You are listening to the Sunday Morning Sermon from Faith Bible Church in Sharpsburg, Georgia. You can find podcasts and other resources at www.faithbiblechurch.us. We need to learn what Jesus meant when he said, As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, Neither can you unless you abide in me. 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." Think about what we say as a church family that we want to do. We say all the time we want to glorify God. We want to glorify God by worship. by building each other up spiritually in godly character, by faithfully sharing Christ to unbelievers locally and cross-culturally. Where is the power going to come from to be able to grow in godly character? Think about your own flaws. Think about the flaws of the people sitting all around you. This is a room full of needy people. And those who are watching in the fellowship hall, on the video screen, they're needy too. We all are. We have serious flaws. Do you think that we can just pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and fix all of our needs? What about sharing Jesus with someone who thinks that you are absolutely nuts for believing that Jesus is the only way they can be in a right relationship with God? or even that they would have such a need to be in a right relationship with God. Are you going to muster up the courage all by yourself to put yourself out there with that kind of message? And even if you do muster up the courage, what is it going to take for that person who is potentially hostile and offended to respond favorably to your message of grace? Where will the power come from for these changes to be made? The answer is only the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was resurrected and ascended, he sent the Holy Spirit to be with us and to be in us. And living in light of his power and his presence is absolutely essential for us to be fruitful Christians. and to be a fruitful church family. Jesus said, apart from me you can do nothing. He manifests himself with us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Many Christians, however, have turned what I have just said is absolutely essential, our desperate dependence upon the Holy Spirit, into something that goes beyond the Bible. I think it's often in reaction of this perceived mechanistic view of the Bible, that we can use the Bible almost like a mathematical formula to solve all of life's algebra problems. So these sincere brothers and sisters want to say, no, no, no, the Bible is not like that. The Christian life is not like that. We need to hear God's voice speaking to us day by day and moment by moment through the Holy Spirit. They suggest to us that depending on the Holy Spirit looks like praying about even our smallest choices and then doing whatever the Holy Spirit says for us to do or prompts us to do or impresses our hearts to do. Now, there are a lot of ways that this kind of lifestyle is described by a lot of sincere and passionate brothers and sisters. I would suggest this kind of thinking is all around us in the Christian life. It's the air we breathe. that people are, voices are saying to you, listen to God, speak to you, listen to the Holy Spirit. That's what it means to be led by the Holy Spirit. Have you heard anybody say this kind of thing before? Have you? There's two of you that have. That's amazing. The Spirit just told me there's more of you that have heard this. Not really. All right. Listen to this. I'm going to read some quotes, OK? Some of these quotes are going to come from some people you know and love. I am not discounting these people as brothers in Christ. I am not saying that they are bad. But what I'm saying is these are people who have advocated this kind of listen to the spirit, spirit guidance and that kind of thing. And that has come across in some of their teaching. And I want to give you several examples of this. There was a popular book in the 90s, especially called Experiencing God, and it really made the rounds. Henry Blackaby and Claude King wrote this. And here is just some examples of their approach to decision making. These are all quotes from the book. Wait till God shows us what he is about to do. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances and the church to reveal himself. The church sensed or felt led. When God speaks to you in your quiet time, immediately write down what he said before you forget. As I watch the direction the Spirit is leading me to pray, I begin to get a clear indication of what God is saying to me and God gives you special or specific guidance in sensing a call. That's all from experiencing God. Charles Stanley, one of the most famous preachers in Atlanta, pastor of First Baptist Atlanta, he wrote a book years ago called How to Listen to God. In that book, he writes, if we are to listen to God, we must be quiet and let him do the talking. Too many of us, when we pray, simply read off a list of requests, get up and walk off. Instead of listening to God, we only report our requests to Him. How can God speak to us if we don't take the time to listen? Later in the book, he says, silence and seclusion before God allow Him to speak to our hearts clearly, positively and unmistakably. Though God may not speak to us audibly, he will move in our spirits and impress our minds. We will know God has spoken to us. In another place, Stanley says, God's spirit spoke to me very clearly and distinctly, giving me the proper direction I needed. When I say the Holy Spirit, quote, speaks, I do not mean audibly. Rather, he impresses his will in my spirit or mind, and I hear him in my inner being. Though not audible, the communication is precise nevertheless. Here's a list of reasons given why a missions team went on a mission trip to Russia. See if these sound familiar at all. God gave me a piece about going. So I know it is right. So right. These are people surveyed. They're going on a mission trip to Russia. Why are you going on this mission trip? Here are their answers. That was number one. Here's another one. God impressed it upon my heart, prompting me in that direction. In fact, I have developed so much of a burden that I could never stay home. Here's another one. The Lord opened all the doors, so I knew he wanted me to go. I looked for the Lord to speak through my Bible study leader, and he told me that I should go. I want to go, and I would not have that desire in my heart unless I am supposed to go. Here's another one. I prayed about it, and when I pray, I don't only talk to God, but I listen to him. Through prayer, he told me to go. Now, I'm not suggesting that all of these are all wrong, seeking counsel and even having desires to go. I'm just saying this is the air we breathe. This is the atmosphere all around us in evangelical Christendom. Kevin Young, in his book called Just Do Something, He read a popular book by John Eldridge. You know John Eldridge? He's the guy who wrote that book, Wild at Heart. That was when he was most popular for writing. I think, I don't want to be unfair, but it seems like A guy like my brother could really benefit from that book, Wild at Heart, because basically it's kind of like, we need to be a real man of God and go hunt, go fish, do guy stuff, and that's what it means to be a real guy for God. It's a brutal summary of his book, but he's that kind of message. You get that idea that we just want to be guys and we want to be guys for God. Well, in another one of his books, he talks about this hearing God talk kind of language. And Kevin Young, when he read the book, this is what he reported. He said, I recently read a book by a popular Christian author who advocated an approach to intimacy with God that entailed constant checking and rechecking with the Lord regarding the most trivial details in life. I don't wish to impugn his motives or question his emphasis on a close relationship with God, which can be a helpful corrective for some of our stodgy button down brethren. But the book laid out an approach to decision making that made my head spin. We were told to listen for God's voice at every possible fork in the road. Should I send this email? Should I paint the bathroom? Should I stay late at work? Should I go to the ranch or stay home? What book in the Bible should I read this morning? Which chapter? Is this a good day for fishing? Should I go on a hike? Do you want to heal our dog? Should we go on the camping trip? When should we go? In a parenthesis, Kevin says, the Lord said April 21st through 24th, by the way. Should we get a new puppy? Here DeYoung says, all of these were actual questions asked of our Lord over the course of the book's narrative. Again, I respect the author for wanting to be obedient to God, but why did the Lord give us brains and say so much about gaining wisdom if all we are really supposed to do is to call on the Lord to tell us what to do in a thousand different non-moral decisions? Besides, I don't recall in the book ever hearing how this divining of God's will actually works, except that we try on answers and second guess ourselves a lot. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the author when he wrote about his horse riding accident and the regret he lived with after that fact, because he had asked the Lord if he should ride, but he never asked the Lord where he should ride. He recalled praying over the horses and feeling like it wasn't working. But he went out anyway because he just wanted to go for a ride like a normal person. Kevin says, surely this is misplaced shame. It is a great idea to pray for safety before saddling up the horse. But that doesn't mean we need to wait for the all clear feeling in our bones before we head out. Would God really spare us from all accidents if we simply asked Him enough particulars and prayed hard enough at the start of the day? If something goes bad in our lives, do we really need the added burden of feeling like it all could have been prevented if we had just better discerned God's will? And how do we do His will anyway, other than probing some subjective feeling in our gut that inevitably leads to much hand wringing and second guessing. Now, I know about this. I've lived like this early in my Christian life, thinking that I had to make decisions very much like Eldridge's decisions, waiting for the Lord to tell me. And I would say it like Charles Stanley did, not audibly, but in my heart. You know what I'm talking about? And when he described Eldridge as wringing his hands and second-guessing himself, I get that. I was like that. A lot. I mean, regularly. I didn't get to the extreme, but regularly wondering, is this a sense of God's leading or is this not? And it can tie you up into a pretzel of second-guessing and doubting yourself. And I want to say, again, I agree with Kevin DeYoung, who pastors the church in Michigan, that these authors and pastors like them are earnest and sincere brothers in Christ. And they are expressing their desire to obey the Lord. And I think that that is a great thing. And I also agree that we are and need to live out our desperate dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Absolutely. But the question I have is, what does the Bible reveal that this looks like? Is it the vision that we get from experiencing God from Eldridge, from Charles Stanley and from others? Or does the Bible point us a different direction? Jonathan Edwards, this isn't a new issue, he raised big cautions about the Holy Spirit's subjective guidance. during the Great Awakening. And that's kind of significant because I think, historically, the Great Awakening was the time that God sovereignly poured out His Holy Spirit on America like He has never done before or since. Second Great Awakening was huge as well, but the First Great Awakening was massive. The Holy Spirit was given to our land before we were even an official country. In just profound ways. So when Jonathan Edwards raised this concern, we want to take it very seriously. He said, an erroneous principle which scarce has any excuse me, an erroneous principle that which scarce any has proved more mischievous to the present glorious work of God, is a notion that it is God's manner in these days to guide His saints by inspiration or immediate revelation. Edwards goes on to say, many godly persons have undoubtedly in this and other ages exposed themselves to woeful delusions by an aptness to lay too much weight on impulses and impressions as if they were immediate revelations from God to signify something future or to direct them where to go and what to do. Edwards advice was straightforward. I would therefore entreat the people of God to be very cautious how they give heed to such things. I have seen them fail in very many instances and know by experience that impressions being made with great power upon the mind of true, yea, eminent saints are no sure signs of there being revelations from heaven. In his book, Just Do Something, Kevin DeYoung has a great section called Impressions as Impressions. He says basically we all get gut feelings and sometimes we do them, we respond to them. And he says this is especially good when they're good things, like witnessing to somebody or giving a cup of cold water in Jesus name. We say, but our gut says this is a good thing to do and we do it. That's a good thing. We just don't want to assume that all of these gut feelings are from the Holy Spirit. As a guarantee, even if the gut feeling includes a Bible verse that pops into our mind, we don't necessarily assume that this is the Holy Spirit talking to us. Some of these gut feelings might be from God. Some of these gut feelings are not from God. But as Kevin says in that section, most often it doesn't matter. Just decide. Even if you've prayed a lot about something, Kevin says, We cannot infallibly judge the rightness or wrongness of our plans based on feelings we have after prayer. It is good to pray. We should pray about our choices. But there are lots of things, different kinds of things that can impress on us even after we pray. Now, before we look at the way the Bible does reveal for us to make decisions, I want us to consider a couple of verses which are leaned on by those believing that depending on the Holy Spirit means something like this kind of guidance. These are not the only verses that they use to make their case that we should be listening for the voice of God like this. But these two are very large in their case. The first one is Romans 8.14. Turn there with me. Romans 8.14. Maybe you want to put your hand there and also in Galatians 5. Romans 8.14, and then in Galatians 5. Romans 8.14 just says this, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. And then Galatians 5, verses 16 through 18, you can see in verse 18 where we're going to, But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law, but it's good to read 16 and 18, through 18. 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. OK, back to Romans 8. These words, especially Romans 8, 14, I think, for all who are led by the spirit or sons of God are often isolated from the surrounding sentences around them. And I think also some assumptions are inserted into the meaning of these words. So what we want to ask this morning are, are there any contextual clues in the verse or in the surrounding sentences which show us more precisely the meaning of these words that the Holy Spirit inspired and put in his word? And I would answer that question. Yes, absolutely. Yes. So I want you to look carefully at verse 14, and I want to show you one huge contextual clue that will help unlock the meaning of these words. It is the word for. Do you see that in your Bibles? The first word in Romans 8, 14 for what does that mean? It means it ties it back to verse 13 and the preceding section. For is a word that clarifies or restates in different words the substance of verse 13. Look at verse 13. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit are sons of God. Now, charismatic Bible scholar, Gordon Fee, Gordon Fee, tremendous expositor and scholar, written many numerous, very helpful commentaries. But he's as Pentecostal as they come. He has a book I have in my office. It's giant. And it basically goes through every passage that Paul mentions the Holy Spirit and does a detailed exposition. We wouldn't agree with all of his conclusions, but when he came to this verse, here's what he said. The flow of thought is easily traced. The introductory four of verse 14 indicates a further elaboration or explanation of the final clause of verse 13. A point that is easy to miss since it is expressed in entirely different language. That's very true. So he's talking in verse 14 about being led by the Spirit, and he's talking about sons of God. But the four would tell us that it points back to what he's just said in verse 13. And so Fee says, it's easy to miss the fact that he's saying the same thing in different words, because he's using different concepts to express the same message. So let's look and see if we can get the flow of context here. Verse 12, we have a great transition marker as well. At the beginning of verse 12, it says, so then, kind of a therefore concept. So then brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. And he goes on to give us verse 13. Basically, verse 12 starts with the so then. Verses 13 and 14 both start with for. So what that means is verse 12 is a summary conclusion of what he's been saying in verses 11 through 11. And then verse 13, and now verse 14, expand on or elaborate the significance of his conclusion. So what is verse 12, then summarizing, let's look again at the chapter verse, chapter eight, verse one. Now, therefore, there's now there is therefore no now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Jesus basically is talking about people who are in Christ. We have no condemnation all around us. Verse four. Says in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, those of us who are in Christ are those of us who walk according to the spirit. Verse 5 speaks of living according to the Spirit by aiming our minds at the things of the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 5. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Now verse 9 talks about us being in Christ and therefore being indwelt by the Spirit. You, therefore, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. Sorry. Then verses 10 and 11 talk about having life through the Spirit and our future hope of the resurrection because of the Spirit. 10. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So that's what he's been talking about. He's been talking about you being in Christ, you walking according to the Spirit, living according to the Spirit, aiming your mind at the things of the Spirit, being indwelt by the Spirit, given life by the Spirit, our future resurrection hope because of the Spirit. And of course, especially what we saw in our study of verse 13, where he's going to emphasize, therefore we fight sin, the sin that remains in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. So then we get to verse 14, and it clarifies those who fight for holiness by the power of the Holy Spirit are those said to be led by the Spirit. So that's what the point is of this. Verse 14 reiterates and says in different language what he's been saying all through this chapter, especially what he said at the end of verse 13. Charles Cranfield, one of the best commentators on Romans, and just absolute, masterful, scholarly commentary, said, the daily, hourly, putting to death of the schemings and enterprises of the sinful flesh means, by means of the spirit, is a matter of being led, directed, impelled, controlled by the spirit. He says, what does it mean to be led or controlled by or impelled by the Spirit? It means the daily, hourly, putting to death of the schemings and enterprises of the sinful flesh by means of the Spirit. In other words, what he's just told us in verse 13. Now look down at the next verse, verse 15, after our verse, He says, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba Father. Now, two times in this verse, it speaks of receiving a spirit. You did not receive the spirit of slavery. You did receive the spirit of adoption. Now, when do you think that we received the spirit of adoption? as sons. Think about it for a second. When do you think at the moment of salvation? Right? Agree? Yeah, that's it seems right, right? We received the Holy Spirit. We were adopted as sons and daughters of God at the moment of salvation. That's the point of verse 15. But when the Spirit comes into us at the moment of salvation and adopts us, He starts working on our desires and on our will and infuses us with power to fight old ways of life and to work out the details of that salvation that we have received. We sometimes call that progressive sanctification, the fight to become more like Christ, the fight of holiness, the fight of faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, verse 14 is passive. We are led by the Spirit, meaning the Spirit is doing the work. He is the initiator of our sanctification. Yes, we work too, but he is the one doing the leading. and initiating, and impelling, and directing. And we also see that this is a present tense verb. This is an ongoing activity. So we received the Spirit once for all in the past, but now that we have received Him, we are ongoingly being led by the Spirit throughout our lives as believers. OK, I want you to see one more clue right in verse 14 that gives us more understanding of the meaning of this phrase. In verse 14. OK. You got to look carefully here at verses 14 and 13. All right. If being led by the spirit in verse 14 corresponds to verse 13, where it says, by the spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body. OK, if those two phrases go together, they're kind of parallel things elaborating on one elaborating on the other. Then what does the phrase being sons of God in verse 14 correspond to in verse 13? So if verse 14 is elaborating on verse 13, if being led by the Spirit corresponds to verse 13, where it says putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit, then what does that phrase at the end of verse 14 go back to? That you are sons of God. What does that go back to in verse 13? You will live. Absolutely right. You will live. Now, what was you will live? What was the significance of that? Basically, it was saying, this is a mark of eternal life. If you are one who fights against your sin by the power of the Holy Spirit, that's what it means to be a Christian. If you are somebody who coasts and says, I'm a Christian, but I'm just living for myself, I'll do Jesus later. That is a big warning flag that you may well not be a Christian. I'm not saying we don't have mess ups and even some days and weeks of backsliding. I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying if you mouth the words, I'm a Christian and you live like the devil for the next 20 years, that's not really the mark of being a Christian. The mark of being a Christian is you fight sin by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's your pattern. Not to say we never fail, but you fight. You keep fighting. You keep hanging in there. OK, so what does it mean? That means you will live. You're a Christian. You have eternal life. Now, verse 14 says, if you're led by the Spirit, You are a son of God. In other words, you are adopted by God. It's parallel. It helps us understand more of what this eternal life really is. Eternal life is you are a child of God, a son and daughter of God, which is phenomenal. It's another way of describing the reality of our eternal life is to say we have been adopted by God forever. Now, this is incredible. And we want to in our study of the spirit. The next section we want to look at is the spirit of adoption. But for now, I just want you to note that being led by the spirit is true of every single child of God, according to verse 14. That's very significant. We say it again. For now, I just want you to see that being led by the Spirit is true of every single child of God. It is an indicator of being a Christian. If you are led by the Spirit, you are a child of God. We can flip it around. If you are a son of God, you are led by the Spirit. Now, why is that so significant? Some of these authors that I read and quoted from at the beginning would say certain Christians are being led by the Spirit and certain Christians are not. The ones who are being led by the Spirit are the ones who are listening to the voice of God and doing what the voice says, right? Like Dr. Stanley says, don't just pray and read off your prayer requests, stop and listen. Then what the Spirit tells you to do, you do. And that's what it means to be led by the Spirit. So some Christians are led by the Spirit and some Christians are not, according to this way of thinking. Does that make sense? Does that make sense? This is kind of a complicated one, I know. But what this verse says is, no, that's not what this verse means. What this verse is talking about is something different. It's an elaboration of fighting sin by the power of the Spirit, which is a mark of a Christian. And if you're that, then that means you are led by the Spirit, which means you are a son of God. If promptings was Paul's intended meaning, would it be accurate to say that it's equally true of all Christians everywhere? Answer? No. No. So because of that, let me give you this summary by David Jackman from England, great expositor as well. He gives this helpful summary. He says the status of children is limited to those who are being led by the spirit, enabled by them to walk the pathway of obedience to the father's will. The Spirit's leading then, in this context, is not so much detailed guidance regarding the circumstances of life or the choices we might make, but more the inner promptings and enablings to put to death the misdeeds or scheming intrigues of the sinful flesh that is always wanting to assert itself. It is important to recognize how little when we refer to the Lord leading us today, we mean into holiness and how often the phrase is used merely to justify a personal, circumstantial decision. While I would not want to deny that God can and does give us wisdom to choose well in the details of our lives, it is significant that the Bible's emphasis is clearly on the pathway of godliness. So being led by the Spirit is not, should I send this email or not? Should I read this chapter of the Bible or not? Should I ride this horse or not? Being led by the Spirit, it's fighting against sin to be more like Jesus by the Spirit's power. Now, let's look at Galatians 5 briefly, and I want you to see this parallel. And I think this is another important thing to point out as well. Galatians 5.18 is the only parallel for this concept in the Bible. It's not like the Bible talks about being led by the Spirit all over the place. Talks about it in Romans 8, talks about it in Galatians 5. That's it. I'm not saying that there's not other verses that people use for guidance, but there are no other verses that talk about being led by the Spirit than these two, unless you want to count like Psalm 23, where it says that our Great Shepherd King leads us in paths of righteousness for his namesake. But I don't hear too many people using that verse as a parallel for this. So let's look at this, Galatians 5.18. To be led by the Spirit, in Galatians 5.18, equals not being under the law. Do you see that in the verse? But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now, for Paul in Galatians, being under the law means under the law's dominion, and it meant the old way of life. It means being under sin's power. It means not being a believer. Paul in Galatians says, you've received the Spirit at salvation. You are not a slave of your sin anymore. You are not under law. You are not a slave, but a son, which. And this seems parallel to his concept of what he said here in in verse 16. But I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. So your life's orientation as a believer in Jesus is not trying to obey the laws in your flesh's ability, but it's being governed by the Holy Spirit. It's living according to His power. It's living in His ways, by the scriptures that the Holy Spirit has inspired. It is consciously depending on Him and submitting to His will. Yes, we still have remaining sin, but we are not obligated or enslaved to the flesh, and now we have power and ability to obey God and God's Word through the Spirit. Yes, it used to be the flesh was telling you what to do. You lived in the flesh. You were under the law. If you were a Jew, you were exposed to the law, the law would beat you down. Do this and live. Don't do it, you die. Don't do it, you're cursed. Do it, you're blessed. You better do it. No mercy. That's the law of God. And our flesh, when we would be exposed to that, if we were Jews in Old Testament Israel, we would try and we would fail. Because our sin would respond to it and fight against it, like Paul said in Romans 7, I didn't even know about coveting until the law said, you shall not covet. And then it was like, oh no, then I see coveting in me of every kind. It says, but then we're saved. The spirit comes in. We're not a slave to sin anymore. Now we actually have the grace and ability to be content and not to covet. Yes, we still have remaining sins and our flesh is warring against our spirit. But now we've got the spirit's power and Just like Romans 8 14 being led by the spirit here in Galatians is true of all believers, because all true believers are not under the law in the way that old. Testament saints were and the ways of those that before they come to faith in Christ, they're under the law. We're not under the law. And so when you read Galatians 5 18, but if you were led by the spirit, you are not under the law. If we flip that around again, we could say, if you are not under the law, you are led by the spirit. Everyone who is not under the law is a believer. and is led by the spirit. If you are under the law, you're not led by the spirit, but you're not even a Christian. You're not a believer at all. Now, look back at Galatians four just to see the parallel of the spirit of adoption, which comes in verse eight and in Romans eight as well. in verse 4 of Galatians 4, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. So this again happens at salvation. We're not slaves. We're not under the law. We're sons. We're under grace. We have the spirit within us leading us and guiding us always. And that's true of all believers all the time. Romans 6 14 says for sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace no longer under laws curse sin revealing bondage heart deadening power you are under grace all right now let's come back to where we started so if the meaning of being led by the spirit is about the spirit's ongoing indwelling power to fight sin and to live for Jesus. And if the meaning of being led by the spirit is not about getting direction for life's decisions, how am I supposed to decide things? OK, let me just summarize what the Bible reveals for how you should make decisions. There's some great books I can point you to Kevin Young's book. Just Do Something is a really contemporary, really brief, great book, but there's other ones by Gary Metters, Dave Swavely, Jim Eliff, Philip Jensen, and several others I could point you to for godly decision-making books. Here's the summary. We are all being led by the Spirit all the time. That's where you have to start when you decide on, when you're thinking about making decisions. Just like the verses we've looked at said, we're all being led by the Spirit. But also, in light of God's providence, God is working out His master plan in your life and my life all the time, every day, 24-7, no matter what. He's always leading us. He's always directing our steps. So, when you pray, and when you trust God, you trust God and you pray in light of the reality that God is always leading us. Second, you do what the Bible says. That is absolutely huge. Doesn't matter what you feel like. If the Bible says, do this, then you do that. It's one of My favorite theology professor said, the will of God is the word of God. He tells you what to do. He spells it out. And you do what the Bible says. So that's huge. Then third, you seek counsel from wise friends. They will help you apply the Bible with fresh eyes. Sometimes they'll give you wisdom. from experience, but wisdom from God's Word, whether directly or indirectly, and that is very helpful. Don't go off making decisions on your own without seeking counsel. Multitude of counselors, there's victory and success, Proverbs says. Then, number four, if the Bible doesn't speak to it directly by clear command, or indirectly by principle or wisdom, then you should assume that God gives you freedom to pick what you want to pick. Like Kevin Young said, he has equipped you with the mind and he has given you your desires. If he wanted you to know about his secret will for every non-moral detail of your day, he would have told them to you in the Bible. That is an absolutely huge point. So if the Bible doesn't speak to it directly or indirectly, so sometimes the Bible speaks of it by way of principle or wisdom, but it doesn't have a direct command. Do this or don't do that. But if it's none of the above, then assume he has given you freedom to make your choice what you want to. Say, well, what about circumstances? Certainly you should consider circumstances. Absolutely. Consider your circumstances. However, be aware that circumstances are all open for interpretation. And you can usually make your circumstances say anything you want them to say completely opposite of each other. For example, I want to be a missionary. I want to be a missionary to Australia. I don't want to go to Tunisia. That doesn't sound fun. Australia. That sounds fun. All right. So I'm praying I want to go to there and you can get a religious workers visa. So I'm going to apply for my religious workers visa and go to Australia. I think God wants me to do this. Australian Embassy writes back, we reject your application for religious workers visa. My circumstances say I'm rejected. Does that mean A, it's God's will for me not to be a missionary to Australia? Or B, is God testing me to see if I'm really going to be faithful to do what he wants me to do? And I'm so determined I'm going to get in there another way, even if it's not a religious worker status. You see how the exact same circumstances could be interpreted in 180 degree difference? Almost all circumstances are like that. So, do you check your circumstances before you make a decision? Sure you do. But don't rely on them as the way that God is leading you because you interpret your circumstances any old way. So, let's get practical. Should I get a new car? What does the Bible say? The Bible says don't covet. The Bible says have a budget, use your money well, you know, stewardship, those kinds of things. Then wisdom might say, what's the best deal for you and your circumstances and things like that? And I check it out with people who are informed and who might can help me out. But then should I pick the red one or the blue one? The answer is whichever one you want. God made you like blue. God made you like red picket for the glory of God. If he cared about red or blue, it would have been in the book. For real. Some people are wringing their hands wondering what I should do. What about this? What about that? But the Bible does not tell us we should wonder about red and blue. The Bible says picket to the glory of God. Check your heart. Pray about it. Be wise. Use the biblical principles and use the commands and then pick your free. The one your wife wants. Well, that was my next one, Cindy. How do you pick a wife? Maybe, depending on which car color she likes. I don't know. But how do you pick a spouse? What does the Bible say? The Bible does say something. The Bible says you've got to marry only in the Lord, fellow believer. And I would even say whether you could say by precept or by wisdom, He or she needs to be like-minded theologically. You don't just marry somebody who says they're a Christian and you're both in the body of Christ, but she's the ear and you're the toenail. I mean, if you're that far apart, you're going to have problems. So you want to marry someone who's in the Lord, who's a fellow believer, like-minded. But then you look at wisdom. Wisdom would say similar likes, interests, hopes, dreams. And then what? Pick the one you like best. Who are you attracted to? What personality do you like? Who laughs at your jokes? Who's the one who loves you back? Okay? That really narrows the field down. You might think, wow, there's three billion women in the world. How am I going to pick? Well, guess what? Actually, when you do this funnel, it narrows the decision a lot. And then if you say, well, there's now we've gone from three billion to three, but only one likes me. That's God's will. Don't wring your hands. Just marry her to the glory of God or marry him. Now, when I say that, and it sounds funny to say that, I want you to know I am absolutely serious when I say all of that falls under the heading of we are always being led by God. I would take that very seriously. So do I think God has a master plan? Yes. Do I think that it is unfolding either the color of my car and who I marry? Yes, absolutely. But what I'm saying to you is it's God's secret will. You will not mess it up. It has been planned and foreordained from eternity past. You seek God, you pray, you use God's wisdom and seek counsel and make your decision for the glory of God. You aren't going to mess up the plan. Deuteronomy 29.29 says, The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever. that we may do all the words of this law. God's got a secret plan. That's not for us to know. He doesn't want us to know the red one or the blue one ahead of time. He wants you to pick. But don't worry, you're not going to mess it up. You do what the words of the law of God say, you do what the Bible says, and you're going to be fine. You are going to be fine. You are going to be fine. So relax. And you are being led by the Spirit if you're a believer. If you're not a believer. Oh, listen, I've got some great news for you. Jesus loves you. Your sins, the things you've done wrong, all the violations you've committed of God's against God's revealed word, the commandments that he's given us in the Bible, they can be forgiven because Jesus lived a perfect life and he died on the cross in the place of sinners, sinners like you. And God raised him from the dead, which proves that Jesus is the real thing. All the other religious leaders of the world are dead and in the grave, but Jesus is alive. He's not just one religious option. He's the religious option. And friends, if you don't know him, make today the day that you turn from your sins and put your trust in Christ. And then guess what will happen? He'll give you the gift of the Holy Spirit. You'll start being led by the Spirit. Just like the rest of the believers here are being led by the Spirit. and you'll start to notice new desires and new ability. It's not about you performing and you getting more religious. You can never be religious enough or perform enough to earn God's favor. It's about God's work for you on the cross and God's work in you by the Spirit. And He works out the details of Christ-likeness in your life and my life as we respond to Him By using the means he's given us, prayer, the word, the church, exhorting one another to become more like his son. One of the means that he's given us is a regular time at his table, communion, so that we can think about what he's done for us on the cross. And so let me get you to bow your heads.