Living By the Spirit

Captain Robert Pearson had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. AIr Canada Flight 143 from Montreal to Vancouver was quickly turning into a nightmare. Just moments before, a warning alarm had gone off in the cockpit to indicate that the fuel system on the twin engine Boeing 767 had a problem. Pearson immediately diverted to Winnipeg, which was still 120 miles away.

No sooner had he done so than the left engine shut down, followed just three minutes later by the right engine. When the right engine quit, Pearson and his co-pilot, Maurice Quintal, also lost most of their cockpit instruments. What had happened was that, due to an incredible series of mistakes in maintenance and ground support, Flight 143 had been given only half the fuel necessary to get to Vancouver.

So there they were, at 26,000 feet over the wilds of Northern Ontario, out of gas, flying an unpowered, 40 million dollar glider with 65 passengers aboard.

It quickly became clear that they weren’t going to make it to Winnipeg. The 767 was losing altitude too fast. There was only one hope. There happened to be a long runway at an abandoned Canadian Armed Forces base outside of the little town of Gimli, Manitoba on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. If Pearson could nurse his crippled airliner there, perhaps they could land. But they’d only have one chance.

Pearson wrestled with the controls while Quintal tried to get the landing gear down. When they were 10 miles out, they spotted the abandoned runway, but they were still too high, and going way too fast. Pearson happened to be an accomplished glider pilot in his spare time, so he used an old glider trick to slow the plane down and lose altitude. He threw the giant airliner into a side-slip. Nobody had ever tried that before on a Boeing 767. But it worked.

They lined up on their final approach to the Gimli runway, still going real fast. Quintal had managed to get the main landing gear down, but the nose wheel wasn’t fully deployed.

As they got closer to the runway, they discovered to their horror, that there were people all over it! The runway had been converted into a drag strip, and now there were dozens of cars, campers, and people clustered at the far end. And nobody could hear the giant airliner approaching, since it didn’t have any engines.

I’m going to leave the story right there. If I have time later, I’ll tell you what happened. But what I want you to realize is that, just as you cannot fly a Boeing 767 without engines, you cannot live your Christian life without a source of power, and that power source is the Holy Spirit.

Paul has been writing to a group of people who had been led to believe that, now that they had come to faith in Christ, they were going to make progress in their Christian life by their own efforts. The Galatian Christians were ready to adopt a whole system of law-keeping in order to do that.

But that is a tragic mistake. You cannot live the Christian life by your own power. You need the power of the Holy Spirit to do it through you. And if you are a Christian, God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, has come to live within you to enable you to live a life that is pleasing to him.

Turn with me to Galatians 5:16. You might also want to take the study sheet that you will find in your bulletin this morning.

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

Next week, the eyes of the world will be on the city of Atlanta as it plays host to the Olympic Games. But 131 years ago, the city of Atlanta was in flames at the end of the Civil War.

And there is a civil war that is going on inside each of us. It’s a spiritual war between our old, sinful nature and the new nature that God has given us. The new nature is sensitive to God, is open to God’s will—it is that part of us that loves God and wants to please Him.

But our old nature is in rebellion against God. Our old nature is that deep, ingrained pattern of habits and behaviors and attitudes that is left over from our old life before we became Christians.

You see, the Bible says that if you are a Christian, the old you is dead. “I have been crucified with Christ,” Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” The old you has been put to death.

2 Corinthians 5:17 If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

But wait a minute! If the old me is dead, and I have been born again—given a new identity in Christ, what about this old sinful nature that I still struggle with?

Ah! Good question. The old me is dead, but I still have an old nature, and that old sinful nature is like a spiritual hangover that remains from my old way of life. You remember that old saying “you can take a poor person out of the slums but you can’t take the slums out of the person.” Well, it’s like that with us spiritually. God has taken us out of the slums and given us a new identity. But now He wants to work on taking the slums out of us.

You see, you and I—before we came to Christ—were dead in our trespasses and sins. We were utterly steeped in a sinful, self-centered way of looking at life, at coping with life, and at trying to make our way through life. We lived as though God didn’t matter.

But now that we’ve become Christians doesn’t mean that all of a sudden we don’t think that way anymore. True, now we have a new nature—a part of our inner being that is turned on to God, that loves God, that wants to put God at the center of our life. But we still have this whole set of ingrained attitudes and tendencies that make us NOT want to do that.

I’m sure you can see that in yourself. You know that part of you wants to serve God and love God, but another part of you wants to just ignore God and do your own thing. It’s like there’s a war going on inside of you. Look at verse 17…

The sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.

Paul experienced that conflict in his own life. He described it in Romans 7:18:

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

And that’s the war that is going on inside of every one of us—it’s the war with our sinful nature.

Now the question that the Galatians were struggling with was how to win that war. And they thought that if they just took the OT Law of Moses and applied that Law to their lives—tried to keep it, tried to obey it—that would enable them to defeat their sinful nature—or at least keep it under control.

But they were wrong. There’s only one power that can defeat my sinful nature. And that is the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can enable me to live the way God wants me to live. Only the Holy Spirit can enable me to fulfill God’s Law.

When I try to put down my sinful nature in my own power, what happens is what happened to the United States Armed Forces in the Viet Nam war. No sooner would they win a battle here, than the enemy would pop up over there. And then they would win that skirmish and the enemy would launch a new attack somewhere else.

Our sinful nature is like a guerrilla. It’s always infiltrating, always showing up where we least expect it. And the only way to combat that is in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul says in verse 16 “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” You see, living by the Law cannot help me to overcome my sinful nature because the Law depends on ME to keep it—and ME is the very problem I’m trying to deal with!

That old cartoon character Pogo made a famous statement a few years ago. He said “We have found the enemy and he is US!”

In Romans 8:3–4, Paul said “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.”

If we’re going to defeat the sinful nature, we’re going to have to do it with God’s power, not our own. Because the sinful nature is very powerful. Paul gives us an idea just how dangerous it is in verses 19–21, where he gives us a big list of what the sinful nature is capable of.

Now I’ve put this list on the back of your study sheet for you to look at. Some of you use the KJV, which employs some words which have gone out of currency over the last 385 years. So I’ve put those terms there, and I’ve also put a transliteration of the original Greek terms because it is interesting to see where some of our English words come from.

For example, the first word “porneia”, which means sexual immorality, is where we get the word pornography from.

And the word that is translated “witchcraft” is the word “pharmakeia”, which is where we get our word “pharmacy” from. (This doesn’t mean that a pharmacist is a witch!) Back in the 1st century, witchcraft and the occult was often accompanied by the use of drugs, just as it is today. This word describes any attempt to find spiritual reality, or spiritual power, through mind-altering, or consciousness-altering substances and practices—through any means other than God.

Now when you look at this list, you have to conclude that this is a pretty horrible list, isn’t it? And it’s not even a comprehensive list, because Paul says at the end of verse 21, “and the like”. In other words, there’s more!

Paul says in verse 21 that if we live like this—if these behaviors are consistently true of our lives—we will not inherit the kingdom of God. Because we will have proved that we have no spiritual life within us.

We don’t have time this morning to go through a comprehensive discussion of each of these words. But let’s take time to notice that these acts of the sinful nature fall into three categories.

1. There are personal sins—sins that involve the abuse of your own body: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, drunkenness, orgies.

2. Then there are social sins—sins that involve your relationship with other people: hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy.

3. Finally, there are spiritual sins—sins that involve your relationship with God: idolatry and witchcraft.

Now the tendency we all have is to look at this list and only see certain major sins—adultery, witchcraft, murder. And we say “Whew… I’m sure glad I don’t do those things.”

But wait a minute. Are you prone to becoming irritable and impatient occasionally? Then you’re on the list. Have you ever held a grudge against someone? Then you’re on the list. Do you enjoy a good argument every now and then? Then you’re on the list. Have you ever had “your nose out of joint” because somebody you didn’t like had something good happen to them? Then you’re on the list. Are you consumed with your career and with getting ahead in life? Then you’re on the list.

You see, we’re all on the list. We are all capable of these things. It’s just that we tend to have blinders to our own faults. We excuse our little failings. And yet the same sinful nature that produces, let’s say, a quick temper is capable of turning you into a murderer or an adulterer or an idolater. That’s how dangerous it is.

I knew a doctor on Long Island—a respected surgeon. He was one of the elders in a solid evangelical church. His wife was the choir director. They had two lovely daughters of college age.

But this man secretly began having an affair with the church organist. And he ended up coming home from a medical conference late one night in another city. He took a rifle that he had hidden in his bedroom closet, put the muzzle to his wife’s head as she slept and pulled the trigger, blowing her brains out. And he actually sat there and checked her vital signs as she died. That’s what your sinful nature is capable of.

And the only way to defeat the sinful nature is through the power of the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit not only enables me to fulfill God’s Law. The Spirit empowers me to put to death my sinful nature.

Look at verse 24…

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

There’s only one way to deal with the sinful nature, and that is to execute it. Put it to death. Colossians 3:5 says “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature”.

God is talking about a radical solution here. The only way to deal with your sinful nature is to kill it. Starve it, suffocate it, drown it, nail it to the cross—do whatever you have to do to kill it. And the only way to kill it is in the power of the Holy Spirit.

When I used to drive into New York City, I’d try to find a place to park. Not an easy task! I remember one time I was looking for a parking place and I happened to see one. But when I got there, I saw a sign which said “Don’t even THINK of parking here.”

And that’s what the Bible says we have to do in order to kill our sinful nature. Romans 13:14 says “do not even think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” When your sinful nature whispers in your ear to do something you know is displeasing to God, don’t even think about how to do it. Don’t even think about trying to get away with it.

Listen for the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit will be whispering in your ear at that moment, too.

If there is one thing I’ve learned about the Christian life, it is that I need a hearing aid. I need to become more alert to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is living in my life. He is there. He is a person. He is God. And he’s there for a reason. He’s there to help me live the way God wants me to live.

And the only way I can truly bring glory to God is to rely on the power and listen for the promptings of the Holy Spirit every day. And if I do, He will begin to produce his fruit in my life. Look at verse22. We’ve already seen a list of what my sinful nature can do if I let it have control of my life. Now here’s another list—the fruit of the Spirit. This is what the Holy Spirit can produce in me if I let Him.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

In fact, those things actually fulfill the Law of God. Two things I want you to notice.

1. The behavior that the Holy Spirit produces in my life is described as fruit. Not acts, as in the previous list, but fruit. Why? Because fruit is something that gets done without my doing it.

Carolyn often goes up to Strawberry Acres to pick fruit. They have orchards there. Now imagine if you were to go to Strawberry Acres, and as you approached the orchard, you heard this sort of grunting and groaning sound. And you asked someone what it was, and they told you “Oh that’s the sound of the trees trying to produce fruit.”

That’s ridiculous! The trees don’t have to try to produce fruit. They just stand there in the sunshine and soak up the rain, and the fruit just comes naturally. Fruit is a function of how God made them.

Now occasionally at an orchard, you’ll see a pile of branches that the farmer has trimmed off the trees. I’ve always noticed that there’s no fruit on those branches. As soon as a branch gets separated from the tree, it can’t produce any more fruit.

In John 15, Jesus said “I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains (or abides) in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.” The fruit of the Spirit will begin to blossom in your life when you abide in Christ. When you walk in fellowship with Him. When you “keep in step with the Spirit”, as it says in verse 25.

How do you do that? By listening for him. By letting him guide you. By spending time with the Lord Jesus every day.

2. The word “acts” in verse 19 is plural, but the word “fruit” here in verse 22 is singular. That’s because when the Holy Spirit goes to work on your life, the work that he does is a unified whole. All of these characteristics come as a package under the heading of love. If you walk in the Spirit, if you live by the Spirit, he will produce love in your life. Love for God, and love for other people.

And if you have that love, you will have joy. Show me a grumpy, frowning Christian and I’ll show you a Christian who isn’t walking in the Spirit.

If you have that love, you will have peace. If you have that love, you’ll have patience with people. You’ll be kind and gentle with them. You’ll be a good, faithful person. And you’ll have the kind of self-control that you never had before.

And the thing is—you won’t even notice that these things are happening in you and through you. A truly Spirit-filled believer is un-self-conscious. The moment you say to yourself “Hey, I must be getting pretty spiritual.” you’ve just proved that you’re not.

If trees could talk, an apple tree wouldn’t make a big announcement about producing apples, would it? No, it’s just doing what it’s supposed to do—what it was created to do. In the same way, if you walk in the Spirit, you’re not going to become conceited (verse 26), you’re not going to start comparing yourself with others to find out how spiritual you are. You’re just going to produce the fruit of the Spirit and give the glory to God.

So we have learned that the Spirit of God lives in me for three reasons:

1. He enables me to fulfill God’s Law

2. He empowers me to put to death my sinful nature

3. He produces His fruit in my life

He is my power source.

So what happened at Gimli, Manitoba? Someone in the crowd at the dragstrip spotted the airliner as it was coming in. Everybody ran in all directions. Pearson touched down doing 180 knots. The tires on the main landing gear immediately blew out, and as the jet slowed, the nose came down and scraped along the runway sending up a huge shower of sparks.

The big airliner slid to a stop just a few yards from the parked cars and campers at the far end of the runway. Since there was no fuel on board, there wasn’t any danger of fire or explosion. The passengers evacuated the aircraft safely, and Pearson and Quintal let out a huge sigh of relief.

The Boeing 767 was repaired and eventually put back into service. And ever since then that aircraft, AC #604, has been known as the Gimli Glider. Capt. Pearson found himself in the rather odd position of being simultaneously blamed for the accident, and acclaimed a national hero. Just another day in the life of an airline pilot!