Walk by the Spirit

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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May 28, 2020

00:01: Alright, take out your Bibles and turn to Galatians.
00:04: Today we are going to be in chapter 5.
00:29: Open up to 5 and we're going to be looking at beginning at verse 16.
00:37: For those of you who have been here, you know that we've been going verse by verse through Galatians.
00:43: And verse 16, we left off on verse 15 last week.
00:48: I'm going to talk about that in a minute.
00:48: I'm going to talk about context and how we have gotten to where we are.
00:52: But verse 16 begins a long paragraph from the Apostle Paul, which actually takes us to the end of the chapter.
01:01: So that's what we're going to look at today.
01:03: And I'm having some difficulty with my notebook.
01:06: I apologize.
01:07: I need to fix this or else I'm not going to be able to turn a page.
01:12: I do use notes.
01:17: I apologize for that.
01:23: So again, we're at the end of chapter 5.
01:26: There's only 6 chapters, so we're close to the end of the book.
01:30: Which is nice.
01:31: It's nice to have a full and complete study done.
01:37: We're going to look at verses 16-26.
01:41: We're going to read it, but we will certainly not give an exposition of all of these verses today.
01:53: As you all know, I tend to stop and dwell on things.
01:57: And sometimes one verse will get me and get my attention.
02:00: So getting through 11 verses in one sitting is usually not something that I'm able to do.
02:07: But I want to read it because it's all one idea.
02:10: The idea beginning in verse 16 down to verse 26 is walking by the Spirit.
02:19: And we're going to talk today about that and what that means.
02:23: And then we're going to see how the Apostle gives us examples of those who walk by the Spirit and those who walk by the flesh.
02:31: So let's read together beginning at verse 16 and we'll read down to verse 26.
02:37: But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
02:44: For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.
02:49: For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
02:54: But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
02:59: Now the works of the flesh are evident.
03:03: Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.
03:21: I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
03:32: That's a good place to meditate right there.
03:37: Verse 22.
03:39: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
03:48: Against such things there is no law.
03:51: And those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
03:59: If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
04:03: Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
04:09: Let's pray.
04:11: Father, as I seek by Your grace to give an exposition of this text, Lord, I pray by Your mercies that You would keep me from error.
04:21: For God, I am a fallible man and incapable of preaching error.
04:25: And for the sake of Your name and for the sake of these men and for the sake of my own conscience, I don't want to do that.
04:31: So Lord, I pray that You would, by Your Holy Spirit, be the teacher today.
04:35: Use whatever I have written and whatever I have considered in my notes, Lord, to be useful.
04:43: But Lord, if there is anything that is incorrect, if there is anything that is wrong, Lord, I pray that You would keep me from it today.
04:51: And Lord, help me to focus truly on the right understanding of the Word of God.
04:57: Sanctify us by Your truth.
04:59: Your Word is truth.
05:01: In Christ's name, Amen.
05:05: Beginning in verse 13 of Galatians 5, the Apostle Paul begins to talk about the subject of freedom.
05:17: This has been the subject we have talked about for the last several weeks.
05:22: He says, beginning in verse 13, You were called to freedom, brothers.
05:27: Now, if you will remember, and again, some of you may not have been here, some of you may have forgotten, the freedom that he is talking about in verse 13 is the freedom that we have in Christ from the condemnation of the law.
05:45: Every one of us deserves the law's punishment, because every one of us has broken the law of God.
05:52: But Christ, having received in Himself the punishment that we deserved, having received in Himself the wrath for the law-breaking that we have done, has set us free from the law of sin and death.
06:06: That's what the Bible says.
06:07: It says He set us free from the condemnation of the law.
06:15: The best illustration, I guess, would be if you stood before a judge guilty, and he gave you mercy, and he didn't make you have to go through the punishment that you deserve for having broken the law.
06:34: And he said, I'm going to give you a break.
06:37: I'm going to give you leniency.
06:41: I'm going to give you mercy once.
06:43: This is your time of mercy.
06:45: And you're free.
06:48: You understand now what the freedom Paul is referring to.
06:51: You're free to go.
06:52: You're free from the debt.
06:54: You're free from the condemnation.
06:59: You ever had something you owed someone? Maybe a loan someone gave you? Or maybe somebody let you borrow something, and you lost it or destroyed it, and you weren't able to give it back? And the person forgave you? That forgiveness is setting you free.
07:19: It's setting you free from the debt.
07:22: You're setting you free from what you owe.
07:24: That's the freedom that Christ gives to us.
07:27: We have a sin debt.
07:28: The Bible says the wages of sin is death.
07:32: And so that tells us sin incurs a price.
07:37: It incurs a wage.
07:38: It has a debt.
07:40: That's why we often call sin our sin debt.
07:43: Christ comes and He pays the debt.
07:46: Therefore, having paid the debt, we are now free.
07:51: So that's what Paul means when he says, you were called to freedom, brothers.
07:57: And the context and the reason why he's saying this is because there are people who have come into Galatia and have tried to put the people of Galatia back under the law.
08:09: They've tried to put them back under a debt.
08:13: You've got to be circumcised.
08:14: You've got to keep the dietary laws.
08:15: You've got to keep the Sabbath.
08:16: All those are back under the debt of the law.
08:19: And Paul says, no, you were set free from that.
08:23: You need to understand the Gospel has set you free from any condemnation that you would have.
08:29: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
08:34: Right? But, also in verse 13, and again, I'm just setting up the context of what we're looking at today.
08:42: He says, do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.
08:46: Because when people hear I'm free in Christ, people might assume what that means is I'm free to live according to my fleshly desires.
08:57: So Paul answers by saying, no, the freedom that you have, the freedom from the debt of your sin doesn't give you the right to live according to the flesh.
09:07: But rather, he says in verse 14, love your neighbor as yourself.
09:12: Serve one another through love.
09:17: And then in verse 15 that we looked at last week at length, he says, if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you're not consumed with one another.
09:25: And the point I tried to mention there was one of the most hurtful things that people have, one of the most hurtful things that Christians especially use is their words against one another.
09:37: Words are the weapons of Christians often.
09:42: And they hurt one another.
09:43: And Paul says, if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you're not consumed by one another.
09:48: And so that's where we ended off last week.
09:51: Now he begins a call, if you will.
10:01: And this call in verse 16 is a call to a new lifestyle.
10:06: A call to a proper lifestyle in Christ.
10:09: He says in verse 16, he says, but I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
10:22: Let's begin by looking at the word but.
10:24: Do all your Bibles begin with the adversative conjunction but? Does everybody's verse 16 begin with verse but? What does it say in yours, brother? This I say then.
10:37: Okay.
10:38: So I say.
10:40: But it still goes on to say, walk by the Spirit.
10:42: That's the next phrase.
10:43: Okay.
10:44: The word in the Greek can be translated in multiple different ways and that's why different translators use different ways.
10:50: But ultimately what he's doing, I believe, is I believe he's making a contrast to what he just said.
10:57: Because he just said, do not bite and devour one another.
11:02: Because if you do, you're going to consume one another, right? That's what he just said.
11:05: He said, but walk by the Spirit.
11:09: So the contrast of biting and devouring is walking by the Spirit.
11:14: So we have two options.
11:17: We can live with hateful spite and vindictive language, or we can live walking by the Spirit.
11:26: And he says, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
11:34: And I believe the desires of the flesh are verse 15.
11:36: The desires of the flesh are biting and devouring one another.
11:40: Now he's going to later tell us more about what the desires of the flesh are.
11:43: He's going to talk about sexual immorality, impurity, and all those things.
11:46: But in the direct context of verse 16, he's just told them, don't bite and devour one another, but if you walk by the Spirit, you won't do that.
11:56: Because that's the concern that's on his mind.
12:01: So what does it mean to walk by the Spirit? That's actually a complex question.
12:10: It's more complex than it should be.
12:12: But I want you to consider for a minute what the word walk means.
12:17: Most of us know what the general word in English means.
12:21: If I say we're going to go walk, that means we're going to go walk.
12:24: It's defined in itself.
12:28: But in the Bible, the word walk typically refers to the way that one lives their life.
12:38: It refers to their lifestyle.
12:45: Your walk is not just you walking along, but it refers to your practical daily living.
12:54: And I'll give you a few examples.
12:57: You don't have to write these down.
12:58: I'm going to spit them out pretty quickly because I've got a whole list of them.
13:02: But think about as I read these how the word walk is being used.
13:07: Genesis 5.24 says, Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him.
13:15: First guy that we see in the Bible.
13:17: The first time we see in the Bible that somebody walked with God.
13:23: What does that mean? I looked for that actually as I was preparing my notes.
13:31: It says God walked, but it doesn't say they walked together.
13:34: We can assume they did before the fall, but there's not a direct verse to look at.
13:39: But the first time we see the phrase Enoch walked with God.
13:43: But we know that this doesn't mean he literally walked beside Him.
13:46: But what does the phrase walk with God mean? It means his daily life was lived in practical walking with God.
13:57: Obedience.
13:58: Yes, practical obedience.
13:58: What were you saying brother? Fellowship.
14:00: Yes, absolutely.
14:02: You might say something like, my brother and I walked together for 30 years.
14:06: That meant y'all were in fellowship.
14:08: You loved each other.
14:09: You were together.
14:09: There was a relationship.
14:10: What did you have brother? Consciously walking in faith.
14:15: That's what you do automatically.
14:18: Yes, and that's the word walk.
14:19: When it says Enoch walked with God, he was in that relationship.
14:22: Now, there's another one we see in Genesis 6, verse 9.
14:27: It says these are the generations of Noah.
14:29: Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.
14:32: Noah walked with God.
14:36: Genesis 17, verse 1.
14:40: It says when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am God Almighty.
14:47: Walk before me and be blameless.
14:49: So what is he talking about? He's talking about his walk, his daily life, his daily practical living.
14:53: Genesis 48.
14:55: And he blessed Joseph and said, the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day.
15:05: This is the father giving the blessing to his son and he's talking about God.
15:08: And he said, this is the God with whom my fathers walked.
15:11: So we see the word walk there referring to their relationship.
15:16: Exodus 16, verse 4.
15:18: Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, and I may test them whether or not they will walk in My law.
15:28: So here now, the word walk is being used more in the sense of an obedience, as you've said, brother, because they're walking what? In the law.
15:36: They're being obedient to God's commands.
15:40: Deuteronomy 5.33 You shall walk in all the way the Lord your God has commanded you.
15:48: Psalm 1 Blessed is the man who what? Walks not in the counsel of the wicked.
15:56: Then we get into the New Testament.
15:58: Acts 9.31 The church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and in comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
16:10: So there we see that the New Testament also uses the idea of walking.
16:15: Romans 6.4 We were buried with Him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life.
16:29: Ephesians 4.17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you may no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.
16:39: So we see the Bible using the word walk.
16:42: It's a metaphor.
16:45: The metaphor is the word being used for lifestyle or pattern or practical obedience, practical daily living.
16:52: We use this language today.
16:54: Think about it when you talk about someone who's going a bad direction.
16:57: What do you say? They're walking a dangerous path or they're walking the razor's edge.
17:04: Conversely, when you see someone doing well, you'll say he's walking well or he's walking tall.
17:10: Right? And how do Christians often just talk to one another when they're talking about something about practical obedience? They might say, brother, how's your walk? Ever had somebody ask you that? How is your walk? I had a friend recently, I was talking to him, and we were talking about some obscure topic and he said, at this point in my walk, I don't feel comfortable doing that.
17:38: It was just something weird.
17:39: I don't want to go into what we were talking about.
17:41: But I just thought that was an interesting point.
17:43: Basically, he made the point, at this point in my walk...
17:48: And what he meant was, as we all realize as believers, we're on a journey that began when we were born again.
17:56: It began when we became believers.
17:58: And that journey is a long journey depending on how long we live.
18:05: And I want you to remember this, and this is something I really hope to stress today.
18:09: The Christian walk is like a long hike.
18:14: It is not like a short explosive sprint.
18:20: Anybody can be good for 10 yards.
18:25: Some people can be good for 50 yards.
18:28: And you've got the very talented who can burn rubber for 100 yards.
18:35: But very few people can run a marathon.
18:41: Yeah.
18:42: Very few people can run, what is it, 26 miles of marathon? Something like that? Yeah, to run that...
18:52: I don't even know how to drive that far.
18:53: Run 26 miles.
18:58: But I could probably walk it if I had to.
19:01: I might have to take some breaks along the way.
19:04: I might fall down a few times.
19:05: I might need to stop and get some water.
19:08: And that's why we have to think of it as a walk, not a run.
19:12: Now, I will admit there are times when Paul talks about running the race and finishing the race, and so metaphors break down and always can.
19:19: But in this sense, when we're talking about the Christian life, we're talking about a long journey.
19:28: And you remember what Jesus said.
19:29: He said seed fell among the path and some of it sprung up, but it died quickly.
19:35: Why? Because it had no root.
19:38: That's the sprint.
19:39: That's the guy who's...
19:40: You know, you see people, they become Christians and they're hot Christians for a hot minute.
19:45: They're worshiping and praising for a good three months.
19:49: It's almost like three months is like the perfect time.
19:53: Because I've seen it so many times.
19:55: Somebody comes in, they get excited, they're raising hands, they're praising Jesus, they're doing their Bible studies, they're getting baptized.
20:01: They want to join the praise team.
20:03: They want to work in the sound booth.
20:04: They want to clean the church.
20:06: They want to do everything.
20:08: They want to come and sit with you and talk while you're trying to study for your sermon.
20:11: They want to do everything.
20:12: Not that I'm complaining, I'm just saying it happens.
20:15: I'm not pointing fingers.
20:16: But then three months later, where'd they go? That's right.
20:23: Where you been? It's like that they didn't realize it was a journey.
20:28: Remember Jesus talked about a man who was going to build a tower? And He said he needs to sit down and count the cost before he begins? Because anybody can build a foundation.
20:40: Anybody can dig the foundation.
20:42: But it's having the wherewithal to stay.
20:45: It's having the perseverance to stay.
20:46: It's a walk.
20:48: It's a lifestyle.
20:50: It's a life.
20:52: It's not five days.
20:54: It's not five weeks.
20:55: It's not five months.
20:57: It's not even five years.
20:59: It's life changing.
21:03: And so He says, walk by the Spirit.
21:06: I think about the Pilgrim's Progress.
21:08: I know I've mentioned this to y'all.
21:10: I mention this to y'all all the time.
21:11: I think y'all should have to watch that movie every year.
21:14: And honestly, I'd rather you read the book.
21:17: But the book is longer and obviously reading long, long, especially allegorical works that were written several hundred years ago can sometimes be tough.
21:27: But if you have never seen the movie, ask Brother Mark to show it to you.
21:31: The Pilgrim's Progress.
21:34: It's an allegory.
21:36: The main character's name is Christian.
21:39: And it's just that simple.
21:42: I mean really, they don't try to fool you.
21:44: This is Christian.
21:45: He's living in a place where people are not believers.
21:49: And he realizes that he has a burden on his back.
21:53: And that burden represents his sin.
21:55: And he wants to find some way to get that burden off of his back.
22:00: And so he begins a journey.
22:03: A journey towards what's known as the Celestial City.
22:06: That's heaven.
22:07: And throughout that journey, he runs into various people.
22:10: He runs into a man called Evangelist.
22:13: Evangelist is the one who points into the Celestial City.
22:16: He runs into other people who try to get him off the path.
22:21: Worldly Wise Man is one who tries to get him off the path.
22:25: And then he goes into cities like Vanity Fair.
22:28: Vanity Fair was a place where everybody was excited and entertained and everybody was having fun, but nobody was seriously contemplating the real things of life.
22:39: And when he comes in and brings them the message of the Gospel, they hate him.
22:43: They don't want to hear what he has to say.
22:46: They get angry because he won't buy their goods.
22:50: And so the whole story is an allegory of the Christian life.
22:54: And it shows how you can fall into despair.
22:57: There's a place called the Slough of Despond.
22:59: It's like a swamp that he gets stuck in.
23:02: And he doesn't feel like he can get out, but finally, God gets him through it.
23:07: You ever been depressed as a believer? Man, I'm telling you how good this book is.
23:15: It's the second most popular book in all of Christian literature.
23:20: You know what the first is? The Bible, yeah.
23:24: It's the second most popular book of Christian literature.
23:29: It's never been out of print since it was first written.
23:35: The Pilgrim's Progress.
23:37: It was written by John Bunyan, a man who was in prison for his faith.
23:43: He had a family.
23:45: He had every reason to deny Christ so that he could get out and take care of his family, but he did not.
23:55: And he stayed in prison for his faith.
24:00: And he wrote the Pilgrim's Progress.
24:03: But again, my reason for bringing it up today is when we talk about walk by the Spirit, first we need to understand that we're talking about your lifestyle.
24:13: We're talking about the way your life is marked.
24:20: To walk by the Spirit means to yield to the Spirit's control.
24:25: It means to follow His leading.
24:28: It means to submit to His influence over us.
24:31: And let me ask you this, where does the Spirit lead us and from where does the Spirit influence us? This is an important question because a lot of people would answer that by saying, well, it's an internal voice.
24:46: I hear the Spirit speaking to me inside.
24:51: And I want to just talk about the dangers of that.
24:55: When you listen to the little voice inside of you, it's not always the Spirit.
25:02: Sometimes that's the flesh.
25:05: Sometimes your flesh, and we're going to talk about in the weeks to come the difference between the Spirit and the flesh.
25:12: I've had people tell me who were living an outright sin.
25:15: God told me it was okay.
25:17: I said, did God come and sit down with you? Did God send you a letter? How did God tell you it was okay to live in sin? I said, because His book says different.
25:31: You see, here's the thing you've got to remember.
25:35: The Word of God, that's this right here.
25:39: The Bible has one author.
25:43: Now, it has over 40 different writers.
25:46: It was written over a period of 1,500 years.
25:49: It was written in three different languages over three different major areas of the world.
25:55: But it only has one author.
25:58: And the author is the Spirit of God.
26:01: The Bible says holy men spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
26:08: And the Holy Spirit ensured that what is said in this book is what we need to know.
26:13: So the first thing I would say to someone if they said, how do you walk by the Spirit? I would say, know what the Spirit has had to say.
26:23: Because if you're going to simply go off of what you think in your heart, remember what Jeremiah says, the heart is desperately wicked.
26:32: People who tell you follow your heart, what's that? It is terrible advice.
26:40: My heart has rarely led me to the best of things.
26:45: But I can tell you, I can go back to when I was a teenager.
26:48: If I would have gotten what I wanted with all my heart, I'd probably be in prison today.
26:55: Or I would have a world of hurt if I got all the things my heart wanted.
27:03: Think about the things you've yearned for in your heart.
27:08: So when he says walk by the Spirit, to walk by the Spirit, we have to know what the Spirit thinks.
27:15: And we have to know what the Spirit commands.
27:17: And we have to know what the Spirit provokes.
27:20: See, you go to some churches and they say, oh, I feel the Spirit moving and the Spirit told me this.
27:26: I don't listen to that nonsense.
27:29: Because the Word of God tells me what God has said.
27:32: And if what you're saying agrees with the Word of God, I don't need it.
27:36: And if what you're saying disagrees with the Word of God, I don't want it.
27:41: Isn't that simple enough? If somebody says God has told me and it disagrees with this book, I don't want to hear it.
27:49: And if they say God has told me and it agrees with the book, I don't need it.
27:53: I've got the book.
27:59: You know what one of the greatest things about Billy Graham was? Billy Graham, you all know, is an evangelist.
28:06: And I don't always agree with everything Billy Graham ever had to say or ever did.
28:10: But one of the things that Billy Graham always did, one of the things he always said, the Bible says.
28:17: In fact, Ken Ham, who is another preacher, was talking about Billy Graham and Ken Ham was describing how he's from I think New Zealand or Australia.
28:28: He said in Australia, they didn't even call him Billy Graham.
28:32: They called him the Bible says man.
28:35: The Bible says man.
28:38: Because every time he spoke, he said, the Bible says.
28:41: The Bible says.
28:43: And I'm trying to do my best Billy Graham.
28:45: But you understand, the Bible, everything he said was preceded with the Bible says.
28:53: So when we say walk by the Spirit, we're not saying follow the little inner voice.
28:59: We're saying that the Spirit of God has spoken the Word of God and therefore to walk by the Spirit is to be intimately knowledgeable of what He has said.
29:10: There is no distinction between hearing the audible voice of God and reading the Word of God.
29:18: I'll give you an example.
29:20: If I left my house this morning, I have a daughter, 22 year old daughter.
29:25: And I said, Ashley, I want you to clean the kitchen today and I want you to straighten up the living room.
29:33: Let's just say I said that and she heard that from my voice.
29:36: And I got in the truck and left and I came home and she did it.
29:39: That's fine, that's good.
29:41: Now, what if she was still asleep when I left and I wrote down my will? And I said, Ashley, I want you to clean the kitchen and I want you to straighten up the living room.
29:53: And I left the note next to her pillow so when she wakes up, she'll see it.
29:57: Is there any difference? No! It's still my Word! Well, I'm making the consideration that the Word, the will of the One who spoke it didn't change because it was written.
30:18: Yeah, that's a good thought.
30:20: If something in her heart said, well, I don't need to clean the kitchen today and all I've got is Daddy's written Word, I'm not hearing it in my ear, so what? You've got the written Word.
30:33: You've got it written down.
30:34: You know what Daddy's will is.
30:35: And if you don't do it, there's punishment.
30:38: And so we have the Word of God walk by the Spirit.
30:41: You could easily say what he's saying is walk by the Word.
30:47: Because the Word is authored by the Spirit of God.
30:52: So again, how do we define walk by the Spirit? Yield to His control, follow His lead, submit to His influence.
31:00: That's what it means to walk by the Spirit.
31:02: Yield to His control, follow His lead, submit to His influence.
31:05: And those things come from where? The Word of God.
31:09: Now I'm not ever saying the Spirit won't prompt you.
31:13: There have been times in my life where I've been with unbelievers and God just prompted me to speak to people in a situation where I might not have.
31:22: So I'm not saying the Holy Spirit doesn't interact with you through the Spirit.
31:26: The Bible says the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we're sons of God and through that we cry, Abba, Father.
31:32: So I'm not saying that it never happens or it doesn't happen.
31:34: What I'm saying is don't rely on the inner voice because that might be the flesh.
31:39: Can you mention real quick? I've heard you before on the difference between revelation and illumination.
31:44: Yes.
31:46: There are two key terms that need to be understood.
31:50: The first is revelation and the second is illumination.
31:56: Revelation from a biblical perspective and not the book of Revelation.
32:01: Now I'm talking about the concept of revelation is when God specifically speaks to an individual for whatever purpose.
32:11: And we see this.
32:12: God spoke to Abraham.
32:13: God spoke to Noah.
32:14: God spoke to Moses.
32:15: God spoke to several people.
32:18: Right? Isaiah 6.
32:19: God revealed Himself to Isaiah.
32:23: I do not believe, and I don't want to debate this, but I do not believe that God is currently revealing Himself at this time in the same way He did to the prophets.
32:32: I base this on Hebrews 1.
32:35: Hebrews 1 says, in times past, God spoke to our fathers and the prophets but now He speaks to us through His Son.
32:46: And so I do believe there's a different distinction between how God speaks to us now versus how God spoke to the Bible writers.
32:54: Therefore, when somebody stands up today and says, God spoke to me, I say, did He tell you to write it down? Because He told those guys to write it down.
33:05: Are you telling me there needs to be a 67th book of the Bible? What God said to you? Because that's revelation.
33:12: And I don't believe that continues today.
33:14: However, we do have what we would define as illumination.
33:19: Illumination is when God opens our eyes to things that we did not see before.
33:24: And think of illumination as like a light.
33:26: If you go into a room that's completely dark and you can't see anything and one little bit of light comes in through the window, things begin to brighten.
33:36: And the more powerful that light becomes, maybe the window is open more, maybe the sun rises a little higher, and the more powerful that light becomes, the more you can see.
33:45: I think of it like this, when you become a believer, oftentimes you're very much in the dark when it comes to what the Bible says and what it means.
33:53: When I was 19 years old and got saved, I didn't know anything about the Bible.
33:57: And I'd been in church my whole life.
33:59: I'd been in church since the age of 7.
34:03: And I knew David slew Goliath.
34:05: I knew Jonah got sucked up by the great fish.
34:09: And I knew that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.
34:12: I knew the stories, but I didn't know the Bible.
34:17: And so I was like a man in a dark room.
34:20: And God began to illuminate to me the Word of God.
34:24: By His grace, I was able to go to school and learn from good teachers and good godly men who mentored me and taught me the Word of God.
34:32: And through that, I became more understanding of the Word of God.
34:35: And as it had, the light became brighter.
34:38: And that was God illuminating my soul.
34:42: And there are times when I've been reading a passage of Scripture and it's like God turns the light on.
34:45: It's like I never saw that before.
34:47: But now I see it.
34:49: So I do think that that's how God operates in our lives today.
34:53: The difference between revelation and illumination is revelation is direct from God to the mind of the person or to the mouth of the person as in the prophet.
35:02: When the prophet says, Thus saith the Lord, he's speaking on behalf of God.
35:07: And he's giving revelation.
35:09: But when I'm learning and God illuminates my mind, that's not the same thing as revelation, but it's still God working.
35:17: Was that helpful? The Holy Spirit is in you.
35:25: When you pray, I don't want to say what you're saying, but isn't the deity, the God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, so wouldn't it be the same? The Holy Spirit is God? Yes.
35:43: Yeah, the Holy Spirit is God and the Holy Spirit lives within you.
35:46: So wouldn't that be God speaking to you with the Holy Spirit? Wouldn't He reveal something to you? Wouldn't He be praying on something? But my point is not everything that you think coming from your heart is coming from God because you still deal with the flesh.
35:59: And we're going to see that in the verses coming up.
36:02: Because he's going to say in verse 17 that you have the flesh and the Spirit.
36:07: And the flesh is at war with the Spirit.
36:09: So not everything you think in your heart is coming from the Spirit.
36:13: Sometimes it's coming from the flesh.
36:15: We will move and then later on we're going to learn how to distinguish.
36:20: Yes, yes sir, yes.
36:21: But the main thing is to distinguish this.
36:24: If what I think in my heart goes against the Bible, then I know it's not from the Spirit.
36:28: If I think something in my heart, like I had a lady tell me one time, she was living with a man and she was living in sin, and I said, you know this is wrong.
36:35: She said, no, God told me it was right.
36:37: I said, He couldn't possibly tell you that it was right.
36:41: Because His Word says it's wrong.
36:43: And God does not speak with a forked tongue.
36:46: God does not contradict Himself.
36:49: Therefore, if you think it's right, don't think it's because God told you that.
36:53: It's because your flesh wants that.
36:56: So that's the distinction.
36:58: Sometimes it is God being very clear to our heart.
37:02: But it's always got to be, how do we know it's from the Word? If it's against the Word of God, we know it's not from God.
37:09: And we get an inclination that it's from Him.
37:11: Yes, yeah.
37:13: And this is why we look at the Bereans in Acts.
37:16: They listened to what Paul said, but then they compared it to the Word of God to see if it was true.
37:22: Right? So yes, I'm not saying you never hear from God.
37:24: I'm not saying you'll never have those yearnings in your heart.
37:27: I'm saying that you have to always compare it with Scripture.
37:29: Because that's the objective thing.
37:32: What we have in our heart is subjective.
37:35: But what we have that's objective is God's Word.
37:37: Now, I want to mention one other thing before we move forward and that is this.
37:43: To walk by the Spirit is the opposite of resisting, grieving, and quenching the Spirit.
37:52: So I'll say that again.
37:53: To walk by the Spirit is the opposite of resisting, grieving, and quenching the Spirit.
38:00: You say, well, why are you using those three terms? Because all three of those terms are used in the Bible.
38:06: In Acts 7, when Stephen is speaking to the Pharisees, remember, these are men who knew the Bible.
38:14: But he said, you are resisting the Holy Spirit of God.
38:18: Why? Because they knew what the Bible says, but they were doing what they wanted to do instead.
38:22: So they were resisting the Spirit of God.
38:26: In Ephesians 4.30, it says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
38:32: And that's a command to believers.
38:33: Don't grieve the Spirit.
38:35: How could you grieve the Spirit of God? Yes, and the example that I would give...
38:44: Do you have any kids? I think you told me you have kids.
38:46: Okay, so you've got kids, right? You tell your kids to do something and they totally disobey you.
38:53: That's grievous to you, right? That grieves your heart because you know what you were telling them was right and you know what you were telling them was the best thing for them.
39:02: I've got a son.
39:02: He's 19 years old.
39:03: He's in the Air Force now.
39:05: When he was a teenager, he grieved me quite a bit because I would give him very clear instructions for things that would do him well.
39:20: And he would turn around and do the exact opposite.
39:23: And I would say, why would you do that? And he didn't really have a good answer because of what he was doing and what he wanted to do.
39:29: But that's the picture of the grieving of the Spirit.
39:32: The Spirit has given us clear commands and therefore, when we disobey, we're grieving the Spirit.
39:37: And the Bible says don't do that.
39:38: Yes, go ahead.
39:39: What was the resting time? You know, I didn't have that one in my notes, but the resisting is in Acts 7.
39:47: I'll find it real fast.
39:48: Actually, somebody else can look.
39:50: It's when Stephen is in the Sanhedrin.
39:54: He's speaking.
39:55: It's a long speech.
39:57: And he says, you are always resisting the Spirit.
40:00: And I don't have the verse right away.
40:03: But it's Acts 7.
40:06: If you want to just look through it and you'll find it.
40:09: And the third word, we have resisting, we have grieving, which is them doing something you don't want them to do.
40:16: And you've commanded it.
40:17: You've told them not to do it and they still do it.
40:18: And then we have the word quench.
40:21: The word quench is in 1 Thessalonians 5.19.
40:24: It says do not quench the Spirit.
40:27: Quenching the Spirit is when the Spirit prompts us to do right and we don't.
40:34: And that is...
40:35: Yes, go ahead.
40:37: Acts 7.51.
40:38: Thank you, Bobby.
40:39: 7.51.
40:41: So you have...
40:44: How many times, and maybe this has never happened to you, it's happened to me a bunch.
40:48: I'll be with people that I know need to hear the Gospel.
40:52: And the Spirit prompts me in my heart.
40:54: You need to tell these people the Gospel.
40:56: You need to share the Gospel.
40:58: But for whatever reason, I'm not bold enough.
41:00: Maybe I'm afraid of the social consequences.
41:03: Maybe I'm afraid of the embarrassment.
41:05: Maybe I just don't feel like it.
41:07: You ever just not feel like it? I mean, I ain't made of stone, man.
41:12: I'm made of flesh and bone too and I get tired.
41:16: And you just don't feel like it.
41:19: But you know you should and you don't.
41:23: I think that's an example of quenching the Spirit.
41:26: The Spirit's prompting me and I'm basically taking a wet towel and I'm throwing it over what little bit of fire I had.
41:33: That's like quenching a fire.
41:35: It's quenching the Spirit.
41:36: So when Paul says, walk by the Spirit, what he's saying is don't resist, don't grieve, don't quench.
41:48: But understand this, and this is where I really wanted to get to today and I've got to start drawing to a close.
41:55: To walk by the Spirit, you must first possess the Spirit.
42:03: And not everyone possesses the Holy Spirit of God.
42:07: The Bible says the Holy Spirit of God is only in believers.
42:14: See, I don't expect unbelievers to act like believers.
42:19: I've got parents, my mom, my stepmom, we'll be talking sometimes and they'll say, can you believe that this person did this, this, or that? And I'm like, yeah, they're lost.
42:32: Lost people don't act like lost people.
42:34: Wretch is going to wretch.
42:35: What do you want to know? I'm never ever surprised.
42:40: I mean, and there's some pretty wild stuff that people do.
42:48: Outlandish stuff.
42:50: And they'll say, can you believe this person did that? I say, yes, he's a child of the devil.
42:55: He's an unbeliever.
42:56: He does not possess the Holy Spirit of God.
42:58: I'm not surprised.
43:02: What shakes my soul is when someone says they're a believer and they do the same thing.
43:06: That's what shakes my soul.
43:08: I don't get surprised that most of the people that go to abortion clinics are unbelievers.
43:13: What surprises me is a large percentage of the people walking into abortion clinics have Jesus stickers on their cars and have gospel t-shirts on their back.
43:23: And I've stood outside of abortion clinics and seen it happen.
43:27: I have friends who minister at abortion clinics outside trying to keep women from destroying the babies inside of them.
43:39: And some of those people walk up with gospel literature on their shirts.
43:49: How absolutely horrifying.
43:54: And so, understand this, not everyone possesses the Spirit of God.
44:00: Who does possess the Spirit of God? Romans 8, verse 9 tells us this.
44:07: If you do not have the Spirit, you do not belong to Christ.
44:13: Romans 8, 9.
44:14: If you do not have the Spirit of Christ, you do not belong to Him.
44:20: So, to walk by the Spirit, you must first have the Spirit.
44:26: How does one receive the Spirit? The Spirit of God comes to live in our heart at the very moment that we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
44:42: The Bible says that no one will see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again.
44:52: And to be born again means to be born from Heaven or to be born from above.
44:56: It means to be born by the Spirit.
44:57: Jesus said, unless you're born of water, and the Spirit, right? The word Spirit.
45:01: He's saying we have to be born of the Spirit.
45:03: And what happens is the Spirit gives us new life.
45:06: And the Spirit giving us new life gives us new desires, new affections, gives us the ability to believe, gives us the ability to repent.
45:13: The Spirit comes and He sets up shop inside our hearts.
45:17: Just like my brother was saying here, yes, the Spirit of God lives within you.
45:21: If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have the Spirit of God living in you.
45:26: If you are not a believer, you do not have the Spirit of God within you.
45:30: It's not as if He comes and sets up shop and then waits.
45:34: No, the moment He comes in is the moment you become a believer in Him.
45:40: It's an all or nothing thing.
45:42: Some people believe you can believe and not receive the Spirit.
45:46: They say you believe now and then later you receive the Spirit.
45:49: They call it the second blessing.
45:51: I don't believe that's true.
45:53: Because again, Romans 8 and 9, if you do not have the Spirit of Christ, you do not belong to Him.
46:01: So if you're a believer, you have the Spirit.
46:02: If you're not a believer, you don't have the Spirit.
46:04: It's very clear.
46:06: And as my brother already said right here, who is the Spirit? The Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity.
46:12: He is the Spirit of Almighty God.
46:14: He is the One who has come.
46:17: The Bible says He is the One who has come to stand in the place of Christ.
46:23: Turn in your Bibles to John 14.
46:25: I want to show you something very important.
46:28: Go to John 14.
46:30: And we'll end here.
46:33: Because next week we're going to look at the difference between the Spirit and the flesh.
46:37: And we're going to look at the battle between the competitors, the Spirit and the flesh.
46:41: But today I just want to talk about the Spirit and how the Spirit comes to live within us.
46:45: And I want you to notice something.
46:48: Verse 15.
46:50: Jesus says, If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
46:56: Verse 16, And 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.
47:11: You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
47:18: That's the promise of God.
47:20: That the Holy Spirit of God, when Christ ascends, the Holy Spirit will come to take His place to walk with us.
47:28: When Christ was in the world, He walked with His disciples.
47:31: You know what the word for Helper here is? It says a Helper.
47:35: The word for Helper in the Greek is parakalētos.
47:38: And the word parakalētos means one who walks beside you.
47:42: One who stands beside you.
47:44: It's two words.
47:45: Kaleo is the root.
47:47: The word kaleo means to call.
47:49: And the word para is the prefix and it means to be beside something.
47:53: Like parallel.
47:54: Right? Para.
47:56: So a parakalētos is one who stands next to you.
48:00: One who walks with you.
48:03: And if you think about like a lawyer.
48:07: The lawyer is your advocate.
48:09: He stands with you.
48:10: He walks beside you.
48:11: He's there for you.
48:13: He's there to give you His strength.
48:15: He's there to give you His wisdom.
48:17: He's there to give you His encouragement.
48:19: He's there to be your advocate.
48:23: He's your parakalētos.
48:24: He's the one who's called alongside you.
48:27: In the King James Version, it calls Him the Comforter.
48:32: I will pray the Father and He will send you another Comforter.
48:37: You know why King James uses the word Comforter? Every time I used to hear that when I was a kid, I thought it was like a blanket.
48:43: Because you think about a Comforter.
48:45: But that's not what the word Comforter means.
48:48: In Latin, the prefix com- means with.
48:53: And forte, if you've ever studied music, what is forte? Power.
48:59: So Comforter means with power.
49:03: The one who comes to give you the strength to walk.
49:08: You're walking the Christian life, but you cannot do it alone.
49:11: You need one to walk with you.
49:14: You need one to walk beside you.
49:15: And sometimes to drag your sorry behind.
49:20: Mine too.
49:22: Sometimes I need Him to pick me up and carry me.
49:27: And that's what Paul means when he says walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
49:35: Now if you have an RSV Version, it actually translates it incorrectly here.
49:41: In the RSV it says walk by the Spirit and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.
49:46: But that is not what the Greek says.
49:48: It does not give two commands.
49:51: It gives one command.
49:53: Walk by the Spirit.
49:54: And if you do that, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
49:59: It's not two commands, it's one.
50:01: And the command is to walk by the Spirit.
50:04: And if you do that, you will be so consumed with the Spirit that you won't be able to gratify the desires of the flesh.
50:13: And I will tell you this, when we do gratify the desires of the flesh, it's because at that moment we have taken our eyes off the One who's walking with us.
50:23: So next week when we come back to this, we're going to look at what the two are to each other because what they are is they're in competition.
50:31: The Spirit within us and the flesh that we are in are in competition with one another.
50:37: So as believers, what should we do? Walk by the Spirit so that we don't give way to the flesh.
50:45: We'll talk more about that next week.
50:46: Let's pray.
50:47: Father, I thank You for Your Word.
50:49: I pray that this has been useful and encouraging to Your people.
50:52: And I pray, Lord, that we would all know Christ and that way we would all know that we have been filled with Your Spirit.
50:58: Lord, help us to walk by the Spirit and not to gratify the desires of the flesh.
51:04: We pray this in Jesus' name and for His sake.
51:06: Amen.