In Step with the Spirit

The Savior who gave his life for us also forms his life in us.

Galatians 5:16–25 ESV

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

We’re looking at the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, especially how he gives us new life by uniting us to Christ and then forming the life of Christ within us.

Recall the work of the Spirit - new birth, filling: Ezek 36:26

Recall the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit

Sinful nature, not body.

Paul points out that one of two possible principles is dominating and animating our lives. One is destructive and deadly. The other is beautiful and life-giving. We are born of the flesh or born of the Spirit (Galatians 4).

Works of the flesh and Fruit of the Spirit - two lists, one of Vices and the other of Virtues

Works are immediate and need no nurture. These irruptions of carnality explode from within us; they destroy and they damn.

Fruit, on the other hand, is gradual and eternal. It is a sign of life and it is life-giving to others.

Fruit is not simply grown in us but is given through us to others. That’s an essential difference between flesh and spirit - one consumes for personal gain or pleasure; the other produces to benefit others.

Notes on “works of the flesh” - immorality (Porneia - a general term for all sexual intercourse outside the bond of marriage); idolatry (making gods of things and making a thing of God); sorcery (pharmakeia - the use of drugs to induce states of suspended consciousness); selfish ambition (in Rome, seeking to gain political power by illegal means);

I. The Fruit of the Spirit

A. Spiritual

Love, Joy, Peace

B. Social

patience, kindness, goodness

C. Personal

faithfulness, gentleness, & self-control

II. Becoming Fruitful

Wild Grapes - Isaiah 5:1–5 “Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.”

A. Flesh - KILL IT.

Liam Neeson approach to our fallenness

B. Spirit - Form up!

My dad’s steps through the deep snow.

Christ is the fruitful one. He called us to ‘bear fruit’ and then said, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” Orange trees don’t “try” to produce oranges, and they won’t produce grapes. They produce what’s in them.

Close: Genesis 1 tells us that it is on the third day that fruit-bearing trees and plants rise from the ground. It was a prophetic picture of that on the third day, Christ would rise and be reproduced again and again in the lives of those in whom he lives.