our Bibles again to Galatians. Galatians chapter 5, and we will
begin our reading in verse 16. Read through the end of this
chapter. Galatians chapter 5, 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 against
the flesh. And these are contrary one to
the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would.
But if you be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envies, murders, drunkenness, 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, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with affections
and lust. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain
glory, provoking one another, envying one another. The title
of my message this evening is Walk in the Spirit. We began
with verse 16 where the Apostle tells us, walk in the Spirit. I say then, walk in the Spirit. And almost the last verse we
read, verse 25, let us also walk in the Spirit. I want to begin
the message tonight by pointing out that in these 11 verses that
we've read and we are looking at, the word Spirit is found
seven times. I'm sure you probably didn't
count, but if you would like to later, count, and you will
see the word spirit seven times. In five of these instances, it
is the Holy Spirit. Where we read spirit, it is the
Holy Spirit. But two times, it's not the Holy
Spirit, but it is that spirit which is also called the new
man. Remember, our Lord told Nicodemus,
verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. He cannot perceive. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither
can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned, the apostle
tells us in 1 Corinthians. A man or woman must be born of
the Spirit. And later, in that same passage
when Christ was speaking to Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a man who should
have known this. And I say that because our Lord
asked him later, he said, Art thou a master in Israel? Art
you a teacher? You teach men and women, and
you do not understand, you do not know these things? In other
words, the new birth was not something new in the sense that
that the Lord Jesus Christ is now teaching something that had
not been taught from the very beginning. No man, no woman has
ever been born or has ever been saved who has not been born again.
I remember back in the 1970s, we had a president who professed
to be a born-again Christian. And the news people, being ignorant
for the most part, they picked up on that and they said, well,
he's a born-again Christian. They started talking about some
people are born-again Christians. There's no other kind. Every
Christian, every true Christian is born-again, born of the Spirit,
and our Lord said that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And that which is born of the
flesh is flesh. Now these two times in verse
17, where we see the word spirit, it is that new man, that which
is born of the spirit. And in Ephesians chapter 4 and
verse 24, this new man, the scripture says, is created in righteousness
and true holiness. Reasons that we know that salvation
is of the Lord because it is a creative work. And only God
is able to create. Men may make things out of things
which God has already created. But God creates. He brings things
out of nothing. And the new birth is a creation
of a new man. called the Spirit. That which
is born of the Spirit is Spirit. And that's what the Apostle has
reference to in verse 17 when he says, The flesh lusteth against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary
the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that
you would. Now the flesh, where Paul says
in this text, the flesh lusteth against the spirit. The flesh
is that which is born of the flesh. Our Lord said that which
is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit
is spirit. The flesh is that which is born
of the flesh, and just as the new man is called the new man,
so the flesh is called the old man. And John Gill gives several
reasons, I want to give these to us tonight, several reasons
why the flesh is called the old man. Why? Well, let me quote. He said,
it is the poison of the old serpent with which man was infected by
him from the beginning. That's Satan, right? He's the
one who came in the garden, tempting. our father Adam, that poison. And then he said it is derived
from the first man that ever was. That's Adam. This is where this old man comes
from. We call it original sin. And
then he went on to say it is as old as the man is and whom
it is. In every one of us here tonight,
there is the flesh, the old man, and it is as old as we are. As old as I am, that's how old
the flesh is. And I'm not talking about this
body, I'm talking about that nature, that sinful nature that
we all have inherited from our father Adam. It's called the
old man because it is as old as we are. And then he went on
to say, also with respect to its continuance and in opposition
and contradistinction from the new man. In other words, it's
called the old man to distinguish it from the new man. That which
is born of the spirit is spirit. And also from those words we
recognize that the old man, the flesh, will continue with us
as long as we are in this world. As long as we are in this body. The flesh, the old man, will
continue with us. This means, as Paul says in verse
17, that there's a constant lusting of the flesh, the old man, against
the new man, the spirit. But the lusting, I want you to
notice, the lusting is by both. The flesh lusts, the flesh desires,
but the spirit, the new man, he also lusts, he desires. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit. The old man lusteth against the
new man. The new man lusteth against The
old man, the flesh, is likened unto a warfare. Remember
one of those patriarchs, the wife of one of the patriarchs,
she had twins, Jacob and Esau, and there was a struggle within
her. And that's a type or picture
of the struggle that is ongoing in every child of God. The old
man lusting against the new man. The new man lusting against the
old man. The flesh, now listen, the flesh
desires, loves, chooses carnal things. The spirit desires, loves,
chooses spiritual things. And so there's this constant
tension or warfare that is always ongoing in every child of God. The Arabic version of the scripture
has this translation, For the flesh desires that which militates
against the spirit. The flesh desires that which
militates against the spirit. In other words, fights against
the spirit. And the spirit desires that which militates against
the flesh. Morton Luther, the reformer,
He said this, he's quoted as saying this, the more godly a
man is, the more does he feel this battle between the flesh
and the spirit. The more godly a person is, the
more he feels this ongoing battle within him between the flesh,
the old man, and the spirit, the new man. Now, tonight let's
consider these three things from this passage of scripture. First,
We see, and I want to emphasize this word some, we see some of
the works of the flesh are named in verses 19 through 21. He tells us that the works of
the flesh are manifest. Notice that in verse 19. Now
the works of the flesh are manifest. In other words, there's no doubt
where these things come from. And that is out of the heart.
Remember our Lord said, out of the heart proceed the things
that he named there. People sin because they are sinners. That's so basic, isn't it? We
sin because we are sinners. Men sin because they are sinners.
These works of the flesh, the Apostle tells us, are manifest
and they may be divided into these five groups. First, sexual
sins. Now this is something that was
so common in that day remember Paul is writing to a group of
gentile believers for the most part the churches of Galatia
and sexual sins were not believed to be sins at all by the pagans
of that day I mean they just accepted these things as a way
of life but these sexual sins are named in the first part of
verse 19 or verse 19 That is adultery and fornication. What is the difference between
adultery and fornication? Adultery, at least one party
is married. Fornication, not necessarily
so. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness. So the first group are sexual
sin. These are the works of the flesh. The works of the flesh. The second
group, religious sins. Idolatry. Religious sins. Idolatry, witchcraft or sorcery. These are religious sins. When
we think about idolatry, we read a chapter in the book of Isaiah
the other morning. And every time we read that chapter,
I forget which one it is. You are familiar with it, I'm
sure. But it just shows the insaneness
of lost men. A man goes out and he cuts down
a tree. This is basically what it says.
He cuts down a tree and he takes part of it and he chops it up
and builds a fire. And he warms himself. And he
cooks his food on that fire. And then he takes another part
of it and he hires someone to fashion it into some image. And then he may have the goldsmith
or the silversmith, you know, decorated up. And he'll set it
in place and bow down to it. And worship it. And call it God. The insaneness of lost men and
women. Now I doubt that many people,
if any, well I won't say that, but many people in our country
would do such a foolish thing. But you know you can make an
idol and worship an idol in your brain. Not out of a piece of
wood, but just our imagination. We imagine. I just feel like
God is like this. I just think this is the way
God is. Well, you may feel that's the
way God is, and you may think that's the way God is, but that
may not be God at all. We come to the Scriptures, don't
we? The Word of God. And we learn. He reveals Himself
to us in the pages of Holy Scripture. And we learn something about
God. But that's a second group. Religious
sins. Idolatry. Witchcraft. Sorcery. It might amaze us how many people
read the horoscope every morning. You know, they won't do anything.
They won't make any decision unless the stars, listen, the
stars, the stars are created by God. The stars do not have
to be lined up to give you good luck or bad luck or anything. That's such foolishness and it's
such Wickedness. I call it foolishness, but it's
wickedness because it's put in the place of God. God is the
one who ordains all things. God is the one who works all
things after the counsel of His will, not the stars being lined
up in a certain way. The third group is hatred among
men. Hatred, verse 20, hatred, variance,
emulation, and that means a temper, you know, someone just, we say
they just fly off the handle. A temper, wrath, strife, seditions,
which are divisions, these are hatred, sins of hatred among
men. And then a fourth class are distortions
of the truth, verse 20, heresies. Things that the natural man comes
up with and teaches and believes which have no foundation whatsoever
in the word of God, that fly in the face of scripture, heresies. And then the fifth thing is things
that disrupt society. Verse 21. Envy, murders, drunkenness,
revelings. And such like. And now I said
that some of the works of the flesh are named because he ends
this list with that statement, such like. It's not a complete
category, a complete list of the works of the flesh, but those
two words just bring everything in that are such like. Like these
things. Now with that in mind, keep your
place here, but turn with me to Titus. Titus chapter 3 Titus
was a companion of the Apostle Paul and Paul left him on the
island of Crete and he was to ordain elders in the churches
on that island and he was to put some things in order and
here in chapter 3 this is kind of the the conclusion of what
Paul had told him to teach and to preach, but he said, put them
in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates,
to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be
no brawlers, gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. Now
notice this first, for we ourselves We, Paul includes himself, doesn't
he? Now these people were Gentiles
for the most part, and Paul had been a very religious Jew, but
notice he includes himself when he says, we ourselves also were
sometimes Foolish. Now he's talking about before
his conversion. Before we were saved. Before
the grace of God apprehended us and we were brought to know
Christ. Before we were born of the Spirit
of God. We were sometimes foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures. You see that all
we were was the flesh. There was no new man. And so
the flesh, we serve the divers lusts, the different lusts of
the flesh and pleasures, living in malice and envy. And this
has always impressed me, hateful and hating one another. That's
a description of all men apart from Christ, hateful and hating
one another. But, aren't you glad for that
word? But, God who is rich in mercy,
with his great love, wherewith he hath loved us, for by grace
are you saved. That's the way it is said to
us in Ephesians 2. But, that's the way we were. And that's
the way we would have continued to be. But for the kindness,
oh thank God for His kindness, for the kindness and love of
God our Savior toward man appeared. After that the kindness and love
of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, we're not saved by our works, not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but There it is again,
but according to His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Spirit. That's that new birth, isn't
it? Which is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. And I think of that passage in
1 Corinthians chapter 6. Let me flip over there and read
that. The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these.
1 Corinthians 6. In verse 9, the apostle said,
Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were
some of you, but aren't you thankful? If you know
Christ as your Lord and Savior, but you are washed. You're sanctified. You're justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God. A believer
may be guilty of these things that Paul names here in our text. There's no doubt about that.
But it should be obvious that if a person lives in these things,
practices these things, he has no part in the kingdom of God. We could name several Old Testament
believers who were guilty of these things that are in this
list, and they were saved. But they did not practice, they
did not live in these things. A man may fall into sin. Scripture says a righteous man
falls seven times, and the Lord delivers him. And the number
seven is the number of completeness in the Scripture, isn't it? And
a woman who's saved by the grace of God. Sure, we may fall into
any of these sins, but we're not going to stay in them. We're
not going to live in them. Alright, here's the second thing
I want us to see. Some of the fruit of the Spirit
is named. Just as we saw some of the works
of the flesh, so now some of the fruit of the Spirit is named
in verses 22 and 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
You cannot help but notice when you read this that it is the
works of the flesh, but it is the fruit of the Spirit. The
works of the flesh and those who are not saved But it is the
fruit of the Spirit in those who are saved. And notice that
fruit is singular. One of the men I read after preparing
this message, I forget which one, but I noticed that he said
fruits, plural, fruits. It's not fruits, it's fruit,
the fruit of the Spirit. A believer's fruitfulness in
the Christian life is the direct result of having the Holy Spirit
living in us. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Our Lord spoke of trees, or believers
rather, as trees, and he said a good tree brings forth good
fruit. And you can always identify a
tree by its fruit. Now you may hang some fruit,
you may hang some apples on a banana tree, But it won't be long, it'll
be manifest. That's not an apple tree. That's
not an apple tree. Why? They'll dry up and fall
off. No, a tree is always manifested by, or manifest by its fruit. And it's important for us to
see that unlike the works of the flesh, which are specifically
named here, the fruit of the Spirit The fruit of the Spirit
is attitude, Christ-like attitudes, which then issue in acts which
glorify God. And we as believers, even though
this is the fruit of the Spirit, fruit of the Holy Spirit, we
as believers are not passive. We're not to think of ourselves
as being passive in bearing fruit. But we are responsible to take
these attitudes that the Spirit of God gives us and put them
into action, into works. As the Apostle Paul told the
church at Philippi, Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always
obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for
it is God which worketh in you both the will and the do of his
good pleasure. Yes, the Holy Spirit gives us
these attitudes, but we are to work them out in actions. The
first three things that are mentioned are all attributes of God. Love,
joy, and peace. We know that God is love, and
we know that he is called the blessed God, which means the
happy God, the joyful God, and he is called the God of all peace. These first three things that
are mentioned are fruit as fruit of the Spirit are attributes
of God. And this love of God is described
to us in 1 Corinthians 13. It's not selfish, it's patient,
it's kind, it's contented, it's humble, and it is polite, this
love. The joy The joy that we have,
remember Paul said, we are the circumcision which worship God
in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. This joy that we have, we rejoice
in Christ and the peace that we have is the peace of God which
passeth all understanding. Then we see there's longsuffering
or patience and when we think of patience, You just stop and
meditate about patience, the fruit of the Spirit, long-suffering. Think about Christ. Think about
Him and see patience, long-suffering personified. He was so patient,
wasn't He, with His disciples, with lost men, even with those
who mocked Him, praying for those who nailed him to the tree. Patience. And then the last thing is gentleness. Gentleness. Goodness. Faith or
faithfulness. You mentioned thanking God for
the people's faithfulness tonight. That's the fruit of the Spirit.
Faithfulness. Meekness. And then temperance or self-control. And Paul says there's no law.
There's no law against the fruit of the Spirit. Let me say this. Every child of God brings forth
fruit. Every child of God. You remember
our Lord told that parable of the sower went forth to sow.
And the seed fell here, there, and everywhere. Some seed fell
on good ground. Now, God's the one who prepares
the heart, makes it good ground to receive the word of God, to
receive the gospel. But in every One who received
the seed, some 30-fold, some 60-fold, some 120-fold, but everyone
brought forth fruit. Everyone. Every child of God
brings forth fruit. But as one writer said, and I
agree with this 100%, each believer esteems others' fruit better
than his own. When we look at another believer,
we see the fruit of the Spirit, and when we look at ourselves
and we think, I must have missed the boat. I must have missed
out on this. And he went on to say, the graces
of a Christian shine brightest in the sight of his brethren.
And I know that's so. Now the third thing We must walk
in the Spirit. Two times the Apostle tells us,
walk in the Spirit. First he said, I say then walk
in the Spirit, and then at the end, let us then walk in the
Spirit. What does that mean? What does it mean to walk in
the Spirit? Well, at least these two things.
Number one, mind the things of the Spirit. Mind the things of
the Spirit. Mind those things that the Spirit
of God has revealed to us in His Word about God, about Christ,
about eternal life. about Christ's death on the cross
to pay our sin debt, and about His perfect righteousness, which
is imputed unto everyone who believes in Him. Mind these things. Think on these things. Set your
affection on things above and not on things of the earth. That's
what it means to walk in the Spirit. And number two, we should
live day by day. depending upon the Holy Spirit
to keep us close to the Lord Jesus and to keep us in fellowship
with Him. That this fruit, His fruit in
us, that we may show forth the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Well, I pray that the Lord will
bless this thought and these words to us here tonight. Let
us sing a hymn before we're dismissed.