Defeating the Flesh by Walking in the Spirit

, let me invite you guys to turn in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5 for our time of study in the word. this morning, for those of you visiting with us, we're doing a verse by verse study through the book of Galatians. And as we continue in our study of this book, we come this morning to Galatians chapter 5, verse 16.

And my goal this morning is to cover all of verse 16. And the title of the message this morning, for lack of a better one is defeating the flesh by walking in the Spirit. Defeating the flesh by walking in the Spirit. Guys, as we come to Galatians 5:16, I can confidently say that we come to one of the most amazing and one of the most practical promises in all of the New Testament.

I cannot think of a more practical, promise anywhere under the pages, on the pages of the New Testament. This is a staggering promise, and yet as wonderful and as grand as the promise is that is found in verse 16. Unfortunately, it is one of the most inexperienced, unfulfilled, and under-realized promises in the lives of Christians, even including My own In this verse we have a command followed by a remarkable promise, and if you are here today and you care at all about holiness, And victory over sin, verse 16 is a verse that should arrest your attention.

If you're speed reading through the book of Galatians, you should slam on the brakes in verse 16 and stay here and ponder just this verse, to understand what it is that it is saying.

If you would have come to me months ago and said, Pastor Milton, why do you personally desire to do a study through the book of Galatians? I would have given you two or three reasons, one of which would have been Galatians 5:16, and you would say, well, so you already had a lot you were going to say about that. No, I didn't understand Galatians 5:16, but knew that Galatians 5:16 holds a tremendous amount of promise, and I've always wanted to understand Galatians 5:16 and the verses that have followed.

Or that follow verse 16.

And so studying through this book provides an opportunity to study this matter of the spirit and to gain an understanding of the promise that we find unfolding before us in the latter part of verse 16. As I speak to you this morning, I stand on the fringes of an understanding of this and can speak to you of what I am learning and I certainly hope in the coming weeks as we travel through 16 and following. Here in chapter 5, that our understanding and my own understanding will only be deepened.

Look at this verse, verse 16.

But I say, walk by the Spirit. And you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. There's a command walk by the spirit. And whatever that means, Paul says, for those who walk by the Spirit, here is the promise.

You will not carry out the desire of the flesh. I want every believer in this room to feel the sensation of God being in this room and speaking personally this word of promise to your heart, wherein God says to you personally, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire. Of the flesh Does that excite you? The prospect of not carrying out the desire of the flesh.

If you are like me, you're probably in here this morning. Looking back on a week wherein yes there was growth and yes there was righteousness seen and there were right choices made, but there were far too many desires of the flesh that were carried out and wrong choices that are made. The flesh within us is extremely powerful and when we come to verse 16, yet though we find an incredible promise that if we walk by the Spirit, we will not carry out the desire. Of the flesh to understand the magnitude of this promise, let us consider for a minute the flesh that is being vanquished here in verse 16 by our walking in the Spirit.

We were introduced to the flesh last week in our study of the verses preceding verse 16. The flesh is not necessarily our physical body. It's not the physical essence of who we are. The flesh, biblically speaking in this passage, is that part of our fallen human nature that always desires the opposite of what God wants.

See, when we came to know the Lord, yes, we received the Spirit of God. Yes, we became children of God. yes, our sins were forgiven. Yes, we were delivered from the power of sin and from the guilt of sin.

However, we were not delivered from the presence of sin. And you say, yeah, I know that. look at all the sinners around me, even here at Cornerstone. I haven't been delivered from the presence of sin.

Well, we're not even talking about the fact that God hasn't delivered us from the presence of external sin. we're talking about the fact that this sight of glory, God has not delivered us from the presence of indwelling sin. We still have a sinful flesh inside of us. That dogs our steps, and we know from verse 17 that the flesh sets its desire against the spirit.

So we know therefore that every single day we have this thing in us called the sin principle or sinful flesh or just flesh, that whatever it is that God wants us to do, our flesh always wants to do the opposite. God says, I prohibit you from doing this over here. Flesh says, therefore, I want to do that thing over there that you have just prohibited. God says, on the other hand, I command you to do this over here.

And our flesh says, I don't want to do that over there because you commanded me to do that over there. There is a rebellious, hostile part of our fallen human nature that is hostile against God. And we see that even in our lives as Christians. And it's sad.

In Romans 8:7, Paul says the mind set on the flesh is hostile towards God. It's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. And so we have this flesh within us that desires evil. In fact, guys, just so, the intensity of the monster that's inside of us, our sinful flesh does not just prefer evil.

And prefer the opposite of what God commands. It strongly craves the opposite of whatever God commands. We have that terminology in verse 16. Paul speaks of the desire of the flesh, which is the word for lust.

It speaks of a strong craving, not just any desire, but a strong craving. In chapter 5, verse 17, he says, The flesh sets its desire against the spirit. In other words, it sets its lust, its strong craving against the spirit. In chapter 5, verse 24, Paul speaks of the flesh with its passions and desires.

These are very intense words. The flesh is not casual in its preference for the opposite of whatever God wants. Our flesh within us is very passionate. And it's strong cravings for the opposite of what God wants from us.

Just as an example, if God came to you and said, I would like for you to do such and such, if you were to say, Lord, let me consult with my flesh on that, and then I'll get back with you. And then we turned and we came to our flesh and said to our flesh, this is what God wants me to do. What do you think I should do? Our flesh would not say, Well, it doesn't really matter to me.

I would prefer that you didn't, and instead I would prefer you did the opposite over here. That's not how our flesh would speak if it could speak to us. Our flesh would be hostile against God. Our flesh would be passionate.

Our flesh would very passionately say, do not do what God is telling you to do, and instead, do this, the opposite over here, and our flesh would be a very passionate advocate for evil in our life. And so we all as Christians, we wake up with this monster inside of us to such a degree that Paul says the good I want to do, I find myself not doing, the evil I hate, I find myself doing it. It's the sin that dwells inside of me, and the burning question is, good night, how in the world can we as Christians be successful and victorious over this sinful flesh inside of us that is so passionate for evil?

In fact, guys, if we're not careful and we're not deliberate in defeating the flesh, guaranteed the flesh will defeat us, just automatic.

You either you either fight this and you're deliberate in your effort to vanquish the flesh, or the flesh guaranteed will vanquish you, and the flesh has vanquished and conquered many people. Outside of Christ and even born again children of God who have given way to the flesh and have brought shipwreck and ruin to their lives. In fact, there was a pastor, and we talked about this back when this happened, who 2 or 3 years ago, this guy was a pastor of a mega church in Colorado, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, I believe that has over 30 million members.

This was a very influential Christian leader that The ear of our own president on various political moral issues that are of relevance and interest to evangelical Christians.

This guy was in a position of enormous influence, and yet the news began to break. A couple of years ago or so that this man had been involved in immoral acts that are explicitly prohibited in God's word. At first, when the news broke of this, he lied. He said, No, these are not true.

These are just scurrilous lies that are absolutely unfounded. But as evidence was produced, he Ultimately realized that he was caught red handed. He ended up confessing his sin. He wrote a confession letter and an apology letter to his congregation.

His leadership of the church asked him to step down as pastor, and then one of the leaders of the church read his apology letter to his congregation there in Colorado. And I don't want to read to you the full length. Of his confession and apology, but I want to read to you one excerpt from it. Where he says this, there is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it all my adult life.

For extended periods of time, I would enjoy victory and rejoice and freedom. Then from time to time, the dirt that I thought was gone would resurface, and I would find myself thinking thoughts and experiencing desires that were contrary to everything I believe and teach. those of us in this room, we do not have to have fallen in exactly the same way he did. In order for that paragraph to resonate with us, because when I read that, it's a reminder of what's wrong with me, not just what's wrong with him.

It's a reminder of what's wrong with all of us, because that paragraph is my weekly testimony. There is a part of me that is repulsive and dark. I have to war against it every day of my Christian life. There are times seasons where that part of me seems to go into remission and I actually naively begin to think, I think I'm done with this.

But then the dirt that I thought was gone resurfaces and I find myself thinking thoughts and experiencing desires that are contrary to everything I believe in Christ and even teach other people. I think all of us would say that is our testimony, that is the flesh. That is at work inside of us. Now, glory be to God.

Though he does not deliver us from this sinful flesh that is inside of us, he does provide a way of victory. And that is to walk in the Spirit, verse 16. But I say, walk by the Spirit or in the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. I look at verse 16 and say there it is.

I'm a simple guy. Don't give me a list of 58 things and say, do these 58 things and then here's something that will happen as a result of that. Give me one thing. And Paul gives you one thing.

Do this one thing, walk by the Spirit and walk in the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. And so therefore my question is, when I come to verse 16, is What does it mean to walk in the spirit, because whatever that means, I want to do it because I want to experience victory in vanquishing this sinful flesh that is inside of me. How do we walk in the Spirit? What does it mean to walk in the Spirit?

And I am sure we could make quite a list of what it means to walk in the Spirit. I want to give you three things that it at least means. Sure, it can mean other things, and maybe some of these other things will come out as we go through this section of Galatians 5. But if walking in the Spirit means anything, it at least means the three things that we're going to look at this morning.

Before we look at those three things though, just real quick, let's make some preliminary observations about verse 16. Look at what he says at the beginning of the verse, but I say walk in the Spirit. In the Greek text this is present tense, so he's saying essentially continuously walk in the spirit. So whatever this means, however we do it, we must always be doing it right.

So you can't just walk in the spirit this afternoon for 4 hours from 12 to 4 and expect that to keep you from carrying out the desire of the flesh on Friday of this week. If you really mess up and make a harebrained decision and carry out the desire of the flesh on Friday, you can't say, I don't know how this happened. I was walking in the Spirit on Sunday. You can't say that we must walk in the Spirit.

Whatever it means to do that, we must always be walking in the Spirit. And the minute we leave off walking in the Spirit, whatever that means, we are then subject to the power of our sinful flesh. The fact that Paul would give a command here to walk in the Spirit and therefore not carry out the lust or the desire of the flesh indicates that victory is not automatic in the Christian life. You don't just Accept the Lord and suddenly you're Continuously victorious over the flesh.

No, you have to make a decision to walk in the spirit. If you do that, then you experience victory in the context of walking in the Spirit. One other preliminary observation, notice that Paul does not say walk in the Spirit, and you will obliterate your flesh. Oh, that'd be nice if we could do that.

Our flesh will get obliterated. When we die, when we're glorified, when the Lord returns, and the Lord has a plan for our flesh, not to redeem it, but to kill it, all right, and then we'll go to glory without it and be able to rejoice over our deliverance then from the inward presence of sin. Paul does not say in this passage, walk in the Spirit, and you will thereby obliterate your flesh and reach a state of Christian living where you no longer have a sinful flesh. That's not what he promises.

His promises walk by the Spirit. And you won't carry out the desire of that flesh that is within you. So I don't know about you, but I want to know. I want to know what it means to walk in the spirit, because there must be huge power in that that has a diminishing effect, a vanquishing effect upon our sinful flesh that is within us.

Well, what does it mean? Three things at least, and I'll show you these from the book of Galatians itself. If Walking in the Spirit means anything. It means number one, to walk, ever listening to the gospel with faith.

to walk in the spirit at the very least means that we walk throughout each day and as we're walking we are ever listening to the gospel and we're listening with faith. Now here's a picture I want you guys to have in your heads, a picture we see all around us, everywhere, ever since the Walkmans came out with the little cassette players, cassette tapes in there, now iPods and MP3 players. and nowadays you see people walking around or at the gym and they've got their earpieces in and their iPod and they're just listening to whatever that they have selected to listen to, and there are some people that they're not even able anymore to walk 10 ft down a sidewalk without being plugged in to their iPod.

And what's interesting is that some people who are doing that, you may not be able to hear what they're listening to, but you can guess what they're listening to by observing the way they're walking or moving.

Maybe you can't guess what they're listening to, but you can certainly guess with certainty what they're not listening to. I see some people walking down a sidewalk or through the mall, and I'm like, I know for a fact that guy's not listening to Mozart. I just know it. He's not listening to classical music, and I can get a pretty good idea of at least the style of music that someone's listening to because it's evident in the way they're walking.

Even commercials that sell these items advertise that that fact. And I want you to take that picture. Let's not criticize that picture, OK? Let's just take that picture and apply it to us, because that's, I think, what God wants us to do.

Whatever walking in the spirit is, it means to get your iPod out, put gospel on your iPod, put the earpieces in, and walk, listening to the gospel, ever listening to the gospel with faith. In that gospel. See, the Galatians were moving away from the gospel, away from the true gospel, being seduced by a false gospel, which means they stopped listening to the true gospel. Now they're listening to a false gospel.

Paul calls them back. In fact, look at where we see this demonstrated in Galatians chapter 3 verse 2. Paul, to call them back to the true gospel, ask them a question, and he takes them back to their conversion day. He says, this is the only thing I want to find out from you.

Did you receive the Spirit? By the works of the law, or by hearing with faith. Go back to your conversion day and answer this question for me. How did you get the Spirit?

Did you get circumcised and then receive the Spirit? Did you do some works of the law and perform some regulations and ceremonial, whatever, and then you receive the Spirit? Is that what you did to get the Spirit? What did you do on that day to receive the Spirit?

All you did was you sat there. And you listened to the gospel with faith. And you receive the Spirit. That's how you got the Spirit, by listening, by hearing the gospel with faith.

Now what's interesting is two verses later Paul asks what seems like an identical question, but when you look at it carefully, it's actually a different question. Paul says in verse 5, so then does he who provides, this is not past tense now, this is present tense, does he, God, who continuously is providing. You with the Spirit, and that word provide means to generously provide for. So does he, God, who is continuously up to the present time, generously providing you with the Spirit and working miracles among you, even up to the present time.

God gave you His Spirit on your conversion day. But not only that, but he's giving you His Spirit and the things of His Spirit every single day. How does he give you that? How do you experience that?

Do you experience that in increasing proportions by doing the works of the law, or simply by the idea is continuing to hear with faith? See, hearing the gospel with faith is not just something you should do on your conversion day. It's something you should do every day. Paul says, that's how you got the Spirit in the very first place.

That should be your model for how you live every day, henceforth. And God provides you the Spirit in generous portions every single day. You experience the power of that as you continue to hear the gospel with faith. Whatever it means to walk in the Spirit, I would think our thoughts need to start here, that to walk in the Spirit means that we walk each day, ever daily, listening to the true gospel with faith.

And believing it, I would encourage you guys, whatever discipline it takes to do this, be a daily listener to the gospel. Open the Bible, read the Bible, and relish gospel truths. Listen to the gospel as you see it on the pages of God's word and believe it, because when you take the gospel, and you take faith, and you combine those two, It's like explosive power in your life. It releases the explosive power of the gospel in your life.

And so faith is essential. Read your Bible every day. Read literature. Read books written by godly men who love the gospel and cherish the truths as they are speaking to you through their books.

Get sermon tapes and And whatever else audio tapes that you can listen to that are putting gospel truths in front of you, memorize scripture and be meditating upon scripture, meditating upon the gospel, preach the gospel to yourself and listen to yourself as you preach the gospel to yourself and respond with faith every day. That's how you experience the spirit. In the full proportions that God wants you to experience Him. I know for a fact, whatever it means to walk in the Spirit, it involves that.

Just I'm going to listen to the gospel each day with faith. I'm going to believe it. Make it the meditation of my heart. And through that means, I receive the Spirit daily in ever increasing proportions, and not in the sense that, or let me say this, guys, we received all of the Holy Spirit we're ever going to receive on the day of our conversion.

Right, but we don't experience that. That's not uploaded into our daily experience on the day of our conversion, right? How do we get that uploaded by God into our daily practical experience? We do that by ever listening to the gospel with faith.

As our faith becomes enlarged, our understanding of the gospel becomes enlarged, as we do this day by day, we experience the spirit in increasing proportions. What does it mean to walk in the spirit? Whatever it means, we want to do it because as long as we're doing that, we're not going to carry out the lust of our flesh. The first thing it means is to be ever listening to the gospel with faith.

There is a second. thing that walking in the spirit involves and or means, and that is to be ever enjoying the spirit-mediated riches of your salvation. It's a complicated sounding there, but basically, it means be daily enjoying the riches of your salvation, riches that God has assigned the spirit to actually facilitate. bringing you into the experience of God uses the Spirit to mediate these blessings to you in a practical way.

In fact, what's interesting, guys, is you look at the full orb of your Christian life, the spirit is plastered all over it from beginning to end. Even in the book of Galatians, do a word study sometime of spirit in the book of Galatians alone. Look at this in chapter 3, verse 2. You receive the Spirit 3 verse 3, having begun by the Spirit, 3:5, God who provides you with Spirit 3:14, us receiving the promise of the Spirit, chapter 4, verse 29.

According to the Spirit, chapter 5, verse 16, walk by the Spirit. Verse 18, you are led by the Spirit. Verse 22, fruit of the Spirit that's produced in our lives. Verse 25, we live by the Spirit.

Verse 25, let us walk by the Spirit. Chapter 6, verse 8, he who sows to the Spirit. And then in the second half of that verse, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. All of the blessings that God wants to, to bless us with in Christ are mediated to us practically through the Holy Spirit.

See, one of the blessings of our salvation is the Spirit Himself. And so God gives us the Spirit so that the Spirit himself is a blessing. But one of the reasons God gives us the Spirit is because there's a whole bunch of other blessings over here, that God knows it's not good enough to just save. Milton and give him these blessings.

Because if I don't give him the Spirit, he's never going to get it. He's never going to understand what's his. He's never going to have the mind to comprehend the magnitude of what is his. He'll never make use of it.

He'll never fully ever learn to enjoy it. So I give him my Holy Spirit, so that my spirit can illumine him and bring him into the experience of all of these blessings that I have given to him. As a manifestation of my love in Christ. God gives you His spirit because he wants you to experience the fullness.

Of what he has provided for you. In fact, look at this in Galatians 4. It says God sent His Son so that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. So there, therefore, through Christ we become adopted sons of our Heavenly Father.

He becomes our spiritual Father. But now look at verse 6. God doesn't stop with just making us His Son. Sons and him becoming our Father.

Verse 6, and because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. Putting all that together, guys, what we're learning is that God became your father, you became his son, you became his child. And God's looking at that saying, this is an incredible reality.

But what? this person I just made my son is never going to fully comprehend this and the glory of it. So, to help him or her to understand the glory of being my child, I will send my spirit into the very core of their being, into their hearts, so that they will see me as their father, see themselves as my son. And exclaim, Abba, Father.

See, the spirit has been assigned by God. It's, it's almost as if the spirit's mission is go into this believer's life. And you haven't done your job, spirit, until that person is left exclaiming, Daddy, Father, you've blown me away. With the glory of who you are and what you have given to me in Christ.

God doesn't just want to be our heavenly Father, He wants to amaze us and leave us exclaiming with enthusiasm. Our appreciation of Him, not just as our distant Father, our Heavenly Father, but our dad, our daddy, our intimate. Father, So he gives us the spirit. So that we would be brought into the enjoyment of that.

what guys, if you were to draw a circle around the full scope of all of the salvation blessings that are yours in Christ, just, just do that in your mind or maybe even on paper, if you're taking notes. Then From inside of that circle, carve out the amount that you think you've experienced. Up to this point of your Christian life. Is it more than 5%?

Is that more than 10% I don't think anyone probably put more than 50%. That, that means there's so much more out there. And God would say, that's why I gave you my spirit, because you need help. This is incredible what I've given you.

And I gave you my spirit so that He could open your eyes to see and facilitate bringing you into the enjoyment of all the things that I've given you. God isn't the being who gives to us of his wealth, and then he's secretly hoping, I sure hope they don't spend all of that. No, he gives us these blessings and he's like, I want them to taste all of this and be brought into the personal experiential enjoyment of all of this. So I Gift my spirit so that my spirit will help them to see this and facilitate their being brought into the full experience of this, and by the time the spirit is done with them, they are left exclaiming, Oh, Abba, Daddy, Father, what an amazing God you are.

I don't know what all it means to walk in the spirit. But I know it at least means that we daily Allow the Spirit to mediate salvation blessings to us, to illumine us, to understand them, especially through His word, and then for the Spirit to pour out God's love in our hearts and bring us into the experience of these things. why this has a vanquishing effect upon the flesh, guys? There is power in looking at these salvation realities and experiencing them.

It quenches the thirst that is in your heart. It fills you up and it mitigates. It diminishes. It vanquishes the flesh that is inside of you.

if you as a believer every day are living at the foot of the cross, you're listening to the gospel with faith, you're enjoying the fullness of what God has provided for you in Christ, guess what? You're going to be full, right? And full people aren't hungry, right? And so when the flesh comes to you and says, boy, you really need to do this.

Your response is, I'm already full, thank you. See, eyes do not rove. Nor do fleshly lusts rule. In the life of a person whose heart is already fat with the love of Jesus.

To walk in the Spirit means that you let the Spirit bring you into the fullness of God's desire for you in Christ. And you get filled up on that. And it has a diminishing effect upon the fleshly lusts that are inside of you. I mentioned earlier in the service we're going through the book Pilgrim's Progress, and I want to share just one snippet with you.

Later in his journey after he has his burden rolled off of his back, he stops at a lodging for the night and he engages in a conversation with a lady named Prudence. And they're talking about, all that has happened, and he's sharing how he came from the city of destruction and how the burden was released from his back and so forth. And, but in, in speaking about the city of destruction from whence he had come, Prudence asked him this question. Prudence says, do you not still bear away with you some of the things from your old city that you were formerly conversant with?

That's King James English there. But basically, do you, do you have any baggage that you brought with you from your former way of life? What would you say to that? Yeah, yeah.

Look at what he says. Yes, but greatly against my will, especially my inward and carnal thoughts. That's the flesh that he's speaking of there. But now all these things are my grief.

And if I could have my way, I would choose never to think of those things anymore. But when I would be doing of that which is best, that which is worst is with me. Prudence then says, Do you ever find sometimes though in which such things are vanquished? Do you ever find times where you're not feeling oppressed by your flesh, by these annoyances inside of you?

Christian says, yes, but that is but seldom. But such times are to me golden hours, aren't they, guys, when it just seems like you vanquished that part of you. And for now, it's not raising its ugly head. It's not annoying and hassling you as you're trying to do the right thing.

It's not bedeviling your steps and dogging your steps and trying to nip away at your faith and get you to do the wrong thing and distract you away from the Lord, when we have reprieve from that sinful flesh, even if it is, if it is but for a season. Those are golden hours. Now, here's what's interesting. Prudence then says, basically, go back to those golden hours.

And let me ask you something. Can you remember by what means you find your annoyances to be vanquished? Is it just happenstance that, oh, I'm not being hassled by my flesh? Or are there things you're doing in those moments that cause that those fleshly annoyances to just be diminished and to be vanquished?

What are the means that you employ to bring about those golden hours? Listen to what he says. Christian says yes. When I think upon what I saw at the cross, that will do it.

And when I look upon my embroidered coat, that will do it. What's the embroidered coat? The righteousness of God at the cross, His sins were forgiven, the burden rolled off of his back into the grave, and he was dressed in the perfect spotless righteousness of Jesus. And here he's saying, when I look upon this coat, That will do it.

In fact, earlier in the narrative, he stops to rest at a place, and as he's sitting there, it says he just studied his coat. I love that. Just, man, look at this. Look at me, just admiring the righteousness of Jesus.

And he says, when I'm, when I'm studying this coat, that will do it. And also, when I look into the role that I carry in my bosom, what is that? The Bible, that will do it. And one more thing, when my thoughts wax warm about whither I am going, that will do it.

what he's saying. Here's what brings on the golden hours for me. When I gaze upon and relish and cherish the glories that are mine in the gospel. When I think upon the cross, when I think upon the righteousness that is now mine, when I look into the book.

And when I look forward to the city where I am going and my thoughts wax warm, It's when I'm doing those things that I have my golden hours, because those things have a vanquishing effect upon the fleshly annoyances that so often harass me. That's a man walking in the spirit, letting the Spirit bring him into the enjoyment of these salvation blessings. You see, guys, one of the things I'm a little dissatisfied with in some people's treatment of verse 16 of Galatians 5, is it sounds like your flesh wants you to do this.

but instead of doing what your flesh wants to do, you got to do what the spirit wants you to do.

So you're looking at this fleshly temptation, you're like, oh, man, that would be fun. Oh, I want to do that so bad. And And then you look at the spirit, the spirit says, Nope, you can't, can't do that. No, don't go there.

Don't do that. No, no, no, you can't do that either. Now, you've got to submit to me, I am the spirit. You cannot do all of these things.

And that it's almost a negative thing, that the desire of the Spirit is simply that you not do these things. And if that's your orientation, you're going to be really frustrated, and you're going to end up caving into your flesh. But see, when you are walking ever daily listening to the gospel with faith, and when you are ever enjoying the spirit mediated riches of the gospel in your life and you're experiencing the bounty of all of that. And you are truly entering into the desire of the Spirit for you.

And that is that you enjoy these things to where you are left exclaiming, putty in your Father's hands. Oh, Abba, what an amazing God you are. That's the desire of the Spirit. It's not just no, don't do these things.

It's just do these things. Guys, what was the first command God spoke in the Garden of Eden? Was it don't eat of the tree in the midst of the garden? The first command.

I eat freely. Eat freely, and then after that, but don't eat this. Had Adam and Eve been eating freely of all that God had provided them, they would have already been full when the serpent came and said, hey, check out this tree. They wouldn't have been hungry.

So to walk in the Spirit means at least to be ever listening to the gospel with faith so that we experience the Spirit himself in ever increasing proportions, and to be walking in the Spirit means to allow that Spirit to bring us into the understanding of, and the experience of the full length and breadth and height and depth of our salvation blessings in Christ. And then lastly, to walk in the Spirit. At least means to be always carrying out the desires of the spirit within you.

See, if we just went immediately to 3, I think we'd all walk out of here and be frustrated within a few hours.

Because again, I think we would just see it more as a negative thing. But when you precede it with the first two things we've looked at, believing the gospel, letting the Spirit bring you into the fullness of his desire, which is a positive desire that you experience the forgiveness of your sins and rejoice in these things and enjoy intimacy with your Heavenly Father, and enjoy all of these things, then you can come to number 3 and understand that to walk in the Spirit also involves just making a decision.

what? I really like the Holy Spirit.

I like what he's bringing me into. This is like really amazing. And I realized that Christ died so that I could have this Spirit. And the Spirit pours out God's love in my heart and brings me into the deeper experience of the fullness of what God wants me to be gorging myself on in Christ and in the gospel.

And so now I'm going throughout my day and my flesh says, hey, check this out. And I turned to the Spirit, my dear friend, who has shown me so many things. And the Spirit says, no, no. Don't go there.

Come here instead. Gorge yourself on this instead. If you follow me and do what I desire for you to do, you will be left ultimately exclaiming, Abba, Father. What a God, what a father you are.

To me. Now let me make one distinction here, then we'll wrap this up. to And I don't know why I feel pressed to make this distinction, because both are true. It's not one or the other.

It's not just simply my flesh wants to do this over here, but the spirit wants me to do this other thing over here. And so my choice is, do I do what my flesh wants to do? Or do I do what the Spirit wants me to do? That is true.

That is a biblical picture. But if that's the only way you see it, then it turns into, do I do what I want to do? Or do I do what the Spirit wants me to do? All right.

Another way to see it in addition to the way I just described is this. Your flesh says do this over here. So a part of you wants to do that. But in that moment of temptation, is there not, in addition to the spirit, isn't there a part of you?

that wants to do the right thing. Isn't, don't you have a desire inside of yourself to do the right thing? Yes, if you're a Christian, who put that desire in you? The Spirit.

So in your moment of temptation, it's just a matter of which of your desires are you going to satisfy. Are you going to satisfy the sinful desire of your flesh, or will you seek to fulfill the spiritual desire? To do the right thing in a moment of temptation. You're on the computer, you're checking headlines, and in all innocence, and then suddenly something comes on the screen that gets your thoughts going downhill fast and And you feel yourself beginning to go in a direction where you're going to start looking at websites that are absolutely carnal, immoral, and you feel your flesh just suddenly awakening like a giant and just pulling you in that direction.

In that moment you have a decision to make. And that decision is not just do I do what I want to do. Or do I do what the spirit wants me to do? Yes, it's that.

But in addition to that, it's now which of my desires am I going to satisfy here? Well I desire the desire that was put in me by my flesh? Or will I, will I seek to satisfy my spirit given desire that is in my breast to be pure, and to make the right choice in this situation? And so part of what it means to walk in the spirit is always do what the Spirit wants you to do, but it also means always do according to your desires that the Spirit has put inside of you.

Honor that, that spiritual part of you, satisfy and quench those hungerings and those desires, those cravings that God's spirit has put. In to you again, going back to that internet analogy, your drive to do the wrong thing and to look at immoral imagery might seem really strong, and in that moment your desire for purity, yes, it's there, but it's pretty small. Still, your decision is which desire of mine will I honor the desire to be pure or the desire to be immoral. As small as that desire for purity may seem in that moment, just say to yourself, I will honor my desire.

To be pure. You follow that, and let the Spirit say, come on, let's go this way, because there's something for you to experience here. And you follow the Spirit, you follow that spirit given desire, and the Spirit brings you into a deeper experience of His love that is in the gospel. And ultimately you're left in prayer and worship, saying, oh, Abba, Abba, Father.

And the spirit's like, that's right. That's the whole reason I've been given to you. To bring you to those moments as you experience the fullness of God's desire for you. Verse 16 This I say Walk In The spirit And you will not.

Carry out the desire of the flesh. Let's bow our heads together. Heavenly Father, Like I said earlier, I'm on the fringes talking about this, and yes, I've tasted of these things, but not nearly to the degree that I feel that I should to be qualified to stand up here and speak of these things. We have much more to learn, and I am blessed, Lord, at the thought that we're going to see the Spirit again and again and again in these verses in chapter 5 and even in chapter 6.

I ask you, Lord, to do a miracle in our midst and show us the Spirit. Teach us of Him. In his ways with us. May we not get through this section of Galatians unchanged.

But may we be as a church, transformed by what we learn in these verses. May 10 years from now, this church bear the imprint of Galatians chapter 5, verses 16 and following. I don't even know what all that means, Lord, but Just bring us deeper into the glories of the gospel. Teach us more of your spirit and His ways.

That we would allow your spirit to bring us into the depths of your love. That our hearts would be full, we would be gorged. And the lies of lust would simply begin. To lose their appeal.

Yes, they're there, but they've lost. We thank you for what you've shown us today. We ask that you bless us, Lord, as we process these things in our care groups tonight, and we ask also, Lord, that you would teach us as we continue through this section of Galatians. We ask these things, Lord, in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said,