If you would, please open your Bibles to Galatians chapter 5. We return tonight to Galatians chapter 5, verses 16 through 25, and the subject that we began last week, walking in the spirit. Just as we did last week, I want to read, starting in verse 13 of Galatians 5, down through verse 26. For you, brethren, have been called to liberty, only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another. I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts 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 are 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. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Again, we're talking about walking in the Spirit. In verse 16 and in verse 25, Paul instructs believers in Jesus Christ to walk in the Holy Spirit. Why? Why does he do that? Well, I suggested to you last week, it's because when God saves us, he does great things for us, right? He brings about a marvelous change in our lives and in our experience. We are crucified with Christ to the old way of living, to sin and to the world and to the devil. We're raised to newness of life with Christ, to walk in newness of life with him. He has given us, in particular, the choicest gift of all, the indwelling Holy Spirit. So God has done great things for us, and particularly with the gift of the Holy Spirit. He's given us something of heaven, right, in our experience now. He's given us a foretaste of heaven. He's put something of heaven in our hearts now. So what's the problem? Well, we're not in heaven yet, right? And we are still in a world that's hostile toward God and abides under the power of evil. We live in these bodies of sinful passions and desires that still need to be killed. And as Paul tells us, there's this tension that exists. As great as the work of grace is in our lives, the spirit Desires against the flesh, Paul says. And the desires of the flesh are against the spirit. And so the result is something of a war within. That's normal Christian experience, this side of heaven. Sometimes we don't do the things that by this work of grace we now want to do. And sometimes we do the things that we don't want to do. Well, in order to become the people that God saved us to be and to make progress toward God's goal for us in salvation, toward the goal of glory, Paul says in this section of Galatians, we must learn to walk in the spirit. Until we get to heaven, we must walk in the spirit and not in the flesh. I really cannot overstate, brethren, the importance of this principle of Christian living while we are in this world. It is vitally important that we learn what this means and that we learn to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Well, what does the phrase walk in the spirit mean? Just a brief review from last week. I mentioned to you that Paul actually uses two words translated walk in verse 16 and verse 25. Verse 16, he uses the general term for walk referring to all of life. And so what Paul is saying in verse 16 is live life, every aspect of your life as you go about all the normal business of your lives. as you live and serve and worship in the church. Do it in the Spirit. Live by the Spirit. Walk in every aspect of life according to the Spirit. Verse 25, he uses a different word that means not so much the normal business of life, but walking in line with the Spirit, holding to the rule of the Spirit, or keeping in step with the Spirit. That's the translation I like the best. Keep in step with the Spirit. What does he mean there? He means walk in a manner that is consistent with the leading of the Holy Spirit and with the guiding influence of the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit, as it were, is walking in a path in front of you, follow Him. What's the path that He's going to direct you in? That's the path that you need to walk in. Walk in step. with the Spirit according to His leading and His influence. So, to walk in the Spirit means to live all of life by the power of the Spirit, in dependence upon the Spirit, and under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Now, there are two more questions that we need to answer about walking in the Spirit. The third question that I mentioned last week, we're gonna get to tonight. How do we do this? That's what it means to walk in the Spirit. How do we walk in the Holy Spirit? The fourth question, what does it look like when we walk in the Spirit? What are the results of walking in Spirit? Just can't get to that tonight. I'm gonna save that for the next time. So we'll take up just this one question tonight. How? Do we walk in the Holy Spirit? This is really my primary burden for us as I come to this text and this subject. And I think that reflects, honestly, something of what has been probably a lifelong struggle, personally, as long as I've been a Christian, to understand what this means. I can read this and I can agree that this would be a good thing and that I need it because of this tension that exists in my life and I need the influence of the Spirit in my life, but how? And it can seem mysterious and distant and vague. And I wanna understand what this actually means day by day, and that's my burden for you. I want you to be able to come away from this passage having at least some practical idea of how we are to walk in the Spirit. Well, there are gonna be two parts to my answer tonight. First, illustrations, and second, instructions. So in the first place, I wanna try to illustrate something of our life in the spirit that I hope will help us to gain a better idea of how we're to walk in the spirit. Again, this is the kind of concept that can be difficult to simply explain. And if I just give you instructions and say, this is what you're supposed to do, now go do it, it can be difficult to get our minds around that. That's where illustrations are helpful. Now the problem is, how do you illustrate something like this? How do you illustrate the indwelling of the Spirit and the ministry of the Spirit in the life of a Christian? All illustrations tend to come up woefully short. So I've wrestled with how to do that. I want to give you two illustrations of life in the Spirit and how that relates to walking in the Spirit. The first illustration or picture is that of the nation of Israel living in the Promised Land. Israel living in the promised land. Now think about this with me. Israel living in the promised land with God, Jehovah, dwelling in their midst. Okay, that's the idea. That historical reality is a wonderful illustration of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. What do we have there when we look at Israel, national Israel, living in the land, having taken possession of the land, and then God comes, right? And he fills the tabernacle first, and then later he fills the temple with his glory and his presence. And in all the earth, where is the special presence of God? Well, it's there in the midst of his special people, his covenant people, living in the promised land. It is a picture of indwelling, God dwelling with his people. Now, that's a type or a picture of what will ultimately be fulfilled in heaven, right? It's an historical type pointing forward to the reality that we were just singing about, right? That we look forward to being in the promised land with Christ on the throne, the lamb on the throne, dwelling in the midst of his redeemed, gathered from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, and this principle of indwelling, we will enjoy, we will live out in its fullest expression forever in heaven. But there's a way in which this principle has already begun to be fulfilled. Actually, there's a couple of ways that it's being fulfilled now. and it's being fulfilled in our experience as individual Christians. The Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts is an initial kind of fulfillment of God dwelling with men in the midst of his people. He dwells in our hearts. Now I think it's also fulfilled in the church, right? The spirit dwelling in the midst of God's people in the church. But right now we're thinking about how this illustrates individual experience. So that's why I think it's a valid picture for us to think about. So let's think about some of the details of the picture. God redeems his people Israel from slavery to give them new life in a new land. There's some parallels to that, right, in Christian experience. The land that they take possession of was once overrun and dominated by godless pagan peoples. God works mightily to bring his people into possession of the land, and even in doing that, drives out and destroys some of those remaining godless people. Now there are some inhabitants of the land that remain, and it's the task of the people still to drive them out, right? To root them out, and in doing so, they're not to enter into covenants with them, they're not to make peace with them, they're not to be tempted by their religious practices or their wives, right? They are to destroy the remaining inhabitants of the land. Now what happens then? God sets up his dwelling place. in the midst of his people. Again, first in the tabernacle and then in the temple. Now, this reality that would have been seen with their eyes, would have been heard with their ears, it would have been an awesome reality in the midst of Israel, it should have reminded them of God's special love for them. Right? The dwelling of God in their midst reminded them of his love for them, his covenant commitment to them, all that he had done for them in bringing them into existence as a nation from Abraham, in delivering them out of slavery in Egypt. That's what the dwelling of God with them should have communicated to them. Now in dwelling among them, God also sets up his throne there, right? It is God's kingdom that he has established in the midst of his people. He has set up a theocracy. It's his rule mediated by his presence initially. His presence then has ethical implications for the people, doesn't it? If you were an old covenant Israelite, the fact that the living God, the holy God, was right there in your midst should have had an impact on the way that you lived, right? They were to be holy because God, their God, who was literally dwelling in their midst, was a holy God. And then we could think of the way God guided them. He guided them by his law, by his word, sometimes by his direct leading when the pillar would pick up and move. They were to move with him. And then God would exercise his power on their behalf, his strength on their behalf, to do them good, to provide for their needs, to deliver them from their enemies. Now, in light of all of that, God dwelling in the midst of his people, God says to them, now Israel, walk with the Lord who dwells in your midst, right? in light of all of those implications of His special presence. Well, you can see, brethren, how this pictures for us the indwelling of the Spirit in the heart, in the life of the Christian. God has come to us. God has set up His rule. King Jesus has set up His rule in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And when the Spirit comes, His presence in our hearts, as we've been reminded of recently, does wonderful things for us. It assures us of God's love for us, of His covenant faithfulness to us, of His commitment to do us good, to be present with us, to never leave us or forsake us. And there are ethical implications to the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts. Paul brings that out a number of times in his epistles. Do you not know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, right? Therefore, how should you live as those who have the Spirit of God dwelling in you? The Holy Spirit of God. And the Spirit guides us. The Spirit works His power in our lives to do us good, to deliver us from our enemies, to provide for our needs. And so, in light of all of that, Paul says, now, Christian, walk in the Spirit. Walk by the Spirit who is dwelling in you. Well, keep that picture in mind as we get to the hows and the instructions that I'll give. A second illustration, I'll be more brief here. And more simply, I think we can illustrate the role of the Spirit in our lives simply by thinking of the Spirit as a constant companion and friend. He's given to us to be to us a constant companion and friend. Jesus in John 14, 16 says, I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever. I'm giving you a helper. I'm giving one to you who's to be a companion, who is to be a friend to you, and he will abide with you forever, a constant companion and friend. Now, just for the purpose of illustration, again, we're trying to get to the how-to. Think of this picture of the Holy Spirit as a friend. Now, I'm not trying to press this too far. But think of him in a sense literally that way as a friend, really the very best, most helpful friend we could ever have in things pertaining to God. For the purpose of the illustration, imagine that when God saves you, he gives you this friend to literally walk beside you every moment of every day for the rest of your life. In a sense, that's true. Now, I know he comes to live within us, inside of us, but think of him this way. The best friend, the very best friend you could ever have in things pertaining to God, and God gives him to you as a constant companion to walk with you, to live with you every day, every moment of every day for the rest of your life. He's there to help you. He's there to encourage you when you get down. He's there to warn you when you're in danger, to rebuke you when you have fallen into sin and to convict you. He's there to teach you and to illuminate your mind. He's sitting there with you as you read your Bible and he's explaining things to you so that you understand them better. He reminds you of things that you have perhaps forgotten. He directs your steps There are times when He says, no, not that way, this way, right? He's there to support you, in the sense, literally, He's there. And sometimes you're weary and you lean on Him and He holds you up. Sometimes you're so weak, He picks you up and He carries you. You see, that's the kind of friend the Spirit is intended to be. That's the kind of helper the Spirit is intended to be for us. And he's right there with us, in fact, within us every moment of every day for the rest of our lives. That's what the Spirit's presence is like. With those pictures in mind, let's move on now to the instructions. How do we walk in the Spirit? I wanna suggest three things to you. How do we walk in the Spirit? First, we must follow his leading. We must follow his leading. Another way we could put this, we must yield to his influence. In Galatians 5.18, Paul says, if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. In a parallel passage in Romans chapter eight and verse 14, Paul says, for as many as are led by the Spirit, these are sons of God. As many as are led by the Spirit, these are sons of God. So we're thinking now of the leading of the Spirit to walk in the Spirit is to follow his leading. Now in both Romans eight and Galatians five, Christians are contrasted with those who live or walk or are led by what? The flesh, right? Christians are contrasted with those who live according to the flesh and who set their minds on the things of the flesh. We, on the contrary, are those who live and walk and are led according to the Spirit, and therefore set our minds on the things of the Spirit. Now, in order for us to understand what it means to be led by the Spirit, I want to think first about what it means to be led by the flesh. Let's think for a moment about what it means to live according to the flesh. In a sense, I think that's easier for us to understand, sadly. I think we all have a pretty good idea of what it means and what that looks like. Those who are in the flesh, and when Paul uses that terminology, and when I use it, we're speaking of those who are, in a sense, only in the flesh, they're not converted, they don't have the Spirit, they are living under the dominion of the flesh. How do they live? How did we live? before the Spirit of God took up residence in our hearts. Well, those in the flesh are guided by the flesh, right? Controlled by the flesh, moved, motivated by the desires, the lusts, the passions of the flesh. They're consumed with the impulses and the leadings and the promptings of their sinful flesh. And so, because that's the case, they set their minds on the things of the flesh. That's what consumes their thoughts and their desires and their pursuits. They often obey the promptings of the flesh, the urges, the sinful urges of the flesh, and there's really no war there, is there? There's really no fight there. There's no resistance there because there's no Holy Spirit there. There's no new life there to oppose the impulses of the flesh. Now, in the mercy of God, we know men aren't as bad as they could be, but that's not because there's good in them. That's just the mercy of God to restrain sin on some level, but the bottom line is, even if someone looks good on the outside in an unconverted state, they are in the flesh and therefore are guided and controlled by the desires of the flesh. And what's the result? The works of the flesh, Paul says, are evident, starting in verse 19. And you can read the list. Those guided by the flesh, those obeying the impulses of the flesh, these are the actions, these are the activities that result. Those without Christ and without the Spirit are only this, and that's what we were before God saved us. Now, if that's what it is to live according to the flesh, what's the contrast for the Christian? Well, the Christian no longer lives under the dominating, controlling influence of the flesh. Because God has given us his spirit, there's a new principle at work in us that wasn't there before. There is the capacity to do good, right? To please God, to choose what is right that wasn't there before by the presence of the spirit. The principle that guides us now, that controls us, that moves us, that shapes our desires and our pursuits is the Holy Spirit at work in our lives and in our hearts. So we live as Christians, not according to the dictates of the flesh, rather we live according to the dictates of the Spirit. We follow His lead. We listen to his voice, if you will, his desires we want to do, his works, his fruit, the righteousness that he produces is what we now want to fill our lives. Now, in order for this to happen, Paul tells us, there is a deliberate turning away on our part from setting our minds on the things of the flesh. in exchange for setting our minds on the things of the Spirit. That is something that doesn't just happen. It's not just something the Spirit does to us without our cooperation, as if at conversion, we never have another fleshly thought all the way to heaven. I wish that were true, but it's not. Because we're still in these bodies of flesh, the impulses of the flesh, the desires of the flesh, still rear their ugly head at times. So the idea is this, brethren, Christian now, now that we can live in the Spirit, whereas before we couldn't, recognizing who we are as new creatures in Christ, we choose to think on those things that are spiritual and not carnal. We're to fill our minds with the things given by and promoted by the Holy Spirit. And as we do so, what will happen? We begin more and more to realize the joy and the liberty of living according to the Spirit, free from the bondage of our former slave master, the flesh. The idea is pretty simple, really. There's a new boss in town, right? There's a new boss, and he's gracious, and he's kind, and he's loving, and he has displaced the old master. Now, the flesh is still there. It's like those inhabitants in the land that weren't entirely driven out, right? Their power was broken. They didn't rule. They had no authority over Israel, but they still had to root them out. And that's kind of the nature of the flesh and its remaining corruptions and influence in our lives, you see. But there's a new boss in town, there's a new master. And the spirit has taken up residence and it's his will, his desires, his voice that we are to follow and that we are to obey. And a part of doing that, a part of following his leading is deliberately turning away from the impulses, the promptings, the voice of the flesh. Now, in order to follow the Spirit's leading, we do have to discern it, right? We have to be able to recognize it where it is. And we have to be able to tell the difference between the Spirit and the flesh. Now, the best way, I think, to discern the Spirit's leading is to know him so well and to understand his work so well that we recognize his influence when it comes to us. It's kind of like what I understand is the training for those who are charged with finding counterfeit bills, right? They don't teach them all the counterfeit bills and the marks that identify all the counterfeit bills. They teach them the real bills and the marks that identify the real bills so they can recognize the real bills and then they can tell the counterfeit bills, right? Well, that's what we need to do. Focus on the Spirit. Let's get to know Him really well. Let's understand His work, His person in our lives, the things that He's trying to do, the purposes that He has for us, and then we will discern His leading. Now, how will the Spirit lead us? This has been the most frustrating part of my preparation for this sermon because at this point, what I'd like to do is begin a 40-part series on The person and work of the Holy Spirit, it's so rich, it's so full, it's so wonderful, and trying to boil this down has been tremendously difficult. How will the Spirit lead us? Now, I'm gonna try to make this simple, but that doesn't mean I'm capturing everything that He does, okay? I'm just trying to capture a few things. Generally speaking, I think we could say that the leading of the Holy Spirit will be consistent with the Word and with his work. His leading will be consistent with the word. He is the spirit of truth. It will always be consistent with his specific work. Now what I mean by that is, his specific role, particularly in the New Covenant age, right, from Pentecost to glory, the specific role that God has given the Holy Spirit now in the lives of the new covenant people of God in applying the salvation accomplished by Christ to his people and bringing us to the goal, to the end in view, glorification. The Spirit has embraced, just like the Son embraced the cross, right? That was His unique role, His work. The Spirit has embraced a unique role in the accomplishment and the application of salvation to our lives. So He will lead us in a way that's consistent with His mission and purpose for the new covenant people of God. Well, what is that? What is His mission? What is His role? What is His purpose in our lives? What's His work? Let me suggest two things. They're not the only things, but two things. The Spirit is given to us, brethren, to promote our communion with Christ and our likeness to Christ. There may be other things he's gonna do in us and for us and in the church and in the world. We can be confident that he's always working to do these two things at least in the lives of the people of God, to promote our communion with Christ, our relationship with Christ, and our conformity to the likeness of Christ. The Holy Spirit is poured out on the church in redemptive history in the absence of the bodily presence of Jesus Christ, right? Jesus leaves this world, he ascends back into heaven, he receives the gift of the Holy Spirit as a reward for his work, his completing the mission given to him, and he pours out the Holy Spirit on the church and his people. And one of the great purposes of the Holy Spirit in the church age is to mediate the presence of the absent Christ in the lives of his people. How is Jesus with us personally? How is Jesus with us in the church? It's by the Holy Spirit that his presence comes to us. Jesus said when the Holy Spirit comes, he will what? Glorify me because he will take of what is mine and he will declare it to you. So one of the purposes, one of the works of the Spirit, primary works in the lives of his people is to exalt Jesus Christ to us. to make Him real to us, to help our understanding of who He is and to deepen our love and our walk with Him. The Spirit, as we said earlier, gives us assurance of our relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ. He comforts us. That's one of His names. He will be a comforter to you. He helps us. He encourages us, especially in our apprehension and application of Christ and the gospel to our lives. How will he lead us? Whatever else he does, he will certainly lead us in that direction. in encouraging our communion with Christ. He will also be working, brethren, to accomplish our likeness to Christ. It's part of the ultimate goal of our salvation, transformation into the image and likeness of our Savior. That's sanctification. How will the Spirit lead us? He will lead us in the pursuit of holiness. Same thing as saying conformity to the likeness of Christ. We shouldn't be confused about that. When we say we need to be more holy, sometimes we don't like that very much. It sounds kind of austere, harsh, we don't want to be holier than thou kind of people. All we're saying is God making us more like his son. Same thing, becoming more holy. You know what that means? It means two things. It means generally speaking, on the one hand, putting off sin, and on the other hand, putting on the new man. Right? Putting on the attributes, characteristics that are like Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of sanctification. He is working in our lives to deepen our fellowship with Jesus and to make us more like him. So how's he gonna lead us, brethren? He's gonna lead us in a way that's consistent with those purposes in our lives. And we can discern his leading, we can discern his promptings when we're being moved, when we're being encouraged in our souls in those directions by the word of God. Following the leading of the Spirit, brethren, is not nearly as mysterious as it might seem. We need to learn to ask ourselves, day by day, is this choice that I'm about to make, this decision, this attitude that I'm presently entertaining, this thought that's filling my mind, this action that I'm contemplating. Is it consistent with the Spirit, His leading in my life, or is it contrary to the Spirit? Am I cooperating with His work or quenching His work? Is the Spirit pleased or is He grieved? Brethren, we must learn to obey every impulse of the Spirit and not resist His leading. We must learn to heed every prick of conscience that comes to us from the Holy Spirit and not quench it. Now if you're uncomfortable with that terminology, obeying his impulses, heeding every prick of conscience that comes from the Holy Spirit, I'm not advocating some, you know, listening to audible voices or anything like that. I said he will lead us through his word and in a manner consistent with his work, right? So you can test those things if you want. this impulse that I'm feeling to move in this direction or that, to take this action, to think this thought, to adopt this attitude. You can test it by the word because if it's from the spirit, it'll be consistent with the revealed will of God in the Bible. But it will also be consistent with his general work in our lives, the purposes that he's seeking to accomplish in our lives. We need to heed those things. The Spirit leads us, brethren, to embrace and understand the truth of God's Word. He convinces us of our duty. He enables us to perform it. He produces in us a delight in the ways and will of God, in the worship of God, in the service of God, and a desire for those things. The Spirit moves us. He helps us to pray. He convicts us of sin. He helps us to repent. You see what I'm saying? That's why it's not so outlandish what I'm suggesting to you. Use whatever language you want. If you feel an impulse to pray, I don't think that came from the devil, you see. That's what I'm saying. To repent of known sin that's been revealed to you. The Spirit teaches us what love is, and mercy, and patience, and the graces that should characterize our lives. He shows us how to walk in those ways, and he moves us, he convicts us to walk in those ways. It's the Spirit engaging with our spirits to change us, to move us, to guide us in the path that leads to an upright and joyous walk with God. I think the leading of the Spirit is what Paul had in mind in Philippians 2.13, when he spoke of God working in you to will and to do for his good pleasure. That's the work of the Spirit in us, to desire and to do God's will. You see, without the Spirit, we wouldn't do anything that we ought to do, right? In the flesh, you can't please God. We wouldn't want to do anything that we ought to do without the Spirit. And our attainments, brethren, in the things of God are not the result of our best natural abilities. We get confused about that. Our attainments in the things of God are not the result of our best natural efforts. They are the result of the gracious and powerful leading of the Spirit in our hearts and lives. And if you're a Christian, He is leading. If you're led by the Spirit, you are the sons of God. So we are changing. Sometimes it's hard to see it. We are growing. We do desire more of God and more of grace and more of holiness. And where do those things come from? Not from the flesh. not from some remaining spark of goodness in you. It comes from the Spirit of God. And I can tell you, I would never come to prayer meeting at Grace Reformed Baptist Church, or any church for that matter, if it were not for the leading of the Spirit in my life. Because in my flesh, I wouldn't be here. I would never pray in private for that matter. if it were up to my flesh to do that. Do you ever feel that battle more than when it's time to pray privately? And your flesh is screaming at you, no, don't do it. Why do you do it? It's the Spirit. And not only do we do those things as Christians, brethren, on some level, haven't we tasted the enjoyment of those things? There really is a desire. to come to prayer meeting and to get alone with God and to seek his face. Where does that come from? It comes from the leading of the spirit. So walking in the spirit is to follow his leading. It's to yield to his influence. Secondly, how do we walk in the spirit? The remaining two things are much more brief. How do we walk in the Spirit? It's to follow His leading. Secondly, it's to depend on His power. See, discerning His influence is one thing. Actually doing it, walking in it, is another, right? And that's where the power of the Holy Spirit comes in. Christian life must be lived by the power of God and that power is available to us through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. The Spirit helps us by the enablement of His power. Remember what Jesus said to His disciples about the Spirit. He said, you shall receive what? Power. When the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Ephesians 3.14 is part of Paul's prayer for the Ephesian believers. He prays that God would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man. That word might there in 3.14 is power, it's dunamis. And we need that, don't we? To live the Christian life, really to perform the least of our duties before God. And it's exciting to think about this, isn't it? Because by the Spirit we have that power. That power is available to us. And it's divine power. It's like the power that raised Jesus from the dead. It's omnipotent power. And it's supernatural power that we need. So we're talking about living, walking, conducting our lives in conscious dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what it means to walk with him. We're not talking here, brethren, about God working in providence and circumstance to get us through tough times and provide for our needs. It's not what we're talking about. We're not talking about the provision of good health and physical strength. Power of the Holy Spirit is supernatural power, it is spiritual power. Where does Paul want us to realize this power according to Ephesians 3.14? It's not in the outer man, it's in the inner man. You see, you don't have to have big muscles to be a strong Christian, if you have the Holy Spirit, because you have His power. It's by the power of the Spirit, brethren, that we are enabled to live for God and to live for His glory, no matter what our circumstances. We're not talking about enablement to live in our own strength. We're talking about something far superior to that, the inexhaustible, limitless, gracious, effectual, divine power of the Holy Spirit at work in us. We need this power, don't we? to move from discerning the leading of the Spirit to actually yielding to it and obeying His leading. And particularly when we know, and we can't deny it, the Spirit's leading us to do some hard things, right? And it's when we discern it, okay, I get it, Spirit of God. You're telling me through the Word or through my brethren or through your work, you're telling me, I offended that brother or sister in church, and I gotta go to them, and I gotta confess my sin, and I gotta ask for forgiveness, and I gotta make it right. Or, flip side of that, maybe the harder side, you're telling me I gotta forgive that brother or that sister. You're telling me I've gotta love that person that's really hard to love, You're telling me I need to witness to that person, and I can't get out from under the pressure of it. You're burdening my heart for that person, and I feel like if I don't speak, I'm gonna be sinning. I gotta stand for truth in my world. It's gonna be hard. So moving from that, right, the discernment part, to actually doing it, well, that's where we need the power. That's where we need the enablement of the Holy Spirit. Think again of the example of Israel in the land, right? There were those remaining peoples in the land. They were to drive out and God commanded them, go fight. But he did it with a promise, didn't he? I'll be with you. I'll fight for you. I'll do everything. Sometimes he did, he did everything. Sometimes the army just died. Because the power of God was with them, right? But they still had to go and root out and resist the temptations of those remaining inhabitants. And we've got nasty sins to root out, don't we, brethren? Sometimes they look like the Philistines to us and the Canaanites with their steel-wheeled chariots. And we think, how in the world am I gonna drive them out? I think I'll make a treaty instead. And all the while we've got this omnipotent power available to us and God says, if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. We must, to walk with the Spirit, live in conscious dependence on His power, brethren, and live, and act, and obey the leading of the Spirit, depending on that power. One implication of the availability of this power, brethren, believers should never say, I can't, when it comes to the will of God, whatever it might be. And when I look out at you, and I see your faces, and I'm reminded of some of the circumstances in which some of you live, I don't say this lightly, okay? But if you have the Holy Spirit, which means you have the power of the Spirit available to you to be and to do everything that God wants you to be and do, believers really should never say, I can't. We should never say, I can't kill this sin. We should never say I can't have this right attitude as opposed to this wrong one that really feels a lot better. We should never say I can't perform this duty. We should never say I can't go on. Now, we can't. in ourselves, right? But by the power of Christ through the Holy Spirit, we can and we will. We must walk in dependence upon the Spirit. Finally, the final instruction on how to walk in the Spirit is this, we must use His means. We must use His means. The Spirit doesn't work in us apart from our conscious engagement or involvement or diligent participation in the process. He will work in us and with us to what? To will and to do after God's good pleasure. So brethren, we're not passive in this process. Dependence on the Spirit doesn't mean that we do nothing. It doesn't mean that we let go and let God and that the key to a truly spiritual life is utter passive surrender to the Holy Spirit. No, the pattern laid out for us in Scripture, brethren, is, on the one hand, total dependence on the Holy Spirit displayed in our diligent use of the means that the Spirit of God blesses. Remember what Paul said in Romans 8, those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. There's something for us to do there. And back in Galatians 6, Paul says, he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life. There's a principle of sowing and reaping here. And you may deny it and you may come up with all kinds of sophisticated ways to justify your indulgence of your flesh and your entertainment of your flesh and your feeding of your flesh. I'm sorry, you know it's true. You know the difference between the things that are feeding your spirit and are feeding your flesh. And you can tell by the way it works itself out in your life and in your attitudes and in your words, what you're doing with your eyes, all those things. What means can we expect the spirit to bless? Well, fellowship with Christ, right? seeking Christ in private, being with Him, setting apart time to be with our Lord, devotional intake of the Word of God. And here what I have in mind, brethren, we're getting down to the practical again, what do we take from this? Here's what we take from this. Don't just go through the motions of your devotional reading of the Bible. As a good response to this text and to this sermon, next time you go to your devotions, maybe tomorrow morning, stop and pray, Holy Spirit, my dear friend, my companion, my helper, my illuminator, I'm gonna read the Bible now, come and help me. Come and help me to have fellowship with Jesus. Teach me things. Show me my sins. Show me the path that you want me to walk in today. You see what I'm saying? The devotional intake of the word of God and prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit. Asking him to bless the word. The third means contemplative prayer. And here I'm describing prayer that way, I'm simply referring to self-examination kind of praying, not intercession for others at this point, but contemplative prayer in the Holy Spirit. Self-examination, confession, repentance. asking for specific help, knowing what's coming today, right? And recognizing, you know, last time I went through this situation, I didn't do so well. And I know looking back, I reacted very much in the flesh. It's coming again today. So Holy Spirit, please help me to follow your leading in that situation and not the impulses of the flesh. You know what I'm talking about. A fourth means that the Spirit blesses meaningful participation in the one another relationships of the church. We cut ourselves off from a huge avenue of the Spirit's work in our lives if we are not meaningfully involved in real relationships in the church. The Spirit works in the church, in the living stones that make up the church. He gifts people for our benefit, right? And we're lacking if we're not receiving that ministry of mutual edification and encouragement and rebuke and chastisement and all of those dynamics that can only come through that kind of meaningful participation in the church. There are other things, I'll leave you with that. We have to use His means, we have to give ourselves to His means, we have to set our minds on the things of the Spirit. How can we walk in the Spirit, brethren? We have to follow His leading. Are you doing that? Day by day, consciously, are you aware of the role of the ministry of the Spirit in your life? Are you conscious of that dynamic that is so prominent in Christian experience of following the leading of the spirit while at the same time killing the impulses, the desires of my flesh. Are there times in your day where you are consciously doing that? We need to be doing that. Follow his leading. Secondly, depend on his power. And thirdly, use his means. Are you doing that? Setting your minds on the things of the Spirit, not on the things of the flesh. A Philippians 4.8 kind of way, perhaps, right? Whatsoever things are pure, and holy, and lovely, and admirable, and of good report, right? Thinking on these things. And if we're going to do that, there's a lot we have to turn away from, isn't there? Seems to me, brethren, this emphasis of walking with the Spirit demonstrates at least one of the explanations for the difference in experience between real Christians. The difference between real Christians and their experience is not that one Christian has received more of the Holy Spirit than another. The difference in their experience is not that there are different classes of Christians or levels of Christian experience that can only be reached by discovering some secret key of the higher Christian life. If you're a Christian, brethren, God has given his Spirit in equal measure to every Christian. And the Spirit's ongoing work is available to us in Christ. our lack of attainment, of progress, of growth, of sanctification, will not result from a failure on God's part to supply the Holy Spirit. But it may result from a failure on our part to walk in the Spirit as we should. Now why wouldn't we want to walk in the Spirit? When you think about some of the ways last week in this, I've just very briefly tried to describe the blessing of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, the wonderful gift of the Spirit. He is our dearest and best and most faithful and most helpful friend. Why would we not want to walk in the Spirit and resist the lusts of the flesh? I want to encourage you as we close and as you seek to apply these things, take them with you. Every now and then I'll hear something like this when we preach on something like this, a topic like this. I'll hear something like this. Someone will say, our church needs to emphasize the Spirit more. Well, I just did. Right? I mean, often you'll hear comments like that after a sermon like this, right? Or you're at a youth meeting and someone will say, you know, we need to have more youth ministry at our church. Oh, we're doing it. Well, I just preached on the Holy Spirit. Our church has emphasized the Spirit. Don't depersonalize this word by thinking of our church. What do you need to do? to respond to this emphasis on the Spirit. What do I need to do to walk in the Holy Spirit, to be led by Him, to be helped by Him, to be guided by Him? Well, may the Lord Jesus help us to avail ourselves of this precious gift, let's pray. Father, we do commit this part of your word to you and ask you to bless it. And all the failings of the minister, please bless this truth to the hearts and lives of your people. Such an important reality for us to know the spirit and to walk with him. Please give us grace, oh God, to apply these things to our hearts and by your help and by the Spirit to make progress even this week. There's still sin to kill. There's still room to grow and progress to be made in our journey to heaven. Thank you for the promise that you will always be with us. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.