If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians, the 5th
chapter. And tonight, we will be looking
at verses 18 through 21. The title of the message tonight is not walking in the Spirit. Not walking in the Spirit. Now, I had intended to preach
a message on what it was to walk in the Spirit, but I did not
think it was prudent to pass over these other things that
Paul mentions before he gives us what it is to walk in the
Spirit. So tonight, we're going to be
talking about what it's not to walk in the Spirit. Last week
we saw this, that we were at liberty in Christ. But we are made at liberty from
the law of sin and death, but we recognize this, that we are
not at liberty from all law. We saw that we are not antinomians,
we are not lawless people. We are under the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus. And we who are saved, we who
have been redeemed by the blood and righteousness of Christ,
and by faith have seen Him as our Lord and our Savior for the
forgiveness of sins, we have been given the gift of the Holy
Spirit to reside in us and rule over us. It is the person of
the Holy Spirit, believer that has been poured out to you and
me even this night. We have the Holy Spirit living
inside of each and every believer in this building. And in Zechariah
chapter 12 and verse 10, the Lord God says this, I will pour
upon the house of David and Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication. This is the root of the blessing
of God and salvation for us sinners, isn't it? That God said, I will
pour out My Spirit. I will. Our salvation rests in
the sovereign will of God. It didn't rest in our will. It didn't rest in our goodness. But our salvation rests in the
will of God. I will, God says. I will pour
out My Spirit. I know you who believe, you rejoice
in the grace of God. I know you do. When you hear
the grace of God, your ears perk up. They tend to have an antenna
looking to hear grace. Because that's what we need even
in this hour. We need grace. We need grace. Well, guess what God says He
has already poured out on us, and He will pour out on us, and
that is His Spirit of grace. And we recognize this because
we have the Spirit of grace in us. And it is this Spirit of grace,
the Spirit of God, that causes us to look upon Him whom we have
pierced." That's what the Scripture says there in Zacharias. It says,
"...they shall look." When He pours out His Spirit of grace,
He said, "...they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced,
and they shall mourn for Him." Oh, the grace of the Spirit of
God, the love of the Holy Spirit to come to such rebels and stiff-necked
sinners as we are. To come in our hardness of our
hearts and come and take charge. To come in and to give us life
so that we may see what Isaiah saw when he said he was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities,
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes
we are healed. How did we see this? How is it,
you believer, you see this and others pass by this with no care,
no concern, and yet this is your life, this is the message of
grace that you long to hear? Why is that? Because God has
given you His Spirit. God has given you the Spirit
of His grace to see Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Do we not see, when we hear of
Christ and Him crucified, do we not see our own sins as the
thing that nailed Him there? It was our sins, my friends.
They shall look upon Him whom they have pierced. My friends,
my sins nailed Him there. He wasn't there for His own sins. We see the precious Son of God
who is sinless, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and God
had laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And when we saw that, what happened? We mourned, didn't we? We mourned
for our sin and our shame We wept because of our dishonor
that we had brought to God. But praise God, we see whom we
have pierced as our only salvation and redemption. I see Him. Do you see Him? I see Him as
my only soul, my only joy, my only glory, my only object of
my affection and love. Why? Look at verse 18 in our
text. But ye are led of the Spirit. This is why. Because we were
led of this flesh. We were led by our old nature. But now, by the grace of God,
we are led by a new man. Even the Spirit of our God. And my friends, He drew us to
Himself by His Spirit, didn't He? Scripture says that no man
can come unto Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him.
And the Spirit of God, when He came to us, what did He do? He drew us. He drew us. Scripture says He draws them
with the cords of a man. Remember, it is the goodness
of God that leadeth us to repentance. Wasn't it? Wasn't it the grace
of God that brought us in? Yes. Hearing that message of
grace, the Spirit of God wooed us. And He brought us in. He drew us in. And now, now,
you are led by the Spirit. You are led by the Spirit of
God. You're led by the Spirit of the
inner man, that principle of love, faith, and grace which
is wrought in us. A nature that now desires holiness,
righteousness, and love for God. That nature that was not there
before is now there because you are led by the Spirit. But because of our old nature,
Because of the old nature that still resides and exists with
us, that sin nature we're born with, Paul says this is contrary
to the Spirit of God that has come into us. The Spirit of grace
that has come into each one of us and quickened us and made
a new creation, that old nature didn't change. It didn't do anything. It stayed as wicked as the day
it was born. And so then there becomes this
embattlement in our own hearts. And Paul said that the Spirit
lusted against the flesh and the flesh against the Spirit
so that these two are opposite one another. Opposed to one another. So that you could not do what
you would. What would you do? Would you
not do righteousness? Would you not long for righteousness? Paul said then, it's because
of that old nature, we couldn't do what we want to. So here in
verse 18, when Paul says, you are led, but you are led by the
Spirit, Paul says, even though this struggle is real, even though
this struggle exists, and each one of you, I know you identify
with this struggle. If you're a believer, you identify
with this. There is a struggle. It's real. There is a real battle
being engaged in your own chest tonight. And even though this
battle rages, Paul says, we are never, no never, no never to
fall back on law. Now, if there was a point in
the book of Galatians, in which Paul could have asserted the
Reformed doctrine of the use of the law as a means and rule
of life, this was the place. Verse 18, he is now shifting
from the doctrinal to the practical. If there was any use for the
law at this point, Paul would have inserted it in this verse
here. But what does Paul say? He says, but, even though you
have this struggle, but you are led by the Spirit and are not
under the law. You are not under the law. Don't
fall back on it. Don't think that it is even a
rule of life to guide us in this practical life, in the practical
holiness. It's not. You're not under the
law. Friends, our sinful nature is
prone and longs for law. It does. Every one of us do. We, by nature, long for someone
to have a rule or a law for us to go by. Why? One reason, so we can look at
ourselves better than somebody else. That's the only reason.
If there's a rule in the church and we're obeying it, what's
going to happen? We're going to look at somebody
else who's not and say, well, hey, that person there is something
wrong with that person. I'm doing a pretty good job.
I'm doing good. We want to build up our flesh
and this is why our flesh longs for law. It longs for law instead of faith. Believer, our rule of life is
the Spirit of God and not the letter of the law. Obey the Spirit. Follow the Spirit. He is the
one leading us. Believers, though we still contend
with this old nature, it is not the ruling nature anymore. This
old nature is not the ruling nature. So we are not constrained
against the flesh by the law. We are constrained against the
flesh, all right, but it is not by law, but by love." This is
what constrains us. This is what keeps us. To answer
the question, when you say that, and some people say, well, how
do you keep your church in line? What do you mean, how do I keep
my church? They aren't led by Pastor Evans. They are led by
the Spirit of God, each one of them. Each one of them are led
by the Spirit of God, and they are constrained not by law, but
by love. Why do you come? Do you come
to worship by law, or do you come because you love Christ?
I'm here because I love Christ. I'm constrained by His love.
2 Corinthians 5.14 says, The love of Christ constraineth us. The love of Christ. Believers,
we see His love for us in that He died for us so that we might
live. And therefore, we do not live
to ourselves. We live in subjection to Him
who died for us. That's what it is to constrain
the flesh. This is what quells the flesh.
This is what causes us, like Paul, to put our bodies into
subjection to the law of Christ. His love. His love. That's what constrains us. Yes,
my friends, I love Him. I love Him. Why? Because he first
loved me and gave himself to die on Calvary Street. That's why I'm constrained. That's
what causes the believer to be constrained, not the law, not
the law. And this is the love, the law
of love for him that constrains and keeps us. Now, it is the
Spirit of God that leads us into this love. He is the root of
all faith and love for God. If you have love tonight, it
is because of the Holy Spirit that dwells in you. This love
is not natural. You don't have a natural affection
for God. You don't have a natural affection
for your brethren. The only thing natural we have
is affection for ourselves. That's the only thing natural
we get when we come into this world. But the Spirit of God is the
root of love for God and love for others. Therefore, believers,
we are led by Him. So if we are led by Him, let
us therefore walk in the Spirit of God. If you're led by the
Spirit, my friends, you will walk in the Spirit. Look at this
in Paul, look at this exhortation in verse 25. If we live in the
Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Are you alive in the
Spirit tonight? Is the Spirit of God alive in
you? Do you know Him? Does He point you to Christ?
And my friends, walk in the Spirit of God. Walk in the Spirit of
God. Now tonight, like I said before,
I wanted to do what it was to walk in the Spirit, but as Paul
here According to the Holy Spirit, He does something that's very
common that I see even in John Gill's writings. John Gill tells
you ten things that it's not before he tells you what it is.
Well, this is what Paul is doing here. Paul is going to tell us
what it is not to walk in the Spirit before he tells us what
it is to walk in the Spirit. So we can have a guideline, we
can have a clear understanding of what is a spiritual walk and
what is not. So tonight we're going to look
at what is not walking in the Spirit. Now, these are expounded to us
in verses 19 through 21. Let's read this real fast. 19 through 21. Now, Paul says,
the works of the flesh are manifest. which are these, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envy, murders, drunkenness, reveling, and such like, Of which I tell
you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which
do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Paul says here first, in verse
19, the works of the flesh are manifest. Let me give you this
picture now. He's putting two things side
by side here. He's putting the works of the
flesh side by side with the walking in the Spirit. These things here
that Paul mentions are diametrically opposed to walking in the Spirit. So if we are doing these things,
we know that we are not walking in the Spirit. Now look at this.
He says, these things are manifest. The works of the flesh are manifest. I'm not going to tell you anything
new that you don't know already. These things are plain, they're
simple, and they're evident in the sight of everyone here tonight. My friend, before you could ever
read, before you could ever understand writings or letters or the law,
You had a disturbing, I would call it a skewed view of what
is right and wrong. But yet you had a sense of what
was right and what was wrong. My children have a sense of what
is right and what is wrong. Again, it is a depraved sense. It is a natural sense of what's
right or wrong. But we all have this inclination
and we know what's good and what's evil by nature, by conscience. These things. are contained in
the law that is written in our hearts. Romans 2, verse 15, Paul
says that this law, there's a law written on the heart of every
natural man. And this law we know by our conscience. Every little boy and girl knows
it's wrong to lie. How do you know that? because
the law of God is written on our hearts. Paul says in the
first chapter of Romans, he lists a bunch of these works of the
flesh, and then he says this, he says, these men knowing the
judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy
of death, not only do the same but have pleasure in them. You see, we knew the lusts of
our flesh were wrong. But yet by nature we had pleasure
in them. Natural man, the wicked flesh,
the works of the flesh, we know what is wrong, but we have pleasure
in them. And the first group of sins he
uses here are sensual sins. Let's read this list. These are
manifest adultery, fornication, uncleanness and lasciviousness. These sins are mentioned first,
not because they are the greater sins. But my friends, these are
the most common and basis of sins in our nature. These sins
of sexual sensual sins. These are the most common. These
are the counterfeits of love. If you'll notice all of these,
adultery, fornication, uncleanness and liceviousness, these are
all counterfeits of love. This is the human understanding
of what love is. These sensual things. But these
are not true love. None of these things have anything
to do with true love. All these are sensual loves that
are centered around self. You'll notice that these are
centered around self. Self-satisfaction and not anything
to do with the love of God or the love of man. God declares
that sex outside of marriage is a sin. Cheating on your spouse
is a sin. Viewing those things, and this
word, lasciviousness, it's a big word, but it means anything that
causes these feelings to stir up. If you think about what they
call art today, or you think about what they would call on
television or anything like that, anything that stirs up these
sensual passions, God says they are sin. Now, is that plain?
Is that just simple? And my friends, if we are walking
in any of these, we are not walking in the Spirit of God. This is
not the Spirit of God. And men will flower these things
up and they'll try to use reason or logic so that they may give
an excuse for their sinful passions. But my friends, there's nothing
but plain sin against God. That's what they are. Men can
call them what they want. They could change the names and
make it, you know, they call it just living together now.
They think that's just okay. That's common. Try out a spouse
like you try out a car. That's just sin, my friends. And anybody walking in that is
not walking in anything but sin. Don't be deceived by it. This
should not be named among us. This should not be named among
the children of God. Those who set His will above
their own. This will not be named among
us if we set His will above our own affections. Isn't that right?
If we set His love and love for Him above ourselves, these things
won't be named among us. If these things are offensive
to Him, then these things would be easily gone from us. But if
we're walking in the flesh, my friends, these are the things
that we would do. These are the things of they that are walking
in the flesh. Number two. He mentions a group of sins that
I like to deem the religious sins. Religious sins. Look at
this next group here. Idolatry and witchcraft. Idolatry and witchcraft. Natural man is religious. There is no way around it. Every
one of you in this building this evening, I know before the Lord
saved you, you were religious folks. Religious folks. Man by nature is religious. He's religious. The problem with
his religion is it's idolatry. It's witchcraft. It's superstition. Man has set about to worship
God in his own way. Man says to God, I'll worship
You, but I want to show myself to You as special. So I'm going
to worship You in my own unique way. I'm going to worship You
the way that I determined to worship You, and You will accept
it. My friend, that's nothing more
than idolatry and will-worship. Go to Colossians 2. Colossians
2, verse 21. Colossians 2 and verse 21, Paul
says that we are dead with Christ, we are free from the rudiments
of the world, touch not, taste not, handle not, which all are
to perish with the using, after the commandments and doctrines
of men. Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship
and humility and neglecting the body, not in any honor to the
satisfying of the flesh." My friends, people out there today
are using the name of Jesus. They are claiming to worship
the God Jehovah. And yet when you take their God
and you place Him next to the God of the Scriptures, He is
nothing more than an idol. He is nothing more than a figment
of their imagination. You might as well carve out an
idol of Diana, or you might as well carve out an idol of Zeus
and bow down to it. My friend, a God who is not sovereign
is not God at all. And a Jesus Christ that died
for everyone and saved no one is not a Jesus at all. It is
nothing more than idolatry. It's nothing more than witchcraft. How many times do you see people
looking for all these healings and speaking in tongues? Why?
They want something mystical. They want something they could
touch. They want something they can sense. They want a religion of the senses. This is not walking in the Spirit,
my friends. This is not the Spirit of God.
When you see them, you may know that they are not walking in
the Spirit, but they are performing the works of the flesh. So men
go about to worship the God of their own imagination. I was
reading this in Isaiah chapter 41 last evening. I was talking
to Cheryl about it. And I was noticing God was talking
to those who worship idols. He said this, He said, Bring
your cause before Me. Let's just see. You that worship
an idol, why don't you bring him to me and let us look at
him to see what he can do. Let us look at him and see if
he can tell the end from the beginning. Matter of fact, God
said, let's just see if he can do good or evil. Let's see if
he can do something. And I sense the sarcasm in that
verse. He said, let us see that we may be dismayed. That's what
God says. God says, let us see that we
may be dismayed. Do you think God's going to be
dismayed? No, no, my friends. People of this religious age,
they're worshiping a God that doesn't exist. Anybody who worships such a God
is worshiping nothing more than idols, and the so-called church
must use entertainment then to keep folks interested. They've
got to use something to keep folks entertained. They've got
to tickle their fancy. They've got to somehow make it
appealing to them to come. And so the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
if they were to just preach the way that God intended, that's
not enough. They must have the senses and
their ears tickled. We were talking, Joanne, about
the classes and academics of that. A lot of people are tickled
by that. There are a lot of people that
are just plain... They're out for something to make them feel
good about religion. Instead of doing it, God's way. God says, declare the gospel
to the people. All I am is a voice. That's all I am. I have one message
and I have one subject. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
The person and work of Christ for sinners. That's the message.
That's the message. My friends, the religious age
will not tolerate that. Why? Because they're walking
in their flesh, they're worshiping idols and following after witchcraft. The next group of sins is this,
hatred. Look at this. Hatred, variance,
emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, and heresies. These, my friends,
are sins that may be mostly expressed within or without. We live in
a very civil age, don't we? People, they think they can sit
around and debate things of great controversy and not get all emotional
about things. But you let them sit by themselves
in a car and get cut off on the freeway and see how fast that
civility holds. This afternoon, Bob was talking
about it, somebody stole his umbrella. Now he felt like he
wanted to whack somebody with an umbrella, because they stole
it. I understand that, because I
wanted to throw my computer out the window today. I was mad.
I got upset. And when we do these things,
when we express anger, what are we doing? We're kicking against
the will of God, aren't we? When something goes against us
and contrary to us, the first thing that pops up is anger.
We're mad. And we say, well, we're mad at
the situation. We're not. No, you're mad at God. We're
mad at God. God is sovereign, God doing everything
he wants to do and whatever is being done has been done according
to his will. How then can we complain against
him? How can we complain of our lot
in life and talk of sovereignty? We can't. If we are walking in
the Spirit, my friends, we'll understand these things. But
if we start with hatred, we start stirring up strife or being envious
of other people, my friends, we are not walking in the Spirit. Those aren't fruits of the Spirit.
Those are fruits of our own nature. Those are fruits of our own nature.
Lust of our flesh. And the last group of the works
of the flesh are outward expressions of sin. He says, envying, murders,
drunkenness, reveling, and such like. Now these are the works,
these are the end result of all the other sins. These are things
that were boiling under the surface and now they've festered out.
These are outward actions of passion and lust that we see
here. Envy. Green monster of envy,
my friends, will eat us live like a cancer, and when it comes
out, it is not pretty. We must recognize that this is
a work of our own nature and not the Spirit of God, and we
are to cast it off at every opportunity. Murders. We're not just talking
about murdering somebody physically, although that is not above us,
and we should not think ourselves above it. I'm sure that everybody
that's committed murder at one time or another, they didn't
think they could do that. I'm sure David didn't think he
was capable of such a thing. But he did. And so we are capable
of these things. This old nature is. But I'm talking
about murdering someone's character. When somebody crosses us, and
then we sneak around behind them and start talking about them,
my friends, you are murdering their character. And that is
not walking in the spirit of God. That is not drunkenness. We're not talking just about
wine or strong drink, although that is included. My friends, we are at liberty,
but we're not to use our liberty as an occasion to the flesh,
to fall into a drunken stupor. This is not becoming of believers
of Jesus Christ. But this is not just talking
about being drunken with wine, this is being in excess of things. This is taking some of the things
of this life and excelling them above Christ. Whatever it is. If it's our job, if it's our
family, then we are drunk with whatever it is we've placed above
Christ. We shouldn't do that. That's
walking in the flesh. People are drunk with religion.
My friend, this world is drunk with religion. You know that?
I mean, they are drunk. They have no idea who God is,
but man, they're religious. They're giving themselves up
to it. I bear them record, they have a zeal for God, but not
according to knowledge. and reveling. What is that? Stirring
up strife, picking at things so that they would fester into
an argument. That's not walking in the Spirit.
So Paul then concludes this. Let's look at this. He concludes
this when he says, as I've told you before, I tell you now, they
that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. What does that mean? Now, my
friends, I know that each one of us are guilty of every one
of those things I've mentioned. Every one of us. And Paul says,
those who are guilty of such things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God. What does he mean by that? Does
he mean that everybody is not going to go to heaven? Does that
mean that everybody is going to hell? No. What Paul has reference
to is the tenor of a man's life. That's what he means. This phrase
here has to do with the period of a man's life. He says, they
that have the tenor of their life walking after the flesh,
my friend, they shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Those who profess faith in Christ, whose lives are rooted in the
works of the flesh. If there is no repentance, if
there are no good works, if there is no interest in the things
of Christ, if a man sets his affections on the things of this
world and not on the things above, If he sets his love on a false
God that doesn't exist, on pleasing His flesh, then my friend, you
can be certain, you can be certain, he will not inherit the Kingdom
of God. Paul says in Galatians 6, 7,
God is not mocked. That which is man soweth, he
shall also reap. God's not mocked in this. In
other words, God's not fooled by this. He's not fooled by our
words. I may be fooled by words. I may
be fooled by a man. But God is never fooled. They
that walk in these things and have their lives in the tenor
of their flesh, they will not see God. They will not see the
kingdom of God. They will only see His justice. My friends, if any are here and
you recognize this and you see that these things are the tenor
of your life, then I tell you, behold, the Lamb of God! Look to Christ! These were the
tenor of my life at one time. These were what I went after
at one time. But now God has come in mercy
for me. I say to you, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Rest in Him. For in Him is righteousness. In Him is hope. And to all of us who are believers
in Jesus Christ, my friends, let us take heed of what it is
not to walk in the Spirit, so that when we do see... Next week
I want to go over what it is to walk in the Spirit. But when
we see these things in our life, my friend, let us recognize that
we are not walking in the Spirit of God. We are walking after
the flesh. And we are to mortify the deeds
of our body. Because we are saved, my friends,
we are also exhorted unto good works. And we are to exercise
ourselves in these things, and not in the things of the flesh.
I pray that God would bless this to our hearts and help us in
our daily walk with Him, that He would That His love would
constrain us from such things. That the love of Christ would
constrain us from these things. Because every one of us are prone
to them. Every one of us. Oh, that we could daily, constantly
view His love for us. So that we would not walk in
those things. I pray for that in me. Don't
you? You pray for that for yourselves. I know you do. If you love the
Lord, you do. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.