Well, if you will turn with me in your vivals to Galatians chapter five Gonna continue our sermon series entitled all things new and yes, it is I it's me. I survived the weekend The of the women's retreat where my wife was gone and I had all four kids Miracles do happen. It's a Christmas miracle. Here I am So to all the other men who toughed it out and took care of our kids Well done and it just proves got as gracious than it So let's look at Galatians five. We're gonna look at verses 16 to 25 this morning as we continue our all things new sermon series Here now God's holy and true word You've also Paul writes but I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do But if you are led by the spirit you are not you are not under the law Now the works of the flesh are evidence sexual immorality impurity sensuality idolatry sorcery enmity strife jealousy fits of anger rivalries Decentions divisions envy drunkenness orange or geez and things like these I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God But the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience Kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control Against such things there is no law and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires If we live by the spirit let us also keep in step with the spirit It's the word of the Lord Will you pray with me? Father in heaven we do thank you for your word and for its power and for how it declares Your great love for us How it clearly tells us that We are only made right with you not by what we do but by what Christ has done And now Lord as we look into your word and talk about One of the other new things that we receive in Christ. Would you fill our hearts? Would you use this time to transform us? To equip us to run with this good news To our neighbors and to the nations for it is in Jesus name that we pray Amen Amen So we are continuing our all things new sermon series that we started a few weeks ago We've been talking about things that we receive through faith in Christ and so If you're a new Christian you you have these if you've been a Christian a long time you've had these a long time like for example A couple weeks ago we talked about how we receive a new status Through faith in Christ God for gives us of all of our sins because of Christ's death on the cross And he also declares us righteous Because of the righteousness that Christ earned in his life and then that's freely given to us as if we had lived a Righteous life and and so we talked about how if we believe in Jesus then we've received this new status that we are Righteous in Christ. It's amazing And then last week might talk about how we also receive a new identity That we become a child of God that the creator and sustainer of all things Adops us as his child and we are therefore Entitled to all the benefits of being a child of the king It's amazing amazing if you weren't here those sermons are online you can go back and listen to them if you want Today we're going to talk about yet another new thing that we receive as followers of Jesus through through faith and that is power
Through faith we receive power from the Holy Spirit which enables us to truly change and To become more and more like Jesus this is such a sweet aspect of the good news that we Received through faith power from the Holy Spirit Which really enables us to change and change in ways that make us more like Jesus. You know One of the undeniable things about Christianity is it's long and unmatched record of changed lives I mean there's nothing in the world that can claim as many Positively powerfully changed lives as our faith in fact like just in my time in ministry, which is not very long I could give you names of people but just tell you examples in my time I've seen prideful and arrogant people become more humble. I have seen timid and fearful people become more courageous I've seen drug addicts and alcoholics get clean and stay clean and sober. I've seen bad followers become good fathers I've seen people addicted to pornography get liberated from that habit. I have seen people who hated themselves Learned to really accept who they are and how God has made them. I've seen angry people learn to remain calm and stay in control That's autobiographical
I've seen selfish people become compassionate. I've seen liars begin to tell the truth I've seen lazy people get incredible motivation. I've seen people who had not a friend in the world suddenly having lifelong Real relationships with people and then and of course that I've heard and you've heard you've read about the way Drug addicts or drug dealers. I mean in prostitutes or con artists even terrorists Have by God's power through faith in Christ and through the work of the Holy Spirit been transformed into new people different people people people much more like Jesus that have a positive impact on the people around them every day It is amazing. You can debate you know whether or not the Bible is true and you can have a long drawn out discussion over whether or not Jesus really did rise from the dead But what you can't get away from what you cannot deny is the fact that Christianity has a longer and stronger record of changing Lives than any other religion or worldview or philosophy bar none Period and the reason is because people who do Really put their faith in Christ people who really trust in Jesus they really do change They really do and not just once that's the best part. It's something that happens over and over He continues to renew us and to make us new so that's what we're talking about today that through faith We receive power from the Holy Spirit which enables us to truly change and become More like Jesus and we're gonna talk about three things if you're making an outline and we're gonna talk about the change agent We'll talk about the Holy Spirit Then we'll talk about changeless Christians. What do we think or what do we know about people who say they're Christians? But there's never any real change and then lastly we'll talk about what I like to call grace driven effort Okay, grace driven effort. So let's talk about this change agent. Let's talk about the Holy Spirit First though we're gonna look at 16 and 17 in in our passage today in a moment But I want to start by just kind of rehashing this definition when we use catechism question and answers and things like that It's not the Bible. It's a summary of what we find in the Bible the Bible is authoritative the Bible is Inherent and infallible, but these catechism answers are just helpful ways that we can summarize What the Bible teaches. That's why we use them and so we've been we've been talking about doctrine and we're gonna continue to talk about that today For example when we talked about our new status. We were talking about the doctrine of justification by faith alone Last week when Mike was talking about our new identity. He was really talking about the doctrine of adoption And so today as we talk about the Holy Spirit and how he gives us power we're talking about the doctrine of sanctification So here it is look at that sanctification is the work of God's free grace Whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more To die and to sin and to live unto righteousness Let's unpack that a little bit. Uh, number one. It's a work of God's free grace in other words. It's a process Okay, this doesn't happen overnight The process of sanctification happens through the rest of our life So it is a ongoing process where God is renewing us in the whole man after the image of God What that means is that God is undoing The damage done in us by the fall and by our own sin. He's undoing those things So he's renewing us and making us back into his image Into the image of Christ and so it says we're enabled and that's huge
And that's what we're gonna talk about today. It's the Holy Spirit who enables us Okay, and so you have to understand this is not something that we do on our own. We are enabled by the Holy Spirit for what? It says to die and to sin and to live unto righteousness And so really what that's saying is that the Holy Spirit empowers us to turn away from the things that God calls sin The things that dishonor God the things that ultimately will lead to our misery or our ruin or the misery and ruin of others And at the same time we're enabled to not only do but even take joy in doing the things that God has called us to do And the primary actor in sanctification is the Holy Spirit Okay, so let's talk about him. What does Paul say look at verse 16 Chapter 5 16 he says but I say Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh Where the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh for these are opposed to each other To keep you from doing the things you want to do So two things really that we're seeing there Number one we see the reason that we do sin Okay, the reason that we do things that we regret that things that hurt us things that hurt others And then we also see the reason why through faith we actually are Enabled to turn away from those things and do things that honor God and truly bless Other people so let's talk about the reason that we do sin This is one of the things about the Bible. It's hard to swallow But once you believe it you begin to experience change Basically what the Bible teaches is that we are sinners By nature That's what he's talking about when he says the desires of the flesh. He's talking about the desires of our sin nature Okay, all human beings were born and we're not good. We're actually inclined to evil We actually are attracted to doing things that will cause misery in our life and in the lives of others So another way to say that would be to say that we're not sinners because we sin We sin because we are sinners and so that's an important key point for us to understand It's all because of the fall Okay, when Adam and Eve sin humanity became inclined to sin. So we buy nature. It's natural For us to sin david talks about this in Psalm 51 verse 5 when he says behold. I was brought forth in iniquity Saying that he's been a sinner since the day he was born Paul and Roman 718 and 19 says that nothing is good in our flesh or our sin nature nothing okay Romans 3 Paul talks about having where we've all sinned. We've all fallen short This is all of our problems and so that's not like there's good people in the world and bad people in the world There's there's bad people and Jesus. That's it Okay We are all by nature. It's natural for us to do things that will lead to misery lead to our own ruin Because of the fall and so the reason that we sin is because of our sin nature and one of the things That's hard also hard to swallow on this is the Bible talks about it like it's slavery actually it is slavery That we are enslaved to doing things That will cause misery and cause ruin in Roman 617 Paul says talks about how people who have become Christians were once slaves to sin And Jesus says in room or John 834 he says everyone who practiced sin is a slave to sin and so what the Bible teaches us is that the reason we do bad things is not because we're having a bad day It is because our human nature is broken. It's fallen and it's actually attracted to things that will destroy us which Helps us completely understand why God would command us to obey him A couple of weeks ago we talked about he does not command us to obey him so that he can accept us He accepts us because of what Christ has done Not because of what we do so our obedience has nothing to do with our justification nothing to do with why he accepts us Or adopts us It has to do with something else. It has to do with the fact that he loves us. He wants us to be free From slavery He wants us to get off the treadmill. You know I was reading about treadmills because that's what I do in my spare time Is read about treadmills and actually no I just came across this and did you know that you know when treadmills were invented Victorian England Yeah, that's where treadmills were actually invented They were found in prisons They were used as a form of punishment So there's a picture of an old school treadmill and prisoners basically would spend the bulk of their day walking on this revolving wheel And at the end of the day, you know, nothing is different nothing is changed. They're just totally worn out Now some of these wheels would be used to grind wheat or to transport water or stuff like that But the prisoners never benefited from it So all day every day they spent a lot of time and energy and at the end of the day they had absolutely nothing to show for it except It's exhaustion and that is what sin is Sin is it's like walking on a treadmill in prison you never really benefit from it You always regret it. It always leads to misery. It never prom and never gives you what it promises When we do things against God's word We always think it's going to give us something we really want and then it totally lets us down And the more you examine your life the more you realize the truth of that That's why we end up with guilt and shame and regret because we continue to do things that do not bear Fruit in our lives and those things are the ones that dishonor God and those are the things that God calls us away from because he loves us because he wants us to be free from Spending our time and energy doing things that dishonor him and don't benefit us or other people So like let's look I know that a lot of the frustration or hardship and misery in your life as well as mine is due to other people's sin That's a given But if we will really be honest and really examine our lives what we will see is the truth of the Bible That a lot of why we suffer a lot of what we struggle with a lot of our own misery is a result of our own doing And when we can feel that when we can feel that we do we want to do these things that we know will regret When you can feel that and you feel your need to be liberated from that That's when the gospel begins to shine so much brighter Because God wants to liberate us Through faith and by the power of the Holy Spirit he wants us to be able to get off the treadmill So let's talk about two of several reasons why Christians are able to change why why does Christianity have such an amazing record of Of amazing changed lives Two reasons one is not really directly referenced in our text But I'm gonna mention it and then the other one is what our text is about So number one is that Jesus's death on the cross broke the power of sin That's absolutely huge Paul in Romans 5 says that we have been united to christ and his death Okay, so the death of Christ on the cross was not simply to pay for sins but to break the power That sin has that's why in Romans 6 14 he says for sin will have no dominion over you So even though our sin nature is inclined even enslaved to these things that will damage us On the cross Jesus broke that Chain he broke that power So sin doesn't dominate us we actually can turn away from it and we could talk about that all day But we want to focus on the other thing the other reason that Christians really are able to change in really amazing ways is what we call the indwelling of the Holy Spirit The Christians who truly believe we have inside of us God's holy spirit in Romans 8 9 through 11 Paul is talking about that if we do believe we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us And it's the same holy spirit that raised Christ from the dead talk about power And it's that same holy spirit who dwells in us. This is why in Acts 1 8 Jesus told his disciples That You will receive power When the Holy Spirit comes upon you And so therefore all the things that the disciples were called to do they were to do in the power of the Holy Spirit back then and today Everything that we're called to do we're called to do by the power of the Holy Spirit That's what Paul says look at Galatians 5 16 He says but I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh so if we walk by the spirit We'll talk about what that means then we that that's how we are able to turn away from the things that will cause us misery Okay, so walk by the spirit. I love this that word walk is the Greek word peripateau and it has a special nuance to it It's not just walk it's walk and or follow as with a companion In other words walk with the Holy Spirit Do not walk alone So Paul is telling us that that we should live our lives believing that at all times and at all places We are not alone. We have the power of the Holy Spirit in us to empower us to turn away from sin turn away from the things That will cause misery in our lives or in the lives of others and having a companion is absolutely essential I learned that the hard way My friend Rob and I work out at the why and And we you know as when we're both there It's really great because if you try to lift a little too much weight You know like you're trying to bench a little too much weight then the other person can just you know spot you and and help you and Rob happens to be Incredibly stronger than me And so that's always helpful, but so one time he was sick And so I had to I was there on my own and so I went and I'm like I got this and I start you know start benching and I put on what I thought was a decent amount and something I could probably do I don't push it up and I'm like yeah, I got this and then unlike number three. I'm like oh boy And I couldn't get that thing off my chest and Now what you're supposed to do is just y'all spot and someone comes over and they lift it up But I was really embarrassed. I'm like this is so awkward and I was like I got a better idea What I will do is I will just kind of wait here for a couple minutes regain some strength and then I'll push this puppy up
So I just waited and then after about two minutes. I'm like I got the thing about a centimeter off my chest I was like what am I going to do and I decided to kind of roll it down my chest And I was able to sit up and then kind of get out from underneath it and and the best part the best part As soon as I got out from underneath that thing I looked around and everybody was looking at me
So that was an awesome day and when we try to follow Christ And do these things That are impossible because the weakness of our flesh When we do this alone, that's why nothing happens
But when you and when I remember That dwelling inside of us is the powerful Holy spirit of God to give us that Spot to empower us and enable us to turn away from sin and turn to a God's righteous ways that changes Everything if you want to grow Paul is saying you believe that you have a companion Walk with your companion now. Let me be clear. This doesn't mean that we become sinless. We we can't do that in this life We'll never make it that far A sanctification is is a process that is completed ultimately at the day of Jesus Christ But but we it would be foolish for us to think that we can get to a point where we don't sin first John One nine says if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves That's why even though we're being sanctified. We still confess our sin Every week and when we confess our sin, you know, what what do we do then we rely and rest in the finished work of Christ And our permanent adoption and our permanent justification that we receive through faith So so even when we fail God is glorified in the way that we rest in Christ And we will continue to fail however So it doesn't mean that we we will become sinless But it does mean two things. Here's what I would say if you are a non-believer. This is what it means for you If you're done if you're ready for change that little thing in your heart that's been saying I just can't do this anymore that is I would surely bet the Holy Spirit saying I think you're ready Make a decision So if you're ready for change you can repent of your sin Choose to turn away from it and choose to believe the gospel even today and begin experiencing the power Of the Holy Spirit to liberate you from your sin. That's if you're a non-believer If you are a believer what this means is you know It's a good it's a reminder for us to not try to fight against our sin and and strive to do what God calls us to do Under our own power that will wear us out It's a reminder that at all times we have a companion giving us power to do what God is calling us to do for his glory and for our good and for the advance Of the gospel nothing in the life of a believer is as essential as the work of the Holy Spirit when it comes to How we grow and become more like Jesus so let me quickly talk about what about what about When when somebody says they're a Christian, but they don't seem any different. There's no change whatsoever What do we do there Paul actually deals with that in 19 through 21 so Galatians 5 19 through 21 look at this he says Now the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality impurity sensuality idolatry sorcery enemy strife Jealousy fits of anger rivalries descentions divisions envy drunkenness orgies and things like these I warn you As I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom Of God now. Let me be crystal clear about what he's not saying He's not saying that if we have done these things or we fall into these things That we will lose our righteous status or lose our identity as God's child in other words You don't lose your salvation. You can't lose your salvation What he is saying is that people who Make no effort to change people have no desire to grow and to change really what that exposes in them is unbelief That is the issue when somebody is not experiencing any change and has no desire to change It means that they may say they're following Christ, but in their heart they actually don't believe In Jesus and they don't believe that God is their father and so their faith is dead James in James 217 So he says so also faith by itself if it does not have works is dead and ultimately what that is saying is if you're not if there is no desire to grow If there is no desire to become more like Jesus That's the signal that you need to hear that you really need a truly repent and truly believe because you are not saved
People who make no effort and have no desire what what's being revealed is their unbelief that that's actually why he uses the word inherit Okay, because we inherit the kingdom of God because we are heirs of God in Christ We are children of God in Christ. That's why he uses that word in other words like we believe God is our father So when he says that he wants us to do certain things we do those certain things because we want he's our father We listen to our father People who don't believe don't believe God is their father and therefore they don't Do what their father says like if think about this, you know my neighbor kid is named Andy And if Andy was doing something that was gonna hurt him and I said Andy don't do that you could get hurt He could just simply say you're not my father And it'd be true And when we hear God's call to obedience and we just shirk it off and we don't care at all what we're really saying is you're not my father Okay, when people show no desire to grow and make no effort It's it exposes their unbelief and so if that's you if you are living a life where you say you're a Christian, but you're really doing nothing about it repent Turn away recognize that you're miserable anyway Come into the joy of salvation repent turn away from that sin and truly believe truly make a decision to follow Christ And begin to experience the power of the Holy Spirit. It'll get you off the treadmill So once we do believe when somebody really does believe They really do love God they trust God. We love and we trust God We we want to do what he says because we believe he's commanding us to do things for our good and ultimately even better for his glory And so we want to hear our father's voice and we want to put forth effort, but what kind of effort Grace driven effort. Let's talk about that grace driven effort Here's a Definition that I put together to try to explain what God wants of us Grace driven effort is is when we're working to grow in holiness or in our Christ likeness or in our godliness Grace driven effort is when we're working to grow in holiness by the power of the Holy Spirit our companion within us Because God has saved us by grace through faith in Christ and with the expectation of Happiness what Yes, we say that again Grace driven effort is when we're working to grow in holiness by the power of the Holy Spirit not on our own because God has saved us by grace through faith in Christ and with the expectation of Happiness and and this is one of the things that I need to be reminded of all the time you need to be reminded of all the time If you're a non-believer you need to know this like there is joy and there is happiness as we become more holy by the work of the Holy Spirit There really is like it's hard to look at the law of God. It's hard to look at what he calls us to and think I'll really be happy if I do that, but then when we do we are It is craziness. Listen to this JC Ryle. He nails it. He says finally Let us never be ashamed of making much of sanctification and contending for a high standard of holiness While some are satisfied with a miserably low degree of attainment and others are not ashamed to live on without any holiness at all content with a mere round of church going and chapel going but never getting on Like a horse in a mill He says let us stand fast in the old paths follow after imminent holiness ourselves and recommend it boldly to others This is the only way to be really happy. Let us feel convinced whatever others may say That holiness is Happiness. This is such a sweet sweet thing. God is not calling you and commanding you to obey him arbitrarily He knows that you will be happier when you are holier That's how JC Ryle is framing it. Let's look at what Paul says Verse 22 He says the fruit of the Spirit If now remember he's already said so walk by the Spirit so live believing you have a companion in you to help you turn away from the desires of the flesh Now he says the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control Now can I tell you like this is not a list of things you need to go try to do
This is fruit This is the result as you daily deny self pick up your cross and follow Jesus and strive to obey him By the power of the Holy Spirit these are the things that begin to decorate your life If you want these things you don't try to do these things No, if you want these things they're a byproduct of your pursuit of holiness They're fruit But think about this like we went out to the community garden that we planted out there And to serve our community when we go out there and work on it We don't just go out there and just say fruit You know it that that's not how it works We work with the soil we plant the seeds we pour a little water and then what begins to decorate that garden Fruit tomatoes you name it Our tomato plants actually got stolen What a world but the point is The point is the fruit of the Spirit are what our promises to you That as you and I believe the gospel and therefore want to grow and we grow Buy the power of the Holy Spirit believing that whenever I do anything forgot I do it in the power of the Holy Spirit He's with me. He'll empower me as we do those things our lives are more decorated We see more love in our lives more joy in our lives more peace in our hearts more patience with others We're kinder to people around us. We are we do more good things for people We are more faithful. We are gentle with everyone and we are in control You know what that equates to we're happy That's a real sweet recipe for happiness isn't it?
Is he God loves us so much that he's not only forgiven us by Accepting the death of Christ on the cross to pay for our sins and declaring us righteous Because of his righteousness that we receive through faithful. He's not only done that. He's also
adopted us That we would be his child and not only that but he has promised To change us he loves us just like we are but he loves us too much to leave us that way And that's what the Holy Spirit is doing inside you and I and as we Submit to that as we partner with the Holy Spirit We begin to see these things. He's amazing fruit of the Holy Spirit decorating our lives And here's one of the best parts No matter how many times we fail no matter how many times we feel like we're worthless no matter how many times we feel like we're actually going backwards instead of forwards The Bible makes clear promises that God doesn't start something and not finish it Look at Philippians 1 6 pulses and I am sure certain Of this That God who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ You know what that means? I mean everything you don't like about you Has a time stamp on it And it's gonna go away He's gonna fix you in many ways in your life and then when Jesus comes back He's gonna finish the job You know why? Because he loves you Ridiculously phenomenally loves you And he wants to make a masterpiece out of you That's sweet he wants you to make a masterpiece you know to masterpieces a masterpiece is someone's Their greatest work And I think about Michelangelo you know who Michelangelo is he's a very well-known artist from the 15th century in Tuscany and Italy and Over his lifetime, you know, he did a whole bunch of amazing artwork things and Michelangelo fans will probably tell you that his his greatest achievement is this absolutely stunning statue called the Pietta The Pietta which was commissioned in 1498 and it was not only To to be something that would be unsurpassed in beauty, but it was he was he wanted to it to be unsurpassable He wanted this to be the greatest thing and So he he searched all over the quarries looking for the right piece of marble spent months looking for that He found it. He had it brought back to his studio and then he got to work and Almost two years every day Freezing in the winter and sweating like crazy in the summer. He just worked and he worked and he worked Chipping away chipping away and in the end he Had produced what's called the Pietta and from its overall structure to its smallest detail It's really it's it's a think of unsurpassed beauty and so one of one of his contemporaries one of the other artists of the time when it was done He said it it would be it's what he said it would be impossible for any craftsman Or sculptor no matter how brilliant ever to surpass the grace and design of this work You will surpass it Because you are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works And he is busy right now Why is he calling you to obey him because he loves you And you can trust him What is he doing? He's making you new He's making you into a masterpiece Every day he's at work with his hammer and his chisel the word and the Holy Spirit Taking a little off here and a little off there And one day his work will be complete And you will shine and you will be amazed and I will too You know one of the things I love love love about being a child of God Is that you know, I do I'm a sinner man. I I struggle You know that about me And so I love that went on the days when I blow it And I just think what's wrong with me and I really wrestle I love that I don't have to sit there in that guilt and shame I can celebrate that I've been forgiven for these things but I can also Know that in deep down in the in the deepest wells in my heart. I can know That although God loves me just as I am he's also not done with me I can know every day all day that I am a masterpiece in Progress and if you have received Christ by faith you can know that too You are a masterpiece in progress In one day the progress will be done And you will be perfect
Come Lord Jesus It's pray Father, you are so gracious and merciful to us
That you would send your son to pay for our sins to Give us his righteousness that you would adopt us as Your children that Jesus would not be ashamed to call us brother or sister And Then all the things that we don't like about ourselves the habits we have the things that we do Even those even now we're forgiven for those things but you are so gracious that you would even liberate us from those things By the work of the Holy Spirit So would you help us to walk by the Spirit and not ratify the desires of the flesh and would you help our Our lives begin and continue to be decorated by love Enjoy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control So that people will see your glory and your power to transform people and so that we will be effective in mission So that we will enjoy you and glorify you forever. We pray in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen