WWUTT 1788 Walk By the Spirit, Part 2 (Galatians 5:16-26)

If we love God, we will keep His commandments. The commandments are not what saves us, but they are the evidence that we have been saved.

So we would no longer walk according to our flesh, but we walk by the Spirit when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily study in the word of Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in Galatians chapter 5, picking up the sermon that we had started yesterday.

So today is going to be part 2. Let me begin by reading our text. Here's Galatians chapter 5, verses 16 through 26 out of the

English Standard Version. This is the word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul writing to the churches in Galatia.

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 one another, 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, and those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

We pick up where we left off yesterday, where I was talking about how one who is in Christ Jesus, who loves the

Lord, will desire to obey Him. The works that we do don't save us, but they are the evidence that we have been saved by Christ.

Here is part two of the sermon entitled, Walk by the Spirit. As Jesus said in John 14, 15 and verse 21,

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves

Me. Those who love God will keep His commandments, not because they save you, but because He saved you.

Romans 8, 3 -4 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. In Matthew 5, 17, Jesus said, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets.

I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Romans 13, 8 -10 Love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor.

Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Jesus came to fulfill the law.

And now, as His follower with the Holy Spirit of God in your heart, you fulfill the law when you love the

Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Matthew 22, 40 On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

In his book, How Does God's Law Apply to Me? R .C. Sproul wrote the following,

Has anything changed about God that we would disregard

His directives? Is His word still law?

Is He still as sovereign as He was in the Old Testament?

Is the God of Israel and of the New Testament Church a commandment -giving

God? His word is law. And His law is

His word. Because His law expresses His will.

And that will, that law, is sweeter than honey. Psalm 119, 103

Note that Dr. Sproul said, His law expresses His will.

When it comes to obeying the directive to love God, love people, right? We are not free to interpret that as love

God in whatever way you are comfortable worshiping and love people in the way the culture says love is supposed to look like.

We are to love God the way He says He is to be worshipped and we are to love others the way

Jesus said for us to love. In keeping the word of God, we walk by the

Spirit. But Galatians 5, 16 says more than just walk by the

Spirit. It says, 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 thing that you want to do.

Now we will flesh this out, pun, a little bit more when we contrast the works of the flesh with the fruit of the

Spirit coming up a little bit later on in this chapter. But the works of the flesh and the fruit of the

Spirit, the desires of the flesh and walking by the Spirit, these are opposite sides of a divided highway.

You cannot be on one side headed in one direction and then be in the other lane headed in the other direction at the same time.

If you walk by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Your orientation must be in the direction of God.

If you are facing God, the world is behind you. If you are facing the world, you are turning your back on God.

I read to you earlier from Romans 8, 3 -4. Let me pick up that passage again in verse 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.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the

Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile toward God.

It does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please

God. Note that there are those who are in the flesh who cannot submit to what?

They cannot submit to God's law. Continuing in verse 9.

You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If, in fact, the

Spirit of God dwells in you, I said earlier, examine yourself to see that you are in the faith. Paul says a very similar thing here in Romans 8.

Going on, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the

Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised

Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Now, as I've said many times before in reading that particular passage, that is a verse that just tends to floor me.

Imagine that. The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the exact same power that you have within you.

This power has strengthened you. It has raised you up. It has brought your dead spirit to life.

You have been raised from death to life by the Holy Spirit of God. If that is the power that you have dwelling within you, don't you think that you have the power to resist the temptation of your flesh?

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that everyone here should be living in perfection.

And if you aren't perfect, then you're not a Christian. That's not what I'm saying. But don't hear me saying,

Christians still sin as an excuse to then go out and sin. Jesus said,

Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. And God has said in both the

Old and the New Testaments, Be holy as I am holy. What this means is that you should be growing in holiness.

You are progressing in holiness. You are not falling back into sin or old sin patterns.

You are growing in newness of life. Now, though the

Scripture does use the word growing to describe our progress toward holiness, we might hear that word and tend to take a very passive approach to our spiritual maturity, thinking that it will just happen as naturally as the grass grows.

Right? Growing. It's like your body is growing, so I'm growing in my faith.

Some of you, your body might be shrinking now. I don't know. I know that would certainly be the case for me to get into this kind of attitude, very easily and complacently sit back and think that spiritual growth is just going to happen.

My friends, as a husband and a father, sometimes I think, Well, my wife will just grow in holiness. My kids are just growing in holiness.

You know why? Because I'm a pastor and we go to church. So then just naturally that growth is going to happen.

And we tend to all kind of think that way, that just because I call myself a Christian, I do my Bible study,

I do my prayer, then I'm going to grow. I'm going to grow in sanctification.

But, my friends, resisting temptation, growing in righteousness, being a pillar and a buttress of the truth, taking every thought captive and making it obey

Christ, breaking down strongholds and everything that is raised up against the knowledge of God, fleeing from Satan and drawing near to God, this is spiritual warfare.

It's less compared to watering your lawn and more compared to taking up arms.

You know the instruction to put on the full armor of God, right? What does the

Scripture say? Ephesians 6, starting in verse 10. Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Kim Riddlebarger of Fuller Theological Seminary says the following, The sinful nature is not eradicated at the moment of regeneration, but the sinful nature is cut off from its source of life.

It will slowly but surely wither and die, but though a defeated foe, it will nevertheless fight a determined guerrilla war until we die or until Christ comes back, whichever comes first.

So these sinful passions are warring within us. And my brothers and sisters in the

Lord, we must fight back. We are fighting a spiritual war daily.

And this battle, this battle, as we wage it, as we fight it, as we go through it day by day, guess what?

This is walking in the Spirit. Consider it your marching orders.

This isn't like a brisk walk through Flint Hills National Wildlife Refuge. It is a frontline battle.

While an unbeliever is comfortable with their sin, Christians regularly struggle with indwelling sin.

But do not be discouraged or intimidated by this image of spiritual war.

For we have been promised in Scripture that the battle belongs to the Lord.

Victory is not in your ability to resist temptation or be holy. Victory is in Jesus.

We are reminded in 1 Corinthians 15, death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

If we are abounding in the work of the Lord, we are walking by the Spirit. We are not gratifying the desires of the flesh.

Returning once again to Galatians 5 .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 one another, to keep you from doing the things that you want to do.

Now, what does this mean, to keep you from doing the things that you want to do? If you're going after the desires of your flesh, you might want to do what is pleasing to God.

You might say that you love God, and you want to do all that is according to His will, but you won't do it.

Your desire is to satisfy your fleshly appetites, not to take up your cross and follow

Christ. You would rather have sexual immorality than do the work to be pure.

You would rather have divisions with other people rather than do the work of reconciliation, right?

You would rather be angry at one another than do the work of loving each other.

You would rather be intoxicated rather than doing the work of being filled with the

Holy Spirit. You would rather have the idols that you've raised up and worship those things rather than doing the work of worshiping

Christ and obeying Him. So you might want to please

God, but your heart wants what your flesh wants if you're going after the things of the flesh rather than walking by the

Spirit. And it keeps you from doing the things that you want to do. As Jesus told His disciples, the

Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Now let's turn it around the other way.

If you're walking by the Spirit and doing the things of God, you won't do what your flesh wants you to do.

Right? In fact, the very idea of it disgusts you. Sin is gross to the believer that truly desires holiness.

You don't even like to think about it. You don't even want it in your brain. Some people love the memories of past sins.

They might remember something sinful that they did and savor it like sucking on a

Tic Tac in their brain. But the person who walks by the Spirit, they want to think of their sin as God thinks of their sin.

It makes them sick. It's disgusting. They want it gone. They don't want it to have any place in their mind, in their body, or anywhere.

So instead of sexual immorality, which is any sexual pleasure outside the marriage covenant, by the way, instead of desiring that, you want to submit your body unto the

Lord as a living sacrifice. Romans 12 .1 You hate the idea of holding a grudge against anyone, especially a brother or sister in the

Lord. Instead, you desire to be reconciled. And whatever that takes, that we might love one another, and grow with each other, and encourage one another, you desire to be reconciled.

You're not easily angered, but you're self -controlled. You are patient in affliction.

You do not keep a record of wrongs, but you forgive each other.

You are faithful to the Lord because you know He has been far more faithful to you.

Whatever the flesh wants, you don't do it, because the

Spirit of God compels you toward Christ. Galatians 5 .18

If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

And in case you haven't picked up on it, what I've been going through here in explaining the difference between the desires of the flesh and walking by the

Spirit, I've taken the liberty of contrasting the works of the flesh with the fruit of the

Spirit. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an

Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an