How Do We Walk by the Spirit?

00:00:00.000 | Pastor John, what does it mean when the Apostle Paul calls Christians to walk by

00:00:08.800 | the Spirit or to keep in step with the Spirit? What does Paul mean by these

00:00:13.000 | phrases? This morning, Tony, I was reading Galatians 5 as part of my regular walk

00:00:19.720 | through the Bible, and every time I come to Galatians 5, I am struck again by this

00:00:26.480 | gathering together of statements about how I'm supposed to live by the Spirit.

00:00:32.400 | Here they are. Verse 16, walk by the Spirit. Verse 18, be led by the Spirit.

00:00:38.920 | Verse 22, bear the fruit of the Spirit. Verse 25, live by the Spirit. Second in

00:00:46.280 | that verse, keep in step with the Spirit. So five different statements, and every

00:00:51.080 | time I read them, I say, "Oh Lord, I want to do that. I want to know experientially

00:00:56.400 | what does it mean to walk by the Spirit and be led by the Spirit and bear the

00:01:00.880 | fruit of the Spirit and live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit?"

00:01:04.240 | And I think the key is back in Galatians 3, because there we have an

00:01:16.720 | instruction about how the Spirit came to us the first time and how it keeps on

00:01:22.880 | being supplied. So in chapter 3, verse 2, it says, "Did you receive the Spirit by

00:01:29.840 | works of the law or by hearing with faith?" So it tells you the Spirit came to

00:01:35.680 | you through faith the very first time. You receive the Holy Spirit when you

00:01:42.440 | put your trust in Christ. That faith became the channel, and I think the

00:01:48.200 | Spirit created that channel by which you're united to Christ and the Spirit

00:01:52.960 | flows into you by virtue of your union with Christ through faith. And then he

00:01:58.520 | says in verse 5, "Does he who supplies..." So now here we've got not the past

00:02:03.920 | receiving but the ongoing supply. "Does he who supplies the Spirit and works

00:02:10.560 | miracles among you..." And I think that would be not simply signs and

00:02:15.760 | wonders kinds of miracles, though that wouldn't be excluded. It's also love, joy,

00:02:21.200 | peace, patience. I mean, the stuff that really makes us frustrated that we

00:02:25.880 | can't be better at, it's the Spirit that works those. Does he work those

00:02:31.400 | by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Exactly the same way we started. So

00:02:37.520 | you began by receiving the Spirit by faith, you go on experiencing the supply

00:02:43.760 | of the Spirit by faith. So if a person asks, "Well, you sound very passive." Be led

00:02:51.560 | by the Spirit, bear fruit of the Spirit, and they are. I mean, the Spirit is God.

00:02:55.480 | He does things on us and in us, but the thing we're called to do is to hear, and

00:03:04.400 | I think that would mean hear the Word of God, hear the promises of God, hear the

00:03:08.240 | Gospel of God, and believe it, and on that belief, through that belief, the Holy

00:03:14.080 | Spirit comes. And so very practically, here's the way I think it works. At

00:03:19.280 | least this is the way I try to walk by the Spirit, be led by the Spirit, bear the

00:03:25.440 | fruit of the Spirit. One of the fruits of the Spirit, and you can walk

00:03:29.480 | through all nine this way, one of them is patience. So the fruit of the Spirit is

00:03:34.440 | patience. When the Holy Spirit is leading John Piper, when he's bearing fruit in

00:03:42.040 | John Piper's life, when John Piper is walking in step with the Spirit, he's

00:03:47.440 | patient. Now, what makes you want to be impatient? Something comes into your life,

00:03:55.640 | crosses your will, plans don't go the way you want, you get frustrated, people say

00:03:59.720 | something, you were intended to be somewhere and the traffic is thick, and

00:04:04.680 | there rises up in you this frustration or this anger or this disappointment, and

00:04:11.880 | it's a manifestation of impatience. Now what are you supposed to do right

00:04:17.680 | there? You're supposed to trust, you're supposed to believe, you're supposed to

00:04:22.160 | hear something with faith. And the promise—there are a lot of promises that

00:04:27.560 | relate to patience. I'm gonna work all this together for your good. Remember the

00:04:32.760 | story of Joseph, how he would have surely been frustrated and wanted to be

00:04:37.400 | impatient for all those 13 years things seemed to be going terrible for him,

00:04:42.240 | and God was taking him to the vice presidency of Egypt to save a people.

00:04:46.840 | And you remind yourself, God is sovereign, God is wise, God is good, God is in charge

00:04:52.400 | of the traffic, God's in charge of the airline schedules, God's in charge of

00:04:56.120 | what people say about you or to you, and you trust him. You, by an act of

00:05:02.160 | faith, you say, "God, I trust you, I believe you, you sent your son to die

00:05:06.640 | for me, you purchased this promise for me, and I will now trust you." And in the

00:05:12.360 | resting of that faith, the Spirit is at work. That's his work, in and through that

00:05:19.760 | faith. So the restfulness of faith in the traffic jam is the fruit of the Holy

00:05:26.960 | Spirit. And then I asked myself one more question this morning. I

00:05:31.040 | said, "Why would God do it that way? Why would he attach the work of

00:05:38.880 | the Spirit, the supply of the Spirit, to my trustfulness in Christ and his

00:05:46.760 | gospel and his promises?" And I think the answer is that the Spirit, according to

00:05:52.240 | John 16, was given to glorify Christ. "I will send him and he will glorify me,"

00:05:59.120 | Jesus said. And how does the Spirit glorify Christ except that he works in

00:06:06.000 | and through our trusting Christ? Christ does something for us. He dies, he rises,

00:06:11.280 | he says, "I'll be with you," and he makes promises to us. "I'll help you and I'll

00:06:15.800 | strengthen you." And in trusting him, the Holy Spirit gives peace, and thus Christ

00:06:23.360 | gets the credit. Christ gets the glory, because we're trusting a promise

00:06:27.440 | of Christ. So all that was not new to me this morning, Tony. I've written all about

00:06:31.680 | that in In Future Grace and other places, but every time I get there, it

00:06:37.560 | seems like God just kind of washes over me again with, "Are you doing this, John?

00:06:43.960 | Are you living by the Spirit? Are you bearing the fruit of the Spirit?

00:06:47.880 | Are you bearing the fruit of the Spirit? Are you keeping in step with

00:06:53.640 | the Spirit?" And I have to just pause and say, "Oh God, I can do so much." But I want

00:06:58.080 | so much to enjoy fellowship with you in the leading of the Spirit. Yes, thank you,

00:07:05.560 | Pastor John. And thank you for listening to this podcast. For more on walking by the

00:07:09.720 | Spirit, see Pastor John's book, "Future Grace," chapter 12 especially, and also see

00:07:14.240 | the e-book titled "Sanctification in the Everyday." It's one of 14 e-books you can

00:07:18.720 | find for free at DesiringGod.org. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for

00:07:22.880 | listening.

00:07:25.240 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

How Do We Walk by the Spirit?

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