Would you turn to Galatians chapter 5? Happy New Year. Verse 24, Galatians chapter 5. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory. provoking one another, envying one another.

Let's pray. Lord, we are so dependent upon you in everything. Lord, we will not understand your word unless you open it up to us. We will not rest totally in your son unless you enable us to. And we ask for your enabling grace this morning. We ask that you would meet with us and bless us for Christ's sake. We confess our sins. We pray for forgiveness and cleansing. Lord, we would remember our friends that are sick. We would especially remember Claire and. Jessica, that your healing hand would be upon them. Bless us for Christ's sake. Be with all your people wherever they meet together in Christ and we pray. Amen.

They that are Christ's. Verse 24. Don't you want to be one of those people? They that are Christ's. The sheep that belong to the shepherd, they that are Christ's. His body, his bride, his church, his people. Matthew 121, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Don't you want to be one of those people? They that are Christ, that belong to him, they are his as a gift from his father. All that the father giveth me shall come to me. They're his by his choice. His electing grace. He said, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. Don't you know that? So if you belong to Christ, you know that. So I don't have to convince you of it. Salvation begins with him, not with us.

They that are Christ, because he redeemed them, uh, feed the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. They're his by his purchase. They're his by his, I love saying this, invincible grace, irresistible grace, the new birth. When God saves me by his irresistible grace, I find Jesus Christ to be irresistible. I find his salvation to be irresistible. I can't resist. I can't not believe because of his invincible grace. They that are Christ, don't you want to be one of these people? I do. They that are Christ's, they that belong to him.

Now, what do they do? Verse 24. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh. with the affections and lusts. Now, if I belong to Christ, this first scripture says I have crucified the flesh with its affections and with its lusts. Now, what in the world does that mean? I hope everybody in here is thinking, I wanna know what that means.

Now, the first thing I want us to notice is it doesn't say. They that are Christ's are crucifying the flesh with its affections and its lusts. It does not say they that are Christ's will crucify the flesh with its affections and its lusts. It says they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and its lusts. They have, this is a completed action. And that's the way the language in the original reads. It's a completed action. They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and with its lusts. It's a action from the past that has ramifications for right now.

Let's go on reading. Verse 25, if we live in the Spirit, and most translations say if we live by the Spirit. And don't you know that if you live it's by the Spirit? You know that. If you live, it's by the Spirit of God giving you life and causing you to continue in the faith. If we live by the Spirit, let us walk by the Spirit. Now, when he says, and they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the inflection, with the affections and lust, does that mean I see the affections and lusts of my flesh rising up and I nail them to the cross? Is that what that means? You know, if I could do that, I would. But in the context of this passage of scripture, there is a continual battle going on in every believer's heart between the lust of the flesh and the lust of the spirit.

Look in Galatians 5, 17, same chapter. For the flesh, our natural man, lusteth against the spirit. And I don't know why it's translated or an capital S spirit, because that's talking about the spiritual nature. of the believer. God the Holy Spirit doesn't have a contest with somebody and there's not this battle going on between God and the Holy Spirit. He's God. This is talking about the spiritual nature that every believer has.

The flesh lusts against the spirit. The spirit lusts against the flesh. These are contrary to one another. They're at odds. They're opposed. So that you cannot do the things that you would. You would. If you're a believer, you would be without sin. You would never have another bad motive. You would never have another lustful thought. You would never have another self-righteous, judgmental, harsh, critical thought. You'd be just like Christ. You would. You can't. You still have an old man. And you would, it would be embarrassing to speak publicly of the things that we would do. that are in our hearts to do. But you can't. You can't do the things that you would.

So this is not talking about me seeing my affections and lust rise up and then I nail them to a cross. Have you ever done that? No. You know, if that is what it meant, you'd no longer have to deal with the affections and lusts. If they were all nailed to the cross in the sense you did it, that means you wouldn't have to deal with it anymore. Now the scripture doesn't teach that, nor does that line up with our experience, does it? You're dealing with your affections and lusts every single day. And you know that. So that's not talking about some kind of conscious, I'm nailing those things to the cross.

What does it mean? Well, let me read a Few verses of scripture, turn to Galatians chapter two, verse 20. Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. When Christ was crucified and nailed to the cross, I was there in him. My sins. My affections. He bore them all. And they were nailed to his cross.

Turn to Romans chapter 6. We're going to come back to Galatians in a minute, but I want to read this verse of scripture. Romans chapter 6. Knowing this, verse 6. Knowing this. That our old man is crucified with him and that could just as easily read and should read or could read our old man was crucified with him. When he was crucified, my old man, everything about my old man was crucified and nailed to the cross.

I turn to Galatians chapter six, verse 14. But God forbid that I should glory. Now, remember who's speaking here. This is Paul. This is the man who was brought into the third heavens and had Christ teach him the gospel directly. He said, whether in the body or out of the body, I can't tell. God knows. Such a one brought up into the third heavens. This is the man God used to write scripture. This is the man God perhaps used more than any other man to expound the gospel of his grace, the apostle Paul. Now, what does this man say? Do I glory in the fact that I've written scripture? Do I glory in the fact that I was brought into the third heaven? Do I glory in any of these things? No, God forbid that I should glory, that I should take credit in, that I should find comfort in anything. but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know what that means? To glory, to have confidence only in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. What do I know of that? I hope we'll ask ourselves that question. Do you glory only in the cross?

Now look what he says afterwards. By whom the world is crucified unto me. The world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, the world that hates God. Paul says it has no more value to me than something crucified. It's a crucified thing. I see it for what it is. And the world sees me the same way.

Now, I was crucified with Christ. I see the world as a crucified thing in light of the cross, but this passage of scripture says, back to our text, and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and with the lusts. Salvation by works. is the product of the affections and lusts of the flesh. Salvation by work, salvation dependent upon me is evil. The thought of it is produced by an evil nature with all of its affections, which the things that it loves, its lusts, its desires.

We generally just think when we think of affections and lusts, we think of like, Drugs or pornography or sexual sin and as evil as those things are, they're included in the infections of the lust. But what he's talking about in the infections of the lust is just the sinful human nature that desires salvation by works. When you look to Christ the first time. Here's what you did. You crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. You crucified all hopes of self-salvation. First time you looked to Christ, that's exactly what you did. You looked to nowhere but him and his cross, what he accomplished, and you crucified any hope of self-salvation. That's what that means.

And it's going on today. You're looking to him right now. As all your hope. And you're looking to him right now and you have no hope of self salvation. And that's what that's talking about. That's not saying you take all your sinful desires. I hate my sinful desires. I hate my lust. I hate my wicked affections. Those things that are in me. That doesn't mean I see these things, I nail them to the cross. Have you ever done anything like that in your own experience? Of course not. You look to Christ only. You nail any hope of salvation in you. It's nailed to the cross, looking to Christ only. And it's going on still right now. Now that's what that means. They that are Christ, they that belong to him have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust.

Now look in verse 25. If we live in or by the spirit. Now, if you live, it's because you live by the spirit. God, the Holy Spirit birthed you into the kingdom of heaven. You have life that you did not have before. You have a new heart that he birthed. And that's why you have it life. Listen, life only comes from life. As the father raises the dead and quickens them, gives them life. He has life in himself. He's. Independent life. He has no needs. And in his life, he can give life. That's what the new birth is. It's the life of God, giving life to a man dead in sins. And we live by the spirit. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.

Now, if we live by the spirit, let us walk in the spirit. Now what does it mean to walk into the spirit? Does that mean you walk on this higher plane above sin, above problems, above worries? You're just, you're just up, up here walking in the spirit. Then maybe you have a bad day and you fall backwards and start walking in the flesh. And then you pull yourself back up and walk by the spirit and no walking in the spirit is looking to Christ.

Walking in the Spirit is resting in Jesus Christ. Only God the Holy Spirit can enable a man to do that. Walking in the Spirit is looking to Christ. Look what he says in verse 16, this I say then, Galatians 5 16, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill. the lust of the flesh. It's only looking to Christ that you will not fulfill or complete the lust of the flesh.

Look in verse 18. If you be led of the spirit, you're not under law. I love that verse of scripture. It's so simple. If God, the Holy Spirit is leading you. If you walk in the Spirit and you're led of the Spirit, you're not under law. Oh, free from the law, oh happy condition. My salvation's not dependent upon any law I keep or anything I do. It's what Christ has done. That's walking in the Spirit.

No natural man can do that. He's always gonna look to himself. But when God does something for somebody, they look to Christ only. Always. That's all they have at all times. Jesus Christ only.

Now look what he says. Verse 25. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. And here's what happens when you walk in the spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory. provoking one another, envying one another.

Now, vain glory, desiring vain glory, self-glory, conceit. When I walk in the spirit, when I'm led of the spirit, When I live by the Spirit, here's the mark. I see the emptiness of vain glory. Glory to myself. Now understand this, in salvation, either Christ gets all the glory or I get all the glory. There's no mixture. In salvation, either Christ gets all the glory or my vain glory enters in.

Now, only where Christ gets all the glory is there salvation. You see, if Christ didn't get all the glory, guess what? Some of it goes to me. Guess what? That means some of it's dependent upon me. Guess what? That means I won't be saved. That's what that means. In salvation, Christ gets all the glory or I get all the glory. Salvation is either dependent upon what he has done or what I do. Now, which way do you want it to be? I want him to do it all. And the fact of the matter is he did do it all.

It is half done. Jesus paid a half, the other half I owe. No, Jesus paid it all. All the debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. If I'm not walking in the Spirit, I'm seeking vain glory, self-conceit, my own glory. I'm seeking to rob God of His glory because if I seek my own glory, I'm seeking to rob God of all the glory that goes to Him alone. And I'm so persuaded of this. There's no question about this in my mind. In my salvation, He gets all the glory. None.

I love what David said in Psalm 115, not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. He gets all the glory, and we love it that way because that means He did it all. And that means nothing is expected of us as far as self-salvation. He did it all.

Now, if I'm not walking in the Spirit, if I'm not being led in the Spirit, that means I'm seeking vain glory. And here's what happens as a result of that. Verse 16, let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. Now, whenever a desire for vainglory is in operation, the fruit of salvation by works, there'll be spiritual competition, provoking and ending one another. If any of it has anything to do with my glory, I want to be recognized for it. And I'm going to be irritated by you if you're trying to promote yourself over me. And I'm going to be provoked by that. And I'm going to be aggravated by that. There's spiritual competition going on.

Whenever there's vainglory, that means works are involved. If works are involved, people are going to be competing. Who's the godliest? Who's the most blessed? Who's the most used? Who's the most pleasing? It's a spiritual competition. It's a provoking one another and envying one another. If I perceive that God's giving you more than he has me, I'm going to be envious of you. I'm going to think it ought to be coming to me. If I see you lording yourself over me because you're some kind of spiritual giant above me, I'm going to be provoked by you. I'm going to be irritated by you. And that's all this. If salvation Any of the glory goes to man, vainglory. What there's going to be is spiritual competition, provoking one another, envying one another. Who is the most blessed? Who has most of God's favor? Who's the one who's done the most to please God? Competition.

One of the glorious things about the gospel is Christ is all. I am nothing. You know, I've. I want to say this carefully, but you know, people say, well, you're the pastor. What you do is the most important. No, it's not. I'm nothing. And you're nothing. And Christ is all and there's no spiritual competition. We're all one in Christ Jesus. If I'm one in Christ Jesus and if you're one in Christ Jesus and there's no envy, what's the envy? I got everything. You got everything. I'm nothing, you're nothing. Christ is all. We rejoice in that. Not this provoking one another and envying one another.

Now in this thing of crucifying the flesh with its affections and lust, it doesn't mean I overcome my sin. Now one of these days I'm going to have to sin less body. One of these days, I'm not going to struggle with sin anymore. I'm going to be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ. As a matter of fact, I'm already in heaven because Christ is in heaven. I'm in heaven right there with him. That's my hope, being in Christ. I crucify the flesh with the affections and lust when I look to Christ, when I trust him only. First time I ever looked to him, that's what I did. I crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. I look to him only. And looking to him only, and you looking to him only, we're not competing, are we? There's no competition. I can't make my standing any better than it already is in Christ. I'm perfect in Christ. You're perfect in Christ. Nothing to be jealous of. I have everything. Nothing to be envious of. I have everything. You have everything. We're one with one another. We're one with one another.

And whenever there's this spiritual competition going on, all you have is vainglory, salvation by works. That's what that produces. Isn't it a blessing that Christ is all, we're nothing, and we are complete in him? I've seen those advertisements, the church where everybody is somebody. I like to be at a church where everybody's nobody and Christ is all. Amen.