Walking by the Spirit, Part 3
Galatians 5:22-25
Continuing in our series tonight in the book of Galatians, I draw your attention to Chapter 5 again. And to continuing thoughts in our study of walking by the Spirit, walking by the Spirit. Now we have been looking at verse 16-25, Galatians 5:16-25. Now as we have seen, and this really amounts to part three in that particular study, but as we have seen in our study, the only way that the Christian life can be lived successfully is walking by the Spirit. The Christian cannot walk independent of the Holy Spirit. He cannot generate his own energy, his own resource, but success in the Christian is directly related to the Spirit walk.
There are three reasons, just beginningly tonight. Why walking by the Spirit is the only way to fulfill God's plan for the Christian. Three reasons, number one, because of the impossible standard that God requires. And by that, I mean this, God's standard for the believer is so high, in fact, to simplify it all, Jesus put it this way, "Be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect." The standard is so high, that there is no way humanly speaking that a Christian could ever meet the standard. So because of the impossible nature of God's standard. The only way that it could ever be fulfilled is when we walk by the Spirit. For example, just to show you a few scriptures, John 13, and don't follow in your Bible. Just write them down if you want them, John 13:34. "A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you." Now does that sound slightly impossible?
In John 15, verse 12, "This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you." He repeats it again. In Ephesians Chapter 4, verse 30, "And grieve not the Spirit of God by whom you are sealed unto the day of redemption, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you will all malice. Be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." And again the standard is you are to be what Jesus was. You are to forgive like God forgives.
In Chapter 5 of Ephesians in verse 20 it says "You're to give thanks always for all things." Again, an impossible standard, just from the standpoint of our humanness. And as we saw last time and that's just an illustration, and you can go on and on and on with verses, but as we saw last time, the Christian is to walk and we looked through all the features of the walk in the New Testament. He is to walk in humility, in purity, in contentedness, in faith, in good works, in newness, in separation, in love, in light, in wisdom, in truth, and all of these things are in enjoined upon the Christian.
In fact, in 1 John 2:6, it simply puts it all in perhaps the most obvious and yet impossible terms, "He that saith he abideth in Him are also to walk as He walked." You're to be like Christ. You say it's an impossible standard. Yes, it is. And that's precisely why the believer to accomplish the Christian life must walk by the Spirit, because it is impossible on his own. And as we read last time in 2 Corinthians 6:16, God says, "I will dwell in them and walk in them." That's the key. It is God who dwells in the believer, who walks in the believer. There's the power. There's the energy. There's the resource. There's the accomplishment and our task is to walk by the Spirit to align ourselves with the footsteps of the living God in our lives.
Walking by the Spirit then is important because of the impossible standard which God has set. It is only attainable by God Himself. And so God Himself lives in you attaining that standard and as you walk in Him, it's fulfilled in you. Second reason that we should walk in the Spirit is because of the formidable foe that we have. We could never possibly fight Satan in our own strength could we? We can't do it. There is no way that humanly speaking we can handle Satan. Now it's interesting I think to keep in mind that the battle going on in the universe isn't between Satan and Christians. It's between Satan and God. We just get in the middle of it. In fact, Satan is actively against God and it's when somebody becomes a partaker, as Peter put it, a partaker of the divine nature. When you get saved, it says you become a partaker of the divine nature that automatically you put yourself in the middle of the battle. But Satan's battle is against God and it has to be at that level that he is handled. You see?
You can't handle him, and I can't either. That's why at the end of the book of Ephesians, very simply Paul says this in Chapter 6, verse 10. "Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of," what, "His might." Can't do it on your own. And the reason is because we wrestle not against flesh and blood. So you're flesh and blood, you can't handle an enemy that is principality, power, rulers of the darkness, and spiritual wickedness and high places and all of those angelic beings are out of your realm of combat. So you have to be strong in the Lord.
Now it is true that in James, you say what about James? Let's see, I think it's 4:7 where it says, "Resist the devil." Can't we do that? Yes, but you know what it says before that? It says, "submit yourselves to God and resist the devil." You've got to have both there. You know even Michael the super angel, Michael was super angel, champion angel, warrior angel, the greatest fighting angel. It says this in Jude verse 9. "Even Michael, when contending with the devil, dared not bring a railing accusation but said the Lord rebuke you." Even Michael who was at the very level of Satan as an angel didn't bring a rebuke against Satan personally. He said the Lord rebuke you.
Now, it is clear to us then that because of the formidable enemy that we face, we cannot fight in our own strength. In His strength yes, 1 John 4:4, "Greater is He that is in you than he that is," what, "in the world." It's nice to know that God's strength is as available as right here because he lives in me and dwells in me.
Third reason that we must walk by the Spirit is because of the power of the sinful flesh. We are all victimized by our own flesh. And you see, for example, Romans 7, here's a good man. A good believing man, the apostle Paul, and he's even good enough to love the law of God. In fact, he makes the statement that I love the law of God. "I delight in the law of God." Verse 22 or Romans 7, but in verse 18, "I know that in me, in my flesh dwells no good thing for to will is present with me. I have all the right desires, but how to perform that which is good I find not." Why? Verse 23, "I see another law in my members warring and it brings me into captivity to the law of sin oh wretched man that I am."
You see, he's saying I can't subdue my flesh. The only way the flesh will ever be subdued becomes simply clear to us as we read the statement of the Galatians Chapter 5, verse 16. Remember it? What does it say? This, "Walk by means of the Spirit and you shall not," what, "fulfill the lusts of the flesh." The only way you can ever conquer the flesh is to walk by means of the Spirit. You can't handle the flesh in your own strength. That's what Paul is saying in Romans Chapter 7.
That's what he's saying Galatians to the Judaisers who are saying you've got to keep the law and grit your teeth and grunt and groan and try to be obedient and try to subdue the flesh. And he says, you can't do it in your own strength. So because of God's impossible standard, because of our formidable foe and because of our hopelessly sinful flesh, we must walk by the Spirit. Now we saw in our last study together that walking by the Spirit being filled with the Spirit, letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, being Christ conscious is all the same thing.
It's having your mind saturated and dominated by the things of the Spirit of God and the person of Jesus Christ. So this is basic to the Christ life. There's nothing more basic than this. Now I gave you four points and I'll run by them quickly and then we'll get to t