the world was formed to the doctrine that you’re justified by faith alone right on down to the mortification of your sin.

I don’t want you to go home thinking that you’ve been freed from the punishment of sin. I want you to go home knowing that you’ve been freed from the power of sin. And as long as there’s a pulpit here at Providence the gospel of grace will be preached. Over the last five years we’ve seen families come and go. People leave. And I can’t help but wonder why. What is it that you’re looking for?

And I can’t help but to be grieved even deeper to think that any one of you might leave wander out looking for something to excite you. Only to be rocked to sleep by your flesh and its pacifications or its passions I mean. Because the Spirit of God won’t be aroused in you.

Here at Providence there comes a day where there’s no one left sitting in these chairs. It’ll be the chairs we’ll be preaching to. And if we can’t afford to pay hope to sit in here and preach to the chairs we’ll be preaching to the corn stalks. But the gospel will be preached.

So I charge you to walk in the Spirit and to pursue His work in your life. And if you do that you won’t carry out the desires of your flesh. Do you feel torn? You say I want to do that. I want to live a life that’s pleasing to God. I want to have godly fruit hanging on the branches of my life. But I often do the very opposite. I fail. I fall short. You’re not alone. The Apostle Paul relates to you. He says it here in the letter to the Galatians and he says it in his epistle to the Romans and he says it like this. For I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. For the willing is present in me but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want I do not do. But I practice the very evil that I do not want. I find then the principle that evil is present in me. The one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God and the inner man. But I see a different law in the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. This is Paul the Christian writing.

As odd as it may seem this is a great evidence that you have tasted the gospel of grace.

The evidence is that you seek to put to death the desires of the flesh. Those who do not possess the spirit of God cannot deny the desires of the flesh. They are hostile toward God. They do not submit themselves to the law of God. They are not even able to do so. They cannot and they will not do what is pleasing to God. But for the children’s children of God those who are indwelled by his very spirit this is wartime. The fact that you go to war with your flesh is an evidence that you have been effected by the spirit.

Otherwise you wouldn’t do it. Crucify the flesh it says with its passions and desires. The Christian life is not going to be one of leisure. It’s no stroll down easy street. Or do you not remember the call to die to yourself daily? You nail the old self to the cross. But he peels himself off. Comes crawling back and somehow he bargains with you to come back for just one more sip and one more draw. One more hit. One more look. And a sweet, and as satisfying as the gospel fountain is somehow you feel the need to draw just one more drink from that well of sin. Fight. Resist. Stand firm. Nail him to the cross again. And then taste and see that the Lord is good. And if you’ll confess your sins he’s faithful and just to forgive your sins. If any one of you falls into sin we have an advocate with the Father. Repent. Fight. Resist.

Pray. And then rejoice and give thanks for the forgiveness that you received.

And you get some some peace, a little rest. You fought well. You fought hard. So you take a little time off. But there’s none so relentless as your flesh.

And he’s no different this time around. He’s got the same lusts and he’s got the same desires. Take up the sword. Fight. Resist. Stand firm. Crucify the flesh. Because it says those who belong to Christ do that very thing. This conflict is not going to cease until you’re at home in glory. Not a moment sooner. If you’ve been changed by this gospel you’ll be winning some battles. You should be. And as time goes on and you grow in your love for God and for your neighbor and you’re transformed and renewed in the Word day after day you should become stronger. You should win more battles against the flesh. You should gain some ground. We all gain it at different rates of speed. But we should gain something. Or are you not fighting? You’re going to give way to the flesh. You’re going to do the things that you really don’t want to do.

And here comes your weak conscience and your small view of the gospel and the enemy to accuse you of all you’ve done. Don’t lose heart. Don’t despair when that happens. Show yet another evidence that you’ve truly been changed in heart and be at peace in the provisions of the gospel. If you prefer love for neighbor over self then you’re going to have to give up your life and you’re pursuing the power of the Spirit to work in you and you’re putting to death the deeds of the flesh you can have confidence that this is because of no other reason than that Christ has set you free. The evidence is there. The proof that you are in fact led by the Spirit as Paul says is there and that means that you’re no longer under law. By the Spirit through faith through faith you’ve entered into this new life you’ve received this righteousness of Jesus and you’ve been forgiven of all your sins the Spirit of God has been sent into your hearts to dwell in you and to correct you and encourage you and comfort you and to teach you and to train you and to lead you

by faith by faith you show love for God and for neighbor and by faith you make war on the flesh. Rest in what God has provided for you to make it safely home. In the words of the song that we’re going to sing in just a moment I’ll end with this it says this I was blinded by my sin I had no ears to hear your voice I did not know your love within and I had no taste for heaven’s joys then your spirit gave me life opened up your word to me and through the gospel of your son gave me endless hope and peace this is true peace this is true freedom this is the fruit of the gospel of grace would you pray with me

Father thank you for the gospel thank you that when we were yet enemies and had no taste for the things of heaven no desire to serve you please you or seek you you sought us out you sought us out you sent your spirit into our hearts and you brought us to life because surely we were dead you showed yourself as a father

and though sometimes we need a little correction and discipline we thank you that we don’t know you as judge with a gap of faith we thank you that in the gospel you have provided everything necessary for us to be considered righteous for us to possess peace with you to be welcomed into you to your presence to your kingdom but not only did you wash us Lord you made us new and gave us new desires so that we could live lives that truly are pleasing to you you’ve given us everything necessary you’ve provided it all we need not bring anything but by faith rest in what you’ve given Lord please instill that in our hearts let us be a people who preach and proclaim that we’re saved by faith alone in Christ alone and that there is no work necessary but please empower us to be a people who demonstrate that we truly know you’re saving power because we’re changed we’re not the same as we were we’re new creatures in Christ and I pray that when we fall and when we sin you would convict us that we might repent and be forgiven you would restore us see us to glory Lord and we trust that that chain cannot be broken and you who started a good work in us are going to be faithful to finish it so we rest in that we bless your name Lord you’re the God who saves you’re the God who saves you’re the God who hears you’re the God who provides you’re the God who loves you’re the God who cares you’re the God who seeks

there is none like you Lord there is none so gracious and so merciful as to redeem sinners we bless your name today Lord would you receive our worship

we thank you all in Jesus name Amen