Grace From Galatians (16 Of 19)

We also pointed out that the flesh is not sinful. The body in which we live is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

HOW DO WE KNOW THESE BODIES ARE NOT SINFUL WITHIN THEMSELVES?

Because this body in which we live is the same type of body in which Christ lived, and He was without sin.

All sin resides in man’s sinful heart. The flesh only manifests what is in the heart. The body is no more than flesh, bones and tissue, and only functions as God intended it to function.

But there are heathen who think the body is sinful, and they feel it pleases God to cut and burn themselves. IT DOES NOT! Our flesh only reveals what is in our heart.

I can assure you on the basis of God’s Word:

• If you have sin in your heart, this flesh will reveal it.

• If you have the Holy Spirit within your heart, this flesh will reveal it.

In this passage of scripture that we are going to be dealing with in this sermon, we are going to look at what it means to WALK IN THE SPIRIT.

If you ask some Christians if they are SPIRIT FILLED, they will immediately say, “Yes, I am a Spirit filled Christian.”

But if you are around them for very long, you will see them doing things or saying things that a Spirit filled person would not be saying or doing.

WHY DO THEY THINK THEY ARE SPIRIT FILLED?

Because their religious group teaches that if you do certain THINGS, this is what constitutes being Spirit filled. So based on what they have been taught constitutes being Spirit filled, they feel they have met the requirements.

Listen, we can only wish that our church was Spirit filled. If it was, it would solve every problem this church has.

To be Spirit filled means we are completely controlled by the Spirit. That is, we are walking twenty-four hours a day in the Spirit of God. And I do not know of any church that can truthfully make that claim.

But this is something that every Christian should be striving for every day. When we WALK IN THE SPIRIT twenty-four hours a day, we will not FULFILL THE LUSTS OF THE FLESH.

Look what this passage of Scripture teaches us:

I. THE MANIFESTATION OF A SPIRIT FILLED LIFE

Look at Galatians 5:22-23, we read, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

As the children of God, we will begin to take on the very nature of God.

Illus: Have you ever met a Christian that walked in the Spirit of God and their very nature reflected the Holy God of heaven that lived in their heart? That is, their life began to bear fruit that revealed Christ is in control of their life.

Notice, the Word “fruit” is singular, not plural.

• The Holy Spirit has only one fruit, and it is broken down into various kinds of fruits

• The nature of Christ is singular, and when He lives within our life He will be revealed in many ways.

As was walk in the Spirit of God, every fruit of the Spirit will be seen in our life. As we walk in the Spirit, look at the kinds of fruit that we will bear.

A. LOVE

Paul starts off by listing LOVE as number one. Why? Because it is one of the greatest gifts of all.

Remember, to be Spirit filled means that Christ is in control of our lives. This agape love that the Bible is talking about here, is God’s love. This is a SELFLESS LOVE that very few know anything about.

This is the most important fruit of the Spirit because all the others are nothing without the fruit of LOVE.

Look at 1 Cor. 13:13, we read, “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”

B. JOY

This is an inner gladness. This leads to a cheerful heart.

A lot of Christians know joy from without, but they do not know a thing about joy from within.

That is, when everything happens to fall in place they are one happy dude.

But if things do not fall in place they lose their joy.

When we are controlled by the Spirit of God, even when things do not go well, we still have that INNER JOY.

C. PEACE

This is the word “eirene” which means to bind together or weave together.

The Hebrew word is “shalom.”

The meaning is this: A man must be “woven” together with God before he is at peace with himself and with others.

The reason so many are not at peace with others is because they are not at peace with themselves. But when we are ‘woven” with Christ, we can have PEACE with ourselves and with others.