I pray you never depart from primitive worship. Years ago, I disagreed with my mentor, Charles Spurgeon. I'm almost old enough to have literally been one of his students. Not quite, but... And he didn't believe even in music to be accompanied with the singing of the saints. I don't still agree with that. I thank God for Kimberly's talents and anyone who is able to use music to accompany us, especially us who wander off to keep us at least in some the same pasture. But I want to commend simple hymn singing. And I've come to agree with him that the simpler the better. I really have, really this has been one of the things that my time here has helped and I've learned and profited from is that there's nothing more melodious and beautiful than the sound of the human voice. In today's contemporary worship, human voice is really been minimized. It's not vocals, it's the music itself that has been elevated. And I just appreciate the singing here, and tonight especially. Thank you for singing that great hymn, both of those hymns. What should I say to you on this, our final evening And I have prayed, and I believe the text the Lord would be pleased to speak to us from is once again Galatians chapter five. Galatians chapter five, verses 16 through 25. You think we have exhausted this text over the last several weeks, but we haven't. Doctrinal preaching is extremely important. The church is built upon it. If I could instruct young preachers, I would tell them primarily specialize in doctrinal preaching. Keep your preaching on the doctrines, the teaching, the solid propositional teaching of God's counsel. But I would also say to them, with all your doctrinal preaching, you must not be academic. You must not be intellectual alone. But you must apply the truth to the mind so that it can find its way to the heart. For it's in the heart that the activity of the Spirit of God will take that truth that the mind has perceived and bring understanding. Not the mind. The mind can comprehend the concepts, but the understanding of the message of God and his reality comes by the Holy Spirit himself. And that is done in the recesses of what we call the heart. You may also use the word spirit, but in the inner person that God is fashioning after his own image. And so tonight, to be faithful to my own advice, I want to take this text and bring it to a most practical level. I've given you doctrinal positions these last several weeks. I've given you the principles. Now I wish to give you, I want to preach to your hearts. I want to speak to your spirit tonight. And I want to speak on the theme, how to walk by the spirit. It's not enough to be reminded that I must walk by the spirit. I need to know how to do that. And I would have failed you if I left tomorrow morning without following up one more time and say, here's how. Here's how. And it's all from this text Galatians 5 beginning with verse 16 I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh for the flesh lust against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish but if you're led by the spirit you are not under the law Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law. Those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. I want to be like Jesus. How about you? I really want to be more like him. He's my hero. He's the one I look up to. He's the one that I want to emulate because to me, I've never, ever, ever heard of a man as strong as this man, the son of God in flesh. He was a man's man, or should I say he is. He's not in the past tense, but as he walked on this earth, he was a man's man. Don't attribute any effeminate characteristics to Christ. He was truly masculine in every sense of the word, as the father is. And here we have the fruit of the spirit listed, and it's nothing more than the very personality and character of our Lord. This is he. Who is Jesus? What is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? There he is. And the Bible says that you and I can be like Him. Of course, in measure, not in the fullness. But we can be like Him. As I said Wednesday night, to live the Christian life is not a difficult proposition. If it's difficult to you, it's because you're walking in the flesh, trying to act like Jesus, trying to emulate Him in your own natural ability. Oh, I'm not, I don't even agree with the statement, but that's a difficulty. It's an impossibility. It's not within your range of motion, spiritually speaking, to be able to be like Jesus. It's a supernatural thing. And that's what Paul has tried to fasten within the hearts of these Galatians, that if they are His, then they have the living Christ within them. They don't need try to conform to the law and its statutes. They have the law written in their hearts, the very personality of Christ within them. And they need to know how to walk in the spirit. And so he juxtapositioned walking in the spirit with fulfilling the lust of the flesh. We have studied this. We've explained it. I pray to your satisfaction and understanding that the flesh is not all the hideous things we think it is. In fact, who gave you your flesh? Well, the Bible tells us God did because flesh is nothing more than human nature, human nature. Man was created to be a human, not a monkey. God didn't make men out of monkeys. He made monkeys and then he turned around and made a man. two different species. And he crowned man with his very own image made in the likeness and image of God. And the key to that human nature formed out of the dust of the earth and came to life by the breath of God himself was that man has human nature and that's what makes him a man. He will never be deity. You and I will never be Jesus and the sense of divinity, deity. We'll never be God. However, we will be and are redeemed and we will be glorified human nature. Now our human nature's fallen. It's still not yet totally redeemed. It's in the process. It's called sanctification. And one day culminated in hallelujah, the doctrinal truth of glorification. You're going to be glorified. Your body and your personality, your whole person will be completed as far as the removal of sins, corruption, and even the ability to sin. You ought to say amen. You ought to be happy about that. This is our delight to know that one day soon we're going to be free. Totally. Absolutely. But Paul doesn't want you to wait for heaven. Paul wants you to enjoy heaven now. I see way too many Christians not enjoying their birthright. I see way too many Christians struggling, finding following Jesus a difficult thing, as if they're plowing in stone. Well, dear friend, that's not right. Jesus said, my burden, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. He meant for you to be able to do this thing, live for him. And so he says, don't try to live for me and your own natural ability, because that's all flesh is. Flesh is your natural gifts, talents, desires, and abilities without the aid of the Holy Spirit. Don't rely on that, because that will not work. And even the flesh will be opposed. Now that the fall has occurred, something has happened to our flesh. It's no longer pure. It's been corrupted. Even the godly desires in which God has granted unto humankind has been perverted. And that's why, as we said Wednesday night, we reach for the second piece of the pie. when we don't need the second piece of the pie. Appetite's a good thing, but if we satisfy the appetite according to our own natural desires, without the aid of the Holy Spirit, it's called gluttony. That's what gluttony is. And so how then, therefore, do I control these natural appetites? How do I not turn to the law, as the Galatians were, trying to please God? I know what my agenda is. I see it in the law. How do I keep from saying, OK, there's my focus. I've got to do this. I've got to do that. I've got to do this. And I can't do that. And I can't do that. And I can't do that. Cause that's not where your focus is supposed to be. That's what the flesh wants to do. That's part of your makeup. That's why you like laws. I'm going to tell on some of those folks back there on that back row, but they're here so I can do that, right? I'm not saying anything behind the back. I wouldn't say to them personally. When I would teach on these principles at Oak Grove, invariably after teaching the freedom that the Spirit brings, I'd have somebody ask me, well, pastor, what about this particular situation? What should I do there? You know what they were asking me? Please give me a law. Tell me what to do so I can go do it. There's just something about our natural makeup that doesn't want to submit to the Holy Spirit. We want to try to please God in our own strength and ability. And Paul says that will never work. You got to walk in the spirit. And if you walk by the spirit, you won't satisfy this desire to live on your own natural strength, even to please God, much less all the sin and heinous crimes that we commit against the Lord. So How do I do that? Well, I have to address the great confusion that surrounds this topic. There's great confusion about what it even means to walk in the Spirit, much less how to walk in the Spirit. And that's because of some prominent teachings that are, frankly, just completely wrong. Let me give you some of those that has confused us at this very hour. There is the deeper life and Keswick teaching. Keswick was a convention, started back in the late 1800s in England, where people who believed in a deeper life experience with the Lord. Many of these people believed if you simply let go and let God, then you could be walking in the Spirit. Their idea was basically achieving some spiritual passivity. They knew they couldn't serve the Lord by the flesh. They had tried that and had failed, just like we all have, right? And so how do I overcome this failure of trying to please God in my own strength? And they came up with an opposite view. In other words, they ran to the other ditch. Instead of being hyperactive, trying to satisfy and keep the law, they decided they'd just simply do nothing and just believe God. Just believe God. Let go and let God. Some of the Keswick movement actually taught in crisis experiences in order to receive the influence and the help of the Holy Spirit. You've got to have a crisis with God. Now crisis does not mean you're in a bad straight. You've had an accident or something like that. It's just a word to explain. a moment of absolute surrender to God with a phenomenon attached to it. A dark night of the soul is often how it's been described. You've got to go through all of this anguish. You've got to go through the cross and crucifixion and on the other side will be resurrection and in a moment's time, in a moment's time, God will give you the Holy Spirit with power and your life will never again be the same. Well, That's true. If you have an encounter with God, you're not going to be the same. And there were men in that day who had had these kinds of crises, experiences. Therefore, they saw these men, heard their testimony, saw the fruit of these crisis experiences, and they built a doctrine on it. Let me give you a few names. Hudson Taylor. D.L. Moody. A.J. Gorton, F.B. Meyer. You recognize any of those names? These are prominent men of that hour whom God did something significant for. These were all men who knew that the natural powers of the flesh to do the work of the ministry was not sufficient. They had failed long enough. I tell people that one of the things that's been best for me for 23 years that I pastored was to learn what doesn't work. And I often say it this way, when you ram your head into a brick wall, enough times you finally get the point. There's not going to be a hole in that wall. And so they had learned that the power of the flesh cannot do the work of the ministry. And so in desperation, and crying, and fasting, and seeking God, and prayer after prayer after prayer, and going through anguish of soul, often God visited some of these men with an instantaneous effusion, effusion, a pouring out of the Holy Spirit in extraordinary ways that their ministries were never again the same. D.L. Moody's experience is usually the norm and often used as an example of this. D.L. Moody preached the great Chicago church there before the Chicago fire. There were a couple of women that would sit on the front pew and after the service was over, they would say, Mr. Moody, we're praying for you that God give you the Holy Spirit. And he would get so angry. And he would, of course, think he was in just religious indignation, but it was really the flesh. He'd say, I have the Holy Spirit, thank you. But they did not relent. Week after week, after every sermon, they'd say that to him until finally he said, women, what are you talking about? And they told him that there is an empowerment for service. And he began to pray with them that he be filled with the Spirit. Don't get nervous with the terminology. I'm not going to line you up here and lay hands on anybody. Does he feel the Spirit? It's another way of saying to walk by the Spirit. It means the same thing. It's just another biblical term, another metaphor to explain that you and I can't live the Christian life in our own power and strength. We need God's help. To say, I need God's help in the Christian life means I need to be filled with the Spirit. Same thing. What you're hearing from 2 Peter is saying exactly the same thing. 2 Peter 1, verses 3 and 4 is saying, be filled with the Spirit. Don't turn to it now. I'm going to quote it later. Then the Great Chicago Fire happened. Much of Chicago was destroyed, including Moody's Church. He took a trip to New York to try to raise funds to rebuild the building. But while he was there, he was gripped more with his need for power, for service than he was even raising funds for the new church. And while on Wall Street, of all places, God began to answer his prayer, and he turned into a room off the street, and there, in a crisis experience, God's presence and power was manifested, so much so that Moody prayed, Lord, please stop. If you continue, I fear I'll die. The power was so great. After that crisis experience, Moody reported, I preached exactly the same sermons. But now, instead of a few being saved, hundreds were being saved. And he experienced that for the remainder of his life until the Lord took him home. An infusion of power, he learned how to walk by the Spirit, starting with that crisis experience. I could go on and tell you more and more stories. Even the great Jonathan Edwards had moments of extraordinary encounters with the Lord. And so the Keswick folks decided, Andrew Murray is another one of them, decided that, you know, this is how you receive the Holy Spirit. This is how you walk in the Spirit. Because of these great men who've had these great experiences, they began to cookie cutter or mass produce the formula. Now listen to me carefully. When you need a formula to serve the Lord, you have already left the Spirit and returned to the flesh. God cannot be formulated or regulated. He's like the wind, is the metaphor of the Holy Spirit. You do not know where it comes from or where it's going. So is everyone that's born of the Spirit. You cannot peg Him. You cannot put Him in a hole. You can't build a fence around him and contain him. He is the Lord God, and he moves according to his own wisdom. His wisdom's far above us. And so they tried to create a formula. Here's how. I've read their books. I've loved some of their books. I've valued some of their books. But it put me under such bondage. looking for an experience, looking for a crisis, looking for something other than what I already had been given and had available. Sometimes it does come by crisis. Other times a man could be as filled with the Holy Spirit as D. L. Moody was and have had no crises. Don't get hung up on the phenomenon. Don't get hung up on how the spirit influences and helps you. The second teaching that has created great confusion is the Pentecostal charismatic teaching. Now I'm going to lump these two together and I don't mean to because any classical Pentecostal would resent me for having done so. But they're basically similar in this fact that the baptism of the Holy Spirit or the infilling of the Holy Spirit is subsequent to conversion. I mean, he happens afterwards and it's a experience altogether its own. and you receive the Holy Spirit by speaking in other tongues. That's the major philosophy among most of them. There are different divergent views among them, but that's the classic major tenant of their teaching. And they say that Acts chapter 2 verses 1 through 4 is the precedent. You know what a precedent is, don't you? It's in the legal profession. It's when a ruling has been made by a judge or a panel of judges, and it's the first judgment on that particular aspect, in that particular realm. That's called a precedent. And everybody refers back to that as a standard by which all subsequent cases should be tried and decided. And so they say Acts 2, the way the Spirit came upon the early church, is how it's supposed to happen for everybody. But the problem is Acts 2, verses 1-4 is not a precedent passage. That's a completely wrong interpretation. If the experience of Acts 2, 1 through 4 is established in a precedent, then more than tongues must accompany the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Where's the sound of a rushing mighty wind? Where's the cloven tongues of fire set upon each one of them? That was just as much a supernatural phenomenon as was the tongues. You see, Luke's not trying to explain how an individual experiences the infilling of the Holy Spirit. He's simply documenting the promise of the eschatological new covenant. Now, all that fancy terminology, I know I've got some seminary students here. All that means is that the new covenant that God made with man, sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ, is a covenant that is the promise of the Spirit. It's just not the promise of forgiving you of your sins, cast them as far as these from the West. It's also the promise that the spirit of God will inhabit you and not just certain ones like David or Moses or Abraham, but upon all of his children, all of the chosen of God have the same privilege to have the same access to the same person. Amen. This is something Luke had learned from the apostle Paul to Paul. The whole Christological age from beginning to end was the experience reality of Christ in the person of the Holy Spirit. That's Christianity. We had a pastures conference here, and I said the same thing. This is what normal Christianity is. It's you experiencing Jesus, not just learning facts about him, but knowing him, and knowing him by the person of the Holy Spirit. That's all John 14, 15, and 16 is about. He's preparing them to know another advocate, the parakletos, the Holy Spirit, one by whom you cannot live the Christian life without. coming to the Spirit was the foremost gift of the Messianic age. Christ's death and resurrection brought an end to righteousness by the law, and the Holy Spirit was now the means of observing the law of God. That's Luke's context for Acts 2. In fact, if you follow Luke in Acts chapter 1, you find the outline of the book of Acts. Corey, this is interesting, and maybe something you, I'm sure, already know. Luke, Acts 1.8 is Luke's key verse for the whole epistle, the whole letter of Acts. What does it say? But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth. And if you follow Luke's 28 chapters, or 27 following the first chapter, You'll find that he follows that same outline. Starts in Jerusalem, talks about how the Spirit of God was working in Jerusalem, and then Judea, and then Samaria, Acts chapter 8, and then from 9 on, God's dealings with the Gentiles to the ends of the age. That's what's going on here. It's not establishing a precedent. In fact, if it's a precedent, why do we not have another command anywhere else in the New Testament to be baptized in the Holy Spirit? You never, ever find that terminology ever again. If I am commanded to be filled with the Spirit, you'd think it would come up again, don't you? In fact, when Luke describes the event itself, he doesn't even use the word baptized. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. and spake with other tongues as the Spirit gave them. He doesn't even call it the baptism. We are, however, commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We are commanded to walk by the Spirit. So I don't believe the Pentecostal and Charismatic view is accurate. I don't think it's biblical. I don't think it's accurate or biblical and therefore not suitable to build your life upon. And then there is the saintly modern-day Baptist. That's the nicest way I could say it. I'd really like to say something else. And it's this get-it-all-at-conversion thing. This teaching that we get all of the Holy Spirit at conversion and there are no more experiences with the Holy Spirit. Well, I agree. I get all of the Holy Spirit at conversion. You don't divide a person up. I have all of him. But the question about walking spirits, not about how much of him you have. It's about how much of you he has. That's what this is about. And I have never understood why we have come to this conclusion that there are no more experiences with the Holy Spirit when the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 5.18, do not be drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. And of course, all you students of Greek know that the word be filled is in the present tense, which means keep being filled. It's a command, keep being filled. Why command me to keep being filled if I'm always filled at the moment of conversion never to be repeated again. No, no, no, no. The get it all theory of conversion is just absolutely a knee jerk reaction to the charismatic and Pentecostal movement of the turn of the 20th century. We went from one ditch to the other. And now among us reformed is the great debate, whether we're continuous or secessionist. May I go on the record and say just a few things about that? Will you let me? Thank you. The odds were I was going to tell you anyway without your permission. Who came up with these words? Continuous, sensationist. I don't find any of that, nor a hint of either one in the New Testament. If you want to stand here and say, bless the Lord, I am a continuous, God still does the things that he did in the book of Acts today. My dear friend, you need to read church history. There have been long periods where the move of God seemed to be Extinct, not happening. And if you want to stand up tonight and say, bless the Lord, I'm a secessionist. We got the whole canon of scripture. And after that, it's all done. The apostles died. We don't need any of that. We've got the Bible. Well, dear friends, you need to read church history too, because there are several periods in church history where God did act book of acts kind of things. We like to quote the reformers. Let me quote John Knox for you. Let me tell you a little bit about John Knox, the great Presbyterian reformer of Scotland. The man who said, give me Scotland or I'll die. The man whom the Queen Anne said, I fear the prayers of John Knox more than any army. John Knox actually prophesied certain things to happen in the future. And they did. He prophesied about certain things happened to certain people and they did. And he didn't ever speak in tongues to do it either. There's been many times I've seen the hand of God heal the sick. I don't want to take the time. It's a divergence. I don't think it's worth traveling But I tell you I have seen with my own eyes God do amazing works. I'll tell you one Because I know that flesh is itching I Remember doing a revival down in Antioch. I Tennessee, suburb of Nashville. Pastor and I were, I was the evangelist, the pastor was, and I were doing visitations, visiting some people. This was a young lady had been visiting the church not very long. We knocked on the door and she saw who we were and she said, please come in, but I have to ask you to apologize. My daughter is very sick right now and I don't know that I can visit at this moment. And we said, well, where is she? And she took us into the room where she was and I laid my hand on her forehead. I don't ever believe I've ever touched a human body that hot. I don't know what her fever was that we didn't ask, but she was just hot to the touch. I do remember touching one other person that hot, and that was our eldest son when he was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. He burned up with fever too, and he was about the same temperature, and his temperature was 105. So here's a little girl sick with 105 degree temperature, and as I laid my hand on her forehead and prayed, the pastor and I prayed, I could feel the heat dissipate. leave. And by the time we said amen, she was up and playing. That's a true story. And you don't have to believe me, but God knows I'm telling you the truth because he was there because he did it. So I want to go on record on neither a secessionist nor continuous. I don't know what I am except this. I just believe in God. I don't believe in a day of miracles as if that day has ceased or still continues. I don't believe in a day of miracles. I believe in a God of miracles. So all of that's nonsensical. It's again reacting to the abuse of the genuine. And I wish we could come to the hour, we Baptists and especially Reformed Baptists, that we would quit reacting to the false and just stand where the truth is. Don't abandon your birthright. The birthright is the Holy Spirit Himself. That is the age of the Messiah, the age of the Spirit. That's what He came and died for, to put His Spirit back within His people. When Adam and Eve sinned, the Spirit of God that was in them departed, and now He's restored that fellowship, that walk with Him. Let's not abdicate that to these people who are teaching these false things. There is a genuine. That's why the devil counterfeits it. I know I run the risk everywhere I go, and I preach these things of being labeled a charismatic, a heretic, and all of these other things. But I refuse to let people intimidate me and rob me of what I have in this book. And I have a mighty God that mightily saves, and He's still working mightily in the lives of people who will trust Him. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro on this earth, looking to show Himself great on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to Him. He's looking for people who will believe that He has not changed. He can do what He wants to do, not what you want Him to do. You see, the problem with this is that we're trying to inflict upon the Lord our desires. But we've already learned you can't serve the Lord in the flesh. But whatever God has promised you, you can believe. Amen. And I refuse to let a bunch of crazy people tell me what God has said when I have the book and to tell me I can't have that because God doesn't do that anymore. Well, I've got off my soapbox, but that's why we have such a great confusion today. We have all these different ideas. Who's right? Who's wrong? Let's go to the apostle Paul. and his teaching about walking in the spirit. I'm going to give you three things that I see in this text. Number one, if you're going to walk in the spirit, you need to remember who you are in Christ and what Christ has done for you. Now, warning, warning. What was the warning I've given you these last three weeks before I begin every message? What I'm about to tell you, you already know. All I'm going to tell you is the why. I'm going to give you the why, explain why you already know what you know. And it's all going to be simple. It's all going to be, and you're going to knock your head and say, well, I already knew that. Yes, you do. But you don't believe it if you're not practicing it. Because faith acts. Remember, what's faith? I'm just seeing how well you have learned. Do I need to stay a little bit longer? So nobody give me a false answer here. What is faith? What is faith? Acting. Amen. Thank you. If the pastor gets it, I know you're in good hands because he can teach you the rest of the way. Faith is acting like something's real because it's real to you. And if this is not happening in your life, it means it's not real to you and therefore you don't believe it. That's right. So you may know what I'm about to tell you, but the question once again is, are you practicing it? So number one, are you constantly reminding yourself of who you are in Christ and what Christ has done for you? Verse 24. That's what he's doing in verse 24. He's reminding these Galatians if they have really been saved if they've really been truly born again Here's what they did when they were converted verse 24 and those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and Desires, what does that mean? It means the moment you said yes to Jesus You not only said yes to Jesus, but you said no to yourself You talk about a crisis experience, right? You don't need any more crisis experience greater than the conversion of a sinner to a saint You've already had a crisis You've already had an encounter with God and at that moment when you trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior You said to your own flesh and its passions and desires. You're not in charge anymore. Jesus is Amen And Paul says, that's all that's required here. You attempting to follow the law and the Sabbaths and all the Jewish holidays and the dietary laws and circumcision, you've forgotten. You have forgotten who bought you and what he did when he purchased you and made you his own. You forgot what you did. You forgot your repentance. Ensure that even this morning you were reminded that your assurance is based upon certain biblical facts. What are those facts? That Jesus Christ died for sinners such as me, and I've trusted him and all who trust are declared righteous in his sight. Not by the works of the law. Not by the deeds of the law shall the flesh be justified. No, but by faith, by grace through faith. And the moment you trusted in Jesus, you said, Jesus, here I am. Take me, lock, stock, and barrel. Paul says it another way to the Corinthians, that if you are Christ, then you have been bought with the price. You're no longer your own. You are God's, both your body and your spirit. You've been purchased. This is true for all of the saints of God. We have been ransomed. We've been ransomed. The price of a slave has been offered and we have been set free. And that is an act has happened as we trusted Jesus as our Savior. And as we trusted him as our Savior, we also said no to sin ruling over us through the flesh. We said no. We said, I realize I'm a free man. I'm a free woman. I don't have to keep doing this. Jesus has died and I'm dead to the world and the world is dead to me and my flesh and my passions and my desires. And you say, well, wait a minute, that's true. Why do I still give into my desires? Why do I still have passions that I sometimes give into as they petition me and supplicate and I give them their petition. Isn't that a fancy way of saying you just give in to your own willful pleasures? Why then do we still do that? Because you've forgotten whose you are. And that you don't have a right to take from Christ and do with it as you please. You don't have that right. You have forgotten what Jesus has done for you. Romans six and verse six, knowing this, that our old man, that's who you were before Jesus ruled and dominated by sin through the flesh. So that you were the slave of sin, you were free concerning righteousness. Paul says in the 19th verse, that means you couldn't be righteous before God. If you wanted to, you were free from it. There was no way you could get there because you were in bondage to your sin. But knowing this, that the old man has been crucified with him, that the body of sin He's talking about the corrupt nature that ruled, that sin ruled through, might be done away with, destroyed. It just simply means rendered defective. That when your flesh and its passions rage and you want the second piece of pie. Or you want to look at the computer and the pornography. Or you want to blow off and get angry at somebody who's mistreated you. Whatever the passion of the natural human fallen unredeemed nature is, the Bible says that that doesn't mean you have to do it now, that you're no longer the slave of sin. But Paul in the 11th verse says something else that he says right here in the verse 25 of our text. Now I'm going to put the two together just be patient, but let me tell you what the principle is. Choose to submit to the indwelling Holy Spirit. Choose to submit to the indwelling host. Holy spirit. He says verse 25. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. What does he mean? He means the same thing. He said, actually in verse 18 of chapter five, if you're led by the spirit and under the law, Now, we studied this on an earlier Wednesday night, but for those of you that were not there, all we meant with all that Paul is saying here is, if you're following the Holy Spirit, then you don't need to worry about trying to fulfill the law. Go back to the fruit of the Spirit there in that 23rd verse, all those nine characteristics. And what does he say at the conclusion of listing those nine personality traits of Jesus, against such there is No law. What does that mean? It means that there's no law against doing these nine things. Being like this. Because there is no law of God that says, don't be like Jesus. Rather, the law of God says, be like Jesus. Right? But we can't do that in our own natural strength, abilities, and desires. We need the Holy Spirit to do that. And so if you're led by the Spirit, you don't need to worry about trying to keep the law. You will keep the Spirit of the law by just letting the Spirit lead you. Because remember, He wrote the law. The Spirit is the author of that law. If anybody knows how to help you keep the law that they wrote, it should be the very spirit of God. Makes sense? But if you are led, that's an interesting, if we live, if condition, in other words, Paul is saying there is something you must do to cooperate with God in this. Again, it's not God taking you by the nap of the neck and making you do something you don't want to do. Oh, well, we wished it was like that, don't we? You think you do. You think you do. But you're wrong. God always does everything the most loving, most wise and judicial. In other words, to not take you by the nap of the neck and force you to keep his laws is the best thing for you. You can't do second best for you. He's given you one thing better. He's put his spirit within you and the spirit of God will lead you if you submit. I love this about my father. And I learned this about my father about when my boys were eight, seven, eight, nine, 10. I wish I had learned it when they were still in the womb. I learned how my father deals with me. He doesn't force me. Now, I'm not talking about discipline. He disciplines me. But even after discipline me, it's still my choice whether I submit to him. Now, here again, we reformed guys, we like to go and jump out of one ditch and go to another. And we talk about the bondage of the will. Well, yeah, that's of the sinner, but you're not there anymore. Your will has been set free to obey of all people. You have a free will. You can choose or not to choose. Now, there are consequences on both choices, but the point is you get to choose. You see, the Holy Spirit's not a perpetual motion machine, which operates automatically in the life of a believer. Did you hear that? He's not a perpetual motion. You ever know what those are? It's by its own inertia, its own energy. It perpetuates, it keeps itself going. He's not like that. He is a divine person waiting to be depended upon for his ministry and expecting the saint to cooperate with him in it. This is so beautiful about our God. Someone said some kind words to me today about my ministry at Oak Grove, and I said, brother, it was a privilege to be here. But more than that, it was a grace. I didn't deserve to be here and to minister to you all. It was a kindness, a grace that I did not deserve. But the Lord said, if I cooperate with him, he could use me. He didn't force me. And this is something that was hard for me to learn. It really was, because it just so totally conjured in my human makeup, that God will literally stand waiting, and his whole enterprise be shut down while he's waiting, He's all enterprising your life shut down until you're ready to cooperate. And I learned why. You know what the reason is? Because he's more concerned than you and what you can do for him or your ministry. He's more concerned about you. He wants to develop you because he really wants to have a relationship with you. This is the most remarkable thing about God. I had to learn to rethink my whole approach to God, because my whole approach to God was very much based on the old covenant, not the new covenant, even though I was a new covenant believer. I was a new covenant believer in an old covenant body, trying to do the old covenant in my own strength. And the Lord showed me that's not it, no, no. I'm not going to make you. I'm not going to drive you. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not going to force you. I want you to learn to cooperate with me. Why? Because that's the way relationships work. If he forced you, if he coerced you, it's not a loving relationship. It's a servant-master relationship. But Jesus said to his disciples the night he was betrayed, I no longer call you my servants, but my friends. I'm taking the relationship to a better and higher level. We are friends. Yes, I am a slave of Jesus Christ. That was Paul's favorite terminology to address himself. A love slave, a bondservant of Jesus Christ. But he meant just that. Love slave. A slave who chose to serve his master. And they would take that man after he had served his seven years. And he says, I want to continue to serve this man. I love this man. I don't want to be out from under his shadow. They take his ear. And they'd place it up against a post and take an awl, and they would pierce his ear. And there forever was the sign that he belonged to that man. But that man adopted that man into his family, and he received at his death the same inheritance as the other sons. You see, the Lord truly not only loves you, but delights in you. And he wants you to get to know him on a personal level and choose to love him in return because you want to. And brothers, sisters, when you know you've already passed the course, you don't have to worry about getting a good grade. You've already got the good grade. Charles Leiter tells this illustration. You've read it if you've read some of his book on justification. He said there was one professor in his college tenure that the very first day he went to the blackboard and he wrote an A on the blackboard. He says, you see the letter A? You all get an A in this class. Nobody's going to flunk. In fact, you're all going to get an A. Now that that's out of the way, let's enjoy the material and learn something. That's exactly what God says to you and I. You've crucified the flesh. You said no to self-rule, yes to Christ's rule. It's already determined. It's already determined your destiny. Now let's enjoy the walk until we get there. How do you do that? By cooperating, by submitting yourself. The choice lies within you, the believer, as whether or not you're going to yield to the Spirit or obey your flesh. The Spirit's always there to give you victory over your flesh. All you have to do is say point blank to sin, no. And at the same time, trust the Spirit to give you victory over it. It's not just say no, as the old narcotics campaign, anti-narcotic campaign of the 80s, just say no. It's just say no and trust the Holy Spirit to help you. We all tend to go to extremes. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, some rely only on their preparation. This is preachers. They only rely on their preparation and look for nothing more. Others, as I say, tend to despise preparation and trust the unction, the anointing and the inspiration of the Spirit alone. But there must be no either or here. It's always both and. These two things must always go together. End of quote. Always must go together. God will give you power. He will help you overcome your own natural desires, strength and abilities, but you must cooperate. And how? By submitting. And it's as simple as a choice. And the choice has to be repeated continually. It's not a once and for all choice. I wished it were, but it isn't. But here's the beauty of it. Don't look at it as law. I've got to do this. Okay. So you can listen to this message. Are you getting bored? No. Okay. Don't want to bore you. I am enjoying this though. But I want to enjoy that your experience. It's not, don't look at these three things I'm going to share with you as law. See, that's exactly what the flesh will do. You're going to write these three things down. Okay, I got to remember who I am and what Christ has done for me. I got to submit to the Holy Spirit and I do that moment by moment. Okay, I've got my two laws here. I'm waiting for the third one. three, you know, three is a charm. I've got to wait for the third one. Then I've really got the formula. And now I can go do this. No, no, no, no, no. If you're looking for a formula, it's not going to be the spirit of a living God. This is not a formula. These are principles. That's much different. So don't look at these things I'm telling you as laws, rather look at them the way God looks at them. Okay? I need to say no to the sin, my own natural desire, and yes to the Holy Spirit and trust that he will help me. What a wonderful opportunity that I have been given by this flesh to depend upon my God. That's the way you want to look at this. Not as another law to try to fulfill, but as a God-given opportunity to need Him and engage yourself with Him. Isn't that awesome? God has set the Christian life up where He's made it almost impossible to fail. And yet we do. What does that tell you how messed up we are? God has said, okay, I'm not going to take all away your issues. I'm not going to take away all of your pride. I'm not here, not yet. I'm going to let certain things remain so that you will always be reminded how much you need me. And when you know you need me, now you will engage me because I'm standing here waiting for us to have some fellowship and to commune with one another. What better thing to commune then to please Him and do His will. Do you see this? This is the Christian life. Now you know why I said the Christian life is not difficult, it's easy. When you do what the Bible says and trust God, it's easy. I didn't say it wouldn't be, there wouldn't be difficult moments. There is even in sorrow, there is a rejoicing if you trust God and choose to do that. But you must choose. That's why I've always asked you, I think, since my beginning here, what are you trusting God for today? That unless God comes through, you fail. And you thought I was trying to encourage you to believe God for a home for you or a new car. or something else. No. I'm trying to get you to understand that you, the just, shall walk by faith. You'll walk by faith. And if you're not walking by faith, if you're not faithing it, you're not pleasing to the Lord. So I need something every day. I need something other than a house to trust God for. I need him right now to help me preach this message. When I was in Canada, it was the last day. Conference had gone wonderful. We switched locations, as we always have to do on the Sunday. And they didn't do a sound check before the service. And as soon as I got to the pulpit, there was this terrible ringing. The audio was not just bad, it was a terrible distraction. And men were running around the building, getting up in front of the congregation, trying to adjust, adjusting our microphones, doing everything they could to try to solve it for the entire hour. And they couldn't fix it. And here I am trying to give what I thought was one of the most important messages that entire conference. I felt nothing of the power of God. I had felt it for two days that day. I felt absolutely nothing. If I could have hid, I would have hid. And they're videotaping this thing to send it to China. And I'm thinking, oh no. There's no life here. I'm not sensing. But then I remember what I'm telling you. I can cooperate with God if I want to. I can trust him in this. And I did what I'm telling you. I preached to myself and said, okay, Michael, how do you preach by grace through faith? And I didn't miss a beat. I was doing all that while I was preaching. And I encouraged myself in the Lord. I still felt nothing. The audio problem still continued. But after that service, a young man came to me who had been there the night before with a lot of questions. I said, You've got to be here tomorrow afternoon. God will answer your questions. Well, the sermon had moved upon him, but he still didn't have all these questions answered. And he came. He asked the question as he struggled to believe that he was even belong to the Lord. He struggled with his assurance, and I explained to him In a very short matter of time, just using an illustration God gave me years ago, and all of a sudden the dams broke and the tears began to course down. And he clutched his Bible like this and said, oh, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Oh, what a Savior. He got it. Now, here I've just gone through an hour feeling nothing of the power of God, sensing none of his help, and yet God was working. I asked several people after that service, well, didn't the audio bother you? Because it's only bothered me. No, you know, after a while we forgot about it. That's right. You choose to submit even if you have to disregard what you're seeing and you're hearing. You have to take God at his word and daily I need something to trust God for or I go right back to my flesh trying to please God on my own strength and effort. And so God has set this relationship up that if you'll just submit, choose to trust him and not your own abilities alone. God's given you those abilities. Thank God for those abilities, but don't put your trust in them. They need the aid of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise it's just flesh. And God has set this thing up that in your natural person, you still have issues, you still have foibles, you still have flaws, and you need to trust God for the help to get through those things. So that in your brokenness, the light of Jesus Christ is dispensed and people see it and they glorify him. So remember who you are and what God has done for you when you were converted. And then number two, submit yourself to the Holy Spirit. Number three, have faith that God will give you all that you need. Have faith that God will give you all that you need. Believe He will give you the ability to live as Christ lived. Paul commands these folks to walk in the Spirit and he says, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. In other words, God will give you everything you need to overcome your own desires, even your desire to be good. Because the desire to be good, apart from the Holy Spirit, is no good. The desire to be good, apart from the Holy Spirit, is no good. And he will even help you to overcome that. He will give you exactly what you need. He already established this fact in the third chapter, verse two, Galatians three, two. This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? How did you get saved? How did the Holy Spirit come to you in the first place? By your works or by faith? And the answer is rhetorical. Faith, of course. By faith. Well, the operation of God does not change once you're saved. He doesn't put it in some high gear and institute another basis upon which He has relationship with you. No, it's still the same. Faith, and faith alone. The Lord has promised and committed himself to you. Why won't you believe that? Solid rock. On this, the eve of our departure, I remind you that what you need is not found in any other place but Christ Himself. And that He has been gracious to give you that need, to allow that need to arise in your life that you might find His strength and faithfulness. That's why you have the issues you have and the problems that arise in your life. God is giving you opportunity to find how great He is. He's promised and committed himself to you. And now I want to introduce you to the text, read it to you, that I introduced earlier, 2 Peter 1, verses 3 and 4. I pray you're not tired of hearing this. It'll be one of those verses you preach to yourself every day by. 2 Peter 1, verses 3 and 4. As his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life, Through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." Lust, there's that word again, that strong craving of the flesh. How can you overcome it? How can you escape it? The Christ has already given you everything you need before you need it. For the Lord always provides what you need before you need it. The supply always goes before the need. You have everything in Christ that you need tonight to walk with him and to please him and to bless him and to be a blessing to others. If he didn't give you what you needed to live for him, then he'd be at fault, would he not? It'd be his reputation then. Therefore, if you fail tonight to please the Lord, it's not God's fault. It's because you chose not to avail of everything he's given you already. Pertaining to life and to godliness. Now that covers about everything. I remember pastor preaching that just a few weeks ago on that Sunday morning. What a message that was. I turned around after it was over and asked Bethany, what did you feed him this morning? Did you need to feed him that again next Sunday? She said, I didn't. He fixed his own breakfast. But from these words, God spoke to me sitting back there. Because I'm going to be honest with you. There are times when my own flesh with the enticement of the evil one comes and says, you fool, you've uprooted your family. So what? They give you a house. You gotta live. How you gonna live? You don't get paid a regular paycheck. You get down there in Texas, you don't know hardly anybody down there. They may not, you can get down there and they may not like you. And when you need, you need, they may not want to help you. My heart's fluttered a few times. But that morning when I heard that message, God spoke to me and said, see son, I've given you everything pertaining to life as well as godliness. I'll take care of you. Why would I lead you down there to failure? That doesn't make sense, does it? God doesn't work that way. He's already given me everything Karen and I need. And not just physical, but spiritual. Do you hear me? You have everything to live the overcoming victorious life if you will do what Paul said in Romans 6.11. Reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God. It's that simple. Trust that that's true. There's no crisis needed. You don't need to go through the dark night of the soul. You just need to believe God. Find him faithful. When has he ever let you down? When has he ever let you down and not come through for you? You can't find one time. My dear friend, if you find one, I'm telling you, God didn't let you down. You put on expectations upon God that he never were required and put upon himself. You've tried to put God in his box and say, here's where you will stay. And this is what you will do. And this is what you will not do. No, sir, we are his servants. He is not ours yet. What does the master end up doing? Girding the towel and washing our feet, turns around and serves us, ministers to us, cares for us. Everything you need, he will give you. Amen. That's right. There is one more thing that the text only implies. Well, maybe I'm putting it in there because I just feel like it needs to be said, but I think it's there. You be the judge and that is a pure heart is the only candidate for the infilling of the Holy Spirit, a pure heart. Peter said, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Sin grieves the spirit as recorded in Ephesians 4 30 and do not grieve the spirit of God by whom you receive for the day of redemption. C.T. Studd, the famous missionary to Africa, said, how little chance the Holy Ghost has nowadays. Well, that was in the early 1900s. I wonder how much chance he has today. The churches and missionary societies have so bound him in red tape that they practically ask him to sit in a corner while they do the work themselves. My, my, what would he say today? Solid Rock and to the representatives of Oak Grove and other churches, Please, I beg you, don't let it be said of you that you bound the Holy Spirit up in your programs and your agendas. and sit him idly in a corner while you do the work yourselves. That's not what God intends with this church. He has planted this church for a reason. I know by firsthand experience. Are you listening? I'm getting ready to quit. Don't worry. This is not a midnight sermon before I leave. But if it should be, don't sit in the window. Especially if your name is Uticus. I know firsthand that God started this church. This wasn't a church because it was church, a new church plant because the church split like most Baptist churches. This church was started by the living God because that was his eternal plan for you. I know that I know that I know. How do I know? I don't know. But I know that God planted this church. Why? Because he plants churches that will walk in the spirit with him and cooperate to do his agenda. And as I go, I go with a heavy heart that I can't be here with you to help see what God is going to do with you. This past year, you have helped my family immensely in ways I cannot tell you tonight. And the reason is not because of the time, it's because I can't find, even with my vocabulary, I can't find the words. To leave those folks back here was the most difficult thing I ever have done in my life. And then to have to not just step down, but to turn my back and not go back was even more difficult. that you here received us and you loved us. You honored us. You have been so kind to us. You've taken us in as one of your own and given us such love that was therapeutic and needed at the time. And somehow God has knitted our hearts with you that tonight there is going to be a tear Don't let my pain be accentuated and increased by hearing that you put the Holy Spirit in a corner and you've tried to please him in your own strength of power. The church, said Spurgeon, in the land without the Spirit is rather a curse than a blessing. If you have not the spirit of God, Christian worker, remember that you stand in somebody else's way. You're a fruitless tree standing where a fruitful tree might grow. I exhort you, beloved, walk with God. Walk with simple, childlike faith and obedience. That's all. Simple. Childlike. God didn't complicate the Christian life. We have. The devil has. He made it that a child could walk with him. Trust and obey. There's no other way to be happy in Jesus. Trust and obey. I'm sorry for the emotions because I don't want to try to make some emotional appeal and motivate you by emotions, but these are real and hard to contain tonight. It's been a hard day, but a good day. And so I leave you with this. Remember who you are and who you are and what is done. Submit to Him in childlike confidence. Seek purity of heart. And whether you see a miracle or not, know you are as filled with the Holy Spirit as Peter when he preached on the day of Pentecost. Amen. Believe it. Yes. Don't require some signs of phenomenon. That's not faith. Yeah, I can believe I'm filled with the Holy Spirit if I see 100 people get saved in one sermon. Or I see somebody sick get healed. Yeah, I can believe that. But that's not faith. That's just sight. Anybody can believe. Even the devil can believe after something's happened. If you don't feel it, don't sense it, don't see it, you don't hear it, you don't taste it, or you can't handle it, don't care. God has made a promise. What promise has He ever broken? You are spirit-filled whether you speak in tongues or you speak in Western Kentucky Brogue. God said, I will fill you with the Spirit. This is the promise of all for whom I've died. Trust me. Well, a child can do that. When his or her father says, yes, daughter, yes, son, I will grant you that. I will give you what you ask. They know it's on the way. Can you not trust your heavenly father? was promised to give you the influence and leadership of the Holy Spirit if you'll simply ask Him. If you simply ask Him. It's what Jesus said to His own apostles. If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. I have the Holy Spirit, yes. But I need His influence. I need His help. I need His aid to live the Christian life and to do His will. Because without it, I can't. All I can give Him is flesh, and it stinks in His nostrils. But oh, when you surrender those natural abilities and desires and strength, you yield that to Him. He sanctifies it with His holy presence. and the aroma of God will be on this church. Yes, don't compromise. Keep the aroma of Jesus on you, church, and God will give to you as such shall be saved. He will add as He sovereignly chooses. Why would you want anything else but what God has chosen best for you? Believe Him and follow Him and watch Him work. I understand you're gonna pray for us. I wanna pray for you all. Father, Karen and I thank you for this refuge. Thank you for this hiding place it's been. It's time of learning. Thank you, Father, for the love that you have, like a conduit, just flowed through this church to us. We don't know where we would be apart from your activity in this church to us. We are most grateful. I thank you, Father, for the relationships that have been formed that shall never die. Not even death, physical death, shall keep this relationship from continuing. And until our next meeting, I pray that your Holy Spirit would be real, active, close, to everyone here and that they would cultivate his personality and walk by him who is the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I thank you, Father, that he who believes in you, the works that he does, that you did, he will do, and even greater works, because you have gone to your Father in heaven, and you said whatever we ask in your name, you would do it. You would do it through the person of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. Our birthright, our inheritance, our seal, that earnestness until the day of redemption. Bless this church. Bless the elders of this church. Thank you for these three men who lead and shepherd this block. Continue to give them godly wisdom. I pray the wisdom you've given them as men and human beings would be yielded to you, that you might anoint it and sanctify it to the furtherance of the advancement of the people of God. I pray that each Christian here, Lord, would take this challenge tonight to see how much of Jesus they could actually have and enjoy. and to trust you every day for something that unless you come through, they're going to fail. But don't let them fail. Help them to trust you and they will not fail, Lord. Oh God, you've placed such a responsibility on us. You often will stand back and wait until we are willing. For this we will never understand. But we accept it as the truth of Scripture. And so here we are, Lord. come. By your mercies, we present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto you. Our reasonable service. Here we are, Lord. Here's this church. Consume us for your glory. And Lord, I know what that means. To be burnt up. So there's nothing left. But oh God, use us up for you so that men and women will know you. In Jesus name, amen.