Galatians 5:16-18 (NKJV)
Walk in the Spirit
August 4, 2022
Intro: Verse14 & 15 - For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! The subject of our lesson today beginning at verse 16 is based on the predicate of verses 14 & 15 that love is the fulfillment of the law and furthermore we must love our neighbor as ourselves. So, Paul asserts, “I say then” because it’s love, “Walk in the Spirit!” We have to talk about some Holy Ghost Victories today! Because We have Victory Over Lust – Victory In The Lessons of Life & Victory Over The Law!
A. v.16 THE LUST “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” To walk in, means to surrender to - because we will either be led by our flesh, or led by the Holy Spirit. Which one wins depends upon which one we yield to - Romans 6:17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Therefore, if you Walk in the Spirit you shall have Victory over the Flesh v.16! The Spirit will defeat the flesh if we will allow Him to, because 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” - We still have a say in what we allow in our lives! Therefore, we need to avoid places, people, projects, persuasions, or anything that brings temptation to us! If we mess around with it, we will give in to it! King Solomon asks in Proverbs 6:27 Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be seared?
Illus: The was a Christian Brother who brought his computer to my computer repair shop that I owned years ago. I charged him for 2 hours of service to clean his computer of viruses, malware and spyware. I told him that these types of viruses usually come from a specific type of browsing history. I warned him that the sites he was visiting were most likely infecting his computer. This was before browsers had an “incognito” mode. And if you don’t know what that is you don’t need to know! After returning to my shop month after month for the same issues, I explained to this Christian, Brother, how pornography gives a false reality of pleasure and it makes the viewer want experiences that do not exist in a healthy romantic relationship. He gladly paid his reoccurring bill and said, “Awe, Reverend… you know how it is?” Family if we Walk in the Spirit we will not fulfil the lust of the flesh! But if we play with fire, we are going to get burned! If we walk on hot coals, we are going to be seared!
B. v.17 THE LESSON “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.” Paul says here is a life lesson for you, “Let me explain further. Live your life as your spiritual nature directs you. Then you will never follow through on what your corrupt nature wants.” (GWT) There is a war going on inside of you, but the Bible teaches that you can have Holy Ghost Victory!
ILLS: A man came to counseling many years ago and it was evident that he had a chip on his shoulder! He was a successful man, loving wife, and beautiful heathy children. And when the conversation began, he started from the beginning of how he had to prove his teachers wrong (they said because of his learning disability he would never hold a professional job he should work manual labor). He had to prove his friends wrong (they said he would never date the cheerleader if he was not an athlete). He had to prove his father wrong (he said that he would never be able to provide for his family without a college education). He had to prove his wife wrong (she said that you are a good worker, but you will never be a good supervisor). One by one we began to strip away the negative ideas that were embedded down deep in his psyche where he was always at war with someone’s opinion of him. We needed to find the root cause. So we brought his wife in and resolved that she had never said such a thing. We, soon after, called his father and he too had never told his son such things. We began to talk about his childhood education, and he could not name the teacher who said he was not going to succeed and when we pulled out his High School yearbook he could not point out one student who was the voice of this discouragement. Who told you these awful things? Who was this voice of discouragement? And we found after years of counseling that the voice of discouragement was inside his mind the whole time! It was not the voice of his teacher! It was not the voice of his father! It was not the voice of his wife! He had spent his whole life at war with himself because he had never learned this lesson. He had spent his whole life trying to convince himself that he was not a failure, because he had being telling himself lies. I’ve learned a long time ago an African Proverb, “If there is no enemy within, the enemy on the outside can’t harm you!” You see the lesson is this, 1 John 4:4 “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” If you Walk in the Spirit, you won’t be led astray by the flesh!
C. v.18 THE LAW “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” This verse declares the truth that the Law of Moses was made for those who walk after the flesh. When we are yielded to and walking in the Spirit, the Law of Moses serves no purpose in our lives. Because, we automatically have a desire to fulfill the Law of God as it is written in our heart, 1 Timothy 1:8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. Therefore, for the Saint, the Law of God, that we should love our neighbor as ourselves, is not a condition to be met for salvation. Rather, the lessons we learn from loving our neighbor is an indicator of our love for Jesus Christ. Regardless of what you say about Jesus, how you treat your neighbor shows whether you love the Lord or not! We make the determination as to who we are, based on who we are surrendered to in our lives! If you are not Led by the Spirit, you are Led by the Flesh! Listen, you can’t beat the flesh, you must surrender to the Spirit of God! The Holy Ghost will defeat our flesh and give us the victory over it as we surrender to Jesus and Jesus alone! You cannot love your neighbor, until you surrender to the Holy Ghost of Jesus Christ!
ILLS: The law of a certain man’s house is that messy dogs belong outside – He had an old dog that started showing signs that she was not going to make it through the week. She could not hold her food down and every time she ate, she would throw it all up soon after. He tried wet food; He tried dry food; He tried a mix of kibble and chicken broth and found himself moping the floor every time she tried to eat. He knew that in order for her to survive she was going to have to continue to try to eat, so he began to put her feeding bowl outside in the yard so if she could not hold it down at least it would be in the grass and not in the house. And then she stopped trying to eat all together and he told his children that the end was near for their old dog. So the children came over one by one to try to hand feed that old dog. And soon she began to eat again. Little by little she began to eat again. Little by little she began to get her strength again. The father asked, “How did you get that old dog to start eating again?” They said, “Daddy, we brought her back inside to eat where the family eats because she won’t eat outside.” They said, “we feed her only what she could handle until she could handle more.” The father said, “She is just a dog that refused to eat and she was making a mess on the inside.” They said, “She may be just a dog, but she is your dog!” I think it was Elvis who said, “He ain’t nothing but a hound dog, he won’t catch no rabbits, he ain’t no friend of mine.” But I want to remind somebody that it may be just a dog, but it's your dog and you need to do whatever it takes to feed them! I know you are sick of them making a mess in your house but they’re your dog and gotta figure out what it takes for them hold that food down! They may not be able to handle a full amount right now, but little by little you can get them back to health! From this illustration I realize that the Law of the House says that if you messy you belong outside, but I just heard the Apostle say that if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law! There are some folks that you counted out because they were messy and are not worthy of the time and effort it takes to get them back spiritually healthy. I know that the law says you are done with them, but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law!
There was a time when you and I were bound by the Law, held hostage by the Law and judged guilty by the Law but in the fullness of time God sent his Son! Galatians 4:3 says, “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” Let me tell you the Good News of God’s Redemption Plan! The Bible says Jesus died, was buried, rose again, ascended into glory and is coming back!
