The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
LIVE DISCUSSION: Walk in the Spirit (Part 1 of 4)
The struggle between flesh and Spirit sits at the heart of Christian experience, and in this powerful exploration of Galatians 5:16-21, we uncover what it truly means to "walk in the Spirit."
Paul's message couldn't be more relevant today. After establishing that Christians are called to liberty, he immediately warns against the misuse of that freedom. The vivid imagery of believers "biting and devouring one another" resonates powerfully in our age of social media conflict where Christians often tear each other apart online instead of demonstrating love.
The solution? "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." This isn't just good advice—it's the divine remedy for our tendency toward self-destruction. Throughout our discussion, we explore how walking according to the flesh versus walking according to the Spirit represents two entirely incompatible paths. You cannot blend righteousness with unrighteousness or mix darkness with light.
Perhaps most encouraging is the revelation about Christ's complete atonement. When Jesus died for our sins, He took ALL of them—past, present, and future. There's no sin He "missed" or "forgot" to cover. This profound truth liberates us from the endless cycle of guilt and performance-based acceptance. As one participant powerfully states, "He took death and gave us life. It's not fair, but it is loving."
We also examine how the Holy Spirit transforms our desires, making the things of the flesh "not hit the same way they used to." The Spirit and flesh remain in conflict, but believers now have the power to choose which one they will serve. The works of the flesh (adultery, hatred, jealousy) stand in stark contrast to the fruit the Spirit produces in our lives.
Join us for this life-changing conversation about freedom, forgiveness, and the power to walk a new path through the indwelling Spirit of God.
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Christians. Good evening. I hope you had a good day today. Tonight I'm going to be continuing my exposition on Galatians, continuing the exposition on Galatians, continuing the exposition on Galatians, and I am in chapter 5, and I will be beginning in Galatians, chapter 5, and I'll be going from verse 16, and, lord willing, I will get down to verse 21, or through 21. Now, in the last session on Galatians, we talked about liberty.
Speaker 1:In Galatians, chapter 13, I mean sorry, in Galatians, chapter 5, verse 13, we dealt with the brethren being called to liberty and not to use the liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. And this is important because it is needful for us to understand what it is that liberty is intended for us to use it for, which was brotherly love. So in Galatians 5, verse 13, the apostle says for you, brethren have been called to liberty. Only he says do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. Verse 14, for all of the law is fulfilled in one word, even this that you love your neighbor as yourself. And we establish clearly that your neighbor was everyone, anyone, everyone, anyone, everyone and anyone. They are to be treated as our neighbor and we need to love them as we would ourselves. And this is the best and the highest expression of what it means to have true Christian liberty. Verse 15, paul says but if you bite and if you devour one another, beware unless you become consumed by one another. And I have to tell you, if we look at the experience that most of us have had on this particular platform, it is easy to understand exactly what it is the Apostle Paul means when he says, when he talks about biting and devouring one another.
Speaker 1:Biting and devouring One another One of the reasons why I'm so thankful and so grateful For what the Lord has blessed me with, for such a tremendous body of believers who share with me on a regular basis and participate in these discussions. One thing that I can honestly say is that we do not spend time here biting and devouring one another. It has always proven to be a fruitful experience and there's always proven to be evidence of what it is we as Christians, how we ought to communicate With one another. And I got to tell you I Do my best to try to Bring out in the word of God as much as I can, as much as I can glean, to assist my brethren in having a better understanding of the word of God. But I will also say this that I have learned a tremendous amount from all of you and the fellowship that I've had with you. So it's a two way street. So it's a two way street.
Speaker 1:Now we're dealing with this text. Paul has just explained to us that we have liberty in Christ and that we are not to take this liberty To be an opportunity To the flesh or an occasion To live according to the flesh and he says After he says To the flesh or an occasion to live according to the flesh, and he says that after, after he says but if you bite and devour one another, then you should beware, unless you be consumed by one another. And what the Paul and what the Apostle Paul is saying is that if we continue to bite and devour one another, to chew each other up like we are a pack of animals. And this is the illusion that he is making about Christians who bite and devour one another. They act like animals. Turn on your social media, turn on your TikTok or any other social media platform and your TikTok or any other social media platform, and you go to any live session, especially that is dealing with Christians. What you will find, sadly enough, more often than not, christians biting and devouring one another, and it ought not to be so. It shows us as those individuals who act and behave Like animals this is a picture that the apostle is painting Stop behaving like animals Biting and devouring one another.
Speaker 1:And so he begins in verse 16, which is where we begin our text tonight, by saying this I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. This is verse 16. Let me read verses 16 down through 18. I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, for the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish, but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, and he gives you a list of what they are Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, Outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish. As I also told you in time past that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1:Brethren, tonight, what we're going to be trying to uncover, the things that we're going to try to be bringing to the surface of our minds and hearts, is the very distinction between the conflict between the flesh, between, the conflict Between the flesh and the spirit. Notice this Paul says in verse 16. This I say then Walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now we need to glean from these words those things which are of of supreme order in the Christian life.
Speaker 1:What we see over and over again throughout scripture, and particularly in this book that we are dealing with, Is that, over and over again, paul's theme is this you can't mix the two. You cannot be unequally yoked. You cannot mix the lust of the flesh with the, with walking in this with the lust of the spirit. You cannot have Christ and be a son of Belial as well. You cannot be a servant of sin and a servant of righteousness. You cannot be justified by the law of God and, at the same time, be justified by faith in Christ.
Speaker 1:Paul is making this argument throughout the book of Galatians, over and over and over again. You cannot blend two opposing. The best way to put it is acts of morality. Morality or righteousness. Holiness, you can't mix these two things. You can't mix morality with immorality. You can't mix righteousness with unrighteousness. You cannot mix darkness with light. You cannot mix being led by the Holy Spirit or walked by the Holy Spirit with subscribing to the lust of the flesh, on and on.
Speaker 1:He goes on to make this case, and it's important to understand what he is saying, because there are so many of us who want to believe that a little bit of something that is contrary to what we are supposed to do is okay. When it is not, he makes this clear. But many of us like to dilly-dally, we like to tempt the Lord, and we can't do this, he says. I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So now I want to give those who are on the panel their opening words or ideas on what we're going to be talking about, which is essentially contrasting walking according to the flesh or walking according to the spirit. Let me start with my sister, candy Candy. What do you think so far?
Speaker 2:You know I'm driving. Will you, if you don't care, will you go to Colossians 2? What's that? And read Colossians 2, verses 6 and 7, and then 9 through 14, or you can kind of see what they say and then go. I just put those down right quick. You want me to read them? Okay, yeah, I'm driving.
Speaker 1:Alright Colossians 2, verses 6 and 7. It says this as you therefore have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with things given. Did you want to add anything to it, candy?
Speaker 2:Alright, go to 9. Go to 9 from that Verse, 9. And then I think through 14 is what I got wrote down.
Speaker 1:Alright, for in him, that is, in Christ, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power. In him you are circumcised, with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of sins of flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, in which you are also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead and you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him. Who, having forgiven you all the trespasses, having wiped out all the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way. Having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public out of the way. Having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them in it.
Speaker 2:I'll say more.
Speaker 1:No, no more to be said. Brother Kanan opening remarks thoughts.
Speaker 3:Brother Kanan opening remarks. Thoughts, no-transcript, turn in into and conceive into sin if it is not of him. Uh, to use the holy scripture as the standard for our life, so that we do not fall into these uh footholds and into these idols that can so easily come into our lives. Uh, as le leaven slowly creeps in, Absolutely brother.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Brother. Ken Ben opening remarks thoughts my friend, how are you?
Speaker 4:I'm doing just fine. I was sitting here thinking about, when you was covering that, how the Hebrew author in the, the sixth chapter, the first verse, is not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works. That's the very first thing he said. All trespasses, I mean all those works, are dead before. I mean how come we can't get past this, how come we can't get to the point that we see that the blood has covered it all. I mean what? I don't know. I don't know. I just get hyped about it.
Speaker 4:You know, after I found out that I'm saved, I'm not trying to work to earn and trying to get in and trying to how do they say make it? Or trying to endure to the end. I'm like, if you got to endure to the end, that means you got to wait till you pass from this life. How is that good news, I mean? Anyway, the good news is all trespasses have been forgiven, the complete atonement instead of a partial atonement that so many people are preaching, trying to say that, oh, there's future sins. And I'm like, well, who's going to atone for those future sins? Because he's surely not coming back down here and getting on that cross. And if you got to it. Then you write back to the Old Testament thing. That means what was the whole purpose of salvation through Jesus? It's kind of a moot point now.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, you're right, brother.
Speaker 4:That's my opening salvo.
Speaker 1:This is what Brother Ken just said is really what plagues so much of Christianity the lack of understanding about this simple fact that when Christ laid down his life for his people, he took upon him all of their sins all of their sins.
Speaker 1:And what Paul is teaching us in Galatians is that very thing, so that when you believe in Jesus Christ by faith, you are justified by that same faith, which means that there is no more sin, by where you can be now held accountable. The only way that you can be held accountable before God for any sin, if you have faith in Jesus Christ, is if there is some sin that Christ somehow missed, if there is some sin that Christ somehow missed, if there is some sin that somehow he forgot of yours to take upon himself, or if there's somehow some element in his atonement that did not prove to be all sufficient, providing ultimate and absolute satisfaction for your sin. The funny thing is, it takes us as believers it takes us as believers a great deal of complex speaking to make you understand the most simplest aspects of the Christian faith. You can do nothing Because he has done it all. He's done it all. Am I right, Brother Cavs? Am I right? He's done it all.
Speaker 4:You know, I want to say one more thing. Go ahead brother On a carnal level, me and you sitting in the home, and somebody comes in there and I love you and I say, don't worry about it, I got this, but this person's intention is to terminate you and he pulls the pew-pew. You know I'm trying to do it. Um, what a tiktok. You know policy correct. I jump in the way, I take the hit. Okay, my life is substituted for your life. That's what he did I mean?
Speaker 4:why are we trying to act like he did? I mean? The atonement is complete. It's a substitutionary thing. He took death and gave us life. It's not fair. But it is loving, and that's all I have to say.
Speaker 1:Amen brother, sister Lisa go ahead.
Speaker 5:Hey everybody. So I was just thinking. The beautiful thing about this is that when we are born again, it is this Holy Spirit within us that causes us to be able to walk in such a way with these attributes love, patience, forbearance, et cetera. You know those things of the flesh no longer, they're not fun anymore. When you're born again. They don't hit the same way they used to, and so I think that's amazing, for one is that he keeps us right where we need to be. You know, not saying that we're not going to, you know trip up, but he is faithful to forgive when, if we confess our sin and it is the good news, just like Kev Ben said is it is finished, we are, there's no more pressure, you know, to work.
Speaker 1:Right, absolutely sister, absolutely Sister Mariah, go ahead your thoughts.
Speaker 7:It's a big thing. What? What I'm noticing here is obviously, um, that it's talking about the holy spirit. If, if we are in the holy spirit, um, then those things right.
Speaker 7:Um, sin cannot be where the holy Spirit is. That's why these two are contrary to one another. So either you are in the mind and serving it, because your flesh is still sinful at this moment, until the day of redemption it hasn't been redeemed fully or it's a process, or to come Right. But if you're constantly in your mind, in your heart, serving God, then you're walking with the spirit and hopefully you will not walk in the and the lust of the flesh. But I, I think it's beautiful here because, uh, it compares the walking to the works and and it's telling you but and it compares the works of the flesh to all these sins. And you didn't get there yet, but. But when it comes to the spirit, it's now fruit, it's it's different.
Speaker 7:So I'm just analyzing a few things here and there. But definitely the Holy spirit. If it isn't within you, then you are. You cannot be under the law, right, how can you be under the law? Where the Holy Spirit, who is the one who gives the law? Who is the one who gives all these things. So that's my thoughts.
Speaker 1:Excellent, excellent sister.
Speaker 6:Appreciate that, jeffrey, man of God, your thoughts sister, appreciate that, jeffrey, man of god, your thoughts. For me to add whatever else is said already, I don't want to repeat it, uh, but uh, you know, the thing is we have to cling to the word and that's the way we get close to the spirit. And certainly, you know, all our sins are forgiven, past, present, future. Sure, but our sin nature tends to cause us to still commit them. And, uh, you know the way to improve. That is not just make a new year's resolution, say I'm not gonna do that anymore, is to be in the word and study, you know, be close to god. You know pray to mean, like I always say, the three-legged stool Pray, worship, study, the Word Right.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, brother Jeff, encouraging servant your thoughts.
Speaker 8:Well, good evening Jonathan and good evening panel. Any feedback?
Speaker 1:Nope.
Speaker 8:Okay, good, all right I don't want to feedback anybody out of here.
Speaker 8:I just had a couple thoughts said. Jonathan, if there was any sin that jesus didn't pay for on our sin account, his body would still be laying in the grave, and we know that it wasn't that. That it isn't that three days later he walked out. I mean, with everybody's the sin debt of those who put our faith and trust in him, completely, totally satisfied and as you've taught us, jonathan justified meaning, just as if we had never sinned, just as if we had lived the perfect life that Jesus did live and sacrificed for us on our behalf. And I think, sometimes, jonathan, we get I don't know sideways or something, and we forget that or at least I know I have we forget who it is that paid the full sin debt for our wickedness and our sin. It was the very son of God himself and he paid it gladly, he paid it happily and he paid it fully. So we owe him everything that we owe him.
Speaker 9:Right, that's how it's going to go.
Speaker 1:Brother, god's word, your thoughts, my friend.
Speaker 9:My thoughts are this you were saying the ravenous wolves seem to attack those who walk in the truth and I've noticed in your post too, you get attacked a lot and they don't walk in the spirit. When they do that, they're relying, like I was alive. Earlier reading, I had to think up a Proverbs 8, 17, speaking of the elect, that God loves those who love them and those who seek him will find them. And they were saying that's a lie. That's a lie. And they were calling me a heretic and attacking me, throwing derision in my face and saying no, he loves the world, he loves the world. I said he loves the world, he loves the world. I said well, what about the goats? And they kept calling me a heretic and started cussing me and saying I was going to hell and I was a heretic. And I'm sitting there going. You're not walking in the spirit when you're doing that, you're relying on your own interpretations of it. When God's word is clear, if you immerse yourself in his word, you will see the truth.
Speaker 9:And they hate the truth. And that's what it is. They keep stumbling over the truth and they can't. They, they, they want to fight against those who know the truth that we are saved by faith alone. We can't lose our salvation. They hate to hear that they do. They hate it. They hate the truth. Men hate the truth.
Speaker 1:They do. They absolutely do, brother, and I can tell because I I know, I know what you're feeling, because, like you said today, like for some reason, the last couple of days, oh my gosh, the beat down I've been taking and I've been responding to a few people every now and then I've been just saying we'll see, we'll see, we'll see, and and so. But what brother, my brother's saying here now, god's word, I mean, he's telling the truth. It's like people hate the truth and you will find that, more often than not, the people that are the most adamant about their hatred toward the truth are those who claim to believe it, those who call themselves believers and Christians. And it's terrible. Brother Jeffrey, go ahead. Encouraging servant, go ahead.
Speaker 8:Jonathan, one of the reasons that truth is hated so much? Because it has none of Jonathan, what I like to call wiggle room. In other words, there's no place for sin to get in and begin to dilute the truth. Truth has no place for error or sin. Truth is, of itself, okay and non-truth only dilutes it, but in its purest form. We cannot argue with it. We either accept it for what it is or we don't period. And so a lot of people again because of the human nature element that you have talked about and we've discussed here several times a lot of people are simply not going to receive that, or I should say they choose not to receive that truth, or to acknowledge that truth, or to acknowledge even that there is absolute truth, which is Jesus.
Speaker 1:Right, absolutely, brother, brother Canaan, go ahead.
Speaker 3:I would also be on the other side of that too is, even if they are opposed to sound theology and doctrine, but they are willing to hear that we plant and sow those seeds and be hopeful and faithful that God, in time, will make those seeds bear fruit and come to fruition and come to show them the truth in time. We had a live, a couple of days ago now, where we were able to share the gospel with a woman, I'm not sure much of her background, but she had been influenced by JWs quite a bit, and so God gives us opportunities, and she may not have agreed with everything that we shared about depravity and the gospel, but we plant the seeds, we continue on and we ask God for discernment in those situations so that we're not casting our pearls but that we don't overlook them, even if they're in opposition, if they're willing to hear, even if they're in opposition, if they're willing to hear.
Speaker 1:Brother, I'm going to say something about what Cain is just saying right now, because what he's saying right now really, really hits home and hits hard with me right now, because for some reason in this season in my life, in my twilight years, I'm learning this lesson and what he is saying is something I'm learning. And his saying this right now and I appreciate him for saying this is because it is such a relief now for me to just tell people if you want to believe that that's up to you I'm going to tell you the truth, because I know that the truth has the efficacy to bring about the results that the word of God has said it would do. And, man, I want to tell you, the amount of relief that it gives me is immeasurable. I don't waste my time arguing because I understand that if you communicate the truth, it is enough to do what it is God intends to do. So if you heard what my brother Canaan just said, let that settle with you, because I'm telling you this is something I'm dealing with right now. I am trying my best and it is working to get better and better and better at refusing to argue with folks after I have made the truth of God clear. One thing that I don't have a problem with is making what I'm saying clear. So now it is up to others to digest this, and I don't have to say anything after that. I refuse to say anything more than that. And, man, if we can, if we can all do this and I'm just saying it's not because I grab fall into something that I'm just got so much wisdom about. I don't, I'm learning it, I'm dealing with it. Now, in the last year of my life, I've been really dealing with this and I am finding it so rewarding to just trust in the Lord working. You put it out there, let him deal with it.
Speaker 1:And this leads me to my next point, because Paul says here in verse 16 of Galatians 5, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh and what we are told. When we tie these verses to the verses that precede this, when he talks about liberty that we have in Christ, we understand something that there is a remedy, a remedy. There's a remedy against a abusing liberty, there's a remedy against a misuse of liberty. And what is that remedy? That remedy is walking in the spirit and believers, brethren, my Christian brothers and sisters, understand this.
Speaker 1:When the apostle speaks, when all of the writers of the scriptures speak, they are speaking in such a way whereby they assume that we understand what it is they are saying they don't go through all the machinations of trying to decipher all these things. They assume that we know. So here he says that if you walk in the spirit, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So the remedy for a misuse or an abuse of liberty is to walk in the spirit, and by thereby doing you cannot fulfill the lust of the flesh. So my next question for all of you is this, and I'm going to ask each person keep it short, but I want to know from each one of you on the panel what does it mean to walk in the spirit?