Living By The Spirit

Introduction

Good morning and welcome back!

This morning if you will, turn in your Bibles to Galatians 5.

This will be the third week we have looked at Galatians 5 and we can begin to see how packed with information it actually is.

Over the last two weeks we have been discussing things like placing ourselves under the bondage of sin and death after Christ has freed us.

We’ve looked at what Freedom in Christ looks like and how the work of Christ was for our sake and freedom’s sake.

And how we need to be aware of our freedom and take steps to not abuse the freedom that we do have in Christ.

We’ve looked at things like selfish desires and temptations from outside.

And Paul has warned us about how those things will draw us away from God and destroy our relationship with God.

And all of those things were building up and leading to the point that Paul is now going to turn his attention to.

Up until this point, Paul has really pushed and emphasized the importance of receiving and listening to the Holy Spirit.

To responding to the Spirit’s call and the Spirit’s leading and not placing so much of our emphasis on things that in many ways are a substitute for a life given over to the Holy Spirit.

Things like blindly following rules, customs, and traditions without even understanding why the rule, custom, or tradition came about in the first place.

The attitude has been “this is the way we have always done it” or “this is what my parents or grandparents did, so...”

And that is not following God.

That is just following a religion or a denomination or a church.

Following God goes much, much deeper.

Following God is about receiving Jesus Christ and following Jesus.

How though?

How do we follow Jesus?

Well, Jesus told us how to follow Him.

Listen to what Jesus tells His first disciples in John 14.

John 14:15–17 NIV - Anglicised

“If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

And now skip down to verse 26 . . .

John 14:26 NIV - Anglicised

But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

And really quickly, over to John 16, starting in verse 7. . .

John 16:7–15 NIV - Anglicised

But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

And there is more in the Scripture but I think we get the point.

The Holy Spirit is a vital and necessary part of our relationship with God.

But we leave the Holy Spirit out so many times.

Why?

Why do we do this?

Because we do not want to do as Paul tells us to do regarding the Spirit.

Because all of this that Paul has been telling us is leading up to the point he is now going to be making starting in Galatians 5:16.

This is what Paul writes . . .

Scripture Focus

Galatians 5:16–26 NIV - Anglicised

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Living By the Spirit (vs 16-18 & 24-26)

And there it is.

That is the hard part.

Again, just so we don’t miss the point, verse 16 . . .

Galatians 5:16 NIV - Anglicised

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

And there is the glaring problem that most Christians face.

Not, the non-Christians because they have not experienced this yet.

Paul is talking to the Christians among them.

To those who say they follow Jesus Christ.

And again, he tells them . . .

Galatians 5:16 NIV - Anglicised

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

So Paul is calling each and every single one of us to live by the Spirit.

To “walk in step with the Spirit,” as some other translations put it.

And this involves us doing something.

We have to make a conscious choice and effort to live by the Spirit.

We have to consciously allow the Holy Spirit access to our hearts and our souls.

We have to allow the Holy Spirit to dig out those areas in our lives that are not pleasing to God.

Those things that need to be purged.

And I’m not talking about the simple things.

I’m talking about those things deep in our souls.

Those things we have been holding onto for years, decades even.

Those things that we just can’t seem to shake or overcome.

Those things that Paul calls the desires of the sinful nature, or the flesh.

The only way to achieve victory over these things is to turn our lives over to the Holy Spirit and allow the Holy Spirit to lead, guide, and teach us a better way.

The right way.

And if we can do that, then we can have the victory promised in the Scripture.

We will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

But why?

How does this work?

How does living by the Spirit prevent us from gratifying the desires of the sinful nature?

Well, Paul explains that as well.

He explains . . .

Galatians 5:17–18 NIV - Anglicised

For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

So, when the Holy Spirit comes into our lives a conflict is created.

An internal struggle—really an internal war begins.

Our sinful nature wants to go one way and do one thing, but the Holy Spirit is telling us to do something else and to go a different direction.

And we are in great internal turmoil and conflict.

So much so that we do not know what to do.

But we have to make a choice.

Do we follow the Spirit or do we follow the flesh?

And this is not a choice that we make one time in our lives and then forget all about it.

This is a choice that we are constantly engaged in.

This is a choice that we make every single day.

Sometimes we have to make this choice several times a day.

It is really about about keeping in tune and in touch with the Spirit.

Look down in verses 24-26.

Paul writes . . .

Galatians 5:24–26 NIV - Anglicised

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

So we have to actively put to death, “crucify” the sinful nature and all of it’s passions and desires.

And that is difficult.

That is very difficult.

Because we want that immediate pleasure that the sinful passion and desire brings.

We are not thinking about the long game.

And we are not thinking about the consequences of our actions either.

We have that wordly mindset where all that matters is what we want.

We want it “our way, right away.”

And we have no patience and no endurance.

And we fall flat on our faces many times because in the midst of that internal conflict we give over to the flesh and, as Paul puts it we do not do what we want to do.

And we are left scratching our head, wondering how in the world we got into the mess we are in.

And don’t have a clue how we are going to get out of it.

The Acts of the Flesh (vs 19-21)

And just where do we find ourselves?

Well, Paul goes on to explain some of the things to be on the lookout for.

He says, starting in verse 19 . . .

Galatians 5:19–21 NIV - Anglicised

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

And when we read this we immediately stop and say, “I don’t do those things, so I’m good.”

And we may not do every single thing on this list.

But we don’t have to.

If we engage in one of them, then we might as well have violated them all.

But I think that sometimes we are more guilty than we think.

So, let’s break them down a bit.

Sexual immorality-We think this just has to do with adultery and fornication, but is that all there is to sexual immorality? Even if they are not getting naked, what are we looking at on the internet, on the tv? What is consuming our thoughts? Is it moral?

Impurity-refers to any immoral uncleanness in thought, word and deed.

Debauchery-is just openly displaying and not caring who knows it with regard to sexual immorality and impurity.

Idolatry-This is a big one because when we put anything before God, then that thing becomes an idol. This may be one of the biggest problems Christians have.

Witchcraft-This involves practicing evil and developing intoxicating potions. The literal translation of the word is “pharmakeia” where we get the word “pharmacy.” Now that doesn’t mean that all medicine is of the devil, but all of these drugs we are growing in our back yard or creating in our basement is nothing more than witchcraft.

Hatred-pretty self explanatory.

Discord-Basically being a trouble-maker. A person who tries to cause division among people.

Jealously-another biggie for “Christians.”

Fits of rage-ever seen anyone who gets so angry they can’t control themselves and just throws a fit? That’s of the devil.

Selfish ambition-the sin of many a big name pastor or church.

Dissensions and factions-goes right along with discord.

Envy-goes with jealousy.

Drunkenness-but wait, alcohol will make us so much money. We will see how much good that money is going to do you in eternity.

Orgies-goes along with sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery.

And what happens to those who succumb to these things. Paul tells us . . . I warn you as I did before, that those who live like this, WILL NOT inherit the kingdom of God.

There is no “well maybe” in Paul’s language here.

He is unequivocally stating that those who live their lives this way are not going to heaven.

And the thing about these things are that we may start with something like jealously or selfish ambition, but the deeper and deeper we get, the further and further we get and we find ourselves involved in more and more of these things.

James explains this to us . . .

James 1:13–15 NIV - Anglicised

When tempted, no-one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

It grows over time and that results in death.

Spiritual death.

An eternity separated from God.

We call it Hell.

The Fruit of the Spirit (vs 22-23)

But there is an alternative!

Remember, Paul tells us to live by the Spirit.

And that looks completely different.

He writes . . .

Galatians 5:22–23 NIV - Anglicised

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Love

Joy

Peace

Patience

Kindness

Goodness

Faithfulness

Gentleness

Self-Control

A completely different mindset.

And how is this possible?

By allowing the Holy Spirit to be our guide, our teacher, our mentor.

By living under the power and control of the Holy Spirit.

By loving God with all our heart, mind, and soul and by loving our neighbor as ourselves.

Altar/Challenge

That’s how it works, but the question is are we willing to do what it takes?

Are we willing to admit that we have been living by the flesh, gratifying our own selfish desires?

Are we willing to allow the Holy Spirit, the necessary access to change that?

What steps are we willing to take this morning?

What has the Holy Spirit laid on your heart today and what are you going to do about it?

That’s the question and only Jesus can give you the answer.

Let’s pray . . .