Ephesians 5:22 22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his

Ephesians 5:2222Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.

23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for

her…

33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must

respect her husband.

2 Weeks agoGalatians 5:1-6

Galatians 5:1-6

1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be

burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 2Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to

obey the whole law.

Galatians 5:1-6

4You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen

away from grace. 5But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which

we hope. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Last Week’s MessageGalatians 5:7-12

The Hope of Gospel

Avoiding Landmines

Galatians 5:7-127You were running a good race. Who cut in on

you and kept you from obeying the truth? 8That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9“A little yeast works through the

whole batch of dough.”

Galatians 5:7-1210I am confident in the Lord that you will take no

other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may

be. 11Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12As for those agitators, I wish they

would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!

Galatians 5:13-1513You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be

free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping

this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15If you bite and devour each other,

watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

This Week’s MessageGalatians 5:13-15

The Love of Gospel

The Three Way Cage Match

Freedom!

Galatians 5:13a13You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15If

you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

Freedom!um, from what?

Galatians 5:13a13You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15If

you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

From Transforming Grace by Jerry Bridges

You know you don’t understand God’s grace when you:



1. Live with a vague sense of His disapproval.




2. Feel ashamed bringing your needs before Him when you’ve just failed Him.




2. Feel ashamed bringing your needs before Him when you’ve just failed Him.

3. Think of His grace as something that makes up the difference between the best you can do and what He expects from you.



4. Feel you deserve an answer to prayer because of your hard work and sacrifice.




5. Assume that 1 John 1:9 no longer applies to you now that you’ve sinned so many times you’ve used up all your credit.




5. Assume that 1 John 1:9 no longer applies to you now that you’ve sinned so many times you’ve used up all your credit.

6. Feel more confident before Him if you’ve been “faithful” with your Christian disciplines (prayer, quiet time, witnessing, etc.).



7. Can’t honestly say you see yourself as “blameless” in His eyes.




8. Aren’t experiencing consistent peace and joy in your life.





9. Don’t really believe He likes you.





9. Don’t really believe He likes you.

10.Can think of someone you look down on.



11.Shy away from asking Him things because you think it annoys Him.




12.Haven’t recently been tempted to go ahead and sin because you know your performance has nothing to do with your standing before Him.




12.Haven’t recently been tempted to go ahead and sin because you know your performance has nothing to do with your standing before Him.

13.Think of the Christian life as what you do in a day rather than the chance to experience an unending supply of His goodness toward you.



14.Fear that the day may not go as well as expected because you missed your time in the Bible.




15.Assume you can do something to make Him love you more or less.




15.Assume you can do something to make Him love you more or less.

16.Believe you’ve been called into His service because of your worthiness or qualifications.



• GUILT• SHAME• THE GOSPEL

OF SELF-EFFORT

• DESERVEDNESS

• FEELING UNLOVED

• IDENTITY AS FAILURE

• GLOOM & DOOM• WRATH OF GOD• PRIDE• LAW• LICENSE


Galatians 5:1313You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be




LawAKA

Legalism

or the

“The Ethics

of Obligation”

Licentiousness = Licentiousne

ssAKA

The Fleshor

Lawlessnessor

“I’ll do whatever I feel like doing”

What is the Flesh?

What is the Flesh?

Galatians 5:16-2116So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in

conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18But if you are led by the

Spirit, you are not under the law.

What is the Flesh?

Galatians 5:16-2119The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of

rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this

will not inheritthe kingdom of God.

What is the Flesh?

Romans 7:14-2514We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not

understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.

17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.

What is the Flesh?

Romans 7:14-2518For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do

it, but it is sin livingin me that does it.

What is the Flesh?

Romans 7:14-2521So I find this law at work: Although I want to do

good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23but I see

another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of

the law of sin at work within me. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this

body that is subject to death? 25Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our

Lord!






Licentiousness = LoveAKA

The New Wayor

“Hey, I can actually stop being a selfish pig and care about

others” way

“Earlier in Galatians Paul introduced the concepts of freedom and love, but this is the first place he brought them together in a single thought. And, surprisingly, that which links freedom and love is the very thingPaul earlier said Christ has delivered

us from: slavery. The English word “serve” does not adequately translate the Greek verb douleuete behind which stands the common Greek noun for slave, doulos.

“Through love, Paul said, you should make yourselves slaves to one another. Thus freedom and slavery are not simply mutually exclusive terms; they stand in the closest possible relationship to one anotherand can only be adequately defined in

terms of object and goal: what we are slave to and what we are free for.

~ Timothy George, Galatians, vol. 30, page 378.

How do I defeat Law?





Mark 12:28-3128One of the teachers of the law came and heard

them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the

commandments, which is the most important?” 29“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this: ‘Love

your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

We see them now, no longer as hateful people who are trying to rob us of our rights, or trying to beat us in the race for money, or position or fame; we see them, as we see ourselves, as the victims of sin and of Satan, as the dupes of “the god of this world,” as fellow-creatures who are under the wrath of God and hell-bound. We have an entirely new view of them. We see them to be exactly as we are ourselves, and we are both in a terrible predicament. And we can do nothing;

but both of us together must run to Christ and avail ourselves of his wonderful grace. We begin to enjoy it together and we want to share it together. That is how it works. It is the only way whereby we can ever do unto others as we would that they should do unto us. It is when we are really loving our neighbor as ourselves because we have been delivered from the thralldom of self, that we begin to enjoy “the glorious liberty of thechildren of God.”~ D. M. Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount Vol 2, pps 214–15.

How do I defeat Licentiousness?





“A Christian is free and independent in every

respect, a bond servant to none. A Christian is a

dutiful servant in every respect, owning a duty to

everyone.

~ G. Ebeling, Luther: An Introduction to His Thought (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972), 212.

The Difficult Ride of the Christian Life

Slippery Slope


Slippery Slope

Legalism


Slippery Slope

Legalism

License


Slippery Slope

Legalism

License

Love

Gospel Application

Gospel Application

Is your church characterized by love?

Documents

Ephesians 5:22 22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his