Walk in the Spirit
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Galatians 5:13-18
We have been going through a series looking at very carefully the relationship we have with the Holy Spirit.
When we are yielded to God we can take part in what I am calling the Great Life.
It is a life promised to us where we have help and guidance and love and joy and peace, as well as all the other fruit of the Spirit.
A life that is enabled to produce in us gifts that we can use to edify and help one another.
But not by our power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
True Spirituality depends, however, on an attitude of reliance.
Reliance upon the presence and power of the Holy Spirit who indwells us.
The last three weeks we talked about two commands that were in the negative - Do not do these things.
Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit - by living in unconfessed sin.
Do not quench the Holy Spirit’s power - by saying no to God.
There is one more condition to living the truly spiritual life, or being the Spiritual man.
This is a positive command - it is something that the believer must do.
This command is found in Galatians 5:16
16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
We have no power in and of ourselves where we can be able to “walk in the Spirit.”
It is not an effort on our own that accomplishes this walking.
When we understand this verse correctly we can see it is the Holy Spirit that does the walking in the Christian.
Our responsibility is to rely on Him…yield to Him.
Galatians 5:18 says it another way.
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
We do not lead the Spirit, He leads us.
We are just dependent upon the Holy Spirit and follow Him.
So this walking in the Spirit is an unbroken reliance upon the Spirit to do what He has come to do and what He alone can do.
Do we really rely on the Holy Spirit?
Are we mindfully and intelligently counting on the Holy Spirit to to those things, which the Bible tells he wants to do in us?
Do we really believe we are as helpless as the Bible tells us we are?
Or do we let pride get in and get busy doing…so that we can accomplish something.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Without God we can truly do nothing!
Do we believe, however that He is able and waiting to do everything that we cannot do?
We relied upon the Holy Spirit in the process of salvation…to regenerate us, to indwell us and to seal us...do we now think we can be perfected in the flesh?
If we are expected to only be able to receive salvation by faith, are we now expecting to meet the impossible expectations of the Christian life by works?
No, it is by faith and trust and relying upon the work of Christ in us that we have any hope of living the way that He has called us to live.
When we “fight the good fight of faith”, we are not fighting to do what God alone can do in us…we are fighting to depend upon Him to do it!
All throughout the epistles this is emphasized.
If it is not the greatest theme in these books, it is certainly one of the greatest themes.
This doctrine is taught at length.
Let’s look then at
Three Reasons for Relying on the Spirit
We have three main enemies in this life.
2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
The World - or the opposite of the heavenly standard
The Devil - who opposes every plan and purpose of God.
The flesh - or that within the Christian which opposes the Spirit by “lusting” against the Spirit
To fight against these enemies we must rely upon the Holy Spirit of God.
So let’s look at these three while we see the reasons we need to rely on the Spirit…first...
I. God’s Standard Is Much Higher than the World’s
I. God’s Standard Is Much Higher than the World’s
We are not talking about the Law.
The Law ceased to be in effect, as the required rule for life, after the death of Christ fulfilled the Law.
17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
And many other verses show this to be true.
In looking at the 10 Commandments the nine of them could be considered moral laws, and one ceremonial law.
Nine of the ten commandments are found as commands in the new testament, all except the keeping of the Sabbath as Christ has become our Sabbath Rest.
There is however a rule of life that is expected of us as His children.
We are but strangers and pilgrims...
11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
We are to be a witness to those of this world to whom we do not belong.
We are to live as ambassadors for our King.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
All of the principles we are to live out are found throughout the Gospels, the Acts and the Epistles of the Apostles.
It is not the unsaved or natural man that is expected to live this way…but the Christians.
They do not have the Holy Spirit and are not enabled to live according to the standard that God expects.
We have the Holy Spirit to help us, enable us and teach us the things of God, including the will of God for our life.
The moment we are saved we become citizens of Heaven, we are therefore required to walk worthy of such.
27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;
This Greek word that is translated “let your conversation be” is the word poiteuomai [pol·it·yoo’·om·i], which means “to live as a good citizen”
We have a responsibility as citizens of Heaven to live appropriately while on earth.
But this calling is higher than us.
Do we just give up?
No, we yield to the Holy Spirit and rely upon Him to do it.
What is expected of us?
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
We are to love others as Christ has loved us!
Even our enemies
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
That is quite a calling!
We are to bring every thought captive to obedience to Christ!
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Every thought!
We are to be thankful always, in everything!
20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Any of you feel thankful when you sick, or when you get an unexpected bill, or when someone rear-ends you.
You can if you are relying on the Holy Spirit
Does anyone of us fully live out the commands of Ephesians 4:1-3?
1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Humbleness
Meekness
longsuffering
patient
striving to keep unity
It’s quite a bit…but it can all be accomplished if we will rely upon the Holy Spirit.
God’s standard is much higher than the Worlds!
We must rely upon the Holy Spirit if we are to come close to meeting that standard!
It cannot and it will not be good works which you have done!
It must be the work of God in your life!
The second reason we need to rely on the Holy Spirit is because
II. We Face a Strong Enemy
II. We Face a Strong Enemy
The Bible tells us that Satan is the enemy of the saints of God.
He is seeking whom he may devour!
Satan is not interested in being the enemy of the unsaved, he is their energizing power.
2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
But he hates God, and so he hates anyone that is empowered by God.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
You are either under the influence of God, or you are under the influence of the devil.
But He is sly, he appears as an angel of light and his ministers appear to be the ministers of righteousness
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
He will appear good and right, but will work in many forms of religion and human experience to confuse and thwart God’s plans.
The Bible tells us that He is a mighty foe, and we need to be facing him with supernatural strength, not just our own.
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Resisting these powers of wickedness that are waging endless warfare against us cannot happen by human strength alone.
We are to “resist the devil”, but we do this by submitting ourselves to God.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
And we need to resist stedfast [immovably] in faith.
9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
Even Michael the Archangel does not contend with Satan, except by God’s power.
9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
By faith He rebuked Satan by the Lord’s name.
With all of our limited strength, much less than an archangel, we must rely on the Holy Spirit to help us resist our enemy!
Taking up the shield of faith...
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
But we know…even though we are weak…God is strong!
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
It is by God’s grace and through His strength that we can be strong enough to fight our enemy.
Why do we need to rely on the Holy Spirit?
Because God’s Standard Is Much Higher Than Than the World’s.
And Because We Face a Strong Enemy!
And we face a third enemy, which gives us the third reason we need to rely on the Holy Spirit:
III. We Fight the Adamic Nature
III. We Fight the Adamic Nature
The Adamic Nature is the nature that we received from Adam.
The sin nature.
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
That sin, and thereby, that death has passed to all men.
We all fight that sin nature - that flesh that we live with every day.
Although we are saved, we will never be perfect, meaning sinless.
The Bible speaks of perfection in regards to men in various ways.
In the New Testament the word perfect is translated from either one of two Greek words, one meaning “mature” and the other meaning “adjusted.”
Neither of these reference sinlessness.
6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
This means mature in the faith.
11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.
This word means adjusted - or set right.
He is telling the Corinthians to correct their ways to right.
3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
You are born again by the Spirit, are you going to be matured in the flesh?
So the call for the Christian to be perfect, is not to be sinless, but to be matured and adjusted to righteousness.
Even though we have this Adamic Nature, we can still mature by the teach of the Spirit in God’s Word to become mature.
This process is also known as Sanctification.
The root meaning of the word sanctify, saint or the word holy is that a person or thing is set apart unto or classified as something.
We as believers, even though we still have this sin nature are objects of a three-fold sanctification:
A. Positional Sanctification
A. Positional Sanctification
30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
we are positionally sanctified by Christ.
10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Because Christ paid the penalty of our sin, we are sanctified.
This is why the Apostle can call us “saints.”
There is much confusion of the word saint.
Mostly at fault is the Catholic church.
They have made them to be almost a demigod type of status.
But there is nothing in the Bible about this kind of saint.
We, because of our position in Christ, are saints.
We are sanctified.
Even though the Christians in Corinth were guilty of some terrible sins, in his letter to them the apostle Paul still calls them saints.
2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
So the Christian has positional sanctification.
Secondly the Christian faces
B. Experiential Sanctification
B. Experiential Sanctification
This aspect of the work of God is progressive in the Christians life.
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
The Christian is sanctified by the Word of God as he reads and lives out what he learns.
18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
we are changed into the image of the Lord from glory to glory - literally from thought to thought - How? by the Spirit of the Lord!
We will be progressively more sanctified (more set apart, more holy) the more we yield to God.
As we present our body a living sacrifice, he renews our mind and transforms us to be more like Him.
The more we say no to sin, and yes to God (through His power) the more we will be experientially sanctified.
Then the Bible speaks of a third sanctification which will take place this we call.
C. Ultimate Sanctification
C. Ultimate Sanctification
or glorification
When we are taken to glory, our sanctification will be complete - perfected.
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
So we are right now positionally sanctified in Christ at the moment of salvation.
We are being sanctified by the power of God through the Word,
And we will be sanctified in glory, into the very image of His Son!
So though we have this Adamic Nature, we are fighting it through the Power of the Holy Spirit!
In this Adamic Nature we fight being held back and held by sin.
Romans 6-8:4 there is a whole doctrinal statement concerning the deliverance that we can have from the servitude to sin.
But Romans 8:3-4 summarizes it up so well!
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Having rules will not do it! - what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh
Salvation by faith in the finished work of Jesus alone can condemn sin in the flesh.
And therefore the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us…when we walk not after the flesh…but we walk after the Spirit.
It must be the Holy Spirit that does the work in us!
If we walk in the Spirit - we will have a victorious walk!
Recognize that the flesh is dead - it was crucified with Christ.
WE can now walk in newness of life!
We can yield to the Holy Spirit every day, all day!
We can Walk in the Spirit!
Conclusion
Conclusion
We are told if we want to be the Spiritual Man - the one who is controlled by…filled with the Spirit…we must not Grieve the Holy Spirit
We must confess our sins and deal with them.
We much not quench the Spirit - Never say “no” to God.
And then thirdly, we need a definite reliance upon the Holy Spirit.
We need to Walk in the Spirit.
WE need Him because:
The Standard is too high for us to meet on our own
but also, because We face a terrible enemy
And because without Him, we will not be able to fight our Adamic Nature - our flesh.
we cannot decide today to rely on the Spirit tomorrow.
There is no accident that God’s revelation to us is that we walk in the spirit.
By very nature a walk is one step after another.
This step right now demands we fully rely on God!
The next step will demand the same thing.
It is a conscious, purposeful, deliberate …not an including the Holy Spirit into our day…but a yielding to the Holy Spirit’s plan for our day.
It will continue like that all day, every day until the Lord takes us home!
The Christian life is called a walk -it’s continual when you stop walking you stop going forward.
The Christian life is also called a race, when you stop racing you lose.
It is also spoken of as a fight - the moment you stop fighting you get defeated.
So it is a continual reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit.
When we do this…when we yield and continue in the Holy Spirit we will see the seven manifestations of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we spoke of before.
These manifestations are not proof we are filled with the Spirit - but if we are filled with the Spirit we will have these showing in our lives.
We will see the growth of Christian Character in our lives.
The appearance of Love, joy and peace is not proof that you are spirit filled, but if you are spirit filled it will be there.
We will see Christian Service through the gifts that God has given us.
Again Christian Service is not proof of being spirit filled, we can do some service in the flesh…but if you are filled with the Holy Spirit you will serve with your gift.
Likewise we will see the Holy Spirit manifest himself like we talked about before:
through His teaching us
through Praise and thanksgiving
through the leading of the Holy Spirit
Witness through the Holy Spirit
and and through His interceding in prayer for us.
What a Great Life is offered to us, if we will just YIELD!