Living By The Spirit

We find ourselves in a very popular and famous part of Galatians, .

Go ahead open up to that now, .

Read .

As we read through this text theres many famous lines about the Spirit.

“Led by the Spirit”

“Works of the Flesh”

“Fruit of the Spirit”

“Crucify the flesh”

“Live by the Spirit”

“Keep in step with the Spirit”

All these famous words, and if you asked various Christians what they mean, you’d get a variety of answers.

Anytime we talk about the Spirit, specifically the Holy Spirit, things tend to get weird, and weird real fast.

What does it mean to be led by the Spirit?

Last week we talked about walking by the Spirit, and this carries along the same idea.

What does it mean to be led by the Spirit?

Some people think that being led by the Spirit is equivalent to living with the Force, much like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars.

Others think that being led by the Spirit is like Spider-Man’s spidey sense, it lets you know of dangers before they happen.

You drive through a parking lot, and the Holy Spirit will nudge you into the perfect parking spot.

Others think that being led by the Holy Spirit is having a secret knowledge.

The thinking is there is this inner voice that is directing you.

The author of one article I read went so far as to say that sometimes, Jesus doesn’t know where the Spirit is leading you.

I get nervous when talking about these things, but with Scripture as our guide, we can definitely come to some conclusions about these things.

In our text, Paul is contrasting the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit.

He is contrasting the person who is led by his own desires, and the person who is led by the Spirit.

The first thing we see is that being Led by the Spirit means crucifying the flesh.

What are the works of the flesh?

In verse 19 Paul says that the works of the flesh are evident.

In verse 19 Paul says that the works of the flesh are evident.

This means that they are not a secret.

There were 2 times that someone entered the church and stole things.

We also found other attempts to enter the building by breaking in.

In each of these events, there was evidence, there was proof.

Pretend there’s a guy who has a “kick me” sign on the back of his shirt.

He doesn’t know about it.

Something destructive was done.

Throughout the day people keep kicking him and he doesn’t know why.

Locks were pried open .

Finally, he sits down and hear the crinkle of the paper rustling against the chair.

Doors were pried open.

He reaches back and he pulls off the sign, and reads those words, “Kick me.”

There was evidence of a crime.

And now he’s irritated.

In the same way the works of the flesh are evident.

Why didn’t anyone tell him about the sign?

It has left it’s mark within the heart of all mankind.

The sign was not evident to him.

His lack of information made him a victim.

The works of the flesh begin with wicked desires.

The works of the flesh are not like this.

It’s not an outside pressure.

You are not walking through life unaware of your sin.

The devil didn’t make you sin.

We are aware of our sin.

You sin, not because you are lacking information, but because you choose to.

You can’t blame it on anyone else.

The works of the flesh are evident.

This is all you.

In , Paul says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

In , Jesus said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

The works of the flesh begin internally, then they get worked out.

Suppress the truth.

You know the truth.

You push away the truth.

From 2000-2006, we had a pastor named Murray Hollis.

I remember one Sunday morning sitting in one of those seats, and I was messing around.

I don’t remember specifically what I was doing, but I was causing a distraction.

I didn’t think Murray would be able to spot me in the crowd.

Since becoming pastor, I’ve learned how wrong I was.

I see everything up from up here.

You whisper to your neighbor I see it.

And some of you don’t whisper very quietly, and I hear it too.

The next week, Murray pulled me aside, and asked me what I was doing.

At that moment I knew my behavior was evident, I was caught.

I apologized and said I was sorry.

Murray didn’t let me off the hook.

He said, “Luke, I learned how to behave better than that when I was 6 years old.”

And the truth is, he was right.

I knew how I was supposed to act in church.

I knew better.

But I did it anyway.

I made a decision to suppress what is right and do something that is wrong.

The same goes for us and our sins, we know what is right, we suppress the truth and we sin anyway.

That’s the big point of , everyone has a knowledge of right and wrong.

In Paul says, “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”

God has revealed His law, a knowledge of right or wrong to everyone.

It’s written on our consciences.

You don’t have to have read the Bible to know that it is wrong to murder.

You don’t have to read the Bible to know that it is wrong to steal.

This means that no one can say they didn’t know better.

Those who are religious have sinned.

And even those who are not religious have sinned.

Then you make it to and there’s that big statement, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

We know what is sin.

It is evident.

It is clear.

In addition to all of us knowing how we ought to behave, there is a variety to our sin.

We don’t all sin the same way.

All sin is lawbreaking, but we are not all held captive to the same kind of sin.

Paul describes this variety in verses 19-21, “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."

This isn’t an exhaustive list of sin.

It’s not every sin that there is.

We see a variety of sin.

You could break down these sins into 3 different categories.

There is sexual sin.

He begins the sexual portion by saying sexual immorality.

That’s not just one kind of sexual sin, but it covers the whole range of sexual sin.

Then there is religious sin; idolatry and sorcery.

People continue to practice this today.

Even sorcery.

Sorcery, the word for sorcery is pharmaskeia.

It’s where we get the word pharmacy from.

This has to do with potions, drugs, and mind altering substances.

Ancient cults would take various forms of drugs to manufacture different ways of thinking.

It would alter their reality.

To take their minds to another plane.

To get high.

There are sins centered around our relationships.

Enmity

Strife

Jealousy

Fits of Anger

Rivalries

Dissensions

Divisions

Envy

Drunkenness

And orgies.

And we know that this isn’t an exhaustive list because in the middle of verse 21 Paul says, “and things like these.”

That’s like saying, “etcetera”

He says, “You get the picture”

These are the works of the flesh.

They are well known.

They are well seen.

But they are not harmless either.

What are the affects of the flesh?

The works of the flesh affect the soul.

Back to the middle of verse 21, “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Understand, that Paul isn’t saying you will be perfect if you are a Christian.

But those who habitually sin, who make a practice of these things, their sin will be evident.

Understand, that Paul isn’t saying you will be perfect if you are a Christian.

He says that those who do such things ...

Those who practice these things.

But those who habitually sin, who make a practice of these things, their sin will be evident.

Those who are addicted to their sin, habitually sin, they will not inherit the kingdom of God.

This might sound extreme.

Paul’s talking to the church.

And in talking to the church he says

“Those who do these things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

So there are people in the church who habitually do these things and they won’t go to heaven?”

And the answer is yes, they will not go to heaven.

This sounds extreme, because so many people equate salvation to:

Saying a prayer.

Walking an aisle.

Or saying something simple like “I believe in Jesus.”

All the while continuing to live in sin.

Bumper sticker theology drives me crazy, and there’s one phrase that makes me nuts.

“I’m not perfect but I’m forgiven.”

As if to say, I believe in Jesus, but I still live in my sin."

It’s okay if I sin, because I believe in Jesus.

As if God’s fine with sin.

But that’s not what Paul says. Paul is not calling people to do the bare minimum.

He says those who do these things, who make a practice of these things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Some of those actions you might agree with.

Idolatry - Okay, that’s clear.

Orgies - Okay, that’s just gross.

But there are other things listed there that are too common.

Fits of anger.

“Oh I’m just an angry person.”

Drunkenness

Even sexual immorality, because that covers the whole spectrum right.

And Paul makes a black and white statement, those who do those things, those who continually practice these things, they will not inherit the kingdom.

But for many Christians, or so called Christians, they’re still addicted to their sins.

They continue to do these things.

Nothing has changed.

Paul’s words to them are brand new, they’ve never heard this before.

What’s the problem?

They’ve fallen victim to cheap grace, easy believism.

Paul says, “I warn you, as I warned you before ...”

That means this isn’t the first time Paul has said this.

This teaching is central to a person’s response to the Gospel.

In fact, you could say that a person hasn’t responded rightly to the Gospel till there has been some kind of change because these are the actions that disqualify a person from heaven.

Where else has Paul talked about this?

says, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” - Same language - “Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

Maybe you’re sitting there and you are thinking this sounds a little too legalistic.

You are wondering, “What about Jesus? Doesn’t He forgive sins.”

Yes He does.

He most definitely forgives sins.

But He not only forgives sins, but He changes your heart.

explains it this way, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

This means that when a person’s sins are forgiven, he doesn’t remain how he was, his behavior changes as well.

If a person claims to be a Christian, but continues to habitually practice these sins then you can only make one conclusion … he is still in his sins and he will not inherit the kingdom of God.

That’s why in Jesus said you must be born again to inherit the kingdom of heaven.

I worry about many people there are who think they are Christians, but they’ve never repented.

They’ve never changed.

They think they’re forgiven, because of a prayer or a baptism, but they continue in sin.

Jesus warns these people in , “So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

Back to Galatians, Paul says I’ve warned you.

But what needs to happen?

Look at verse 24, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

This past week, Randy and I were at a baseball game. Just prior to the game about 50 people became US citizens.

They were dressed up.

They had their little American flags.

They went onto the field and said the US Citizenship Oath.

I was born in this country, that’s how I became a US citizen.

These were people from other countries, citizens of other nations, and they had to swear allegiance to the US.

I heard the oath, and was amazed by the bluntness of the words.

Here’s about half the oath:

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same ...”

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same

And it continues.

That language is strong.

“I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, or state ...”

Later on, “I will bear true faith and allegiance ...”

You know what hit me the hardest about that?

We don’t talk that way about our commitment to Christ.

This oath is about the United States of America.

A young nation.

Only 242 years old.

It’s an earthly nation.

That means it is not eternal, it won’t extend into heaven.

Think about your commitment to Christ.

He is your king.

One day He will return and He will rule.

You are citizens of His Kingdom.

Think about when you became a Christian.

Did you make an oath?

Was your conversion to Christ, like these people’s conversion to becoming US citizens?

Did someone say to you:

“Do you renounce your former allegiance to the flesh?”

“Do you absolutely and entirely abjure your slavery to sin?”

Probably not.

Because if someone said that, it might scare you away from becoming a Christian.

Yet we should speak that way.

Read the beginning of some time, I’m not going to read it now, but it’s a lengthy description of your conversion.

Your old life lied.

You are to consider it dead.

says that if we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord we will be saved.

And that means something.

His Lordship means something.

Sadly, saying Jesus is Lord is similar to clicking, “Yes, I agree" with the terms and conditions of a website.

It’s just something you do.

The Great Commission, in says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. ...”

Another way to say that is “teaching them to do all that I have commanded you.

Actions are expected.

And here in Galatians, in verse 24 Paul says that we are to crucify the flesh.

He doesn’t say to identify with a new religion.

He says crucify the flesh.

That’s not just renouncing it.

It’s killing it.

And if we remember Paul’s warning up in verse 21, that those who do these things will not inherit the kingdom of God, it’s a little easier to kill the flesh.

Because that warning tells us that our sins, the work of the flesh, disqualify us for eternity.

No longer content to allow sin to reign in our lives.

We go to battle against the flesh.

And what is your hope in this battle?

We’ve already seen it, we saw it last week, verse 16, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

The first part of being led by the Spirit means we crucify the flesh.

Next, being led by the Spirit means living by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Next, being led by the Spirit means living by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul’s comparing and contrasting the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit.

I am calling this living by the power of the Holy Spirit, because really this next section is all about the Holy Spirit’s work in your life.

This is not your fruit.

This part isn’t called The Fruit of a Christian.

This is the fruit of the Spirit.

That list that you see in verse 22 and 23, the fruit of the Spirit, is not the fruit of you, it’s the fruit of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.

And these are present within the believer’s life.

In this passage we see 4 truths about the power of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life.

I find this exciting, because these are actual, tangible ways of being led by the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is real.

He isn’t an intuition.

That feeling in your gut.

He’s real.

He’s powerful.

And He’s active.

Yet, so many Christians doubt His presence.

I want to assure you and help you understand what His powerful presence is like, so that you can better be led by Him.

So the first way that we see the Power of the Spirit in your life is He is visible.

Just as the works of flesh are evident, they are manifested by habitual sin, the fruit of the Spirit is present.

says to examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith.

There should be clear, discernable, testable proof that the Holy Spirit is in your life.

Real life example:

When a person becomes a believer, it’s not just something that he says, verbally, it’s something that becomes evident in how he lives.

The Thessalonian church is a great example of this.

Paul writes the Thessalonians and comments on the change in their lives and attributes it to the work of the Holy Spirit.

, “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, ...”

The presence of the Holy Spirit was so real, that their lives were radically different.

People were able to look at the Thessalonians and say, “Wow, something is different about them.”

But not in a generic sense.

We use that phrase to mean:

“You’re unusually positive.”

“Theres a Christian sparkle in your eyes.”

No, they renounced their false gods.

They turned their back on their former life.

In your life, true faith will demonstrate good works, not to earn anything, let’s be clear about that, but that true faith can only come about by the Holy Spirit.

If the Holy Spirit is in you, He will transform your very nature, so that when people look at you, they will no longer see the former you, but they will see someone who:

Has received the word of God in power - meaning they take God’s Word seriously and believe it.

And is filled with the Holy Spirit and now led by the Spirit.

The second truth we see about Power of the Spirit is He is abundant.

The earlier works of the flesh, were individual.

A person might be an idolater, but not a jealous person.

He might be sexually immoral but not an angry person.

The works of the flesh are kind of like going through a buffet.

A person can go through a buffet line, and he won’t take everything.

He takes some of this, and some of that.

But the presence of the Spirit is abundant.

So abundant, that in contrast to the works of the flesh, where a person might have 1 or 2 of them, the believer has all the fruit of the Spirit.

When you buy grapes from the store, you don’t buy them individually.

You buy them as a cluster.

They’re all together in one group.

When you buy bananas, you buy them as a bunch.

This is how it is with the fruit of the Spirit.

You get the whole cluster, the whole bunch.

Love

Joy

Peace

Patience

Kindness

Goodness

Faithfulness

Gentleness

Self-Control

Those are all present in the believer’s life.

You don’t pick which fruit you demonstrate or have.

You don’t get to say:

Today, I’ll be joyful.

Tomorrow, I’ll be patient.

And on Wednesday, I’ll have self-control.

If the fruit of the Spirit were Mexican food, you get the whole enchilada.

They are all present in the believer’s life.

Let me compare these with the gifts of the Spirit.

You don’t have all the gifts.

They are not all yours.

You have at least one gift, and collectively, we are a body, gifted by God to serve one another.

But you, individually, you, have all the fruit of the Spirit.

The 3rd truth of the Power of the Spirit is it is unrestricted.

Think of the works of the flesh.

They are restricted.

There are commandments forbidding those things.

You are told not to do them.

Our family discipleship questions are going through the 10 commandments.

“Thou shalt not ...”

Yet, the fruit of the Spirit is unrestricted.

In verse 23, Paul says, “against such things there is no law.”

You’re never going to find a verse that says, “Thou shalt not have self-control.”

They are unrestricted even into eternity.

The gifts of the Spirit, they are not eternal.

says they will pass away.

Some have already ceased.

But the fruit of the Spirit, they continue.

Remember, “Love never ends.”

So the fruit, these things that you demonstrate now, that you have now … you will continue demonstrating them into eternity.

So get used to them.

And the fourth truth of the Power of the Spirit is it’s necessary.

The fruit of the Spirit that you see in verse 22, it’s necessary.

We’ve already seen that they are evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life.

They are a demonstration of the Him being within you.

They are a demonstration of your conversion.

The presence of the fruit of the Spirit in your life is proof that you are connected to Christ, that you have been grafted into HIm.

You can only bear this fruit if you are in Christ.

, Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”

If you don’t have the fruit of the Spirit … then you you are not in Christ.

This is the result of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life.

They are His fruit.

And you can only have the Holy Spirit if you are in fact converted.

As I wind this down, I want to make one thing clear, I’m not trying to tell you to be good.

I’m not saying that there are good people and there are bad people, so be good for goodness sake.

You can either live by the flesh.

What I want you to see is that if you are producing the works of the flesh, and you know them and you see them, then you are not being led by the Spirit

This is not a life of victory.

Or you can live by the Spirit.

This is a life of defeat.

I stand up here, not trying to beat people down.

Preaching is proclaiming good news.

I want you to know good news.

And the good news is that there is life eternal and it’s in Jesus Christ.

The works of the flesh is the defeat.

Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The victory is in Christ.

And the victory over your flesh is the life that has the Spirit.