“Walk by the Spirit” (Gal 5:16-26) - Galatians: Be Free VI -

“Walk by the Spirit” (Gal 5:16-26)

- Galatians: Be Free VI -

Spiritual Growth?

Babies grow up. Baby Grace was born on July 30, 2015, weighing 7 pounds. And now she is 6 weeks old, a happy and chubby little girl, weighing 12 pounds. Grace is a good eater. I feel like she eats all the time. In the same way, spiritual growth requires food, exercise, and time – just like human physical growth. At the moment when we receive and believe Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, we are born again (John 1:12). Some of you may clearly remember the exact time and place. Some may not. But as long as we confess that Jesus is my Lord, we are the people who have been born of the Spirit (1 Co 12:3b). There is a great similarity between physical growth and spiritual growth. But at the same time, there are some differences between the two. One of the biggest differences is that our body grows and become mature, as we get older. But that doesn’t apply to our spiritual growth. Spiritual growth does not just happen. It is not automatic. It is intentional. It requires commitment. We must make an intentional effort to grow. Last week we studied Galatians 4 and explored how God adopted us as his sons and daughters. And now in Galatians 5 the Apostle Paul tells us how we can grow as God’s adopted children. What would you say if someone asked how can we grow spiritually? Paul says very plainly about this in verse 16. He says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit” (ESV). But what does it really mean to walk by the Spirit? And how can we walk by the Spirit? Paul tells us three steps to walk by the Spirit.

Say “Yes” to the Spirit!  

First of all, we must say “yes” to the Spirit. When God created man and woman, they had perfect free will. They were able to sin and able not to sin. Unfortunately, they chose to sin and disobey God. After the Fall, natural man is unable not to sin. In Romans 7 Paul describes the state of natural man in this way: “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing” (19). And he cries out in despair, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” But he continues, “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!... Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death!” (7:25-8:2) In other words, Christians, who belong to Christ, are now able not to sin! Praise the Lord! Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! 1 John 3:9 says, “Those who have been born into God's family do not make a practice of sinning, because God's life is in them. So they can't keep on sinning, because they are children of God.” (NLT). Now we, as God’s children, have power not to sin! We have freedom to grow! We have freedom to say “yes” to the Spirit!

The thing is that many Christians have a hard time hearing the voice of the Spirit. Some of them even think that God speaks to specially chosen people on special occasions. But in John 10:27 Jesus says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” If we are Jesus’ sheep, all of us in this room listen to His voice. That is not a special spiritual gift. We can hear His voice all the time. But there is one condition. We must choose to do his will. Jesus says, “If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own” (7:17). There are rare moments when God speaks in very special ways – through vision, prophecy, or audible voice. But most of time in everyday life we hear His inner voice. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church community to reveal His purposes and His ways. And also there are times when God seems silent. Even in those moments we can still say “yes” to the Spirit. Oswald Chambers asks us the following question, “Can we do our duty when God has shut up heaven?” Then, he says, “We are making a fetish of the moments when God did come and speak, and insisting that He must do it again; whereas what God wants us to do is to walk by faith. How many of us have laid ourselves by, as it were, and said—‘I cannot do any more until God appears to me.’ He never will, and without any inspiration, without any sudden touch of God, we will have to get up. Then comes the surprise—‘Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!’ God speaks all the time. Even when He is silent, He reveals Himself, His purposes, and His ways in other ways. Let us never live for the rare moments, but let us say “yes” to the Spirit in our daily lives. 

Say “No” to the Flesh!

Secondly, in order to walk by the Spirit and grow spiritually, not only do we say “yes” to the Spirit, but also we must say “no” to the flesh. By the power of the cross our sinful nature is no longer able to reign us (Col 2:13-15). But we still feel the temptations to sin. That is our on-going battle until Christ comes back. In today’s scripture Paul lists the acts of the sinful nature. This list can be divided into three major categories: the sensual sins, the superstitious sins, and the social sins. It is worth noticing that all of the works of the sinful nature arise from a problem with our hearts. In other words, Satan puts thoughts into our hearts. John 13:2 says, “The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him” (NRSV). What should we do? How can we overcome the enemy’s temptations? How can we crucify our sinful nature? Paul does not tell us to crucify ourselves, because it is impossible. He tells us that the flesh (our sinful nature) has already been crucified. In Galatians 5:24 he says, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” It’s a present perfect tense. It’s already done. Our old self was crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin (Rom 6:6). Our responsibility is to believe this truth and act on it. When we are tempted, what we must do is not to try harder to suppress our sinful nature but to consider ourselves dead to sin (6:11). By the power of the cross now we have freedom and power to say “no” to our sinful nature. When the enemy puts thoughts into your hearts and minds, immediately rebuke him and his thoughts in the name of Jesus Christ and he will run away because he has no longer authority over you.

Keep in Step with the Spirit!

Thirdly, in order to grow spiritually, we must keep in step with the Spirit. In Galatians 5:25 Paul says, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” And he talks about “fruit” of the Spirit. He doesn’t say “acts” or “works” of the Spirit. The single word “fruit” tells us an important spiritual principle about how the Spirit works. Probably, many of you have a garden. As you know, it takes time to bear fruit. In other words, spiritual growth is unnoticed and gradual. It takes time. Although we say “yes” to the Spirit and “no” to the flesh today, we may not see the results of this tomorrow. But the Apostle Paul encourages us, “Keep going! Do not give up!” In his book, “The Screwtape Letters” written by C.S. Lewis, a senior demon named Screwtape wrote a series of letters to his nephew Wormwood to give him advice how to lure human away from God. One of the advices is like this: “Don’t be afraid of what they say. But don’t make them come to resolution. If that happens, tempt them to do it just for a certain period of time, not continually.” There is a time when our emotion says, “I've had enough! I’m done!” But, we must not obey our emotion. Instead, we must keep in step with the Spirit and keep on doing the good work of the Lord by the act of will.

Keep Going!

All of our spiritual ancestors walked through the same path, the path of perseverance. Abraham had to wait for 25 years to have the promised son, Isaac. Moses had to wait for 40 year until the Lord delivered his people. William Wilberforce is another good example. He was an English politician, and he was a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. At the time, a third of the national income was from the slave trade. The majority of the privileged class objected this movement. William Wilberforce had to fight and wait for 30 years to abolish the slave trade. Then, he led campaign for the complete abolition of slavery, and he had to wait for another 26 years. He died just 3 days after hearing the Slavery Abolition Act was assured. We have countless witnesses and spiritual giants to follow, but the greatest and the most perfect example is Jesus Christ our Lord. When he was tempted by the devil, he said “no” to him and drove him out with the word of God (Matt 4:1-11). And he always said “yes” to the Spirit. In 2 Co 1:19 Paul says, “For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not waver between “Yes” and “No… and as God’s ultimate “Yes,” he always does what he says.” Jesus always did keep in step with the Holy Spirit. He walked slowly enough to touch the ill, chat with widows, help for the poor, and embrace children. He walked slowly enough to reach out to us and comfort our pain and suffering. And he was able to say on the cross, “It is finished,” because he always did what God said.

Today the Spirit of Jesus Christ lives within us. By the power of the Spirit we are able not to sin. We have freedom to say “yes” to the Spirit and “no” to our sinful nature. As we keep in step with the Spirit, we will bear much fruit of the Spirit in His time. In the meantime, let us not give up but keep going. Let us keep on praying. Let us keep holding fast God’s word. Let us keep on serving God. Let us keep taking care of others. Let us keeping on encouraging each other. and let us keep on loving each other all the more until we bear the fruit of the Spirit. People around us are starving for love, joy, peace, and all the other fruits of the Spirit. As we bear the fruit of the Spirit, many people will be fed and helped, and God will be glorified. “This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15:8) Amen.