How quickly a young child grows is always fascinating, isn t it? It s one of the first things you notice when seen a particular young person in awhile too. When I was growing up my dad kept track of height by marking it on the inside of our front door. And I can still remember the day that I passed my older brother in height by just a little bit. I can tell you it did not go over well later that night when no one was around he went to the door and erased our names and switched them around. But growth is exciting! And this morning we re going to be starting a new series that focuses in on the Holy Spirit who is the primary person behind our spiritual growth. And just a person grows physically, the Spirit is at work within the believers life to grow spiritually. The series that we re starting today is entitled Follow the Spirit. And really, this is the third and final part of a series that we have been working through this entire year that has focused in on God. If you recall, the first part of this series we encouraged you Trust in God. From there we challenged you for a couple of months to Love like Jesus. And now we are going to be spending the next eight weeks asking you to Follow the Spirit. This is a series that I m really looking forward to, as the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit, doesn t get a lot of attention. So much so, that one time a Christian author wrote a book about the Holy Spirit called The Forgotten God. I m not sure we have completely forgotten about Him, but I think we could all agree that He doesn t get as much attention as the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ, do. I hope within the next couple of months to give some answers to that. Also, I m excited (and maybe a little anxious) to focus in on the Holy Spirit because there are so many mixed thoughts on the work of the Spirit today. Some of you may think that I go too far what the Spirit is actively doing today, but on the other side I m sure others will think that I m too conservative in my theology. In any case, I hope that this series on the Holy Spirit provides us with an opportunity to have conversation with each other; as the Holy Spirit is the third person of the trinity, not some impersonal force floating through the sky. And I pray that through our time focusing on the Spirit that this awakens us to even a greater degree of how much we need to be dependent on the Holy Spirit for our individual growth as well as the healthy growth of Cornerstone Bible Church. This morning we re going to be looking at Galatians 5, and I want you to see that The Spirit Leads You to Spiritual Growth. READ GALATIANS 5:16-26 As you can see from our passage, it weaves its way back and forth from addressing the need to walk after the Spirit while at the same time resisting the urge to pursue the desires of the flesh. Rather than attempting to jump back and forth between the two, I think it would be most helpful to handle each side one at a time. 1
So let s begin this morning by looking at the flesh, which is the first thing I want you to mindful of today, because The Flesh Leads Toward Destruction. I hope you took notice of what the book of Galatians had to say about the flesh. There is a great conflict that is taking place within the lives of every Christian. For the flesh and the Spirit of the living God are set against each other. Their desires do not align with one another. If you were to read through the New Testament you will notice that the term, the flesh, is a term that the apostle Paul often uses to describe the sinfulness that remains in an individual after a person is saved. Let me see if I can better explain this by sharing a little bit of my own testimony. When I was born in 1980, I was born a sinner. I was a sinner by nature and by choice; you can see this in all children as they re not born selfless but are born selfish. But from a very young I was taught the Word of God while attending church (just be clear, that s not what saved me). It wasn t until I got older that I realized that I was a sinner and because of my sin I was heading towards an eternity separated from God. One of the clearest verses in the Bible that opened my eyes for my need to be saved was Romans 6:23, For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. I deserved death, separation from God in hell for eternity. That s what my sin has earned me. But I love that the verse didn t end there and revealed the free gift of God, which is Jesus. He took the place of punishment and that by placing my trust in Him it guarantees me salvation. At that moment, as a young child, my life was redeemed. It was changed. At that moment God gives me a new heart, with new desires. He places His Holy Spirit within me to rule and to direct my life going forward. I am redeemed, but I m living in unredeemed humanness, which is my flesh. I think that we can all testify to this fact. Because many of you are Christians, you ve placed your trust in Jesus Christ, and yet you still wrestle against sin. Paul himself, the man who wrote this book and twelve others in the New Testament, faced that constant struggle with the flesh, as he confesses in his letter to the Romans. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. (Romans 7:18-19; 20-21) 2
The question that I want to ask you and a question that I have been asking myself as I ve studied this passage is, are you battling against the flesh? Because this is a real battle, there are no peace treaties or holiday breaks when it comes to the desires of the flesh to lead you toward sin, to lead you away from God, and to really sink your life. For an illustration of that I can t help but think of a book I ve been reading, it s about the Lusitania. If you re unfamiliar with the Lusitania it was a passenger ship that was sunk by a German submarine during WW1. This was a ship that made frequent trips back and forth between Liverpool, England and New York City. On April 22 nd, 1915, Germany issued this warning in the newspapers of the U.S. NOTICE! TRAVELLERS intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk. IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY Washington, D.C. 22 April 1915 Despite this warning, 1,915 people boarded that ship a couple of weeks later and headed into a war zone. And this is my warning to you; you are the war zone. There is a fight taking place on the battleground of your heart each and everyday. This is not the only one 1 You will fight against the world. It s becoming more and more obvious that the world that we live in is fallen. It often turns a blind eye to sin or even rejoices in it. But the world is not our biggest enemy. 2 Our biggest enemy isn t even the devil or the demonic realm. It is a real enemy for we do wrestle against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. That is a real enemy! 3 But the only foothold that Satan has in your life is your sin. Sin that reigns in your flesh. You see, if I were to go up to the mountains, live in a cabin all by myself, seclude and separate myself from the world, my biggest enemy would still be there. We must be aware of that reality if we re going to have victory over the desires of the flesh that pull us away from passionately pursuing God. The desires of the flesh pull us down some really destructive paths as is shown here in Galatians 5. 3
READ GALATIANS 5:19-21 Now these works of the flesh can be broken down into three general areas: sex, religion, and human relationships. 1 Now, I m not going to walk through this list and break down each specific sin or even each category. But I think that what we can gather as we summarize is that the flesh leads us to indulge ourselves in sin. It leads us to pursue our sin without shame or without concern for what others think or how others may be impacted. The works of the flesh lead to a self-centered life, where we re are not looking honor God but we re simply looking to satisfy whatever longing arises within us. As you read through this get to verse 21, and it s rather alarming. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things (or practice such things) will not inherit the kingdom of God. That verse ought to stop us in our tracks and investigate what it means. Because the verse gives an indication of whether or not you re heading toward the Kingdom of Heaven, or whether or not you re saved. As you look at verse 21, the key word to understand in this warning here is do, or practice (depending on your translation). It s talking about an ongoing action. If there is no battle taking place, no fighting against sin, and always giving in to the desires of the flesh, this verse clearly says that that is an indication that that person is not saved. They are not heading towards the kingdom of God. The fruit of your life, the ongoing actions of your life, gives evidence to who/what you re following. Now the Bible clearly teaches that you are not saved by your works, it is strictly and exclusively by faith in Jesus Christ, by trusting in his work on cross. That is the only way to salvation. But at the moment of salvation there is a change in your life. There is a change in things you do. And people who consistently indulge in sin, and never turn to Jesus to battle against it, show themselves to be enemies of God, and are on the losing end of this battle. You are not saved by your works. But, the habits of your life give evidence to who/what you re following. So, are you battling against the flesh? The flesh and its desires are for sin, which lead toward destruction. It is an enemy that cannot be ignored; it cannot be dealt with passively. Thankfully, this is a battle that does not have to be fought alone, and in all reality battling against the desires of the flesh cannot be fought alone. It is fought 1 John MacArthur. Galatians Commentary. Pg. 161 4
through the empowering of the Holy Spirit. And where the flesh leads towards destruction, the Spirit of God Leads Toward Life. For the second half of this message I want to head in that direction; I want us to focus on Spirit of God. The first thing that our passage in Galatians encourages us to do is to walk by the Spirit. The word walk implies a continuous and regular action. It s not something that s reserved for Sunday mornings, or while you re reading your Bible, or while you re seeking wisdom on a major life decision. It is encouraging the Christian to depend on the Holy Spirit 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As I ve already mentioned, the Holy Spirit is the primary person behind our spiritual growth. God created the world perfectly and He intended you to live your life a certain way. You will not live a perfect/sin-free life but, the more you walk by the Spirit, the more that will you live in accordance to God s design and purpose for your life. Another word to describe this whole scenario of spiritual growth, is sanctification. Sanctification means holiness. And the Holy Spirit is at work within the believer to sanctify them, to make them holy. How does the Spirit go about doing that? Let me list a couple of ways that we can see here in Galatians 5 where the Spirit is at work. First, The Spirit awakens new desires. As our passage tells us there is a conflict that is taking place within us. The desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, and the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit. This is a conflict at the heart level. The reason there is a conflict at all is because at the moment of salvation, God is giving you a new nature, He is taking your heart of stone, that is dead in sin, and bringing it to life through His Spirit who indwells the believer. That s exactly what it says in Ezekiel 36, 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You cannot and will not change the actions of your life by changing your outside circumstances. You can create rules, and you create guidelines, which I m not opposed to. There should be structure and safeguards in your life to guard you against sin. But whatever guidelines, whatever rules, or whatever checklist you establish in your life you need to know that those things alone will not change the heart. This was what originally brought up the conversation in the book Galatians. The Apostle Paul was telling this group of people that it wasn t the law that saved. You 5
don t follow the commands of God in order to be accepted by God. You place your faith in the work of Jesus Christ, and His finished work on the cross, then and only then are the desires of your heart changed to where you want to do what God wants you to do. Does that make sense? It is the Holy Spirit who awakens those new desires in your heart. The second way in which the Holy Spirit is at work is that He begins producing new fruit, or new actions of the believers life. Second, The Spirit produces new fruit. Now we ve already talked about the works of the flesh, but let me say one more thing about them; they are done completely by the efforts of each individual. But the fruit of the spirit, on the other hand, is produced by God s Spirit, and it s only produced in the lives of those who belong to God through faith in Jesus Christ. And the fruit of the Spirit is always produced in every believer; it will be seen more clearly in a more mature believer, but it is being formed in all believers. The Spirit never fails to produce some fruit in a believer s life. He is a master gardener and doesn t need to do any research on how to best produce growth in an individual. As you look at these two areas you may start to wonder, How much of my spiritual growth is dependent on the Holy Spirit and how much of it is dependent upon me? Because the Bible clearly teaches that the Holy Spirit is at work, and we see that here in Galatians 5, but Galatians 5 does pretty plainly, and quite directly say that I have a responsibility to do the walking. So how much it is the Spirit and how much of it is me at work? Let me start off with what it is not. It is not 100% God at work, and 0% you. You don t passively sit there and let go and let God do all the heavy lifting. I know that some of us wish it were like that *My youngest daughter, Libby, has the easiest time when we go out hiking as a family. Over the past several weeks our family has visited some of the local parks. And it s been a great bonding time for our family as we walk the trails, climb the trails, keep an eye for little critters scurrying around the woods. But Libby has it the easiest, because all she does is sit in the backpack that I strap to my shoulders and haul her the entire way. She does nothing to get from one point to another. I do 100% of the work, she does 0%. That is not the picture that God gives us as a pattern for spiritual maturity. It is also not a 50/50 contribution, where you do 50 percent of the work and the Holy Spirit does the half. That s the picture of a horrible relationship. I ve always 6
told young couples that I ve gone through pre-marital counseling with, is that a marriage where each person is only partially giving to the relationship, only holding up their end of the bargain, is heading toward disaster. The only equation that makes sense from scripture for spiritual growth, is 100% the Holy Spirit at work, and 100% you following after faithfully. We can know that the Holy Spirit has given us a new heart, with new desires. We can be confident that He will never go away, or forsake us, or leave us stranded and on our own. We can trust that Holy Spirit will faithfully lead in our lives. But the question is, are we going to follow? Walking by the Spirit implies that our lives should be responding moment by moment to the desires of the Holy Spirit, and not to the desires of the flesh. I have choices everyday, and really every moment of the day of who or what I m going to follow. When I wake up in the morning, I have a choice of whether I m going to spend some time in God s Word, or whether I m going to push the snooze and skip my devotional time. I have a choice during the day of whether I m going to work hard for the glory of God, or whether I m going to slack off in my responsibilities. I have a choice when I pull into my drive way at the end of the day of whether I m going to walk into my house and serve my wife, and love my kids, or I m going to plop down on the couch because I deserve some me time. We make choices each and everyday. We make choices each moment of the day of whether we re going to give in to the desires of the flesh, or whether we re going to follow after the Spirit wherever He may lead. Conclusion: As we come to a close this morning I want to encourage you to not resist the changes that the Holy Spirit calls for in your life. For the unbeliever You ve never come to know Jesus as your personal Savior. The Holy Spirit may be leading you to take that first initial step and to trust in Jesus. For the Christian for the mature and immature, the Holy Spirit is consistently leading. Don t resist or fight against, for there is a way that leads to life, and there is a way that leads to death. May you keep in step with the Spirit wherever He may lead today and throughout your life. 7