Ron Dunn Podcast - What It Means To Walk In The Spirit

Episode Date: April 13, 2016

Pastor Ron Dunn preaches a message from Galatians 5:26-6:10. This message is focused on "What It Means to Walk in the Spirit."

You are listening to the Ron Dunn Podcast. Ron Dunn is a well-known author and was one of the most in-demand preachers during the latter part of the 20th century. He led Bible studies all over the United States, Europe, and South Africa. For more information and resources from Ron Dunn, please visit rondunn.com. Well, I want you to open your Bibles tonight to the book of Galatians, chapter 5. And we're going to read beginning with verse 26 and pretend that the chapter division is not there. You know, originally the Bible had no verses and had no chapter divisions. And in about

1500, I believe it was, they put in the chapter divisions, which I'm glad they did because it helps us in reading and keeping track and quoting. But sometimes those who did that kind of put them sort of in the wrong place, I believe. And I think in verse 26, he starts with a whole new theme, and it goes through the remainder of chapter 6. And what I want to do tonight is read beginning with chapter 5, verse 26, and reading through chapter 6, verse 10. Galatians chapter 5, verse 26, through the 10th verse of chapter 6. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another.

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one of us should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself without comparing himself to somebody else. For each one should carry his own load. Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share in all good things with his instructor. Now that's my favorite verse right there. That's biblical proof text for taking a love offering.

But he goes on in verse 7, Do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows, and the one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction. And the one who sows to please the Spirit, from that nature will reap destruction. And the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in well-doing, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have

opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Now, one of the great questions in the Christian life that what I've been preaching this week raises, and somebody raised it with me this week, we talked about it, is that if it is all by grace, and if we are not made perfect and mature and spiritual by human efforts, if it is strictly a matter of our trusting in the grace of God as manifested through the cross of Christ and allowing the Holy Spirit to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, then where do you place human effort? For there is to be human effort in the Christian life.

There are to be good works in the Christian life. We're not to remain passive and just sit around with our arms folding and saying, there's nothing for me to do. There are things, there are rules and regulations that come out of what God has done in our lives. And so, you know, the confusion comes when we put them in the wrong order. That if we look to these things, the human efforts and even the things that we're supposed to do, the spiritual laws that we're supposed to follow, if we put those at the first and say, it is by these things that we are made pure,

that we are made perfect, then we have erred, and we have disgraced the grace of God. But if we put those things afterwards and see them as a manifestation of the grace of God. But if we put those things afterwards and see them as a manifestation of the grace of God, then we have them in the right order. And by the way, if you study Paul's epistles, you'll find this is always the way he divides his epistles. Every one of his epistles are divided like this. First of all, there is a portion that is doctrinal study. And then at some point in that epistle,

he turns to a practical application of what he has just stated. First of all, he states the doctrine, and then he relates the doctrine, you see. And that's the divine order, because if you try to practice without doctrine, then you've got nothing more than human effort and human ethics. And if you have the orthodoxy and the doctrine but don't have the practice, then you have a dead faith and a dead orthodoxy. And so first of all, you know, you've got to build your practical life. You've got to build your practical experience upon a sound theological foundation. I believe every Christian is a theologian, ought to

be a theologian by that. You know, I'm not saying you need to go to seminary and all that sort of stuff, but we all need to have a firm foundation of what the Bible teaches. It's just, if we don't do that, we don't have anything to anchor ourselves by. So first of all, Paul lays a foundation of theological truth, and then he begins to build upon that foundation the practices of the Christian life. Now, usually you can spot these divisions in Paul's letters when a chapter begins with a word like, therefore or wherefore. For instance,

in Colossians, in the first two chapters, he is stating primarily doctrine. And then in chapter 3, he says, if you then be risen with Christ, then, he says, this is the way you ought to act. And in Romans, it's chapter 12 where he says, therefore present your bodies a living sacrifice. And if you just breeze through his epistles, you'll find at one point where he turns from the purely doctrinal and makes practical application of what he's just said. Now, Paul has been saying to the Galatians that

it is not by human effort, it is not by rules and regulations by which we come to fullness of maturity in Christ. He's just been talking about walking in the Spirit and that the fruit of the Spirit is love. He says in verse 13, you, my brothers, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. He's saying that we are free in Christ, that God has made us free. But that doesn't mean we're free to do anything we want to do. And that the fruit of the Spirit is love, but love is more than just an emotional experience, a good feeling. It has its practical expressions.

And walking in the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, living in the Spirit is much more than a mystical experience. It has practical applications. The proof of walking in the Spirit, the proof of our love, the proof of our freedom is how we relate to each other in the body of Christ, how we treat one another. As a matter of fact, he starts off in that 26th verse saying,

Let us not become conceited. The word means full of vanity, a false illusion of himself. And then he gives two characteristics of this kind of person, provoking and envying each other and he said now we are walking in the spirit and we are crucifying the flesh and we have been produced in us the fruit of love and all that follows from that but don't let us become so super spiritual i know don't let us become conceited and to be filled with empty boasting. A person who does that, you can usually spot them because they characteristically do two things. They

provoke and they envy. They provoke those who are below them. Those people that they think are not as spiritual as they are, they provoke them. I don't mean necessarily by an antagonistic act. It's just their attitude and the things they say. They provoke other people. You know, there's some people like that. They're just provoking because they feel like they're more spiritual. And I hope I don't step on any toes tonight I certainly don't mean to but you know

when I was years ago years ago when they first started having Christian schools while parents started enrolling their children in Christian schools and they looked down upon those that had those in public schools you know it's kind of a spiritual elitism my child goes to a Christian school you mean you go to that public school we go to a Christian school and we face that nowadays it's homeschooling versus Christian school and you may have your child enrolled in a Christian school but then there are those not everybody of course I you know please don't think I'm indicting everybody,

but I know those who, you know, they homeschool, and they look down upon those who don't homeschool. I think anything you want to do, any way you want to do it as God leads you is what you ought to do. I'm not saying that one is less

or greater than the other. I'm just saying we have a tendency, if we're doing something special, if we're doing something special or if we're doing something different, it's easy for us to become conceited, to be filled with a vain glory. So that kind of person provokes those who he feels are less spiritual than they.

And then he envies those who he feels are more spiritual than they are. Now, he will never admit this, of course, but he envies them. I remember, Tom, in my first year at Southwestern Seminary, I had Dr. C.E. Autry in evangelism. And that class is about the only one that saved me that first year because I also had Jerry Vardaman for Old Testament, the archangel of liberals.

But I never will forget something that Dr. Autry said. Dr. Autry said, now you're young preachers starting out. And he said, you'll find there are other preachers who have arrived. I mean, they've made their mark.

He said, as long as you're down here, they'll say good things about you when you draw up close to them they won't say anything and then when you draw in front of them they begin to criticize you out of envy I found that to be true that's because I've drawn so far ahead of everybody else. That's why Tom's been treating me like he has this week. He envies my spiritual maturity. I may not be, I told somebody, I said, I'm not casual in my dress,

but I'm going to be casual in my preaching. All right. So he comes to this sixth chapter, and he's saying that the first evidence of walking in the Spirit is not some private mystical experience, but practical working relationships. The first fruit of love, the first fruit is love, and that love is given concrete practical expressions in this sixth chapter. There are four verbs, four imperative verbs in that chapter six.

One is restore. Verse six, chapter six, he said we should restore them. The second imperative verb is carry each other's burdens. The third imperative verb is in verse 4, each one should test his own actions. And then the fourth imperative verb is in verse 6, he must share or he must have fellowship in all good things with his instructor.

So you have these four commands that Paul gives. This is the life of the local church. This is a church that is walking in the Spirit. This is a church that is giving the practical, concrete expressions of love. Restoring, bearing, testing, and sharing. So let's look at these. First of all, he says that when the church is walking in the Spirit,

there will be a restoring of those who have fallen. Brothers, if someone is caught, now literally the word if someone is caught, now, literally the word means is suddenly caught, surprisingly caught, before he has had time to think or set up a guard. Now, I emphasize that because yesterday, last night we talked about where Paul said,

those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And there he was talking about those whose lives are characterized by those sinful habits. I mean, that's something they do all the time. But here he's talking about a person who suddenly, without warning, this is a hiccup in his life, you might say, that he falls into some sin. You see, what is normal in the unbeliever's life is an exception in the believer's life. Sin is the rule of the unbeliever's life. It should be an exception in our life. We do sin. We do fall. We don't mean to. We don't get up in the morning and plot and plan that we're going to fall, but something happens and suddenly we're caught off guard and suddenly without warning we slip and we're tripped. We're like we've caught in a snare and we say something we ought not to say.

We do something we ought not to do. All of us do that. Everybody does that. Now, how are we to relate to those people? He says we are to restore them. Now, you know probably that the word restore here is used of setting a bone in the body. It was used in Mark chapter 4, I believe, of when the disciples, the apostles, were mending their nets. And that same word of mending your net is used for restoring one another here. And of course, they had to mend those nets because when the nets broke, the holes gaped

wide and the fish escaped. And so they kept mending those nets so the fish would not escape. And I often think that maybe one reason so many fish are escaping in our church is because we haven't mended our nets. And there's such great gaps that we cannot reach the lost because we're fighting among ourselves. And we haven't taken care of our own. And if we don't take care of our own, how can we take care of somebody else? So he says that we are to restore them. Now, he's talking here about restoration to fellowship. I'm not going to get into this tonight about restoration to ministry and leadership. I think in those instances,

every case has to be taken on its individual basis and individual merit. And that's a whole other discussion and quite an issue among many of us. But Paul here is not talking about restoring to ministry or leadership. That's a whole other question. He's talking about restoring to fellowship within the family of believers. So when somebody is caught in a sin, when somebody stumbles, what do we do?

The conceited man looks back and provokes him and says, well, I never was too sure about him anyway. You know, if he had been to the conference or if he had read that book I shoved at him or if he had listened to those tapes I sent him in the mail, this would never have happened. And so the conceited person looks down upon that one and doesn't do anything to help him. But those who love,

have the love of the Spirit and the love of Christ, they reach out and what do they do? They try to mend that broken bone because a broken bone is painful to the entire body and keeps the entire body from functioning as it should. And so if our body of believers here at First Southern is to function as it should, then we should be busy about the business of setting broken bones among our fellowship. Now it's interesting the manner in which this should be done. He said, do it gently. Do it gently, meekly. That's the attitude. That we're not to lord it over them and condemn them.

They don't need further condemnation. But we're to do it gently. Like a mother kisses the boo-boo on her son's skinned knee. We're to do it gently. But we're to do it alertly, too, he says. He says, but watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Now, I must confess to you, there have been times when I've seen some other preacher fail, either morally or in some other way,

and I've said, well, I tell you what, there's a lot of things I might do, but I never do that. I don't say that anymore. Paul said, you who think you stand, take heed lest you fall. I have discovered that in my own heart there is a jungle of wild beasts and that I'm capable of doing just about anything. And when I see somebody else fall, I'd better not look at them with a conceited, self-righteous, superior attitude. I'd better

watch myself. Let this brother be a warning to me, because the same thing that happened to him could also happen to me. Why hasn't that happened to me? Maybe I've not been tempted, like I said the other night. I've never stolen a million dollars, but then I've never been tempted to. How do I know that if a temptation came to me, how do I know if I'd been brought up in that person's environment? How do I know if I had that person's personality and idiosyncrasy? How do I know if I had his emotional and physical problems? How do I know that I wouldn't respond the same way that he did? Folks, there's always a reason

for a person acting like they act. And we need, when we see some Christian fall, that needs to be a warning to us, realizing the same thing could happen to us. And I tell you, if something happened to me, I'd want somebody there to restore me gently. And so I need to be there for others. But the thing that I find most interesting is the people who are supposed should restore him. You who are spiritual.

You know, I just throw this out. I think the reason churches do not grow is not because of all of the unspiritual people they have in them. It may be because the spiritual people that are in them are not doing the job they ought to do. For instance, look at Romans chapter 15, verse 1.

Interesting statement. Chapter 15, verse 1. Interesting statement. Chapter 15, verse 1. We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak. Isn't that interesting? You know, we're always saying, well, I tell you what, these weak people, they'll just get stronger. These weak people, they'll just do that.

These weak people, they'll just do that. No, he said, listen, the fault does not lie with the weak people, they'll just get stronger. These weak people, they'll just do that. These weak people, they'll just do that. No, he said, listen, the fault does not lie with the weak people. The fault lies with the strong people who will not bear with the failings of the weak people. It is the strong people, the mature people, the spiritual people, they are to take the responsibility and restore those and help them along the way. You'll find most of the time we're blaming everything on those that are weak. Oh, if I just had more spiritual people in my church.

Well, take the ones that you do have and get them in the business of mending and restoring, and you'll find things going better. He says the same thing in chapter 14, verse 1. He says, Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man whose faith is weak eats only vegetables. That's interesting, isn't it? A vegetarian is a weak person. You might want to remember that the next time you go out to lunch and somebody, you know, they don't eat meat.

And you might quote that verse and say, well, the reason is because you're a faith. No, he says, accept those whose faith is weak without passing judgment on disputable matters. So the first business of a Spirit-filled church ought to be the business of restoring. And then, secondly, is the verb carrying or bearing in the King James. Verse 2, bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Now, that sometimes in the King James can confuse you because verse 5, he says, for each one should bear his own burden. But the difference is that they're two distinct words. In verse 3, or in verse 2, when he says,

bear ye one another's burdens, he's talking there about an extraordinary burden. It means a load that crushes down upon a person, where he just can't stand it, where he just can't handle it where he just can't handle it anymore where it's just too much for him to take and I want to tell you folks there are some people in the church that are so burdened by so many different crises in their lives that's more than they can handle it's just more than they

can handle they can't handle it by themselves you and I must pray that God would give us the sensitivity of the Spirit when we see or know of somebody like that to go alongside of them and help bear that burden any way that we can by prayer, by fellowship, by encouragement,

or just by being there and loving on them and trying to understand. We are to bear one of those burdens. Some of us tonight have burdens that are just totally unbearable. I want to testify to you that in my life, had it not been for believers, Christians, fellow believers and Christians

who did not come and stand with me and my family during times of unbearable burdens, I don't think I would have ever made it. You see, nobody can live the Christian life by themselves. You'll never find the word saint in the singular in the New Testament. It's always saints. We're a community. We're a family.

Why? Because you can't live the Christian life by yourself, friend. You need the human touch. You need the compassion and encouragement of other believers. And there are some of us that just have loads that are totally unbearable and we wonder sometimes, well, I wonder, what's wrong with that person?

I mean, you know, in our zippity-doo-dah kind of faith today and in so many places wherever worship service has to be a holy hootenanny and everybody's got to be jumping up and down

and dancing and praising the Lord and raising their arms or something. Let's say here comes a woman, a member of the church, and she comes in on Sunday night, and she doesn't smile. She doesn't sing. She doesn't raise her hand.

She doesn't clap. She doesn't do anything. People say, well, what's wrong with her? Well, she may have just learned her husband's having an affair with his secretary. And you see, we get to thinking that there's no room. There's no room for the broken

heart within the worship service. And that's why so many times people who have broken hearts will stop coming to church. Because the contrast in the atmosphere is just too much for them. They don't feel like shouting.

David said in Psalm 42, I will yet praise him. I don't think he could praise him right at that moment, but he said, I will yet praise him. And I think there are times when the burden is so great that we may have faith, but we don't have the ability

to affirm that faith right then. I had a pastor friend whose 17-year-old daughter died suddenly of some rare disease, and one of his members said, Do you still believe Romans 8, 28? And he said, Yes, I do, but just don't ask me to preach it yet. So there are those whose burdens are unbearable. Of course, there are those who think that they're too good to help anybody else.

He says, but if you bear one another's burdens, you will fulfill the law of Christ, which is love. And then he says, if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he's living in a fantasy world. In other words, here is a person who thinks he's too good to get down on that person's level. He thinks he's above that. You know, let somebody else do that.

Let somebody else do that. Have we got somebody around that's not doing anything, they don't have anything to do, that we can kind of get them to do this? That's not my job description. I've got more important things to do. You see, he says Christ, oh my goodness Christ, the King of glory, the King of glory,

the Lord of creation, would get down and touch a leper and would talk to a Samaritan woman who lived an adulterous life. That's Jesus. That's Jesus. And if you and I are going to fulfill that law, we must bear one another's burdens. For there are those who just can't handle it themselves. And don't let any of us ever think that we are too high, that we are too noble,

that we are too busy and too important to stoop down. If you do that, you're living, Paul says, in a fantasy world. You're deceiving yourself. So first of all, we're to bear one of those burdens. First of all, we're to restore those who are caught in a sin. Secondly, we're to bear one another's burdens. And the third verb is testing. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself without comparing himself to somebody else. There is a testing process. And the word testing simply means to approve of something after examining it. It was used of taking metal

and examining that metal to discover what its contents are and then to approving or disapproving it. It means to take something and open it and examine it with the purpose of approving or disapproving. Now, notice what he's saying. He's saying the Christian life

is not an unexamined life. He said you need to test your own behavior, your own actions. You need to test your own actions to see if you're doing what you ought to do. Notice he goes on to say, for each one should carry his own load. And the word load there, as you probably know, is a soldier's pack. It was taken from the Roman soldier figure. And the Roman soldier had his pack that he was to carry. And he was supposed to shoulder his load. He didn't ask some other soldier to carry his. No, that was his load to carry. And Paul says, I want you to test your actions and see if you're carrying your load.

Are you shouldering your own load? And see if you stand alone, worthy in your own actions, worthy to be praised. You know, and then not finding your glory and comparing yourself to somebody else. You know, I don't care how bad I am.

I can find somebody else worse off. I can. I can always find somebody else. You know, I don't care how bad I am, I can find somebody else worse off. I can. I can always find somebody else that's not as good as I am. If I don't come to church except twice a month, I can find somebody who doesn't come once a month. And I can say, well, I know I'm not everything I ought to be, but I tell you what, I know people in that church, deacons and teachers in that church, I tell you what,

they're not what they ought to be either. Baloney, that's none of your business. You must test your own actions and find cause for boasting

in your own actions without comparing yourself to somebody else. And that means you must shoulder your load. Let me ask you a question. Are you carrying your load in this church? Are you carrying your load in this church?

You know, we've always said, and I think it's true, that 80% of the work of the church is done by 20% of the people. 80% of the giving is done by 20% of the people. 80% of the giving is done by 20% of the people. A lot of times I go into a church and the pastor is unhappy because we only have, you know, a small crowd. I say, hey, if we've got 20%, we're touching 80% of the work of the church. Now, friend, I want to tell you something. A church has a lot of freeloaders in it. I don't just mean money, but I also mean time and service and effort.

If everybody carried their own load, you'd never have to beg for Sunday school workers or preschool workers. If everybody carried their own load in giving and tithing, you'd never have to borrow a penny. I mean, you could build your own Disneyland. I'm serious. That's true. Listen, you take, and you can't do it, I guess, but listen, I did it. You take the average income of the people in your area, and then you take how many families you have in your church and if every family gave just 10% of the average income

listen, we would be independently wealthy. We would never have to borrow a dime. We could do everything that needed to be done but you know the trouble is we're not carrying our own load. We're letting everything that needed to be done. But you know the trouble is, we're not carrying our own load. We're letting somebody else carry the load. You're sitting on a chair that somebody else paid for.

You're worshiping in a building that somebody else paid for. You're reaping the benefits of somebody else's efforts. Too many parasites who are just living off of the efforts of other people. Friend, you've got to carry your own load.

So he says we need to test ourselves and make certain that our actions are worthy in themselves. And you don't have to find cause to boast by finding somebody doing less than you are. And then finally, sharing. He says, anyone who receives instruction in the Word must share all good things with his instructor. Now, the word share there is the word koinonia. And while I do think that Paul may be speaking primarily about money and supporting the ministry,

but I think he means far more than that because he said he must share all good things. He's not talking about just an offering, but the good things of your life, your love, your companionship, your friendship, your encouragement, all good things. We must share all good things. We have to have about us a spirit of sharing.

Now, he goes on to say, verse 9, let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. There are a lot of of people get discouraged because, well, we've been trying to help, I've been trying to share, and nothing seems to be happening. Nothing seems to be profiting from it. Listen, he says, Don't be weary in well-doing, for in due season you shall reap if you faint not.

Keep on at it. It's God's law. If you sow, you're going to reap. And so he comes to this conclusion. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Now, I think that's remarkable. He says, listen, we're to do good to all men, saved or lost. But we are to especially do good as we have opportunity to members of the family, to members of the family. I have tried, and I think every parent ought to try,

to instill in their children that blood is thicker than anything else and that the one thing they have going for them is their family, their home. Home, who was it? I forget. Robert Frost or somebody said that home is a place that when you go, they have to let you in. And I say to the young people here tonight, you know, it's easy for you to treat your friends better

than you do your mom and dad and your brother and sisters. You do things for them you'd never think of doing at home. That's not right. You say, you ought to be as quick to do things and be nice to members of your own family as you are to those who are your best friends. And he said, therefore, as you have opportunity, I like that, as you have opportunity.

Now that is a great Pauline understatement, as you have opportunity, as though we're not going to have opportunity. He said, as you have opportunity, and yes, you will have opportunity, let us do good to all men. Just open your eyes, friend, and there'll be opportunities. I remember several years ago, I was in a meeting,

and the pastor and I, we had just finished a noon service, and they were serving mystery meat at the luncheon. He said, listen, let's don't eat here. He said, after we eat, I want to take you out to a nice place. And so I said, good. Well, we finished about one o'clock and I was hungry because I don't eat breakfast.

And man, I was hungry. And I was anxious. And then I had to get back for some other stuff. And so I was anxious to get gone, get out of there. And so we got in the car and the pastor was driving.

We were driving along. And we come to this intersection and we hit the light. Oh, don't it would just hit that light. And we're the, you know, we're right at the head of the intersection. And I'm just impatient. Well, then comes a little, I think it was like a Toyota mini truck pickup. And it's carrying a huge king-size mattress whose edges are dripping over the side of that truck.

And he gets right in the intersection, and that mattress falls off the truck at the same time the light turns green. But we can't go because there is a truck and a mattress. And this man gets out, and he's sort of an older man. He gets out and he goes around there. Have you ever tried to handle a king-size mattress by yourself? And he, first of all, he picks it up on one end

and tries to bend it over, but he can't do it, you know. And then he tries to push it up, and you know you can't do it. And then he gets into the cab of that truck, and the light's turning green, red, green, red. And I'm sitting, I'm sitting, I'm sitting there. And then he gets up in the back of that truck, and he starts to pull and pull, and inch by inch by inch he gets.

And I'm sitting there, and I say to that pastor, why doesn't somebody get out there and help him? Heaven forbid that I should do it. It never occurred to me. You know, can you imagine what the church would be like if we just obeyed these simple things? Can you imagine the impact that a church like this could have on the world? Well, this is what it means to walk in the Spirit.

And the message of Galatians is that it's not by laws and regulations that we're made sufficient or righteous in God's sight. But friend, once you've been made righteous in God's sight and been recipients of His grace, then there are things that you will do because you have produced in you the love of Jesus Christ. Ron Dunn's podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church.

For more Ron Dunn materials, sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from his study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.