Follow the Right Guide

Introduction

When you go on a tour of a dark cavern that you know nothing about, a guide is critical. They are critical because they know the terrain and will help you from getting lost, falling off an edge, or just getting delirious and confused.

Or if you are in a foreign nation like Israel for example, you need a guide so you do not wander into an area that will get you killed or worse, tortured on live television.

I read a story as I was preparing this message that has a two-fold illustration for what we are about to study.

The first is that when we follow the right guide we will be okay.

The second is that when we follow the wrong guide we will get lost and end in death.

This story is about a man who went cave diving

In 2002, divers found M.K.’s body at the bottom of an underwater cave in Croatia, 54 meters (177 ft) below the surface. He was alone, but his diving mask had been removed—and there was a 30-centimeter (12 in) knife lodged into his chest.

At first, the police investigated it as a murder. M.K. had gone cave diving with friends, and the police began to suspect that one of them had stabbed him and thrown him overboard to hide the body. Forensics, though, revealed a truth that was more chilling than any murder.

M.K. had gotten lost in the maze of the cave, and his oxygen ran out. With no air left, he started drowning. He swam up to an air bubble between two rocks and tried to breathe it in, but it wasn’t enough to save him. He would die here, he realized, and it would be a horrible and painful death.

The pain of drowning was too much to bear. M.K. stabbed himself in the chest with his own knife to escape the agony.

This end does not have to be our end while we are following Jesus.

We have a guide that will keep us in step and on the right track.

We do not need to get lost and confused or begin to travel the wrong path.

We have the Holy Spirit and are a new creation, we are born again to life in Christ.

What this means is that walking by the Spirit and keeping in step with the Spirit happens to those who belong to Christ Jesus and have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

So, the question this raises is “Who do you walk with?”

Do you walk with the Spirit or with the World/Flesh?

Paul tells us what we gain by following one and what we lose by following the other.

We see this in a well known Scripture from Gal. 5:16-26

Galatians 5:16–26 ESV

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 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. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 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. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Before getting into this text and what it says I want to point out that Paul brackets this text with two imperative’s.

These are “I say, walk by the Spirit,” and “keep in step with the Spirit.”

What we find between these two are what we must do to stay in stride with the Spirit.

So, we will look at this text a little different than normal.

I want to examine what walking with the flesh looks like before examining what it looks like to walk in and with the Spirit.

We do have a battle with two dogs in and around us.

The evil dog of the world and the holy and pure life in Christ.

Which one we feed the most is the one that strides ahead.

We have all we need to feed the pure life because we have the Spirit in us, but we still fight against the flesh because we are still alive in this world.

No one can ever in this life attain moral and spiritual perfection regardless what anyone has taught you in the past. It is impossible for us. If it was possible for us to live a perfect life then Jesus was not necessary.

Yet, some will say that we can now because we have the Spirit in us because of Christ so we have all we need to make this pure and perfect life happen.

Maybe, but this text is clear that we still struggle with the flesh and must fully rely on the Spirit because in our flesh we will have desires that battle against the Spirit and they can win out and often times they do.

So, to show this as truth we will look at the things we have in our flesh before looking at walking with the Spirit.

When we follow the Spirit over the flesh, we will not end up like M.K. did in that cavern, but will be walking with the Lord always.

Let us now look at the battle we are in.

The Battle Inside

When following Jesus we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.

We see this in Gal. 5:13-15 when Paul says the whole law is fulfilled when we love our neighbor as ourselves.

If you are walking by the guide that is the world and your flesh, you will not love your neighbor as yourselves.

You will be at odds against them and they against you, at least in your mind.

You will always be in a battle that is not even there.

You are in this battle because you are losing the battle that is inside you.

You are allowing the enemy to win out when you allow the flesh to win.

In verse 17 we see this battle.

Paul wrote, Galatians 5:17 “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.”

They are opposed.

This sounds like battle terminology to me.

If we are in a battle, don’t you think it is critical to know what you are battling against?

I do. I believe we need to know our enemy well.

In this case your enemy is yourself. You are the enemy.

What do you know about yourself?

What do you tend toward in life?

Do you have weaknesses you have hidden for fear of what others will say that come screaming out at the most inopportune time?

The problem is, we do not know ourselves as well as we think we do.

Jeremiah told us our hearts are evil and inclined to evil only (Jer. 17:9-10).

We deceive ourselves because we have this evil still inside us that is slowly being perfected by the Spirit working in us.

Yet, we tend to suppress His work because we fight against change.

That is why Paul said if we are led by the Spirit.

He said in verse 18 “but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

What Paul means by this is that the law of Moses can not fix this battle.

The law only exposes the battle. The law does not fix the battle, because we are unable to fulfill the law.

The law does not fix the inner struggle but only shines a light on what we can’t fix which can make us crawl deeper into shame.

No, Paul is saying that this battle is only won by walking or being led by or with the Spirit.

The Spirit is what fixes us from the inside out rather than us trying to fix ourselves by the outside in, as the law does.

In that we see direct strikes against what is the works of the flesh in verses 19-20.

In these verses we see that Paul speaks against three categories of fleshly sins.

Sexual perversions: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, and orgies.

Sexual sins covers all sexual impurities. These include all kinds of premarital or extramarital relations, all relations that are against biblical standards, group relations, impure seduction for gain which is sensuality. Pornography of any kind including the new kid on the block: AI porn. All sexual sins fit here regardless what they are.

False worship: idolatry, sorcery (pharmakia, magic, sorcery. This is also where we get pharmacy from, it also is about drugs).

False worship includes anything that is not pure God glorifying worship. Occult, new age, Wicca, superstition, mixing other religions (think Bennie from the Mummy), and any idolatry (statues, prayers to saints, Mary, or any other idol like sports, games, hunting, work, family).

Social and Personal: enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, and drunkenness.

Enmity is nothing more than hostility against another. Strife is the same but different because it is more about divisions.

These include anything that is destructive to families, churches, communities, and sins against our own bodies.

Like enmity, and strife which only causes hate. Then there is slander, gossip, bitterness, grudges, revenge, road rage, no forgiveness, abuse of all kinds.

Then against ourselves there is alcoholism, drug addiction, workaholism, gluttony, and all self-destructive behavior. This includes cutting, self-hate, self-abuse of any kind, and many other forms.

This is the works of the flesh what the path of the world as guide gets us.

Also, Paul says this path causes us to lose out on our kingdom inheritance.

This path leads to death and destruction not only of yourself but of those around you.

If you think your sin only affects you, you are terribly mistaken.

Your sins impact many around you which is what is means in the OT when it says that one’s sins will impact to the tenth generation.

That sin affects the family for a long time. Not that each person is cursed by the sin of the dad, but it affects the family for a long time.

There is such a thing as generational curses. People can follow the same path and not even know why they do.

That is the effect of sin on those around you.

This path leads to death just like the path the diver from the introduction was on.

He went in thinking all would be good and fun, only to wind up stabbing himself to stop the pain that was coming.

That is the path the flesh and the world as guide takes you down.

But if you are led by the Spirit you do not need to follow this path.

The Spirit and the flesh battle but the Spirit is far more powerful and will win but you must choose to follow Him as your guide. When we do this we will have...

The Victory by the Spirit

Living in victory is living by the Spirit.

When we do this we are not just dabbing a toe in the water to test it.

No, we are going in full tilt.

We are diving in and getting totally submerged.

As one commentator put it, “Living by the Spirit does not mean a casual part-time relationship. We must treat his control like a shower. If we stand back and stick a hand or foot into the stream of water, we may guess the temperature of the water, but we will never get clean. We must be immersed in the Holy Spirit as if stepping fully into the shower’s cleansing and invigorating stream, letting it cover us” (Bruce B. Barton, Galatians, Life Application Bible Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1994), 179).

This is what walking in the Spirit is all about. This is what being led by the Spirit is all about.

When we are His and we make ourselves to remain open to Him, we will not half-way do things but we will be fully immersed in the Lord and His ways.

We are not doing it because it is something we are bound to do to be seen as pure.

It is not something we do because it is the way and it is proper.

We do it because we are led and filled by the one who guides us and tells us what is right and proper.

It is like a set of rules.

That is the law that Paul is speaking of too.

The law was these rules like when parents are out from the house. Children have specific rules to follow when parents are gone. Like who gets in, and where the kids can go and do without the parents. But when the parents are home those rules are still in place but the parents are personally supervising. We are supervised by the Spirit now and we are not worried about measuring up to the law because the Spirit will let us know when we go astray just as the parents do the children.

Through this aspect, we have victory because we are no longer hampered by fear of failure because with the Spirit in us we have victory. We do because He guides us and tells us what and where we are slipping.

We just have to be open and ready for His promptings and drawings.

Be open to the Spirit moving in you.

For example, if you feel a prick of reservation about watching something, don’t watch it.

If you feel a concern about doing something you are not sure of, don’t do it.

If you feel compelled to do something you may not have normally desired to do, as long as this desire is something glorifying to God, do it.

All of these are promptings of the Spirit.

As we see the fruit, singular, of the Spirit in these next few verses.

We see that they are of two forms. One is under the Love section and the other is under the Peace section.

Love consists of Kindness, goodness, patience, gentleness, and self-control.

Peace section has faithfulness, and joy under it.

When we love our neighbors as ourselves we will be kind to them over rude and disorderly. Love demands self-sacrifice and surrender. We care for others at the expense of ourselves a lot.

Kindness means we are helpful and beneficial to others. We are not only in life for ourselves but people naturally know we are kind and caring and will help them if they are in need.

Goodness is not just being good because we are not good but Christ in us and this flows into being generous, which is love because we do not hoard all things but willingly share.

Patience is we do not easily anger and we take the time to do things correctly. We stay calm under pressure and endure because love demands endurance.

Gentleness is similar to humility. In this we do not have a high view of ourselves at the expense of others. We are open to others views and help them rather than look down on them.

Self-control is a restraint of our emotions. We are not easily set off or drawn into beliefs because our emotions control us. We willingly suppress desires that are not of God or good for those we love, which is supposed to be all people.

Peace is a harmonious relationship with others. We strive for harmony over dissensions. We do not willingly do things to irritate others or cause them suffering. We try to find a way to make life better and good for others with us and not just ourselves.

Faithfulness is our trustworthiness. We are trustworthy and dependable. By our faithfulness to others we show we are truly for them and they are important. We are trustworthy.

Joy means we have a state of gladness in all situations. People know they can look to you in any and all situations because you have joy in it all.

When we live by these we will not become envious, conceited, or provoking of others.

We will live for other people and desire their good and we will live a life that demonstrates this.

We can live this way because of the Spirit in us. We can do this because Christ has shown us and given us the Spirit to help us.

This is only possible by the Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit is the spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit in us. The Spirit produces these character traits that are found in the nature of Christ. They are the by-products of Christ’s control; we can’t obtain them by trying to get them without his help. If we want the fruit of the Spirit to grow in us, we must join our lives to his (see John 15:4–5). We must know him, love him, remember him, and imitate him. As a result, we will fulfill the intended purpose of the law: to love God and our neighbors. Which of these qualities do you want the Spirit to produce in you?

Bruce B. Barton, Galatians, Life Application Bible Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1994), 188.

We can develop this fruit when we continue to follow the right guide.

The right guide will always point to these fruits just mentioned and never to the fruit of the world.

If you find yourself looking at the fruit of the world, then you know you are following the wrong guide.

But when you are looking at the good fruit of the Spirit, then you know you are walking with the right guide.

Conclusion

I want to end with this warning

Pride makes us perpetually vulnerable to temptation. When Satan can’t stop our spiritual growth, his tactic immediately changes to using pride. As soon as we notice progress, we should expect pride to set in. This will especially be true if we measure our growth against the progress others are making. Growth should be cause not for pride but for humility and thanksgiving because it comes from God.

Bruce B. Barton, Galatians, Life Application Bible Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1994), 194–195.

We all desire a little affirmation and approval from others, but we must not go out of our way for that. We can develop a healthy habit of looking to God for approval.

When we do this, we will not envy others or desire to be like them because we are pleasing God where we are doing what we are doing.

When we live this way, we will not get lost in the green forest of envy and dark woods of bitterness, but will always walk in the lush garden filled with the fruit of the Spirit.

Keep close to your guide and know that He will take you right where you are supposed to go.