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Sermon Notes- “Keep in Step”
Galatians 5:25, (pg. 975 in pew bibles), If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Learn to dribble a basketball. 1st step, get a ball.
-You may ask throughout this sermon, “Wait, I thought this was a series about the Holy Spirit?” Before we get to work, a foundation must be laid.
Context- The church in Galatia was being led astray.
Jewish leaders, who most likely claimed to be followers of Jesus, told them that they must be circumcised to be saved. ESV Study Bible says in the introduction, “Since the Jewish establishment approves of the fact that they are making Gentiles Jewish, the false teachers have the best of both worlds: they have created a sect of which they are the leaders, and they also escape any Jewish persecution.”ESV Study Bible
The problem? Law—> Grace—> Law
Law declares us guilty —> We need grace and forgiveness.
-Climbing wall vs. enter by the gate example
We enter the gate—> Now what? “To keep your standing with God you must keep the LAW!!!” “I must climb that wall… but there is a gate?” What these guys were saying is, “Let’s not worry about that now, let’s just get you circumcised.”
Is this not the way we also see the Christian life? “Now that you have received Jesus, you need to stop cussing, dress differently, vote republican and listen to K-Love ALL DAY.” / “But that’s not my style of music.” (Condescending look ensues) Here’s your voting guide and it’s 97.5.
We may not say that out loud, but as I read recently, “identity is partly shaped by recognition we receive from the social setting in which we live, ‘nonrecognition or misrecognition can inflict harm, can be a form of oppression, imprisoning someone in a false, distorted, and reduced mode of being” Exclusion and Embrace, Miroslav Volf
In other words, by our mere disapproval and lack of recognition, we lead people to law and conformity based on our preferences and likes of what we deem “Christian” rather than helping them find their identity in Christ.
It’s our own version of circumcision and Paul has some things to say about it. Solution #1.
#1. keep in step with the truth of the Gospel.
Astonished
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. Galatians 1:6–7
accursed (vs. 8 & 9), Gives a little history and then says this,
But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” Galatians 2:14
-When we take religious & cultural preferences and make them “Gospel” it takes good news and makes it bad news… it is no Gospel at all.
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, Galatians 3:10–11a
How do we keep in step with the truth of the Gospel?
What is the Gospel? Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again on the third day.
What are the implications of the Gospel? There are many, but let us stay focused! What solution does Paul give in our context?
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. Galatians 2:15–16
What is Justification?
“Justification is an instantaneous legal act of God in which he (1) thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us, and (2) declares us righteous in his sight.” Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology
Sin removed, the righteousness of Christ imputed on our account, the great exchange, gifted with faith.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8–9
Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, Romans 4:4–5
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Galatians 2:20–21
Justification is a completed work of God to man.
Keep in step with the truth of the Gospel.
Read Galatians 3:11b, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” Live by faith. In what? In the completed work of God through Christ, our justification.
But it still begs the question, what happens after we enter the gate? This is known as Sanctification.
“Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more free from sin and like Christ in our actual time.”Wayne Grudem
Justification- Completed work of God to man. Sanctification- Progressive work of God and man
“It is a work in which God and man cooperate”. Grudem
Justification done to you, sanctification done through you.
Justification / Sanctification
Legal Standing / Internal Condition
Once for all time / Continuous through life
Entirely God’s work / We cooperate
Perfect in this life / Not perfect in this life
The same in all Christians / Not the same in all Christians
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. John 17:15–19
It is all a work of redemption and restoration, BUT, they are distinct, and when we blur the lines, we find ourselves in the same heresy of the church in Galatia. What do I mean by distinct? Trinity and modalism.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God yet 3 distinct persons
Modalism believes in one God in 3 different modes. May seem like a minor thing at first, but if held, it begins to contradict scripture and ultimately becomes an affront to the charter of who God says he is.
Much in the same way, when we do not hold our justification and sanctification in a systematic biblical manner, it begins to contradict scripture and slides us into a Gospel of works, which is no Gospel at all.
Anyone every play Tether Ball? Draw illustration.
So what is the area, the circumference around our foundation of the Gospel and our justification?
My proposal is the Christian life is not Law, grace, law, but law, grace, Spirit.
#1. Keep in step with the truth of the Gospel
#2. Keep in step with the Spirit
Why? Because that’s Pauls argument and the Bible is our authority.
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— Galatians 3:1–5
Abraham
We receive the Spirit when we believe.
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13–14
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Galatians 4:6
For freedom Christ has set us free;. Galatians 5:1a
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. Galatians 5:13
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 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. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Galatians 5:16–18
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:25
The same progression is found in the book of Romans. 1-mid 3, we are sinners/ 3.5 through 5.5- justification, 5.5-7 implications of our justification, Romans 8- life in the spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Romans 8:5
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:11
Think about that… The Holy Spirit dwells in you by grace through faith. You have been justified and empowered from God on high!
What does it mean live, walk and keep in step with the Spirit?
In response to our justification, we now partake in our journey of sanctification, which is “a work in which God and man cooperate”, then living by the spirit is action!
Basketball- let’s say not only do I have a desire to learn to dribble a basketball, but God visited me and said he has empowered me with a special ability to play basketball!
Say you get a ball, but it stays on the shelf. You never take the ball and bounce it. And we wonder why some people grow spiritually and other stay stagnant. Why? Because some keep in step with the Gospel and in the Spirit, and begin to play (bounce ball). What is God inviting you to?
What have you neglected, kept on the shelf, and need to step out in faith and do?
Let’s play!
Application- Do one thing to start dribbling.
Read the Bible daily, Prayer walk, witness to a friend, invite someone to church, just one thing… maybe that one thing is something God has been calling you to do for some time. Today is the day.
Refection and Confession
Communion and giving as a response in worship
Blessing
May you keep in step with the Gospel & keep in step with the Spirit and may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.