“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 under the law... 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." Galatians 5:16-18, 22-25
CONSIDERATIONS:
1. C_______________ is to be expected by the child of God (Galatians 5:17).
"For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing... Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Romans 7:19, 24
• The attitude of sin management versus exultant, desperate joy.
“It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
2. Conflict/the fight of faith is p________________ w________ by looking out (to Christ) instead of within.
"Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin." Romans 7:25
"Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" Galatians 3:2-3
“The spirit of Christianity involves repentance, but the overwhelming reality is over mastering exaltation. The attitude of the ‘miserable sinner’ is not only not one of despair; it is not even one of depression; and not even one of hesitation or doubt; hope is too weak a word to apply to it. It is an attitude of exultant joy. Only this joy has its ground not in ourselves but in our Savior. We are sinners and we know ourselves to be sinners, lost, and helpless in ourselves. But we are saved sinners; and it is our salvation which gives the tone to our life, a tone of joy which swells in exact proportion to the sense we have of ill-desert; for it is he to whom much is forgiven who loves much and who, loving, rejoices much.” B.B. Warfield, The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield: Vol VII, p. 114
3. We are to live with holy, God-intoxicated e_____________ as we seek to place ourselves in the path of blessing where we can cry out, “Come Holy Spirit!”
“The vigor, power, and comfort of our spiritual life depends on the putting to death of the deeds of the flesh.” John Owen, The Mortification of Sin
4. We are to e____________________ progress and change as believers (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).
“His blood is the great sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls. Live in this, and you will die a conqueror, you will through the good providence of God, live to see your lust at His feet.” John Owen, The Works of John Owen: Sin and Temptation, Volume Six
5. The white knuckle experience versus the o_____________ of the Holy Spirit. “Against such, there is no law” (Galatians 5:23b).
ANSWERS: conflict, progressively won, energy, expect, overflow