Bring you all greetings this morning from brothers and sisters in the northern part of the Denver metro area in Colorado. and Redeemer Bible Church. And it's a privilege to see you and to talk with you. I hear stories of God's grace at work in your lives. And so it's nice to put faces with those stories and I'd rejoice in what God is doing here and pray that that will continue. And I would ask you just to be thinking of us even this morning as our church meets back in Colorado and think to pray for God's grace to be at work among us. as well. We very much want to know him and to make him known in the greater Denver area. And so we appreciate your prayers that he would use us for that purpose even as we pray for you along those lines. I thought a unifying discussion to have this morning might be about the election. And so One of the things that's come out of the election among many, many things are questions about our country going back to war. Some people thought that if Clinton was elected, we would certainly be going to war with Russia. And others think that because Trump has been elected, we are certain to go to war with Russia. And I am not a political prophet. I have no idea. But it's interesting for those of us who are old enough to remember this, that these ideas of being at war with Russia have resurfaced. Can you remember living in the era of the Cold War? I'm old enough, just old enough to remember that. Born in 1979 and in the very early part of my childhood, I can remember the Cold War. And even in our school, among the fire drills and that kind of thing, we even had like atomic bomb drills. What you would do, and I don't know what benefit that would have been if an atomic bomb was really dropped near us, but it was a reality. I can remember living with that sense that our country could be at war at any second with Russia. That has, for the most part, passed through the 90s and early 2000s, but it's been replaced by something else, the war with terror. We had a brief period in our country where it didn't feel like we were at war with anybody, and that has been replaced by this constant sense that we are at war with terrorists who are seeking to disrupt our way of life and to bring down America, bring down the West so as to bring up the spread of the state of Islam across the world. Do you feel that war? I think we felt it very strongly on September 11th of 2001, the sense that we could be attacked at any time. And just this year, a number of stories from other parts of our world of terrorist attacks have reminded us that it's not far away. We're not as secure as we think we are. But I want to ask you a more important question. Do you feel that you are at war with sin? Or do you feel very secure and are not really aware of the fact that you are engaged in that war? It really is the war beneath all wars, the war that causes all wars. Our jealous and our ambitions, warring against others, trying to get our way at their expense. Sin is beneath it all and sin is at work in our own lives. And with any war, we need a strategy. And this summer, our church did a brief six or seven sermon series on this idea of winning the war with sin and overcoming sin and temptation. And we, through that time, observed a biblical strategy for fighting that war. And I obviously don't have time to give you all of that strategy. today, but just briefly, the first thing we consider was just understanding temptation so that we are prepared to avoid it when possible and to withstand it when it comes. And part of withstanding temptation when it comes is weakening the allure of temptation within our hearts. That's something that we can actively do. And we drew particularly upon the works of an old English non-conformist pastor named John Owen. Some of you have perhaps read some of his works. And really in the last 400 years or so, few have really improved upon what he wrote about this idea of being at war with sin and conquering in that war with sin. And one of the things that he emphasizes is that we need to increase our hatred of sin. And so to put our attention on how we can develop a greater distaste for sin so that it's no longer so alluring in our hearts. And right alongside of that, and equally and even more important, is increasing our love of Christ. so that in our hearts, we are truly content with Christ. We are satisfied with him. We are finding our greatest joy, our greatest delight in Jesus so that sin loses its appeal. These are things that we can actively do. And these are strategies in our war with sin. But along with a strategy, you're very aware of this, we also need some military might. I was watching the Olympics this summer and the opening ceremony and the countries come marching in and countries like Monaco. Monaco has had three athletes this year in the Olympics compared to the USA which had 554 athletes. And this is making me think of just the relative strength of each nation. It's even more exaggerated in the number of soldiers. Monaco has a grand total of 255 soldiers in their military compared to 1.4 million in America. So Monaco could come up with an incredible strategy, an incredible military strategy, and guess what? It wouldn't matter if they went to war with the United States because of our vastly superior military might. And I hope you're aware of this by this point, that we are, even as Christians, in ourselves, in our flesh, our natural selves, we are too weak to win the war with sin. It's stronger than we are in our natural flesh. It's too weak. And the flesh is a traitor. because the flesh wants the appeal of sin. And so we are, we're in trouble in our natural selves. In Romans chapter seven, the apostle Paul writes this, I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do right, but not the ability to carry it out. He's speaking of people in their natural self. They do not have the ability to do what's right in their flesh. That's you and me. We need a greater power. We need a greater power that's actually an ally to the cause of righteousness and overcoming sin and temptation in our lives. And in Romans 8, as Paul continues on in his words about this, he says, God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. You've been, I know you've been studying the book of Galatians and this is something that is emphasized in the book of Galatians. The law cannot accomplish righteousness in our lives because it's weakened by the flesh. But God has done what the law could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for flesh he condemned sin, put it to death in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh. instead, who walk according to the Spirit. John Owen, in one of his most familiar works, The Mortification of Sin, or The Putting to Death of Sin, says what is perhaps his most widely repeated quote, Be killing sin, or it will be killing you. Again, we are at war with sin, but because Christ has come in human flesh and put sin to death in the flesh, We can put it to death. He also says there is no death of sin without the death of Christ. If you have sought to overcome sin in your own life, detached from the gospel of the death of Jesus Christ, you are doomed and destined to fail. There is no death of sin apart from the death of Christ. And do you know this struggle? You have a desire to please God, and yet you still find sin in your life. And you come under conviction, and you confess it to God, you resolve to do better next time, and then you fail again. Have you experienced this in your Christian life? This often happens as we try to fight the flesh with the flesh. And again, the flesh is too weak, and the flesh is a traitor, we can't overcome the flesh in the flesh. Again, John Owen says, the mortification or putting to death from a self-strength carried on by ways of self-invention unto the end of a self-righteousness is the soul and substance of all false religion in the world. You recognize this? All false religion everywhere throughout the world, every wrong religion that departs from the gospel tries to do this, to overcome sin by self to the end that the self is exalted and glorified. And this works its way into Christianity and into our lives as well because this traitor, the flesh is still here trying to lead us down this road of false religion that will lead us to failure again and again and again. This has been humanity's problem all throughout history. It's the reason for all these false religions that don't accomplish anything to the glory of God. It's even an explanation for Israel's repeated failures. Now Israel was not doomed under the old covenant to fail. We see examples in the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, of those who were faithful to God, who recognized their inability to obey all the commandments, and who then ran to the provision of God and his promises and the sacrifices pointing forward to the coming of the promised one, the Messiah. There were examples of people who lived in that life and remained faithful to God. But as a whole, the nation failed miserably. The nation was in need of a greater help. a more intense, a more expansive help from God. And this was all God's design. The old covenant was intended to show that it needed a new covenant to fulfill it. People were meant to feel that. This was God's plan then to provide the new covenant. And in Jeremiah 31, and I'd invite you to turn there with me if you'd like. Jeremiah 31, God promises through the prophecies of Isaiah, this new covenant. In Jeremiah 31, verse 31, we read this, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me. From the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. awesome promises of the New Covenant which Jesus says was fulfilled in His blood. This is the blood of the New Covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins, Jesus said. This new covenant is fulfilled in the coming and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And an awesome promise of God in it. He says, I will put my law within them. No longer this external expression of the law. Obey these things or else. This law will be internalized. It will become a desire that flows out of the hearts of his people. That's an incredible and awesome promise. He will make us want to obey him. This is an accomplishment of this new covenant. There are similar ideas without this express language of the new covenant. I'm not far over in your Bibles in the prophecies of Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel 36 in verse 22, we read more of what this new covenant would entail. Therefore say to the House of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake, O House of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. and the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses. and from all your idols I will cleanse you 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 statues and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and you shall be my people and I will be your God. Again, what incredible promises made to the people of Israel. And brothers and sisters, these are promises that are fulfilled for us. How awesome are these words of what God has done for us to make us his people, even though we, for the most part, we're not his people. He said, I will give you a new heart. Listen to this, what is repeated in these words. 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. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Do you hear the repeated emphasis in this? He's going to give to his people a new heart, a new spirit by the Holy Spirit, his own spirit, which he would put within them. And this actually makes it possible and natural. for his people now to live in obedience to him, to grow in love and holiness and faith, to overcome sin and temptation because his spirit is within us and because he's given us a new heart that wants to follow his ways. God provides in the new covenant for both our justification, that we can be declared righteous through what Jesus has accomplished for us, but also for our sanctification. that we can actually become more holy and righteous through what He has done in our hearts by His Spirit. So we can fight sin by God's new covenant or by His gospel provision. And this, brothers and sisters, has been transformational to me, and it continues to be transformational to me. Because I understand the repeated failure of trying to overcome the flesh, in the flesh. And I've seen it in the lives of many other Christians as well. This is something that is so incredibly significant, how it is that we carry out the pursuit of righteousness, the pursuit of Christ, the pursuit of growth and love and holiness. in our own strength, it's not by our own willpower, it is in this new covenant gospel. We can and we must feed and follow the impulses of the new heart, the new nature that God has given to us. We can and we must feed and follow the impulses of the indwelling Holy Spirit that God has given to us. And that's just our simple outline for our consideration of God's word together this morning. First of all, feed and follow the impulses of your new heart. We will only withstand temptation by hating sin and loving Christ if we have new hearts. Apart from new hearts, we will not hate sin. We will not find our satisfaction in Christ. But we are granted a new heart in the gospel because the gospel's purpose is salvation from sin wholly. complete, utter salvation from sin. That is the purpose. That is the accomplishment of the gospel to deliver us from our sins. Not just the guilt of our sins, but the very presence of our sins, ultimately when Christ comes back. In the gospel, God is restoring us to the original image he created us in by conforming us to the image of his son, Jesus, who is the perfect expression of the image of God. That is the intent of the gospel. So letter A, live in light of the gospel's purpose to make you like Jesus. Live in light of the gospel's purpose to make you like Jesus. I invite you to turn with me in your New Testaments to Romans chapter six. Romans chapter 6, in verse 1, Paul asks, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. You see the purpose of our union with Christ? is to deliver us from sin, that we would die to the old way of life and be raised with Christ to a new way of life. That's the purpose of the gospel. This is a newness of life that's exemplified by the Lord Jesus himself. You don't have to turn there, but listen to these words from Paul's letter to the Ephesians in chapter four, verse 20. He says, that is not the way you have learned Christ. In other words, living in sin is not what you have learned about Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Familiar words to many of you, and these are focused on what Jesus is like. We become like Jesus in this life of holiness, in this life of righteousness. That is the purpose of the gospel. So brothers and sisters, remind yourself of this regularly. This is a central purpose of the gospel, to make you like Jesus Christ. not just to keep you out of hell or out of jail. The purpose of the gospel is to make you like Jesus. We need to live in light of that purpose. Holy living is not just some legal duty from some external legal code outside of you. It is a purpose of the gospel written into our hearts by the gospel. So when you think of either of these things, you should think of the other one. If you think of the need to live a holy and righteous life, you must also think of the gospel because you can't live that life apart from the gospel continually flowing in your life. But neither should you think about the gospel without also thinking about the need to live a righteous and holy life because that is a purpose of the gospel. These things go together. In Paul's letter to Titus, he expresses it this way, the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people and also training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives. The purpose of the gospel is to save us from our sins and to teach us to live godly lives. And if this is a purpose of the gospel, we can also be convinced it is a result of the gospel, because God accomplishes what he intends. Take a lot of hope in that. Trust in that. If you have the kind of confidence that the gospel is gonna bring you safely into God's presence, have the same level of confidence that the gospel is going to deliver you from your sins. Because God accomplishes what he intends to accomplish through his gospel. Trust in that. Have courage. Don't become disheartened in your fight with sin. The gospel's purpose is to make you like Christ, and God will accomplish his purpose through that gospel. We can see this idea back in Romans chapter 6 as well. Letter B, live in light of the gospel's power to free you from sin. Beginning in verse 5, picking up where we left off, Paul says, for if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Do you believe that you've been united with Jesus in his death and resurrection? If you have not been, then you have not been saved from your sins. But if you have been united with Jesus in his death and resurrection, pictured by our observance of the ordinance of baptism. If you believe that, then it is equally true that you have died to the power of sin, that you have been granted a new heart, the Holy Spirit living inside of you to give you the power and inclination to live like Christ. We are freed. We are freed from slavery to sin. And we need to know this. We need to reckon this to be true for us because sometimes it doesn't feel like it's true. We have to consider that this is reality, even when we don't feel like it. Reckon this to be true to you, true for you, that if you have been united with Christ, you have died to the old way of life, you have been raised with him to a new way of life. Believe that's true, because it is true. But then you need to act in light of this truth. Romans 6 verse 12, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. Union with Christ in his death and resurrection really is a mystery. I haven't seen it because it's a spiritual reality. My physical eyes can't see it. I can see the evidences of it in the lives of people in my own life, but I can't see it physically with my own eyes. It's a spiritual mystery. It's a spiritual miracle. One that we have to reckon to be true by faith. Former pastor and prolific writer John Piper speaks of it, this act of reckoning this to be true for us as acting the miracle. He says, when it comes to killing my sin, I don't wait passively for the miracle of sin killing to be worked on me. I act the miracle. That's really helpful to me. We can see examples of this throughout the scriptures of people acting miracles, believing that God would give them the ability to do the things that God had laid on their hearts, had told them to do. They were acting by faith and God's power came as they acted in faith. That's what it's like to act the miracle, to obey with belief that God's provision is coming. John Owen speaks of this as acting faith. It's not just a feeling in your heart, it's not just an idea in your mind, it's an obedience. Faith looks like obedience, it looks like following God and believing that his provision is coming as you submit yourself to him. There is power, there is grace that comes from God as you yield yourself to him, as you present yourself to him. I hope you believe that. that in the things that God has commanded us to do, if I will submit to Him, if I will yield to Him, if I will choose to obey Him, there will be grace that flows into my heart to complete the act that I have submitted to Him in. Don't wait for that grace to come into your heart to first make you wanna do something that you have not wanted to do previously. Yield yourself to God and His grace, His power will come to you in the yielding. Act the miracle, act your faith, reckon these things to be true for you. Do not obey without faith. Do not try to obey God apart from your faith, but do not trust God without submitting yourself to him either. Again, these things go together. And this faith is rooted in the gospel work of Jesus. John Owen writes, act faith peculiarly or specifically upon the death blood and cross of Christ. That is on Christ as crucified and slain. Mortification of sin is peculiarly from the death of Christ. Brothers and sisters, this is how you put sin to death. You set your mind and your heart on Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for you. And that will give you the grace, that will give you the power to go on obeying, to put sin to death in your life. There is power that flows from this gospel as you set your heart and your mind on it. This is why the spiritual armor of Ephesians 6, they are mostly realities connected to the gospel. Have you thought about this before? We are to put on the belt of truth. We are to put on the breastplate of Righteousness, we are to put on as shoes for our feet, the readiness given by the gospel of peace. We are to put on, we are to take up the shield of faith. We are to put on the helmet of salvation. We are to take up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. These are things connected to the gospel, through which the gospel comes to us. This is the idea of just appropriating for ourselves or taking to ourselves what God has provided for us in the gospel, what it's achieved for us, laying hold of that for ourselves. This is the way we put sin to death. This is the way we grow in likeness to Christ in love and faith and holiness, by laying hold of what God has provided for us in the gospel of Jesus. The gospel is like chemotherapy to sin. It kills it, and it's like vitamins for love and holiness. It just furthers good, healthy life. This is what the gospel does, so take it up. Put the gospel into your life, and you will find sin dying, and you will find holiness and love growing, because this is what the gospel accomplishes. And all of this has its seat in our new hearts. These new hearts that God gives to us in the gospel, these new desires that come with new hearts, this new will, these new impulses. In the gospel, through the new covenant, God gives us new spiritual taste buds. so that we like what he likes, we love what he loves, we begin to hate what he hates. All of this in line with the desires and will of our Lord, our new Lord Jesus, all of this provided for us in the gospel. So we need to feed these holy and loving impulses and then follow them. Follow the new impulses of your new heart as you submit to your new Lord and Savior Jesus. But the new heart is not the only impulse to love and holiness and righteousness that's in believers. Number two, we need to feed and follow the impulses of the indwelling Holy Spirit. I'm not saying that we're in control of the Holy Spirit in some sense, but we want his impulses, rather than the impulses of our flesh, to dominate our lives more and more. We want His power, not the power of our flesh being the power that's driving our lives. He has been given to us, we need to live by Him who has been given to live inside of us. John Owen writes, a man may easier see without eyes, speak without a tongue, than truly mortify one sin without the Spirit. I have found this to be true. Have you found this to be true again? You cannot put sin to death in the flesh. You must put it to death by the Holy Spirit. And there are several ways the scripture talks about this. And a number of these are gonna come from things you've recently studied. But the first thing I wanna consider is letter A, set your mind on the things of the Spirit. Still in Romans chapter eight, Romans chapter eight verses three and four, We read this, for God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemns in the flesh 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. Then in verse five, he goes on and says, 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. To live according to the spirit, helpfully we see here is to set our minds on the things of the spirit. Look at verse six, for to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. What an awesome promise again. If we are setting our minds on fleshly things, death, but if we are setting our minds on the Spirit, life and peace. This is not a complicated application. Set your mind on the things of the Spirit by thinking on the things that the Spirit teaches, the things that the Spirit approves, the things that the Spirit desires. Set your mind, set your heart on those things. And where do we find these things? Very simply, we find these in the scriptures that the Holy Spirit was involved in breathing out. You want to know the mind of the Spirit, the desires of the Spirit, the will of the Spirit? You find this in the scriptures. And an interesting thing that's really captivated my attention in the New Testament, we find a direct parallel between being filled with the Spirit, which can seem like out there. How do I get my hands around that? and being filled with the word of Christ, which is much easier to understand. We see this by comparing Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3. If you studied the book of Ephesians and the book of Colossians before, you'll notice there are a lot of similarities. It's as though Paul has Ephesians in mind when he's writing Colossians or vice versa. A lot of overlap in these two letters. In Ephesians 5, Paul says, be filled with the spirit. And this is what results. Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to what results from being filled with the word of Christ, which he commands in Colossians 3, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. You see the incredible parallels there? Being filled with the Spirit and being filled with the Word of Christ produce the same things because they're the same thing. You wanna know how to be filled with the Spirit? Fill yourself up with the Word of Christ and you will be filled with the Spirit. So you can feed the impulses of the Holy Spirit living inside of you by filling up your mind, filling up your heart with the Bible. There's another way the Bible talks about feeding and following the impulses of the Spirit. Letter B, put the flesh to death by the Spirit. Again, Romans 8, verse 12. So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Our efforts to oppose, to starve, to strangle the flesh must be done in reliance on the Holy Spirit. And how do we rely on God in anything else? We rely on God in anything else by doing what he says, believing that when we do what he says, he's gonna provide for us, he's going to bless us, and by asking him for his help in prayer. I think this is why praying at all times in the Spirit is connected with the spiritual armor that's encouraged upon us in Ephesians chapter six. This is why prayers to God are very often answered with his supply, with the Holy Spirit or by the Holy Spirit. We see this again and again throughout the Bible. People make prayers to God and he answers with the provision of the Holy Spirit. Reading the Bible and praying to grow in Christ are not just cliches. These are at the heart of the Christian life and how we grow. We fill ourselves up with the Word of Christ and we become filled with the Spirit. We pray independence upon God and He answers with the Spirit so that we can put the flesh to death. Reading the Bible and praying for God's provision in the Spirit, these are laying hold of that gospel grace that God makes available to us by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Do not think or say that you are living by the Spirit if you are not filling up your life with the Word of Christ, if you are not living a life of prayer. These are of the essence of what it means to live by the filling of the Spirit. Laying hold of God's grace, he provides for us through his word and by his Spirit. And the Spirit leads us to fight the flesh. That's his intention, to war against the flesh. So follow the Spirit's impulses to put it to death. Romans 8 uses the language of walking by the Spirit. In Galatians 5, which you've been studying very recently, takes this even further, makes it even clearer. Letter C, walk by the leading of the desires of the spirit. Galatians 5 verse 16, 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. 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. I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Walk by the leading of the desires of the Spirit. These are clear images here. A battle between the flesh and the Spirit in our hearts. These works of the flesh contrasted with the fruit of the Spirit. The encouraging thing is that it's not an equal war because the Spirit is stronger than the flesh. but we can allow the flesh to produce its evil works, so we must resist those desires of the flesh and yield ourselves to the Spirit by following His desires He's producing in us. And again, there is grace that comes to us as we yield to the Spirit. God provides us that strength to go on obeying, to persist in that life of obedience and righteousness. And we will follow the Spirit naturally when we are walking by the Spirit, when we are setting our mind on the things of the Spirit. We will naturally follow His impulses. Regularly thinking of Him, His desires, following that leading, that's what it means to walk by the Spirit. The next chapter of Galatians adds another helpful image, letter D, so to the Spirit. Galatians chapter six, verse seven, Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, that he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Have you ever seen a field full of wheat when corn seeds were sowed? This doesn't happen. Nor will you ever see someone who is reaping spiritual things when they have sowed fleshly things. Nor will you see a person who has sowed spiritual things who is reaping fleshly things. It's a natural law that works its way out into the spiritual laws as well. If you sow the thoughts and desires of the flesh, that's what you'll harvest. If you are sowing the thoughts and desires of the spirit, that is what you will harvest. This is going to what we are filling our minds with. or putting into us, what we are spending our time with. When we are spending our time with the thoughts and desires of the Spirit, we will find the fruit of the Spirit being produced in our lives. And I wanna end with one last well-known idea of relating to the Spirit, letter E, be filled with the Spirit. We've already touched on Ephesians 5.18, but it's worth addressing it just briefly. Once again, Ephesians 5.18, do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. It's the idea of being under the influence or under the control of something. And we use this language with respect to alcohol, driving under the influence. Think of that example, and do you drive under the influence of the Holy Spirit? Do you live under the influence of the Holy Spirit? This helps us to see this contrast between being controlled by a foreign substance like alcohol and being controlled by the indwelling Holy Spirit. That's what Paul's going after in these words, to be filled with the Spirit. And also in the Bible, the idea of the filling of the Spirit is included. What's included with it is His power, His enabling. Those who are filled with the Spirit are enabled to do things they would not otherwise be able to do. So to be filled with the Spirit is to yield to His control. This includes what is expressed elsewhere. Don't grieve Him. Don't resist Him. He is an active, living person and force within you, so don't resist his work. Yield to it. Go along with it. And trust in the power that he produces when he's filling up your life to go on and obey and live a life of love and faith and holiness. John Owen writes regarding the work of the Spirit, that he brings the cross of Christ into the heart of a sinner by faith and gives us communion with Christ in his death and fellowship in his sufferings. If it is the cross that enables us to put sin to death, if it is Christ who enables us to live in righteousness and love, then it's the Holy Spirit who brings that into our hearts. We need to be filled with the Spirit. We need to yield ourself to feed and follow the impulses of the indwelling Holy Spirit. In the new covenant in Jesus Christ, God gives us a new heart and causes His Spirit to live within us. John Owens writes this, set faith at work on Christ for the killing of your sin. His blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls. Live in this, and you will die a conqueror. Yea, you will, through the good providence of God, live to see your lust dead at your feet. Do you believe that? I hope you believe that out of the ongoing difficult struggle with sin, that there is grace, there is hope to win because we have new hearts, because we have the Holy Spirit through the gospel of Christ. This is a game changer for holy living. It's an absolute different way of looking at holy living than some external code in front of your eyes that you are being told, do this or else. This is a code of life and love that's been put into your hearts that's being directed, you're being directed towards by the Holy Spirit, by God himself living inside of you. These are internal impulses for righteousness and love and faith, even though, as we know, the flesh remains and the war is not an automatic victory. So we need to be following and feeding the impulses of the new heart and the Holy Spirit, as we've said before, acting faith, acting the miracle. And you can feed those impulses so that they are the most prevalent impulses in your life, and you feed them with the gospel. This is where it starts, brothers and sisters. Set your heart on Jesus Christ. Set your heart on the gospel, and you will find your heart being filled with the Spirit, with righteous desires, with love, with faith. You can't set your heart again and again on the gospel and not see the fruit of the Spirit working itself out in your life. Can you see how increasing our love for Christ is a feeding on these impulses of the new heart and the Spirit inside of us? Can you see how increasing our hatred of sin is a feeding of these righteous impulses? and how doing both of these things will cause you to be guarded against temptation, you don't want it because you have grown to hate it and because you have grown satisfied in Christ because of what his gospel does for you and is accomplishing in your life by the Holy Spirit. If you're fighting this way, you will be winning the war with sin. And if I had another sermon or two, we'd work through some specific examples, which I did back this summer. Get specific, get intentional about your sin struggles. Look up the scriptures, gather the scriptures together, put them in your mind, put them in your heart so that you will hate those sins. And you will find in contrast, a greater love and satisfaction for Christ. And you will see those sins, those temptations weakening and your desire for Christ, your desire for love growing. I'd like to talk about the role of Christian fellowship in this. You need to help each other with this. God's grace often flows to you through a brother or sister in Christ when you confess your sins to them, when you gain accountability from them. But brothers and sisters, let's fight sin with this gospel grace. And if we do, is there any doubt in your heart that we will win? Will you pray with me?