Good morning. Please open your Bibles with me to the book of Galatians. We are in chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5 and with God's help will be examining verses 16 through 18 this morning. Galatians 5 verses 16 through 18. As you're turning there, I want to make the point to you that one of the most dangerous mindsets that a Christian can slip into is to believe that they will always be, in this life, a spiritual failure. To believe that they will never make any progress in holiness or in sanctification so long as they still live in a fallen world and have to deal with the remnants of a fallen, sinful nature. This sort of mindset can lead us to excuse sin in our lives, to set the bar of holiness and sanctification so low because after all, nobody's perfect in this life, right? Not even Christians. So why bother trying? What's more, we can begin to look at the clear passages of Scripture that command justified believers to live holy and pure lives before God, and we can say in our hearts, that's impossible. God is asking something of me that is impossible. And what our text confronts us with this morning is the reality that the Christian life, as described in the New Testament, a life that is marked by the pursuit of holiness, it is indeed possible, contrary to what we might believe. Yes, it is hard, but it is possible. As Reformed believers who rightly cherish the truth of justification through faith alone, we must also cherish the sister truth that justified believers are justified by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. True justification will always result in the process of sanctification and in the pursuit of holiness. Well, let us pray and ask for God's blessing, and then we will read our text. Our Father, we plead with you to give us your spirit, that we might hear your word rightly, and not only hear it and understand it, Lord, but be committed to obey it as we leave this place. Do these things for the glory of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Read with me from Galatians chapter five, Our verses are 16 through 18. I'll begin our reading at verse 13. Galatians 5, beginning at verse 13. Hear the word of God. For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Amen. Well, after laboring for nearly five chapters to show us that justification before God is through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, we saw last time that Paul exhorted the believing Galatians not to abuse their freedom that Christ had won for them, commanding them in verse 13 to through love serve one another. And in our text this morning, he now turns to show us how we as justified believers in Jesus Christ can live up to this high calling that God has placed upon us. Brothers and sisters, you and I have been bought with a price and we must follow the Lord in obedience. And our text today validates our own experiences. It shows us that indeed the Christian walk is hard. It's not easy. But it also shows us and encourages us that the Christian walk is, by God's grace, possible, and I would say even sure and certain for all who have been justified through faith in Christ. And I want us to look at our text this morning under three different headings. First, in verse 16, we see that the Christian walk is possible. Second, in verse 17, we see that the Christian walk is hard. And then finally, in verse 18, we see, once again, it's a repetition almost, that the Christian walk is possible. And we can look at it this way. Verse 17 is the harsh reality that you and I have to deal with, but Paul sandwiches it here between two parallel truths. So yes, the Christian life is hard, but it is made possible by the grace of God as we walk by the Spirit. With these things in view, let us begin firstly in verse 16, where we see that the Christian walk is possible. Look there with me. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Well, Paul introduces this command to walk by the Spirit by saying, but I say. This is setting up a contrast between what he just said in verse 15 and what he is about to say here in verse 16. So in other words, instead of biting and devouring one another, instead of consuming one another, the believing Galatians are to walk by the Spirit. Just as the Galatians had begun by the Spirit, they were now to continue walking by the Spirit. And this, brothers and sisters, is the governing principle and rule of our lives as justified believers. You and I also are to walk by the Spirit. And notice that Paul describes the Christian life as a walk. He doesn't say sprint by the Spirit. He doesn't say slide backward by the Spirit. He doesn't say tread water by the Spirit. He says walk by the Spirit. The Christian life is a walk. It is a slow and steady walk to our destination. And the word walk, of course, is a figure of speech that illustrates how we are to conduct our lives, how we are to behave, how we are to live. It is an active imperative. In other words, it is a command of God. We are to walk by the Spirit. And what's more, it is in the present tense, meaning that we are to be continually walking. It's not something that we do once and then stop. Rather, this is to be our manner of life. It is to be our habit of conduct. And the Bible frequently uses the word walk to describe the Christian life. Just a few examples here, Ephesians 5.2, walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. 1 John 1, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. Third John, I have no greater joy than to hear my children are walking in truth. And then Romans 6, 4, just one of many examples, we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. The Christian life being described as a walk is certainly not limited to the New Testament. It's used throughout the Old Testament as well. Just a few examples here, Micah 6, verse eight. He has told you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? Deuteronomy 5.33, you shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you. Psalm 1.1, we just sang it. Blessed is the man who walks, not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. And one of our favorite verses here at Berea, Jeremiah 6.16, thus says the Lord, stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths, the old paths, where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls. So the Christian life is... consistently described as a walk in the scriptures. And like every other type of walk, the Christian walk has a destination, and that destination is the kingdom of God. I think we can see that here in the context of our passage today. If you look down to verse 21, Paul makes it clear that those whose walk is defined and marked by the works of the flesh, what does he say? They will not inherit the kingdom of God. So conversely, our destination as justified believers is the kingdom of God. That is where we are walking as we sojourn here on earth. But to arrive safely at our destination, we just cannot pick any which way to walk. We cannot walk any way that we choose. Again, verse 21, if we were to walk according to the flesh, Paul is clear, we won't inherit the kingdom of God. So as justified believers, to walk towards the kingdom of God, we must walk in a particular way. We must walk, as Paul says in verse 16, by the Spirit. And I want to make the point to you that just like every other walk, the Christian walk has a beginning. And Paul pointed this out to the Galatians earlier in chapter three, verse three, and he stated to them, as he was rebuking them, he said, you have begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected in the flesh? But he was clear, you had begun by the Spirit. That is to say that they had received the good news of the gospel by faith. They had believed the message that Paul and Barnabas preached to them, that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, took on flesh, and became a man. They believed that Jesus lived a completely obedient life, fulfilling every command of God perfectly. The Galatians believed that this same Jesus then died a substitutionary death, taking the curse of the law upon himself in the place of those who would believe on him. And they believed that he rose again, forever defeating sin and death. And Paul said later in this very letter that God sent the spirit of his son into their hearts crying, Abba, Father. This was the beginning of their Christian walk. And friends, if you were to journey to the kingdom of God, this too has to be the beginning of your walk. There is no shortcut to get on the path that leads to the kingdom of God. You must recognize that you are a sinner and that you deserve God's righteous judgment. You must turn from your sin and turn in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, asking him to save you. As Pastor Jerry says all the time, asking Jesus to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. To walk by the Spirit to the kingdom of God, you must begin by the Spirit. And having begun by the Spirit, you must now walk by the Spirit. But before we define what walking by the Spirit is, I want to be clear as to what walking by the Spirit is not. Walking by the Spirit is not sitting around idle, waiting for some sort of mystical guidance to zap you before you get into action. As Paul said last time in verses 13 and 14, Christians are to, through love, serve one another. Because the whole law, the entire moral law of God, which was given by the Spirit of God, the whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. In other words, friends, God has already told us how we are to walk as Christians. We are to fulfill his law. We are to love God and we are to love one another. The Christian walk is not a secret that is revealed to us magically by the Spirit as we sit around doing nothing. So with that said, what does it mean for us to walk by the Spirit? I think we can summarize it by saying that to walk by the Spirit is to fulfill the moral law of God in prayerful dependence upon the Spirit of God with the assurance that we have been justified by faith in the Son of God. Once again, to walk by the Spirit is to fulfill the moral law of God in prayerful dependence upon the Spirit of God with the assurance that we have been justified by faith in the Son of God. Now, I wanna be clear, Christ has set us free from bondage to the law as a means of justification. He set us free from the curse of the law that is rightly due to us for our law-breaking. But having been set free from the bondage and the curse of the law, we are now to walk by the Spirit for the purpose of fulfilling that law. And the fulfillment of that law in our day-to-day actions, brothers and sisters, it begins within our hearts and within our minds. Paul says elsewhere in Romans 8 verse five, those who live according to the flesh do what? Set their minds on the things of the flesh. Conversely, those who live according to the Spirit do what? They set their mind on the things of the Spirit. So we are not to be preoccupied with the things of this world, with food, with clothing, with entertainment, with politics, with culture. Now all of these things have their place, but as Christians who walk by the Spirit, we must set our minds first and foremost upon the things of the Spirit. As the Lord Jesus said, we should seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and God will add to us those material things that we need. We have to make the things of God central to our thoughts because our actions so often follow our thought life. And in this letter alone, can we not say that God has given us so many wonderful things to set our minds upon? We should set our minds upon being justified, on being in union with Jesus Christ, on being adopted as sons of God, on the spiritual inheritance that awaits us as sons of God. Friends, these are the things that should dominate our thinking. They should inform our perspective on life. And if they do, they'll also inform our actions. They'll motivate us to walk by the Spirit and fulfill the moral law of God. Well, as we look to the second half of verse 16, we see a promise. A promise that God gives us that should motivate us to pursue holiness on our Christian walk. If we walk by the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Brothers and sisters, holiness during our Christian walk is possible if we walk by the Spirit. If we seek, again, to fulfill the moral law of God in prayerful dependence upon the Spirit of God with the assurance that we have been justified by faith in the Son of God, God promises us that we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. And let me try to make an illustration here. Jesse can attest to you, I'm not great at this. We talk about these things as aspiring preachers, but here's an illustration. The best way to keep junk food out of your pantry, do you know what it is? It's to fill it with healthy foods. That's the best way to keep it free of those foods that are bad for you. So the spiritual illustration here, if we are increasingly walking by the Spirit, there will be increasingly less room in our lives for the desires of the flesh. And this is the general concept of Christian sanctification, the process of being made day by day more into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Now this word gratify, gratify the desires of the flesh. It means to carry out, to accomplish, to fulfill. And in the context, it means to indulge those desires, which are remnants of our old nature that remain in us after we have been redeemed by Christ. Now, please note here what the promise is not. The promise in verse 16 is not that we won't have fleshly desires. The promise is that we will not gratify those fleshly desires. If we walk by the Spirit, we will not bring those fleshly desires to completion. We will not fulfill those fleshly desires. And one dictionary defines desires of the flesh as, quote, inordinate, self-indulgent cravings that displace proper affections for God. And the desires of the flesh, if they are gratified, it looks differently. There's a spectrum, if you will, of actions that represent the manifestation of these desires of the flesh. Now, we're not gonna get into this today, but just look down, starting at verse 19, Paul lists out several of them for us. Now, the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies. That's a long list, but he says, and things like these. This is a sampling, friends, of how when we gratify the desires of the flesh, how that looks in real life. If we do not walk by the Spirit, if we do not actively seek to fulfill the moral law of God in prayerful dependence upon the Spirit of God with the assurance that we have been justified by faith in the Son of God, if we do not walk by the Spirit, we will gratify the desires of the flesh. And if we do not walk by the Spirit, we will not benefit from this promise here in verse 16. So you and I have a choice to make. Will you, as we read in Romans chapter six, will you present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness? Or, Will you present yourself to God as one who has been brought from death to life? And will you present your members to God as instruments for righteousness? We have a choice. And I want to remind you, we have God's promise. If we walk by the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Again, the promise is not that Christians cannot sin. You and I know all too well that that's not true. It is possible for Christians to sin. But the promise means that as Christians, brothers and sisters, we don't have to sin. Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are what? Zealous for good works. Jesus said, we're to let our light shine before others so that they see our good works and they give glory to our Father who is in heaven. This is why we were redeemed. This is our purpose in life. And what a great encouragement is found here in this promise that you are not bound to sin. If you are a Christian, you are not a slave to sin. You do not have to gratify the desires of your flesh. By God's grace, the Christian walk is possible for you. But brothers and sisters, you must walk by the Spirit. Again, you must seek to fulfill the moral law of God and prayerful dependence upon the Spirit of God with the assurance that you have indeed been justified by faith in the Son of God. When you do this, God promises that the Christian walk is possible for you. As we move to our second heading, we see in verse 17, that the Christian walk, although commanded and made possible by the grace of God, we see that the Christian walk is nonetheless hard. Look with me to verse 17. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other. to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Let me try another illustration. Have you ever booked a rental home, sight unseen for a beach vacation and you've packed all of your stuff and you've traveled to your destination with these great expectations as to just how wonderful the vacation and the beach were going to be. only to show up and find the rental property in disrepair. The AC is not working, the neighborhood isn't that great, the short walk to the beach that was advertised isn't so short after all. Well, if you've experienced this, you know the type of disappointment and even discouragement that can result. What you were so excited about just a few hours ago is now a great source of dissatisfaction to you, all because your expectations did not match reality. And what Paul is doing for us here in verse 17, he's managing our expectations for the Christian walk. Yes, he commanded us to walk by the Spirit in verse 16. Yes, he gave us a promise that if we do, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. He showed us that sanctification and the pursuit of holiness in the Christian walk are indeed possible. But here in verse 17, lest we have unrealistic expectations about what that walk will be like, unrealistic expectations about our progress in sanctification and in holiness, Paul makes it clear that the Christian walk is hard. And it's hard because there are within the Christian two competing powers at work within us. There is the flesh, what we are by our natural birth in Adam. And then on the other hand, there is the spirit, what we become when we are born again by the Spirit of God. And these two things, our flesh, our remaining corruption, and the Spirit of God, they are in opposition to one another. They are contrary to one another. And the word opposed here indicates hostility. It means to be an adversary. The flesh and the spirit are hostile to one another. They are adversaries to one another. And brothers and sisters, who among us cannot testify to this inward opposition, to this hostility, to this internal tug of war? Regardless of what we choose to do, do we not feel this tension and this opposition within our hearts? If we set out to walk by the Holy Spirit, do we not find ourself enticed by remaining sin to veer off the path of righteousness? On the other hand, if we begin to indulge in some sin, do we not feel the Holy Spirit's influence convicting us and pulling us back on the path of righteousness? Again, Paul is setting proper expectations for us for the Christian walk. We need not be surprised that upon our profession of faith in Christ that we begin to struggle with sin in ways that we never did before we were converted. And in many ways, our conversion is really the point at which we begin to struggle with sin and experience this opposition between the flesh and the spirit for the very first time. To be sure, Christ has set us free from the power of sin. We're no longer under sin's dominion. He set us free from the penalty of sin. He bore that penalty in His own body and soul on the cross. But He has not set us free from the presence of sin in this life. That is a promise that awaits us in the life to come. The Christian walk is hard. The Christian walk is marked by this internal opposition and even warfare between the desires of the flesh and the spirit. And the Apostle Peter, he sets the same expectation for his readers. He says this, beloved, I urge you as sojourners in exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. The Christian walk is warfare, the desires of the flesh warring against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. So friends, do not be surprised when you encounter difficulty and opposition on your Christian walk. Do not be surprised when you find within yourself competing desires, the flesh against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. Jerry Bridges has some helpful comments here. He says this, quote, mortification, that is the putting off of sin, the walking by the spirit, mortification involves a struggle between what we know to be right and the wrong that we sometimes desire to do. This is the struggle depicted by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 5 verse 17. The person who tends to overindulge in sweets, will struggle between a conviction about the importance of self-control and the desire to eat that delicious, tempting dessert. If I'm not speaking to any of you, I'm at least speaking to me. He continues, the man who has developed a habit of undisciplined and wandering eyes, he's going to struggle between a conviction regarding purity and the desire to indulge a lustful look. and the list goes on. Whatever our particular areas of vulnerability to sin are, mortification is going to involve struggle, often intense struggle in those areas, end quote. Friends, this is why the apostle sets forth this truth for us in verse 17. He is managing our expectations for the Christian walk. If he did not do this, then we would be tempted to grow discouraged. We'd even be tempted to think that perhaps we're not true Christians at all because we struggle with sin. And I want you to think for a moment about this in the context of the churches in Galatia. If the Galatian believers were not reassured and taught that their Christian walk would be marked by this opposition between the desires of the flesh and the desires of the spirit, they might be tempted to think that the Judaizers are, they're right after all. They're the ones with the real gospel because obviously there's something going on in here that's not right. Perhaps if they submitted themselves to the yoke of the law, perhaps if they were circumcised, then maybe they might finally attain to that higher Christian life where they no longer struggled with sin. So we see the importance of Paul's words here in verse 17. They're not only helpful for us as we battle with our remaining fleshly desires, they're a means of assurance for us. And they teach us that the true Christian, the justified Christian is the one who experiences this internal tug of war between the flesh and the spirit. And I wanna encourage you with the fact that although we do have these two opposing forces at work within us, these two opposing forces are not equal. They're not equal in power. The Spirit of God is immeasurably more powerful than our remaining fleshly desires. And the truth is, despite this ongoing conflict, we who are in Christ, we have already gained victory over the flesh. Our old nature, remember, it was crucified with Christ. It was buried. We've been raised to walk in newness of life. And although the full measure of this victory is not going to be experienced in this age, we are nonetheless victorious in Christ. So do not be discouraged. Yes, there are competing forces at work within you, but this is the struggle of all justified Christians. And in the midst of this struggle, do not forget that he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. But the reality of this internal struggle, as we see at the end of verse 17, the reality is that we sometimes do not do the things that we want. We all know what this is like. In other words, what Paul's saying here is the struggle is not only internal. There are times when this internal struggle manifests in external actions. And Paul is saying here in verse 17 that the desires of the flesh will at times keep you from doing the righteous things that you most want to do as a child of God. The desires of the flesh, if gratified, if indulged, will keep you from walking by the Spirit. And I would submit to you that this is the same struggle that Paul sets forth in Romans chapter seven. And he confesses there that in his inward man, he says, I delight in the law of God. I love the law of God. It's most what he desires to do above all things. But then he confesses that there's another law waging war in the members of his body, in his flesh, waging war with the law of his mind. And the result of this internal war waging inside of the apostle is that he sometimes sins. And he puts it this way in Romans chapter seven, verse 15, Paul says, for I do not understand my own actions for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Can you not relate with us? Does this not resonate with your own experience? And I think we can learn from this that yes, we have many enemies opposing us on our Christian walk. The devil, he prowls around like a roaring lion. He's always seeking someone to devour. He's always looking to tempt us and keep us from walking by the spirit, the world. The world is another great enemy of the Christian. It's always alluring us, always seeking to conform us to its own way of thinking. But friends, both of these enemies only find inroads to attack us in the remaining fleshly desires of our hearts. If we had no remaining fleshly desires, there would be little for Satan or for the world to tap into and to leverage to keep us from walking by the Spirit. So I want us to be aware then that the remaining desires of our flesh are the biggest enemies that you and I face on our Christian walk. As it's been said, we are our own worst enemies. and being aware of this, we must, by the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the flesh. This is our calling as justified Christians in this life, and as we do so, let us be encouraged. If we look back to Romans 7, when we remember the apex, excuse me, of Paul's lament over his remaining sin, what does he say? He reaches this climax of his lament, and he says, who will deliver me from this body of death Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The struggle is real. We fail. We do act on our fleshly desires. But God has given us the gift of His Spirit that leads us to repentance, that renews our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that sets us on this pathway of new obedience. And we can live in the comfort and in the assurance that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so we've seen in verse 16, firstly, that the Christian walk is possible. If we walk by the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. And we've just seen here in verse 17 that the Christian walk is hard. There's a war waging inside of each and every Christian, the flesh against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. Let us end in verse 18 by seeing once again that the Christian walk is possible. Yes, we are to walk by the Spirit, but brothers and sisters, we are to do so as He leads us. Verse 18, but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Once again, we see this but if. Okay, that tells us as an interpreter of the scriptures, Paul is making here a contrast between what he just said and what he's about to say. And this means that instead of the believing Galatians not doing what they want to do, we could describe that as being led by the desires of the flesh. In contrast to this, Paul is saying that they're led by the spirit. Christians are influenced, no doubt, by the desires of the flesh, but brothers and sisters, we are only led by one person. We are led by the Spirit of God. Again, this speaks to the superiority of the Spirit over and against the flesh as it relates to the actions that mark our Christian walk. Now, to tie this in with Paul's larger argument throughout this letter, note that for the first four and a half chapters of Galatians, Paul was arguing, he was laboring for the superiority of the Spirit, which is received by hearing with faith He was arguing for the superiority of the Spirit over and against works of the law, we might say the deeds of the flesh or works of the flesh as it relates to justification. So if we learn nothing from the first four and a half chapters of Galatians, it was that the Spirit, faith, is superior to flesh and the law as it relates to justification. And notice that this main principle, it doesn't change when Paul turns now to the practical matters of the Christian life. The spirit is also superior to the flesh in the practical realm, in the day-to-day. It's not like we begin by the spirit and then all of a sudden we're perfected by the flesh. No, the spirit is superior in both realms, in the start of the race, in the middle of the race, and at the end of the race. It's the spirit from beginning to end. And when we understand this, we can really see verses 16 and 18 as two sides of the same coin. We walk by the Spirit. This is an active imperative. It is a command of God that you and I must obey. But at the same time, we are led by the Spirit. This is a passive indicative. It's a truth statement. It is a statement of fact for all Christians. We walk by the Spirit and the Spirit leads us as we walk. And this is what makes the Christian walk possible. Being led by the Spirit, we walk by the Spirit, and in so doing, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Being led by the Spirit, we walk by the Spirit. We're therefore able to overcome this ongoing internal tug of war that's described in verse 17. Now, to be led by the Spirit, contrary to what you might hear from some corners of the Christian world, to be led by the Spirit does not mean that you have somehow achieved what is referred to as the higher Christian life. You've not reached this second level of blessing that regular Christians have no access to. It's not some sort of privilege that's reserved for an elite group of super Christians. On the contrary, the Spirit, Paul tells us here in Galatians, is God's gift to every son of God. He sends the Spirit of the Son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father, if you are trusting in Christ, The Spirit is your leader. Additionally, to be led by the Spirit is not some sort of mystical guidance where the Spirit speaks to you truths that are not contained within His inspired Word. He will always lead you in the way of His Word. He will never lead you contrary to it. I think William Hendrickson provides a wonderful explanation of being led by the Spirit. Quote, to be led by the Spirit is that constant, effective, and loving influence which the Holy Spirit exercises within the hearts of God's children, whereby they are being directed and enabled more and more to crush the power of indwelling sin and to walk in the way of God's commandments freely and cheerfully. I don't know if you noticed in that explanation from Hendrickson, there's nothing magical there. There's nothing that we would put on a marquee outside and expect the world to come flooding in in curiosity. No, the Spirit leads us to consistently more and more day by day, put to death the deeds of the flesh and walk in the way of God's commandments. It's not flashy. I was thinking on the way here, as I was following someone who was driving 10 miles below the speed limit, this is, the Spirit's leading me here. I've got to walk by the Spirit, because what I want to do, you don't need me to finish that, I guess, right? But it's not flashy. There's nothing less spiritual about that battle that takes place when you're following someone who's driving too slow, as when you're presented with this public opportunity to stand for the truth of Jesus Christ. Both of those things fall into this category of being led by the Spirit. He leads us through a constant, effective, and loving influence, and we follow His lead by walking in the way of God's commandments. I want to emphasize this. The Spirit leads, but brothers and sisters, you and I walk. He doesn't carry us, we walk. He doesn't also, on the other hand, it's not like He's just pointing us in the right direction and saying, hey, that way, good luck, be on your way. He leads us, He guides us, but you and I must walk with Him. We cannot be idle. We cannot turn and walk in the opposite direction. We have to walk with Him as He leads us. And I would submit to you that this has been God's purpose from the very beginning. God has always intended that His children walk by the Spirit as the Spirit leads them. Remember this promise, this foreshadowing that we have in Ezekiel chapter 36. God says, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and what? Cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. So brothers and sisters, God does not leave it up to us to walk by the Spirit in our own power. He gives us the Spirit to lead us. He gives us godly desires. He writes his law upon our hearts. When we're tempted to indulge in those fleshly desires, what does God do? He provides through the Spirit a way of escape that we might not be dragged into this sin. The Christian walk is defined by the believer actively walking as the Spirit leads us. And I would submit to you that these two things meet, the leading of the Spirit and our submission to the Spirit's leading. These two things meet and they drive us forward in the Christian walk. And I wanna take a moment and emphasize the necessity of acting upon the Spirit's leading. This is our obligation. Being led by the Spirit, friends, it is not to let go and let God. Being led by the Spirit is not Jesus take the wheel. being led by the Spirit is to put to death the deeds of the flesh. It is a command to deny ourselves. It is a command to take up our cross each and every day and follow after Christ. And the scriptures leave zero room for misunderstanding here. Ephesians chapter four, put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 2 Corinthians 7, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. 1 Thessalonians 4, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality. Romans 13, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. And the Lord Jesus was clear about this, was he not? If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Deny himself. Those fleshly desires. The pleasure that we foresee if we were to indulge in those fleshly desires. We are to deny ourselves. that false pleasure, as it were, and take up our cross and follow Christ. I love the way that John Owen speaks about this. He says that the sanctified believer never thinks that his lust or his fleshly desires are dead because they are quiet. Listen to this, but he labors to give it new wounds, new blows every day. Do we wake up and think, how can I give the flesh new wounds today? How can I strike a blow to my flesh today? To quote Jerry Bridges again, he says, in the case of sin, we must also count on the fact that though it still resides in us, it no longer has dominion over us. Because we have the assurance that sin shall not be our master, we are not to let it reign in our mortal bodies so that we obey its evil desires. Rather, we are, by the enabling power of the Spirit, to put to death. the misdeeds of the body and abstain from sinful desires which wage war against our souls. We are called to an active, vigorous warfare against the principle of sin that remains in us." Friends, this is what we are called to do. not simply be Christians who are content to speak of justification through faith alone without walking in the way that the scriptures say a justified person ought to walk. But instead, being led by the Spirit, let us walk by the Spirit in the way of God's commandments and make no provision for the flesh. because as we read in verse 18, being led by the spirit, we are not under the law. Now this may sound a bit odd to us. It's a little bit of an awkward wording here. We say, okay, Paul's been speaking of the spirit and the flesh. We would probably expect him to say something like this. If you are led by the spirit, you're not under the flesh, right? That makes more sense kind of with how he's been wording these last few verses, but, We need to see this statement that you're not under the law. We need to see this statement within the context of this entire letter. And we can look back to chapter three, verse 22, for example, where Paul describes the law as having imprisoned everything under sin. In other words, to be under the law is to be under the power of sin. It's to be under the power of our sinful fleshly desires. And when we understand this, we see that to be under the law is to be under the flesh. This statement here in verse 18, it makes complete sense. The justified Christian is no longer under the law. We're no longer imprisoned by our fleshly desires, but rather we are led by the Spirit. and being led by the Spirit, we're free to walk by the Spirit, not gratifying the desires of the flesh, but instead we are free to walk in the way of God's commandments. So brothers and sisters, yes, the Christian walk is hard. There will always be this internal battle waging in each of our hearts and minds between the desires of the flesh and the Spirit. but being led by the Spirit. We are to walk by the Spirit and embrace the promise that if we do so, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. So let us be believers who are willing certainly to die on the hill of justification by faith alone. Let us be believers who take our stand there. but let us do so recognizing the truth of Scripture that says that the justified believer, that's the believer that walks by the Spirit. By God's grace, may it be so for us. Well, I have two additional applications for you this morning. First, For anyone who is outside of Christ this morning, if you are an unbeliever here today, if you are currently under the judgment of God, as I said before, you are to walk by the Spirit. But if you're going to do that, you have to begin by the Spirit. Every walk has a starting point. And on the day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter preached to a group of Jews who quite literally had the blood of Jesus dripping from their hands. About seven weeks earlier, these same Jews had delivered up Jesus to the Romans so that he might be crucified and killed. And as Peter was preaching to them, the spirit of God fell upon them in great conviction, showing them that they were sinners, that they were under God's judgment, that they needed a savior. They knew that they stood guilty and condemned before God, and under the conviction of the Spirit, these same Jews cried out to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what must we do? If you are an unbeliever here today and the Spirit of God has convicted you and has showed you that you're no better than those who crucified and killed the Lord Jesus Christ, that you are a sinner, that you are under the judgment of God. If the Spirit of God has convicted you of this today, I offer you the same answer that Peter gave these men on the day of Pentecost. He said, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. my unbelieving friends, to walk by the Spirit, you have to begin by the Spirit. If you say that you will begin some other day, I promise you, you won't. Just so often, how many people say, one day I'll start? And they never do. One day, I'll get serious about religion. One day, I'll get right with God. Friends, if you think that way, I want to warn you that that day will almost surely never come. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day to begin your Christian walk. Go to Christ, ask him to forgive you, seek righteousness through him and follow after him in faith. Finally, to my brothers and sisters in Christ, it is easy. Is it not to feel this internal struggle, this internal war waging in our own souls, and think, if I was a real Christian, I would not feel this way? How easy is it to think that? That is one of the devil's greatest tricks. We're feeling the conviction that only justified believers feel, and he turns that around and says, you see, that means you're not really a Christian. So we're not active, we're not productive for the Lord because we're always caught up about the status of our souls. That is an anchor for us. So if this is you, if you question your salvation because you're constantly wrestling and battling against the desires of the flesh, I want to encourage you this morning with a quote from J.C. Ryle, and I'm gonna give him the final word this morning. Ryle says this, quote, Sanctification is a thing which does not prevent a man from having a great deal of inward spiritual conflict. By conflict, I mean a struggle within the heart between the old nature and the new, the flesh and the spirit, which are found together in every believer. A deep sense of that struggle and a vast amount of mental discomfort from it are no, excuse me, are no proof that a man is not sanctified. Nay, rather I believe they are healthy symptoms of our condition and prove that we are not dead but alive. A true Christian is one who has not only peace of conscience, but war within. He may be known by his warfare as well as by his peace. Let us pray. Father, bless your word to us now, we pray. We acknowledge the great and seemingly impossible command that we have to walk by the Spirit. We thank you, oh God, that you have not given us this command in isolation, but you have paired it with your own spirit. and that by His leading, we may walk by the Spirit and not gratify the desires of the flesh. Lord, help us to desire this. Help us to come to terms with this internal struggle within us and to set our minds, as it were, like a flint to always walk by the Spirit, to always resist the desires of the flesh, and instead deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow after Christ because He is worthy of that. And this is where true peace and true comfort and true joy are found. Help us to do these things by your grace, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.