Part 1: Walking In The Spirit
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Jesus spoke of there being 2 possible pathways through this life.
He said that there is one pathway that leads unto life and another that leads unto death.
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Jesus makes it crystal clear that when we enter the narrow way, we are saved by grace and are headed to Heaven, while all those who remain in the broad way are headed to Hell.
Now, as Christians, we can never enter into death,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
but we can find ourselves walking on the wrong pathway.
If you believe that becoming a Christian means that you cease to sin, then you have a rude awakening ahead,
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
So, while we have literally passed from death unto life as the Bible says, a dead, ineffective and fruitless spiritual life will always be the result of walking the wrong pathway.
On the other hand, to walk in the right pathway, or to walk in the Spirit, is to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord. It is to be fruitful and effective in all that we do for His glory.
It is to experience that abundant life of which Jesus spoke of in...
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
These verses that we have read this evening tell us all that we need to know about the difference between the two pathways we can choose to walk in life. Now, I don’t know a lot about you folks, but I am confident that no one here wants to be a spiritual failure, and if we don’t want to be a spiritual failure, we are going to have to learn what it takes to do things the right way...
God didn’t create man to live in sin. He created us to abide in Him through His indwelling Spirit.
Every believer still has the old nature within…the flesh; it’s not destroyed, it’s not eradicated, but it is to be made subject to, or conquered by the new Spiritual nature.
The terrible mistake that is made by many Christians is trying to gain the victory by their own efforts, by the works of the law, instead of a complete yielding and surrender to the Spirit of God.
I think it’s interesting that Galatians is a book all about the Gospel and the work of the Gospel, but it’s written to the church in Galatia - I said that right, it’s written to the church - We tend to think the Gospel is something only for the lost man, but not true! It’s important for us to continue in the Gospel into the abundant life that God has for us! The Gospel is not something that stops at salvation folks!
Paul’s advice is found in the first verse of our text in which we find...
The Command To The Believer
The Command To The Believer
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
The Command to Walk
The Command to Walk
When a person is saved, the inner man is cleansed by the blood and he is indwelt by the spirit.
The word walk means “to make one’s way, progress; to make due use of opportunities; to regulate one’s life; to conduct one’s self - To walk is used to refer to the consistence.”
This word is in the imperative mood, giving a command…We are commanded to walk in the spirit!
Walk also shows a habitual practice. This goes right along with...
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
“To be filled” is yielding or submitting our will to allow the Holy Spirit to have control of our will and our life.
To walk in the spirit, then, would be living in a constant condition of maintaining a Spirit-filled life.
Paul is telling these people that the only way to have a victorious Christian life is to have a continual habit of living in the energizing power of the Holy Spirit!
The Consequence of Obedience
The Consequence of Obedience
The consequence of walking in the Spirit is not fulfilling the lust of the flesh!
The word “lust” simply means “greatly desire.”
Fruit doesn’t grow naturally…Weeds do; the fruit of the Spirit doesn’t grow naturally either…it grows supernaturally...
Patrick Morley said, “Other people don’t create your spirit; they only reveal it.”
I’m going to get a little ahead of myself, but I want you to notice something interesting...
Look at the beginning of verse 19...
“Now the works of the flesh are...”
Look at the beginning of verse 22...
“But the fruit of the Spirit is...”
Notice just two words, WORKS and FRUIT…Works of the flesh - Fruit of the Spirit.
Works speak of effort, mechanics, toil and labor…Works result in weariness, faintness, and most of the time frustration.
Fruit on the other hand, doesn’t involve work, but is the result of just RECEIVING, YIELDING, and ACCEPTING!
It means having no confidence in the flesh, but an honest confession of our weakness, and earnest plea for forgiveness, and a surrender to the will of God!
The Competition Within The Believer
The Competition Within The Believer
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
The Flesh Battles The Spirit (vs. 18-19)
The Flesh Battles The Spirit (vs. 18-19)
Along with many other parts of Scripture, verse 17-18 make it obvious that walking in the Spirit is not passive…The Spirit-led life is a life of conflict because it’s in constant combat with the old ways of the flesh that continue to tempt and seduce the believer.
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
The flesh is the part of a believer that functions apart from and against the Spirit. It stands against the work of the Spirit in the believer’s new heart.
The Flesh Brings Death (vs. 19-21)
The Flesh Brings Death (vs. 19-21)
Better housing, transportation, eduction, jobs, income, medical care, and all other things, desirable as they may be, can do nothing to solve mankind’s basic problem which is the sin inside him.
No outward benefit can improve man inwardly. Instead, better outward conditions offer better and more sophisticated opportunities to do evil. Those very benefits themselves are often corrupted by the people they are designed to help.
I think this is obvious in our day, I’m sure you know of a several example as do I of things that were created for good, but man has used them for evil...
Paul’s list of the works of the flesh have three general areas: immorality, religion, and human relationships...
Through Sexual Immorality
Through Sexual Immorality
Adultery
Fornication
Uncleanness
Through Religious Idolatry
Through Religious Idolatry
Idolatry
Witchcraft or Sorcery
Through Human Relationships
Through Human Relationships
Hatred
Variance (Contention, Quarrelsomeness)
Emulations (Striving to imitate because of jealousy)
Wrath (Outbursts of anger)
Strife
Seditions (Having a spirit to create division)
Heresies
Envying's
Murders
Drunkenness
Revelings (Being Riotous in Drunkenness)
According to verse 21, the people who make a habitual practice of these things will not inherit the Kingdom of God because they are not saved!
Now, I broke those down into three categories, but before moving on, I want you to see that we can also break them down into two categories and if we do that, we notice that some sins are characteristic of religious people, like envyings, emulations, seditions, while others are more characteristic of non-religious people, like immorality, drunkenness, witchcraft.
And I believe this shows us that God doesn’t make the kind of distinctions that we commonly do, like seeing immorality and drinking as more sinful than jealousy and strife…
You know, God just hates sin, and all of it...
And unfortunately, we are much better at noticing the works of someone else’s sinful nature than we are at battling our own!
Let me just move on right here, to the good part…There is...
The Conquest For The Believer
The Conquest For The Believer
But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Yield To The Spirit
Yield To The Spirit
Paul contrasts the Spirit and the law in verse 18…He emphasizes that the Spirit produces fruit, but the law cannot produce righteousness.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Don’t Feed The Flesh
Don’t Feed The Flesh
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
The best way for a Christian to oppose the desires and deeds of the flesh is to starve them to death, to “make no provision for the flesh” in regard to it’s lusts...
The works of the old nature must be overcome by walking in the Spirit, being led of the Spirit and living in the Spirit...
As we yield all to God, the FRUIT of the Spirit will follow...
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
These are not FRUITS , but FRUIT...
The “works” of the flesh are plural, but the “fruit” of the Spirit is singular...
Over the next several weeks, we’ll be looking at these in depth, but I want to give this to you and we’ll go home:
The FRUIT (singular) of the Spirit consists of three groups:
Personal Fruit - love, joy, peace. This refers to our own personal life.
Outreaching Fruit to others - longsuffering, gentleness, goodness.
Up-reaching Fruit - toward God. They are faith, meekness, temperance. This refers to our attitude in grace toward others.
Nine parts of one fruit, all supplied by the Spirit.
It covers our complete responsibility toward God, our fellow man, and others.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Judge your life by the results it is bringing to pass.
Are you bearing fruit to the glory of the Lord? Are you producing the works of the flesh?
Are you walking in the Spirit?
Regardless of your answer, you can begin, right now, being the Christian God wants you to be. All you have to do is “abide in Him”.
Now, having with all that I have said on the table, on which Pathway do you find yourself?
Do you need to be saved?