-Transcript-
00:40 Amen, glory to God. Welcome to the program. Welcome to the cafe.
00:47 It’s great to have you here today. It’s an honor to be here, a privilege to be here. I always thank God in my prayers to be allowed to participate in the ministry because it is a blessing to serve the Lord and those that serve the Lord are truly blessed.
01:04 I believe it. I’ve seen some great job opportunities and I’ve said to myself there’s no higher calling than serving God and I believe it with all my heart and I thank him for allowing me to do it and I thank you for listening today
01:15 and I hope and pray that you will be richly blessed by this message. We’re in part three of a four part series on walking in the Spirit or are we walking in the Spirit of the flesh?
01:26 Let me start today with our text verse because that has not been getting enough attention in these last episodes so we’re gonna start here with our text verse which is Galatians 5:16-26.
01:36 This is Paul writing here. This I say then walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh
01:50 and these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would but if you be led of the Spirit you’re not under the law now the works of the flesh are manifest
02:04 which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variants emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envying’s murders drunkenness revelings and such like of the witch I tell you
02:20 before as I have also told you in the time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God
02:29 but the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no law and they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts
02:42 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 all right so vain glory provoking and envying each other we shouldn’t be desirous of those things we see here at the beginning of Galatians 5:16-26
03:00 saying verse 16 this I say then walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh what does it mean to walk in the Spirit it means to live as God has called us to live
03:14 and to enrich the Holy Spirit instead of grieving the Holy Spirit we understand that sin grieves the Holy Spirit what’s the inverse or opposite of that living holy living for God right I’m speaking to the saved Christian today
03:29 the saved Christian is in a battle that they are fighting each and every day and it has far-reaching consequences because this battle will will determine whether you are fruitful for God
03:43 or not whether you are sinning against God or not whether you are serving God or not whether you are living in closest to God or not whether you are living in peace or not and whether you are living as God intended you to live
03:57 or not you know think about this when we live as God calls us to live is that not a testimony to our faith in Him we realize that God that God will not deal with someone that has unbelief lightly right
04:17 and we realize in Hebrews 11:6 tells us it’s impossible to please God without faith that says it much better than what I was trying to paraphrase it’s impossible to please God without faith we have to believe he is who he says he is and he’s a rewarder of them that diligently seek him
04:33 one of my favorite favorite verses in the Bible and so think about this if you have faith in God right if you really believe he is God and he’s all-powerful you would fear him and you’d want to live for him
04:44 and you would do the things that he calls you to do right but if you don’t have faith then you can go ahead and call yourself a Christian live like the world live as the flesh the things that your flesh desires right the things that your natural person desires you would do those things amen
05:01 and be content with them you would have no problem living in sin because you don’t really fear God because truly deep down you don’t believe in him right was that not the case with Adam and Eve
05:12 I heard this believe was a less felt like the other day in a Bible study he said that Adam didn’t have faith in God because God told him don’t don’t do this and Adam still did it amen
05:23 he ate of the forbidden fruit and I think that that’s a perfect example you know the Bible tells us thou shall not go on you know steal lie covet commit adultery even look at another with lust is committing adultery
05:35 well I’ve seen a lot of people look at someone else with lust clearly right or do they not fear God if they keep doing that they’re not going to Lord and repent I’m not saying be perfect here
05:48 I’m just saying why is it hard to walk in the Spirit and what happens when we just live in the flesh how do we not fulfill the lust of the flesh we have to walk in the Spirit
05:57 and Paul in case we’re curious what is the lust of the flesh gives us about 20 things adultery fornication uncleanness lascivious lasciviousness idolatry there’s a whole brother Clark no one’s got an idol anymore first of all some some of these groups do amen
06:13 go ahead and to go into a oriental Asian restaurant my wife is Asian and I you know if you know me you know I love Asian food but they’ll have their little Buddha up there
06:24 they’ll have a little shrine up there they may have some incense or whatever else some of these actually have very large shrines that’s an idol amen if they’re going to this thing thinking it’s gonna bring them goodwill and luck and all these things and they want nothing to do with the God of the Hebrews amen
06:38 they want nothing to do with the God of my King James Bible they have an idol in their life but but here for a minute you want to join the Lego Club but you want to get a boat you want to go to Arizona whatever it is and it is obsessing in your mind it is always on your mind
06:54 I should say you’re obsessed with it is that not an idol an idol is anything we put before God and so we have to be careful that we’re not creating idols in our life I could go through each of these
07:06 I think in past messages I’ve gone through some of them if not all of them but the point is the lust of the flesh is how we would naturally desire to live and God’s saying take up your cross be crucified with Christ crucify those desires with Christ right and live in the Spirit
07:27 and that’s very very difficult I mean I can think of many personal examples of not doing what God has would have me to do at a certain time I mean working on a sermon prep last week
07:36 and I found myself doing other work procrastinating frankly and then showing kids pictures and I was thinking man it’s like I’m working on this message about this
07:46 and I see it in my own life or an idea about dealing with spiritual or like the mental spiritual aspect and the physical appetites I mean think about how we’ve all known okay
07:57 salads are good for us fried food is bad for us but how often are we going and run into the fast-food restaurant ordering a salad versus ordering something fried we know what’s good for us
08:06 and we still can’t help ourselves but do the other thing and these are simple examples but you get the idea I mean there are many people out there that have desired to do great things for God and they never could do it
08:17 and Paul is giving us a remedy here in Galatians 5 :16 he’s saying walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh you know the works are fruit of your walk is what is what matters amen
08:32 it’s not just what you think it’s not your intentions it’s what you’re what you’re actually doing we’re all walking one way or the other backwards or forwards amen which way are you walking
08:44 you know those that are living in sin are inheriting the payment of their works and that is death we know the wages of sin is death God there’s a principle in the Bible
08:56 that’s all throughout the Bible anywhere you look from the New Testament to the Old Testament here we have a New Testament verse last night I was preaching out of the Psalms
09:05 and the Psalm 54 and there it’s speaking of the same principle and that’s the idea that God repays okay so and this is really going towards an adult they know what they’re doing right okay you’re you’re not like like a little child okay
09:16 and you like steal something from a store and God’s like okay you’re gonna forever be cursed it’s not like that you’re an adult you make a decision you know what you’re doing God’s gonna repay you for that
09:28 and so if you’re living in sin right the Bible would call this vain living or vanity and what that means is improper use the idea that we are not living as God intended
09:37 and if we are living like that then we are going to face their repayment for that and so the wickedness that we are sowing in our day-to-day lives even if it doesn’t look like it’s hurting anyone individually
09:49 it’s still hurting you you say well brother Clark if I want to go a home to my cabin and I want to get a bottle of liquor and get drunk every night I’m not hurting anybody I’m not driving
10:01 and so on well you’re hurting you and you’re also hurting God and if you’re a saved Christian you’re not living as God’s called you to live because Christ died on the cross to forgive you of that sin
10:10 and why are you gonna go turn back and do that sin again and again and again and if your mind was on Christ you’d be much less likely to engage in that sin
10:20 and I’m not making light of addiction I know many people that have struggled with addiction some dying from addiction and others escaping it by God’s grace and mercy
10:27 and his power and so I’m not making light of it what I’m saying is as we live in this flesh we have to be careful that we’re not living vanity we’re not improper use we are walking in the Spirit and when we walk in the Spirit we have the fruits of the Spirit
10:41 and that is what God intends for us in our latter part of our text verse we see the fruits of the Spirit verse 22 there of Galatians 5 but the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance or moderation against such there is no law
11:01 and I use the word moderation I don’t want you to think that was in my King James it said temperance and temperance as I understand it means moderation but the point is when we live in the Spirit capital S Spirit the third part of the Holy Trinity
11:21 when we are living to enrich the Holy Spirit we are walking in the Spirit then we are no longer going to be dealing with the works of the flesh all of all of these evil things that are coming from the flesh we’re not going to fulfill the lusts of the flesh
11:32 and the reason why as Paul describes is that you have the lust of the flesh and you have the will of the Spirit if you would and those two things are at war with each other
11:41 and if we are constantly feeding the Spirit enriching the Spirit constantly staying focused on the ways and the things of the Spirit being of a sober mind and being vigilant amen
11:51 and turning to God in prayer constantly an effective prayer life involves a lot of Bible reading because you’re reading his word or you’re studying his word and you’re praying to him
12:01 you don’t love to read then you’re listening to his word somehow online or wherever getting a CD or cassette or whatever you might need but you’re staying focused on his word you’re staying focused on his promises
12:14 and who he is you are living for him you are walking in the Spirit and because you’re walking in the Spirit you will know you’ll be so sensitive to sin that you will know when it starts to creep in
12:27 and you will rebuke it and you will get away from it you will completely get away from it it’s a right here 1 Corinthians 10:13 there is no there hath no temptation taken you
12:38 but such as is common to man but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it
12:49 and so we see in the Bible clearly part of God’s program is not to get you to the point where you can’t turn around it’s giving you a way to get out by walking in the Spirit and knowing
13:02 because it’s not that you won’t be tempted Jesus Christ himself was tempted of the devil and get this you really want to get deep he was led by the Spirit capital S into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil’s
13:15 that’s a whole another level there the Holy Spirit saying come on bring it on Satan and brought him out into the desert so go ahead and tempt him because Jesus Christ
13:23 then is our basis because what did Jesus do all three times he was tempted in the wilderness he quoted scripture you see he was walking in the Spirit he was part of the Holy Trinity he is God in the flesh amen
13:33 he is alive today and he’s well today and he’s our example of how to walk in the Spirit but he was vigilant he wasn’t light-handed about it he wasn’t joking around he wasn’t loosey-goosey it wasn’t one foot in one foot out
13:46 and if that is Jesus Christ himself being that sober and vigilant how much more so do we need to walk in the Spirit and be vigilant and be saturated in the ways and things of God to keep our mind state on him
13:58 and and we will have perfect peace I thank you for listening today tune in next time for the fourth part of this four-part series on walking in the Spirit as we wrap up why it’s so important to walk in the Spirit so we don’t fulfill the lust of the flesh
14:10 I thank you again take care God bless and amen