Subject 15 : The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the GALATIANS
[Chapter 5-5] Walk by the Desire Of the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-26)
(Galatians 5:16-26)
“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, which are:
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred,
contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions,
dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the
like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time
past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom
of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such
there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh
with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also
walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another,
envying one another.”
The Desires of the Flesh
In
today’s Scripture passage, the Apostle Paul is explaining the works of
the flesh and the fruit of the Holy Spirit by contrasting them against
each other. First of all, Paul points out that the works of the flesh
are evident, and he then goes on to list them as the following:
“Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery,
hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions,
dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the
like.” Paul then explains the fruit of the Spirit, saying, “The fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
To
compare and understand these two attributes, we need to first
understand what the fruit of the Spirit is. In Galatians 5:22-23, it is
written, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
God
said here that the first fruit of the Holy Spirit is love. This love
refers to God’s love of salvation bestowed on the entire human race (1
John 4:10). Only someone who has received this love from God can
practice this love. God has enabled sinners to receive the remission of
their sins from Him, to enter Heaven, and to share God’s love with each
other, and this is true love. The Bible calls this love “the love of the
truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:10). Therefore, the highest love for mankind
is to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to fellow human
beings and thus enable them to receive the remission of their sins. As
the righteous who have received the remission of their sins commune with
one another through the love of God, they come to share joy and
happiness with one another. And it is because of this love that the
born-again righteous do not quarrel with one another, but tolerate each
other to enjoy peace. Like this, the born-again are bound to bear the
fruit of love, joy, and peace through the Holy Spirit.
What,
then, does Paul say are the works of the flesh? He lists them as
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred,
contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions,
dissensions, heresies, and envy. These are completely opposite to love,
joy, and peace, which are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The works of
the flesh of mankind are always accompanied by idolatry, sorcery, and
hatred. Of these works of the flesh, the sorcery here means tricks to
deceive others. It refers to tormenting others with evil wiles and
injuring their hearts. Hatred, on the other hand, is to get into
conflicts and quarrel with each other, and to murder one another rather
than sharing joy.
Mankind’s
carnal desires turn people into God’s enemies, leading them to harbor
selfish ambitions and squabble with one another, inciting them to
jealousy, and making them angry to degenerate into factionalism and
stand against each other. Dissension means to work separately over
conflicts of different opinions. The people of the flesh who have not
been born again seek a faith that’s different from the faith of
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and they want to
preach such a different gospel. In other words, they try to undermine
the gospel of the water and the Spirit in anyway possible. Such is
mankind’s mistaken greed.
Paul
also said that the desires of the flesh are heresies, envy, and
drunkenness. Heretics are warped and sinning, being self-condemned
(Titus 3:10-11), for they do not believe in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit. In other words, heretics are those who follow their carnal
lusts in opposition to the righteousness of God.
The
Bible tells us that Jeroboam is notorious as a person who initiated
heresy openly. He was originally one of God’s people, but once he became
the king of Israel by chance, he made two golden calves and let his
people worship the calves to prevent them from going to Jerusalem.
Because he followed the desires of his flesh, he ended up committing a
great sin by corrupting God’s Truth.
The Bible said that drunkenness and revelries are also works of the flesh.
The Desire of the Holy Spirit
In
contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, longsuffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Is there
anything bad among these fruits of the Spirit? No, there is none. Don’t
you want to bear such fruits of the Holy Spirit? We all want to bear
these fruits of the Spirit abundantly. We the righteous who have been
born again of water and the Spirit desire to be led by the Holy Spirit.
If we really want to be led by the Holy Spirit, then we have to have
faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, spread this gospel,
serve the Lord who has given us this gospel, and follow Him. What kind
of fruits do such followers bear? They bear the fruits of love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control.
Those
who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit love the other
people’s souls. And they want to share together the joy of salvation
from sin, and to be at peace with one another. We don’t want enmity, but
we want to be in harmony with everyone.
The
Apostle Paul told us to follow the desire of the Spirit. We who have
received the remission of our sins by believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit have also received the gift of the Holy Spirit into
our hearts, and now, the Holy Spirit indwelling in us arouses His
desire in us. We the born-again are able to follow the desire of the
Spirit when we continue to do what pleases God. What pleases God is for
us to believe in and follow the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and
to spread this gospel.
However,
just because someone has received the remission of his sins, does this
mean that he now has no desires of the flesh at all? No, that is not the
case. As Paul said, “The works of the flesh are evident” (Galatians
5:19), even the righteous are not entirely devoid of such desires of the
flesh. Nonetheless, since the righteous reject such things by placing
their faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and by following
the Spirit, they live a life that’s different from that of a sinner. The
righteous desire to do what pleases God, have faith in His Word, serve
the Lord, and dedicate themselves to preach the gospel of the water and
the Spirit according to His Great Commission. That is why they fulfill
love in the end. Those who have been saved by believing in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit serve the gospel to share this joy that’s
unsurpassed in the world, and they come to be in harmony, exercise
self-control, endure long, bestow mercy, and indeed follow every good
work.
However,
even we the born-again can fall into the evident works of the flesh
unless we walk by the Holy Spirit. It’s not the case that some people
refrain from the works of the flesh because they are naturally
self-disciplined, while others succumb to the works of the flesh because
they lack self-control. Human nature is such that everyone is 100
percent bound to follow the desires of the flesh unless he follows the
desires of the Spirit. If we serve our own selves as our kings instead
of the Lord, then it’s 100 percent guaranteed that we would inevitably
practice the works of the flesh. If this happens, our lives will not
bear any fruit of the Spirit at all.
We
are exceedingly weak in our flesh. However, we still desire to do what
pleases the Lord led by the Holy Spirit. Even though we are
insufficient, we offer our bodies and hearts to the Lord and follow Him
by faith, and the Lord therefore testifies to the love of God through
such insufficient people as us. That is how we come to carry out such
precious works. In other words, we have come to share the God-given joy.
Those who have received the remission of their sins not only share joy
and happiness with one another, but they also bestow mercy, are at peace
with others, and endure one another.
All
these fruits are borne by those who have faith in God, for these are of
the Holy Spirit. If we have compassion for each and every human being
and yearn to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to all, then
the Holy Spirit lets us bear such fruits. Put differently, it is not by
ourselves that such fruits are born. On our own, we can never bear these
fruits. Only when we follow the Holy Spirit, follow the desires of God,
and follow His will, is it possible for us to bear the fruit of the
Spirit.
We Must Stay Away from the Circumcisionists
Here
in today’s Scripture passage, the Apostle Paul is now rebuking the
circumcisionists for their wrong faith, saying to them, “Throw away your
fallacies by yourselves. And follow the desire of the Holy Spirit.
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their passions and
desires. Do not provoke and envy one another. Do not squabble with each
other for vain glory. Do not seek to exalt yourself above everyone else.
Just follow the Holy Spirit. Seek the will of the Holy Spirit. This is
to follow the will of God. Though you are insufficient, you must live
like this.” You and I must also listen to Paul’s admonishment.
Through
the Book of Galatians, which points out just how wrong the faith of the
circumcisionists is, we need to expose the wrong faith of today’s
Christians who argue that the remission of sin is received through
prayers of repentance. And taking the lessons of Galatians to our
hearts, we must be very careful not to fall into such a legalistic
faith. If we do not take heed of Paul’s warning, it is more than
possible for us to also become like the circumcisionists. However, if
only we follow the desires of the Holy Spirit, then no matter how
insufficient we might be, we can still bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit
thanks to His assistance. All this is possible if we follow the desire
of the Spirit.
The
Apostle Paul said, “Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh
with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). If we want to follow
the desires of the Spirit, we must first crucify the desires and
passions of our flesh. My fellow believers, weren’t the passions and
desires of our flesh crucified when Jesus Christ was crucified? At that
moment, we, too, died with Jesus Christ. You may deny this, but all of
us in fact died at that time. Because the Lord has saved us by taking
upon our sins through His baptism, dying on the Cross, and rising from
the dead again, our old lives have already been crucified to death and
resurrected with Him into a new life. Whether you and I believe it or
not, the Lord has already killed the passions and desires of our flesh.
And the Lord has brought us back to life again, but it is not our bodies
that He resurrected, but it is our spirits. And He will resurrect even
our bodies when He returns.
What
is important now is whether or not you accept this into your heart.
Just as we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, it’s
indispensable for us to also accept by faith that our old selves already
died once, and that we have now been resurrected with Jesus Christ.
Those who believe in this truth can really live wisely and righteously
before God according to the desire of the Spirit.
Do
you believe that your old self was already crucified with Christ to
death, and that your spirit has now risen with Jesus Christ? That our
old selves died means that the passions and desire of our flesh died
with Jesus Christ. And it means that we now have new passions. These are
none other than the passion for the love of God, for the truth of
salvation that God has given us, and for bearing the fruit of the
Spirit. The desire to serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit, so
that others may also know the love of God, is the apex of the desire of
the Holy Spirit. We can realize that new desires have indeed sprung up
in our hearts, and these are none other than the desire of the Holy
Spirit. I sincerely hope that you and I would walk by such desires.
We
who have been born again through the gospel of the water and the Spirit
must live by faith. I am so rejoiced to live by my faith in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit. I am truly thankful to God that He has
enabled you and me to live such a life. Our partners overseas, and all
the servants of God and brothers and sisters in Korea as well, all share
this joy and gratitude.
The
circumcisionists argued that apart from believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, Christians had to be circumcised and keep the
Sabbath, and because of them, the Early Church ended up disappearing
completely from history. Just as those circumcisionists who threw the
churches of Galatia into confusion and led them to destruction were
extremely misguided, those in this age who spread the works of the flesh
arguing that the remission of sin is received through prayers of
repentance are also misguided. There is no assurance that we won’t
become like the circumcisionists that arose in the churches of Galatia.
Even if we don’t stand against the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
if we follow the desires and passions of our flesh, then this is what
will happen.
As
such, we must now have a new desire—that is, the desire of the Holy
Spirit. The desire of the Spirit is holy desire. Whatever pleases God,
therefore, we should also share in His joy, and what God has commanded
us to do, to spread the gospel all over the world, we should obey and
carry it out. The Lord said that He would make us His disciples and
spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to the end of the earth,
and so, we will indeed spread this genuine gospel to the entire world in
obedience. I believe that this is the proper life for all of us. I
believe that it is only right for us to do God’s work, to serve the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, and to preach this gospel throughout
the whole wide world. I believe that the life that is lived for such a
desire of the Spirit is a truly worthy and proper life. Do you also
believe as I do?
God
has given us new desires. We now have new desires. We should live in
this world with such desires and such passions of love. You and I must
live like this. We must live in this way to the end. Once born, everyone
must die and stand before God once. When we stand before God’s throne
of judgment, we want to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful
servant.”
God
said that those who, even after being saved by believing in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit, live according to the lust of their flesh
and do not serve the gospel are more evil than those who have not
received the remission of their sins. They will face even more fearful
judgment (Matthew 25:14-30, Luke 12:47-48). We must keep this in our
mind.
The
lust of the flesh knows no age; young or old alike, carnal lust will
arise in everyone’s mind. When the lusts of the flesh stir you up, there
is one thing that you must think of first, and it is the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. You must admit that you are such a weak person,
and that your passions and desires have already been crucified with the
Lord, because He has saved you with His baptism and His death on the
Cross. And you must devote yourself to the work of serving the gospel.
Working
to serve this gospel of the water and the Spirit is the most blessed
way. You and I should have the desire of the Spirit and walk by Him. The
Lord said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and
all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). If we seek His
righteousness in our lives, the Lord will fill our every need. We
believe that the Lord will provide for the needs of our flesh in His
time.
We
must preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit everyday. Unless we
do so, there is no way for everyone in the world to know this genuine
gospel. Since most Christians do not understand what the Bible is all
about even as they profess to believe in Jesus, far too many of them may
go astray. Until the day we die, we have to preach this gospel far and
wide.
Like
you and me, those who serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit are
the people who follow the desire of the Spirit. So I am grateful to God.
I am so thankful to God. Although my health is very poor and my body
has little strength, I will never give up His works entrusted to me. I
cannot just give up these precious works, for God has entrusted them to
me. I want to carry out God’s works until the moment I take in my last
breath, and I want to complete every work that has been entrusted to me,
for I do not want them to be hindered.
Today,
we uploaded a new e-book on our website. And just today alone, we had
over 5,000 net visitors to our site. The number of visitors increased
like this as we uploaded another free e-book. Buyers are apt to frequent
the shops that display a variety of new goods. If someone opens a big
store, advertises a lot, but does not stock the store with good
products, then first-time shoppers will not return again. In contrast,
if the store is continuously replenished with new and diverse products,
then people will continue to flock to the store from the word of mouth.
We will continue to provide new spiritual bread through our website.
These
people who encounter the gospel of the water and the Spirit through our
website are not able to meet us personally, but they know us only
through our books, and so they have no other choice but to rely on our
literature ministry. That is why through our books, we need to provide
concrete solutions to all the problems that they may encounter, whether
spiritual or otherwise. “Before, I also used to think that the remission
of sin is attained by offering prayers of repentance, but now that I
have read this book, I realize that the advocates of prayers of
repentance are utterly wicked. I thought that the difference between my
faith and theirs was minimal, but now that I know better, I see that
there is a huge difference.” If people can realize like this from this
book, then we have succeeded. Only when they grasp this can they also
spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to other people.
Wouldn’t
they then also come to have the desire of the Spirit in time and follow
them? It’s a wonderful thing for their hearts to espouse the desires of
God. Their minds will come to desire to spread the gospel, to give
their testimonies of faith, and to meet and share fellowship with their
fellow righteous people. When these desires of the Holy Spirit spring
forth in them, we will be able to serve the gospel of the water and the
Spirit with them, and so the more I serve this gospel, the more I am
filled with joy.
My
fellow believers, don’t you now have the clear answer to the question
of how you should live? How should we live now? We should live according
to the desire of the Holy Spirit. This is the most joyful and wonderful
thing.
My
fellow believers, now is actually the time to wake up from sleep. It’s
time for those who are asleep in this age to wake up now. So many
terrifying disasters will unfold. If we were to be stricken by the
unexpected disasters, we would be greatly shocked. Recently, an
unexpectedly heavy snow threw our entire country into utter confusion.
At the end of March this year, we had the heaviest snowfall in 100 years
that devastated many places in Korea. Losing all their properties,
saddened and hardened in their hearts, and helpless before the natural
disaster, some people even gave up their lives. Yesterday, Chungchung
Province was declared as a special disaster area. Imagine if you were
traveling on the road. Then imagine getting stranded on the highway from
heavy snowfall, stuck in your car for 24 hours without any food. This
is what’s called a disaster. We cannot but suffer damages from natural
disasters. And the problem is that they are prone to become bigger and
more frequent.
It
won’t be long before we go and stand before God, and I hope and pray
that we the last runners of the gospel will run just a little bit more
and reach the finish line in glory. The finish line is not too far away.
If you causally think that the Lord will not come so early, and so you
try to have some fun on your way and commit sin in your life by gambling
away, getting drunk, or seeking hedonistic pleasures in this world,
then on the Lord’s Day when plagues descend upon the world, your flesh
will surely die along with your spirit. Therefore, we should all prepare
our faith to face the last day, and rather than falling into the world,
we should live for the righteousness of God and then stand before His
presence. If we get captivated by the fragrance of the world in our
lives, we ourselves will abandon the Lord even if He does not forsake
us. So let us not be stained with sin, but live with spotless and pure
faith according to the desires of the Spirit, so that our hearts would
not be corrupted to end up forsaking the Lord on our own.
There
are many people who left God’s Church and are now unable to return.
They can’t return because they love the world more than the Lord. As
their hearts are stained with too much filth, they can’t come into the
pure Church. You must keep this in your mind. The Bible admonishes us,
“Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32). In fact, it’s not just Lot’s wife,
but Lot himself who was destroyed in both body and spirit for loving the
world and following the desires of the flesh. Even if you haven’t
experienced this kind of tragedy, you must know the end of such a life
by trusting in the Word of God. We should draw an important lesson from
seeing how many righteous people before us perished like this from
following the desires of the flesh.
Therefore,
we should not envy one another, nor be conceited. Why are people
conceited? Because they are unable to throw away the passions and desire
of their flesh, and they do not want to live according to the desires
of the Spirit. God has told us everything. He has told us to believe in
the Word we have heard, obey it with our faith, and practice it with our
acts in our lives.
Now
we cannot say in God’s Church, “I couldn’t follow the will of the Lord
because I didn’t know it.” Spiritually speaking, God’s Church that we
belong to already has 2,000 years of history, having begun from the
Early Church. The sermons that were steadily preached in the Church have
been published into books, and now, apart from the books that build the
foundation of the gospel, we are publishing books for the spiritual
growth of the souls that have already been born again. As all these
books are translated and published in dozens of languages all over the
world, the total number of our titles now exceeds 200.
We
have to keep listening to the Word that we already heard, and we must
ruminate and take the teachings of the Church by faith. And we must act
according to this faith, obey with our acts, and follow the Lord united
with the servants of God and our predecessors of faith. That’s all that
we have to do. Then we will not quarrel with one another and not be
conceited.
What
is to become conceited, provoking one another and envying one another?
It is trying to exalt oneself. Why did the circumcisionists advocate
circumcision in the churches of Galatia? “You and I have equally been
saved by believing in the same gospel of the water and the Spirit, but
there is one way for me to be higher than you. Upon closer look, I see
that you don’t know circumcision very well. You don’t realize the Old
Testament’s requirement that one must be physically circumcised to
become Abraham’s descendant and join God’s people.” Thinking like this,
the circumcisionists showed off their physical circumcision, and tried
to suppress those who received the remission of sin prior to them,
saying, “Have you been circumcised? I see that you haven’t. Receive
circumcision. If you are now circumcised, you are my junior. You are
below me.” They resorted to this because they couldn’t throw away the
lusts of their flesh and tried to exalt themselves.
What
good is it to be exalted, when casting aside the desires of our flesh
is what we should actually be doing? If one is exalted high, it means
that he has to serve even more. Isn’t this the case? That’s why some
people say, “I like to remain a layman.” Why do they say so? It is
because they don’t want to serve. When they look closely, they see that
laymen in the Church are not rebuked too harshly even when they don’t
serve the gospel that much.
God’s
servants don’t rebuke laymen harshly either. However, they rebuke the
workers harshly. That’s why some people say that they want to continue
to be laymen. But this is a mistaken notion. Everyone who is born again
by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit must serve God
and this genuine gospel. Laymen or ministers alike, everyone must serve
as a worker. It’s a big mistake to think that it’s okay for laymen to
lead their lives of faith in whatever way they see fit and therefore not
to serve the Lord. Every born-again person is inevitably destined to
serve the Lord from his due position.
In
some aspects, it can be even more difficult to lead a life of faith as
laymen. That’s because they don’t live entirely for the Lord, but at the
same time, they don’t live entirely fallen into the world either. So
wouldn’t they then have to succeed in both the Church and the world as
well? This may be harder for them. Someone who is entirely faithful to
just one master can earn his mark, be commended and blessed if he is
faithful to just this one master, and so it may actually be easier.
Anyway,
everyone must be a servant of God at least in his heart. Although we
are God’s children, we must also become His servants. We have been born
again of water and the Spirit, and as such, we should live by faith with
the heart of God’s workers. No matter how low anyone might evaluate us,
let us never be shaken but live by the desire of the Spirit. For us to
live like this is the most blessed way and to have the purest faith.
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