1. One of the great (but often neglected) teachings of the New Testament is the Christian’s need to rely on the presence, the power, and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
2. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said once that he never passed a single quarter of an hour in his waking moments without a distinct consciousness of the presence of the Lord.
3. Ephesians 4:30 says we are to “grieve not the holy Spirit of God.”  This means we must not cover up sin or make excuses for sin.
4. Some Christians play around with sin, and sugarcoat sin, and ignore sin.  How this must grieve our holy God!
5. First Thessalonians 5:19 says, “Quench not the Spirit.”  This means we must not say “no” to God.  We must yield to God.
6. Romans 12:1says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
7. This morning I would like to focus on walking in the Spirit. Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
8. Romans 8:4 says, “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
9. Galatians 5:16 says, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” Galatians 5:25 says, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
10. I would like to preach this morning on this important subject - “Walk in the Spirit.”

I. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO WALK IN THE SPIRIT (GAL. 5:16)?

1. People often think the Christian life is very difficult.  It is extremely difficult if we try to live it in our own strength.  But the Bible does not tell us to live for God in our own strength.
2. We are to depend on God, to trust in God, to “walk in the Spirit” (not in the flesh).
3. Walking in the Spirit is simply walking with a reliance upon the ability and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
4. We are to walk by faith, and not by sight (II Cor. 5:7).
5. There are many examples of this in Scripture.  Abraham walked by faith and God blessed him.  Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”  He was relying on God.
6. But when Abraham went down to Egypt, he stopped walking by faith (Gen. 12:10-20).  He stopped relying on God.
7. What about Elijah the prophet?  He was led by God and the Lord blessed him. But after his great victory up on Mount Carmel he ran all the way to Beersheba because wicked Queen Jezebel threatened him (I Kings 19:1-3).
8. Consider Peter. When Peter kept his eyes on Jesus, he walked on the water.  But once he took his eyes off of Jesus, he was afraid, and began to sink.
9. And Peter cried out, saying, “Lord, save me.”
10. And the Lord did save him, and said to him, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” (Matt. 14:31).
11. So the key is total reliance on God - not on the flesh, and not on the law (cf. Romans 8:1, 4; Gal. 5:18).
12. Some churches teach an unholy mixture of law and grace.  And they insist that unless it is done this way, church members will fall into gross sin.
13. There are many problems with this thinking.  First of all, it is contrary to Scripture, and secondly - it does not work anyway (cf. Rom. 6:1, 2; Eph. 2:8-10).
14. The RCC mixes together law and grace, but most RC’s do not have victory over sin.  Our governor is a RC and he is promoting so-called “gay marriage.”  He has admitted to being an adulterer.
15. The famous movie star Mel Gibson is a devout RC, but he is now involved in a messy divorce.  His wife has accused him of adultery.
16. We could go on and on.  Consider the countless RC priest sex scandals.
17. All the cults (JW’s, SDA, Mormons) mix law and grace.  Yet their members’ lives are not characterized by piety and godliness.  In fact, oftentimes they are characterized by ungodliness.
18. Utah is a predominantly Mormon state, and it leads the nation in divorce, child abuse, incest, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, alcoholism, and suicide.

II. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO WALK AFTER THE FLESH (ROM. 8:1, 4; GAL. 5:16)?

1. In the Bible, the word “flesh” is used in different ways.  Often it simply refers to the physical body.
2. However, when it is used in a moral sense it refers to sinful desires, which express themselves through the physical body (cf. Eph. 2:1-3).
3. Unfortunately, it is possible to be saved and to walk in the flesh.  Galatians 5:16 is addressed to Christians - “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”
4. Carnal Christians allow themselves to be controlled by the flesh.  The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 7:18, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.”
5. FB Meyers said, “Spell ‘flesh’ backwards, drop the h, as we are apt to do in London, and you get s-e-l-f; ‘flesh’ is ‘self,’ and ‘self’ is ‘flesh.’”
6. The unregenerate self is condemned by God.  Our Lord did not tell Nicodemus, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must turn over a new leaf,” or “Ye must join the church,” or “Ye must try a little harder,” etc.
7. No, our Lord said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:6, 7).
8. The unregenerate man is hopeless and helpless apart from God, but he can be gloriously regenerated and transformed by the grace of God and the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
9. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
10. The flesh is still with us.  And the flesh will put up a fight, but we can have victory through Christ (Gal. 2:20, 21).
11. As long as we are in our mortal bodies the flesh will try and hinder us, but if we are depending upon the Holy Spirit we will walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Gal. 5:16).

III. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE DEAD TO SIN (ROM. 6:2)?

1. Through His substitutionary death on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ bore the penalty of our sins, making it possible for a holy God to receive sinners.
2. Romans 5:10 says, “when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”
3. Second Corinthians 5:18 says, God “hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.”
4. Colossians 1:21 says, “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.”
5. Sinners can be reconciled to a holy God by believing the Gospel.
6. We have been saved not only from the penalty of sin (hell), but from the power of sin (cf. Rom. 6).

• We “are dead to sin” (6:2).
• “We also should walk in newness of life” (6:4).
• “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (6:6).
• “For he that is dead is freed from sin” (6:7).
• “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (6:11).
• “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof” (6:12).
• “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God…” (6:13).
• “For sin shall not have dominion over you…” (6:14).
• “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin…” (6:17; cf. 6:20).
• “Being then made free from sin” (6:18, 22).

7. Before we conclude, let me make a distinction between the words “crucify” and “mortify.”
8. The word crucify as related to believers is in the past tense - “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Gal. 5:24).
9. The next verse, Galatians 5:25, says, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
10. Therefore, we can walk in the Spirit because we have been crucified with Christ.  That is why Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…” (Gal. 2:20).
11. “Mortify” means to reckon (consider) to be dead (cf. Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5). Mortifying is possible only by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit - “if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom. 8:13; cf. Col. 3:1-5).
12. Unger’s Bible Dictionary says, “The chief agent in carrying on this mortification is the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:13), with prayer, faith, and dependence upon God as the means…If sin be mortified we shall not yield to temptation; our minds will be more spiritual; we shall find more happiness in spiritual services, and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit.”
13. Walking in the Spirit means allowing the Lord Jesus Christ to live out His life in you and me.

CONCLUSION:

1. Dan­i­el Web­ster Whit­tle reached the rank of ma­jor in the Amer­i­can ci­vil war, and for the rest of his life was known as “Ma­jor” Whit­tle. Dur­ing the civil war, Whit­tle lost his right arm, and end­ed up in a pris­on­er of war camp.
2. Re­cov­er­ing from his wounds in the hos­pi­tal, he looked for some­thing to read, and found a New Test­a­ment. Though its words res­o­nat­ed with him, he was still not rea­dy to ac­cept Jesus Christ as his Saviour.
3. Short­ly af­ter, a nurse in the hos­pit­al woke him and said a dy­ing pris­on­er want­ed some­one to pray with him. Whit­tle de­murred, but the nurse said, “But I thought you were a Christ­ian; I have seen you read­ing your Bi­ble.” Whit­tle then agreed to go. He re­cord­ed what took place at the dy­ing youth’s bed side:

“I dropped on my knees and held the boy’s hand in mine. In a few brok­en words I con­fessed my sins and asked Christ to for­give me. I be­lieved right there that He did for­give me. I then prayed ear­nest­ly for the boy. He be­came qui­et and pressed my hand as I prayed and plead­ed God’s prom­ises. When I arose from my knees, he was dead. A look of peace had come over his trou­bled face, and I can­not but be­lieve that God who used him to bring me to the Sav­ior, used me to lead him to trust Christ’s pre­cious blood and find par­don. I hope to meet him in hea­ven.”

4. After the civil war, Major Whittle be­came trea­sur­er of a watch com­pany in Chi­ca­go, Ill­i­nois, but through the influence of DL Moody, he eventually left that position to work full time as an evangelist.
5. Dur­ing this per­i­od, he worked with mu­si­cians Phillip P. Bliss and James McGranahan.  Major Whittle wrote over 200 hymns and Gospel songs, including “I Know Whom I Have Believed,” “Showers of Blessing,” and “The Banner of the Cross.”
6. Together with James McGranahan, Major Whittle wrote this song.

Once far from God and dead in sin,
No light my heart could see;
But in God’s Word the light I found,
Now Christ liveth in me.
 
Christ liveth in me,
Christ liveth in me,
Oh! what a salvation this,
That Christ liveth in me.
 
As rays of light from yonder sun,
The flowers of earth set free,
So life and light and love came forth
From Christ living in me.

As lives the flower within the seed,
As in the cone the tree,
So, praise the God of truth and grace,
His Spirit dwelleth in me.
 
With longing all my heart is filled,
That like Him I may be,
As on the wondrous thought I dwell
That Christ liveth in me.
 
Christ liveth in me,
Christ liveth in me,
Oh! what a salvation this,
That Christ liveth in me.