Living Grace

[00:00:03] Welcome to Gospel in Life. What does true Christian character look like, and how is it formed? We often assume that becoming more disciplined, generous, or patient is simply a matter of trying harder. But even our best efforts can be driven by pride or a desire for approval. Today, Tim Keller explains how true Christian character only grows out of our acceptance of God's grace, and how we live differently when the truth of the gospel transforms us from within.

[00:00:30] The scripture reading is found in your bulletin on page 9. I'll be reading Galatians 5, verses 16 through 25.

[00:01:13] I'll read it. I'll read it.

[00:02:10] This is the word of the Lord. Now, we're in a series in which we're looking at the traits or the marks of a supernaturally changed heart, and how it's different from just a morally restrained heart.

[00:02:27] Long before Marx, Nietzsche, Foucault rightly noticed that normally people follow moral virtue and moral behavior out of fear, pride, and a desire for power over others.

[00:02:43] Long before they said that, Paul, 1 Corinthians 13, said it is extremely possible to live a completely ethical life without any love at the root of it, but rather fear, pride, and power. Without a heart that's been changed through an experience of the grace and love of God. And what we're doing is we're taking a look at the traits of a life that's not just morally restrained externally, but supernaturally changed from the inside.

[00:03:12] This passage is not like the other passages because every other week what we've been doing is looking at one trait each time. This passage, of course, in some ways is the most famous of all, perhaps along with 1 Corinthians 13. And it lists all of them. It lists, well, not all of them, but it lists a very, very wide spectrum of these traits in verse 22. I'll paraphrase a little bit for you.

[00:03:36] The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, integrity, courage, humility, self-control. Instead of focusing on one trait, this well-known passage from St. Paul shows us how to know and grow all of the fruit of the Spirit. How to know them, that means how to evaluate them, understand them, recognize them in our lives. How to know them, how to grow them.

[00:04:03] Okay, first, what does this passage teach us about how to know them, how to understand them, recognize them? The first thing we learn about the spiritual fruit, supernaturally produced spiritual fruit and character, is that it shows up internally. It shows up internally. Verse 23 says, now these love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, against such things there is no law. Against such things there is no law. What does that mean?

[00:04:33] Well, imagine a law against joylessness or a law against anxiety, peacelessness. Imagine laws against things like that. They'd be useless. Law is a form of moral constraint. It's essentially negative in its nature. Law can stop the results of a messed up heart,

[00:04:59] but it can't actually get in and deal with the messed upness itself. So, for example, a well-enforced law can pretty much stop most murder, but it can't at all get into the anger. It can't reach in and get to the anger, which is the root of murder. Law can get at theft and stealing and pretty much get rid of it, but it can't get at the jealousy and the envy that are at the root of it.

[00:05:27] A well-enforced law can pretty much eliminate rape, but it can't deal with the disdain for women, which is at the root of it. In other words, against anger and joylessness and pride and selfishness and fear, all the root problems of our heart, law is useless. Well, then what will work? And the answer is, take a look at verse 23, what the answer is, is the spirit. The spirit goes where the law can't go.

[00:05:57] The spirit deals with things that the law can't deal with. That's what it's saying. The spirit of God comes in, resides, and implants. And, of course, the spirit can change the external. The spirit will stop you from harming and will stop you from lying. Both the spirit and the law can deal with the external, but only the spirit can deal with the internal. Now, what does this mean practically? The spirit shows up inside.

[00:06:23] Law as a force for moral behavior will not touch that inner place where laws can't go, where there are no laws. Now, what does this mean practically? What it means is this. The British have a saying, no man is a hero to his valet. Now, what does that mean? Well, my guess is, imagine there's a valet club somewhere in the heart of London where all the valets get together afterwards for a drink.

[00:06:51] And they're sitting around and one valet says, you know, I'm the valet for so-and-so who's a great war hero and everyone just thinks of the world, what a war hero, what a man, you know. And another valet says, I'm the valet of a social activist who's loved and revered all over the world for the enormous social changes, for good, he's changed our society. It's a more just and equitable and humane society.

[00:07:17] And another guy says, well, I'm the valet of this great moral religious leader who wrote this great moral philosophy and so on. But then they say, yeah, but you know what? In private. You see all their warts. They're impatient. They're irritable. They're selfish. They're petty. They're anxious. They're jealous. But Paul says all this. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, we're going to get back to that passage next week to kind of come full circle

[00:07:47] and look at this whole subject to wrap up the series. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1 to 3, 1 Corinthians 13 verses 1 to 3, you can teach the Bible, you can give away all your money to the poor, you can die for your faith, but if it's a result of moral restraint, if it's coming from a heart that hasn't been changed by the divine love at the center, then in spite of all that great behavior on the external,

[00:08:16] verse 4 to 7 says, you'll be irritable, impatient, selfish, self-seeking, petty, anxious, why? Here's why. When you use law alone to make a person moral, you do it at the expense of joy and peace. Think about how you raise a child to be a moral person. What do you do? In school, you get them and you say,

[00:08:46] we don't want you to do this and this and this. Why? Number one, you'll be caught. By God, by the police, or by me. Number two, okay? Number two, you don't want to get caught. Number two, you don't want people to despise you. People will despise you if you do this thing. Number three, you will despise yourself. You will have no self-respect. So how are we making these kids moral? We're making these kids moral by nurturing joylessness and peacelessness and anxiety and insecurity.

[00:09:16] And what that means is, the law as the law establishes external moral behavior at the expense of inner peace and joy. And that joylessness, I'll put it this way, the fear and pride that you will nurture in order to be moral through the law will show up in the place where only the valet can see or your spouse or your children or your parents or the people who know you, the people who see you

[00:09:45] when you think nobody's looking but they know what you're really like. That's where you find out whether you're a morally restrained person or a supernaturally changed person because only the spirit goes there. Only the spirit makes you in your most private place and most private life and most private time a person of equity and joy and calm and peace and justice and love and kindness and patience. Let me put it this way.

[00:10:14] If you're not a hero to the people who know you the best, the people you live with, the people, if you're not a hero to your valet or that kind of person, if you're not a hero to the people who know you the best, if you're not more of a hero to the people who know you intimately than you are to the people who know you out there, if you're not more of a hero, if you're not a hero to your valet, you do not have the fruit of the spirit if you had a valet. Got it? Because the spirit, the fruit of the spirit,

[00:10:43] unlike the fruit, you might say of moral restraint, the fruit of the spirit are internal, private. They show up in the place where there is no law, where the law can't go. That's the first thing. How are you in there? Are you a hero to the people who know you the most? Or do they laugh about you over drinks? Secondly, we learn, that's a scary question, I'm sorry. Okay, number two, the second thing we learn about the spiritual fruit is it's not just it's internal and it shows up

[00:11:13] in the internal place, the inner place. Secondly, the spiritual fruit all come together. They come all together. If they're not growing all together, they're not growing at all. If they're not growing all together, you're not getting any of them. Now, where do I get that from? Verse 22, very interesting, is it not? There's a singular noun and a singular verb and then you have a plural predicate. So what we have here is the Acts, pardon me, it says the fruit of the spirit is.

[00:11:43] It doesn't say the fruits of the spirit are. It says the fruit of the spirit is. And my guess is that's deliberate because Paul's understanding is that these traits are not individual separable traits. They interpenetrate each other and they're interdependent on each other. Now, that's one of the reasons why I put at the bottom of your passage a little section out of 1 Corinthians 13 which we'll go to next week. But we all know 1 Corinthians 13 ends by saying there's these three

[00:12:12] great things. Faith, hope, and love. Okay, there they are, three different traits of a, you know, a gracious heart. Faith, hope, and love. But, look at this place, this is verse 7 of chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians. It says love trusts. Love hopes? Now, wait a minute. It says there's faith, hope, and love and yet it says that love has faith

[00:12:41] and love has hope. You say, what is that? It's exactly what Paul's saying in verse 22 and that's this. The fruit of the spirit are fruit, not fruits. They are basically all aspects of the same thing. So the fruit of the spirit is organic and organisms grow from, become more complex and they grow out of a single cell in most cases. And therefore, love, joy, peace, patience, they interpenetrate each other, they're interdependent on each other, they have to come together. You can't be patient

[00:13:11] with people or with life unless you are incredibly humble, frankly. You can't be kind to people and stick with difficult people unless you have a lot of self-control. You can't have integrity and be the same in one place as another and always be honest and be the same with one crowd as with another. You can't have integrity unless you have a tremendous amount of inner peace. These things have to come together or if they're not all growing together, they're not there at all. Now,

[00:13:40] the reason I mention this as a practical way for you to recognize the fruit of the Spirit and evaluate it in your life is this. We don't think like that. We look at lists like this list and we say, well, I got a couple of those that I'm pretty good at but there's a couple of them that are really, really bad at. Right? Wrong. I got a few of them but there's others I really don't have much at all. Right? Wrong. They either all have to grow together. Now, this is a little bit

[00:14:10] of a generalization because, you know, you can have lag. They don't have to grow completely symmetrically but they're interrelated so they've got to all be growing together or you don't have any of them. Let me show you what I mean. It's very typical for people who are gentle and kind and diplomatic and so empathetic and so, you know, they're so gentle with others and they're peacemaking. People like that very often who are so gentle and kind they're not assertive, they're not bold, they're not courageous.

[00:14:41] They have gentleness and patience but they don't seem to have that, what faithfulness is probably best translated as courage and tenacious. They're not very good at confronting. On the other hand, you have people who are very bold and assertive and they're direct and they step out but they say, yeah, but on the other hand, I know, I know, I tend to be impatient, I tend to not think about how other people are feeling, I tend to be on the harsh side, I know about that. So what are you saying? Well, I've got a couple of this fruit but I don't have them. I have these but I don't have them. I have these but I don't have them. Oh, really?

[00:15:10] Now let's think. If your gentleness and your diplomacy was coming out of a heart just filled, so filled with God's love, so filled, if your gentleness and diplomacy were coming out of a heart radically secure in God's love, you'd be bold. You could turn on a dime and confront because you wouldn't be afraid of anything. Your gentleness and your diplomacy

[00:15:38] is not growing out of that kind of spiritual, supernatural, changed heart. It is a temperamental sweetness which a lot of people have and which is really good for most people in the world but in significant part it's cowardice. Let's come over here. Then some of you are very bold and you're very good at confronting and you speak out and you say, but I'm a little weak on that.

[00:16:08] If it was growing out of a heart radically secure in an experience of the love of God, an experience of the love of God, you would be incredibly empathetic, you'd be incredibly sweet. Your boldness is not a fruit of the Spirit. It's a natural temperament of assertiveness which is good in many situations and good for many people and for you very often but it's in significant part arrogance. If they're not both there,

[00:16:37] they can't either be there at least not in their supernatural version. Do you hear that? If both the gentleness and the kindness and the boldness, if they're not both there, they're neither there, at least they're not both there, they have to both be there to be there in their supernatural versions and their supernatural rootedness in the heart and what that means my friends is that you are really only spiritually mature as your weakest trait. You shouldn't be

[00:17:06] looking at the trait and say, well, okay, here and here but I'm really bad there. Go to the weakest trait. That's the level of the Holy Spirit in your life. That's the level of the water. Now, some of you are getting a little nervous and that's right. You know, a good sermon has a narrative structure and in the beginning suddenly there's peril and the plot is thickening and you say, oh my goodness, the noose is tightening and how am I going to get out of this

[00:17:35] and later on a hero always shows up in the sermon to save you but it's not me. That's how every good sermon is but right now the plot is thickening so let me help you a little bit. There's, on the one hand, spiritual fruit show up internally where the law can't go, the place where your valet, if you had one, could see. Secondly, spiritual fruit all come together unless they're all growing together, they're really, your decency and your morality and your character

[00:18:05] is not grounded in a supernaturally changed heart unless it's all coming together and those are very threatening standards but here's the third thing I'd like to show you about what Paul shows us about spiritual fruit. So first of all, it's internal, secondly, it all comes together but thirdly, it's gradual. It's gradual. It says, the fruit of the spirit. Notice verse 19, it says, the acts of the sinful nature. An action happens. How long does an action take? An action, it's over. You know,

[00:18:36] it's, you know, it might take a little while but it's over. How long does fruit take? A long time. Fruit comes slowly and here's what's interesting about this. Paul is trying to get, he's trying to calm you down a little bit. I mean, you know, if you go out every day and you look at your tomato plants, you say, they're not growing. Of course, they'll never look like they're growing. Every so, you have to get a stick out and measure them occasionally and say, oh my gosh, they are growing. You know,

[00:19:05] your own growth is so, growth is imperceptible to the naked eye. It can't really be seen. It can be measured. So every so often, God sort of puts a measuring stick down and something happens and you say, man, I would never have responded like that a year ago. I never would have been able to do that two years ago. But very often, you don't feel like you're growing and Paul is letting you know that because this is fruit. This isn't the acts of the spirit, it's the fruit of the spirit. So even though I just scared you, I want you to relax a little bit, recognize it's gradual and lastly,

[00:19:35] it's internal. The fruit of the spirit is internal. Secondly, it comes all together but thirdly, it's gradual and lastly, it's hard won. Look at verse 17. This is the most comforting thing I've learned this week in this sermon, for me anyway, hopefully for you. It says, the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. There's a flesh and spirit war going on inside us, right? Now look at this. They are in conflict with each other so that you do not

[00:20:05] do what you want. You know why that is so, you know why that's so comforting? First of all, Paul doesn't say you never do what you want because that's kind of silly in a way. I mean obviously Christians sometimes do. He doesn't say never but look at this. Why would he say you do not do what you want because of this conflict that's going on all the time? And what he must mean, at least he must mean this. A person who's really growing in the fruit of the spirit can routinely go through seasons where you don't feel

[00:20:34] like you're doing it at all, doing the thing you want to do at all, where you're giving into the flesh, giving into the sinful nature. Isn't that amazing? You know Paul assumes that you will fairly regularly be in a situation where you're saying I'm not doing what I want but here's what I really like about this verse. He's not just assuming that. He's also saying something else. When you feel like I'm not growing in love, I'm not growing in peace,

[00:21:04] I'm not growing in these things, these things aren't happening, I'm not doing any of the things I really want to do, that's a sign that you belong to Jesus because you have two desire centers in your heart. The sinful nature is desiring things, verse 17 says. The spiritual, your spiritually regenerated nature also is desiring but only one of them is you. See, your sinful nature is desiring but it's not you. It's not what you really want. It's not what you really want.

[00:21:34] And the way you can see that you have been converted, one of the main ways you can see is that you identify so completely now with the spiritual desires desires that even though you find yourself doing things you don't want to do, that's how you think about them. You say, here I'm doing something but it's not me, I hate it, it's not me, it's not who I want to be, it's not who I want to be. Your very weakness is proof that there has been a massive shift in your identity. You're going to experience conflict,

[00:22:03] it is going to be gradual but the fruit of the spirit will grow and you can see it will grow because that has happened to you. So, the fruit of the spirit is internal and comes all together, it's gradual and it's hard won. Now, how do we grow it? How do we actually develop it in our lives? How does it come? And again, there's four things that we learn here. My wife this morning on the way home, she says, you sly fox, you start off by saying there's two points but there's really eight.

[00:22:33] I said, well you know honey, when you're as, you know, as experienced a preacher as me, you learn how to do these things. So, she said, eight points. Well, I said, all right, keep going. There's four things, four ways to grow. Here's the first one. Crucify the sinful nature. Let me tell you what these four things are quickly. Think why you're acting. Rejoice

[00:23:01] in order to repent. Look at him when you long for something else and community. Okay? Think why you act, why you act as you do. Rejoice in order to repent. Look at him when you're longing for something else and community. Okay, number one. It says in verse 24, crucify the sinful nature.

[00:23:31] Many of us spend more time thinking about ourselves than we'd like to admit. Whether we're comparing ourselves to others or just trying to live up to our own expectations, it's easy to become preoccupied with what we've done or accomplished. In his short book, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, Tim Keller shows how embracing the truth of the gospel makes it possible for us to let go of the constant need to evaluate ourselves and points us to an identity that's secure because of Christ's work on the cross. This month,

[00:24:01] as thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life spread the good news of the gospel with more people, we'll send you two English copies of The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness and one Spanish copy that you can share with a Spanish speaker in your life. Sharing this Spanish copy is part of our focus this month on Gospel in Life's translation initiative as we launch the Global Reach Project where, with God's help and in partnership with the Keller family, we are translating 500 of Dr. Keller's sermons into 30 of the world's most spoken languages.

[00:24:30] Through the Global Reach Project, millions more people around the world will be able to access the hope of the gospel shared through Dr. Keller's teaching in their native language. To learn more, go to theglobalreachproject.com. And to request your copies of The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, visit gospelinlife.com slash give. Again, that's gospelinlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching. Now this is not the same

[00:24:59] as in Romans 6.6 and in Galatians 2.20 where Paul says, when you become a Christian, you have been crucified. You have been crucified. That is almost certainly talking about the fact that when I become a Christian, I'm identified with Jesus. So everything he's done, his death, his resurrection, everything, I'm identified with. Meaning that the benefits, what he has done, he paid for sin, but now it's accrues to me.

[00:25:28] I am as accepted, I'm as pardoned as if I had paid for all my sins on the cross. And so when Paul says, you have been crucified, that's interesting language. He's talking about an objective once for all thing that happened when I became a Christian. This is different. This is not, you have been crucified. This is, it says, Christians crucify the flesh. Now it's past tense, but that's because of this. Your sinful nature is, unfortunately, I wish,

[00:25:58] is not electrocuted, it's not hung, it's not shot, it's not stabbed. It's crucified. And we all know that crucifixion is a slow death. So it means you've nailed it up and you're watching it die. Okay, what does it mean to crucify the sinful nature? And this is the point. What most people think crucifying the sinful nature means is, no. Crucify the sinful nature means, I set my will against wrongdoing. Now, I'm all for that, by the way. I'm all for,

[00:26:28] I'm all for setting the will against wrongdoing. It's a great thing next time you, are about to do wrong, just set the will. But that can't be what it means to crucify the sinful nature. Here's why. To say no, that's moral restraint. That just, that just, that only stops the effects or the results of the messed up heart. But it doesn't get at the messed up heart. The sinful nature is the messed upness of my heart. And therefore,

[00:26:57] to crucify, the sinful nature can't just be to refuse to do something wrong. It's got to be more than that. You see, that's the law. The law can't get in at the sinful nature, so it must be something else. What is it? Well, what is the sinful nature? Verse 16 and verse 18 have an interesting parallel that we have to see. It's the key to me to understanding the whole text. It says, if you live by the spirit, you won't gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Okay?

[00:27:27] But then in verse 18 it says, if you live or if you're led by the spirit, you're not under the law. Now that's interesting. These two things go together. There's a parallelism here. If you walk by, you live by, you're led by the spirit, to not gratify the sinful nature and to not be under the law go together. Essentially the same thing. What does it mean to be under the law? In St. Paul, to be under the law is not referring to obeying the law. You can obey the law without being under the law.

[00:27:57] To be under the law means that you have made moral performance a system of identity and of salvation. To be under the law means to make your performance a way for you to, it's a system of identity so if I do this and if I have this then I'm a worthwhile person then I'm alright and it's a system of salvation. If I have this and if I do that then God will bless me then God will take me in. So what is the sinful nature?

[00:28:27] Now hear this. There's very few things I could tell you that would be more important in my life and that I would want to share with you than this. The sinful nature is not just simply the part of your heart that makes you sin. Of course it's that. The sinful nature is the part of your heart that wants to go back under the law. The sinful nature is the part of your heart it's a motivational system that's constantly trying to move you back into moral performance as a system of identity and an approach to God.

[00:28:57] And what that means is that the sinful nature is taking good things and trying to suck them into a system of moral performance. So it takes a good thing like your career it takes a good thing like your family it takes a good thing like human opinion it takes a good thing like financial success it takes a good thing and it pulls it into its system of moral performance as a basis for identity and for salvation and in that system it becomes an ultimate thing it becomes something that says if you have that

[00:29:26] then you'll be okay then you'll have meaning in life then you know you're a worthwhile person then God will bless you and when it pulls it in automatically it creates an over desire an inordinate desire an overwhelming drive for that thing. Do you notice that every time sinful nature is mentioned it's not mentioned except sinful nature and desires. You don't want to gratify the sinful nature and its desires at the top of the passage you don't want you want to crucify the sinful nature

[00:29:55] with its desires at the bottom of the passage in both cases it's that great word epithemia which literally means an epi desire or an over desire an inordinate desire and that's how your sinful nature works do you see it? Over desires caused for normal things over desires for a good thing that's become an ultimate thing because it's being pulled into a system by your sinful nature over desires is the reason for most of your bad feelings and all of your bad actions

[00:30:26] inordinate desires are the basis for most of your bad feelings and all of your bad actions examples it's one thing to be hurt by criticism it's another thing to be devastated by it what's the difference? see now if you try to crucify the sinful nature and say I shouldn't be so devastated it's bad to be devastated I'm a Christian I ought to have faith that's the law you're saying no you're setting the will against what you consider to be excessive devastation but how are you

[00:30:56] going to where's the excessive devastation coming from? how is it proceeding from the sinful nature? like this the sinful nature takes a good thing like human opinion and it pulls it into the system and now it becomes an ultimate thing it says unless people like you unless you look good to people you're nothing and therefore the human opinion because it's been pulled in there you now have an over desire to look good an over desire for people's approval instead of just being unhappy about criticism you're devastated

[00:31:25] and every problem you've got comes from that every inordinate over anger and incredible paralysis and so on we talked about this all during this series which we have to so how do you crucify the sinful nature? you think why you're acting and feeling the way you are you don't just say I shouldn't be doing that I shouldn't be thinking that way I shouldn't be feeling that way I shouldn't be acting that way you think why

[00:31:55] and you ask this question what is my sinful nature fixing my heart on and what good thing is my sinful nature making an ultimate thing? what thing has my sinful nature fixed my imagination on so that I'm looking to it for things that only Jesus can give me that's why I'm cast down that's why I'm anxious that's why I'm angry that's why I'm bitter that's why I'm about to do something I shouldn't be doing always

[00:32:25] think why say why am I like this not well I'm a bad person listen example every Saturday between 11 and 1130 I have an inordinate amount of fear and anxiety in my life not the normal kind of concern an inordinate amount because I'm looking at the sermon that I'm working on and I say this stinks I always like my sermon around 9 o'clock and by 11

[00:32:55] 1130 I hate it almost every week I don't know what it is biorhythms I'm not sure now there's a couple of things there's two ways to go one is I could say oh my gosh I am breaking the no anxiety rule there's a isn't there doesn't it say in Philippians 4 have no anxiety in everything in anything but with prayer and supplication make your needs be known to God isn't that what it says in the Philippians I'm having anxiety I'm breaking the no anxiety rule so what do I do I'm going to

[00:33:24] crucify the sinful nature I'm going to say I better not have anxiety if my wife sees it she'll think I'm a wimp if the people see it I'll be a lousy model if my children see it they won't respect me I better stop it oh that really gets to the sinful nature no that's the law and it can't get into my messed upness I have to think why what is well it's pretty obvious for you isn't it

[00:33:54] okay counselors therapists you know what's the problem how can I crucify the sinful nature there how can I get at it Romans 1 16 there's a translation I love of that verse where Paul is talking about the gospel and he says he who through faith in Jesus is righteous shall live it's one of my favorite verses he who through faith in Jesus is righteous shall live but the thing I have to say to myself

[00:34:24] almost every Saturday that's the only way I can get at my sinful nature is to say yeah and he who through preaching is righteous shall die see it's one thing to want to preach it's another thing to have the sinful nature fix on it in such a way that you say what if you're terrible all you have to do is say well what if I'm terrible but the sinful nature is oh my gosh that would be the end of everything and you see you can't get the sinful nature

[00:34:53] by just saying no moral constraint the law can't get in there so the first thing what does it mean to crucify the sinful nature the first step is think why you're acting the way you are understand what the sinful nature is and its operations and everybody has their own everybody has a different shape you need to get to know yours you need to know its judo holds on you you need to understand it that's absolutely critical in order to develop the fruit of the spirit

[00:35:23] so the first thing is think why think why you act the second thing is rejoice in order to repent now look at the first part of verse 24 it doesn't just say Christians have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires look at this it says those who belong to Christ Jesus it's only those who belong it's only those who already belong it's only those who know they belong it's only and to the degree they know they belong belong

[00:35:52] to Christ Jesus who then can crucify the passions the sinful nature with his passions let me work this out for you a little bit do you realize that there's no other religion could ever say that because in every other religion the indicative flows from the imperative see the imperative is if you crucify the flesh that's the imperative then the indicative then you will belong to God right isn't that how every religion works isn't that how everything works

[00:36:23] imperative then indicative if you crucify if you get control if you do the right thing if you get on top of things if you accomplish this and this and this then if you do then you'll be that's not how Christianity works that's not how the gospel works if you be then you do if you understand that in Christ you're already belonging you're already accepted you're already his you're already his possession

[00:36:52] he looks at you and says mine you're mine that's the language of intimacy if you understand that you will crucify the sinful nature with joy there's a way of wounding the sinful nature with fear there's a way and yet you're going to find that sinful nature works on fear I've been trying all along this you know moral constraint works on fear so if you look at the sinful nature and you say you better shape up

[00:37:22] you better stop otherwise God God will get you people will think you're stupid you will hate yourself it doesn't work the only way to really really really wound yourself and repent of bad things is with joy with the joy of what God has done you say in other words instead of saying you better stop that

[00:37:53] what God is to say one time this happened to me this is actually the way it works every day in my life but this is so archetypical I was in a grocery store in New York City and the line was going very slow I was trying to check out incredibly slow and as I it was awful and as I got closer I came to realize what it was the woman at our particular grocery at the cash register wasn't able

[00:38:23] to handle things first of all her English was too poor her English was too poor to make the transaction but on top of that it was pretty obvious that she was new to New York culture and society and she clearly came from a place where things took longer so I was just sitting there thinking this is New York lady and you're not going to make it here and there was a lot of cultural and maybe

[00:38:55] racial pride I'm not sure and then suddenly as I was standing there in line a verse came to mind that I had just read that morning that's from the Old Testament and I'll give you the first half of it and the first half of it was where God says to his people be kind to the immigrant among you so I'm sitting there and you see now if that was how the whole verse went if that was the end of the verse I'm going to show you it's not the end of the verse because the

[00:39:24] Old Testament is as much about grace as the New Testament is it's not the end of the verse but if that was the end of the verse I would have said this I would have said oh gee there's that be kind to immigrants law that I've got in the Bible and here I am not being kind to immigrants and oh my word alright okay so I would set my will against unkindest immigrants and when I finally got up to her I would have looked at her and I would have said hi

[00:39:54] how are you but fortunately for me and for your instruction that verse does not end where it it doesn't end there it doesn't say God did not say be kind to immigrant among you he says be kind to immigrants among you because you were once aliens and slaves in a foreign land but I led you out now here's what he's saying he was saying if you're unkind immigrants stop it he says

[00:40:23] if you're unkind immigrants you've forgotten the joy of what I've given you you've forgotten the grace of what I've done for you you've forgotten that you're mine you've forgotten that you were alienated that you were in a place that you didn't understand what was going on but I received you I brought you in by grace and of course you see if joy if you use joy on your heart to repent that begins to crucify the sinful nature so that when you get to the top of the line you say hard day huh

[00:40:54] number one you have to think why you're acting the way you are number two you have to rejoice enough to repent rejoice in order to repent but then number three you have to look at him when you're longing for something else up to now we've been too abstract let's admit it we've been too abstract what is love joy peace patience a list we're not supposed to only crucify the flesh the sinful nature and its

[00:41:23] passions we're also supposed to what keep in step with the spirit now that's interesting isn't it suddenly we realize the spirit is personified the spirit is going somewhere and we're told go with him where is he going well verse 17 gives us some idea and this is a fascinating verse because it says the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the spirit right and of course we know something about that we've been talking about it the spirit has

[00:41:53] passion I mean pardon me the sinful nature has passions the sinful nature has yearnings and it glorifies certain things in your imagination says don't you want that don't you want that don't you want that don't you want those things and it gets you yearning for those things that's the way the sinful nature works but look what verse 17 says it says the spirit what now because the verb's not there you can miss it it says the sinful nature has

[00:42:23] passions in one direction but it says the spirit has passions in another direction the spirit has passions the spirit yearns yes well what's a yearn for Jesus says in John 16 14 when the Holy Spirit comes into the world the counselor comes he will glorify me in first John three verse two it talks about what it's going

[00:42:53] to be like on the last day of history and it says beloved what we will be has not yet been made known but we know that when he appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is oh my word now look on the last day we're going to suddenly become blindingly beautiful why because the sinful nature will finally be dealt with it'll be how will God just have a little kind of glory gun and it'll slap you at the end of the sinful nature

[00:43:22] it tells you how the sinful nature is going to be dealt with on that day it tells you how you're going to be radiant it tells you we will see him as he is we will be like him see the love joy peace patience it's just him we'll be like him because and to the degree and because finally we will see him as he is and that's the secret you are only as loving as you see he really is you get more loving when you see

[00:43:52] he's more loving than I thought I finally see how loving he really is I finally see how enduring he really is then you'll become an enduring person I finally see how patient he has really been and then I become patient on Tuesday if I look you're feeling the lust

[00:44:22] as you're lusting catch yourself and turn to him and say Holy Spirit turn your flood light on and there's the smile I want there's the arms I want there's the honor I want there's the crown I want there's the approval I want there's the glory I want what do I want this for when I got that catch yourself look at him as

[00:44:52] you're acting to figure out your own sin nature joy use joy on your heart in order to repent look at him as your longing and lastly community do it in community the verse before verse 16 right before this passage stop verse 26 therefore don't be conceited in provoking one another Paul sees community as the way you're going to get all this done and Paul

[00:45:22] sees getting this done as a way to build better community you're never going to grow in everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself as he is pure let's pray thank you father for giving us this

[00:45:55] comprehensive way to recognize the fruit of the spirit in our lives and to grow it we pray that you would show us just what it you would do that now in Jesus name amen thanks

[00:46:25] for joining us here on the gospel and life podcast if you were encouraged by today's teaching you can help others discover this podcast by rating and reviewing it and to find more great gospel centered content by Tim Keller visit gospel and life dot com today's sermon was recorded in 2002 the sermons and talks you hear on the gospel and life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while