Gospel Faith Leads to the Fullness of the Spirit's Power - Ryan Fullerton

I have been at this conference every year

for the past four years.

And I think I can say

that after a day-and-a-half,

or I guess maybe two half-days,

something like that,

this one is my favorite.

I have been ministered to in ways

that I wasn't expecting,

just getting to talk to
brothers and sisters

and receive encouragement in the Lord,

and I hope I've been able
to sit with a few of you

and minister to you and encourage you.

And so at the same time as I feel

this opportunity to minister to

and this opportunity to be ministered to,

I have come away from
the last day-and-a-half

with an increased burden.

I feel burdened.

And I think I feel burdened

in the best kind of way.

I got to talk to John Sytsma

this afternoon,

and to hear about the obstacles

to the work there in the 10/40 window.

I got to hear from him

of the sex trafficking

in some of the countries

where he's ministered.

Entire towns without teenage girls.

I've got a 13 year old.

I don't even know how to process that.

Because they've been sold,

by and large,

into the sex trade.

I got to just say a few words

to Josef Urban who we heard

a great testimony from last year,

and he was telling of a new church

that's being planted in Mexico,

and yet the thing under his breath

is we need more workers.

I got to speak to a brother

who's a bi-vocational pastor

who's serving a little church,

but working a job that is killing him,

and just seeing the quality of his service

dwindle because of the amount of time

he's having to pour into

the job he has at this time.

Spoke to a friend who's having problems

with his house - the actual, physical one.

Like, it's breaking down.

And then, on top of that,

problems in the home;

extended family.

And I hear all that,

and I'll be honest with you,

my reaction as a preacher is:

What's the sermon that can fix it all?

I just want to help

every one of those people

and I assume that each of those people

just represent all of us.

That all of us have great need.

And the question I come away

from those conversations asking myself

is what can sustain God's people?

What can move so that there's

more than enough workers in Mexico;

what can move so whether

a bi-vocational pastor gets more support,

so he doesn't have to be bi-vocational,

or he just gets strength
to stay bi-vocational;

what can move so that God's people

are sustained when their homes

and their houses

and their extended family are falling

as a result of the fall?

And I believe we need

a tremendous outpouring
of the Holy Spirit.

We need an entire Person of the Trinity

to help us.

We need all of the Holy Spirit

bringing us into all that Christ has done

so that we can enjoy
all of our relationship

to the Father.

And that sustains but it also motivates

more to move out and help, doesn't it?

I talked to another brother today,

and he said in the last twenty years,

I've heard better, clearer,

theologically precise presentations

of the Gospel than I've ever heard before.

And I believe we are witnessing

a season where there are many

clearly and biblically articulating

the Gospel.

And we should thank God for that.

But he said before those twenty years,

I heard less clear presentations

of the Gospel,

and they came with more power.

That is not an excuse

for a lack of precision in preaching.

Study hard to show yourself approved,

a workman who need not be ashamed,

rightly dividing the word of truth.

But if it's rightly divided and powerless,

that's one more testimony that we need

the power of the Holy Spirit.

And if those burdens weren't enough,

then we heard those last two sermons.

And I just walk away from

Brother Mack's sermon

and Brother Kevin's sermon

with this desire in my soul

that I want to share with you

from God's Word tonight.

Remember Brother Mack's sermon:

Christ was a man.

He had an umbilical cord.

He had been utterly dependent

on His mother.

He was a man.

And yet, as a man,

He moved like no other man moved

because of the power and the presence

of the Holy Spirit on His life.

That's what motivated Christ.

That's what empowered Christ

to move as no other man moved

was that He - our older Brother -

had the Spirit that now

we have been given.

Oh, if that doesn't whet your appetite

for more empowerment from God's Spirit,

you might need to put a mirror

under your nose and check for breath.

And then Brother Kevin

so clearly laying out these two ways

that men approach God.

One: By blood sacrifice

offered in faith -

I love that point -

that brings us to God.

So glorious.

It makes us accepted to God by Him.

And the other way,

which is offering our "very best" to God

like He now owes us something,

because we showed up to give Him our best,

and how that is utterly rejected by God.

And what I want to do in this message

is I want to try to combine

the last two messages.

I want to ask,

how do you get the power

of the Holy Spirit

that the Lord Jesus Christ had

on your life?

How do you walk in

the power of the Holy Spirit

that Brother Mack said was on

the Lord Jesus Christ?

And I want to answer that question

by saying it's by the
Gospel Kevin preached.

You see, this Gospel

that our brother preached,

for unbelievers - to win
many of you to Christ,

is the Gospel that Christians

are meant to live by.

It is not something that's merely

to take us at the moment
of our conversion.

It's not something that's merely

to grip us at the moment

when we are born again,

but it is to be our lifeblood

for the entirety of our -

I was going to say lives,
but that would be wrong.

For the entirety of our eternity.

The light of eternity

will be the slain Lamb of God.

And so I want to think with you about

what does it look like

for the Gospel to give us the Spirit

that empowers,

and what would get in the way

of the Gospel giving us the Spirit?

So we know we need the Spirit

and we know (or I hope we know)

that in order to have more of the Spirit,

we need to make sure

that we are clinging to the Gospel.

And so what I want to do,

is I want to ask you a question.

Then I want to answer it.

Then I want to read a Scripture.

And then I want to pray.

I am going to pray.

But I want to first ask you a question.

Then I want to give you an answer.

And then I want to read you a Scripture.

And then I want to pray.

What should a good pastor do

if he sees the people he loves

drifting away from the Gospel?

What should a faithful man of God do

if he sees the people

that he explained to them,

he said to them,

listen, the way you're saved

is by nothing other

than the sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's by His shed blood alone,

paying the blood penalty
you should have paid,

but He paid it.

You simply repent and believe in Him.

What if that man sees the people he loves

swerving?

Drifting into some system?

Some man-made legalistic system

that gives them another way

to really be saved,

or we'll even say, fully saved?

To really enter in with God.

What if he finds them learning

that not only do they need
to believe the Gospel,

but they also need to
abstain from all alcohol.

That is clearly the way to heaven.

What if he sees them find out

that they need to embrace the Gospel,

but clearly, they need to be homeschooling

because if you're not homeschooling,

you would clearly be in
a second-class position

with God.

What if he sees them in a situation

where they are hearing the Gospel,

loving the Gospel,

and then all of a sudden,

they are being derailed into some idea

that their church needs to be

a particularly perfect kind of way

before they can really flourish

in the Gospel?

What kind of things would a pastor say

to his people if he felt

and if he saw that they were drifting

from the Gospel?

That's my question.

Here's my answer.

You stupid fools!

Who is feeding you this garbage?

Are you drunk?

Are you under some kind of spell?

I preached Jesus Christ was crucified

to pay for all your sins every week,

and now you're eating up

this legalistic garbage?

Don't you remember

when I first counseled with you,

how you trusted the Gospel alone,

and now you think you're going to

get the Spirit by some finishing

of some legalistic expectation?

Some checklist?

Are you completely out to lunch

having started by God's Holy Spirit?

Now, you've got this little checklist

that you're going to keep

and if you keep it perfectly

you're going to be empowered

for obedience?

You are foolish!

Have you had so many glorious experiences

that flow from the Gospel?

Or are you throwing that all away

so you can go to the legalism?

Listen, God does not supply

the Spirit to you and work miracles

in this congregation -

He doesn't do it because

you've fulfilled some legalistic checklist

of expectations.

He does it simply because

you believe the Gospel.

And I think that's the right answer.

I think it's the right answer

because I don't think that a godly pastor

always sounds like Mr. Rogers

on Valium with a Bible.

Now Johnny, you really
shouldn't be a legalist.

Thinking you can work your way to heaven

and you need to come on back to Jesus.

I think sometimes a godly pastor

sounds like a dad whose kid

is playing in the road.

And he engages in some sanctified yelling.

You fool! Get out of the road!

You're going to get killed in there!

That car's going roll over you

and it's done!

But more importantly,

I think that's the way you
respond because that's the way

the Apostle Paul responded
in Galatians 3:1-5.

That's the way he spoke.

Now, time out.

That's not the way you normally speak.

Some of you,

you can take this sermon

and from now on
you're going to be:

You fool! You fool! You fool!

This ought to be the big exception

to the general gentleness of your life.

"Oh, foolish Galatians.

Who has bewitched you?

It was before your eyes

that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed

as crucified.

Let me ask you only this -

did you receive the Spirit

by works of the law

or by hearing with faith?

Are you so foolish

having begun by the Spirit,

are you now being perfected

by the flesh?

Did you suffer so many things in vain

if indeed it was in vain?

Does He Who supplies the Spirit to you

and works miracles among you

do so by works of the law

or by hearing with faith?

Just as Abraham believed God,

and it was counted to him

as righteousness."

Let's pray.

Father, we come before You.

We ask You, Lord, that You would...

well, first of all Lord,

we just ask that You would

pour out Your Holy Spirit on us

and do miracles among us

just by our belief in the Gospel.

Just by the Gospel.

That's my prayer, Lord.

And I ask you to sanctify me to that task.

Lord, I know that many
of the things I'm saying

are going to be said
on a razor's edge.

Give me clarity.

Set a guard over the door of my mouth

that I might not sin against You.

I pray that You would anoint

and empower and allow the Holy Spirit

to be experienced

so that Christ is known.

I pray even for the moms with babies,

that You'd even let them focus.

Calm the children down.

Lord, we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The Apostle Paul in this passage

sounds like a man interrogating

the Galatian Christians under lights.

He is asking them questions

of Gospel interrogation.

Don't you remember how you

received the Holy Spirit?

Don't you remember what
God did in your life?

He's asking them rhetorical questions

and he is asking them these questions

so that they will be brought back

to their senses,

and they will be rooted and grounded

in the Gospel,

and they will continue on

in the power of the Holy Spirit.

That's why these firm questions

are being asked by the Apostle Paul.

The Galatian Christians, at this point

in their history,

were falling hook, line, and sinker

for a teaching that said:

Yes, Jesus is good,

but you also need to get circumcised,

you need to eat kosher,

you need to celebrate
all the Jewish holidays.

Basically, you need to
add the law of Moses

to the Gospel,

and then, you will be declared righteous.

Then you will be fully

part of God's inheritance

and God's people.

This is what they were drifting into,

and this is why Paul puts them

under the lights

and asks them all these questions.

And all of these questions have one goal.

The goal of all of these questions

in Galatians 3:1-5

is to help the people of God see

how they were justified;

how they came to have the Holy Spirit;

how they came to have

the very power of God

resting on their lives.

And he wants them to see that

it had nothing to do with circumcision,

food laws, putting special days

on your calendar;

it is by something completely different.

It is simply by faith
in Jesus Christ alone

and His finished work

that the precious gift of the Holy Spirit

is given to the people of God.

And Paul, being a good preacher,

does not ask complicated questions

to the congregation.

These were not questions

where the Apostle Paul would ask you

and you would go...

Let me get back to you on that.

Let me think about that.

And let me respond at
some time in the future

with exactly what it is

that is the answer to your question.

No, these were very basic questions

that the Apostle Paul was asking them.

They were rhetorical questions.

Like, what's two plus two? It's four.

It's an obvious and a basic answer.

And the Apostle Paul is asking them

so that they will remember

what it is that gave them the Holy Spirit.

Are you clear on that?

Are you clear on how a man or a woman

receives the Holy Spirit?

We all say we need
more of the Holy Spirit.

You probably can't find an evangelical

that wouldn't say something like that.

Everyone would acknowledge

we need more of the Holy Spirit.

Are you clear on how a person

receives the Holy Spirit?

And how they go on with the Holy Spirit

in His power?

These questions serve us.

This is a pastor serving us.

To make us crystal clear

on how it is the church

and the people of God

receive the Holy Spirit.

Question #1:

The first question is,

"Oh, foolish Galatians!

Who has bewitched you?"

Notice, he begins with
a statement about them.

They are foolish.

And the question is: who?

So, he says something bad about them,

and then he asks,

who's doing this to you?

And we need to think for a minute

about what a fool is.

Because Paul is calling them foolish,

but we need to think a little bit

about what it is exactly to be a fool.

And there's two aspects that I think

are critical here about foolishness

in the Bible.

Foolishness in the Bible is first of all

that a fool doesn't see

where present decisions
are going to take him.

A fool does not see
where present decisions

are going to take him.

So, Proverbs 1 is written so that

fathers can learn how
to keep their children

out of gangs.

Because 3,000 years ago,

apparently Solomon and the people

in the time he was living

were already dealing with gangs.

This is not a modern problem.

So in Proverbs 1,

the father comes to the son and says,

My son, if people come to you and say

let's get rich, let's roll a few chumps,

and let's get their money,

do not go in with them,

because you will die.

You don't lay out a net for a bird

in front of the bird.

The bird won't go into that net.

He's saying, you're going to get caught up

in this messed up lifestyle

and be destroyed,

if you go in with these guys

who want to make easy money.

And what the father is doing to his son

is he's saying, you need to
know where this is going.

The gang members are just going to say,

hey, we're brothers.

Hey, we're going to get rich.
Hey, it's going to be good.

Here's the immediate payback.

But the fool doesn't see
where this is going.

You get shot.

A wise man says,

I know where that's going.

Proverbs 5 is the same kind of language.

Proverbs 5 says you see
that beautiful woman?

Her lips are dripping like honey?

She's as bitter as wormwood.

It does not say she's not pretty.

If you try to convince a young man

that a beautiful adulterous woman

isn't pretty, he'll just think,

you're out to lunch.

She's pretty.

The real answer is to tell him,

she'll kill you.

That's what's going to happen here.

She is indeed pretty.

She's poison.

But a fool doesn't see it.

He just sees the benefits of the gang.

He just sees the thrill of the girl.

He doesn't see where it's going.

And these Galatians were signing up

to a legalist system.

They were thinking, well,
let's get circumcised.

That will get us in touch with
our rich Jewish heritage.

That would really be exciting

to practice all those Old Testament laws.

We want the full package.

And Paul says in Galatians 5:2,

Look, "I, Paul, say to you,

that if you accept circumcision,

then he is obligated to
keep the whole law.

You are severed from Christ,

you who would be justified by law.

You have fallen from grace."

He's saying, you're just looking

at the little entry package.

Let's do the Passover meal.

Let's do the special Jewish days.

Let's practice all the Old Testament.

That'll be so good.

Paul's like, do you know what
you're signing up for?

You do a little bit of this

and if you want to
be accepted by God

by doing a little bit of this,

you've got to do it all.

And you've got to do it all perfectly.

So don't be a fool.

They get tantalized by the appetizers.

Because if you eat this poison pill,

you need to take the whole meal.

And I would have you have the Gospel,

and not the law.

But there's another
aspect to being foolish.

You see, the fool not only

doesn't see where things are going,

but the fool misses the obvious.

The fool has said in his heart...

there is no God.

Now, I think the Bible
makes it pretty clear

that the reality of God is
the most obvious reality

on the planet.

My son and I years ago

visited the Honda factory -

I think it was the Honda factory -

Toyota? Good thing I have my son here.

So, the Toyota factory in
Georgetown, Kentucky.

And this place is amazing.

We're driving around on this

glorified golf cart,

and there's all these robots,

and they spring their arms into action

and they drop weld beads

right in the right place perfectly.

They start with rolls of steel

and out the other
end of the factory

drives a Camry.

It's incredible.

Can you imagine if I

were to walk up to one of the engineers

who had designed that marvelous plant

and said, surely, there has been

a whirlwind of metal here

for billions and billions of years.

I think he'd be insulted.

But the fool misses the obvious.

The fool misses waterfalls

and fingernails that push out of fingers

and all the glorious workings

of the human body,

and nature, and biospheres.

The fool looks at all of that and says,

"there's no God."

And the Apostle Paul calls
the Galatians fools here

because they were missing the obvious.

Paul's preaching, and I
mean this with no offense

to Kevin Williams,

because Kevin Williams was, if anything,

clear this morning, right?

But Paul was clearer.

Kevin's not taking that as an
insult right now - don't worry.

Paul was the clearest of clear.

Paul said,

"It was before your eyes

that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed

as crucified."

My preaching was
crystal clear on this point.

I made abundantly clear

that you were sinners

and that Jesus Christ was crucified

in front of you.

That was my message.

I preached it for years with tears.

I went on and on about it.

I determined to know nothing among you

except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

I was a one-string banjo player

with just one note on my banjo:

Jesus Christ is the liberator from sin.

Jesus Christ is the sacrifice for sin.

Jesus Christ is the one Who deals

with all of the broken laws

you've ever broken.

Jesus Christ is the One Who saves you

from the broken laws you've broken.

He is the Savior of the world!

I wonder if we need to get circumcised?

You know, I think it's really important

to make homemade bread.

I mean it's loving your neighbor.

It's loving your neighbor.

All that mass marketing
isn't loving your neighbor.

Probably if you're a Christian,

you basically have to do that.

Surely, you must read your Bible

for an hour every day.

The Bible's clear.

You know all those good verses

about how you have to read
your Bible for an hour?

What's your favorite verse on that?

I'm pretty sure you've got
to do that to get to heaven.

The fool begins to miss the obvious.

The fool begins to fail

to see where things are going.

And so the fool misses out on the Gospel.

And the Gospel is what brings the Spirit.

And so the Apostle Paul

asks these questions,

and he asks them to bring them back

to the Gospel.

I should just comment
on this one verse too

before I move on.

Notice he says "who" has bewitched you.

Almost always when you begin to drift

from the Gospel, there's a "who."

And they're usually more
exciting than your pastor

because your pastor just
plays that one-string banjo.

And I want to tell you,

that if you can identify the "who"

that's pulling you away from the Gospel,

you need to one-hundred percent

and completely sever yourself

from their teaching,

and go with the most boring

Gospel preacher you can find.

That man will take you to heaven.

Because that man will point you to the Man

Who saves us from our sins.

Paul asks another question.

Really, this is question
number two and five.

And this question is my favorite,

specifically as it relates to
our topic this evening.

How did you get the Spirit?

How did you get it?

It's assumed here that the Galatians

have experienced the presence

and the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

And now Paul asks them to remember

their history.

And he says to them,

how did you get it.

And he says, "let me ask you only this -

did you receive the Spirit

by works of the law

or by hearing with faith?"

And then in v. 5,

"Does He Who supplies the Spirit to you

and works miracles among you

do so by works of the law

or by hearing with faith?"

And now, these Galatians

had experienced the presence

and the power of the Holy Spirit.

They had come to the point

where they said, "Jesus is Lord."

And 1 Corinthians tells us

no one says Jesus is Lord

in a genuine heartfelt way

except by the Holy Spirit.

They had come to taste something of love,

joy, peace, patience,

and these things come by

the Holy Spirit.

They had come to receive spiritual gifts

by which they served each other

through prophecies

and through miracles

and through acts of service,

through knowledge and wisdom.

They had come to receive the Holy Spirit

and Paul says when did that start?

Come on.

Remember your testimony.

I've got you under the lights.

When did all of that spiritual work

begin in your life?

And he gives them two options.

Did it begin when you began

to practice the works of the law?

Or did it begin when you were

hearing the Gospel with faith?

Now the works of the law in Galatians

means those works
which God's law requires.

It means the things that were commanded

in the Old Testament law.

It means ceremonial things

like circumcision, special days,

special menus.

But it also means those moral things

like "thou shalt not murder,"

and "thou shalt not covet

another man's wife."

It means all that God commanded

in the Old Testament law.

And he says, was it when you started

doing all the right things

that God commanded,

that you were given the Spirit?

Or, was it when you simply heard

Jesus Christ publicly portrayed

before your eyes as crucified

that you became spiritual people

who began to walk in the Spirit?

And again, the Galatians
are supposed to go back.

Now, think about the average Galatian.

The average Galatian had never read

the law of Moses.

Ok, there was no confusion

for the average Galatian.

The average Galatian says,

yeah, I was eating kosher,

and then the Spirit came...

No, they weren't eating kosher at all.

They were not Jews.

They were Galatians.

They weren't trying to practice

the Ten Commandments.

They had never celebrated a Passover

in their life.

They didn't have any circumcised children.

They did not have any allegiance to

or practice of the law of Moses.

And a preacher came into their town;

preached Jesus Christ can save you

from your sins.

They believed it and they
received the Holy Spirit

right then and there.

The only and exclusive prerequisite

to receiving the Spirit of God

is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You put your faith in the One

Who walked by the Spirit

and you will receive the Spirit.

Now there are many good things

in the Christian life.

Family worship is a good thing.

What a good thing for fathers

to teach their children.

Daily devotions.

What a good thing to
read the Bible every day.

Principles of modesty.

What a good thing to
let the Lord Jesus Christ

shape the way you dress.

These are wonderful responses to grace.

But it's amazing how quickly

in the Christian life,

we can turn them into new laws.

New laws.

So I want you ask you this.

Had you mastered principles of modesty

when you received the Spirit?

You were just sitting there.

The neckline was up to there
and the skirt was down to there

and the Spirit came!

Right?

Or maybe one day,

you went into your quiet place

and you said: now this devotional

is going to be good.

I'm going to read four chapters.

McCheyne's plan. Come on. McCheyne.

So you were going to do McCheyne's plan,

but you weren't just going
to do McCheyne's plan,

you were going to do some meditating

and some journaling.

And you weren't just
going to journal,

you were going to do prayer
and not just for you,

but for the whole
church you're a part of.

And you know, you managed
to split the time up

and it wasn't too legalistic

and you got that perfect

quintessential devotional and boom!

The Spirit of God fell
on your life, right?

That's how it happened
for all of you, right?

I know that's how it
happened for me.

I have the perfect
devotions every morning.

Was it the first time your rowdy family

finally managed to do seven days a week

of family worship?

So the Spirit of God came?

My wife's uncle used to make

one of their children stand

during family worship because he was

so prone to fall asleep.

The Holy Spirit's not
on families like that.

Beloved, the Holy Spirit comes

on weak, wounded, broken,

depraved sinners who believe the Gospel.

And then after you get converted,

there isn't a new way to get more of Him.

There's that simple, continual

trusting and resting in the Gospel

that brings more of the power

and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Will He gently lead you to be modest?

You bet He will.

Will He gently lead you to love His Word?

You bet He will.

Will He gently lead you
to walk by the Spirit?

Absolutely.

But the order is everything.

Question number three.

Verse 3

"Having begun by the Spirit,

are you now being perfected

by the flesh?"

What's happening here?

We've established something.

Paul says we know you
started by the Spirit.

You were a bunch of pagan Galatians.

You didn't have any background

in biblical truth.

You heard the Gospel.

You got the Spirit.

And now, I've got to ask you.

Are you going to go on
and become just like Jesus

by the flesh?

Now, one of the sad things

about reading this text in America,

is that when we hear flesh,

we tend to hear licentiousness.

When we think of flesh,

we tend to think of drinking too much.

Sleeping around too much.

Gambling.

All those kinds of immoral
and ungodly things.

But for Paul here,

flesh is referring to getting

more religious, not less.

The move towards the legalism

of the Judaizers;

the move towards the legalistic heresy

that Paul was confronting,

was a move of the flesh.

Because you see,

the flesh, when it can't just

rapidly grab all kinds of illicit sins,

loves to clean itself up

and make itself religious

and be proud of its religion.

In Indonesia,

I've walked through Indonesia,

and you see men with bruises

on their heads.

I'm told they get these bruises

by rubbing cans on their heads

until their heads are bruised,

but the bruises are meant to look like

they've hit the floor five times a day

in prayer.

That's not devotion.

That's the flesh.

And we're told here
that that fleshly instinct

can creep back into the Christian life.

Now, the Christian is not
ultimately in the flesh,

under the dominion of the flesh.

But the Christian still
deals with the flesh

and experiences the desires of the flesh.

And those desires can
be extremely religious.

They can include:

I can't miss a service.

I know all my kids are sick

and it would be really servant-hearted

to take care of my wife,

but I cannot miss a service.

I can't love you right now baby.

I've got something fleshly to do.

The flesh loves to accumulate

religious duties in order to, often,

tell other people about them.

That's what the Pharisees did.

But the flesh actually will sometimes

be content not to tell anyone about them

but just to suck on
that self-righteousness

like a lollipop.

Just taste the sweetness of: I'm doing it.

I'm getting it together.

Now Christians get all in a huff:

How do I know if
I'm doing my devotions

in the flesh or in the Spirit?

It's not complicated, beloved.

It's not.

Paul says the works of
the flesh are obvious.

They're obvious.

You come out of that room
from doing your devotions

and you're an angry
mess with your family,

I'll tell you one thing
that wasn't happening

in your devotions.

It wasn't communion with the Spirit.

Right, the works of the flesh

are (Galatians 5) obvious.

Galatians 5, the Apostle Paul says, v.19.

The works of the flesh are
very hard to understand,

and you should engage
in perpetual introspection

to discover them.

Right?

Just gaze in there.

Peel that onion of your soul.

Was that the flesh?

That's not the kind of bondage

the New Testament puts you in.

"The works of the flesh are evident:

sexual immorality,

impurity, sensuality,

idolatry, sorcery,

emnity, strife, jealousy,

fits of anger,

rivalries, dissensions, divisions,

envy, drunkenness, orgies."

There's a kind of devotion
to the things of God

that can't stop looking at porn.

Because it's all just self-driven.

There's a kind of devotion

to this list of things God wants me doing

that can't stop getting angry.

Can't stop indulging in impurity.

But the way to abandon that

is the way to realize that the way

you become perfected -

perfected just more like Jesus -

is you keep putting your faith in Jesus.

You keep trusting in Jesus.

You put your faith in
Jesus on your best day.

Lord, I just ministered to people all day;

poured my life out for people all day.

You know what?

I'm going to heaven because Jesus Christ

was portrayed before me as crucified.

And then you fall flat
on your face one day,

and you fall into the same old sins

that have been dragging
you down for years.

You just fall right on your face,
and you get up and you say,

Lord, I need the Spirit right now.

I need the Spirit and the only way

I can get Him is because
the Lord Jesus Christ

paid fully for all of my sins.

I have a friend who talks about

how he does his devotions.

I love what he says.

He says that when he does his devotions

on his best day,

after he's done his devotions,

he closes his Bible and says,

Lord, that was a good time
of communion with You,

but I am not justified

by that good time of communion with You.

I am justified by the death, burial,

and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then he tells that

when he does devotions on his worst days -

you know the kind where

you find drool on the page later?

Or you feel like you're trying
to get one of those bruises.

At the end of that devotional,

you just close your Bible and say

I'm not any less justified.

Not any less justified.

In fact, I am fully justified.

Not because of the quality
of my time in Your Word,

but because of Your death

on the cross for me.

Question number four.

It's the shortest one.

Did you suffer so many things in vain?

Paul says did you suffer
so many things in vain?

Did you suffer so many things

and now it's just useless?

And there's great debate

about what this word
"suffering" means.

Generally, this word
translated "suffering" here

does just mean exactly that.

Persecution - that kind of suffering

that we've just heard about.

I don't think that's what it means here.

And I think that because it would be

completely out of the context.

William Hendrickson says,

"if it is correct that this word suffering

(incomplete thought)

means physical suffering

or kind of emotional suffering;

if that was correct, Paul would be

introducing an entirely new
thought at this point,

one which he has
said nothing whatever

in the preceding, which
he drops immediately,

and to which he never again alludes

in the remainder of the letter."

I think this word suffering here

simply means,

did you experience so many things in vain?

And it's really in the light
of the rest of the context.

Did you have these miracles?

Did you experience the Spirit?

But the idea here is

if you now go off into a way of the flesh,

all that initial experience was useless.

Now, I want to close this evening

by making two observations.

And when I say close,

I don't mean like right away.

I want to close this evening

by just making two observations.

Stepping back and noticing something

about what we've just studied.

I want you to notice -

and really many commentators
have noticed it -

I want you to notice that

the whole argument that Paul has just

put forward was based on experience.

Paul has not been trying to get

the Galatians to get their experience

back in line with good doctrine.

He has been laboring to get

their doctrine back on track

through the reminder of their experience.

Now we need to think about
that very carefully.

We live in a day and age when

Christians are on one of two poles

when it comes to experience.

Some are addicted to it.

Others are allergic to it.

Some always need a new experience.

They went to a service.
There was holy laughter this week.

Now they teeth turning
into gold the next week.

It's just like drug addicts.
I was one of them.

I know what it was like.

You get high on something one week.

You need more the next week.

There was some good preaching one night.

You need some more awesome preaching

the next night.

There can be this addiction to experience.

At the same time,

there can be others who are

allergic to experience.

They tell us that if you focus on feelings

your experience will lose

your grip on the truth.

If you focus on your feelings,

you will be following,
not the Holy Spirit,

but maybe just what you ate for lunch.

You don't want to focus
on feelings, they say,

and on experience

because the Bible is enough for you.

Don't focus on your experience.

Now there is a grain of truth there.

You cannot lead your Christian life

by day-to-day experience.

But that doesn't mean
there's no experience, beloved.

If we are biblical,

we really can't say that either one

of these poles is right.

In fact, we have to say,

both of these poles are wrong.

Even if some people abuse experience

and abandon the Bible

to follow experience,

we can't play it down

and we can't make less of it,

because it was obviously central

to the lives of these early Christians.

Paul everywhere assumes in Galatians 3:1-5

that no one would say,

I'm not even sure if I
have the Holy Spirit.

Do you know what I'm saying here?

See, these questions,

they assume an experiential Christianity.

When you say to someone,
"When did you receive the Spirit?"

"How did you receive the Spirit?"
And you expect answers back.

You are assuming that the people

you're talking to have experienced

something of the Holy Spirit.

Are there different measures?

Are there different degrees?

Certainly.

But no experience of the
Holy Spirit is not an option.

And we need to think clearly about this.

Because Paul is leading the people

back to good doctrine with a reminder

of their experiences.

In fact, far from being
a danger to doctrine,

I want to say from Galatians 3:1-5

that experiential Christianity -

listen to me, brothers and sisters -

guards and protects
doctrinal Christianity.

Anybody here care about doctrine?

Yeah, the rest of you just
don't want to raise your hands.

You're at the Fellowship Conference.

You care about doctrine.

Anyone here care about doctrine?

Yeah, that's right.

One of the safeguards

to keeping you doctrinally on track

is an experiential relationship

with the Lord Jesus Christ

by the Holy Spirit.

And it's by experience that is

rooted and grounded in the Gospel.

You ought to be saying,

whoa, what happened here?

Why am I so powerless?

Why am I so angry?

Why am I all of a sudden

falling into so much sexual immorality?

Even though I'm doing all kinds

of religious things,

what's going on?

I got off the Gospel.

Yeah, that's what happened.

I was walking in a much different place

when I was just thinking of Jesus Christ

plackarded before me as crucified.

That was a much different time.

Experiential Christianity

guards and preserves

doctrinal Christianity.

It is not its enemy.

This means we should preach

an experiential Christianity.

We should not just hope it blows in

every now and then.

But we should preach

an experiential Christianity.

One of the amazing things -
I don't know how God does this -

but God in many ways,

limits His work according to

the quality of teaching

His people are receiving.

Anybody here grow a lot more

after they receive good teaching?

You didn't just get born again

when you received good teaching,

but the presence of increased measures

of truth in the believer's life

cultivates a maturity.

And so if you don't preach on the reality

of the Holy Spirit,

it is very unlikely that people will know

the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

That's why the apostles preached:

repent and be baptized

every one of you in the
name of the Lord Jesus

for the forgivenss of your sins

and I've got no idea what's
going to happen next.

No, that's not what they preached.

Repent and be baptized

every one of you in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ

for the forgiveness of your sins

and you will receive the Holy Spirit.

When they were threatened in Acts 3

with persecution - and you can pray this

for the church that our brother mentioned.

When they were persecuted in Acts 3,

they prayed, "Lord, look upon the threats

of our enemies,

and grant to your servants

to continue to speak Your Word

with all boldness

while You stretch out Your hand

to heal and signs and
wonders are performed

through the name of
Your holy Servant Jesus.

Beloved, we need to be a people

who preach and pray for

the Holy Spirit through the Gospel.

Ok? Here's my most common
experience of preaching.

My most common experience of preaching

is: Ryan you are 36 or 24 hours away

from preaching.

How do you feel? Terrible.

That's how I feel.

I call my wife:

Honey, it never stops.

Every time I'm supposed to preach,

I just feel like I've got nothing.

No power. No nothing.

What am I going to do?

Jesus Christ is clearly plackarded

in front of me as crucified.

And I'm thinking, if I'm
going to preach well,

there had better be

some perfect devotional
moments before that time.

Right?

But invariably, my best devotional moments

are substandard.

Oh, there are some great times,

but you know, it's nothing to
write home about sometimes.

And so what do you do?

Get up in the pulpit and say,

well, you know, it just
wasn't perfect today.

So, I've got nothing for you.

Or do you say,

here I am one more time, Lord.

All I've got's the Gospel.

Would You put Your Spirit on me again?

And that doesn't just apply to preachers.

You're going into that job you hate.

Lord, I woke up this morning.

I tried to read Your Word.

It was a pretty good morning.
It wasn't perfect.

But you know what,

I'm not going off perfection.

I'm heading into work now,

and if I'm going to be
nice to these people -

not just nice, but exceedingly kind,

forgiving, loving, Christlike, bold,

witnessing...

all I've got is Jesus Christ

publicly displayed in front of me

as crucified.

The Spirit answers to the blood.

The Spirit answers to the blood

and tells me I'm born of God.

You want more of the Spirit?
Go to the Gospel.

Again and again.

Last point.

The experiential Christianity

or the experience of the Spirit

that Mack described on
the Lord Jesus Christ -

and who doesn't want more of that?

- really was meant to be yours.

If anyone believes in My name,

He will do the works that I do.

Now just stop the verse there.

Don't finish it.

That by itself is unbelievable.

The words He spoke.

Words that pierced to the heart

of the most difficult, naughty situations.

The foot washing He did.

Serving.

If ever there was a time
when it would be ok -

it wouldn't be ok -

but it would be understandable

for a man to go into
a corner and sulk.

He's about to experience the wrath of God.

Our Lord is washing feet.

The miracles He did.

If anyone believes in My name,

he will do the works that I did.

And then unfathomably,

Jesus adds,

greater works than these will he do.

Why? There's a reason why.

Because I am going to the Father.

What difference does it make that

You go to the Father?

He pours out the Spirit on His people

when He goes to the Father.

The reality that Mack talked about

in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ

is meant in measure to be ours.

And it comes initially and continually

through the message Kevin preached.

But through the Gospel

of simple trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Putting your faith in the One

Who had the Spirit

without measure

is what imparts to you

the Spirit that He had.

And so beloved,

I would encourage you

before you read your Bible next time;

before you try to be nice to your brothers

and your sisters;

before you try to preach;

before you try to be exemplary at work,

ask the Lord God to remind you

of what was publicly portrayed

in front of you in Christ crucified

and to give you the Holy Spirit.

It is the only way to pursue perfection.

It is the only way to pursue

more Christlikeness in your life.

Let's pray.

Father, we come before You,

and we want to pray through the night,

fast, seek You, witness with boldness,

see angels all around
us when we're scared.

But these things do not come

to a different kind of man

or a different kind of woman.

They come to those who continually

place themselves under

the foot of the Lord Jesus Christ

and trust His Gospel.

So, Lord, make us strong in the Spirit

by continually weakening us

and placing us under the cross.

We pray this in Jesus' name,

Amen.