May 4, 2003
Morning Service
Text: Galatians 5:16-18; 22-25
Subject: Life in the Spirit
Title: Growing in the Spirit.
The war in Iraq is essentially over. The enemy has been defeated. There are still skirmishes being fought but for all intents and purposes the war is over. This was a war in a nation where the people have always been taught that America is the ?Great Satan? and is the enemy. Even though Sadaam Hussein brutally tortured, maimed and even killed many of his own countrymen, America was still the enemy.
Now we have seen the video of American troops rolling into Baghdad and the citizens there welcoming them with great rejoicing. It didn?t take long for the tide of public sentiment to begin to resort to its old way of thinking. ?Americans go home? has now become a common cry from the people of Iraq. Why? Because regardless of how great the experience of liberation may have been for the Iraqis, the newness quickly rubs off and people resort to their old way of life. Once again America is the enemy and needs to leave the Iraqi people to their own way of life and government. Liberation is fleeting and if the Iraqi people had their own way, they would allow another dictator to take over ? not another one like Sadaam ? but possibly even more dangerous. It would be a government run by Moslem clerics much like Iran. So the people soon fall back into the same routine. They return to the only thing they know ? being anti-American.
Paul, in writing to the churches of Galatia, confronts them in a similar situation. You have been liberated from the Law that leads to death, so why are you returning to it? In our passage today Paul gives a clear teaching of what it takes to hold on to Christian liberty and not return to the bondage of sin. The answer to the problem is life in the Spirit.
I. The Spirit wars against the flesh.
a. What does it mean to walk in the Spirit? (Verse 16)
i. ?Walk? is talking about your Christian walk. It is the way you approach the ?road of life?
ii. Have you ever seen a coyote or a fox running across a field a long way off? Even if it was too far to recognize their appearance, you can always tell those animals by the way they run.
iii. A Christian will be recognized by the way he or she walks the road of life.
1. Romans 6:12, ?Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.?
2. Psalm 119:100,101, ?I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way.?
iv. If you are walking in the Spirit you allow the Spirit to do what He was sent to do.
1. Guide you.
a. Turn to John 16:13, ?However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.?
b. When the Spirit of truth has come?
i. Has the Spirit come?
ii. What is He going to do?
1. Guide you into all truth.
iii. That tells me that as long as we trust in the lord the Spirit will continue to minister to us. When we get ready to step out in the wrong direction the caution lights will start flashing.
iv. When we are taking that final step into sin the stop - light goes up.
v. If we don?t stop then the Holy Spirit will convict us of our sin in order that we might recognize it and repent.
2. The Holy Spirit will tell you of things to come.
a. If we are truly walking in the Spirit, and the Spirit knows the future, we can rest assured that He will not lead us down wrong paths.
b. ?If we walk in the Spirit you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh? (verse 16). I will go a step further than that.
i. If you walk in the Spirit you cannot fulfill the lust of the flesh.
1. Let?s define flesh.
a. The Greek word, ?sarx? originally meant the soft tissue of the body. It eventually came to mean the whole body. When taken into Christian context it refers to the whole man, which is conditioned by the desires of the natural. Since the natural man or ?the old nature? is born out of the sin of Adam the physical, intellectual, and moral aspects of man has limitations.
i. The flesh is incapable of knowing God apart from special revelation and redemption that removes the barrier of sin.
c. ?For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.
i. If the Spirit of God dwells in you it doesn?t automatically mean that the flesh is put to death.
1. There is a constant conflict.
a. Paul wrote, ?For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.?
b. Remember from my opening statements about Iraq, the people resort to what is natural for them?
c. Our human nature ? the flesh - operates in much the same way.
i. If we are not constantly aware of the prompting of the Spirit in our lives, we will automatically begin to move back to what is natural.
1. What is that?
a. The flesh.
d. For some reason there are some Christians who tend to think you can have it both ways.
e. Look again what Paul says in Romans 8:5-6, ?For those who live according to the flesh (even Christians) set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.?
ii. Because there is a constant battle we must be in a continual state of spiritual awareness. We must be listening for the Spirit?s voice to lead us where we should go.
1. Look out for the caution lights.
d. ?But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
i. What does the Law have to do with anything?
1. Paul is saying that you have a choice. You can either be justified by faith, which brings eternal life, or, you can attempt (even as a Christian) to be justified by the Law, which brings condemnation.
2. If you are led by the Spirit.
a. Saved by grace through faith
3. You don?t have to work for your salvation.
a. I?m not saying you don?t have to do good works.
i. It?s just that those works don?t save you.
ii. If you continue to try to earn your salvation after you have been saved by grace then you make the cross of no effect.
1. Galatians 5:3-4, ?And I testify to every man who becomes circumcised (attempts to be saved by the Law) that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.?
ii. Following the law is in the flesh and is contrary to the Spirit.
II. Works of the Flesh.
a. Paul gives us a list of sins.
i. Verse 19 ? sexual sins
ii. Verse 20 (first two) ? Sins and pagan religion.
iii. Next nine ? sins of temper
iv. Last two sins of drunkenness
b. Not only these sins but also those like them.
c. Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
i. If you attempt to walk according to the law and not by the Spirit it is a guarantee that you will fall back to your old nature.
III. If you live by the Spirit fruit will be present in your life.
a. Notice that the fruit of the Spirit is mentioned in contrast to the works of the flesh.
i. Works come by working.
ii. Fruit comes by faith.
1. Also notice that when Paul talks about works of the flesh He uses the plural ? ?works?
2. When he speaks of fruit it is singular.
a. Unlike works of the flesh, each one of which can bring death, the believer is expected to exhibit all the fruit of the Spirit in their lives.
i. It?s not like the gifts of the Spirit, which the Holy Spirit gives to believers as He sees fit.
iii. Significant that the first fruit mentioned is love.
1. Agape love
a. Supernatural all encompassing love that helps us to love the unlovable.
b. It is the supernatural ability to love Christ as He loved us.
2. Joy ? the kind of joy you have that when you die it takes the undertaker two days to wipe the smile off your face.
3. The peace that passes all understanding ? knowing that God never leaves you nor forsakes you ? He is always by your side.
4. longsuffering (or patience), kindness, goodness ?
5. all with supernatural abundance.
6. Faithfulness ? walking in the Spirit will find you in church every time the doors are open. Faithfulness will see you supporting the church with your tithes and offerings. Faithfulness will find you helping others in times of need ? without showing favoritism.
7. Gentleness ? Spurgeon says that, ?Gentleness is the kind of spirit that does not demand proper respect. What is the proper respect that is due to poor creatures like ourselves? If we should get our due respect we would not take it for long.?
8. Self control. We see self-control as a benefit for ourselves. But the spirit of self-control benefits others as well.
b. Against such there is no law.
i. There is no law against the fruit of the Spirit.
ii. But if you have the fruit of the Spirit in your lives, you don?t need the law. It has already been fulfilled.
c. Belonging to Christ. (Verse 24)
i. Crucify the flesh with its passions and desires. (Lusts)
1. Galatians 2:20, ?I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.?
2. Romans 6:6, ?knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.?
3. Even though the old self has been nailed to the cross, that old life can linger. We must never attempt to take down from the cross was has been nailed up.
d. If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit.
i. It is interesting to note that in our passage today there are two different Greek words that are translated ?walk?.
1. The first in verse 16is peripateo. It refers to normal walking as walking down the road of life.
2. The second, in verse 25, is stoicheo. It means to walk in line with or to stay in line with. The meaning? To Keep in step with the Spirit.
3. Our Christian walk is more than just carelessly walking down life?s road with an attitude of invincibility.
a. If God is for me who can be against me?
4. It is carefully following in the footsteps that the Spirit has laid out for you.
a. You think you are invincible?
i. Just step out of one of those Holy Ghost footprints and see.
ii. Romans 8:14, ?For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.?
IV. Keep your eyes on Christ. (Verse 26)
a. If you compare yourself to others you might become conceited.
i. ?The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ?God I thank You that I am not like other men ? extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.?
ii. You might provoke someone.
1. When we should be, ?Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.? (Ephesians 5:19-21)
iii. You might become envious of someone.
1. James 3:16, ?For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.?
2. That is not walking in the Spirit.
Walking in the Spirit is not something that just automatically happens when you receive the gift of eternal life. It is something you need to work at. It was difficult for the apostle Paul. But we are given everything we need to walk in the Spirit. The more we do it, the more sensitive we become to the prompting of the Spirit. The more we hear the Spirit?s voice inside of us the easier it becomes to recognize it. The more we recognize it, the easier it becomes to defeat the flesh and walk in the Spirit. And instead of completing a cycle we begin all over again till we become totally aware of two people living inside of us ? a spiritual man and a physical man. Once we can differentiate between the two we move towards a point where walking in the spirit doesn?t have to be a decision as much as it becomes our mindset and then our lifestyle.
There was a Christian lady who was well known for her faith and her willingness to share it with others. Every morning she would walk out onto her front porch and shout, ?Praise the Lord.? Now it just so happened that she had a neighbor who was an atheist and when she would shout, ?Praise the Lord.? He would get very angry and call back, ?There ain?t no Lord.?
Well it happened that the lady fell on hard times and didn?t know where the money was going to come from for groceries. She stood out on the front porch and cried, ?Lord, it?s me. I don?t have anything to eat. You need to send me some groceries.?
The next morning she walked out on the front porch and there was a bag of groceries. ?Praise the Lord. Thank You for the groceries.? At which time the neighbor jumped out of the bushes and cried, ?I told you there ain?t no Lord. I bought those groceries for you.?
?Praise the Lord. You not only sent me groceries, You got the devil to pay for them.?
That?s walking in the Spirit.
