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TITLE: Life in the Spirit
TEXT: Jn. 14:15-18; Acts 1:4-5, 8-9; Gal. 3:1-3, 10-14;
2 Co. 5:17-21; Mt. 7:16-20; Gal. 5:16-26; Ro. 7:15-25 & 8:1-17
INTRODUCTION: This morning I want to talk about life in the Spirit. Out of all the gifts and blessing that God has given us there is none greater than the gift of His Holy Spirit.
Last words are usually very important.
If someone is on their death bed and they know that they are about to die the words that they have to speak are usually very important and will not be wasted on the trivial but they are heartfelt words that they want their loved ones around them to hear knowing that if they don’t say them now they will forever loose that opportunity.
I don’t know of any man who is literally taking his last few breaths, and knows that he is, uses them to talk about the weather or what kind of mileage his new car is getting….
Last words are very important words that express what is most important to the one speaking them knowing this will be his last opportunity to say them.
When Jesus is speaking to His disciples just prior to his going to the cross He speaks these words to them…
John 14:15-18 ( NIV ) 15“If you love me, you will obey what I command.16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be£ in you.18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Knowing that His time on earth is about over Jesus comforts His disciples with the promise of a councilor that would come and be with them forever, the spirit of truth.
After Jesus has been raised from the dead and just prior to His being taken up into Heaven among His last words to His followers are these…
Acts 1:4-5 ( NIV ) “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.5For John baptized with£ water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
In fact the very last words that Jesus spoke before ascending to heaven pertained to the Holy Spirit!
Acts 1:8-9 ( NIV ) 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
The words that Jesus deemed most important when He knew they would be His last words spoken to His followers all pertained to the promised gift of the Holy Spirit!
It is essential that we understand the Spirit filled and Spirit led life as a Christian.
Often it seems we lose sight of the Holy Spirits importance to us as a Christian.
We see this happening in the Galatian Church in Paul’s day.
The Galatian Christians had diverted from the right path. They had become merely “religious”.
Scott Wesley Brown had a song several years ago that contained the lyrics “ I’m not religious, I just love the Lord”.
Mere religion is a trap that any of us can fall into.
We follow a law—any law, even a good one like Jesus’ words—trying to live the Christian life apart from Christ. We try to accomplish the work of God in the strength of our own flesh only to find that it can’t be done.
Listen to what the Apostle Paul has to say to the Galanian Christians who were trying to do this very thing…
Galatians 3:1-14 ( NIV ) 1You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.2I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?3Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
10All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”11Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.” 12The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.”13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”14He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
The Galatian Church was founded upon the Gospel of Christ. Salvation by grace through faith, not by legalistic righteousness to the law.
Now they were going backward and once again trying to justify themselves by the works of the law.
So Paul addresses them rather harshly….
1You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?3Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
Jesus was very clear when He said in John 15:5;
Apart from Me you can do nothing!
We may have thought that being a Christian meant being better, improving ourselves, and having a profound sense to obey God and to do good works. If so, we set our eyes on the result of a Christian life and forgot the means to get there!
We cannot become mature Christians except by supernatural means! Jesus did not come into this world to just make us better but He came to make us new! And there is a significant difference…
Nowhere does Scripture say that Jesus came to just make us better. It says that he came to make us new!
2 Corinthians 5:17 ( NIV ) 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
None of us can make ourselves into a new creation. Only God can do that through supernatural means.
The supernatural means that God uses is by placing His Holy Spirit into our hearts.
Just contemplate on what a mature Christian looks like…
How would one define a mature Christian?
Jesus said you will know them by their fruits!
Matthew 7:16-20 ( NIV ) 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
Paul, not only tells us what good fruit is, but how the only way that we can bearit in:
Galatians 5:16-26 ( NIV ) 16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.
I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
It is interesting to me that Paul uses the word acts in describing the manifestations of our sinful natures and he uses the word fruits to describe the manifestations of our obedience to the Holy Spirit…
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
We know what a mature Christian looks like!
He or she will have the fruits of the Spirit evident in their lives…Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control!
What we don’t seem to know—or easily forget is---that we don’t grow these attributes by doing our best at them! We get them by realizing how foreign they are to our human nature, how futile our attempts at achieving them are, and how dependent on God we are for His life within us.
Living a supernatural life is only possible by supernatural means!
Notice that these fruits are described, not as our fruits, but as fruits of the spirit!
They can only be manifest within our life one way and one way only…
Paul tells us the only way that we will be able to bear this fruit is…16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
There is a portion in the book of Romans that I think that all of us can identify with…I know that I can!
Romans 7:15-25 ( NIV ) 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.19For 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.20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Be honest! Have you ever found yourself in this dilemma as a Christian?
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
19For 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.
Maybe you have become as frustrated with the situation as the Apostle Paul did and cried out in anguish of soul to God…
24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
I have heard this passage preached upon and the preacher would cut it off right here and conclude that sense Paul struggled with sin in his life that we will too so it is alright to just leave it there. We are all sinner so we will all always be frustrated by sin in our lives.
Paul did not just leave it there! He didn’t just leave us dangling without hope!
He raises a question and then answers that question in the very next verse!
24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
And then Paul goes right on in Chapter 8 telling us how to live victorious lives in Christ free from sins hold on us!
Romans 8:1-17 ( NIV ) 1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,£2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature,£ God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.£ And so he condemned sin in sinful man,£4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
6The mind of sinful man£ is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it.13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.£ And by him we cry,“Abba,£ Father.”16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
It all comes down to living live in the Spirit!
No matter how saved and sanctified we are we will always have a sinful nature within us as long as we are on this side of eternity..
But the dynamic of being a Christian is that God has also placed His Spirit in our hearts…
The Spirit of God within us and our own sinful nature
Will always be striving for control of our life.
That is what causes the battle within that Paul talked about in Romans 7…
15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
The answer is for us is to simply yield to the desire of the Holy Spirit within us and live by His direction and guidance.
but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
The Holy Spirit of God is the most powerful force in the universe. Far more powerful than any army or any weapon of man!
The Holy Spirit of God is the only thing that can change and transform us from who we are into who God wants us to be.
The Holy Spirit is the only force in the world powerful enough to change a sinner into a saint.
He does that, not by merely making us better but by making us new creations as we allow Him to do that.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ( NIV ) 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
That term “in Christ” “en Christos” is important for us to understand here.
It is not merely talking about someone who has accepted Christ and become a Christian.
It is an act subsequent to that…. The preposition “in”, “en” in Greek denotes taking up a fixed position.
In Christ means to take up a fixed position in Him!
I think the simplest illustration to what that means is to think about those bracelets that say WWJD.
We place ourselves in Christ every time we ask ourselves What Would Jesus Do and then do what Jesus would do!
That is what it means to live according to the Spirit so that we won’t fulfill the desires of the flesh!
And that is the only way that we have any hope of becoming the new creations that God has called us to be so that we ourselves become ambassadors of Christ into our world!
It all comes down to living our lives in the Spirit…
Placing our will in subjection to His will on a moment by moment basis….
As we do this, as we yield our will to the will of the Holy Spirit that Christ has sent to indwell and empower us and we will find ourselves becoming, not just better people, but literally becoming new creations that will reflect Christ into all parts of our world…