Walking by the Spirit
Galatians 5:16 · Vern Peterman · Oct 7, 2007
Galatians (2007), No. 24
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926041155246

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're moving into this one verse. After the passages we've had in recent weeks, this is perhaps shocking to you, but just one verse today. But it's a goodie. So one thing we want to make clear, just keep our words straight here. This is not the walk in the spirit. This verse has nothing to do with Oriental cooking, OK? So it's walk, W-A-L-K.

And as we move into it here, we want to ask the question, what does walk by the Spirit mean? What exactly does God have in mind here? Is walk by the Spirit where you just have this sort of celestial light beam that's coming down from heaven and you just sort of walk up the thing? Is that what it means? When you walk in the Spirit, does it mean that you've got the mathematics down just right of this law and grace thing, and you've got the formulas figured out, and you're finally on to the right track? Is that what it means?

Does it mean that a very strange glow comes over your eyes and everyone can tell that you're walking in the Spirit because nobody else looks like that? When you walk in the Spirit, does it mean that things are a little foggy, but at least there's a light in the distance that you can keep walking towards? Or rather, does life just become springtime and sunshine all the time? Or maybe life is just scenic, no matter where you look. What does it mean to walk in the Spirit, or walk by the Spirit? Well, that's exactly the question we want to take a look at here, no matter how shocking the answer is. So let's take a look.

This first word here that comes out is a critical one for us to look at. And the reason is, this isn't a word of sharp contrast. It is possible in the original Greek language to put in a word of sharp contrast. And we pointed that out from time to time. Here it's a word that's more connective.

It hooks up with the prior words and messages. And so it has particularly that idea of connecting to the verses that were before. built into it. As we looked at the verses before, one of the things we pointed out in verses 13 and 15 particularly were these one another's. There was a lot of the question of what's the character of the one another's among you? That's a lot of what he's pointing at here.

So he says in here, but, and so he's making a connection to rather than a contrast with. dealing with the one another's what is the one another's what are they supposed to look like and so that's what he's saying part of what he's looking at because we pointed out that the one another's have to do with the interaction between us as believers don't they the way that you and I interact and and he had not just a small contrast between the way the believers interacted but a very big one the health of the church body can't be gained apart from each believer walking by means of the Spirit. And that's a key thing.

If we look at it, what do we want this church body to be like? Paul's intent is that this church body be spiritually healthy. And how does that happen? It happens with each believer walking by means of the Spirit. That's what he's about to point out here. Whether we walk by means of the Spirit or not radically impacts the health of this church body. That's what he's about to point to.

What he's about to say in this verse is going to answer the questions that came out in the verses before that God intended means through living out that through love serving one another. Instead of that sin nature driven biting and devouring one another. Paul says that the answer for the one another's is it going to be through love serving one another? Or is it going to be biting and devouring one another? The answer, the difference, the distinction will come through one believer at a time, walking by means of the Spirit. All right. This part of the verse, this walk by the Spirit that we have underlined here, is brief. In the Greek text, it's actually just two words. In the Greek language, they're able to pack a lot of meaning into each word, and that's why they can write this here. But the significance is huge. Two Greek words, the significance is really big.

And the significance is so big that it has an impact beyond this present life. He intends that we walk by the Spirit now, so soon see, it's right now, but impacting eternity. That's amazing stuff. The form of the Greek words translated walk and spirit here has additional depth packed into it. We're soon going to see what that means. Walk by the spirit.

This word walk is a word that was used among the Jews particularly. It seems as we examine the writings of the culture that the Greek speaking people understood it, but the Jews were particularly ones that used it. We even see it starting way back in Galatians, excuse me, in Genesis and Exodus. And Paul used it in his own letters. He used it when he was talking to various churches. He used this word walk, not just in the sense of physical walking, but with a spiritual sense.

This Jewish manner of speaking has the idea of patterning one's life. How does the pattern of one's life get carried out? That's what he's talking about here. Daily life, moment by moment, how do you live? We would say in modern terminology, of course they couldn't have any way of saying this, but it's where the rubber meets the road. This is how it actually looks like in life. I bet a lot of them really wish they had rubber tires.

Okay. Here, this Greek word translated walk has the idea built into it. Boy, it's amazing. Here's one Greek word. It has this idea. You must right now actively continue to walk. All that's built into the one word. You must right now actively continue to walk, to be continuing, to have lived out in your daily life.

So what Paul is saying is that the believers are to be living this out right now. The believers in Galatia. These ones that are, oh, some of them are brand new in the Lord. Some of them are as many as two years old in the Lord. He says all of you must right now be continuing to walk. To be patterning your life by means of the Spirit.

Continuously. Ongoing. Not just, okay, next five minutes after that, whatever you want. No. It's continuously. So we have a key concept here. They have an active part in doing this walking by the Spirit that Paul's calling for. But we're going to find out something very interesting. An active part to depend entirely on God's provision. How's that? You must actively be continuing to walk, but it's not yours to do. Wow. Let's see what that means here.

The words by the Spirit can be expanded to convey the idea of by means of the Spirit. It is the Spirit's who's the one who's pulling it off in our lives. The Spirit is the one who's accomplishing it. So we put all these ideas together about this little phrase here. Remember we said a lot's packed into it.

You must right now continuously pattern the steps of your lives by means of the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit. We're going to be talking about that ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit a little bit here. You must right now continuously pattern the steps of your lives by means of the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit. So let's walk our way through the words, okay?

Do that with me. Let's look at it this way. As an imperative, that has the idea of must. You must be doing this. It's not a, yeah, gee, it'd be nice. It would be kind of a good idea. A really fine suggestion. No. Must, is the way he puts it. But we've said before, the must does not come as a principle of law. Isn't that interesting? It's something that's a must, but not because, boy, you'd better do it.

Or boy, is God going to be mad. Instead, it comes out of our eternal position in Christ, which we have entirely by grace. Entirely by grace. The motive, and notice I've got here the law and some sneering judge, a line stroked through it. The motive for a response to Paul's must is not under threat of law. That's not the means. It is a grateful response. Got that? Grateful response. to God's grace. And by the way, we could add mercy to that as well. Romans 12, as they went through the Romans elective, finished up just last Sunday.

Romans 12.1, by the mercies of God, I urge you. Now, let's figure something out here that's real important. There's grace and mercy and one illustration of the means for how we can understand that. One illustration of the means for understanding that is this. If I give you this idea, let's give the instance of a policeman, okay?

Now, the policeman has pulled you over because you've been going 60 miles an hour down Holly Street here. That's a little fast, okay? Now, if the policeman is merciful to you, he's going to pull you over and come up to you and after you're done you know, quivering or whatever response you have. He says, you know, you were going 60 in a 30 mile an hour zone. I could give you one whopping ticket, okay? But I'm not going to do that today. I'm going to let you off with a warning. So the mercy withholds the deserved judgment, okay? Now, Grace ends up with somewhat of a similar outcome, but not through the same means. Grace looks like this. The policeman pulls you over, okay?

He gives you the full ticket. You show up at court. And the judge puts down the gavel and says, you're going to pay this much. And the policeman gets out the checkbook, writes the check for the payment of it, and then says, by the way, what are you doing for dinner? That's the difference between grace and mercy.

All right. Now, enough said there. We've got motive. Now let's cover the means. God sent the Holy Spirit to be the resident agent in our lives. And this is something we can count on from Scripture. Every believer all the time has the Holy Spirit. Got that? Every believer all the time has the Holy Spirit. If you're a believer here this morning, You have the Holy Spirit continuously indwelling you, continuously offering the ministries of the Holy Spirit in your lives.

That's a great thing. Nancy and I, when we were over in Carson City, we had one lady who's a wonderful Christian gal, but she had kind of been brought up with this idea of the Holy Spirit comes and goes. And to have the Holy Spirit kind of showing up here and there, and I don't know where the Holy Spirit goes to when he leaves, but that was the idea she'd been brought up with. That was kind of the concept. that had grabbed her mind. And instead, what he lays out here, and he's put before already in Galatians, every believer has the Holy Spirit indwelling all the time. Everyone. If you're a believer here this morning, that applies to you.

And a great many ministries of the Holy Spirit, which we'll give you a reference for shortly here. The Holy Spirit is God's resident agent. And some of the things that the Holy Spirit is going to do is enable and empower and energize our walk as believers. Okay? Enable, empower, and energize our walk. There is no lack of adequacy for our walk on God's part. We have the resident Holy Spirit. Additionally, we know that the Holy Spirit directs our attention to Christ.

And this is a key thing. There are a number of people who get real wrapped around the axle with Putting a lot of focus upon the Holy Spirit, but one of the things that scripture makes clear Christ himself said this That's what the John 15 26 passages that the Holy Spirit's ministry will be not to direct attention to the Holy Spirit but to direct our attention to Christ that is what the Holy Spirit will be doing and One other thing that's really important for us to get, this walking isn't something else that we add to our to-do list. It isn't another thing to do. You might possibly be thinking, oh boy, I've got a bunch of things to do today. I've got this list of things, but Monday just gets even worse. I've just got a whole bunch of stuff I've got to do. You mean I've got to add to that list to walk in the Spirit? To walk by means of the Spirit? I've got to put that on there too?

Well, that's not what God has in mind. It's not at all. Walking by means of the Spirit is something that is actually taught in other passages as well, expressed in other means. The bottom line, however, is that it has to do with our ongoing fellowship and dependence upon the Lord for daily life. See that? It has to do with our ongoing fellowship and dependence upon the Lord for daily life.

It isn't another thing for us to do It's all about His doing, what He has done, what He is doing, what He will do. It's about His doing, not our doing. What we find is Scripture says similar things or the same things using different words. A lot of times because different ways of expressing things may be exactly what we need for us to understand it. And so we have in this passage, walking by the Spirit. In another passage, it may refer to resting. depending upon what the Lord has done.

In 2 Corinthians 3.18, it's beholding. And so the Scripture gives different illustrations for the same thing that has to do with your fellowship, ongoing fellowship with the Lord. Now, so this walking is not another thing to do.

Really, it becomes the top priority question. And this is what it is. Where does the motivating and the enabling and the empowering and the energizing for daily life come from. That's the priority question. If we're thinking according to the law, the question is, is this something I should do or not do? Paul says that's not the issue. The ultimate issue, the biggest question of all. If you're already a believer, the biggest question every moment is, Where does the motivating and enabling and empowering and energizing for what we do come from? What's the source? That's the priority question. That's the question that matters big.

There are a number of verses, and this is one of them, that call for us to look to God's provision for everything. Everything. That's why it's not just something else to do. The call here from Paul is to look to God's provision based on what he has done and who he has made us to be. What he has done and who he has made us to be. That's what he's calling for. We could illustrate it this way. Here at the bottom is kind of the foundation of what we walk on. That's our eternal position in Christ. Let me explain that so that we're not just using lingo.

It is who you are and who you have been made to be because of God's doing. Are you a child of God by God's doing? Yes. Are you one of the sheep of his pasture? Yes. Are you in Christ? Yes. It's who you are, who you've been made to be by God's doing. That's your eternal position in Christ. And we use that word eternal because it's forever. It's not changing. I don't become a child of God today and then all of a sudden go, whoops, I messed it up. It's eternal.

We have been made to be, 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, in Christ. In Christ.

Our position, our place is in Him. That's how God sees us is in Christ, wrapped in Him. We are motivated by grace to walk, that is to live out and pattern our life in that position. Our living of life for every step is based on who we are, who God has made us to be in Him. Notice, our eternal position is in Christ. Our motivation for our walk is graciously given, graciously given.

God, through the Holy Spirit, is the one who enables and empowers and energizes the walk in our position, that eternal position that we have in Christ, who we have been made to be in Him. God is the one who does the energizing through the Holy Spirit. God is the one who empowers it. As we walk, as we depend upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit to enable and empower and energize our life, the quality of our walk is impacted because Christ is our life. Christ is our life. We have a position on which to walk. We have a means of the Holy Spirit. We have a motivation, depending on what God has done. And we have a quality of life that is because it's His life.

But there's another reason it's not another thing for you to do. There's another reason. At first reading here, we might be tempted to think, oh, you know, yeah, I better try harder to walk in the Spirit. I better try harder to be a good Christian this next week. Or we might need to add something to our list of things to do. That might be what we're tempted to do. Notice I put the word tempted in there.

Okay? When we look closer, we find this isn't ours to do. It's not ours to do. What do I mean by that? It's our place to actively depend. Actively depend upon the ministries of the Holy Spirit for the living out of this life. It's depending on Him and not us. It's faith in God's work, not our own. It's not faith in our work. It's faith in God's work. Our part? Believe. Believe what He has done. Believe what He is doing. Believe what He will do. Believe Him. That's our part. Now, here's an amazing thing.

We think of what doesn't God do? I think that's valuable for us to think about. What does God not do? Well, God does not ask us to do anything, get this, God doesn't ask us to do anything for which he has not already provided 100% in our position and power and enabling and doing. Got that? God does not ask us to do anything for which he has not already provided everything that's required.

It's not ours to pull it off. It's His completely. God doesn't ask us to be anything, but He is the one who makes us whatever we need to be. He's the one who pulls it off. It's all from His resources. It's all from who He has made us to be. It's all from what He's providing. All He asks is that we believe in Him, And guess what? Our believing, our faith, is not a work. But faith in His work. It's not our work, it's faith in His work.

That's as far as we can go. Isn't that interesting? Faith is as far as we can go. Because the rest is all His. You can't go any farther than faith. That's as far as God asks you to go. No farther. If you want to go farther and try to go farther, guess what? That isn't what God has in mind. He asks for you to have faith and no more and no less. You can't walk any farther than that.

God never asks or expects us to prove ourselves worthy of His blessing. Never. If you've thought of yourself, oh, man, I want to be a good Christian, but Wrong point. He doesn't want you to be a good Christian. Okay, forget about it. He never asked us to prove ourselves worthy of his blessing. What does he say here instead?

He asks us, we who are already 100% blessed, Ephesians 1, 3, to see that he is the one that is entirely worthy. And do you believe it? That's good enough. He says, that's all I ask. He's the one that's worthy. We're not proving ourselves worthy. He has blessed us. We're not working for blessing. There's something about this word grace. Guess what? It's free. If we believe and put our trust in Christ and are saved, our salvation is marvelous, but you know that we're not indebted to Him? No. We are not indebted to the Lord. Why? Because grace is free.

You can't work for it. When you open up Christmas presents a couple of months from now, you won't get a bill with it. It's free. It's a gift. That's what it means. That's what grace is about. It's absolutely, totally free. You can't pay it back. You can't even hope to. God never expects it and doesn't even want you to. He wants you to take it free, free, free. That's exactly what He has in mind.

One of the other things, because I know it's easy for us to fall back into it in the course of life, we oftentimes will see how-to books. And these days, with things on the internet, there's all sorts of how-to videos. And administrative procedures is something a number of us have run across. Either we have to carry them out or be subject to them. It's easy to fall into sort of a checklist mindset.

Follow these steps. Here's the how-to. Do these things and then it'll come about. Walking by the Spirit doesn't work that way. Here are the things you must do. No. Our walking by the Spirit, walking by means of the Spirit, is really about depending upon what God has done in relationship with Him.

What He has done, is doing, and will do forever. Completely. There is never anything at which we are asked to do something of our own selves and of our own resources, and to try to be something of our own attainment. Never. It's about our personal relationship and fellowship with the Lord and our faith and trust in Him. That simple. Now, the last part of this verse is interesting.

It says, You will not carry out the desire of the flesh. Each moment that we walk by means of the Spirit, We will not carry out the driving passions of the flesh. And this is a hundred percent, zero percent kind of deal. Walking by the Spirit, a hundred percent is zero percent flesh.

That's the idea he's trying to get across here. The flesh, we said before, is an expression of the sin nature. Boy, Romans chapter 6 goes into that just in great depth. In and through our bodies. The sin nature expressed through our bodies, that's the flesh. Now, some years back, Hal put together a diagram that Sue Anderson put to kind of a computer format here, and great diagram. I won't go into the details of it here. There's a reason why.

There's a three-page supplemental handout on the cabinet to the right as you exit this room. I highly recommend that you take one. And if you run out, I highly recommend that you tell me about it so I can get you some more, okay? But what this does is it explains in some kind of continuing detail with some diagrams that you may find very helpful. Anyway, that's available, and I do recommend it. One other thing, we've been talking about the ministries of the Holy Spirit and Hal presented a one-page listing in reference for the ministries of the Holy Spirit, and that's also available there. We've made it available in the past, but if you would like to avail yourself of that, please feel free to do so. So now, how do you like extreme? Sometimes it's a little easier for folks to watch than to do, but sometimes extreme is just great. That's the new version of jet skis, right? You've heard of jet skis.

So walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. Paul's message here is emphatic. He chose, interesting, in Greek there's two words, each of them just have two letters, ume, it's real simple, but that's the most extreme way to say no in the Greek language. The point here that Paul has is this. There's not the slightest chance that you will carry out the desire of the flesh. There's not even the remotest possibility. There is no way you will carry out the desire of the flesh. That's what he's saying here. Not even sort of. Forget about it.

To get the thing across pictorially, there is no spirit and flesh eclectic here. None of that. There's no strange mixtures of things in here. It's not sort of hybrids and half breeds, okay? There's no mixture, a little bit of spirit, a little bit of flesh, mix it up. No, none of that. It is absolutely singularly one thing. No mixture of spirit and flesh combination, not at all. There's no shades of gray in this thing. It is black and white, 100% zero, that's it.

The other thing we could ask about is walking by means of the Spirit. Is it I who do it or is it we who do it? Well, let's take a look at what Paul said here. Paul wrote here in Galatians 5.16, he wrote words in plural. It doesn't always come across easily in the English, but in the Greek it's there. And fortunately I have this background of spending some time with these folks down in Texas.

And they would say, y'all must be walking by means of the Spirit, okay? So it's speaking to all of the believers, corporately speaking to them. So Paul intends by this that the entire church be walking by means of the Spirit. If we were to make this personal, he would say, all of you at Holly Hills must be continuously walking by means of the Spirit.

That would be a way of conveying it if he were writing that to us. It also has the sense of imperative there, which is an appeal to the will of each individual believer. So it also has an individual sense as well. In addition to the every single one of us, it's each individual one of you. There is that also.

So each believer has the indwelling Holy Spirit with the ongoing ministries in order for this to be carried out. He could only say each and every one of you walk by means of the Spirit if each of you all the time have the Holy Spirit, which he said you already do.

Each believer walking by the Spirit here would also have consequences. Now a lot of times we think of consequences and we tend to have a sort of a negative flavor. He's got a positive slant on this. There would be both the individual and the entire church body consequences to the believers walking by means of the Spirit. And the consequences of walking by means of the Spirit are all by God's intent and provision. That's exactly what God had in mind, and that's exactly what God has provided for, 100%.

In the negative sense, this is Galatians 5.15, the biting and devouring one another would not be happening. Okay?

Biting and devouring would not be happening. One of the things that I was talking yesterday with Kurt about is in those days they had not only gladiator fights in the arenas, but they also had animals battling each other. And that may be what Paul's alluding to here. He's saying that's not going to be going on, this biting and devouring one another. And I'm sure he's not talking about cannibalism, but this kind of verbal interaction getting intensely negative. That would not be happening.

But instead, what do you have? Through love served one another. That's the consequence to the upside. Thumbs up consequence of walking by means of the Spirit. The through love serving one another happens in the church body and that is God's intent. Happens because each believer is walking by means of the ministries of the Holy Spirit. In fellowship. Not because they've gone down the checklist. but because there is fellowship and relationship between that believer and the Lord. One of the points that comes out here, this is something that can be sometimes a struggle for Christians to get a hold of.

It's not a matter of living under the law or living under lawlessness or having grace be some sort of not quite so severe law. But instead, this is something entirely different from either law or lawlessness. Entirely different. It is neither one. And what is it instead?

I say to you, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. You won't be doing the abiding and devouring. That's the lawlessness, right? But in verse 18, just a couple of verses now, what is he going to say? But if you are led by the Spirit, You are not under the law either. It is neither law nor lawlessness. We don't need just a little bit of law to keep us from going crazy. We don't need just a little bit of law to keep us from getting lawless.

We instead, what does he call for? Walk by means of the Spirit. The ministries of the Holy Spirit are entirely adequate for us to live out the kind of life that God intends. Entirely adequate. Law will not help. It is not God's intent that law in any form or in any way help out in that process.

2 Corinthians 3.18 is one of those verses that I think states in another way what Paul intends in this Galatians 5.16 verse.

But we all with unveiled, and by the way that unveiled means without the law, we all with faces unveiled without the law beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit is by means of the Holy Spirit. Boy, where have we read that? It is by means of the Holy Spirit that this transformation takes place. The Holy Spirit, as we've already seen, is going to direct us to Christ. It is by means of the Holy Spirit directing us to Christ that we behold Christ and are changed and are grown from glory to glory.

Second Corinthians 5.7, for we walk by faith, not by sight. By the way, I don't recommend driving by that. But anyway, we walk by faith and not by sight. And what do we mean? Faith in the spiritual facts. Faith in dependence upon what God has done, what God is doing, and what God has made us to be. Or maybe I should restate that. Who God has made us to be.

First John 1, 7, first part of that verse, but if we walk in the light, here's this word walking again, as he himself is in the light, then what does that do? We have impact upon our interaction. We have fellowship with one another. Isn't that the same message that Paul has been saying here? If we walk in fellowship with the Lord, If we walk with our focus upon the Lord Jesus Christ, then we have God's intended fellowship one with another. Our interactions one with another will be exactly in line with what God has in mind.

That light will be lived out between us. Here's the Expanded and Explained, which in recent weeks, because of the mass of it, I've left it, but here I want to touch on it. But in view of the critical issues before you, I, Paul, an apostle, say to you all, in view of your position in Christ and the motivation of God's grace and His intent to empower your every step, you must all right now continually walk by means of the multiple ministries of the Holy Spirit who indwells you all.

And as a consequence of your walking by means of the Spirit, each one who is doing so will not be carrying out in the course of life the corrupt desire of the sin nature as expressed in and through your fleshly body. It's not going to happen. The biting and devouring? No. That's not the way it works if the Holy Spirit's ministries are being carried out in your life, walking by means of the Spirit's ministries.

We have as a part of our church doctrinal statement this paragraph about the life and walk of believers. We believe that every believer possesses the life of Christ and grows in the grace and knowledge of Christ through the Holy Spirit, who fills the believer with the things of Christ. This occurs as the believer beholds Christ and the Word of God as he walks by faith, moment by moment, abiding in Christ.

The believer is to walk and rest in the eternally established identity. Got that? Eternally established identity. That he possesses by virtue of his faith in the crucified, buried, resurrected, ascended, and seated person of Christ. That's your position in Christ. And his identification with him in these things. Christ's life is then lived in the believer.

His life. Which is evident to those who do Not know Christ and to those who share Christ's life You know I spent a number of years working in a consulting office and of course we worked with all kinds of people under all sorts of pressures And it was interesting There's a fellow who had an office right next to me and I He was a fellow that seemed to have trouble getting along with folks and seemed to have other things that he was rather chronically concerned about. And the office manager one time stopped me in the hallway and said, hey, Vern, do you ever talk to that guy in the office next to you?

I said, yeah. And she isn't saved. But she said, he needs whatever you've got. And so there was certainly an opportunity then to talk to her. But, you know, it's a matter of saying, you know, this is the Lord. This is the Lord's life. That's what makes the difference. It's not because of me, not me and myself, but it's the Lord's provision.

And isn't it interesting that this unbeliever would recognize that this other person I would really hope someday that she would recognize she needs that too. But this other person needs the Lord Jesus Christ. And not just theoretically and not just to, you know, come up here and have an altar call and have it be done, but in daily life, the kind of life that gets lived out in our homes, on crowded freeways, in the high-pressured office situations, work situations, That's exactly what the Lord had in mind, lived out his life by means of the ministries of the Holy Spirit. Let's pray.

Lord, as we look at this, we thank you. A simple verse, profound impact, and you intend it to be lived out every single moment of every single day of our life. And you have made provision for that in every case for every single one of us here who believes. Thank you for that, for that gracious abundant provision impacting eternity. In Jesus' name, amen.