The following message is brought to you by Capital City Baptist Church of Port Mosby. We exist to bring glory to God by knowing Christ and making Him known. If you would like to visit our church, we hold multiple services on Sunday mornings, starting at 9am. We are located between Motukere Wharf and Edai Town. Pickups are available 7009-1000. Good singing. If I can have our Bible reading will be taken from Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5 in verse 16 through to verse 26. Verse 16 reads, This I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusted against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. Verse 18 But if you be led of the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, asseriousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. After 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." Verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, Gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another. This morning we're going to be in Galatians chapter 5, and we will be going to different places in the scriptures, so be prepared to turn with us to those places. Galatians chapter 5, before we get into the sermon, my apologies for not having introduced them before the beginning of the service. I would like to introduce Pastor Ben and Brother Yali. Would you guys mind, could you stand? These guys are from Kodidanga. I'm so glad to have you guys here. Thank you for coming. Ben is pastor at Kodidanga Baptist Church. When we talk about the Galatian churches and the heart that Paul had for the Galatian churches because they were some of the first that he started, my heart will always be the same way towards the church at Kodidanga. Kodidanga Baptist Church is the first church I ever started. and to see them continuing on under the leadership of Pastor Ben. I'm very thrilled about that. He's pastored the church there for several years now, and he's doing a great job at it. He and Yali Yali is the song leader from the church there. Both of them are here for the next two weeks to help dad as they're working on the Kamehameha Bible translation. Many of us do not know or pay attention to that. It's an ongoing, active project that will take many, many years to accomplish. They've put many years into it, and by God's grace, they should have a New Testament for the Kamea people, which would be a fantastic blessing for, yes, Kodidanga Baptist Church, but the many churches that are in the area, yea, even for the whole tribe. And so we're so thrilled to have the two of you guys here this morning. Thanks for coming this morning. Again, Galatians chapter 5, I want to just give you a glimpse, in case you're paying attention, you say, wait a minute, we finished chapter 5 last week, we should be in chapter 6 this week. And as I finished out chapter 5 last week, I do not feel like I did chapter 5 a disservice. Theologically, we were very correct, and yet I felt like we came up short practically. And I'll just give you a glimpse into chapter 6. Some of you would be familiar with Galatians chapter 6, especially verse 1 gets quoted many times. If a brother is overtaken in a fault, you, her spirit, shall restore such a one. And I want to caution you, if you live hanging on to that verse, remember that verse 5 also says that every man will bear his own burdens. And so be very careful about being an errant Christian who just presumptuously runs off into sin, continually saying, well, I'll come back and they have to accept me. That's not what the Scripture says. The Scripture says you will bear your burdens and you should bear others' burdens. It never says expect someone else to bear your burdens. And so be very careful with a mindset that says, I can just live like the devil, go and do the sin all that I want to, and when I come back, everybody needs... Listen, restoration and reconciliation are very important, but there will still always be consequences for the sin that you commit in your life. And so be very careful about having a big-headed Christianity mentality that says, everyone should accept me the way that I am. Christ did not go to the cross for you to presume that you should be accepted. We should always be thankful for His acceptance. And then again, you and I as believers, you who are spiritual, restore such a one. So there is a command to you and I, brothers and sisters, that are walking after the Spirit. There's a command for us to restore. But be very careful that you might have a mentality that says, I demand that others restore me. That's not ever the way we come to the cross. And as I look at the overall idea of restoration in verses 1 to 3 of chapter 6, I see that Paul gave three verses to that and he gave eleven verses to walking in the spirit. And I think that it might do well for this week for us to spend a second week in walking in the spirit. I'd like to take some time. What I'll do is I'll walk through the passage again, wrap our minds around big picture, and then we'll spend the majority of the time together practically how do we do this. I hope that you have an internal wrestling. If you do not already know what it means to walk in the Spirit, I hope that you have an internal wrestling that says, I want to do what God tells me to do, and I just wish I could do this. Look at verse number 16. Here's the command. This I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. That's a command and it's a promise. The command is, walk in the Spirit. And here's the promise, if you will walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. That's a command and it's a promise. Now this is a great thing and I have had brothers and sisters in Christ tell me in passing and in counseling, things like, I just wish that walk in the Spirit was a simple, easy thing that would be just, here's a checklist. And we all know that Christianity is not a checklist, it's a relationship, and yet, we kind of wish that we had like a recipe you've seen a recipe the recipe says something like melt the butter and the sugar and the vanilla put it in a medium saucepan and then after it's melted take it off of the heat add an egg stir it in that's a recipe or maybe a Checklist. Detailed instructions. Mix the paint thoroughly. Get a 50 mil wide paintbrush and even strokes. Apply. Wait two hours and second coat. Those are detailed instructions. Or maybe somebody tells you how to get somewhere. Go four kilometers, turn left at the sign board. We want those kind of instructions for our spiritual life. Do this, do this, get saved, get baptized, and then walk in the spirit. And you go, wait a minute. I need some detailed instruction. And then we have to remember this is a relationship. There's a problem though when we look to list. The Old Testament was filled with them. If we look to lists to find our standing with God, He started in Exodus 20 with 10 of them, and then it grows out throughout the Old Testament to 613 laws. And then you watch as the Pharisees come on the scene, and they just continue to add and add and add and add. The problem with lists is they never end. They just keep getting longer and longer. As one person says, well, I found that if I do this in my life, then I have success. So then they add that to the list. And the next person comes along. I don't know why we do this. but this is what we do. And we have to be very careful about adding spiritual lists to our lives lest we become legalistic like those Pharisees. Remember that Christianity is based on a relationship. It is not the measurement of how am I doing against my neighbor. It's not, my neighbor lives like the devil and I don't, therefore I must be right with God. No, it's my relationship with God. We're not comparing ourselves among ourselves lest we be considered foolish. Therefore we must work continually. So let's see what the scripture says about walking in the Spirit. Look at verse 17, Galatians 5 verse 17. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. These are contrary one to the other. So we said last week this spiritual life is a battle, it's a war. And on one side is the flesh, and on the other side is the Spirit. So the Holy Spirit of God, if you're a believer, the Holy Spirit of God has now indwelled you And the Holy Spirit of God is steering or should be steering your life. We said last week, you see, walk in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit. I'm being pulled along by the Spirit. I'm going to be bearing the fruit of the Spirit. And so either I'm letting the Holy Spirit lead my life or I'm letting my flesh lead my life. You get one or the other. You cannot do the both of them. They are at opposite sides. And there is fruit for each side. You walk after the flesh, there will be fruit. You can see it in verses 19 to 21. The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. You will destroy your life, destroy your soul with sexual immorality. Adultery, whether that's in your mind or it's in your person. Fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, you've given yourself over to the sensual desires of your flesh. And those are the things that will come out as a result of walking after the flesh. The opposite of walking after the spirit. He continues on, he says, idolatry and witchcraft, verse 20. Therein you'll find yourself perverting your religious inclinations with idolatry. You'll worship anything other than God Almighty. Is it any mistake that God started off the Ten Commandments? Thou shalt not have any other God before me. And yet we will seek in our flesh, we will seek to find anything other than God to fill the void that He has made for Himself. Even if it means I'll place myself as my own God. selfish idolatry. And he continues on in verse 20, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envies, even all the way to murders. You'll wreck the relationships in your life. If you follow after the flesh, you will have fleshly fruit. You want what you want, and you'll get angry if anybody gets in your way. Paul Tripp said it like this. People, you will dehumanize the people in your life to the point where either they become vehicles to your happiness or obstacles to your joy. Oh, don't let us dehumanize one another. Here's what I mean. So when dad comes home from work, he expects that the food is ready, and if the food is ready, he's happy with mom. You see how mom just became a vehicle to his happiness? But if the food is not ready, and how many of us have seen this happen in our lives, if the food is not ready when dad gets home, what does he do? He throws a plate, smashes a cup, yells and screams, the neighbors know all about it, because she has become an obstacle to his joy. He's dehumanized her. You see, whenever we follow after the flesh, there will be fruits. The works of the flesh will come out in our lives. He continues on. drunkenness, revelings and such like, you'll lose self-control. And maybe it looks like you're going to hang out with your friends and starting out innocent, or maybe even you knew that your friends already had a carton, and you lose, absolutely lose self-control in the middle of the night, making all kinds of noise and racket, and we see this on a regular basis. And this is tragic, and it's a sad thing. Because we have people that will come into church and sing songs on Sunday morning, and yet six days out of the week, or should I even say six and a half days out of the week, will let themselves be led by the flesh. And they will bear out the fruit, the works of the flesh. This is not a small thing, brothers and sisters. Look at the end of verse 21. of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in the time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. That's big deal. Follow after the flesh, you don't get the kingdom of God. You say, but I prayed a prayer once. You better check your heart. If you are continually allowing yourself to go after the flesh and the Holy Spirit of God is not convicting your heart, friend, you are apart from God. A believer will have the Holy Spirit of God indwelling him, pricking his heart. You will say, wait a minute, how did I find myself doing this sin? And you'll be pricked in your heart, not because your kingdom is getting exposed of how wicked it is, but instead because you're reflecting terrible on the kingdom of God. And so here, God's going to put His Holy Spirit in there to keep drawing you back. And if you're not getting drawn away from that sin, oh brother, you are not a believer here this morning. Don't tell me that you prayed a prayer and now you're good to go. Oh no. This is so important. He says, why else would He write this? This is written to a group of believers. It says, if you are following after the flesh, you're not a believer. Jesus hasn't changed your life. There should be a change. Now, I said it last week, you're not going to be perfect. There'll still be times when you'll fall short. You should have projection. You're not going to get perfection until we get to the other side of glory. But there should be a change. The longer you're a believer, the more you should be able to look back and say, look how much God's changed my life. I'm different than I used to be. And if these works of the flesh are continuing to come out in your life, please, friend, please have a checkup. And then he continues on. And he gives us the other side, the other way of living, walking after the spirit. So we saw in verse 17 that the spirit and the flesh are at odds against each other. This spiritual life is a war. We're fighting one against the other. And then on the other side, the one, there are works of the flesh. It's a fruit of the flesh. You follow after the flesh. This is what it looks like. And if you follow after the Spirit, He gives it in verses 22 and 23. See in verse 22, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. These are the things that are going to come out in your life. Be careful that you're not grasping after them. For the tree does not grasp after fruit, the tree bears fruit. For that is who the tree is. The tree does not say, I wish I had fruit and calls on the farmer to come and bring fruit and put it on the branch. No, the fruit comes out because of what the tree is. And so if you are being led by the Spirit, the fruit that will come out in your life will be love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, temperance. And these things will come out in your life. It will happen. It's the way to walk. are the fruit of walking in the Spirit. It's a result of walking in the Spirit. And you have the option. You can walk after the Spirit, brothers and sisters. You can walk after the Spirit or you can walk after the flesh. It is your choice. I hope this morning that you are pleading with God, God please help me to walk in the Spirit. And so I said last week, walking in the Spirit happens when we trust the promises of God. Another way to say it, walking in the Spirit equals following or trusting God's promises. walking in the Spirit. And I'll just give you a quick glimpse at this in case you didn't see it last week. Look back over to chapter 3 and verse 2. I'll give you a quick glimpse at this. I laid the theological foundation for this last week, and this week we'll go practical. We'll talk about God's promises today. So, Galatians chapter 3, verse 2. Paul says this, This only would I learn of you, received you the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Pause. Did you receive the Holy Spirit of God into your life because you did good deeds or because you heard the Word of God and believed it? And the answer is because you heard with faith. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So you received the Holy Spirit by the hearing of faith. Now verse 3. Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? So here you go, you got the Holy Spirit by the hearing of faith. Do you think that that changed after you got saved and the rest of your life you have to hold on to the Holy Spirit by doing good deeds? And the answer is no. You continue the same way you got Him. So He came into your life as a result of your hearing and your faith. And now you continue on. You hear God's Word, you believe His promises, and you continue to walk in the Spirit. So I say it again, walking in the Spirit happens when you trust the promises of God. I'll give a simple illustration. Those of us that have had a child or a younger sibling would have seen this happen. Our little girl, Ariel, she started walking when she was nine months old. I don't know if that was early. It sure seemed early to us. You know, every parent thinks that when their child does something, that their child is the champion and the best in the world, right? And so here's my baby, nine months old. We were in Groka. Becky and I were in Groka at the time. And here's baby Ariel. And baby Ariel took her first step while I was gone away from the house. I was not there. We were sharing the house with somebody else. I was out for the day. I come back into the house, and Becky said she took her first steps. I want to see it. I want to see it. I want to see it. And of course, she did not want to demonstrate for dad. This is only something for mom, right? But it took a little while. And here's what happened. So Becky and you guys have probably done the same thing. So Becky and I were sitting on the floor. I'm here. Becky's there. And Becky's got baby Ariel. And she's holding her, supporting her up. And I'm on the other side. And I said, come to daddy. Come to daddy. And there she is. She's all wobbly, right? And now she's standing. Mom's already taking her hands off. And it's come to daddy, come to daddy. And in that, you see what I've got, my hands out here, I'm going to take care of you. And so she sees and she hears and she believes dad's going to take care of me. And so out she comes one step at a time. I keep coming, keep coming. I'm going to take care of you. You can trust me. Right. And so take that same thought with God. God's given us some promises. He said, I'm going to take care of you. You just need to take a step, just take a step and I'll take care of you. Now, listen, the father keeps giving promises. And we can keep trusting and we can keep taking steps. We also have the ability to stop trusting. And when you stop trusting, you go back to your flesh. And that's why, again, I say trusting God's promises equals walking in the Spirit. They go together. And so here, what I want to do this morning, I'm going to give you a couple of promises of God, and we'll walk through those promises together, and we'll see how walking in the Spirit and trusting God's Word, God's promises, are the same thing. Now here's the thing that was very difficult for me. As I chose what promises are we going to walk through, there's about 3,000 of them in the Bible. So good news, I'm not going to walk through all 3,000. But even then, I really, I started, I boiled down, I'm sitting at my desk, and I'm going, which ones are we going to get? And I get 23 really good ones. And even then, at 23, we'd be here all day long. And any one of them, we could spend the whole day on any one of them. So I boiled down just three. I picked three. And I am hoping that you'll see that as we walk through each one of them, there's a simple thought. Trust God that He will do what He said He would do, and when you trust Him, you're going to be walking in the Spirit. When you stop trusting Him, you're walking in the flesh. Let's have some look at different ones. So come over to Matthew 11. If you have a piece of paper, you can drop it in Galatians 5. We will come back there at the very end. Come over to Matthew chapter 11, and I'll show you. This is one of many promises that are in the Scriptures. And I might encourage you as you do your Bible reading, and as you have your spiritual disciplines, your time skimming across the water, and you find a place to drop an anchor, these promises of God are worth dropping anchor on. Dive down, bring them into your life, memorize them, let them be a big part of your life. Let me show you one of them. Here's Matthew 11, verse 28, the very first promise that you can claim would be come to me and rest. Look at 11, Matthew 11, 28 to 30. Come unto me, this is Jesus speaking, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Some of you are blessed with not having problems of anxiety. You never worry about anything, and when your head hits the pillow, you fall asleep, and you don't wake up until the next morning. May the Lord bless you and continue your life. Enjoy it. But for many of us, we live with things called anxiety and stress, and we worry about things. And sometimes we lay down and we can fall straight asleep, and sometimes we wake up at 1.30 in the morning and we lay there for the next two hours and think about what's going on. And perhaps it's a relationship issue, and we begin to think about, how will I say what I need to say to that person? Or maybe there's a struggle that's going on within work or health, family, become anxious, How am I going to handle this? And Jesus makes some clear statements here. He says, My yoke is easy. Come to Me. You don't need to carry your own burden. So, if we're going to take walking in the Spirit and put it together with trusting the promises of God. So, if I'm going to walk in the Spirit, I'm going to trust God in His promise. And here's His promise. Come to Me. And take My yoke upon you and learn of Me. My yoke is easy. Now, brothers and sisters, please remember that He did not say, come to Him and sit under the tree while He does everything. That's not what He said. He said, come to Me, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Jeremiah chapter 6, the prophet Jeremiah made a statement that I think is helpful for us to see in this context. He talks about walking. I want you to see the words that he uses for walking. Here he said, this is Jeremiah 6 verse 16, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. Notice that there is rest in walking. It's not rest from walking. It's rest in walking. So now I'm going to be walking in this problem with Christ. Now, not me having to walk through it on my own and figure this out on my own. That leads to me having the works of the flesh. You ready? How do the works of the flesh come out? This is, practically speaking, works of the flesh. If I am trying to work through this on my own, I'm laying there for two hours, the next morning I wake up, I'm grumpy and crungy, and I'm going to take it out on everybody else. workplace or I stop and I give this one to Jesus. Lord I don't know how this is gonna work out but you are in control of all things so I'm gonna trust you to make this work out and I don't know how that's gonna happen but Lord I need to walk through and I'm in walking in the spirit I begin to find rest rest in walking I'll give you an example, and maybe you would understand this. I walked from Kodidanga to Kerima one time. That's all it took, cured me, I never had to do that again. Three days of walking, it's 27 miles, a straight line, but you'd never walk in a straight line. There are mountains in the way. And so as we walked, I remember walking, and there's two, the ground is only at two angles. in that area, straight up and straight down. And as I would walk, we'd walk straight up, straight up, and my legs, as we're walking straight up, my legs would just shake, and my muscles would ache as we're walking up the mountain. And then you get to the top of the mountain, and you would think that walking down would be easier, and it's not. It's actually harder. As walking down, you're trying to hold balance, and slide, and bang, and hit the back of your bum, and slide down and muddle up the back of your clothes, and then your knees are jarring as you come down. And walking up and walking down was very difficult. But every once in a while, we would find a flat spot. And even if it was only for 10 steps, a flat spot brought rest while you walked. The muscles could totally relax walking in a flat spot. I remember on that same hike, there was a little boy that went with us. He was maybe 12, 13 years old. And I had a backpack. And of course, being the white guy in the group, my backpack was heavier than everybody else's. I'm sorry. And he had a lighter backpack. And probably because he was tired of us having to stop so often, he said, missionary, can I carry your backpack and you carry mine? And we swapped backpacks for a couple of hours. And in carrying his lighter burden, I found rest. You see, Christ says, come to me, you who are weak and heavy laden, and I'm going to give you rest, and that rest is going to be walking. We're going to keep on walking, but my yoke is easy, and my burden is light, and I'm going to take your heaviness, and I'm going to give you a light burden, and we're going to go together. And friend, you can trust Him. You see, you have the option of pushing back against Him and saying, I got this. And the only result from walking after the flesh is going to be the works of the flesh. Or, you can trust Him to do what He said He would do. You say, I don't understand it. Oh, that's the beauty of the Holy Spirit doing His work. God, I'm going to trust you. You said if I would give you this burden, you would make it light. And so, right now, middle of the night, I'm going to trust you. Let's look at another one. Come over to James chapter 4 with me. James chapter 4 is another promise of God. James chapter 4 verses 7 and 8. I want you to see how this relates to walking in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit equals trusting the promises of God. So here's James chapter 4 verses 7 and 8. I want you to watch, see if you can pick up the promise here. Verses 7 and 8. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. And so I see two sides of this promise. One is submit yourself to God and draw an eye to Him. He will draw an eye to you. And the other side is resist the devil and he will flee from you. The New Testament speaks a lot about the problem of combating sin. It's in Galatians 5, Romans 6 and 7, Colossians 3. Here again, James chapter 4, and God gave us a promise, and that promise was that through the Holy Spirit we can have victory over sin. We just need to trust Him at His promise. Here's His promise. Submit to God, draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. I'm going to say it again. I want you to help me. Resist the devil, and he will flee. That's not you have to run him off with a big ugly stick. No, you resist him and he will flee. And on the other side, I can't just do that on my own. On the other side, I need to draw an eye to God and God will draw an eye to me. So here's the promise. Submit to God. Resist the devil. There's victory to be had there. Resist the devil. And by the way, remember that God has already defeated the devil. Jesus did it on the cross. He's already defeated. The devil has already lost. It's not, yes, I know there's still coming a day when the devil will do his best. The book of Revelation tells us there's coming a day when the devil will do his best to try to overthrow God, but he's already lost. The war is finished. The battle might rage on on the side, but the war is already declared. God is the winner. Satan is defeated. Jesus did that on the cross. Let me share some verses that might help you. 1 John 3, verse 8. The Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil. Jesus destroyed the works of Satan on the cross. Here's another one, Hebrews 2 verses 14 and 15, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil. So Jesus went to the cross so that he could inside job defeat Satan. So I'm going to go into death so that I can defeat the one who has the power of death. and he went in and defeated the devil. And then, I love the next verse, verse 15, and he did that and he delivered them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. So you and I were afraid of death, and if you're honest with your greatest fear, the base of your greatest fear is that I will die. Maybe you're afraid of closed places, or maybe you're afraid of the dark, or maybe you're afraid of Senguma, or you're afraid of whatever it is. You are afraid of it because at its base, you're afraid it's going to kill you. And yet, Jesus came along so that He could free you from that fear. So that He could defeat the one who had the power of death. There's no need for us to be fearing Satan any longer. Resist him. He'll flee from you because you're hanging out with the one who can beat the living tar out of. Here's another one. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 15. This is Jesus when He went to the cross having spoiled principalities and powers. He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in the cross. So here's Jesus at the cross. It's as if He said, Satan, do your best and bring it on. I'm going to triumph over you and I'm going to make a show of you publicly. In other words, I'm going to whip you so bad everybody will always know it for the rest of eternity. He's going to bring it on. And he made an open show of that. Now, I remember when I was a kid, we had this bully that lived down the street from us. His name was Tony, and I do not, for my life, remember why I was so afraid of Tony. As I look back on it, Tony was about that tall, and I should have been able to whip him myself. But somehow, he just evoked fear in my heart. And there's Tony, anytime I would be out, my dad, he taught my brother and I, my brothers and I, he taught us, go and cut grass, save money, and buy a bike. And man, I was so proud of my bike. I was riding my bike one day, and Tony was there on the sidewalk, and I went across to the other side of the road because I was afraid of Tony. One time I, and this is no joke, I'm not making stuff up, one time Tony got me in the corner, and he pulled a gun out and put the gun in my face. I thought to myself, I don't know where he got a gun, if it's loaded, why he's doing this, and I seriously don't even remember how we got out of that moment. But there was his friend, I do remember his friend, I was so thankful for his friend that day, his friend said, Tony, this is a really bad idea, let's put the gun away. I'm like, yeah, yeah, this is a really bad idea, please Tony, put that gun away. Terrified of Tony. And I remember how many times I would tell my dad, and my dad would tell me, son, Tony is small, you can whip him. in the name of Jesus. But there was one day when my brother David was riding his bike. He was on the next street over. And I don't know what led to it, but David was on the next street over, and Tony came up from behind David, punched him in the back of the head, and knocked him off of the bicycle. That bicycle fell to the ground, David on the other side, and David, I don't know, he must have gotten punched a couple more times, because when David came home, his hair was all messed up, and he had blood coming out of his nose and down on his shirt. And on top of it, Tony had stolen the bicycle. Gone. And I remember Dad standing there, I was standing there, David standing there. He's got tears coming down his face. I don't remember. He's probably 12, 13 years old. And my dad looks at me and he said, Son, let's get in the car. We're going to go find Tony. We got in the car and drove very fast to Tony Street. And when we got to Tony Street, we found Tony there on his bicycle, on David's bicycle. And my dad got out of the car, and for that very first moment, I watched Tony not stand up with a bunch of pride. I watched Tony drop a bicycle and run like a little schoolgirl. And I'm standing there next to my dad going, uh-huh, that's right, bring it on, pal. Where's your gun now, huh? And every time I read this, James 4, 7 and 8, I think of this, draw an eye to God and He'll draw an eye to you. Submit yourself to Him and resist the devil. You see, Tony ran away because there was somebody a lot bigger and a lot more authority in that moment, right? And God goes, I've already whipped the devil. Why do you let yourself get terrorized by Him? When He comes along and dangles that sin in front of you, there's a giant hook inside of it, friend. Don't let Him play games with you, because He does not have your best at heart. He's doing His best to draw you in, and if He can just draw you in just a little bit more, He's going to get you. So instead, draw an eye to God, for in His presence is pleasure and joy forevermore. You do not have to settle for the pleasures of sin for a season. Let that one go. Resist Him, and He will flee from you. By the way, that's a promise. You can believe it, live it. And in so doing, you are walking in the Spirit. And when you walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. It's a command. And it's a promise. And by the way, it works for every single one of the promises of God. Let me give you one more. Look at Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4 and verse number 19. Apostle Paul's writing this book from prison and he's closing this book with greetings to different people in the church at Philippi. And he tosses this verse in in the middle of it. This is Philippians chapter 4 and verse number 19. This is the promise of God, one of 3,000, one that definitely, directly comes to our lives. I wonder if you're trusting the promises of God in your life. I wonder if you're walking in the Spirit. Here comes another promise, Philippians 4 verse 19, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. My God shall supply all your need. I don't have to take time to differentiate between needs and wants. I think you know the difference. He will supply all your need. Matthew 7, ask and it shall be given to you. All the Gentiles know exactly what they need. Food, clothing, raiment. That's Matthew 7. And your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of that. All you must do is ask. For He is a good Father. He does not give you a scorpion when you ask for fish. And He does not give you stone when He asks for bread. He is a good Father. He knows what you need. And Philippians 4.19, promise He will supply your need. And yet, if we're honest, this morning sometimes it comes to loose week and fortnight's gone. And I want you to take a moment, let's practically think, what do you do in that moment? It's loose week and fortnight is finished. And what do you do? Do you rest back on the promise of God? God, you said you would supply all my need. According to your riches in Christ Jesus, you said you would supply my need. Or do you rest on His promise? Or do you go to works of the flesh? And they might look like what is normal for normal fleshly human beings that are not led by the Spirit. You know what that looks like? I'm going to go visit my one talks, because they can get me out of this one. Or, I'll go down to the market and see the mama and I'll take out a D now. Because that one will get me through this one. Or, and this is the one that all of us can see as definite sin, maybe I'll take something from the office and go sell it on the side. That'll get me through till the next fortnight. All of which will lead to wrecks of relationships in your life. There will be fruit of the spirit or there will be fruit of works of the flesh. So be careful. You can trust God at His promise. I want to encourage you. He promised to supply your need, and He never breaks His promise. You just need to take the time to trust Him. You say, but pastor, it never works for me. I dare say you've not taken the time to trust Him. And He has promised to supply. Never needs anything, but He always supplies. Did you ever think about that? He is not a God that needs anything from us, but He is a God who continually gives to us. I think of the false gods in the temples that require people to bring food to them and lay out the food, and our God never does that. I think of the fact that our God does not need food to sustain Him. He does not need a sacrifice of our children to appease Him. He does not need light to see and He does not need air to breathe. He exists and is self-sustaining. He is all-powerful and everywhere present. And He does not need anything at all. So instead of needing us to sustain Him, He instead decided to adopt us as His children and then supply our every need according to His riches in Christ Jesus. and His riches are endless. They're met by His manifold riches when it says in Scripture that He created all things from nothing. Latin, ex nihilo, out of nothing He created. Every person on this earth creates from something. You have to have some resource. And His resource is nothing. And I don't know if you looked around last time, but there's a whole lot of nothing out there that He can draw from. And His resources are Endless. He makes Bill Gates and Elon Musk and Warren Buffet and Jeff Bezos look like little boys playing in the street. His resources are endless. You keep digging and you'll find more and more resources, more riches in His glory in Christ Jesus. And He gives strength in weakness and He gives help in the time of need. He'll give grace in the trials and He'll give new mercies every morning. He'll give you health to go to work and He'll give you the job that you go to. He gives you righteousness in exchange for our wickedness, and He gives us peace with God. He gives us redemption through His blood, and He gives us victory over the flesh. He gives us access to the Father and forgiveness of sins, and He gives us the body of Christ, yea, even the brothers and sisters that we have. or a gift from our Heavenly Father. And He gives us wisdom if we will but ask, and He gives us freedom from fear and a home in heaven. He gives us the Word of God as a lamp to our feet and a light to our paths, and He gives us protection from the enemy, for while we need to sleep, He neither slumbers nor sleeps. He never runs out of resources. He is not like a king who requires thousands of servants to serve Him and bring Him things instead. He is a King who is good and gracious in need of nothing, who instead continually giveth and giveth and giveth again. Our Heavenly Father is a wonderful King who is not limited by anything. He will meet all your needs according to His riches. And Christ Jesus, and friend this morning, some of your needs may not be financial, they might be spiritual and emotional, and I want to encourage you this morning to trust Him and walk in the Spirit. Allow His promises to be fulfilled in your life. You get to choose which way you're going to walk, in the flesh or in the Spirit. You choose. And before I wrap it up, I want to just drop a couple of rapid-fire promises, because there's so many of them that I just don't think would do justice to walk away from. 1 Peter 5 and verse 6, I'll throw them on the board for you. 1 Peter 5 and verse 6, Humble yourself, therefore, unto the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. Be humble. There's the promise. Be humble, and He will exalt you. I think as we approach 2022, it might help for some people to be thinking that way. You want to be lifted up? Be humble. Let God be the one that lifts you up. 1 John 1 9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. That's a promise. You can trust Him. I wonder, are you walking in the Spirit or are you walking after the flesh? He will cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Here's Philippians 1 6, being confident of this very thing. that He who began a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. So He started the good work in your life, and He promised that He will fulfill it. He'll make sure that it goes all the way through to the end. I hope you're walking in the Spirit and trusting Him in His promises. This one, I hope this one will help you. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13. There has no temptation taken you but as such as is common to man. Stop thinking you're special about how your sin keeps bothering you. That's common. It's across the board and everybody has a problem with sin. So stop thinking you're special case. There's not a single sin on this earth that is not common to man. So God, in that problem, here's what happens. God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted. Above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. Grab this. You're not alone in the battle. He's with you. You will receive a way of escape. You say, but I keep waiting for the way of escape. I... You have not trusted Him at His Word. That's the problem. You say, but my problem is internet pornography. You can turn it off and walk out the door. You don't have to stay there. My problem is I see something and I can't help but I have to take it. No, you don't. You can leave it there and walk out. You say, there is a way to escape. There's the door for Pete's sake. It's easy. Walk away. He will always provide a way to escape. This is a promise. Walk in the Spirit. You'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Here's one. Matthew 5 and verse 8. And I cling to this verse often. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. If you're pure in heart, you get to see where God's going. You want God's vision for your life? Get a pure heart. Blessed are the pure in heart. human, brothers and sisters, I know what it's like to walk after the flesh, and in walking after the flesh, I know what it's like to not see God. I'm also a believer that's walked after the Spirit, and I know that when I'm walking after the Spirit, I know what God's doing. I want to see Him. Becky and I have been doing this keto diet since September. I don't know if you've noticed. Becky and I have been doing this keto diet since September. Last Friday night, we went to the Hilton and we had a special dinner for the two of us and we broke the keto diet. I don't know if you know anything about the keto diet, but it causes your body to produce brain food. And I have loved the last five minutes, five months, not five minutes, five months of brain food. I've enjoyed it. But the Saturday after having eaten whatever we wanted off of a buffet, my body had not had bread in months. And when I ate a piece of bread, I'm telling you, all day Saturday for months and being able to think clearly. And then I ate bread on Friday night. I'm telling you, on Saturday, I laid and was sick. And I told Becky, I don't ever want to go back to that again. I'm going to go back to eating healthy because I want to eat healthy. Not because, oh yeah, look, I'm going to lose weight, but because I get to think clearly and my body feels healthy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. I know what it's like to be pure in heart. I know what it's like to not be pure in heart. And I don't like the results of not being pure in heart. It's a promise. So be pure in heart, for you shall see God. I want to be with Him. I want to walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I want to walk in the Spirit because I don't want to fulfill the lust of the flesh. So trust God at His promises, friend. You can do it if you've got the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. Now come back to Galatians 5. I'm going to close with one verse. Galatians 5 verse 24. after seeing the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5 verse 24, And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If you are a believer, the Holy Spirit dwells within you. You're seeking to walk after the Spirit. You're trusting God and His promises. You're walking in the Spirit. And what did it say that you will do to the flesh? Verse 24, They that are Christ have crucified the flesh with all of its affections and lusts. I'm going to put it to death. And if we will grab an image from Ephesians chapter 6, in the whole armor of God, I will take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, to crucify the flesh. I will take the promises of God, and I will trust them, and just like a sword, I will crucify the flesh in all of its affections and lusts, and it will be done away with, because I want what's going to happen. When I walk in the flesh, I want the promise that's going to be fulfilled in my life. I want to walk in the Spirit, And I will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I've said this many times this morning. That promise works for believers. You're here this morning. You've put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. You can walk in the Spirit. But if you're here this morning and you've never put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you don't have the Holy Spirit in you. You perhaps don't even understand this war that's going on between the spirit and the flesh. And I might close with an invitation for you to examine your own heart. Have you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ or not? I'll explain that right quickly. Your sin separates you from God. He's holy and His wrath, these are the Bible's words, His wrath abides upon you. And yet Jesus went to the cross and took your sin. He took the sin of all mankind and He did it on purpose. It was not a mistake. Before the foundation of the world, the Bible says that before the foundation of the world, God planned that Jesus would take the sin of the world. Jesus stepped between, as it were, stepped between God and you, and Jesus took all of your sin and placed it upon Himself, and God poured out His wrath on Jesus. An infinite God poured out His infinite wrath upon His infinite Son in a space of three hours as Jesus hung on the cross, and took all of the wrath of God in your place. And so when we say, have you trusted Jesus Christ for the remission of sins? Have you trusted Jesus Christ to take your sin? That's what I mean. Have you put your trust in the Lord Jesus? For He has taken your sin. Do you trust that? And just like we've said this morning, the alternative is for you to say, I think I'm good enough. I think I've done enough good things in my life that they'll outweigh my bad things. And God goes, that never works. For if you're going to try that route, you're as those who would try the law, and you can never continue to do all of the law. When you try that route, you find yourself cursed. But we get a blessing because Jesus became a curse for us by hanging on the tree. And so I might ask this morning, if you've never put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, I'd love for you to do that today. I think this is a great opportunity. So if I could invite you to bow your heads, close your eyes with me. I'm going to pray in just a moment. By way of invitation, I'd like to ask You know for certain this morning, you're here this morning, you've been with us. Today's your first day or you've been here for a long time. You say, pastor, I know for sure I've put my trust in Jesus. He has taken my sin and I know for sure that I'm going to go to heaven when I die. Would you raise your hand? I want to see how many people would say, yes, pastor, I know I'm saved and I know that Jesus has taken my sin. Anybody like that? Oh, hands all over the room. Fantastic. Great. You can put them down. I might ask the other way. You say, pastor, this morning I've not put my trust in Jesus, but I need to. And I'd like to put my trust in Jesus today. Can I speak with someone? I'd love for somebody to show me. And what I'm going to do, I'll have you raise your hand if you want to put your trust in Christ today. I'll have somebody come to you and the two of you can go off and sit and talk in the office. Is there anybody like that this morning? You say, Pastor, I would like to put my trust in Christ. Can somebody show me from the Bible how I can put my trust in Christ? Anybody like that this morning? Just raise your hand and say, Pastor, I'd like to put my trust in Christ. Is there one like that? See that hand? One is coming to you. Is there another? Say, Pastor, I'd like to put my trust in Christ. I need to get things right between me and the Lord. Is there another? Now, morning, you had him talk to God. Talk to God. He come clear. And you talk, me got like, we'll put him life, blow me, you go inside, long Jesus Christ. Me like, behind him, leg mark, blow me in. Me like, turning bell, I'm gonna kiss him Christ, little life, blow me. No good you can up him, hun? No good he got one, blow us in? Let me change gears now. I'm assuming I'm speaking with brothers and sisters in Christ. How many of us would say this morning, Pastor, I know what it's like to walk in the Spirit, and I love when I can see God. Would you raise your hand? I know what it's like to walk in the Spirit. I've trusted the promises of God, and I love it. Absolutely wonderful. Now, I'm going to ask it another way, and I'm not going to ask anybody to come to you and take you out, but I am going to ask if I can pray for you. This morning you say, Pastor, there's times in my life when I just struggle trusting the promises of God, and I don't walk after the Spirit, but would you pray for me this morning? Anybody like that? You raise your hand. Oh, absolutely, all across the room. Father, would you help us to trust your promises? Walk after the Spirit. Oh, Lord, how easy it is for my flesh to say, I'm enough, I don't need God. Even as a believer, even indwelled by the Holy Spirit, how easy it is for me to say, I think I've got this figured out. And yet, Lord, I pray that You would draw us back. Use Your Holy Spirit to draw us back to the promises that You've given us in Your Word. Help us, I pray, to walk after the Spirit. And thank you for the promise that if we walk after the spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Thank you for your goodness on our lives. Pray these things in your beautiful name. Amen. Love you guys. Have a great week. Thank you for listening to this message by Pastor Matt Allen of Capital City Baptist Church of Port Mosby. We would love to have you join us for service if you are in the area. If you need help with transportation, Please give us a call on 7909-1000. Again, it's 7909-1000.