Would you turn back to Galatians
chapter 5? Paul says in verse 25, If we live in the Spirit, do
we? Well, if we're believers, we
do. If we have life, we do. The spiritual life we have comes
from the Spirit of God. That which is born of the Spirit
is Spirit. Now, Paul says, if we live in
the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Walking in line
with the Spirit of God. which is walking according to
the Word of God. If we live in the Spirit, let's
walk in the Spirit. And he says in verse 16, this
I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the
lust of the flesh. Now that's a promise. That's
a promise. Walk in the Spirit, and you shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now notice what he doesn't say.
He doesn't say you'll no longer have the lust of the flesh, because
you'll have those to the day you die without any question. They're always there. He doesn't
promise that we'll no longer have the lust of the flesh, but
he said in walking in the spirit, we shall not fulfill the lust
of the flesh. We won't bring them to their
completed end. We can't if we walk in the spirit. Now, in the context Paul said
in verse 13, for brethren, you've been called unto liberty. You've been called unto freedom,
the freedom of grace, the freedom of Christ. You've been called
unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh.
Don't use the liberty that you have in Christ Jesus as an excuse
for sinful behavior. Well, I'm free. Don't you dare
do that? What, shall we continue in sin
that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? He said, don't you use
your liberty as an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve
one another. For all the law is fulfilled
in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if you bite and devour one
another, if you act like animals, Take heed that you be not consumed
one another. And this I say then, in response
to that, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust
of the flesh. Now here's the big question.
What is meant by walking in the Spirit? Turn to Romans chapter
8 for a moment. Romans chapter 8. Now, most people,
when they think about walking in the spirit, they think of
walking in the spiritual plane where they're walking above sin
and they're walking in the spirit and being real good and being
real holy and so on. And when they walk in the flesh,
that means all of a sudden they've come down out of that and now
they're sinning and so on. When you're sinning, you're in the flesh.
When you're not sinning, you're in the spirit. Is that what that
means? I hope you all know better than
that. I hope you all know better than that. Look in Romans chapter
8, verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. And to everybody who is in Christ
Jesus, all of God's elect, all those whom He represented, all
who were in Him when He died. To those people, there is therefore
now no condemnation. Bless God, there's nothing to
condemn me for. I love that. I can't get enough
of that. There's nothing to condemn me
for. I stand perfect in Christ Jesus. God's holy law looks me over,
and there's nothing to condemn me for. Isn't that wonderful?
There's therefore now no condemnation. to them that are in Christ Jesus.
And look how these people who are in Christ Jesus described
who walk not after the flesh. But after the spirit. Look in
verse two, go on reading. For the law. Of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus. Now, what is the law of the spirit
of life in Christ Jesus? It's the gospel. It's the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's his life as my life before
God. It's him giving me spiritual
life. His life is my life before God. His life is my life in here.
The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. It's the gospel.
The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free
from the law of sin and death. Now, what's the law of sin and
death? God's law. God's holy law. It's a law of
sin and death. All it does is expose my sin. Doesn't do anything else. Doesn't
give me any life. It's the law of sin and it's the law of death. For the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law could not do. What could the law not do? Couldn't
say. It could expose my sin. It could
show me how short I come. But it can't give me life. It
can't save me. It can't forgive me of my sins.
What the law could not do. And the problem is not with the
law. God's law is holy and just and good. The problem is with
me. What the law could not do in that it was weak to the flesh,
God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and
for sin as a sacrifice for sin because of sin. He was made sin
and in his flesh, God condemned sin in the flesh. Verse four,
that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. All that
the law requires, perfect obedience, we have in Christ. And once again,
those people who have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in them,
with Christ's law keeping, Christ's obedience being my obedience
before God, what God's pleased with, they're once again described
as they who walk not after the flesh, but they walk after the
Spirit. What does it mean to walk after
the Spirit? Well, let's go on reading. Verse
5. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the
flesh. Now, by the word flesh, he means
fallen human nature. The way we were born into this
world, the wisdom of the flesh, the understanding of the flesh,
the religion of the flesh, fallen human nature. For they that are
after the flesh, this is where their mind comes from. They do
mind the things of the flesh. That's all they understand. But
they that are after the spirit, they that are born of the spirit,
they mind the things of the spirit. They mind, they have the mind
of Christ. That's why they mind the things of the spirit. They
have the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're different. Verse six, for to be carnally
minded, to be fleshly minded, is death. Death. That's all it will ever
end in, is death. It can't give life. If all I
have, if I know nothing about walking after the Spirit, if
I'm not born of the Spirit, if I don't have this spiritual nature,
this holy nature, if I'm just in my carnal mind, my fleshly
mind, all I'm ever going to know is death. And I'm going to end
up in hell. To be carnally minded is death,
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. To be spiritually minded is to
walk in the Spirits, to have the Spirit of God. It's to be
born again. It's to be born from above. And
if I'm born from above, I have life. I have spiritual life. I've got the mind of Christ.
And I have peace. God's at peace with me. And I'm
at peace with God. And the reason I'm at peace with
Him is the same reason He's at peace with me. I see my peace
as the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood. Same ground. It's
life. And it's peace. Verse 7, Because
the carnal mind, the fleshly mind, the natural mind, is enmity
against God. Now, notice it doesn't say it's
had enmity. It says it's enmity itself. You
and I were born into this world hating God. That's strong language. Is it so? You know, most people
never see their hatred of God. And if you'd ask them, say, hate
God, they'd say, no, I love God. I love Him. People find out they
hate God when they hear the gospel. That's when they find out they
hate God. Well, I don't love that God. The God you preach? No, no, that's not my God. My God's not like that. My God
would save everybody. My God would die for everybody.
My God would make salvation available for everybody. This God you're
preaching? No, I don't love that God. Well, that's enmity against
God. That's what it is exactly. Enmity
against God. The carnal mind. The fleshly
mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law
of God. Neither, indeed, can be. It doesn't
even have the potential to be. That's the carnal mind. It's
completely evil. Enmity against God. And if God
doesn't give us a new nature, if we don't walk according to
the Spirit of God, that's us. Enmity against God. Verse 8,
So then, they that are in the flesh, cannot please God. They lack the ability. There's
nothing they can do to please God. If I'm in the flesh, if
I don't walk according to the Spirit, if I don't live in the
Spirit, if I don't have the Holy Spirit, if I don't have a new
nature, if all I am is natural, the way I'm born into this world,
I cannot, note that word, I cannot, it's beyond my ability to please
God. Verse 9, but you are not in the
flesh. It's speaking to the believer.
You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that
the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, you don't go in the Spirit
and then back into the flesh, going back and forth. Not at
all. If you have the Spirit of God, He's there to stay. You've
been given a new nature that can't die. You have eternal life
in you. You're not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that
the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, He's none of his. He doesn't belong to Christ.
And if Christ be in you, if that's the spirit of God, if Christ
be in you, Christ in you, the hope of glory, same thing. If
Christ be in you, and this is what I need, I need him to be
in me. It wouldn't be enough for him to simply make himself
known to me because I'd mess it up somehow. If all it was
was him making himself known to me and revealing himself to
me and influencing me, it wouldn't do me any good. I have to have
him in me. Now, if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin. You still have a body that's
dead in sins. And that's what Paul was talking
about when he said, Oh, wretched man that I am. Who should deliver
me from this body of death? The body of death. And if you've
got a dead body, you know it too. You're carrying one around
with you and you feel it. He's ever there. The body is
dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Now, to walk in the spirit is
to be a Christian. That's what it is. It's to have
a new nature. It's to look to Christ. But it's
the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell
in you. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore,
brethren, we're debtors. Not to the flesh, to live after
the flesh. For if you live after the flesh,
you shall die. But if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds
of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they, and they only, are the sons of God. Now
walking in the Spirit, is not some kind of playing you reach.
Now all of a sudden I'm walking above my sorrows and my sins
and I'm just kind of floating along everything. No, it's being
a believer. It's looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now look back to Galatians chapter 5. This I say then, walk in the
Spirit and you shall not fulfill You should not bring to completion.
You should not finish the lust of the flesh for. When I was
talking to Lynn about this message yesterday, I said, this is the
verse that I think I understand the most in this passage of scripture
for the flesh. Lust against the spirit. and
the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, they're
adversaries one to another, so that you cannot do the things
that you would. Now, when he's talking about
being, walking in the spirit, and if I walk in the spirit,
I won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. He goes straight to this
battle that's going on. It's the same battle that Paul
was speaking of in Romans chapter 7. We'll look at it in just a
minute. The flesh lusting against the Spirit. You would. You would be perfectly holy. You would never sin again. You would be perfectly conformed
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You would submit to His will
in all things willingly and gladly. You'd never sin again. But that isn't possible, is it? You've got something called the
flesh, and the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and won't allow you
to do what you would. And this is also true, too. This
is the truth. You would, if God took his hand
off of you, there's no sin right now that you would not commit. greedily, with all your heart,
like the pig going into the mud, you do that. You would right
now with the flesh you've got right now, it'll lead you in
that direction. But you can't. The spirit will not allow that. Aren't you thankful for that?
Turn with me for a moment to Romans chapter seven. Walking in the Spirit does not
mean we do not have to deal with this flesh, obviously. Look in
verse 14. For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, fleshly, sold under sin. My flesh is a slave
to sin. For that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would, what I desire,
that do I not. But what I hate, That do I. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent unto the law that is good. Now then, it's no more
I that do it. It's not the new man that does
it, but the sin that dwelleth in me, the old nature, for I
know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me.
I would desire to be just like Christ. To will is present with
me. But how to perform that which
is good? How to do what I would want to do? He doesn't say sometimes
I mess up, does he? He says, I flat out don't find
it. Not once have I ever found it. For the good that I would,
I do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. Now if I do that which I would
not, it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me,
I find then a law. That when I would do good, evil
is present with me, for I delight in the law of God after the inward
man. I love God's law. I do. I love God's law. You know,
there's a time when I didn't. There's a time when I thought
it was too strict, too severe. I don't feel that way anymore. I love God's law. It's a reflection of His holy
character. I delight in the law of God after
the inward man, that new man. Spirit, what God has given the
new man. But I see another law in my members
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members. Somebody says Paul
must not have been saved. Oh, yeah, he was. That's what
people try to argue. How could he have been saved
and talk like that? I know. Any believer knows exactly what
he means. If somebody doesn't know what he means, it's just
because the Lord hasn't done anything for them. Because you'll know
this if this is your experience. You've got to experience it before
you can know it. Then he says, verse 24, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body, the body of this death? The old man. I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with my mind I myself serve the
law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Now is Paul trying
to make an excuse for sinful behavior? Not for a second. He
says, walk in the Spirit. Back to Galatians chapter 5. Walk in the Spirit and you shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh, verse 17, lusts
against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh. And these
are contrary to one to the other, so that you can't do the things
that you would, but if you be led of the Spirit. Now, if you
live by the Spirit, if you walk in the Spirit, you're led of
the Spirit. And what happens when you're
led of the Spirit? You're not under law. That goes
plain contrary to the way we naturally think. We think, well,
it's the law that'll put these sinful passions down. He says,
no, if you're a lad of the Spirit, you're not under law. That doesn't make sense to a
natural man. Paul said, sins shall not have dominion over
you because you're not under law. You're under grace, totally
dependent upon grace. Now, that's just contrary to
the way we think. We think it's the law that will
keep us from walking in the flesh, keep the appetites down, put
people under law. If we're led by the Spirit of
God, we're not under law. Verse 19, now the works of the
flesh are manifest. They're obvious. Here's what
being under the law produces works. And now what happens when
you're under law? That means works. And here are
the works of the flesh. You want to know what works are?
Here they are. Here's every work that comes
from the flesh, or at least the works he's pleased to mention.
I'm sure there's other evil things he could talk about, but these
are the things he mentions. For the works of the flesh are
manifest, which are these. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness. That all has to do with sexual
sin. Absence of restraint in sexual sin. Verse 20, idolatry,
because you don't love God, you make up a God you feel comfortable
with and worship that God. It's a false God. It's the works
of the flesh, witchcraft, sorcery, hatred, the absence of love,
the opposite of love. Variance, discord and divisions,
emulations, jealousy, wanting what somebody else has for yourself,
wrath, temper tantrums, strife, Self-seeking and ambition is
what that means. Seditions, splits and separations,
heresies, false soul-damning doctrine, envying that feeling
of uneasiness at the prosperity of others, murders, not only
physical murders, but murdering people's character, drunkenness,
intoxication and revelings, the partying that goes along with
it. And such like of the witch I tell you before, as I told
you in times past, they which do such things shall not inherit
the kingdom of God. How many different ways are there
to take that? They which do such things, if
that's the tenor of their life, they shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. Now, a believer, those things
that I just mentioned, and I think there are 22 different sins,
name me one you haven't committed in the last week, at least in
your heart. Name me one. But that's not the
tenor of your life if you're a believer. You can fall into
any one of these sins, but that's not the tenor of your life if
you're a believer. He says, they which practice such things shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. But, verse 22, they talked about
the works of the flesh, but now he talks about the fruit of the
spirit. You see, if you live in the spirit,
if you walk in the spirit, if you're led of the spirit of God,
You will have the fruit of the spirit. Now, not works, not the
work, the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. When the Lord. Gave the parable of the four
different errors, remember the wayside here didn't understand
the word just left, and then there was the stony ground here
who who when he first heard the gospel said, I like that, I believe
that. I see scriptures teaching that,
but when persecution arises because of the word or when some kind
of trial comes, they're gone. And then the thorn choked here.
He hears the gospel and claims to believe that the thorns of
this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other
things and the cares of this world, they just choke the word
so it doesn't bring forth any fruit. What was the good ground
here? What was the difference? He brought
forth fruit, the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. Now, this is
what every believer possesses, the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. Now, fruit comes from life. A
dead plant can't produce fruit, can it? Fruit comes from spiritual
life, and fruit grows. It starts out the seed, then
the flower, In the fruit, it takes time, and fruit calls for
care. You've got to prune. Like when
the Lord talked about us abiding in Him, bearing much fruit. He
says when we bear fruit, He'll prune us. He'll prune us. And
that's a painful operation. But why does He do it? That we
might bear more fruit. The fruit of the Holy Spirit.
And I think the fruit of the Holy Spirit is so beautiful. How this exemplifies The Lord
Jesus Christ. Look at every one of these in
light of Christ. Now, there are three different clusters. The
first cluster has to do with God. The second cluster has to
do with man. And the third cluster has to
do with self. Look at them. But the fruit of
the Spirit is love. You think of the Lord's love
to his Father. Joy. Peace. longsuffering or patience,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. The Lord Jesus Christ exemplifies
the fruit of the Spirit. If you want to see the fruit
of the Spirit, look upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Beautiful. Now, if we Live in
the Spirit. And we do. Let's walk in the
Spirit, bearing the fruit of the Spirit. Now, let's consider
the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. This is what every believer has.
And, you know, some have it more developed than others. You know,
like a baby is not as developed as an adult. You know that. But
all believers have the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. And
if I don't have the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit, I don't
have the Holy Spirit. If I don't have the Holy Spirit, I don't
have life. So I want to see if I have this fruit that he's speaking
of. And if I don't have this fruit
he's speaking of, I don't have the Spirit of God. I'm not walking
in the Spirit. I'm not living in the Spirit.
The first thing he mentions is love. The fruit of the Spirit
is love. I can say with Peter, when after
He had denied the Lord three times. The Lord asked him three
times, Peter, do you love me? He didn't ask Peter, are you
sorry? He didn't say, have you repented? He didn't say, do you
promise to never do this again? He asked one question. Do you
love my person? And Peter said, Lord, You know
all things. You can see right through my
heart. I can't act before you. And you know that I love your
person. Every believer loves the Lord
Jesus Christ as he is. They love the sovereign Christ.
Let me ask you this. We talk about love to Christ.
Do you love the fact that he's in control of everything? Do
you love the fact that everybody's in his hand and he can do with
everybody whatever he's pleased to do, that God has given him
power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as
many as the Father gave him? Do you love him for that? Do you love
his obedience and his righteousness? Do you love his righteousness
as being the only way you're righteous before God? Do you
love that? Do you love his wisdom? Do you love his justice? Do you
love his holiness? Think of all his glorious attributes.
Do you love him as he is? Yes, I do. Let me tell you this. I can say this. I wouldn't change
him in any way if it were in my power. I can't say that about
any other human being. There's all kinds of things I'd
change about everybody in here if I could. You can just write
that down. And if you could, there's all
kinds of things you'd change about me. You know, I've said
that before. I've said that before and people
say, I don't see that. Well, you're not around today. Ask Lynn, I guarantee
you there's all kinds of things she'd say she wants changed about
me. I think, wouldn't you? Yeah, yeah. Like I said, I think.
One time, this true story, one time Lynn and I were participating
in something we shouldn't do. We were kind of talking negatively
about somebody and Lynn said, she said, I wonder what they'd
say about us. I said, what would they say? And she said, Are you
that deceived? Evidently, I was. But the fruit
of the Spirit is love. I wouldn't change the Lord Jesus
Christ in any way if it were in my power. He is altogether
lovely. He's perfect. He's the perfect
Savior. I love him as he is. And I love
his people. Anybody who loves Christ, I love
that person. I really do. I want to be a servant
to them. Anybody who loves Christ, I'm
all for them. I'll tell you what, I love men. I love men. I want them to be saved. I want
them to hear the gospel. I want them to know the Lord.
The fruit of the Spirit is love. This is a supernatural love.
Love that is born of God. This is not just talking about
the love between men or parents and children and so on. This
is a supernatural love. The fruit of the Spirit is love. And then next, he says, the fruit
of the Spirit is joy. Is joy. Now, you can't believe
on Christ without rejoicing. You can't really believe that
He's your righteousness before God and not be happy about it.
I mean, does that make you happy to know that He is your righteousness
before God? You can't really believe that
His blood has washed away your sins and not be joyful about
it. You can't really believe that
God's on the throne controlling everything, the first cause behind
everything. Everything's in His hands and not being happy about
it. The fruit of the Spirit is joy. We joy to meet together. I joy to meet with the people
of God. I love looking at you right now. What a joy. The fruit
of the Spirit is joy. We rejoice in our God. We rejoice
in the gospel. Next, he says in verse 22, the
fruit of the Spirit is peace. Now, remember, this first cluster
is our attitude toward God. We love Him. We love His people,
too. Can't love Him without love His
people. We have joy in Him. The joy of the Lord is your strength,
what he does, and we have peace. The peace I feel because I see
he's at peace with me through the blood of Christ. I think
of this scripture in Jeremiah 29, 11. This is what came to
my mind. Somebody read this recently.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the
Lord. Thoughts of peace. and not of evil, to bring you
to an expected end. That's what the Lord thinks when
he thinks of you, if you have the Spirit of God. I know the
thoughts I think of you, thoughts of peace. Peace. And I have such peace in knowing
that all God requires of me, he looks to Christ for. I get
such peace from that. If God was looking for anything
out of me, I wouldn't get any peace. I'd be scared to death.
But knowing that everything he requires of me, I have in Christ
Jesus. Oh, what peace. And I'm a peacemaker. I preach the gospel of peace.
And I hope, by the grace of God, I'm not somebody looking for
a fight and contentious and so on. No. The fruit of the Spirit
is peace. Now, the next cluster has to
do with our attitude towards others. The fruit of the spirit
is long suffering, gentleness and goodness. Long suffering
means patient. Patient. Now, I dare say that
every one of us feel like we're not patient enough. But when
having the spirit of God, I can look at somebody fumbling, failing. Struggling. And I think, I'm worse than they are. And
God's grace will see them through. And I'm going to be patient with
them. I'm going to be patient. Wait on the Lord. That's what
patience is. You wait on the Lord. You see
someone struggling, you're going to be patient. You don't nail
them to the wall. You be patient. Long-suffering. The next thing
he says, The fruit of the Spirit is gentleness, kindness. That's what the word
is, kindness, graciousness. Ephesians 4.32 says, Be ye kind. That's the same word, kind, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another. As God, for Christ's sake, has
forgiven you. The fruit of the Spirit is kindness
and graciousness. And one of the things that is
delighting me right now is I'm looking at some kind and gracious
people. I'm thankful for that. Then next, he says the fruit
of the Spirit is goodness. Goodness. This is good. This
is our attitude toward others. Goodness, as much as anything
else, is the capacity to be merciful. To be forgiving, to be gracious.
It's very similar to the other one. But remember when Moses
said, show me your glory and God said, all right, I'll make
my goodness pass before you, my capacity to save a bunch of
rebels like this. It is goodness. You think that
scripture in Romans five, where Paul says for a righteous man, someone scared, nobody's going
to die for that fella. The fella that's just overly
righteous, real moral, pious, and just holds your feet to the
fire, nobody's going to want to die for that fella. But for
a good man, a gracious man, a merciful man, a kind man, some would dare
to die. We like good people better, don't
we, in that sense. And the fruit of the Spirit is
goodness. This is our attitude toward men.
And then, he says, this is the fruit for itself, the last three,
faith, meekness, and temperance. Faith or faithfulness. We believe
God. And we can be believed. If we have faith. We believe
God. We believe the gospel. We believe
everything God says. And you know, I do. I believe
everything God says. I believe the Word of God. I
believe the Bible's the Word of God. I believe everything
in it. And if I don't understand it, I believe it anyway. I love
what Donnie Bell said. If the Bible said that Jodah
swallowed the whale, I'd believe it. And I would too. I believe
the Bible's the Word of God. And I trust the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe Him. And by His grace,
Faithful. Faithful to His Word. Faithful
to you. Faithful to your souls. The fruit
of the Spirit is faith. The fruit of the Spirit is meekness. Willing submission is what that
is. It comes from true humility.
Here's what a meek attitude is. Whatever the Lord sends my way
is right because He sent it. I might not like it, I might
not enjoy it, but because He sends it, it's fine, whatever
He does is fine. You believe that, don't you?
Job said, though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. You're
in the Lord's hands. What if He takes everything you've
got? Hard trial, but it's okay if He does it. That's an attitude toward God.
The fruit of the Spirit is temperance. Control from within is what the
word means. Temperance. Temperance in eating and drinking. And also temperance about what
you don't eat and what you don't drink. You're tempered in everything.
You don't go overboard on anything. tempered in your views of yourself.
You're not drunken with pride. You're sober about yourself.
You know that you're a sinner saved by the grace of God. You're
temperate, controlled from within. You're restrained. It's because
God restrained you. You realize that, but there's
restraint. If there's somebody that doesn't have any restraint,
they don't have the Spirit of God. The fruit of the Spirit is temperance. This is the fruit toward a believer,
faith, meekness, And I love what Paul says next, in verse 23. He says, Against such, there
is no law. No law is needed where the fruit
of the Spirit is, is there? Now, where you have this fruit,
do you need law? If you need law, all you prove
by that is you don't have the Spirit of God. The law was not
made for a righteous man, but for sinners and the ungodly.
People who are wanting to be under law, all they say by that
is, I don't have the Spirit of God. They don't realize they're
saying that. They think, this is what I need to keep my flesh
down. But all they're saying is, I don't have the Spirit of
God. If you're led in the Spirit, you're not under law. And Paul,
this is a slam he's making on the Judaizers. He says they're
always talking about laws. Well, the gist is, is there any
law against this? Verse 24, And they that are Christ's
have crucified the flesh with the affections and with the lusts. Now, this is something that's
going on every single day. This is not something that's
finished. It's something going on every single day. The crucifixion
of the flesh. Now, if we live in the spirit,
let us also walk in the spirit. And he tells us concretely what
that means. Now, here's what happens when somebody walks in
the spirit. Number one, they're not desirous
of vain glory. They want Christ to have all
the glory. And let me ask you a question.
In your heart, Do you want the Lord Jesus Christ to have all
the glory? Every believer does. They're
not desirous of vain glory. Let us not be provoking one to
another. Now, in walking in the Spirit,
the only provoking we'll want to do is provoke to love and
good works. Not provoking people with our
piety and our religiosity. That's not what we do if we have
the fruit of the Spirit. Not provoking one another. And not envying one another. You see, if you love somebody, however they're prospered, you're
prospered. You rejoice in what happens to
them. You're not envious of them. If
you're promoted, I'm promoted. If you hurt, I hurt. If I love
you, not certainly not envious. So when someone is walking in
the spirit, when someone is a believer, when they have a new nature,
they have the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And this is the great desire.
This is how living in the spirit and walking in the spirit is
seen by not being desire, surveying glory, not provoking one another
and not envying one another. You look to Christ. I look to
Christ. And we'll have the fruit of the
Spirit. If you're under law, all you'll have is the works
of the flesh. And this just goes against our
natural way of thinking, but it's so. If you're under the
law, you're described in verses 19 through 21. But if you look
to Christ, you're led of the Spirit, you live in the Spirit,
and you walk by the Spirit. And you are filled with the fruit
of God, the Holy Spirit. This is what I want. I want to
be somebody who walks in the spirit, walking in the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray.