Oh Lord, take the cobwebs out of our lives. Remove
the cobwebs, Lord. Finally, another fellow in
the prayer meeting cried out, Lord, don't do
it. Just kill the spider. Well, you see, he wanted
to get past the consequences to get to the cause.
Look beyond the fruit to the root of the problem.
And that is the aim of the series that we are...
as we talk about the flesh and the Spirit. Open
your Bible, please, to Galatians 5, verses 16
and 17. We want to get to the cause of the sinful
expressions in our lives, which is our enemy,
the flesh. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and
you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh. For these are
in opposition to one another, so that you may
not do the things that you please. How can we
deal with the flesh? How can we keep ourselves
from its domination? God has made provision for
the believer to know freedom from fleshly living.
God has made that provision for us. The basis
of our freedom in Jesus Christ is our identification
with Him. Let me review with you briefly what
we talked about last week. There is a pair of
truths that cannot be separated and dare not
be ignored. Truth number one, Christ died and
rose again in my place. Truth number two, I died
and rose again in Christ. Truth one states that
in Christ's death and resurrection, He represented
me and you. That He identified with us, and the
result of that is salvation. But truth number
two is that in Jesus Christ's death and resurrection,
I died also. When I believed in Him, I was united
with Him. in death, burial, and resurrection
so that I died, was buried, and was raised again
in Christ. And the result of that truth is my
sanctification. I died to sin in Jesus Christ.
The old man's execution ended sin's mastery.
And I rose with Christ from the dead as a new
man to walk in newness of life. The basis of
our freedom is our identification with Jesus
Christ. The power for our freedom is found in
the truth of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
We know the facts about our identification with
Christ, but how are we able to get those facts
into our lives so that they're working? What
is the power to make that a reality? It is...
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. For the Holy
Spirit in coming into me created the new man,
the new me, the spiritual essential I that now
am. I am now indivisibly joined to the Holy Spirit.
The new man that I am indeed could not exist
apart from the Holy Spirit. He has come within
me and has brought with Him a new life principle.
that raises me above the old principle that controlled
my life and which is still in me, the principle
of sin and death. Now there is the principle
of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus because
of the Holy Spirit's presence. And he is in me
to teach me how to appropriate the saving work
of Jesus Christ so that I may be saved not only
from the guilt of my sins, but from its power
and dominion as well. Furthermore, He empowers
me in dealing with the flesh, that leftover sinful
pattern of actions and attitudes. He manifests
the very life of Jesus Christ through me. When
the Holy Spirit is grieved, when He is quenched,
this power cannot be experienced in my life.
It is only when He is free to release it. that
I am able to experience the power of Jesus Christ
and His life. That brings us to our subject for
today, which is the experience of our freedom.
How are we able then to bring into our experience
what we know and what the Holy Spirit is in us
to do? I believe the answer to that lies in the
instruction that we have from the Word of God.
For the Bible gives us instruction in how to
deal with the flesh and how to appropriate the
power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As we
obey these instructions, we will experience the
freedom that God has provided. And so this morning,
in the balance of our time, I'd like for us first
to look at what the Bible instructs us regarding
the flesh. We're going to look at four passages
of Scripture. These are not four mutually exclusive
commands that we will see. Indeed, they certainly
interrelate. They're all very similar in their
meaning. Let's look first to see what the Bible
instructs us to do regarding the flesh. The first
passage is in Romans chapter 6. And we'll read
verses 11, 12, and 13. Even so, consider yourselves
to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ
Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your
mortal body that you should obey its lusts. And
do not go on presenting the members of your body
to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but
present yourselves to God as those alive from
the dead. and your members as instruments of
righteousness to God. There are really two commands
that we see here that we want to focus on today.
The first one is consider yourself dead to sin.
He says that is the members of your body. What
is he talking about? He's talking about the propensities,
the appetites, the faculties, the powers, the
potential that we have in our lives. He says
that we are to consider ourselves to be dead
to sin as it would seek to use these to express
itself. We are to count on the fact that we have
died with Jesus Christ to sin. We are to rely
on that truth. We are to reckon it to be true
in our experience. That what happened to us the
moment we were saved, we were united with Christ
in His death, that that has freed us from mastery
to sin. so that now we may consider ourselves
dead to it. In the old days when a man had a
slave, that slave had to obey him as long as
he was alive. Don't you know why many of the
slaves in their songs focused on the future,
on heaven, on the glory that was to come? And
many of them had genuine faith in Jesus Christ.
Why was that? Because they knew that death would
bring the end of that mastery. They would be
set free. And so it is with sin. When we died
with Jesus Christ, we were set free from it,
and we need to consider ourselves dead to sin.
Because Christ died to sin, and because you died
with Jesus Christ, you may now turn your back
on sin and refuse anymore to be associated with
the sinful way of life that you once pursued.
Although sin is still present in you and sin
still does seek to enforce its desires on you,
no question about that, you nonetheless do not
have to submit to it. You may consider yourself
dead to sin. God says so. But it's not enough
to take that action. There's a joint action,
a twin action, a more positive action that we
need to take, and that is found in verse 13.
when he says, present yourselves alive to God.
Because Jesus Christ is alive to God, you are
also alive to God with him. You cannot leave
yourself buried in some neutral position, having
died to sin, but that's all. Now you must go
on and present yourself as one who is alive from
the dead to God. The word present here means
to take a decisive action to do it. to break
with the past action. That's obvious. He says
don't go on presenting yourselves to sin, but
take this decisive action and present yourselves,
all of your capacities, all of your potential,
all of your abilities, that is the members of
your body. Present those to God. The word present
means to lay beside. It is a word that was used
technically of bringing an offering to the altar.
They would put the offering there beside the
altar, give it to God. It's the same word used
in Romans 12 .1 when he says, present your bodies
a living sacrifice. He says that we are to bring
all that we are, all of our capacities, all the
members of us, and we are to lay them at the
altar before God, take that decisive action.
You say, does that then end the struggle with
sin? I could wish it did, but no, it does not.
What that action does is to set the flag. It's
sort of like staking your claim. It's saying,
this is the action I take once and for all. And
then later on when sin comes to try to get you
to use your members for its desires, you say
to sin, look over there, do you see the flag?
I have presented myself to God and my members
to him as instruments of righteousness. I do
not have to obey you, and I choose not to obey
you. In this text, we are pictured as slaves.
As slaves that have been set free from one master,
sin, and given to a new master, Jesus Christ.
We have a new master to obey. Therefore, we are
to consider ourselves dead to the old one and
present ourselves to our new Lord, our new Master,
as His instruments. Turn over a page or two to
Romans 8 and we come to a second text, verses
12 and 13. If in the first place we were pictured
as slaves, it seems to me here we are pictured
as stewards, those who have an obligation to
carry out on behalf of their master. It says,
So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not
to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
You notice the dash there that may be in your
translation? Paul, as he often does, just drops
his original statement there and goes on to say
something else. But there is something we need
to understand here. He is inferring that we are
not under obligation to the flesh, but we are
under obligation to whom? To the Holy Spirit
in the context. He says, if you're living according
to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit
you are putting to death the deeds of the body,
you will live. The deeds of the body is roughly
synonymous with the flesh. And so he is telling
us here, put to death the deeds of the body.
That's the second command. This has a parallel
passage, and I want you to just turn there quickly
to Colossians chapter 3. Keep your finger in
Romans. But look at what Paul says in Colossians,
in the third chapter in the fifth verse. After
once again in the previous verses reminding us
of our identity in Jesus Christ, that we've died
with Him, we've been buried with Him, we are
alive with Him, and someday we'll be revealed
with Him. He says in verse 5, Therefore, because
of this truth, consider the members of your earthly
body as dead. Literally, the Greek says, put
to death your members on earth to immorality
and impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed,
which amounts to idolatry. For it is on account
of these things that the wrath of God will come,
and in them you also once walked when you were
living in them. But now you also put them all
aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive
speech from your mouth. And do not lie to one
another. What is he doing? Well, he's simply
going down another list of the works of the flesh
or the deeds of the body, the expressions that
sin seeks to bring about in our lives. And he
says, put these things to death. Execute them.
Don't allow them to rule over you. Now, why does
he say to do this? He says, since you laid aside
the old self, with its evil practices, that is
the old man, and have put on the new self who
is being renewed to a true knowledge according
to the image of the one who created him. So he
says, look, you have put off the old man, you
have put on the new man, therefore don't live
like the old man anymore. Put to death those
things. Mortify them. Consider them dead. So
that you do not respond to sin as it seeks to
express itself through your flesh. You say, that's
pretty hard to do. There's only one way that
you and I can do that. That is by recognizing
what we have already talked about in Romans 6,
and then taking this action, as he says in Romans
8 now, going back to verse 13, taking this action
by the Spirit. by the Spirit. You and I will
not be able to put to death the expressions of
sin in us by the strength of our own resolve
because somewhere down the road we're going to
wear out. We're not going to have what it takes
to enforce what we would like to do. But if we
are depending upon the Holy Spirit, then it's
another matter. For by the Spirit we are able
to continuously do this. When we don't depend
upon the Holy Spirit, then we will fall. And
we will talk more about that in just a moment.
It seems to me that what he's saying here is
similar to what he said in Galatians 5, 24, when
he said, those who are Jesus Christ's have crucified
the flesh with his passions and lusts. It's pointing
back to some one event, it seems, by the verb.
Those who are Jesus Christ have crucified the
flesh. When did that happen? The best answer
seems to be at the point that you trusted the
Lord Jesus. Notice it was not something that
was done to you. Now that's in distinction to
what happened in Romans 6 .6 where we were buried
with Christ. It happened to us. It was passive.
Even Galatians 2 .20 says, I was crucified with
Christ. That's passive. That happened to me.
But in Galatians 5 .24, he says, you crucified
the flesh. I took an active part in that. When
was that? It seems that it was when I understood
my sinfulness and repented before God. There
was a sense at that moment when I took the flesh,
that old pattern of life, and I took nails out
and I hammered it to the cross and crucified
it. Was crucifixion an instantaneous death? No,
it was not. It was an agonizing death that sometimes,
depending upon how it was done, could last even
into two... maybe even three days. The flesh
has been crucified, nailed to the cross, but
it isn't dead yet. It's still there. You have
to deal with it. You know, where we get into
trouble is when we go back to that place of crucifixion
and we begin to finger the nails and almost wish
that we could pull the flesh off the cross. That's
when we get in trouble with it. What we need
to do is take the flesh back to the cross and
say, there is where you are. There is where I
placed you. I crucified you with all of your
affections, all of your passions, all of your
lusts. There you are. Now die in my experience.
Only by the Spirit are we able to consistently
do that. We are stewards. We have an obligation
to fulfill. It is an obligation to the Holy Spirit
who lives within us. It is to obey Him and not
our flesh. Turn over a few pages to Romans chapter
13 where we have some more thoughts. If in Romans
6 we were slaves, and if in Romans 8 we were
stewards, in Romans 13... We are pictured as
soldiers. Notice what he says in verse 11. And
this do, knowing the time that it is already
the hour for you to awaken from sleep. What kind
of sleep is he talking about? He's talking about
lethargy, indifference, sleepiness towards sin
in our lives. That's what he's talking about.
He's saying, wake up from that. It's time to
awaken from sleep, for now salvation is nearer
to us than when we believed. That is, Jesus'
coming is soon. The night is almost gone, the
day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the
deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Let us behave properly as in the day, not in
carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity
and sensuality. Not in strife and jealousy, but
put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision
for the flesh in regard to its lusts. He says
here that we are to put on the armor of light.
We are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Two phrases
that roughly mean the same thing. The idea is
that we are to appropriate what we have in Christ.
We are to conduct ourselves in the light of what
Jesus Christ has done for us and what we are
in Him. But then regarding the flesh, he says,
make no provision for the flesh. In other words,
take no forethought to plan how you can fulfill
what the flesh wants to do. Do you ever find
yourself scheming? Scheming as to how you can
fulfill what the flesh wants you to do? I think
all of us have experienced that. We make provision
for it. We take forethought as to how we might
be able to do what the flesh is tempting us to
do. What we are told here is, as a habit of life,
just cut off the flesh. Don't listen to it. Don't
scheme to fulfill what it wants you to do. Don't
pamper it. Deal with it immediately. Don't make
any excuses for it. Don't try to cover it up.
Just drag it out into the light of God's holiness
and look at it and repudiate it. And don't make
provision to fulfill it in your life. That's
something that we have to do immediately. We
cannot play around with temptation. We can't
dwell on it and think about it and let it be
a toss -up in our lives as to whether we're going
to do it or not do it. When we sense the first
approach of temptation, what we need to do immediately
is put up that armor. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ
and turn our way from the flesh. and make no
provision to fulfill it now or later. Now there's
a third passage, or rather a fourth passage,
that we want to look at quickly. We are soldiers.
We have a duty to discharge, according to Romans
13. As we come to 1 Peter 2, we see ourselves
put into the role of strangers. In verse 11 he
says, Beloved, beloved, I urge you as aliens
and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which
wage war against the soul. As strangers, those
who are here on a temporary sojourn, he says
that we are to hold ourselves away from The lusts
of the flesh. We're to keep clear of them. We
are to avoid the place of temptation. Abstain.
Hold yourself away from fleshly lusts. Don't
get near it. Have you ever had the experiences
I have when in your mind you rationalized, well,
you know, maybe I need to test myself to see
if I really would do this. And so we began to
flirt and not abstain. There may be certain television
programs that you simply cannot watch. I would
rather think that would be true. Perhaps there
are certain radio programs or certain DJs, certain
stations that you have to stay away from to abstain
from the flesh. It may be there are some magazines
that you cannot be around or some movies that
you dare not go to to abstain from the flesh.
There are some videos that you're going to have
to burn. Some music that you cannot listen to
any longer. Some jokes that you're going to have
to eschew and shun. Maybe even some friendships
that you're going to have to lay aside. Some
situations that you cannot any longer get involved
in because of your desire now to abstain from
the flesh. That's what he's saying. Hold yourself
away from it. Don't get near it. Avoid the place
of temptation. If you and I are serious about
dealing with the flesh, then we have to look
seriously at what God's Word commands us to do.
We are strangers. We have a detachment to maintain
in this life toward some things. You see, thus
the Word of God instructs us how to deal with
the flesh. Where are we to find the renewed mind,
heart, and will? Where are we to find the power
to carry out these instructions that God gives
us? Well, as I've already suggested, it is found
in the person of the Holy Spirit. I'd like for
us now to turn to what the Word of God instructs
us regarding the Holy Spirit. To do that, we're
going to turn to one chapter only, and that is
Galatians chapter 5. For I believe that here
we see, in a sense, a summary of our relationship
to the Holy Spirit. There are three ideas in
Galatians 5 that seem to summarize our relationship
to the Spirit of God. In verse 25, we have this
statement, if we live by the Spirit. Now, the
word if there should be since. It is a first
-class conditional. It simply means that here
is something that is true. It's not doubted.
He says, since we live by the Spirit. He's talking
to Christians. The first statement is this. The
first idea might be put this way. We are living
by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the spirit
of life in Christ Jesus. At some point in our
past, if we are today saved, he regenerated us
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy
Spirit brought life to us in the deadness of
our sins so that we have been born again. We
are alive in Christ. We are living by the Holy
Spirit. In verse 18, we see a second statement.
He says, but if you are led by the Spirit. And
once again, the if should be since. It's not
a doubt. He says, but since you are led, you
are being led by the Spirit. So the second idea
that we see regarding our relationship to the
Holy Spirit is that we are being led by the Spirit.
That is the same thing Paul said in Romans 8,
14. If you're led by the Spirit of God, you're
the sons of God. Notice that this is passive.
The Holy Spirit does the leading. We are the
ones being led. He is the leader. We are the
leadees, I guess you would say. It's passive,
you see. This word being led is used of a farmer
leading his cattle. It is used of a shepherd
leading his sheep. It is used of soldiers who
are escorting prisoners to their place of incarceration.
It is used of the wind driving or leading a ship
along. It's a very picturesque word. The Spirit
of God is leading us in life. What a blessed
truth that is. He is not leading the world. but
he is leading the sons of God to glory. This
word is also used of Satan leading men astray.
That is who is leading the unsaved. 1 Corinthians
12, 2, it speaks of Satan using idols to lead
men away from God. This word is used of the Holy
Spirit leading Jesus Christ into the wilderness
for the temptation. Luke 4, verses 1 and 2. Just
as the Holy Spirit led the Lord Jesus Christ,
my friend, the Holy Spirit leads you as a child
of God. We have another word. This one is found
in verses 16 and 25. This idea is that we walk
by the Spirit. Verse 16, but I say walk by the
Spirit. Verse 25, if we live by the Spirit, let
us also walk by the Spirit. So the third idea
that we see in this chapter is that we must walk
by the Spirit. We are living by the Spirit. We
are being led by the Spirit. Now he says, let's
walk by the Spirit. Notice this is active, not
passive. This is my response. It's your response
to the leading of the Spirit of the Lord. It
is a mistake to think that all we have to do
is lay back and be passive, and God does it all.
It is true that He takes the initiative, He does
the leading, but we are responsible to respond
to Him and to walk by the Spirit. Actually, the
words walk in these two verses are different
words in the original. The first one is a very
common word, to walk about or to walk around.
It metaphorically means to conduct oneself. The
second one, verse 25, though, means to stand
in a row or to walk in a straight line. It was
a military kind of term, soldiers being in line
together. Metaphorically, it too means to behave
properly. But it's a suggestive word that means
that we are to walk as the Holy Spirit lays down
the line. The Holy Spirit directs the paths.
He says, here is the way, and you and I then
walk carefully in the way that he lays down before
us. We must cast ourselves upon him. Don't you
understand that when you walk, that's what you
do? As you walk, you are throwing your weight.
You're throwing your weight and catching yourself,
and you throw and catch. And as you learn to
do that, you make progress. And you see, when
you and I walk by the Spirit, what we are really
doing is throwing ourselves on the Holy Spirit.
He catches us. When we throw ourselves upon Him,
He catches us. And in that way, we make progress
in the Christian life. The word walk has to do
with reliance upon Him. And you know it becomes
a natural act after a while. You don't have to
think about walking when you get up to leave
today. It's a very natural thing with you, but
it wasn't a few years ago when you learned how.
You had to think about it. And so it is when
walking by the Spirit. At first it requires discipline.
At first you put forth effort to think, I must
now depend upon the Holy Spirit. I must trust
Him. But then as you begin to do that more and
more, it becomes easier to do. It becomes such
a natural act. You don't have to think about
it. To summarize and to focus these two instructions
from the Word of God, let me read to you a paragraph
from John Stott. He says, As therefore we crucify
the flesh, repudiating what we know to be wrong,
so too we must walk by the Spirit, setting ourselves
to follow what we know to be right. We reject
one path to follow another. We turn from what
is evil in order to occupy ourselves with what
is good. And if it is vital to be ruthless in
turning away from the things of the flesh, it
is equally vital to be disciplined in turning
toward the things of the Spirit of God. These
are the instructions that the Word of God gives
us regarding the flesh and the spirit. If you
today want to experience the freedom that God
has provided for you and what Christian would
say, I do not, then my friend, the way to experience
it is by following the instructions of the Word.
Are you today following those? Are you dealing
with the flesh? You know, it is a terrible thing.
to be a Christian, and to live a lie, to live
a life that is contradictory to what one really
is, to be carnal, that is. The personal consequences
can be tragic. There's even more tragic results.
Martin Lloyd -Jones points this out when he says,
the most terrible aspect of falling into sin
is not so much that I have failed, or that I
have fallen, or that I am miserable, or that
I need release, but that I have failed God and
misrepresented Him, and that men and women in
the world will know nothing about His praise,
His glory, His virtues, His excellences. They
will say that to be a Christian makes no difference.
Christians are like themselves after all. They
will ask, where is the difference? And so they
dismiss Christianity and Christ. You see, my
friend, that is the greatest tragedy of carnal
living, of walking according to the flesh. Is
the flesh dominating you today? What will you
do about that? Are you walking by the Spirit?
Do you know the reality of His power in your
life? I think that is the more poignant question,
really. What is your relationship to the Holy
Spirit? One thing I can guarantee you, that if
you do not walk according to the Spirit, then
you will fulfill the lusts of your flesh. For
they both seek to dominate you, and one of them
will. One of them will. But which one dominates
you is your choice. Which will it be? Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, I pray today that we who know
and love the Lord Jesus Christ would learn more
and more what it means to walk by the Spirit.
Father, there are some of your children who are
here today who, examining their lives, are at
a point of... despair, and brokenness and repentance.
I pray that right now you would put your arms
around those children of yours and show them
the way. Teach them to begin to take some steps
to walk in the Spirit and to apply the Word of
God and its instructions to their lives. Lord,
all of us need that. My prayer would also be,
Father, for those of your children who are here
and have no real consciousness of the struggle
within them and no awareness of the flesh's domination.
How sad. I pray that whatever is causing that
lack of awareness, that insensitivity, that sleepiness
to sin, You would dispel that and awaken them,
for the night is almost gone and the day is at
hand. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed,
and as we bring this service to its climax, I
wonder, I wonder, my friend, if you are willing
to say something to God this morning. I know
that you cannot say that you will live your life
perfectly from here on. None of us. None of us
can. But you can say to God, Lord, I have lived
in a fleshly manner to this point too often.
And I want to turn from that. I want to learn
what it is to walk by the Spirit of God, to know
the reality of the power of God in my life. While
I can't make promises to be perfect, Lord, today
I will promise you to begin learning and seeking
out in my life how to apply these instructions
from your word that we've looked at today. I
wonder if right now where you are, you would
just simply make that indication to God by your
silent prayer and by standing to your feet. We
will not have a come -forward kind of invitation.
I wonder if you will respond to the Spirit of
God today by simply standing and saying, Lord,
no promises to be perfect. I know you don't expect
that. But I do promise to begin learning what
it means to walk by the Spirit. I've walked in
the flesh too long, too much. If you let God
have his way as we simply sit here in silence
for a few seconds. Father in heaven, you know
our hearts and we cannot hide from you. Have
your way now in the lives of these who are standing,
many of them in brokenness, all of them in sincerity
of heart. And I pray, bring to reality the aspirations
for holiness which they desire. Let's all stand
together now, please, with our heads bowed, and
let's just sing this chorus a cappella. Channels
only, blessed Master, but with all thy wondrous
power, flowing through us thou canst use. every
day and every hour. Lord, cleanse us as your
channels and make us wide open vessels that are
able to bring the life of Jesus Christ to those
around us. And perfect in us, I pray, those holy
desires that you have when you said, Be ye holy,
for I am holy. In Jesus' name and for his glory
we pray this. Amen.