How Did You Get the Spirit? - Pastor Tom Loghry
In Galatians 3, after establishing his authority in the first two chapters, Paul confronts the Galatians on their quick turn from the gospel that was preached to them.
Transcript:
I want you to pretend that you're taking a trip to Europe. In particular, I want you to imagine you're taking a trip to Madrid. You've planned a wonderful vacation. You'll take in all the tastes, sights, and sounds of Spain. And it's all made possible by the wonders of jet travel. Specifically, Spirit Airlines is providing your airfare to Europe.
You will first fly to Dublin, and then jump on a connecting flight to Madrid. The day has arrived, and you land in Ireland. As it turns out, you're not alone on your journey. You've taken some friends or family with you. Now imagine that as you're walking through the terminal to your next flight, you turn to the others and ask, Now, where can we find passage on a ship to Madrid?
Some of them might laugh, figuring you must be kidding. At least one of them would be concerned, thinking you have lost your mind. You've taken Spirit Airlines thus far in your trip. Everything is paid for. Why in the world would you now abandon jet travel to tug across the English Channel? It won't even get you all the way there.
If judged to be serious, you might expect to hear something from them like the words the Apostle Paul speaks to the Galatians. You fool! Who has bewitched you? You fool! Paul speaks so bluntly to the Galatians in chapter three, because what they are doing is no less mad than abandoning jet travel for a slow boat.
So looking at those first opening verses in Galatians 3, looking at verses 1 7, Paul begins with this exclamation, you foolish Galatians who has bewitched you. And, the reason why Paul is just at such a loss, the reason why he's so astounded by this departure on the part of the Galatians, is because he has preached the Gospel to them, with full clarity.
It says, Before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. And his meaning there is that in so far as Jesus has been crucified, the requirements of the law have passed away. Not in terms of the heart of righteousness, as represented in the law. Love God with everything you are.
Love your neighbor as yourself. But outward signs that marked out the people of Israel as a covenant people, circumcision, dietary laws. Even the insistence on having, needing to practice Sabbath by law, these have passed away with the coming of Christ because he has fulfilled all righteousness. And this leads Paul to kind of ask the Galatians a pretty savvy question to try to get them to realize their error.
He says in verse 2, he says, Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Now, Paul knew that in asking this question, they would have to grant that the Gospel, that the Spirit came by the Gospel message. Not by the law. Because previously, they weren't practicing the law.
Lots of these Christians were Gentiles. So they didn't even have the law. And it's only later on now they're trying to add in these requirements of the law to give them right standing before God. But we have to back up here because I think Paul says something that maybe we wouldn't expect in asking this question.
We might expect that he would ask, you know, did you receive forgiveness by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard. We wouldn't expect him necessarily to say, Did you receive the Spirit? Did you receive the Spirit by believing what you heard, or by the works of the law. And I think the reason why we might not expect this, is because we often really miss half the gospel.
You see, the Gospel is not just about our forgiveness. That is a critical part of the Gospel. But a huge component of the Good News of the Gospel is that in Jesus Christ, we receive a new life that can only come by the Spirit. You see Jesus himself pointing to this as part of the good news in John's Gospel, John 7, verses 37 through 39.
John records, he says, On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time, the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
So what Jesus is offering to those who believe in him is that new life would spring from within them. It'd be like a river coursing throughout your body, flowing through your very heart. And John explains to us that this river is the Holy Spirit. This river of new life is the Holy Spirit.
Now the Holy Spirit, John says here, had not been given up to this point. And what he means is, it's not that the Holy Spirit wasn't operating. Because we see in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit come upon people. The Holy Spirit's operating from the beginning of Scripture to the end. But Jesus is bringing something new here
as far as our relationship with the Holy Spirit goes.
Because of Jesus, it becomes possible that the person of the Holy Spirit can take up residence within us. So it's like we have this wellspring, springing up new life within our very being. And I say the person of the Holy Spirit because it's important that we understand that the Holy Spirit is not like the Christian force.
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the one triune God.
And what's incredible about what Jesus is offering us here is that by the Holy Spirit indwelling within us, we are kind of patched into communication, into communion with God. You think about Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is sent by both the Father and the Son. This is why the Holy Spirit only comes after Christ ascends.
And the disciples wait in Jerusalem until the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We receive the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit helps us enter into this communion with God. You think about how we're told elsewhere about when you don't know what to pray, that the Spirit prays on our behalf.
So we're brought into a living dynamic relation with God through the Spirit because of what Christ has done. This is something that Christ has opened up. It's a triune work all together. Our salvation, our redemption. What Jesus is really talking about here is fundamentally, a new birth. Note how he talks about the Holy Spirit in John 3.
Very well known passage. Eventually get to John 3: 16. In John 3, verses 3 through 6, though, Jesus says this to the Pharisee Nicodemus. He says,, Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. How can someone be born when they are old? Nicodemus asks, Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born.
Jesus answered, Very truly I tell you, No one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit gives birth to Spirit. So think about water and Spirit. When we are baptized in Christ, we're not simply dipped in water. We are joined to the death of Christ.
And we are also baptized in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes up residence within us and gives us a new birth.
He begins giving us a new life. We're changed. And that change, that power manifests itself in a whole variety of ways. Some kind of exceptional, but some that are universal and common to all of us. We see in the early church this linkage between the Holy Spirit and wisdom. In Acts 6, the early church is trying to sort out how to distribute responsibilities in the church.
And the apostles say, we need some deacons. Some people that can attend to some of the material needs of the people within the church. There was a lot of widows in the church that needed help. And so they say, Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.
Now perhaps that's just coincidental, that you have those that are full of the Spirit and they're wise. But it's interesting when you go down to verses 8 through 10, because then we're given a particular example of this deacon named Stephen. He's described as a man who is full of God's grace and power, who performed great wonders and signs among the people.
Now, this didn't come from his own power, this is coming from the Holy Spirit. And he's facing this opposition, arguing with, some of the leading Jews. What's interesting, though, it says in verse 10, it says, But they could not stand against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.
So that's one of the effects of the Spirit, is that the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, gives us wisdom from God. And to think of it in a more kind of complete sort of way, what the Holy Spirit is really giving us is the mind of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 2 verses 12 through 16, Paul says this, What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the spirit that is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.
This is what we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the spirit, explaining spiritual realities with spirit taught words. The person without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the spirit of God, but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them, because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things. But such a person is not subject to merely human judgments. For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. The reason why the gospel seems like foolishness to so many in the world, why they just don't understand, It's because they do not have the mind of Christ.
The Holy Spirit has not worked upon them to give them eyes to see and ears to hear. That's something that can only come from God. We don't naturally come to the conclusion that Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world. Because our hearts are darkened by sin. It's a miraculous work that anyone would turn from sin, turn from their rebellion, and put their faith in Christ.
And once that occurs, this work of transformation begins, such that we begin operating with a different mind. We begin seeing things differently. We begin seeing things through the eyes of Christ. And consequently, our desires change. Paul says in Romans 8, verses 5 through 10, he says, Those who live according to the flesh, just naturally, have their minds set on what the flesh desires.
But those who live in accordance with the Spirit, have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh, but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
If we're without the spirit, we're just going to be always hitting up against what God is desiring for us. We're going to be caught in this constant tension. And this is the thing with the law. You can know what the right things to do are, but just because you know what is right, it doesn't mean that you'll do those things.
And in fact, knowing the right thing to do and not doing it just makes you under greater condemnation. And that's what Paul's really driving at here in terms of talking about how the law gives us real no hope. Because it, we just become all the more condemned by it. But with the Spirit, our desires begin to be conformed to the desires of the Spirit.
And in fact, the very presence of Christ himself, It's communicated through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. So that Paul can say, if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. So Christ is living within us through the person of the Holy Spirit.
And we begin walking more and more like Jesus. Now, we should imagine that This was the experience of the Galatians. That their desires, their minds, had begun to be transformed as they turned and believed in the gospel. We can also guess, though, that they had probably also saw some incredible signs of the work of the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps miraculous healings, or other things of that order. Maybe some demons cast out. There's lots of things of that order that occurred, especially in the early days of the church. And we see great signs like that occur, especially on the mission field, where the gospel is breaking out into unreached areas.
So in light of that, in light of what they have seen, the message they have heard, what they have seen, what they have experienced, Paul asks again, how can you be so foolish? How have you been so misled? Going back to the opening illustration, it just seems like, it's almost like you're leaving an airplane, when it's all paid for, and it'll get you there faster and directly, and just saying, I'll just go for the slow boat.
They started with the Spirit, but now they've decided, I'll do this by my natural powers. By conforming to these laws and really whipping myself into shape.
And what Paul wants to make clear here is that it's impossible for us by our own powers, our own efforts to justify ourselves. And it's also impossible for us to live in harmony with God. by our own powers and efforts. And he says, basically, if you want to look back, because they're looking back to the law, they're looking back to the old requirements.
He says, if you really want to look back, look all the way back. Look to Abraham. How was he justified? Abraham was justified by faith. Not by works. And this is appealing back to Genesis 15: 6, where it says, Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness. And what Paul wants to say here is that those who have faith, Jew and Gentile alike, that they are the children of Abraham by virtue of sharing the same faith that he has.
Now Paul moves on to back up this claim that even the Gentiles can be counted among Abraham's children through faith, by going back to the promise that God gave to Abraham. And then he builds from there. So we move on into verse 8 of Galatians 3. It says there that Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith.
And announced the gospel in advance to Abraham. All nations will be blessed through you. So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written. Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.
Clearly, no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because the righteous will live by faith. The law is not based on faith. On the contrary, it says the person who does these things will live by them. So what Paul is pointing out here is the fact that from the very beginning, going back to Genesis, in this covenant promise that God made to Abraham, it was foretold that the Gentiles, the non Jews, the rest of the world will be blessed through him.
We talked about this verse a lot in our study of Abraham. He's appealing to Genesis 12: 3, where God says, I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Blessing comes through the faith of Abraham to all who have faith. That's what Paul's talking about in verse 9.
And this is, there's a contrast here, between the blessings that come through faith, and the curses that come through the law. Because the law can only bring a curse, because we are disobedient. We're perpetually in rebellion against God. And Paul points out in verses 10 and 12 by making allusions to the Old Testament as to why it is that we're under a curse.
Because this is the standard. This is the standard we don't live up to. In Deuteronomy 27: 26, God has set before blessings and curses before the children of Israel. That if they obey, they'd be blessed. But that if they disobey, this would be the consequence. It says, Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.
And then all the people shall say, Amen. You gotta uphold it all. If you don't uphold it all, then you're under a curse. In Leviticus 18: 5, it says, Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord. It sounds like a great proposition, you know, obey and you will live. The trouble is, once again though, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Instead, what Paul is putting forward here, and what he's saying scripture has told us all along, is that the righteous will live by faith. And in verse 11, he's making an allusion to the scripture that's given in Habakkuk 2 verses 3 through 4, where it says, For the revelation awaits in a point in time.
It speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it. It will certainly come and will not delay. See, the enemy is puffed up. His desires are not upright, but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness, by the trust that he puts in the Lord. Now, this should lead us to naturally ask, Well, how is it that Abraham is counted righteous, simply on the basis of faith?
How is it that he's justified? Because there, just trusting God, in and of itself, doesn't make up for the wrong that he does, that he's done. It doesn't fix the brokenness in this world. Now, the way in which Abraham is justified by faith, and the way in which every person is justified by faith, is by trusting in God for their salvation.
Now, Abraham couldn't see the cross clearly. He could not see Jesus clearly. But he understood the promises that God was making. These promises of blessing. And that, and ultimately, these are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So, in so far as we trust In God's provision of salvation, which has now appeared in Jesus Christ,
it's on that basis that we are saved by faith, because Christ is the one who justifies. Christ is the one who restores. Apart from putting our faith in Christ, we're all liable to the law. Whether we try to obey it or not. If you try to obey it, you're going to fail. If you don't even try, well, all the worse.
It applies equally to whether you're a Jew and you have the law, or whether you're a Gentile and the law was written on your heart. Because everyone has a moral conscience. Everyone knows the basics of what's right or wrong. And we don't even live up to those things. And all of us stand cursed because of our disobedience.
And so we need Christ.
This is why He came. To make things right. So what does He do? How does He set it right? Well, Paul says this. He says that He suffers our curse.
And this is demonstrated in this way.
It says in verses 13 and 14. Christ 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 pole. He 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.
Paul makes an interesting reference here
to this Word that was spoken in the Old Testament. Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole. It's a very kind of obscure reference. Not something that comes up in your daily devotional reading. But it's, it's found in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 21 verses 22 through 23. It says, If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight.
Be sure to bury it that same day because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. So, while this is a curse that maybe a few of us were familiar with, it's something that would have been widely familiar to all of the Jewish people.
And so when they see Jesus hanging there on the cross, they can see that he is under the curse of the law. And yet, Jesus, we know, is perfectly innocent. He's perfectly obedient. He's undeserving of the curse. And so, we're able to see, with that understanding, with that knowledge, that in fact, Christ is not suffering a curse that He Himself deserved.
He's suffering the curse that we deserve. He is suffering our curse.
We also see this, that He's offering Himself for our salvation. There's kind of a dual aspect to the icon of the cross. There's one, it's showing us that He's suffering our curse. Two, He's presenting us as our Savior. And we see this elsewhere in scripture. In Numbers 21: 9, we have this kind of, it's an awesome foreshadowing of the cross.
The people of Israel had sinned, they're getting bitten by serpents, getting poisoned, basically. And Moses was instructed to make a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. In Numbers 21: 9 it says, So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.
And then we see in John 3, again, 14 through 15, Jesus says this about himself. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him. So you have this dual icon. We see on the cross that Christ is suffering our curse.
And in suffering our curse, He's offering us as the means of our salvation, if we look to Him. Now, I think there's something important that we should realize here, which is this, is that if Christ was only punished, that would not save us. If Christ was only punished, that would not save us. And maybe you're wondering, what do you mean by that?
I mean this. Let's say Jesus is walking down the streets with his disciples, and all of a sudden, A guard jumps out, grabs him, they drag him straight up to Golgotha, and crucify him. Just kind of kill him, boom, like that. It would not have been enough. And the reason is this, is that, the will of Christ, to go to the cross, rather than being dragged there, is a critical component of what's going on in our redemption. Jesus says in John 10 verses 17 through 18. He says the reason my father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my father.
Notice how Jesus is like, being very explicit here. Like, no one's taking my life from me. I am laying it down. And if you pay attention to the Gospel narratives, notice how Jesus has so many opportunities to escape from the cross. He knows that Judas is going to betray him. He doesn't tell the disciples to, like, tie Judas up and stick him in a corner.
Doesn't do anything there. Instead, he goes to Gethsemane, and he knows that he's going to go to a cross, and rather than running away to Galilee, he stays right there and says, thy will be done. He's dragged before Caesar, not Caesar, Pontius Pilate. He's dragged before Pontius Pilate. He's dragged before Herod.
And he doesn't offer any real defense. As though, it's like he's very much willing to go to the cross. And he does. All this is signaling to us that this is not against his will. He is obediently following through with the plan that the Father has for him. And the reason is this, is that Jesus suffering and death on the cross is the occasion for him to make a sacrifice of his life.
There's a distinction here to be made between punishment and sacrifice. They're not one in the same. Jesus takes our punishment and turns it into a sacrifice. He makes of it a sacrifice. He offers his life to ransom and restore. We see this kind of dual aspect here in Isaiah 53, verses 4 through 5, then we jump down to verse 10.
It says, Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. And then we see what, what is made of it in verse ten, it says, Yet it was the Lord's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes His life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. I love the last part there just as a side note, because it indicates that this one who dies is, he's also going to live. So we even, this great passage that, you know, helps us anticipate the crucifixion of Christ is also pointing to his resurrection.
But notice that it says that the whole reason why all this transpires is that the Lord is making of his life an offering. for sin.
So if we ask, you know, why must Jesus die? It's so that He can taste death for all of us and break the power of death and make an offering of His life. The writer of Hebrews talks about it in this way. In Hebrews, 10, starting in verse 9. He says, But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.
And bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect, through what he suffered. And the last part there is kind of interesting, because we think, well, Jesus was already perfect. Why did he, how, in what way would he have to be made perfect?
I think we can understand it in this way, is that while we understand that Christ was, in fact, perfect, true perfection reveals itself visibly in action. If you say, like, this QB's got the greatest arm in the league, well, I want to see him throw a 60 yard touchdown. That's true perfection. Actually showing up on the field.
And Jesus showed up on the field. Through what he suffered. His perfect obedience, even unto death on a cross. And continuing on in verses 14 through 17. The writer observes how important it was that he actually shared completely in our humanity. Because again, this was an offering that we had to make, and none of us could make.
But Jesus was fully human, he was fully God, and so he's able to make this sacrifice. Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity, so that by his death, he might break the power of him who holds the power of death, that is the devil. And free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. And Abraham's descendants would be all those who have faith. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
This is everything that Jesus is doing in dying on the cross. He's going to the cross in order to be our high priest. The priest enters into the Holy of Holies as the representative of the people. Jesus is now our representative. And what he is presenting before God is his life. We can't present ourselves because our lives aren't worthy.
But Christ is worthy. Christ is raised because his sacrifice satisfies God's justice. Either all will be punished or a priceless gift of restitution will be offered. Jesus is perfect and without sin, and as the very Son of God, he offers himself as our ransom. And so we, we see everything kind of come together here as far as what Paul is talking about between the law and this good news of the gospel I think in Hebrews 10, verses 5 through 10. Says there, Therefore when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifice an offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. With burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, Here I am. It is written about me in the scroll. I have come to do your will my God.
First he said sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them, though they were offered in accordance with the law. They're all offering in accordance with the law. Then he said, here I am. I have come to do your will. He sets aside the first to establish the second.
And by that will, we've been made holy. To the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all. See, it's neither us, nor Paul, that sets aside the law, and the endless sacrifices. We couldn't do that. We couldn't. Only Jesus can do it. It is Jesus on the cross for our sakes. Because it is on the cross that He fulfills the true heart of the law, which is simply this, perfect obedience to God.
I have come to do your will. And in doing this, Jesus opens up a new way.
Now, once again, if we can get back to the main slide, yeah. Once again,
We receive as being part of Abraham's blessing by faith. Forgiveness, yes, but also, was Paul saying in verse 14, so that by faith, we might receive the promise of the Spirit. That's part of the good news. That's part of the Gospel. Because, when we receive the Spirit, we enter into a new way. Paul says in Romans 7, For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.
But now, by dying to what once bound us, because we can now die in Christ, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. And Paul can say that this is a promise, that we would be entering into this new way, because it was foretold.
Isaiah 44. We have this wonderful combination of the promise of the Holy Spirit together with an anticipation of the inclusion of those who are not Jewish. God says, For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams in the dry ground. I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring. And so far you could think, okay, this applies maybe just to the Jewish people.
But notice these last, this last verse here. It's so interesting. It says, Some will say, I belong to the Lord. Others will call themselves by the name of Jacob. Still others will write on their hand, the Lord's, and will take the name of Israel. It's it's foretelling an addition to the people of God. They're taking on the name. They're being adopted into the family of God. And so they receive also this promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
If you have a connecting flight to Madrid, you keep it. You don't go looking for a boat. The boat will only take you so far. It'll come up short of Madrid. You'll probably have to get an Uber, or a taxi, or a bus, or something to get the rest of the way. If you have the Gospel, if you have Jesus, you stick with Him.
The law, your own efforts, will never gain you access to God's Kingdom. Apart from Jesus, every person is found guilty and condemned. With Jesus, we have forgiveness. We have assurance of resurrection. And we have new life in the Holy Spirit. If you want the mind of Jesus Christ, if you want to be transformed, it's not a matter of trying.
It's a matter of asking. Ask and it will be given. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open to you. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you will be born again. The Holy Spirit, He will dwell within you. And so if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, then don't stop putting your faith in Him.
Don't stop walking by the power of the Holy Spirit. Don't fight sin by your own power. That's a losing battle and I can speak from personal experience. There's been times where I've known the right thing to do, and I've struggled with that, and I've tried to conform to that simply by my own grit and determination.
I failed again, and again, and again, and again, until God, I failed enough that God taught me, you cannot be obedient on your own. And why would you try? You can only be changed by the Spirit of God. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within you. You need God's salvation. You cannot save yourself.
Not ultimately and certainly not in the immediate. We're never fine on our own. So if you honestly ask for the Spirit's power and strength God In transformation, you will receive it. I promise you that you will receive it. The Apostle John testifies to it. He says, this is the confidence we have in approaching God.
That if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we ask of Him. Well, guess what? It's God's will that you have new life in the Spirit. It's the very reason God sent His Son to die for us. Because as Paul says, for what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.
And so He condemned sin in the flesh in order that, this is the whole purpose, this is God's will, that In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, we do not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. So don't look back on the dead ways. Keep moving forward in the spirit.
Ask, and you will receive all that you need. Let's pray.
Father, we come before you and confess that we can be as foolish as the Galatians.
Father, we confess this not because we necessarily reach back for the laws of circumcision and the dietary laws and things like that, Father, but because we do sometimes forget the basis of our standing before you. That is on the sacrifice of Christ alone, but especially this father, that we forget that we walk by the spirit and not by our own strength.
And so father, I pray for all of us that we would turn to you and ask the Holy Spirit would fill our lives, transform our hearts, give us the strength, the courage, the zeal to do your will. Christ has gone before us and we are called his followers. Thank you, Father, that we're not expected to follow him by our own strength because we couldn't keep up.
We couldn't keep up by a mile. But Father, we know we can walk in his path because you have given us a person of the Holy Spirit. So Father, we ask that he would reign in our lives. That we would surrender ourselves completely to you. No longer depending upon our own strength. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series through the Letter to the Galatians. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)