Introduction
· Last week we discussed that we must be filled to the brim with the Word and the Holy Spirit.
· This week I want to impart to you the Word as it relates to walking in the Spirit.
· God created the law to expose sin, but it brought guilt and condemnation.
· When you were born again, you are to walk in the Spirit and not by the law. Jesus Christ set free from the law.
· Living a life according to the Word is walking in the Spirit.
· When you walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the desires of your flesh. You will not follow after the things that are sinful.
· Let’s look at some scriptures this morning and learn to walk in the Spirit.
A. The Law of God –vs. - Our sinful nature.
(NKJV) Romans 7 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. 7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. 9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. 12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. 13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
1. The law was given by God to expose sin & show people of their wrong behavior.
2. The law is not the enemy; it just reveals the truth about sin.
a. Without the law, you would not know if a particular behavior was sinful.
3.The law was given to give life, but it brought guilt and condemnation. We are subject to the judgment of the law.
4. Adam & Eve were the 1st to sin and disobey God’s law.
5. The law does not release a man from their sinful nature.
B. Jesus Christ liberated us from the law so that we can walk in the Spirit.
1. Walking in the flesh (law) is walking and living opposed to the Word of God.
2. Walking in the Spirit is walking and living according to the Word of God.
3.The Word says that there is no condemnation to those who walk in the Spirit.
4. When you are born again, you die to your flesh and became free from the law.
(NKJV) Romans 7 1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
5. God condemned sin in the flesh through His Son, Jesus
(NKJV) Romans 8 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 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, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
6. God sent Jesus to become sin so that the righteous and just fulfillment of the law might fully be met in those who live by the Spirit.
7. Jesus superseded the law.
8. Through Jesus you have been called to liberty and freedom from sin.
(NKJV) Galatians 5 13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
C. Walking in the Spirit gives life.
1. Walking in the Spirit gives life, walking in the flesh brings death.
2. The flesh or carnal thinking brings decay to our bodies.
3. To beat the temptations of the flesh, we must walk in love, joy, peace, self control, etc… walk in the Spirit.
4. Let the Holy Spirit lead you, He is the voice of God in your life.
5. God desires that you have a life of abundance, a great life…be lead by the Holy Spirit.
6. When you walk in the Spirit, you walk in the love of Jesus. You have the ability to love others as God does.
7. When you were born again, the Holy Spirit poured the love of God into your heart.
(NKJV) Romans 5 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Conclusion
· We have been delivered from the law when we received Jesus Christ as Lord. We have a new covenant washed in the blood of Jesus.
· As Believers, we must walk in the Spirit.
· When we walk in the Spirit, we are walking in love. We are setting ourselves up to win in all areas of our life.
· This morning, choose to walk in the Spirit.
· Let us pray.
Salvation/Altar Call
