Galatians chapter 5, and I want
to begin reading here in verse 16, and we're going
to look at just down through verse 18, but I want to read
to you the remainder of this chapter. Galatians 5, and beginning
at verse 16. This I say then, walk in the
Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the
flesh lusteth against the Spirit, And the spirit lusteth against
the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that
ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of
the spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the
flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
violence, emulation, wrath, and strife, and sedations, and heresies,
and envions, and murders, and drunkenness, and revelings, and
such like, of the 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. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, and joy, and peace, and longsuffering, and gentleness,
and goodness, and faith, meekness, and temperance, and against such
there is no law. And they that are Christ's have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. If we live
in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be
desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, and envying one
another. This I say then, walk in the
Spirit. If you be led of the Spirit,
if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. You and I, if we are here this
evening, and our trust is truly in the Lord Jesus Christ in a
scriptural sense, that we've been brought to put all our trust
in Him, then you and I are in a spiritual kingdom. A spiritual
kingdom. Not an earthly kingdom, not a
carnal kingdom, not a kingdom of men, but a spiritual kingdom. We must be born again. That's what the Master said.
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Except a man be born of the water
and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. You must be born
again. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto you,
you must be born again. The wind blows where it will,
You hear the sound thereof, but you can't tell where it's coming
from or where it's going. And so is everyone that's born
of the Spirit. Peter tells us, being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of the incorruptible seed, of
the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all
flesh is grass, and the glory of man is as the flower of the
grass. The grass withereth, and the
glory thereof falleth away, but the word of our God abideth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you." We must be born again. To be
in a spiritual kingdom, we must be born again. Born of the Spirit,
born of the Word. We must be taught of the Spirit. If we walk in the Spirit, if
we are to live in the Spirit, then we must be born to the Spirit.
To be born to the Spirit, we must be taught of the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 2 and 9. Paul says,
as it is written, I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither
have it entered into the heart of man the things which God hath
prepared for them that love Him, but God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, Yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? So the things of God knoweth
no man but the Spirit of God." I have an old big dog in my neighborhood,
a big black Labrador retriever. Almost every morning she comes
to my door. And she'll stand there until
I take her out to buy something to eat. And she knows my office
is out in the garage. And now she's got in a habit,
I leave my door open and my screen door closed. She's got in a habit
of coming there and sitting at that screen door and looking
at me and whining until I come out and get a ball and throw
it. She wants me to play with her. And she came up there yesterday
and I was studying. And she just stood there and
whined, and I thought to myself, you stinking mutt, go home to
your master. And then I thought to myself,
you don't understand what I'm thinking, or you'd get out of
here. And you know why she don't understand what I'm thinking?
Because she don't have my spirit. If there was some way that I
could give my spirit to that ugly mutt, she'd know everything
that I knew. She'd know what I was thinking.
She would know my thoughts. And that's what Paul is telling
us here. How do we know the things of
God? Because God has given to us His
Spirit. Ain't that what he says in verse
12? Now we have received, not the Spirit of this world, but
the Spirit which is of God. Why? That we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God. We're taught. How do we know the things of
God? We're taught by the Spirit of God. That's the only way for
us to know the mind of God. And I want you to notice here
in verse 13, look at this. God gives us His Spirit, but
when He says He gives us His Spirit that we may know the things
of God, we don't open our mouths wide open. and stand there in
a daze as though we see something we can't understand or explain? When the Spirit comes to us and
teaches us the things of God, what does He teach us? What does
He teach us from? Well, look in verse 13. The Spirit teaches us of the
things of God which things also we speak. Not in the words which
man's wisdom teacheth, but the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual. He teaches us by words. What words? Scriptural words. He comforts us and He teaches
us and He instructs us by Scripture. He opens the Scripture. Ain't
that what He said about His disciples? He opened their understanding
that they might understand the Scripture. He breathed on them
and said, Receive ye of the Holy Ghost. And then their hearts
were opened. The Lord opened Lydia's heart
and she understood. What did she understand? The
things which Paul was preaching. The Gospel. These are the things
of God and the Spirit of God teaches us these words. He teaches us the truth. We're
in a spiritual kingdom. We must be born to get into that
kingdom, a new birth. And we're taught of the Holy
Spirit. We pray in the Spirit. We pray in the Spirit. Romans
8, 26, The Spirit helpeth our infirmities, but we know not
what to pray for as we are. but the Spirit maketh intercessions
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Pray in all ways,
Paul said, with all prayer and supplications in the Spirit. A man's never prayed until he's
prayed in the Spirit. This is my experience, and I
bet you can relate to this yourself. Some of my greatest comfort that
I've ever had in my heart It's been in prayer to the Lord. Some
of the greatest strength, the greatest grace that I've seen
and received in my own soul, it's been while I've been on
my face before the Lord. And when the Spirit comes to
us and He holds us up in prayer to seek the Lord, it's when we
pray. And it's the only time we can
pray. Praying in the Spirit. We must worship in the Spirit. The hour cometh, and now is,
when the true worshippers must worship the Father in spirit
and in truth." God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth. Here's what the Apostle
said in Romans 15. He said, I'm a minister of Jesus
Christ to you Gentiles, preaching the gospel of God, that the offering
up of the Gentiles, the offering up of their gratitude, the offering
up to God of their thanksgiving, the offering up to God of their
worship might be acceptable being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. We often talk about a lot of
idolatry going on today, a lot of false worship going on today,
and there is. But I tell you, there is a true
worship. There's a true worship, a heart worship, a spiritual
worship. That's in the Spirit of the Lord. We must have the Spirit before
we can love. Paul said here, the whole law
is fulfilled in but one word. You shall love your neighbor
as yourself. But I tell you, we cannot love
without the Holy Spirit. We cannot love. The fruit of
the Spirit is what love. That's not a fruit of the flesh.
That's not some emotion that we have. Love is the fruit of
the Holy Spirit. Paul said this, Epaphras came
and declared unto us your love in the Spirit. Your love for
God, Your love for the Son of God, your love for the Gospel
of God, for the people of God, for the things of God, your love,
you love these things. Why? You have the Spirit. It's
a spirit of love. You and I, brothers and sisters,
there's not a bit of use of us feeling resentment and being
hateful to those who don't love the Lord. Ain't no sense getting
aggravated at them. They don't love Him. They don't
love His presence. They don't love His gospel. They
don't love His people. They don't love His worship.
I've been right there. I know where they're at. And
the whole problem is this. Nobody can love apart from this
Holy Spirit. Now that's so, ain't it? That's
so. We're commanded to do it. And
we love to do it. But no man's ever done it. No
man's ever done it until he's first barned of love. He must
be barned of love. God is the Spirit, and God is
love, and those who are barned of God, they love. Listen to
this. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God. And every one that loveth is
born of God, and he knoweth God, and he that loveth not knoweth
not God." Because God is love. God is love. You and I are in
a spiritual kingdom, aren't we? We've been born into it. We've
been translated into it. We've been delivered from the
power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear
Son. We've begun in the Spirit, and
we must continue in the Spirit. We've experienced a spiritual
birth, a new man, and this new man is to live in the Spirit,
and he's to walk in the Spirit, and he's to overcome the flesh
He's to overcome this world and He's to overcome the God of this
world by the strength and the grace that that Holy Spirit gives
Him in His heart. Paul said this, I pray for you
that God would grant you to be strengthened with might, to be
strengthened with His might, His power in the inner man. in your inner man, that new creature,
that new man that God has put in there, grant you to be strengthened
with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith, that you being rooted and grounded
in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and the depths and the height, and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge. And listen to this. that you
might be filled with all the fullness of God. Born of the
Spirit and led of the Spirit and taught and strengthened and
filled with His Holy Spirit. The whole problem with these
Galatians was this, they had begun in the Spirit and now they
were trying to perfect the flesh. Are you so foolish? Having begun
in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?" And the
way they were trying to perfect the flesh was this, submitting
themselves to these ceremonies and these rites. Submitting themselves
to circumcision, thinking by doing this they would perfect
the flesh. They tell me that circumcision
for a middle-aged man is extremely painful. The procedure, the experience
of it, and I could prove that if I wanted to this evening from
the Scripture, because Scripture teaches that. But these men here
were glorying in it. They gloryed in when they could
humble their flesh and their body and submit themselves to
these holy days and keep Sabbath days. and abstain from certain
meats and drinks, taste not, touch not, and handle not, and
wear certain clothes. And they fasted themselves half
to death. And they thought by doing this
they could perfect the flesh. And now here Paul writes to them
and he says this, the flesh cannot be perfected. God has not changed
the flesh. He has not saved the flesh. The flesh is flesh, and you'll
never eradicate it as long as you're in this world. It's sinful,
it's weak, it's full of passion, it's full of lust, and you cannot
eradicate it in this lifetime. So he says, instead of you seeking
to perfect the flesh, What you'll find in your experience is this.
You'll be constantly trying to keep this flesh in check and
subdued, and the only way you're going to do that is by the power
and the grace of the Holy Spirit. Instead of trying to perfect
your flesh, you're going to find out you're going to have to fight
against it all the days of your Christian life. That's what he's
telling us. And the only way to successfully do that and to
keep him in check is not circumcising him. It's not for him to submit
to these holy days and feast days and abstain from a glass
of wine and don't eat any pork. The only way to handle him is
for the Spirit of God to keep him subdued and beat down. When Paul says, your flesh, when
he mentions this flesh, he's not speaking so much of our members,
the members of our body. He's speaking about this carnal
nature. He's speaking about this sinful
nature that works through the flesh, that longs to break out
through these members and fulfill its lust. I tell you the truth,
I wish our problem was, I wish my problem was with that hand
right there. I wish that's where my problem was. You know what
I'd do, and I'm serious about this, I'd go to the hospital
and say, you've got to amputate this thing. Cut this off, and
when I get out of here, boy, I've got her made. I've got her
made. If my eye was my problem, that's
your problem. Just go have it plucked out,
and your problem will be over. But you pluck that old hand off,
and you pluck this eye out, and this old man is still going to
be lusting. Why? Because it's not physical. It's
a nature, ain't it? It's a sinful nature. Luther, Martin Luther, back in
1500, he was a monk. And he often told about going
out into these monasteries out in the wilderness. They built
these monasteries out in the wilderness and in the mountains.
They didn't build them in the towns. They put them out away
from everything. And these monks and these priests
would go out there and live away from society. They thought society
would corrupt them. So they built these monasteries
and they went out there and lived in the wilderness. And Luther
said it was a common thing for him to lay naked on a brick cold
floor. and almost fast himself to death.
He would take sharp objects and cut his arms and legs with it. Whip himself. Why did he do that? Well, he
said, I thought by doing this I could eradicate this flesh
and its lust. I found a quote by a man by the
name of Jerome. He was one of these monks. Very
popular man, too, back in his day. He was before Luther. And
I found his confession. Here's what he said. He said,
This is my confession. He was out in the wilderness
in one of these monasteries. But here's what he said. Listen
to what was going on in his heart. Here's what he said. I quote,
Oh, how often have I thought myself to be in the midst of
the vain delights and pleasures of Rome, even when I was with
the wild beast in the wilderness. I, who for fear of hell had condemned
myself to such a prison, thought myself oft times to be dancing
among young women when I had no other company than scorpions
and wild beasts. My face was pale with fasting,
but my mind was inflamed with desire in my body. And although
my flesh was half dead already, yet the flames of fleshly lust
boiled within me." I tell you, this lust, this passion,
this old nature, it's not eradicated by such things as that. It's
not put away by punishing a man's flesh. There is no remedy for
this misery that you and I know exists within us. Oh, wretched
man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Well, Paul, nobody's going to
do it in this lifetime. Nobody's going to do it in this
lifetime. When I would do good, evil is present with me, and
no matter how much grace I grow in, no matter how old I live
to be a believer, that evil is going to be present with me until
I die. And that's what Paul is telling
these Galatians here. It's the nature of the flesh.
What are we to do then? What are we to do then? If we
can't eradicate this old nature, well, he says here, walk in the
Spirit. Walk in the Spirit. And ye shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Yield to his influences. That's
what Paul's telling us. Obey him as he teaches us from
his Word. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of
God by which we're sealed unto the day of redemption. And realize
this, brothers and sisters, And I wonder if we realize this,
that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, which is
in us. Do we think about that? The Holy
Spirit is within us. We're His temple. He indwells
us, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own. And if you're
a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ this evening, The Spirit
of Christ has come to live in you. He indwells you. And He's there to work God's
will in you. He's more than just an influence.
We yield to His influences, but He's more than an influence.
He's a divine person. And He indwells every last believer. And He indwells them to help
them and to strengthen them, and to teach them, and comfort
them, and enable them to war against this old man that Paul
calls flesh. Walk in the Spirit, walk in the
Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And I think one of the things
that you and I so often forget And it seems like we almost live
unaware of this. And it's taught everywhere in
the Scriptures. But yet we seem like we very
seldom think of this. We have this divine person within
us that dwells in our hearts. The person of Christ in His physical
person is in heaven at the right hand of God. But Christ the Spirit
dwells in us. He is with you, but He shall
be in you. That's what he told his disciples.
He's in us. I think we need to be more mindful
of that. We say we believe it. We say
we believe it. God help us to be more mindful
of it. Verse 17. Look in verse 17 of
Galatians 5. For the flesh lusteth, it wards
against the Spirit, And the Spirit he warms against the flesh, and
these are contrary, they're opposed one to another, so that you cannot
do the things that you would. I think if you and I meditated
upon this a little bit, I think you and I would have a renewed
appreciation for the faithfulness and the patience and love of
the Holy Spirit that's within us. We often think about the
Lord Jesus when He came here and dwelt with His apostles,
and how patient He was with those apostles. How ignorant they were. I just wonder how many people
they would have destroyed if the Lord hadn't stopped them,
if they could have. You want us to call fire down
from heaven and destroy these sinners? They caused so much
division with the Lord's people. They saw a man casting out devils
in Christ's name, and they made him stop. I tell you, if it had been left
up to the Lord's apostles, the Lord's work would have failed.
Do you realize that? But you know something? He never
gave up on them, did he? Oh, sometimes he did rebuke them.
But I tell you what, He was so patient with them and kind to
them. And He said, Father, every one
that you've given Me, I've kept. Oh, they're ignorant. They don't
know very much, but I love them. Having loved His own, which were
in this world, He loved them until the end. But the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of Christ, He's the same way with us. He comes to
dwell in us, and He knows what He's up against. He knew it before
He came to dwell in our hearts that every day that He dwelt
within us, He was going to have to do battle with His flesh. And yet He never gives up on
us, does He? He lovingly and patiently bears with us. He comes
to seal us to the day of redemption, and He'll never seek His work
within us until He's finished. He'll never leave us. He'll never
forsake us. He'll abide with us always, and
He'll never seek to war against this old flesh. Oh, the patience! We've heard of the love of Christ.
We've heard of the love of God. But how little do we hear of
the love. of the Holy Spirit within our
hearts. And I guess it's because He seldom
speaks of Himself, does He? He points us to Christ. He guides
us to Christ. But oh, how we bless Him because
the flesh wars against Him, but He never gives up. He never gives
up. I'm surprised at this. Aren't
you? Happily surprised. that he never gives up. He never
fails. He never fails. And I doubt if
he's ever discouraged. He's the Almighty, Sovereign
Spirit. The third person of the Blessed
Trinity. He woreth against the flesh, and the flesh against
the Spirit. And in verse 18, if ye be led
of the Spirit, but And I love, I love the way Paul puts this. He just had finished saying that
your flesh is so wretched and contrary that it fights against
the Spirit. He just lusts and he's so full
of passion, and the Spirit in turn, He wars against the flesh
to keep him down. There's this awful warfare going
on. And we feel it, don't we? Those who don't feel it aren't
saved. Those who don't experience this aren't saved. But then immediately
he says, but, though you feel this awful sin working in you,
and though it's contrary to the Spirit of holiness, and though
it's a burden to you, but he said this, know this, if you
stand against this flesh, and you keep him beat down, and you
don't let him have his way, then you can know this, the Spirit
of Christ is in you. And He's leading you, and you're
not under the law. Ain't that a wonderful statement?
You're not condemned. God will not impute this sin
to you. Oh, you feel it's working within
you. But for Christ's sake, God will not impute this sin to you.
He'll be merciful to you. Even though your old man is warring
against the Spirit, He won't impute it to you. You're not
under the law. And that's a covenant blessing.
That's one of the promises. I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness. Their sins and iniquities, well,
I remember no more. But we have this iniquity, He
don't forgive. And we can't lay it aside. But
He don't impute it to us, for Christ's sake. He's merciful
to us. If you be led of the Spirit.
Then, Paul said, you're not under the law. What does these scriptures
teach us? If you and I just look at them
here as we've been looking at them, about the flesh and the
spirit, don't this teach us that it's
utterly impossible to be saved apart from a new birth? apart from the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Spirit. We're born into this world a
natural being. We're born with sinful nature.
And those natures will never be changed. They'll never be
improved in this world. And until you and I are given
a new nature, we cannot know the Lord. Until we are born again,
we cannot know the things of the Lord. We cannot love, we
cannot fear, we cannot worship, we cannot serve. Nothing short
of being born of God, of being born again, will save us. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. Those who are still in their
old nature, Those who walk after the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh,
but you have a new life. You live in the Spirit. You are
alive in the Spirit. Your confidence is not in the
flesh. You don't live your life worrying
after the flesh, but you rejoice in Christ Jesus. You're looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. You live by faith
upon the Son of God, and you cleave to Him to be saved by
Him in your heart. Not only in this world, but the
world to come. You're not in the flesh. You're
in the Spirit. You're in a new realm. You're
in this heavenly realm. Therefore, Paul says here, this
being so, since you're in this heavenly realm, it's evident
that you're not under the law. Oh, your flesh, your flesh is
bound and burdened by the law of sin. With the flesh, I myself
serve the law of sin. But in the spirit of your mind,
he said, in your heart, in your soul, you're free from sin. There's no condemnation to you.
You're in Christ. And therefore, you're free from
sin, and free from judgment, and free from guilt. And you
can live the rest of your days with a good hope that when you
leave this world, you'll go to be with Christ, and you'll be
free from your burden. And brothers and sisters, who
could ask for any more than that? We have the Spirit that we're
born of. He's within our hearts. He's
helping us. He's comforting us. He's teaching us. He's encouraging
us. He's leading us. He's sealed
us to the day of redemption. He's promised never to leave
us. He's promised to war faithfully in us to keep us subdued. And then when this life is over,
we can go to be with our Savior. Now, I can't ask for any more
than that, can you? You say, Bruce, but it's tough. Yes, it
is. But have you ever experienced
such joy? And don't it just give you all
sorts of confidence and assurance when you hear these things talked
about? If you be led of the Spirit,
I want you to turn to three or four Scriptures in closing with
me. If you be led If you be led of the Spirit. I want you to
turn over to Exodus with me. If you be led of the Spirit.
What does this teach us? If you be led of the Spirit. What does this teach us of His
mercy? That the Spirit would consent
to lead us. Lead us. Isn't that a mercy? That's a
mercy. It's a great mercy to lead us. We sure don't know the way if
He don't lead us. Ain't it a mercy, brothers and
sisters, that He's led you to know yourself? Isn't it a mercy that you're
a poor sinner, Clarence? Well, you say, Bruce, everybody's
a poor sinner. Well, yeah, but hardly anybody knows it. But
He's led you to know it, hasn't He? Isn't it an amazing thing and
wonderful thing that He's led you into the knowledge of God, of His holiness, of His justice,
of His love, of His tenderness? of His willingness to save you
in Christ? Isn't it a wonderful thing that
He's led you to Christ? Who led you to Christ? The Holy
Spirit did. And no man can lead you to Christ. The Spirit has to lead you to
Christ. No man can say that Jesus is Lord apart from the Holy Spirit. Flesh and blood has not revealed
this to you. My Father in Heaven He's led
you to repentance. He's led you to faith. He's led
you to follow. He's led you. Ain't that a mercy? Look what He said in Exodus 15
and verse 13. Thou in thy mercy has led forth
the people which thou hast redeemed. Thou hast guided them in Thy
strength unto Thy holy habitation. What a mercy! What a mercy! Look
in Psalms 23. Look in Psalms 23. Look in verse 2 and 3. Psalms 23 and verse 2 and 3. David said, The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. If you be led of the Spirit.
Where does He lead you? Beside still water. I think it
was Brother Glenn said the other day, Not by troubled waters.
Not by stormy waters. Not by flood waters. But by still
waters. I love still waters, don't you?
Where everything is quiet. Oh, the turmoil comes. The storms
come. And you think, man, these things
are going to last forever. And then what does He do? He
leads you by the still water. And look what He said in verse
3. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness. That's where He leads. You be
led of the Spirit. He leads us unto paths of righteousness. Had you ever heard in all your
life that you had to be saved by another man's righteousness?
I spent all my teenage years trying to figure out how to work
up a righteousness to be saved in. And I finally was led to
see that God has a righteousness and it's Christ. And God has
provided him himself. And what God has provided, he
accepts. But I never knew that. In my
ignorance, I never knew that until he led me into that knowledge
of Christ. And now I say with Paul, everything
else is done. I abhor my own righteousness.
I long to be found in the righteousness of God. Lord, save me, David
said, in thy righteousness. I'll make mention of thy righteousness.
The Spirit leads us there. And I tell you, He leads us into
a righteous life, doesn't He? Denying ungodliness and worldly
lusts, we should live soberly and righteously in this present
evil world. Did you ever think that you could
delight in righteousness? Did you ever think you could
sit down with the Lord's Word and read it and meditate in it
and love it. Do you ever think you could come
here with a little group of people and sit here and listen to a
poor hillbilly talk and like it? I tell you, some of the most
miserable days of my life was when I used to think about the
Lord. If I picked up a Bible to read, I couldn't understand
it. And if they got me in church and I had to sit there over 30
minutes, I was bored to death. And when I got outside, but now everything's changed.
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness. I long to please
the Lord. Don't you? Long to live well-pleasing
to God. Paths of righteousness. Look
over here in another place. Look in Isaiah chapter 42. Isaiah
chapter 42. What does this imply when we
talk about the Spirit, if you be led of the Spirit? Why would somebody need to be
led? You see a dog, you see somebody
coming down the street and he's got these dark glasses on and
he's got this harness on this dog and that dog's leading him
around. You know why that is? He don't know where he's going.
You take his guide away and he's lost. We're blind, aren't we? We're stupid. We're ignorant.
We don't know how to set one spiritual foot down in front
of another. Brother Mahan said this, he said,
if the Lord got us ten foot, within ten foot of the gate of
heaven, and he said, I'm going to let you find the rest of the
way by yourself. You know what he said? We'd get lost, but we
got there. And that's so, ain't it? And that's what it seems
to imply here. We need a guide. We need somebody
to lead us. And that's what the Lord said
in here. Look in chapter 42 of Isaiah and verse 16. Look at
this. I will bring the blind by way
that they knew not. I will lead them in paths that
they have not known. I will make darkness light before
them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them
and not forsake them. And I tell you, the spiritual
walk is the very same way. We don't know from one moment
to the next what's going to happen to it, or which direction to
go in, if He's not leading us. Jeremiah was so caught up with
this, this is what he said. Where is the Lord that brought
us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through this great
wilderness, through the land of deserts and pits, through
lands of drought, through the shadow of death, and through
the land that no man passed through, where no man dwelt. And the Lord
brought us into this plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof. I tell you, this is a dangerous
way. Did you know that? This is a
dangerous world we live in, full of devils, full of pits, How
many of you and I have seen, we've seen them fall into pits,
and we had to leave them there because we couldn't get them
out, and they're still there to this very day? How many have
been caught in traps, and they're still caught in them? And why
haven't you and I failed, brothers and sisters? Why are we still
on the way? We've got a leader, haven't we?
We've got a guide. Through many dangers, toils,
and snares, snares, I've already come. How did we come this far? He leads us. God leads His children
along. Some through the water, some
through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the
blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all. in the night seasons and all
the day long. Aren't you glad the Spirit is
leading us? I'll tell you one thing. We wouldn't make it if
He didn't. We wouldn't make it if He didn't. What a mercy. What
a mercy. The Spirit of Jesus Christ has
come to dwell in us. And He'll dwell there until at last our faith ends
inside. And we bless His holy name. Let's
pray.