Galatians 5:18
Follow the Leader
Gal 5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are
not under the law.
In years gone way by, we used to play a game called "Follow the
Leader." If you are wondering what makes the preacher go back to his
childhood, the answer is that finding and following our true Leader
is one of Paul's secondary themes in this book.
The theme of this book is, "How far into Judaism does a person need
to go to be saved?" As we have discussed repeatedly, the answer was
and is none. The law never has and never will be able to save a soul
or to earn a pleasing status in God’s eyes. But that is the negative.
That is what a person is not supposed to do. The same book of
Galatians has also repeatedly emphasized what a person is supposed to
do. He is supposed to get to the right Leader, the Holy Ghost.
There is much ignorance in the church, and especially the Baptist
church, when it comes to the Holy Ghost. When I became a Christian in
1973, one of the most controversial topics was the Holy Spirit. The
reason was that the Pentecostals were saying some things about the
Holy Ghost and the non-Pentecostals were saying something else. I
believe, as is most often the case in such situations, that there was
plenty of error going around on both sides. In the aftermath, many
Baptists committed the worse sin that one can commit and just
ignored the Holy Ghost. We desperately need to fix that.
Let’s notice some things about Him tonight.
I. \\#Gal 5:18\\ Christians are to be led by the Holy Spirit.
A. Our text states that if we are doing what we should, we will be
led of the Holy Ghost.
B. The entire New Testament makes the case that our primary Leader
during the church age is the Holy Spirit.
John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth,
is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he
shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he
shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew
you things to come.
Acts 13:4 So they, being sent forth by the Holy
Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence
they sailed to Cyprus.
Acts 16:7 After they were come to Mysia, they
assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit
suffered them not.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit.
C. Because we have the personal, in-dwelling Holy Ghost to lead
us, we no longer have any need of the Law with its commands
and punishments.
1. That does not mean that the Law cannot teach us. It does.
2. It does mean that we have Someone who is BETTER than
the Law.
3. We have the Spirit of God to lead us.
D. The question is HOW does the Holy Spirit lead us?
1. God gave the Law which was holy and divine, but then it
was up to the people to police and the enforce the Law.
That did not work very well for a lot of reasons.
2. The Holy Spirit works differently.
a. The Holy Spirit lives inside of us and speaks with a
still small voice \\#1Kings 19:12\\.
b. The Law and people can and should still be teachers of
what right and wrong are, but that is as far as the
Law and people go.
c. But it is up to the Christians to want to hear the
Spirit’s voice and to obey Him when He speaks.
d. If not, we will grieve, quench, and sin against Him so
that we cannot hear Him speak.
e. And that, my friend, is the sad state in which most
Christians live today.
f. Remember, the preacher’s job is not to make you like
the Word. The preacher’s job is to help you under-
stand the Word. How you feel about it and what you
do with it are up to you.
II. \\#Gal 5:16\\ Christians are to walk in the Holy Spirit.
Gal 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit,
and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
A. Notice, the text says "walk in" not "walk with."
1. The best I can tell, that wording choice here was made by
the translators.
2. The literal translation of the text would be to "walk by"
or perhaps to "walk beside" or "walk with" the Holy
Spirit.
3. The King James Bible has been railed against by so many in
this day that many would dismiss the translation here as
"less than perfect;" however, I think they chose the
wording on purpose.
a. The translators wanted to convey that one does not
merely walk with the Holy Ghost as with a friend.
b. Walking with the Holy Ghost is not a walk of two co-
equals.
c. No! He is God and one does not merely walk WITH God
on equal footing, giving his opinion and choosing
whether he will follow the path of the Holy Spirit or
not.
d. To make that clear, they used a word that showed
dependence upon, "in or inside of."
(1) If you are inside a car or a carriage and the car
turns, you turn with it.
(2) If the car stops, you stop.
(3) If it goes, you go.
(4) The one on the inside is dependent upon the one
doing the carrying.
4. Thus it is with us. We are to travel IN the Spirit,
yielding as He makes the decisions and are simply carried
along in His grace.
B. But notice also the word "walk."
1. We walk in the Spirit.
a. Walking is a slow process.
b. It involves taking one step at a time.
c. After each step, the person can take inventory of
where he is and of what he needs to do.
2. So it is walking in the Spirit.
a. Like Abraham from the Old Testament, we do not know
where we are going, let along the path we will take
to get there.
b. Only the Holy Spirit knows.
c. So we seek His will and take a step.
d. We do not seek His will and then run a mile, but we
take a step and wait.
e. Wait for what? What for God to confirm that the step
we took was the correct step and to show us what the
next step is to be.
f. If we took a wrong step, there is no sin if we are
seeking God’s will.
(1) We are Christians in the flesh attempting to hear
the voice of God and to follow Him.
(2) If we do not get the confirmation in our heart
that we too the correct step, we simply go back
to where we knew we were right with God and
seek Him direction once again.
3. I get serious about working on the next year’s calendar in
the month of October.
a. I like to start the New Year with a theme and some
plans, some goals that we as a church might rally
around.
b. Last October, i had nothing.
c. I drew up a mail out that I thought we might send out
as the year closed out, but to be honest, I could not
think of anything to put in it.
d. After a few weeks, I set it aside. Those things are
not usual for me. I normally figure the Lord will
give me something when He is ready, but I keep going
back to it to see if I might get some idea of what we
were to do. That continued to February.
e. To be honest, in February, I was ashamed of myself.
f. I supposed that I had allowed myself to be too
entertained with my own projects to hear the Holy
Spirit, so I looked very diligent at things again.
g. That is when I found our theme for the year: "Coming
together to know Him and to be make Him known."
(1) I still think that was from the Lord.
(2) And around that, I went ahead with a mail out.
(3) I am beginning to think that I missed up on the
mail out.
(4) I am beginning to think that the reason God did
give me direction about this year is because God
knew we would be shutting down for a portion of
the year.
(4) It looks like my pushing it will cost the church
$400 in printing, but that is okay.
(5) We live in the flesh and we walk in the Spirit,
just one step at a time and then we listen for
the Holy Ghost to tell us if it was the correct
step or not.
(6) If not, we go back to where we knew we were right
with God and seek His guidance again.
III. Christians are to produce the fruit of the Holy Ghost.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is
no law.
A. Notice the complete picture here.
1. The Holy Spirit is the Gardener.
2. These are the fruits He grows.
3. We are the field He is working.
B. The fruits are not what we produce. The fruits are what He
produces in us.
1. Let me tell you a secret.
2. The Holy Spirit is such a good Gardener, He can grow
beautiful fruit on dying vines.
a. We are still sinners by nature and many of the times
by choice.
b. The fact that the Holy Spirit produces this fruit in
us does not mean that we have been made perfect.
c. This is what He produces WHEN we get in the Holy
Spirit and let Him control us.
d. The more we let the Holy Spirit control us, the more
often we will be like this.
e. And conversely, the less we let the Holy Spirit
control us, the less we will be like this.
C. Paul listed nine predominant characteristics of being yielded
to the Holy Ghost.
1. Love - Choosing to exalt someone or something above all
others.
2. Joy - Happiness in the spirit.
3. Peace - At rest within, at rest without, and at rest with
God.
4. Longsuffering - The ability to endure suffering for a long
period of time.
5. Gentleness - The ability to handle situations and people
with kindness.
6. Goodness - Doing the right thing the right way.
7. Faith - The ability to see God’s reality in our world.
8. Meekness - The sparing use of power and authority.
9. Temperance - Control over the flesh.
D. Since Paul did not do so, it seems obvious that Paul’s
intentions here were not to teach us about these qualities.
E. Rather, his purpose seems to be to teach us that without the
Holy Spirit, these will NOT BE OUR QUALITIES.
1. Even if we could keep the Old Testament Law, we still
would not have these qualities.
2. In fact, even if we kept the Old Testament Law, we would
still be more like his first list!
a. \\#Gal 5:19-21\\
b. We would still be doing the works of the flesh.
c. In fact, that is exactly the way the majority of the
Old Testament worshippers were.
F. It takes the indwelling, in-filling, leading power of the Holy
Ghost to make us anything but a fleshly sinner.
G. Understand, the Law did not fail in its purpose.
1. Its purpose was never to change us.
2. The Law’s purpose was to teach us that we needed a Savior
to save us and a Lord to guide us.
3. We have both in this Age of Grace.
a. Jesus Christ came to be our Savior.
b. The Holy Ghost came to be our Leader.
Who is the Leader of your life?
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