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Many people aware of the Bible's warnings about sin have tried various approaches to keeping themselves from sinning. I don't know what you have tried, but I remember as a teenager being so fed up with my sin that I put together a plan. Here was my plan. The next time I'd sin, I'd force myself to do 10 pushups. The next time it would go up 20, then 30, hoping that this and expecting that this somehow would keep me from sinning as often. But this plan, as you would expect, failed miserably. The number of pushups kept going up and up and up, and I saw no decrease in the frequency of my sin. Someone else who had a plan for keeping himself from sinning was Jerome. Jerome lived at the end of the fourth century and the beginning of the fifth century. He's known for translating the Bible into Latin. Now his plan to keep himself from sinning was to move away from the temptations that he experienced in Rome to move out of the city into the desert. Just get away from people. And he expected that if he got away from the temptations of Rome and he lived in the desert all by himself, then then he would find success in resisting temptation and putting off sin. But Jerome discovered something when he was in the desert. Listen to what he wrote. Oh, how often have I thought myself to be in the midst of the vain delights and pleasures of Rome, even when I was in the wild wilderness. In other words, he left Rome, but he kept imagining all the pleasures and temptations of Rome. He says, I, who for fear of hell had condemned myself to such a prison, thought myself oftentimes to be dancing among young women, when I had no other company but scorpions and wild beasts. My face was pale with fasting, but my mind was inflamed with desires in my cold body. And although my flesh was half dead already, yet the flames of fleshly lust boiled within me. Jerome discovered that his problem was not an external problem, but an internal problem. The problem was not the temptations out there in Rome. The problem was the desires of his own heart. Now, our text this morning points us to the only thing that can keep us from sinning Our text points us to the only thing that can empower us as Christians to live to God, to live to His glory, to live in a way that is pleasing to Him. And it is not anything like what I have described, doing push-ups to punish yourself, escaping the city, living in the desert. Actually, it is not a thing, but it is a person. It is the Holy Spirit. If you have had any desire to put sin to death, if you have any desire this morning to resist temptation, if you have any desire this morning to live to God, then pay close attention to our text this morning. We have come to one of the key texts in all of scripture on this very subject of how to put off sin, how to resist temptation, and to truly live to God. Look in your Bibles at Galatians chapter 5. I'm going to go back to the previous context, and then I'm going to read through our text and pass our text. So we get all the surrounding context, and we're going to zero in on one verse. I'm going to start at verse 13. Please stand in honor of the word of God. Galatians 5.13. 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. Now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things, there is no law. This is God's holy word. Please be seated. This morning, we're gonna look very closely at verse 16. And in verse 16, we're gonna see a promise and we're going to see an instruction. First of all, let us consider the promise. Now let me preface the promise by reading to you about the promises in Scripture. 2 Peter 1.4 says, God has granted to us His precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire." This morning we're going to look at one such promise, a precious promise from God, a very great promise that is given to us so that through it we may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. I want you to observe this promise in verse 16. Verse 16 says, but I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. What a wonderful promise for the Christian. That if we abide by the first part, then we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. When I was doing those pushups, I was looking for something better than pushups. I was looking for something like this. Pushups would never do it. This is what I needed to learn, and this is what I needed to understand, and this is who I needed. Now, consider that promise there, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. In English, we have one word, not, that translates to Greek words, ou me. It's like a double negative. In Greek, it's just emphasizing the word no. You could get the sense of it if you translated it as, you will certainly not. gratify the desires of the flesh, or you will in no way gratify the desires of the flesh. It's a very strong promise. Now, what is meant here by the flesh? The promise is you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. What is the flesh? We've seen it before. It is who you are apart from the saving grace of Jesus Christ. The flesh is who you were in your fallen condition before God saved you. The world is living in the flesh. Before we were saved, we were living in the flesh. It is the fallen condition that mankind is in. It is the Christian's old man. The Bible says that the Christian is a new creation in Christ. There is an old man who was crucified with Christ, the person that we once were, a fallen in our sin, and then the Christian is a new creation, is a new man in Christ Jesus. The flesh is using a metaphor to describe that old man. To show you that this is what is meant, I want to compare two verses in Galatians. If you look in chapter five at verse 24, it says, and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. We're told here that when you were converted, O Christian, that you crucified the flesh. Now compare that with chapter 2 verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. In the life I now live, in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So the flesh is what was crucified with Christ, our old self, our old man that was given over to sin. Now, our text promises us that if we walk by the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Desires of the flesh are our fallen, sinful desires. And there are many different types of desires of the flesh, just as there are many different types of sin. The desires of the flesh are the desires that characterized us before salvation. We cannot escape having desire. That's how we are created. We are created in the image of God. God has strong desires. Strong desires that he would be glorified, for example. And we also, made in the image of God, are constantly desiring. Now, we live out of our hearts. Jesus talked about that. Our behavior comes from the heart. It comes from the area of our desires, our purposes, our intentions, our thoughts, all of that. And before, our desires were corrupt, when we were fallen. When we were dead in trespasses and sins, our desires were corrupt. And our desires gave birth to the various acts of sin that we committed. Now, we are told here, that if we walk by the Spirit, we will not gratify these old, fallen desires. Desires that once characterized our lives. Now, we can categorize the desires of the flesh into two different categories. It certainly includes desires for sin. For example, if you look at verse 21, we have this list that I read earlier of the works of The second work of the flesh mentioned in verse 21 is drunkenness. That's sinful. The scripture forbids drunkenness. We are to be controlled by the Lord, not to lose control by filling ourselves with a substance that causes us to lose that control. Now, a desire to get drunk would be a desire for sin, and that certainly would be included in the desires of the flesh, a desire for a specific sin. There's also a second category of the desires of the flesh, and that's the category of inordinate desires. It simply means over-desires. Desires that have become too strong. For example, in verse 20, one of the works of the flesh that is mentioned is jealousy. In verse 21, another work of the flesh is envy. Both in jealousy and envy, it can start out with a desire for something good. Someone else has something, or is in a position that you desire. It's something good that you would like for yourself. There's nothing wrong with having that desire. But when that desire begins to consume you, and control you, now it's an over-desire, an inordinate desire. It becomes envy or jealousy or lust, a lot of different biblical words for an over-desire. Now also notice in our text the word gratify. The promise is that you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. The New American Standard, instead of the word gratify, uses the word carry out. That you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Or the New King James Version, that you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. Now, let's first think of this idea of gratifying desires of the flesh in that first category, desires for sin. Now, when it says that you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, it does not mean that you will not feel the desire. The previous verse that we studied last time talked about one fleshly way of living, biting and devouring other people in the church. Now, you may feel the desire to bite or to devour your brother or sister who you are in conflict with. to lash out at them, to do other things like that. But just having that, just feeling that desire is not gratifying that desire. Martin Luther wrote in his commentary on this text, wrote, Christians are not stumps and stones, so they never be moved by anything, never feel any desire of the flesh. When you are tempted, you feel a desire that is for something sinful. This feeling that desire is not wrong. The promise is we will not gratify that desire, which means that you will not carry out that sin that you desire in your mind, neither will you carry it out in your body. For example, we talked about biting and devouring. You're tempted to speak in anger at that brother or sister. You feel that desire to do so. You would be gratifying it if you begin to lash out at them in your mind. You begin to hate them. You begin to want and to desire strongly to have them removed from your life. Instead of it being a temptation, now in your mind you begin biting, you begin murdering. Now you are gratifying in your mind that desire of the flesh. And then of course, it could be carried out in actually doing it with your lips. Also think about this idea of gratifying the desires of the flesh in terms of inordinate desires. You want that nice thing that your friend or your sibling has. There's that toy that your sibling has or your friend has. And you want the toy that they have. Or maybe you're driving home at night after a hard day at the office and you want peace and quiet in the evening at home. These are fine desires to have, but When you gratify a desire of the flesh, you start to be consumed by it, you start to be controlled by it, where you are either willing to sin to get what you desire, or you will sin because you don't have it. For example, verse 20 mentions a work of the flesh, fits of anger. Fits of anger do not come out of thin air. Fits of anger often start with an acceptable desire that becomes inordinate. You want the toy that your brother or sister has, you ask them for it, you hear them say no, and then that desire for that toy grows within you, and so then from there you go into a fit of anger. You're sinning because they won't give it to you. You say you're consumed, you're controlled by that desire for something good, but it has become a sinful desire and you are gratifying it by going into a fit of anger. Or as you're driving home, you're meditating on how nice it will be to have peace and quiet. You make your plan. All right, we're going to sit down at the table together as a family. We're gonna have a nice, peaceful conversation, a nice time of reading the word of God, praying together as a family. We'll put the kids to bed, and then I'm gonna put my feet up and read this book that I wanna read, and then I'll go to sleep with all these sweet thoughts in my head. You open up the door, there's nothing like what you were planning. Chaos is filling your house. One child is sick and your wife is asking you to go to the store to get medicine for the child. The phone rings. There's someone in the church asking you to come over to their place. They're in great need of something. Children are fighting and they need you to resolve their dispute. And you don't have the groceries that are needed for making the dinner. Thing after thing. Now, if you had set your heart on your desire for peace and for tranquility at home, and you had planned it out, and you put your hands around it saying, I must have this when I get home. That's an inordinate desire, and you're going to gratify it when something gets in the way and chaos rules, and you will maybe erupt in a fit of anger, this one work of the flesh. Maybe you're just going to say, I'm going to go into a hole and ignore it all and not be responsible. Well, many different ways you can respond to it, but it's an example of gratifying a desire of the flesh. An inordinate desire, you are gratifying by being controlled by it, consumed by it, and it just goes downhill from there. Or think of the first work of the flesh, mentioned in verse 19, sexual immorality. There's nothing inherently sinful in a sexual relationship. God created sex for marriage between a man and a woman. But when your desire for a sexual relationship becomes inordinate, becomes an overdesire, then you are willing to transgress God's law to get it. And once you are willing to transgress God's law to get it, you are beginning to gratify the desire of the flesh. First in your heart and mind, and then if it is unchecked, then actually with your body. The desires of the flesh boil down to the desire to be your own God. Remember how Adam and Eve were tempted in the Garden of Eden. You will be like God, knowing good and evil. In other words, if you transgress the one law that God has given you, you shall not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat from this tree, you're going to be just like God. You will be able to determine for yourself good and evil. It was a temptation to be like God, to be your own God. Now, you might not think of the desires of the flesh that you experience in this way as desires to be your own God, but they really do all boil down to this one fundamental desire to be your own God. Think about that desire to bite and to devour. That is a desire to disregard what God says and to be your own God doing what you determine to be good. Think about the fits of anger that we talked about earlier. They come out of a desire to reject what God has ordained for you and to be your own God, ordaining the circumstances of your life. I want to be able to ordain peace and quiet at night. I want to ordain that my friend will give me this toy. You're not willing to accept what God has ordained as the circumstances of your life. You want to be the one who ordains the circumstances. You want to be your own God. Or think about the example of sexual lust and immorality. They come out of a desire to reject the boundaries that God has designed, that he has put in place. And to be your own God, determining for yourself what are the proper boundaries in which that can be enjoyed. Brethren, what happened to the desires of the flesh when you were converted? Let's look again at verse 24. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Christian conversion involves renouncing the flesh, renouncing the passions and the desires of the flesh. Christian conversion involves turning away from the flesh, turning away from the desires and passions of the flesh to Jesus Christ as your Lord. These things have been crucified when we were converted. But as long as we live in the body, we still feel these fallen desires. We still are tempted, tempted to live out of our old fallen desires. This is the reason why Paul had to warn us about biting and devouring one another. We have Christians that he's writing to in the church at Galatia, and Even though they are saved from the penalty of their sins, even though they are new creations in Christ, they still are tempted to live out of those old desires, to have my way, to have my kingdom, to not allow other people to infringe on my rights. So he had to warn them about dividing and devouring one another. Now the good news is the promise of verse 16, that if you walk by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Recognize that there is no Christian so weak or so immature that he or she cannot resist the desires of the flesh through the power of the Holy Spirit. There is no Christian so weak or so immature that he or she cannot truly live to God through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our text is very simple. Walk by the Spirit, and you will certainly not gratify the desires of the flesh. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 17 says, where the Spirit of the Lord, there is freedom. If you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. And where the Spirit of the Lord, there is freedom. Freedom from the bondage that we once were in to the desires and passions of the flesh. So we have a wonderful promise. But before the promise, there is an instruction that we need to look closely at. The instruction is, walk by the spirit. Now, notice what it does not say. It does not say, walk by the law, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. Now, if we truly followed the law, we would not gratify the desires of the flesh. The law is summed up in the command, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. If we are walking according to the law, we are not gratifying the flesh. But the law is powerless to keep us from gratifying the flesh. Paul could never tell the Christian, walk by the law and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, because there's no power in the law to keep you from gratifying the desires of the flesh. He is His walk by the Spirit, the One who does have the power that He gives to you to avoid the deeds of the flesh. Let me show you from Ezekiel. Go back to Ezekiel. We read from there earlier. Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel follows Jeremiah and Lamentations before Daniel. We read chapter 37, which talked about those dry bones coming to life as God breathed His Spirit into them. It's connected with what is said in chapter 36. I go here to show you the inability of the law to keep us from gratifying the desires of the flesh. Let's start at verse 16. The word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it. I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. In accordance with their ways and their deeds, I judged them. But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name. In that people said of them, these are the people of the Lord. And yet they had to go out of his land. But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness. And from all your idols I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. All you have to do, if you wonder if there's power in the law to keep you from gratifying the desires of the flesh, all you have to do is look at Israel's history. This prophecy says, throughout Israel's history, though Israel had been given the law of God, they again and again transgressed that law, profaning God's holy name. There was no power in the law to keep them from gratifying the desires of the flesh. What does the Lord promise that He will do to keep His people from sin and to cause them to walk in obedience to Him? He says, I will cleanse you, I will give you a new heart, and I will put My Spirit within you. The Spirit is powerful to do what the law cannot do for us. To empower us to avoid the things of the flesh and to walk in a way that is pleasing and glorifying to God. Look over at one more text, Romans chapter 7. Romans 7, this also shows the inability of the law or the powerlessness of the law to keep us from gratifying the flesh Romans 7.5, for while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. Paul is talking from personal experience. And he is saying that before we were saved, that the law had an effect upon the religious person, the person who was really trying to obey the law. The law actually did the opposite. It provoked the flesh. While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. Because there is an innate rebellion in the human heart when God says, you shall not do this, you shall do this, the response of the unsaved heart is, I'm gonna do just the opposite. You say don't do this, I'm gonna do it. You say do this, I'm gonna refuse to do so. That is the condition, if we're honest with ourselves, that we were in before God saved us. The law just aroused our sinful passions. Then go down to verse seven. What then shall we say? That the law is sin by no means. Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead." Paul says that commandment, you shall not covet, stirred up within him all kinds of covetousness. And then he goes on in verse 9, I once was alive apart from the law, But when the commandment came, sin came alive, and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me." And then go down to chapter 8, verse 3. 8.3. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. So the law was powerless, it was weakened by our flesh, and so what has God done? He sent His Son to die for our sins, and He has given us His Spirit, so that we will not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. What the law cannot do, Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit do for the Christian. The law has no more power to keep you from gratifying the flesh than it has to make a dead man love his neighbor as himself. Keep this in mind when you think about raising children. If we expect children of Christians to live like Christians because they are being raised in the training and the admonition of the Lord, then we are ignorant of the inability of the law to keep a person from gratifying the flesh. to the training that we as Christians are to give to our children, we can instill some fear of punishment, some fear of disobedience, but fear and law and the judgment of the law cannot change the heart of a child, just as it could not change our hearts. The law is external, and that is why it cannot change us. but the spirit is internal. Look at Galatians chapter four, verse four. Galatians 4.4. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Notice, the text says that the Holy Spirit was sent into the believer's heart when they were saved. Not just given to us to be next to us, but the Spirit was actually placed by God inside of the heart of the Christian, calling out Abba, Father. Very different from the law, which is external, which could not change us. We need to be changed from the inside out. And for that, God gives us the Spirit. He puts Him inside of our heart. And through the Spirit, we see we are able to not gratify the desires of the flesh. We see in the Bible, a heightening of the Holy Spirit's ministry in the New Covenant. The Old Testament largely shows us our need for the Savior, our need for salvation. It shows us our inability to keep the law, our inability to please God. Now, certainly the Holy Spirit was working in the lives of the Old Testament saints to regenerate, to give faith and repentance. But there is a heightening of the Holy Spirit's ministry in the New Covenant that is very important for what we are looking at. Remember, we just read that prophecy in the Old Testament, that there was coming a day when God would put His Spirit inside of His people. Listen to what Jesus said in John 7, verse 38. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. In some sense, the Spirit had not yet been given when Jesus did his earthly ministry. The Spirit would be given in a fuller way after Jesus would be glorified, when he would ascend up to his Father and he would pour out his Spirit. Listen also to what Jesus said in John 14, 16 and 17. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was with the saints as He was with these disciples of Jesus. But Jesus says there's a heightening that is to come after He goes back to be with the Father and He pours out His Spirit. The Spirit who has been with you will then be in you. That was not true in the Old Testament. Though Moses was blessed beyond measure. Remember how he got to see God just open up the Red Sea. He saw God bring those plagues upon the Egyptians to free the Israelites. He even got to have some revelation of God's glory when the Lord hit him in the cleft of the rock and passed before him. And Moses got to see the afterglow of the Lord, the backside of his glory. God spoke directly to Moses, face-to-face, it says. Yet, even Moses would have plucked out his eyes to live today in the age of the Spirit, the age of fulfillment. We have in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, in this ministry of the Holy Spirit, something precious that goes beyond what Moses had, and he would have longed to have. Now, notice the instruction carefully in chapter 5, verse 16. The instruction is walk by the Spirit. Of course, the word walk here is a metaphor, a metaphor to speak of living. He's talking about living by the Spirit. Now, he chooses this picture of walking in order to picture the Christian life that is lived by the Spirit. He chooses this very intentionally. Think about walking. That's very unspectacular. He didn't say soar by the Spirit. He didn't say sprint by the Spirit. He did not say be slain in the Spirit. He did not say speak tongues by the Spirit. No, he said walk by the Spirit. Something unspectacular, something for every Christian to do, not a privileged few. Very unspectacular. In a sense, mundane. Walk by the Spirit. Now, what does this mean? To see what it means to walk by the Spirit, we must relate this to other phrases that Paul uses to describe the same sort of thing. Now, look down in our chapter to verse 18. In 18, he says, but if you are led by the Spirit, The person who walks by the Spirit is led by the Spirit. Go down to verse 25. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Or if you're the NIV, let us keep in step with the Spirit. In the original language, it's not the normal word for walk like was used in verse 16 that we are studying. But when verse 25 says walk by the Spirit, the idea is follow the Spirit. Our dad also was involved in this. To walk by the Spirit, is to be led by the Spirit, is to follow the Spirit. And then verse 22 talks about the fruit of the Spirit. The person who walks by the Spirit is a person in whom the Spirit is producing the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. the good deeds of the believer are produced by the Spirit. We don't get credit for them, we give the Spirit credit for them. In Romans, chapters 7 and 8, Paul also spoke of this idea of walking by the Spirit. But he used some other terminology for it. In Romans 7, 6, he said, we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. So one who walks by the Spirit is serving in a new way, the new way of the Spirit, as opposed to the old way of the written code. Romans 8.4 speaks of those who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. The idea there is that the Spirit sets the pattern that the Christian follows after, walking according to the Spirit. And then Romans 8.5, For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. So the one who walks by the Spirit is one who sets their mind on the things of the Spirit. And then one more, Romans 8.13, if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. So the one who is walking by the Spirit is putting to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit. Now this way of walking is the way that Jesus walked. Turn over to Luke chapter 4, verse 1. Jesus is our example of walking by the Spirit. Luke 4 verse 1 records for us what happened after Jesus was baptized. It says, and Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil. And of course we know that Jesus resisted every one of those temptations that Satan threw at him. Satan threw everything he could at Jesus, and Jesus always resisted the temptation. He lived perfectly unto God. Now, how did he do it? Did he simply use his divine power? No. We're told he was full of the Holy Spirit. He was led by the Spirit while he was in the wilderness being tempted. He walked by the Spirit. He chose to live His life there in the way that He would call all of His disciples to live by the Spirit. He came as an authentic example for us. He took on human flesh and He laid aside the use of some of His divine attributes to live as we live. Yet without sin, how did he do so? He followed the Spirit. He was led by the Spirit. It was by the power of the Spirit that he overcame temptation. Now, if you go down to verse 14, you see the same idea again. In verse 14 it says, And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. Now think about, you can turn back to Galatians, think about our instruction here in our text. But I say, walk by the Spirit. Paul's communicating this responsibility that God gives to every Christian. If you're a Christian, you are given this responsibility by God to walk by the Spirit. No Christian is so spiritually strong or mature that he need not follow this instruction. No Christian inherently has the power to resist the desires of the flesh and live to God. Just think about what Paul says later on in Romans 7 after the verses that we read. What does Paul say there? He says that as a Christian, he says, I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil that I do not want to do, that I do. So he's a new creation. He has a new nature, a new heart that has been put in him by the Holy Spirit. And as a result of that, he now delights in the law of God, and he wants to obey God. Yet he sees another law working in the members of his body, and there is a conflict. What we see is just having a new nature does not mean that you have the power to carry out the new desires of love for God and the new desires to obey God. Something more is needed than a new nature. Something more is needed than a new heart. You need the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you to empower you to live the new life. Every Christian must take this responsibility seriously, that we would walk by the Spirit, and never think that we're so mature, so strong in the Lord, that we don't need the Spirit, and we can just now do it on our own. Think about who is mentioned in verse 16, walk by the Spirit. The Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. God is one God who exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Many mistakenly refer to the Holy Spirit as it. It's very easy in English to do that, but we are mistaken if we refer to the Holy Spirit as it. Because he's not an it, he is a person. We should refer to him as he, him, and so forth. Now some mistakenly think of the Holy Spirit as an impersonal force to some power that is made accessible to the Christian, but that is very far from the truth. The Holy Spirit who dwells inside of you, O Christian, has the attributes of personality. When we say the Holy Spirit is a person, we're not saying he's a human being. Human beings are one type of a person, but there's also Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who each are a person. They have attributes of personality. The Holy Spirit has a will that He exercises. That is an attribute of personality. When Paul speaks of how the Holy Spirit gives different gifts to different churches, he says in 1 Corinthians 12, 11, all these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as He wills. The Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts as He wills. He has a will that He exercises. He also has another attribute of personality, knowledge. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 11 says, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit comprehends the thoughts of the Father. He has knowledge. He also has another attribute of personality. He bears witness to others. Jesus said in John 15, 26, that the Holy Spirit will bear witness about me. The Holy Spirit also convicts others. John 16 verse 8, Jesus said that when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. The Holy Spirit speaks to others. In Acts chapter 8 verse 29, the Spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. The Holy Spirit intercedes for others. Romans 8.26, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. The Holy Spirit teaches others. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 13, and we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit. The Spirit can be grieved just as any other person can be grieved. Isaiah 63 verse 10 says that Israel rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. He can be blasphemed. Matthew 12 verse 31, the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. The Holy Spirit can be lied to. Acts 5 verse 3, Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? He can be resisted. Acts 7.51, Stephen said, you stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. and he can be outraged. Hebrews 10.29, how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the Spirit of grace? He is a person who dwells inside of you, brother and sister. And this one who dwells inside of you is fully God. There's no question about it. 1 Corinthians 3.16 says, Do you know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? The Holy Spirit is referred to as God's Spirit. The Christian is described as God's temple. And who is dwelling in this temple? It's the Holy Spirit. He is fully God. Matthew 28 verse 19, Jesus said, Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." You have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all spoken of together as one God and one name into which we are to be baptized. Brethren, I want you to ponder this morning the significance of the truth that the Holy Spirit dwells inside of you. Ponder how different it is to walk by the Spirit than by the law. What can the law do for you other than tell you what is right and what is wrong? But Christian, you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you who has all power, has all authority, has all wisdom, and you can pray to Him. Because He's God, there's nothing wrong in praying to the Holy Spirit. You can face temptation and say, Holy Spirit, I know you dwell inside of me. Please empower me now to overcome this temptation and to walk in the ways that please you. What does it mean to walk by the Spirit? Well, in light of what we've seen, I'd have to say to walk by the Spirit is to walk in His power, following His leading, so that His fruit is produced in you. As Galatians indicates, this is the way of true freedom. True freedom is not being independent, being able to do everything for yourself. No, true freedom is having the Holy Spirit living inside of you and living a life of dependence upon Him as He bears His fruit in your life. Next time, we will consider how the Spirit leads us. We'll look at verses 17 and 18. We have seen a wonderful promise and a wonderful instruction. The question is, do these things make sense to you? And do you hunger to apply them to your life? If these things make no sense to you, then I would venture to guess you don't have the Holy Spirit inside of you. I would venture to guess that you are dead in trespasses and sins. dead in your rebellion against God, alienated from God in the dark. The good news is that God the Father sent God the Son into this dark world. And Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus came to give those who are dead in sin life in Him. As Jesus came to die on the cross for the sins of His people. to pay the penalty that we deserve. The law requires a death as the punishment for disobeying the law of God. There's a curse in the law upon all who do not do everything written in it. That curse is the eternal judgment of a holy God. Jesus died on the cross for sinners to take the penalty in our place. He rose again from the grave victorious over sin, death, and the devil. that those who are repentant, who are believing in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, those who have forsaken sin, those who have forsaken in their hearts the passions and the desires of the flesh, those who have turned from sin to Christ in faith will be saved. Saved from the penalty of sin. Saved from the power of sin as the Holy Spirit comes in you and begins to transform you and enable you to walk in new ways that are pleasing to God. And one day, the promise is salvation from the presence of sin. When Jesus comes again to finish the work of salvation that He has begun in us. He did all the work necessary at the cross. Now it needs to be applied to our heart. And He does everything to apply that to us completely. This morning, if you do not know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I urge you on behalf of Christ to confess your sin to God and to call out to Him to save you by His grace from your sin and to give you the gift of eternal life. Look into Jesus and Him alone as your Savior and as your Lord. Brethren, I want you to recognize that there is a whole new way of living as adopted sons of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. When you read a verse like this, you may say, walk by the Spirit. I'm not very familiar with that yet. That's okay, now's the time to learn. There's a whole new way of living to learn. We have to learn to walk by the Spirit. Were you convicted by the sermons the last two weeks? We read those verses about how we've been called to serve one another through love, how the law is summed up in love your neighbor as yourself, how we were warned against biting and devouring one another. Were you convicted by those sermons the last two weeks? If so, oh Christian, find hope in today's text. If you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, as you walk by Him, You will not gratify those desires of the flesh, but the Spirit is sufficient to empower you and to lead you and to teach you in serving others through love and loving others as yourself. How could the law ever change a human heart from being bent upon itself to loving neighbor as oneself? It requires the Spirit to work this change in our hearts that were dead and rebellious. We have hope here, brothers and sisters, in this text. Brethren, have you been walking by the Spirit, or have you been gratifying the flesh this last week? If you recognize that you've been gratifying the flesh, then recognize there is a much better way to live. And it does not require that you be great in anything. It just requires that you are indwelt by the Spirit, and that you follow this very, in one way, simple instruction. walk by the Spirit. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this wonderful text of Scripture. Give us now the grace to fully understand it and apply it to our lives. We thank you for the gift of your Spirit. And we thank you that you will finish this work that you have begun in us. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Walk by the Spirit
ప్రసంగం ID | 12615757419 |
వ్యవధి | 1:01:23 |
తేదీ | |
వర్గం | ఆదివారం సర్వీస్ |
బైబిల్ టెక్స్ట్ | గలతీయులకు 5:16 |
భాష | ఇంగ్లీష్ |
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2025 SermonAudio.