Life in the Spirit

Sunday Preaching

By Pastor Rick Jumaquio

BACF, Sunday, October 16, 2016

Theme: Study of Galatians

Text: Galatians 5:16-26

Title: Life in the Spirit

Greetings!

We are now heading the homestretch of our study of Paul’s epistle to Galatians and it is my prayer that you are learning a great deal of lessons from our study about our freedom in Christ. As brother Kinh mentioned in his preaching this epistle is considered as the “Magna Carta” of Christian Freedom. I am always praying that as we finish this epistle our eyes will be open to the truth of the gospel, which is “our justification is by faith in Jesus Christ alone, nothing more and nothing less”. We did not need the law to keep our salvation. Our salvation is secured in Christ Jesus and that nothing, no where or no one can undo what is already done.

We have also talked about that our freedom from the law and living by faith and by grace alone did not mean Christians should be living waywardly; did not mean that anything goes for believer and that we can live irresponsibly upon knowing that we will go to heaven anyway.

That is not the case. The truth of the matter is that we are expected to live above the law and beyond the written code.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:20 “Unless you exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees you will not enter the kingdom of heaven”

What is the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees based upon? Their obedience of the law, which none has ever had (except Jesus) or will ever be able to fulfill the law.

Only the righteousness of Jesus exceeded that of the scribes and Pharisees. Guess what? That righteousness is now in us.

We are expected to have the mind of Christ.

Christ has given us the greatest commandment that is over and above all of the 613 Mosaic laws.

The law said, “You shall not commit murder”. Jesus said, “If you hate someone you are guilty of murder in your heart”.

The law said you shall not commit adultery, Jesus said “if you look at someone with lust you are guilty of adultery”

But the good news is that Jesus Christ fulfilled all of those laws. His righteousness is now our righteousness, thus making us not a lawbreaker any longer but law-abiding God’s people in Christ’ account. He now lives in us; Jesus is now our life and that makes us holy and righteous in the sight of God.

And so in today’s message we will be looking at on how Paul counters the accusation of the Judaizers that his gospel of grace is teaching the gentile believers to live lawless and degenerate.

I entitled my preaching today “living in the spirit”. Please stand with me as we read our text today from Galatians 5:16-26 (NKJV)

¹⁶I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,a fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹envy, murders,^bdrunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. ²⁴And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Let us pray!

Outline of today’s preaching:

We’re borne free, let us live in the spirit, walk in the spirit and be led by the spirit
We’re borne free, have nothing to do with the works of the flesh
We’re borne free, bear the fruit of the spirit

Point #1 “Live, Walk, Led by the Spirit

¹⁶I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh

Here comes again the word “then”. This is similar to the word “therefore” which we talk about last week. This means that these next few verses are conclusion of what Paul had mentioned from previous passages.

Paul is referring to the freedom that Christ has set us free; that we are not to go back to the yoke of slavery the Law of Moses has brought upon to people.

But our freedom therefore did not mean we are free to ignore Christ’s command to love God above all and love each other.

Christian freedom is not freedom to disregard the law but to fulfill it in “one word” as Paul said in verse 14, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself”

Live, walk and be led by the spirit…. How can we do this?

There is a constant battle in our life; the battle between the flesh and the spirit.

Our body is the temple of the HS, but we are also in the flesh. We have this physical body; we have our emotions; we have desires and feelings. These are natural and are good, only if this body is dictated and controlled by someone who is good.

The only way to conquer the flesh is by walking in the spirit.

What is “Flesh”?

The Greek word for “flesh” in the New Testament is sarx, a term that can often in Scripture refer to the physical body. However, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature describes the word this way: “the physical body as functioning entity; in Paul’s thought esp., all parts of the body constitute a totality known as flesh, which is dominated by sin to such a degree that wherever flesh is, all forms of sin are likewise present, and no good thing can live.”

It is too bad that our newness in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) is only referring to our spiritual newness in Him. We’ve been dead spiritually but when we accepted Christ as Savior we’ve been born again spiritually but we are still in the flesh. We have this body that is subject to the dictates of those sinful desires. We can get hurt by others and we can hurt others. We can still say hurtful things and do hurtful things. In short we can still sin because of the flesh dictating us. But it requires our acceptance, our agreement and our cooperation with the flesh, which all forms of sin are present and no good thing can live (according to our definition).

The antidote to the flesh is the spirit of God that now lives in us. If we can cooperate with the desires of the flesh to do its works (which we will discuss shortly) we can also cooperate with the urging, unction and leading of the holy spirit in us.

2 Peter 1:3-4

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ⁴Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature.

Let me differentiate “walk in the spirit”, “living in the spirit” and “led by the spirit” as Paul mentioned all of the three in this specific passage.

“Live in the spirit”

In this specific passage Paul was simply saying we have been born of the Spirit and have spiritual life. We are now all spirit being. Before salvation we were dead, period, but been born again. Living in the spirit also means we are Christians.

When Paul said in verse 25, “If we live in the spirit (are borne again; are Christians), let us also walk in the spirit. Simply put, “if we are Christians then live as what should and how Christian should live. If we are spirit being then the life that we now should live is by the spirit or walking in the spirit.

“Walk in the Spirit”

Walk in the Spirit is to live out, in our day-to-day conduct, the new life given us at conversion.

2 Cor 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old is gone and everything becomes new”.

Our action and reaction, our speech, how we conduct ourselves in and out of the church should reflect our new nature.

John Stotts: “His creed is expressed in his conduct; his conduct is derived from his creed”

Let us “walk the talk”; let us live in the newness of life we have in Christ Jesus.

I mentioned earlier that the flesh and spirit is in constant battle in the life of the believer which Paul also mentioned in verse 17

¹⁷For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

Illustration: A fighter prepares himself for the fight by exercising and eating the right food to gain the right weight and muscle and be ready for the fight. He would hire a good trainer for that.

What if the other opponent did nothing to prepare for the fight? Meaning didn’t do any exercise, didn’t eat the right food and starve himself? The result would be guaranteed defeat.

Who are you training and feeding well for the day-to-day battle of life? In real life if you are the fighter you only feed yourself and train yourself. You would wish your opponent is starving and getting weak each day to guarantee your victory.

In the spiritual realm you have both in you the flesh and the spirit constantly fighting against each other and you also have in you the power to feed whom you want to be strong and whom you want to win.

We can’t say we have to feed both. That’s not even possible. Jesus said, “you cannot serve God and mammon”, Matthew 6:24

You cannot be a child of God and a child of the devil at the same time, John 8:44

Jesus said, “you cannot be lukewarm (either hot or cold) or else I will spit you out.

Many Christians are malnourish because they are slightly feeding the spirit by opening their bible here and there; by praying here and there; by fellow-shipping here and there. Simultaneously they are also indulging themselves to pornography, to sexual immorality, to drunkenness, to hatred and envy. In reality a person who thinks is feeding his spirit partially is actually feeding the flesh fully. God is a jealous God. He doesn’t want to share His throne to anyone else because He alone deserves the throne room in our heart. The result of this is Christians are living in misery, in defeat, in poverty and in hypocrisy.

“Led by the spirit”

This is similar to walking in the spirit.

Paul said, “If you are led by the spirit (walking in the spirit) you are not under the law (but under the new covenant law of grace and faith)

Led by the spirit means “the just shall live by faith”

Who’s leading you in your Christian life? Is the Holy Spirit moving freely with your cooperation and participation in the works of God in and through you?

Illustration: Have you seen a sticker that says, “Jesus is my co-pilot”? That sounds very spiritual except that they are not. Some people say it’s disrespectful if we say Jesus is my driver or my pilot and I am in the passenger seat; that they are not revering Jesus by making Him be the driver of their life. The truth is we are a bad driver and if Jesus wants a ride He won’t trust us to drive Him anywhere. Why don’t we give Him the driver seat and enjoy the ride with Him?

Point #2: Because we’re borne free, have nothing to do with the works of the flesh.

¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,a fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹envy, murders,^bdrunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

To understand this well let’s also look at the contrast Paul has presented in the passage.

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law

Before we do that let’s see how Paul started verse 19 when he uses the word “now”

“Now” means he is presenting the result of allowing the flesh be in control of the believers’ life.

If you feed the flesh and allow the flesh to prevail over the spirit here’s what you will expect.

Self-gratification: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness

Against God: idolatry, sorcery, contentions, heresies

Against other: jealousies, hatred, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, envying, murders, drunkenness, revelling

In contrast Paul said, if we will feed the spirit (meaning we walk in the spirit and being led by the spirit) this would result in bearing its fruit as described in a cluster of nine manifestations.

Towards God: Love, joy and peace

Towards others: patience, kindness, and goodness

Towards self: faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control

Works vs Fruit (Flesh vs Spirit)

Notice the differences how Paul wrote this specific verse.

Works is in plural form while fruit is singular.

The result of the flesh in the life of a person manifests in so many different ways.

But not all unbelievers manifest “all” the works of the flesh, while “all” Christians manifest the fruit of the spirit. The difference among believers is that NOT all manifest the fruit of the spirit to the same degree.

Q: How much of Christ do you have?

Q: How much of you Christ has?

It all depends on how much Christ have of you, not how much you have of Christ because all believers has 100% of Christ and the Holy Spirit (not partial) in us.

We can’t say or choose we can only bear the fruit of joy and not of peace; we cannot say we bear the fruit of gentleness but not of self-control.

Illustration:
A brother comes to you asking for help, “I love you brother but don’t ask me for any help today coz’ I just had a bad day at work. I don’t have the patience right now. I am sorry”. Saying sorry because of your refusal to help does not count as goodness, btw. It is not a cover-up or replacement for any of the fruit. Saying sorry is not always an act of humility.

It’s one fruit that comes in a cluster of nine manifestations. Just like a bowl of fruit salad; it comprises of many different kinds of fruit. Unlike the fruit salad that we can select only what we want to eat, the fruit of the spirit is all or nothing.

Works vs Fruit (Flesh vs Spirit)

Work defined:

Exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something; labor;toil.

Works literally means the flesh needs to work so hard to produce its efforts. It is of ourselves.

Fruit defined: anything produced or accruing; product, result, or effect; return or profit

Cause and Effect

What is cause and effect?

It denotes the relationship between action and results.

It’s constant and it’s irreversible.

Our actions will always have a corresponding result. That’s why we sometimes regret something because it can’t be change anymore. We made a mistake and we regret it.

The indwelling of HS in the believer is a C&E of our justification by faith.

The fruit of the spirit is also a C&E of HS being in us.

The Holy Spirit produces His fruit in us without our efforts. It’s not from us but someone else doing the producing. Our job is to bear it.

Just like in a tree the branch is just but a carrier of the fruit.

Jesus said in John 15, “I am vine you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing”

The Father is the vine dresser who takes care of us which includes pruning and cleaning up.

Jesus is the vine, which is the source of the nutrients that produces the fruit in season.

Believers are the branches that carry the fruit. Our role is to abide to the vine.

The fruit of the spirit is by and through the Holy Spirit working in us, “both to will and to do”

Philippians 2:13

(NASB) For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure

(NLT) For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

Did you get it? I got it and I hope you got it too.

It’s not us but it’s all God. It’s all about Jesus and nothing is of us.

It is JESUS plus nothing. It goes back to the very first chapter of Galatians telling us there’s only one gospel.

Paul said, “against such, there is no law”, referring to the fruit of the spirit.

When the spirit is in control; when we are walking in the Spirit, there’s no need for the law.

Faith in Christ and grace of God is above and beyond the law, in the same manner the Spirit of God that resides in us is above and beyond any law.

My last point today is this:

How could this be possible for the believer? Is it possible to walk in the Spirit, live in the spirit and be led by the spirit? Is it also possible to NOT be part of the works of the flesh?

Paul said in verse 24,

And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Do you see the answer from this verse? Paul is getting the attention of

Those who are Christ’s
Those who put their trust and faith in Jesus
Those that were justified “per solam fidem”
Those who are Christians
Paul is talking to us

Have crucified the flesh. Galatians 2:20

“Flesh” here did not mean our physical body but it means our sinful nature. The fleshly passions and desires were crucified already. If crucified, then it was buried. If buried let’s not exhume the dead.

Christians are at war. We are constantly warring against our enemy.

It’s a war against sin and the flesh. In essence we are warring against Satan and the devil.

Many times a Christian loses some battles because of their own effort and strength but one thing is for sure, even though we lose some battles in life those who are justified by faith; those who are saved by grace cannot and will not lose the war.

Illustration:
Many soldiers dies in the battle but in the end the great and mighty nation wins the war. (Great & Mighty is He, clothed in glory, arrayed in splendor, great and mighty is He)

Christians are already winner. Jesus has won the war for us; we are now more than conquerors through Christ.

But we still are to face battles in life. Let’s be reminded, “The battle is the Lord”

It’s always a choice to make each single day. Will you fight it or will you let God fight it? Is it the flesh or the spirit?

Allow the Holy Spirit be in control of our desires, our decisions and our aspirations. Let’s also let the HS takes care of our needs, our cares. Let’s cast all our cares upon Jesus because Jesus cares for us.

That’s what living in the spirit is all about.

Let us all stand!