Good morning. Let's go to Galatians. Galatians chapter 5, verses 16-18. To this point in Paul's letter
to the Galatians, he is making it known to us, whether we are
reading it, hearing it, hearing it preached, He's making known
to us that we cannot, by this flesh, we cannot make ourselves
righteous. We're not going to justify ourselves
by our works, nor are we going to sanctify ourselves by our
works in this flesh, or by this flesh. Salvation, the Lord teaches
us, is not determined by the things that we do or don't do. Paul in the next chapter in Galatians
6 verse 15 said, For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth
anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. A new creature. It's not whether
you're circumcised or not circumcised. It's not whether you're doing
works of righteousness or not doing works of righteousness
or avoiding sins. That's not what justifies you.
That's not what sanctifies you. A new creature. The work of the
Lord Jesus Christ is what justifies you. He's the one who makes his
child righteous. He is our sanctification. He is our very sanctification. Nicodemus, our Lord said, ye
must be born again. You must be a new creature. You're
religious, Nicodemus. You do all these things according
to the law, but you're not righteous, Nicodemus. You're not justified. You're not sanctifying yourself.
You need to be born again. You must have a work of the Creator
wrought in you, giving you the new creation, making you a new
creature. And so this is what Christ, by
His grace and power, this is what He does for His children. This is what He works in them.
He makes them new creatures through spiritual regeneration. We're
spiritually dead in Adam. that died, and the day you eat
of that fruit, Adam, you shall surely die. And Adam died spiritually,
and all his seed, every one of us in him, became corrupt and
defiled and ruined in sin, and come forth spiritually dead sinners,
just like Adam. And so it's Christ that makes
us new creatures. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. and he removes those old things,
that confidence, that self-righteousness, that enmity against God whereby
we try to establish our own righteousness by the things we do, that gets
laid aside because now we see Christ and we're given faith
to look to him and to trust him and to believe him and to meet
with our God in peace. and comfort and assurance in
and established upon the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the one who does it. And so believers, we hear this
truth. God makes it so that we hear
it. We're called by the gospel and the spirit makes it effectual
to our hearts so that we receive that word and rejoice in it,
in the new man, in the new man. We rejoice in what our savior
has done for us. And so the question is, if Christ
has done this for me, why do I yet struggle? Why do I yet
feel the temptation? Why do I yet feel the presence
of sin in my members? My flesh, the things I do with
my hands and where I go with my feet, the things I think in
my heart and in my mind, the things I say, or at least think,
The things I think to do, whether I do them or not, just why do
I see this corruption yet in my members, in my flesh? Why is this so if I am a new
creature in Christ? When Rebecca had conceived a
child in her womb, because her husband who loved her prayed
because she wasn't conceiving a child and her husband Isaac
prayed for her to the Lord and she conceived a child in her
womb and it was a time of rejoicing she had a child finally she knew
she was carrying a child and yet there was this war going
on within her at this joyful time this wonderful time that
she was bearing life in her womb And she was troubled because
there was this commotion, this war, this struggle going on within
her. It says the children in Genesis
25, 22. It said the children struggled within her. And she
said, if it be so, if I'm carrying a child, I don't know that she
knew she had twins at the time, but she said, if I'm blessed
now to carry a child, why am I thus? How is this this way? Why is it so, this war going
on in me? And she went to inquire of the
Lord. Isn't that your cry, believer?
Isn't that your cry? Aren't you troubled by the war
going on in you? If I'm born again, why am I thus? And by the grace of God, you
go to your God to inquire of Him. You pray to Him. You confess
your sin and your trouble to Him and pray, Lord, have mercy
on me. Lord, keep my wandering heart. Lord, save me. So this is the
living soul's great trouble. But there is a great relief. There is a great relief which
the Father has provided for you, child of God, in His Son Jesus
Christ. The Lord doesn't leave His child
without a witness. He makes it known in His Word
that within every child of God there are two natures, warring
against one another. There's two natures. There remains
in us this old, this old nature of flesh, this old Adamic nature
of flesh. And there is now born in us,
wrought in us, not by our works, but by Christ, a new righteous
nature, born, created, made of the Lord Jesus Christ in us.
And these two are at war with each other. They are contrary
to one another. They don't love the same things.
They don't share in the same things. They're at war. They're
in a constant war and struggle with one another. Now, the issue
for the Galatians is that they were being turned to the flesh
by going back to the law to fix this, to write this, to help
them in this struggle, this war going on, to accomplish by the
law what only the new nature of Christ can accomplish in us. And so they went back to the
flesh by going back to the law. They were turning to the flesh
in turning to the law and so that's what Paul is addressing
in this letter and that's what Paul is addressing in these verses
16 through 18. The thing to understand here
is that Paul links the lust of the flesh, he links it to being
under the law. The lust of the flesh is that
fallen nature of Adam, which we still are in, this fallen
nature of Adam. And being under the law is still,
we're still in this fallen nature of Adam. We're still working
by the flesh, but with a religious flair to it, a little religion
mixed in. So this lust of the flesh is
what we are in Adam, and going back to the law is what we are
in Adam, but now with some religion sprinkled on it. Just worked
in there, a little religion. Our Lord said it this way in
John 3, 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that
which is born of the spirit is spirit. And so Paul makes it
very clear when he says in verse 18, Galatians 5, 18, if ye be
led of the spirit, ye are not under the law. If you're led
of the Spirit, you're not under the law. That's not your rule
of life. Christ is our rule. Christ is
our all. He's all our salvation. And I'll
even quote this from Galatians 3 verse 12, because the law is
not of faith, but he that doeth the law. shall live in him. He better do it nonstop, perfectly,
without failure, because that's his righteousness. And the law
is not a faith, it's a doing. You better do it, and you better
do it perfectly, is what the law says. So the man that doeth
them shall live in them. So I've titled this The Living
Soul's Great Relief. The living soul's great relief.
We know what the trouble is. We want to hear about the relief.
So let's read this whole text in verse 16 through 18 of Galatians
5. This I say then, walk in the
Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the
flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.
And these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot
do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit,
know this, understand this, you're not under the law. He's saying that because that's
exactly what the Galatians were doing. They were going back under
the law. Now first, only a regenerated
person can walk by the Spirit. So we're talking about believers
here. We're talking about believers. This is to us, whose hope is
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is written to us. But regeneration,
does not change this flesh. Regeneration doesn't change this
flesh. My fleshly nature is not right
now, it's not changed. And regeneration doesn't improve
this flesh, doesn't reform this flesh and make it better. This
flesh is still unimproved unchanged. It's still corrupt. It's still
evil and vile and full of sin. Now I know that in religion there
are many who do boast of their progressive sanctification. And what that boils down to is
I am holier today than I was yesterday by the things I'm practicing
and focusing on in the law and working on myself. I'm a little
better today than I was yesterday. That type of speech doesn't give
glory to God. It focuses on the creature, and
it's boasting of the creature, and it talks about what we do,
and what we've done for the Lord. And John wrote in 1 John 1.8,
he said, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
we're lying to ourselves, and the truth is not in us. We are
sinners. I'm as much of a sinner now as
I was. before I believed. I'm a sinner saved by grace. I'm not making excuses, and I'm
not trying to give myself a cloak for unrighteousness, to hide
behind this and give myself an excuse and to make it acceptable
that I sin. I'm not saying, well, that's
why Christ died, so I can go and sin. Not at all. We don't
talk like that. That's not what the Spirit teaches
us to say. Our hope is in Christ. I don't
want to sin. I don't want to do those things
that betray the very hope I have in the Lord Jesus Christ that
are contrary to that, that weigh me down, beset me with sin, and
just keep me down. I don't want to do those things.
The Spirit doesn't give us that. But the Scriptures do teach that
the Lord grows us in grace but grow in the grace and knowledge
of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," Peter wrote. grow so the Lord does grow us
in grace we learn of him doesn't he he he as we read his word
and he blesses that word to our understanding as we come and
are gathered together to hear the word preached it's for our
good the Lord's instructing us so that we see him he proves
our faith through trials showing himself to be faithful to us
over and over again our love for him deepens as we see his
love and patience and kindness and forgiveness toward us. The
more we see of Christ and what he's done for us, we do love
him. And we are more committed. I
see it right here. And you that are gathered here,
we see that commitment because the Lord has taught you and shown
you the preciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing
more important to you. There's nothing more blessed
to you because the Spirit has given that to you. He's taught
you. He's taught you and gathered you here for that very word. We are matured by the Lord and
we give Him all the thanks for that. We do grow in His grace. And while my outward acts of
sin may be constrained and hidden more and more, right? Because
we do learn, I shouldn't say those things. No, I should not
do those things. That's folly. I don't want to
do that. And so my outward sins are constrained,
but I still know that in me dwells no good thing in this flesh.
In my heart, in my mind, I'm still a vile, wretched sinner
in need of the grace of God always. I never outgrow the need for
my Savior, Jesus Christ. I feel my sin worse now than
when I first believed because I see more and more the deceitfulness
of sin and how crafty, how tricky, how deceitful I am. and the things
I'll do to try and give myself some means of committing some
lust of the flesh, whatever it is. I see it though, and so I
see, wow, I didn't know what a sinner I really was and how
much I need the Lord Jesus Christ now. So we see him more and more. Now turn over to Romans 7, because
Paul speaks to this in Romans 7, and we'll pick up in verse
18. I read down to verse 25. This is Paul's confession as
a believer, as an apostle, called of Christ to preach this gospel
to others, to trace it out for us, for our good, our help, and
our edification. And so this is Paul's confession,
but if we're honest, it's my confession too. Paul says in
verse 18, for I know that in me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth. No good thing. For to will is
present with me. I'm a new creature in Christ.
I want to be perfect in Christ and walking him perfectly always. But how to perform that which
is good, I find not. I can't change my old nature.
For the good that I would do, that I would, I do not. But the
evil which I would not, that I do. Now, if I do that, I would
not. It is no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me. There's this law of sin still
present in me. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the
law of God after the inward man, after that creation which Christ
has made in me. But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members. It's still present
there. I can't shake it. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. And that law of God that Paul
speaks of there is the law of faith. the law of liberty, the
law of the spirit, that I am delivered from the punishment
and death that I deserved and my sins, and I live in Christ. But presently, I still see that
law of sin in my members. I still see that when I would
do good, evil is right there. That old man, that old flesh
is right there with me, troubling me, seeking to oppose that which
I would do in the new man, in Christ. And so we see this corruption
in us, but we love the Lord Jesus Christ who loved me and gave
himself for me. And we love him. And our hope
is fixed in him. The Lord puts our hope not in
what we're doing or not doing in this flesh, but our hope is
fixed yet in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that isn't taken away. We're not turned again to the
law to try and fix it. we are turned to Christ and that's
grace. That's grace that turns us back
to Christ and keeps us looking to him. So Paul wrote in verse
17, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of
the flesh. And the truth of that means,
and it's purity there, it means that anyone walking in the spirit,
when you're in the spirit and you're walking in the spirit,
you cannot fulfill the lusts of the flesh, is what he's saying
there. But he that's in the spirit is
not going to fulfill, since that law is still present with us,
he that's in the spirit is not going to fulfill that which the
flesh would do to its end. which would bring us to complete
destruction and ruin eternally. That's what the flesh would do.
It would keep us ever rebelling against God and having no part
in him and seeking a refuge from him as Adam and Eve sought to
do. The spirit does not allow that to happen so that we can't
fulfill the lust of the flesh. We can't go to its full end. of utter destruction and being
eternally separated from our God. And so Paul declares, walk
in the Spirit, and that's understood by faith in the new man. Walk
in the Spirit, look to Christ, trust Him. You keep looking to
Christ, believing Him. But don't make the mistake of
turning to the law. Don't think that you're going
to turn to the flesh by the works of the law to fix this and to
rid yourself of that law of sin in your members. It's not going
to happen because the law is not of faith. And so anyone who
tries to oppose the flesh, the law of the flesh in my members
by the law of Moses, he's telling us you're walking by the flesh. You're still walking by the flesh,
but you just have a little religion sprinkled into it. And that's
not fooling God. God's not mocked. He's not going
to be mocked. You sow to the flesh, you're
going to reap of the flesh. And it's going to stir up that
enmity and rebellion in us. And it certainly isn't going
to put our eyes on Christ. but it's gonna put our eyes on the
flesh unless the spirit says, what are you doing? Like you're
looking at the law and you should be looking at Christ. Go and
inquire of him, not to Moses. You're the epistle of Christ,
not Moses' epistle. You're Christ's epistle. You
walk in the spirit. So Paul tells us that walking
in the spirit is contrary to the flesh. If ye be led of the
spirit, you're not under the law. Now, let's look at verse
17 here. Paul says in verse 17, for the
flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.
And these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot
do the things that ye would. Now, this is where he's explaining
the principle of walking in the spirit, which opposes the flesh. This is where he's explaining
this principle, this truth here. These two natures are like opposing
armies. They're at war against one another,
so that the one cannot do what the one would do, and the other
one can't do it either. They're not to the degree that
they would do it. And so, by the Spirit, we're
not going to fulfill, not going to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. We're not going to be brought
to utter destruction and be destroyed and find our lasting habitation
in hell. That's what the flesh would do.
But we do see this, that my prayers, if we're being honest, my prayers
are full of distraction. My love is still yet cold. My service still involves pride. I still see self in my worship. I still see the failings of the
members of my flesh. Every one of us knows that this
very day we've all sinned. We've all walked in here with
some sin, some wicked thoughts, some foolish ideas, some judgment
of another. We're all just full of sin. And
it's always there present with us, even though in the new man,
we love one another. We love our Lord. We cannot sin. As 1 John 3, 9 says, he that's
born as the seed of Christ, that new man cannot sin, period. That which is born of the Spirit
cannot sin, cannot not believe. All we can do is believe and
trust the Lord. And yet even in my faith, there's unbelief
and there's doubt. There's worry and fears, even
as in the new man believing the Lord. And so we want to pray,
we want to serve, we want to worship the Lord, we want to
believe Him fully, completely, without any stain, without any
scent of the corruption and wretchedness of sin in us, but this flesh
is contrary to the Spirit, so that I cannot do the things that
I would, as Paul said. cannot do them without this law
of sin being present in my members." That's what he means. So with
that being said, we still thank, by the grace of God, we thank
our God through the Lord Jesus Christ for his spirit because
His Spirit keeps me from fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. He's
the one that keeps me. He's the one that doesn't turn
me loose to the lusts of this flesh, but keeps me and turns
me back to Himself, ever showing me my desperate need of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the grace of God in Him, because I see I cannot
do what I would do. I cannot do what I should do.
I can't do it by my works in the flesh. I need the grace of
God in Christ. And so this flesh would destroy
us, but because of Christ, it can. Cannot do it. Cannot have
its way to fulfillment. I've been saved by the Lord Jesus
Christ and have His Spirit And He, by His grace, keeps me. And
He, by His grace, delivers me. And keeps me ever looking to
Him. And we give Him all the glory
for. We don't boast. He knows how
to humble us too, and chasten us, and bring us low in ourselves,
so that our boasting and our foolish thoughts of ourselves
cease, and we give Him all the praise and the glory. Now David,
in Psalm 73, if you want to see this there, Psalm 73, verse 22
through 24, speaks of it in this way. He actually outlines it
this way. In Psalm 73, verse 22, 23 and 24. We'll look at them. David confesses here in verse
22, "...so foolish was I." And that word, being a fool, is not
a good word. It's one who doubts God, who
doesn't believe God, who rebels against the true and living God.
And he says, "...so foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast
before thee." And he's confessing, in my flesh I'm a sinner. I was doing wickedly. I was going
down the path of fulfilling the lusts of my flesh. And you, that
hope in Christ, whose hope is Christ and not the law, not your
religion, not what you're doing here. You who hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ, it's because you've seen Christ, is it not? You've seen Christ. It's more
than just the hearing of the ear. You've seen Christ. He's
shown you over and over again as often as needed. He's shown
you the depths of your sin and the depravity of your own heart
as often as was needed. Some more, some less. He shows
you what we are in this flesh that we would see our need of
Him. For example, this is in scripture.
Job, in Job 42, verse 5 and 6, he said, I've heard of thee with
the hearing of the ear. I've gone to services. I've partook
in the sacrifices. I did those things I was supposed
to do. I prayed for my kids. I kept myself unspotted from
doing the things that they would do and others would do. But now
mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, because I see you,
the perfectness, the holiness of God, because I see you, now
I abhor myself. I hate my works, and I repent
in dust and ashes. Peter saw him, right? And he
got down on his face and said, Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinner. I'm a wicked man. Lord, don't
depart from me. Paul, when he saw him in the
third heaven, He knew. I thought I was holy. I thought I was doing righteousness
by my works. But now I've seen the holiness
of God, the glory of God, seated on his throne, surrounded by
the angels and the hosts of heaven, worshiping him who is holy, holy,
holy. What am I? Lord, don't see me
in the works of that book over there, the ones that trace out
my works. Lord, I don't want to come in my paltry, see-through,
transparent, flimsy works. But Lord, see me, and I want
my name to be in that book, the book of the Lamb's book of life.
and see me in His holiness and perfection, not my works. I want
to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness. And it
wasn't just Job and Peter and Paul, but even Isaiah. He was
a prophet already in Isaiah 6, 5, when he saw the Lord sitting
in heaven with the train filling the whole area, the whole court
of the Lord. And he said, woe is me, for I
am undone. because I am a man of unclean
lips. I've been preaching. He says,
I've been teaching the people. As a prophet and as a man of
God, I've been teaching people. And now I see, having seen the
Lord, my lips are filthy. I don't know the half of it.
Lord, have mercy on me. And I can't even step down, he
says, and be taught by the others because I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips just like me. We're all sinners. We're
all sinners, every one of us. And he says, how do I know this?
For I've seen, mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. That's what the Lord does. He
shows us His glory. He shows us His perfection. He
shows us how holy, holy, holy He is to a degree. I mean, we
still haven't seen it, but to a degree to know I'm a sinner. I don't dare come to God boasting
of what I've done. come to him with my face on the
ground by his grace, begging him for mercy, for the Lord Jesus
Christ's sake, for what he's done, to be found washed in his
blood and standing in him alone. And then Psalm 73 verse 23, now
we see that grace. Even though I'm a sinner, we
see the grace of God. Nevertheless, David says, I am
continually with thee. Thou hast holden me by my right
hand. You've given me the spirit, and
by your spirit I'm kept. It's not because I'm so good,
I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner saved by grace.
You're the one keeping me and holding me so that the Lord keeps
us. He cleanses our guilty conscience
so that we're not hardened and go off and fulfill the lust of
the flesh, but are turned again to cry out. Because we are washed
in His blood and we cry out, Lord wash me, forgive me, heal
me, restore my soul, wash me anew, renew in me a right spirit
because I've been such a fool, so full of folly and wickedness. And then verse 24, We see this,
he says, thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward
receive me to glory. There's our hope. It's all in
God. I am the sinner. I am the sinner saved by grace,
the grace of God in Christ. And by his grace, I know that
I shall stand before him, accepted of him, not because of my righteousness,
but because of his. And so he taught David what Paul
by the spirit is teaching us right now in Galatians. Don't
be turned to the law. Look to Christ. Walk in the Spirit,
rejoicing in that hope which He has given us by faith. So
remember these things from this passage. Though you sorrow for your sin,
you see your need of Christ. And you know your need of Christ,
because he's shown you your need. Rejoice in that. But remember
these things from this passage. Our believing Christ and following
him, it's not the work of this flesh. And you're not going to
make that happen by turning to the law, because that's just
turning to the flesh. That's turning away from Christ.
You go and inquire of the Lord. You cry and breathe out by the
Spirit. Well, the Spirit does it. I don't
even know what to tell you. But to confess your sin and to
cry out to him, And we don't know what to say, but thanks
be to God for the Spirit who groans with things that cannot
be uttered. He knows what to say, and He
knows how to keep us, and He knows exactly how to instruct
us and deal with each one of us personally. But we're all
sinners and we need the same thing. He just does it in different
ways to the glory and praise of His name. The spirit prevents
my flesh from going as far as it would. And the flesh prevents
the spirit in me from going as far as it would in prayer, and
love, and service, and our worship, and our faith. But these two
natures, understand, these two natures are going to be with
us till the very end. These two natures. Until we die
and these bodies lie in the dust, we're gonna be this way. And
as an example, I'll show you, well, I'll just tell you, go
to Genesis 25, write it down, sister. 25, verse, oh, eight
and nine. In eight, we're told that Abraham
died, right? Abraham died and was laid to
rest. And in verse nine, it says, and
Ishmael, or Isaac and Ishmael, buried him. Right up to the very
end, you see Ishmael, which was Abraham's attempt to accomplish
the promises of God by his own works of flesh. And then you
see Isaac, who was the work of God according to the promise
of God for Abraham. And both those two boys, a picture
of our two natures, were with him right up to the end, and
they buried him. And that's how we'll be buried.
We still have this old fleshly nature, but we have the Spirit
of Christ, and we are washed in His blood. And though we lie
down, that way we shall be, though we are sown corrupted, we shall
be raised incorruptible. And though we be sown in mortality,
we shall be raised in immortality, in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. So remember, if ye be led of
the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Don't go making ishmael's. We will, but don't, don't, don't
do it. Don't set your heart on that.
Trust the Lord to, to, to bring forth Isaac that promise in you
by his grace. Amen. Let's pray and then we'll be
dismissed for about 15 minutes. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
father for your grace, for your mercy, Lord, that first for showing
us our sin, for knocking us down and showing us what sinners,
needy sinners we are, and for your grace to show us the perfection,
the sufficiency, the fullness of Christ Jesus, our Lord and
Savior, that he is all. Lord, continue to make him all
to us. Lord, bless us to walk in the
spirit. There we see and know that we
shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Let us not be turned
back to the flesh, but let us ever walk by faith, by your spirit
in you. And Lord, we thank you for your
grace, which keeps us, teaches us, instructs us, chastens us,
convicts us, turns us, blesses us Lord we thank you for your
grace it's all all of you Lord and we thank you that when all
is said and done we we shall be with you with our Lord forever
not because of the things that we've done but because you are
gracious and faithful to your word of promise and you are pleased
you delight in your son and those in your son and what you've done
in him what he's done and accomplished in obedience and faithfulness
to you. Lord, we thank you because it's all of your grace. Lord,
help any words that I've misspoke or not been clear enough. Lord,
by your grace and spirit, bless the hearts of your people and
teach us, keep us. In Christ's name, we pray and
give thanks. Amen. How's Ron? He's doing OK. His cough was pretty heavy this
morning.