Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell. Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In Christ, we become a new creature. free to follow Jesus. But our sinned nature doesn't go away.
Why does the Spirit filled Christian still sin? What does it look like to not just manage our behavior, but to be transformed to truly look like Christ. Pastor Rich answers these questions from today's passage in Galatians five, sixteen through eighteen. Our scripture reading this morning is from Galatians chapter 5. Verses 13 through 18.
If you give you a second to open your scriptures, if... Um That's how you'd like to follow along, or you can follow along on the screen. Galatians chapter 5. Verses 13 through 18. 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're 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. Would you pray with me?
How majestic is your name in all the earth. Or we come this morning Certainly to make much of you. And Father, I just pray that Your presence. would be made known to us. Lord, we thank you for what you have done.
For us. Thank you that we are no longer bound By sin. But we have been set free. Free to walk in newness of life. Lord, I pray that This morning you will help us to see.
Lord, that we are free. To love one another. We are free to live. And serve you and to serve one another. Lord, I pray for our pastor as he comes.
to preach to us and bring us the word that you have for us. that our eyes would be open. and our hearts would be ready. And Father, we will give you the praise and the glory for what you have for us this morning. In Christ's name we pray.
Amen. Galatians chapter five. It is a wonderful chapter. As we continue our study through. Paul's letter to the churches of Galatia.
Our text today begins at verse 16, verses 16 through 18. Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Okay.
So this is the first of a two-part sermon, Walk by the Spirit. In fact, there are seven more sermons in the book of Galatians. All seven of them are going to be focusing on what this means. Walk by the Spirit. I like to recount some stories that my dad would tell me.
When he was a student at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Moody Bible Institute is right. downtown in the middle of Chicago. I was there for one year. This country boy had a hard time with that.
But He recounts this story when he was there in the 50s. He would walk out on saying, When you're a student at Moody Bible Institute, you're required to do certain elements of Christian service and Christian ministry. And so he was out on the streets doing evangelism, and he encountered this one elderly man. And the elder man knew that they were about, and so he said, Come here, son, let me tell you something. He says, let me tell you what you need to do to really live.
What you need to do to really live, there's three things that you need to do to really live. You need to lie, you need to steal, and you need to get drunk. And my dad thought, okay, I've got a real opportunity here. And before he could say anything, the man continued. He said, You got to lie at the feet of a merciful God.
You have to steal away to Jesus. And you have to get drunk with the Holy Ghost. My dad never forgot that. That's kind of what Paul's teaching us here.
Okay.
So, walk by the Spirit. Let me begin this morning by. Reminding you of what's true about you.
Now as I see that When I say what's true about you, Paul is writing to the church. And the church is not an organization. The church is a people, a called-out people. And so his assumption is that he is writing to people who are in Christ.
So when I say that I'm going to remind you about what's true in you, I am speaking to you if you are in Christ, if you are not in Christ. This is not true about you. But you are invited, and Christ invites you, His Spirit invites you to surrender yourself in faith to Jesus.
so that this can be true about you. But if you are in Christ, this is what's true about you. Number one, you are indwelt with the Holy Spirit. You are indwelt with the Holy Spirit. He is in you.
Christ makes that clear. And the Apostle Paul makes that clear in Romans chapter 8. You are indwelt with the Holy Spirit, and He is the Spirit of Christ.
So we hold to, we believe in a Trinitarian theology: God is the three in one, the one in three. All three persons of the Godhead are active in our salvation. And it is the grace of God that He has given His Son to us. And it is the grace of God that he has given his spirit to us.
So that is true about you, that you in Christ, that you are indwelt with the Spirit of God. Here's the second truth about you. This is true of you if you are in Christ. You are predestined to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ. You are predestined to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ.
In other words, when you came to faith in Christ, when you surrendered yourself in faith to Jesus, it's not like God, oh yay, good, rich is a believer in me now.
Now let's see how he does and let's see where he ends up. It's not how it works. And it's not based on how well you perform. Your destiny in Christ is not based on how well you perform. That's good news.
Those are two things that are true about you.
Now, look at verse 16 with me again. But I say, Why does he say that?
Well, look what he says back in verse 15. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. That's natural human behavior right there, right? That's natural human behavior. And it is true of those who are legalists because they compare and judge each other.
Or it is true by people who are simply living entirely for themselves because they end up using other people for their own self-gratification. Both sides. But I say Paul says. Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Now just stop for a moment and let that sink in. Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
That's really a profound statement. It needs to be understood by us. What it means to walk by the Spirit. If this is a promise of God, Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Every one of us, every one of us, no exceptions, struggles.
with the desires of the flesh. And here the Lord is telling us: walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. That's powerful. We must know what it means and what it looks like to walk by the Spirit.
So that's my ambition, that's my goal for the next seven sermons.
Well, including this one, this one and the next six. All the way through. The end of Galatians.
Now as we've discovered the truth about We've been reminded of the truth about us: that we are indwelt with the Spirit, and we are predestined to be conformed to the image, the likeness of Jesus Christ. In other words, one day, For those of us who are in Christ, one day we will be perfectly like Jesus Christ in his character. Isn't that good news? And our glory is that we will be perfectly like him and with him, enjoying him forever. That's our glory.
That's our destiny. But there is a tension that is at work here. Let's talk about that for a minute. Here's the two elements of this tension that's going on here. Number one, you are a new creation.
You are a new creation. In Christ, you're not just a forgiven sinner. You are forgiven. But you're not just Forgiven. You are a new creation.
You are new creation. But here's the problem. You are a new creation. but you are not yet physically redeemed. That creates a problem, does it?
That creates that tension that we battle every day, that we deal with every day. You are a new creation. You are indwelt with the Spirit. You are predestined to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus. But You are not yet physically redeemed.
Paul makes this clear, Romans eight. Verses 18 and 19. Look what he says: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy. To be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us. For here it is: the creation waits with eager.
Longing. for the revealing of the sons of God. He goes on to explain that in the next couple of verses. This creation is groaning. You and I are a part of the creation.
We are part of this created order. We are part of the fallen created order. The physical creation needs yet to be redeemed. and made new. And you and I are a part of that.
And so as we anticipate that coming, we groan longing for it. We also groan under the weight of the brokenness in which we live. The brokenness that is in ourselves and the brokenness that impacts us from outside of ourselves. But Rich, I thought you said we are a new creation. Yes.
This is a biblical truth, and this is where we must understand it. Because if you look at it, he says, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. There's two. There's two aspects there, aren't there? To walk by the Spirit.
Yeah. or to gratify the desires of the flesh. You're doing one or the other. Let's talk about your spirit here for a minute. Your spirit.
I'm not talking about the Spirit. The Holy Spirit. I'm talking about your Spirit. What is your spirit? Your spirit, your immaterial part of you, because you are an embodied.
Spirit. You're created in the image of God, okay? Your spirit, it's your inner man. Your inner person, your inner being. your immaterial part.
Paul mentions this in Ephesians 4, verse 24. and put on the new self created after the likeness of Christ in true righteousness and holiness. Put on the new self. In other words, put on. Put on, it's like he's using the imagery of a garment.
So let that garment be visible and the the new self which is created in righteousness and holiness. Put that on. In other words, it's the outworking of the inner reality that exists within us.
So Your inner person. The new man he speaks of, this is key right here. This spirit, this new person in you, is your capacity to relate to God. It is what sets you apart from every other part of creation. No other part of creation has this.
Your inner man is your capacity to be able to relate to God. And your inner man is the new man, the new person, the new being. That's the newness, the new creation that Paul is speaking of. The partaker of the divine nature that Peter speaks about, the seed of God. that John talks about.
Born of God. This is the part of you that's born of God.
Okay.
Your capacity to relate to God. And here's the good news. This part of you, the genuine you at the core of you, your spirit. The new being inside, although the outside is wasting away. And it is.
I don't know. I don't care how hard you're trying to keep it from doing that. It's wasting away. We have to resign ourselves to that. It doesn't mean we need to be careless, right?
But it is wasting away. You will shed it one day.
Somebody just said yay. I can understand that. You will shed it one day, and God will give you a new one. that will be able to endure eternity. Your inner person is already that new creation in you And what does Paul tell us in 2 Corinthians 4, 16?
Look at this, 2 Corinthians 4, 16.
So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. Stop there for just a moment. Let me ask you this. In what way Is your inner self being renewed? day by day.
What habits Routines have you developed so that your inner self is being renewed day by day? Worship is a big part of that. Communing with God through His self-disclosure is a big part of that. Walking in the Spirit. is what renews your inner self day by day.
We particularly in our culture, we are really, really Focus we are laser focused on keeping the outer the physical being in shape How focused are you on keeping your inner person? renewed day by day. It's our privilege. in Christ and all the difference that it makes. That's the inner being.
As an embodied spirit, you have that inner being who is the new creation in Christ, your capacity to be able to relate to God, to interact with the infinite divine sovereign of the universe who made you and made you for Himself. You can interact and commune with Him. Because you are a new creation. But then also you have the flesh. We all have the flesh.
What is the flesh? The flesh is temporal. And it is in decay. Just like it said in 2 Corinthians 4.16, though the outer man is wasting away, the inward man is being renewed day by day.
Now, there's a couple parts of the flesh here. Bear with me on this, okay? But the flesh is temporal and it is in decay. First of all, it does include the outer man. Let me talk about that for just a minute here.
the physical being, the part of you that's sitting in that chair. or standing here on this platform. Let me just first of all say it is not inherently evil. Your body is not inherently evil. God created it.
Good. You are and were designed to be. an embodied spirit. And for eternity you will be. An embodied spirit.
God created our bodies for good reason.
Now, they are a part of the created order that is broken. And so we feel that brokenness. And part of that brokenness is that This physical being is habituated in sin. habituated in sin. And this is especially true if you came to Christ a little bit later in your life.
As opposed to coming to Christ very early in your life. But still, even if you come to Christ early in your life, you're still habituated in sin because when you're a little two-year-old toddler, do you sin? Do you ever throw a temper tantrum? Yes. That's sin.
How many of you knew that? I'm just kidding. We don't have to learn to sin.
Now, there are certain sins we can learn and that are taught and learned behavior, but we don't actually have to learn to sin. It comes naturally. And so in our natural self, We become habituated in sin. even physically. Let me give you an example of that.
You've probably learned to ride a bike. Hey. A bicycle? And I taught all six of my kids to ride a bike. Right.
Some of them caught on quicker than others.
Some of them love, Dad, I don't want to do this. I get on the bike. And they fall. I don't want to get up. Get on the bike.
You know. Mm-hmm. What's the head? But now that they know how to ride a bike, even though maybe some of them haven't ridden a bike in years, what can they do? they can get right back on and ride that bike because it's learned.
That's a habituation.
Okay, now that's how sin can be for us. If we have learned sin, Our physical being is habituated in sin. Let me give you another example. R uh driving a standard transmission. Mm-hmm.
is a six-speed standard transmission, so it's a real Miata, okay. That's right. Amen. Yeah. Um It was several weeks, maybe a couple of several weeks back.
I needed to. I oh, we were watching our grandkids, a couple of our grandkids. And so I stayed back at home to get them ready to come to church and Andrea has to be here by before 8 o'clock for music practice.
So she had to drive the Miata. She's not a fan of it. And she says, Rich, I haven't driven a standard in 10 years. I says, it'll come back to you right away. She says, You're awful brave.
Yes, yes. But she did. She got in, you know. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah.
But she got to church and she texted me. She says, I made it. I was like, I knew she would. Of course, when she left, you know, I get down on my knees and I'm praying. But it came right back to her, right?
Because she had learned it. She hadn't done it for years, but. She was habituated in the practice of driving a standard transmission.
So it is with us. When we learn sin, we become habituated in that. And that becomes a part of our flesh that we have to battle with.
So, if you are a physical being, that's something that you're dealing with. But there's another part of the flesh, and that is what the Bible calls the old self or the old man. Right? That is the part of you that was born self-preeminent. What do I mean by self-preeminent?
You believe you are the greatest and most important reality. Children are born with that problem. That's why they so desperately need parents. Yeah. They help them understand that they are not the greatest and most important reality.
So that ought to help you with your philosophy of parenting right there, right?
Okay, but your inner self, your old self, your old man. is the self-preeminent part of you that is in bondage to sin. That is in bondage to sin.
Now, what does Paul tell us about that, Romans chapter 6, that in Christ, With our new man in Christ, our new inner self in Christ, the old flesh. has been rendered inoperative, that he might be done away with.
Okay.
At the very least, That old self is sidelined. And you are not in bondage to sin. That is a biblical truth that is true about you. That is the gratifying the desires of the flesh. In other words, for someone who is not in Christ and they are not.
New creations in Christ with that new self, they are in bondage to sin. You're bound to it. and with the penalty that comes with it. Because that's what separates you from God.
So he comes right down here, then. Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
So let's talk about the desires of the flesh. This is a daily tension for every one of us. The desires of the flesh that were desires epithelia. It comes from the word thumas, which means to well up or to boil up.
So it's an impulse, it's a passion, the passions of the flesh. what it talks about. There's a couple of examples. In other words, you see something and you're like. I want it.
Right.
Trying to be onomatopoetic there. This word is used lots of other places. Let me give you two examples: Matthew 5:28. Where Jesus is talking about, he's talking about the heart, right? But he says, I say to you, because the law says, don't commit adultery.
Right? And what does Jesus say? Whoever looks at a woman with lustful intent. That word lustful is this word epithelia.
Okay.
Something wells up in you. I want that. Like David did when he was on the roof and he saw bathsheet. There is another one, there's another way it's used, Mark chapter 4, verse 19, where Jesus is talking about the sower, okay, and some seed is sown, but that it gets choked out, and it says, The desire be by the desire of other things. The desire of other things.
That word desire is the word epithelia.
So Getting back to what Paul says here, the desires of the flesh. What he says now, look at verse 17 with me. And here's this is the tension that we deal with every day. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit. And I believe that's something about the Holy Spirit.
Because he's talking about us being in the Spirit. If we walk in the Spirit, if we walk by the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit. And the spirit against the flesh. For those are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
There's a lot to unpack there. But in Christ, we have the resource and the ability to not gratify the desires of the flesh. Very important this we understand this because what all the law could do was say, don't do that. That's all the law could do. But in Christ...
We have the resource and the ability. to not gratify the desires of the flesh. In other words, What Paul is calling us to here by the Holy Spirit. is to rise above natural behavior. You're still going to feel that.
That welling up when you see something you want or want to do, and it could be anything from material to wanting to really give somebody a piece of your mind. You do that enough, you'll lose your mind. But it's also Rising above natural behavior, but it's also beyond sin management. And again, that's all the law could do, is just simply manage sin. Because if you break the law, you get judged.
But we're beyond that in the new covenant. Right.
It's beyond sin management and it takes us to transformation. It takes us to transformation. We are changed at the core of our being. in the heart, in the new being. Right.
How does this happen? by the grace that God has lavished upon us. And there's the gospel. God's grace for us. The Gospel of Grace is a grand story of forgiveness.
and reconciliation. We are forgiven. We read it this morning. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. But we're not just forgiven, we're also made new.
And in that newness, God gives us. the Holy Spirit to indwell us. Jesus said this. to his followers. It is to your imagine being one of his disciples.
right at the end of his ministry there. And he tells them this. It's to your advantage that I go away. Why did he say that? He says, Because if I go away, I will send the helper to you.
And what he's promising is the continual very presence of God himself in our lives, the powerful presence of God in our lives, will be even better for us than if Jesus were walking right beside us. He said, it's to your advantage that I go away. That's amazing.
So here's this is why he talks about this is God's grace for us, he's given us his Holy Spirit. Grace is given. Do we understand grace for what it is? Grace does not mean that God looks the other way. It doesn't mean he says all that's okay.
It doesn't mean that he just pats you on the back or sweeps your sin under the rug. That's not grace. It's not grace either that God says, I'll just give you a little more time to figure this out. Grace means God gives Himself to us. For our reconciliation.
and for our sanctification.
So that we become justified before him, but also so that we become like him. Therefore, by grace We are saved, yes, and by grace we become like him. That doesn't mean we sit back and do nothing. I s but I say Walk by the Spirit. What is walking?
It's your conduct. It's your manner of life. Walk by the Spirit, Walk by the Spirit. What does it mean to walk by the Spirit? That you are under his guidance.
And that you are operating by his empowerment. You are under his guidance and you are operating by his empowerment. And some of you are thinking, I know it, Rich, this is so ethereal. Still, how do you do that? How do I appropriate this?
How does this become a reality in my life? That's why Galatians. That's why the next, this sermon and all the way to the end of Galatians, we're going to be focusing on this. Because when we're done with Galatians, I want you to have a really good, practical, operating understanding of what it looks like, what it means to walk by the Spirit. to be filled with the Spirit.
Because He is God in you. And what good is that if you have no understanding of it. It's like buying a brand new pickup truck. Shiny black truck. It's in your garage.
And you forget that it has an engine.
So you open the garage door. You don't even look for the key. And you push it out of the garage. You're going to push it around the streets. You're pushing it by your power.
You forgot it had an engine. Doesn't make any sense, does it? And what would happen if you're pushing this truck around? Eventually, you're going to get what? You're gonna get tired of it.
You're going to start thinking, what's the point of this? You're going to brag about that truck. You're going to want to show that. Look at my shiny new truck. I'm so excited about it.
Come see my truck. And they watch you pushing it down the road. And eventually they see you getting tired of it.
So that eventually it just stays in the garage with the door closed. and you're not excited about showing it to anybody anymore. 'Cause it's really no practical use to you. That's how much sense it makes for the Christian to be ignorant of the work of the Holy Spirit in his life. You're pushing the truck around, and you're wondering why being a Christian is so hard.
Under his guidance, by his empowerment, as Paul says in verse 18, for if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Because the law could not transform anyone. The law was merely a standard. We are beyond that now. Christ has fulfilled the law for us.
He has forgiven us, he has made us new, and he has indwelled us with his spirit. Wow. How could we possibly be ignorant of that?
So let me draw pictures for it, because we all think in pictures. And this is God's purpose for us, okay?
So this begins, you began here. All right, you began here. You began dead in sin. Alienated from God and condemned. If you are here this morning, you're hearing this message.
If you have not entrusted yourself in faith to Jesus Christ, to receive his forgiveness and to receive his righteousness. This explains you. I'm not being harsh. I'm simply repeating to you what the scriptures say. You are alienated from God.
Your biggest need right now is to be reconciled to God. And I invite you to that. It happens through faith. We all began here, dead in sin, alienated from God and condemned, when you surrendered yourself in faith to Jesus Christ. And you were resurrected.
You are resurrected. You are redeemed. You are justified. You are reconciled to God. You are raised to new life.
And you have your destiny up here in the top right corner. This is very interesting, okay? See the word glorified there? Glorified. Romans 8 says, You're already glorified.
How many of you feel glorified right now? You see, there's that tension going on. You are not yet physically redeemed, but. In God's view, you are glorified. This is our end.
We are seated with Christ. In the end, when you arrive there physically. You will be fully alive. You will be at the height of your humanity. The good news is that all of this is guaranteed if you're in Christ.
What is the guarantee? Who is the guarantee? The Holy Spirit. That's why we are called to be walking by the Spirit, because He is the guarantee.
Now that you are in Christ, you see the heart of the person there. It's an empty heart on the bottom.
Now that you're raised to new life, the heart there. That is the new person in You. The new inner man that's being renewed day by day.
So as you are As you are progressing in life, as you are walking through life. We are called to be walking by the Spirit.
So we walk as a new creation in Christ. And you see where this person now is becoming a little more. Our goal is to become the same shade and character as Christ represented by the triangle up there. The Triune God.
Okay? And that is a reality in your heart, the new creation in you. And as you are walking by the Spirit, As a new creation in Christ, you become a little more. like Christ.
Now That's a straight line on there. Mm. That doesn't necessarily represent how our lives go. Because there are dips. There are times when you drift.
There are times when you stray. And you don't drift in a positive direction. But the whole point of this, because you are pre-described, the whole point of this is that there is a trajectory that is moving you in a Godward, in a Christ-like direction. And God is faithful. to complete that work in you.
This is why we are called to be walking by the Spirit. Walking by the Spirit. Following Jesus Because we're followers of Jesus. The more you follow him, the more you become like him. It's a relational.
Face. And this is what I talked about, the dawdling faith.
So let's take it up one more step. See, this person is a little more. in the color of the character of Christ.
Okay.
the outworking of the inward reality. Peter says, add to your faith. Make your calling and election sure. How? By your life reflecting Jesus Christ.
You see, that's That's our obedience. That's our walk with Him, isn't it? In the day to day, as I'm walking with him, More and more I reflect his character. in my responses to the harsh things of life. and to the pleasurable things of life.
and where I place them. But I'm walking by the Spirit. And walking by the Spirit is One of the habits of regeneration, that dawdling faith. It doesn't mean you're doing nothing. But it does mean, d, you are drawing near to God.
Say that with me. Draw near to God, and He will... Do you believe that? Then do it. Draw near to God.
Why? Because you can! You've been reconciled to him so that you can draw near to him. Abide in Christ, dawdling. D, draw near to God.
A. Abide in Christ. Jesus said, abide in me as the branch abides in the vine. You as the branch are drawing life from the vine. And by drawing that life, you naturally produce fruit in the outflow of your abiding in the vine.
And the W is walking by the Spirit. That's what we're talking about. And The D is let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. And the L is love others as I have loved you. All of that.
All of those are a reflection of walking by the Spirit. They're the outcome. They are the means of walking by the Spirit. And as we do that, We become more and more like Christ. Christ.
Yeah. The farther along we go, the more we're walking with Christ, the more we walk by the Spirit, the more we reflect the character of Christ. And it's not just because I'm doing this because the Bible says I have to, I'm doing it because I am becoming like Christ. from the inside out. It's transformation.
It's not conformity. It's transformation. That's the power of the gospel. That, loved ones, is why? Two things.
Number one, God has made you new. And secondly, why He has put His Spirit in you so that you can walk by the Spirit and become like Christ. This is why you're free from the law. Because the law can't do this. Grace can, the gospel of grace can in Jesus Christ.
So that is who you are in Christ. That is your path in Christ.
So as we talk about this, as he says in verse 17, look at verse 17 again. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for those are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. This is a mutually exclusive state of affairs. Verse 17, mutually exclusive state of affairs. Two things that you cannot be doing at the same time.
First of all, sinning. versus abiding in him. You can't be doing both of those at the same time. They are mutually exclusive practices. This, I believe, is the point that John is making.
1 John. Chapter 3. Look at this. Look at these verses with me. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning.
Stop for a moment. Think about that. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. Isn't that powerful? That's just like, that's exactly what Paul said here: walk by the Spirit, you will no longer gratify the desires of the flesh.
Isn't that awesome? You can do this. But it takes you It takes a dawdling faith. That's what it takes. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning.
No one who knows, no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning. For God's, here it is, for God's seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. You are a new creation. You are a new creation and dwelt with God himself.
So, sinning and abiding in him are mutually exclusive practices. You can't be doing both at the same time. If you are walking by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Two mutually exclusive practices. The desires of the flesh are rooted in evil.
Self-preeminence. Alienation from God. We all battle them. Not a one of us is is Immune to that. The desires of the flesh are rooted in evil versus the desires of the spirit.
They're rooted in Christ's likeness. The Holy Spirit's role in your life is to make you like Jesus Christ. As you walk by Him, as you draw near to God, and let His Word dwell in you richly, as you abide in Christ. It's very interesting what he says here at the end of verse 17: to keep you. For these are the spirit and the flesh.
These are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. What are the things you want to do?
Well, it depends. It depends on where you set your mind. That's what it depends on. Look at Romans eight. Verse 5 on the screen.
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. That's straightforward, isn't it? Answer this question. This is your homework. Answer this question: What are the things of the Spirit?
There's an expansion on that homework assignment in the bulletin under Pastor's Corner right there.
Okay, four chapters I want you to read. and pray over. Amen. Verses one and two, I love these verses. Colossians 3.
If then, if then, and that word if is a sin, since you have been raised. with Christ. What does it say? Seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above.
not on things that are on earth. Where are you setting your mind? Listen to me, please. You, as a human being, created in the image of God, a rational, emotive. volitional being.
You have the capacity to select what occupies your mind. Use that power. Use that power. And use that power empowered by. The Holy Spirit.
Jesus prayed. to the Father as a model prayer. Your will be done on earth as it is where? In heaven. What's happening in heaven?
Worship. Yeah. Let everything that you do be an act of worship. Doesn't mean you have to have your eyes closed. Doesn't mean you have to be singing.
We do a disservice when we relegate the concept of worship to just singing. Worship is serving God. It's pointing to God. That's what worship is. And for that to be done, Jesus gave us His Holy Spirit.
He made us new, and He gave us His Holy Spirit. It says in John 16, 14, He will glory, speaking of the Holy Spirit, He will glorify me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you.
So what is it that Jesus says is mine? John 14, 15 and 16. Break that down and the Holy Spirit takes all of that and he declares it to you. John 14, 15, and 16. And then Romans chapter 8.
Romans chapter 8 is the one verse in the Bible that mentions the Holy Spirit more than any other chapter in Scripture. 18 times. Want to learn about the Holy Spirit? Read Romans 8. John 14, 15 and 16, and Romans 8.
So, I need to be done. Y'all have been gracious this morning, giving me a little extra time.
Next week, Dexter Kirby will be with us. The title of his sermon is First of All, and he's referring to Matthew 22. where it says to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. That's going to fit really well because part two of this sermon is going to come on the last Sunday of August. Uh Walk by the Spirit, Part 2.
And then September 7th, we'll be talking about the freedom that is ours in Christ. Our freedom in Christ, our freedom in the spirit, freedom of the spirit. Whew. There's a lot there. Thank you for your forbearance this morning.
There's a lot to chew on here. Listen, let me speak pastorally here for a moment. You cannot afford to be ignorant of the work and ministry and presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. Are you frustrated? Do you feel powerless?
Do you feel defeated? It could be. Because We tend to be ignorant. The Holy Spirit in our lives. We're pushing that brand new shiny truck around.
And we're getting tired of it. May we truly be the church of A gathering of people, a called out people. who do walk by the Spirit. Let's do this. Yeah.
Father. Thank you. for the grace that you have lavished on us. Through your Son to redeem us, your Spirit to regenerate us, to empower us. to transform us.
Father, we want to be a people who are walking by the Spirit. Because that is what will most glorify you.
So, Father. Teach us. Open the eyes of our understanding. As we study your word, as we follow Christ, as we abide in Him. As we draw near to you, as we let your words dwell in us richly.
Other Work in us, I pray this morning. I pray that you would find in all of us a resolve. To know you, to know you more. to walk with richly. what you have done and Thank you, Father.
as we look forward to what you will do. In Jesus' name, amen. You've just listened to a message titled Walk by the Spirit, Part One. It was first preached on august seventeenth, twenty twenty five, at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can find the next message in this series on Monday here at www.delightingrace.com.
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