All right, in that portion of
scripture that Brother Ron just read, I'm basically going to
deal with one verse this morning, verse 13, on the subject of Christian
warfare and liberty. In the past several weeks, I've
been talking a lot about Christian warfare and how that warfare
is a warfare that is not physical but spiritual. And it's a warfare
basically against three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the
devil. And I've preached several messages
concerning our warfare with the world and what the world is there
in the scriptures as we've gone through John 15 and verses related
to that. Today I want to begin talking
about our warfare against the flesh, what is sometimes called
the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. I'm there in Galatians
chapter 5 and verse 16, the command is given, this I say then, walk
in the Spirit. Now sometimes when you see that
word Spirit in the Scripture it will be capitalized referring
to the third person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit. And I believe
the King James translator has got it correct here, he's talking
about the Holy Spirit. Walk in the Holy Spirit. And
that means conducting ourselves, our whole lives, the way we make
our way through this world, according to the Spirit and the power of
the Spirit and the light of the Spirit as we're energized and
motivated by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who indwells each
and every one of God's people. That's the Spirit's work. He
is the, as one old writer said, the applicator of salvation. He takes the things of Christ,
and He brings a sinner in the new birth, in what they call
regeneration and conversion. He brings a sinner to Christ.
He speaks of Christ. He points sinners to Christ.
The power of the Holy Spirit, the gospel, is the power of God
unto salvation in the hands of the Holy Spirit. And He convicts... He's the spirit of conviction.
He convicts us of sin. and of righteousness and of judgment.
He makes it so we can't argue with God anymore. That's basically
it. He makes us take sides with God
against ourselves and brings us again to Christ. He doesn't
leave us in the, as O'Bunyan said, the slew of despond and
despair. He brings us to Christ. Christ
said, come unto me all ye that are labored and heavy laden.
You know who makes us realize that we're labored and heavy
laden? God the Holy Spirit does. And he says, he brings us to
Christ. And he says, this I say then
walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Now that word flesh, that's a word that's often misused and misunderstood
and I'm going to talk about that a little bit more. But look at
verse 17, here's the warfare. He says, for the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit. That is against the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit against the flesh.
And these are contrary. THE ONE TO THE OTHER. THEY'RE
NOT GOING TO BE ALLIES. THERE'S NOT GOING TO BE PEACE
BETWEEN THE FLESH AND THE HOLY SPIRIT. SO THAT YOU CANNOT DO
THE THINGS THAT YOU WOULD. NOW, WHAT THINGS IS HE TALKING
ABOUT THAT YOU WOULD? WELL, HE'S TALKING ABOUT SPIRITUAL
DESIRES THERE THAT ARE GIVEN TO US BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. WHAT
IS OUR SPIRITUAL DESIRE? IT'S TO BE SINLESS. IT'S TO BE
LIKE CHRIST. IT'S TO SERVE GOD. It's to be
what God commands us to be. And he says you can't go the
full swing of those things as far as your desires, spiritual
desires. Now, some writers say that he's
talking about fleshly desires here too, and that could be.
You know, we have fleshly desires also that serve self. satisfying the lust of the flesh,
and he says, because of the presence of the Holy Spirit, we can't
go the full swing of those things. And that's so, too, to a point,
but you've got to be careful there. But here's the point that
I want to make today. This is a warfare. It's a warfare. It's a battle. And if you're
a believer, it's a battle that only believers have. The world
doesn't have this battle. UNBELIEVER, AN UNREGENERATE PERSON
DOESN'T HAVE THIS BATTLE. NOW, THEY HAVE BATTLES, DON'T
GET ME WRONG. AN UNREGENERATE PERSON HAS BATTLES,
STRUGGLES, STRUGGLES OF CONSCIENCE, STRUGGLES WITH SOCIETY, STRUGGLES
WITH OTHER PEOPLE, STRUGGLES WITHIN THEMSELVES, BUT THEY DON'T
HAVE THIS STRUGGLE, THIS CHRISTIAN WARFARE OF THE FLESH AND THE
SPIRIT, BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE THE SPIRIT. THEY'RE DEAD SPIRITUALLY. BUT THIS IS A SPECIFIC ONE. Let's
lay the foundation for this. You know, many people believe
that after they become Christians, that somehow the desires of the
flesh will begin to grow increasingly weaker until they finally disappear
completely. You know anybody like that? They
believe their desire for holy things will increase and grow
so that eventually they'll desire only holy things and have no
sinful desires. There are people who believe
that and call themselves Christian. And when they see that that doesn't
happen, and most of them do, now sometimes people remain deluded
throughout their lives, but when they see that doesn't happen,
They begin to devise human ways of dealing with sin. Human ways. And promoting what they call
holiness. And they'll go to things like physical punishment. You
may have heard of these Catholic monks who'll take whips and beat
themselves. What are they trying to do? They're
punishing themselves. They're trying to beat out those
fleshly desires. Well, it doesn't work. Some of them just religious exercise,
going to church, getting baptized, taking the Lord's Supper, all
kinds of things like that, crossing themselves, whatever, prayer. They'll devise religious exercises
and ceremonies because they see that these fleshly desires aren't
getting weaker. As you grow older, you may find
that it's harder to fulfill those fleshly desires, almost impossible,
but they're still there. All right? Let me tell you something.
One of the things the Holy Spirit does within a sinner in the new
birth is he makes that sinner honest about these things. Now,
be honest. And people love to be lied to,
and people love to lie to themselves. But let's be honest now. And
so when they find that these fleshly desires don't get weaker
and weaker in their holy desires, and let me tell you something,
you've got to understand what holiness and sin really are.
People have their ideas. Anybody who thinks they have
attained perfection in their character and conduct, I'm going
to tell you exactly what they've done. They've brought down the
standard. I used to do a little high jumping
and tracking in school. When I got to where I couldn't
do it, you know what I'd do? I'd bring down the standard so
I could jump over it. And that's what people do religiously.
They'll bring down the standard. And you'll hear them say stuff
like, well, it's only if you intend to sin that it's sin,
but if you don't intend to do it, it's not sin. Well, see,
the Bible knows nothing of that kind of That kind of depraved
logic, and that's what it is. Knows nothing of that, sin is
sin. I told my Sunday school class this morning, I said, I
heard an old preacher years ago, and I can't remember who it was,
but he was talking about the world's ruination, the world's
problem, we're failing at them, the world's problem has to do
with, first of all, a three-letter word, and then secondly, a four-letter
word, and they both begin with S. And the three-letter word,
that's the source of all our problems. Sin. S-I-N. What is sin? Well, read the Bible.
It tells you what sin is. It's coming short of the glory
of God. Anything that comes short of the glory of God, the standard
of righteousness set by God is sin. Isn't that right? Sin. And the second word is self. S-E-L-F. Sin and self. There you go, that's the product
of the first, self-ism. That's what, listen, that's what
brought the human race into condemnation. That's what causes all the wars,
all the fights, all the fusses, all the divorces, sin and self,
sin and self, sin and self. Now, if you can find some way
to take care of sin and self, you've got it made. But human
ways will not do it, won't do it. Another way that people try
to attack this problem of the fact that these fleshly desires
don't decrease and holy desires don't increase is isolation.
Get away from everybody. I'll just quit being around people. And all that is is just self-love.
I'll quit being around you and I'll just go love myself. I'll be with the one I can get
along with with no problem, myself. You know that old country song,
Lord it's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way,
that kind of like. And that's the way people are.
That's the way I am by nature. Listen, but for the grace of
God. You know, you might be sitting
there thinking, well, I know somebody like that. Well, but for the
grace of God, that's me, that's you. And then many begin to doubt
their salvation when they see that their expectations in those
areas, this waning desire and this increasing desire, when
it doesn't happen, they doubt their salvation and others give
up completely. Let me tell you what it all is.
It's bondage. Every bit of that is bondage.
And they don't understand what being a true Christian really
is. And they don't understand the warfare of the flesh and
the spirit. Let me give you these things. First of all, It is only
the true Christian indwelt by God's Holy Spirit who experiences
a struggle between the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and the flesh,
or indwelling sin. Let me give you another way to
put that, this struggle between the flesh and the Spirit. It's
a struggle between... Now listen to me, and I know
I'm not getting into all this stuff that people get in today
about ABOUT PART OF ME THAT SINS AND PART OF ME THAT DOESN'T.
THE BIBLE DOESN'T KNOW ANYTHING OF THAT FOOLISHNESS. LET ME TELL
YOU WHAT IT IS, BASICALLY. AND THIS IS WHERE IT HITS DOWN
TO HOME FOR ME AND FOR EVERY ONE OF US. THE WARFARE BETWEEN
THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT IS A WARFARE BETWEEN GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO
INDWELLS ME AND ME. WHOA. IT'S A WARFARE BETWEEN THE SPIRIT
AND ME. GOD'S WAY OR MY WAY? GOD'S DESIRES
OR MY DESIRES? I'M TALKING ABOUT CHRISTIANS.
IT'S A WARFARE BETWEEN THE HOLY SPIRIT AND ME. IT'S NOT A DEVIL
ON THIS SHOULDER AND AN ANGEL ON THIS SHOULDER. IT'S NOT A
DR. JECK ON A MR. HYDE WITHIN ME. IT'S NOT A BLACK
DOG AND A WHITE DOG THING. INCIDENTALLY, THAT ANALOGY DIDN'T
COME FROM THE BIBLE, IT CAME FROM THE AMERICAN INDIANS. That's right. It's a struggle
between the Holy Spirit who indwells me, who's given me life from
God, who's given me desires that I didn't have before He gave
them to me in the new birth. Desires to be like Christ, desires
to follow Christ, desires for His Word, to submit to His Word. I didn't have those desires before
the Holy Spirit gave them to me. By nature, nobody has those
kind of desires. We might have religious desires
now. We might have desires to be good. Don't get me wrong there,
yeah. But the desires of the Holy Spirit
to glorify God in Christ. To live unto his glory and for
his glory and not live unto myself and for self. That it. And that's it. You see, as I said, unbelievers
struggle in these areas, but not like this struggle. I had
struggles of conscience before I became a Christian. Everybody
does. Now, some people are very good
at putting that conscience down, and the Bible talks about those
who completely obliterate that conscience in Romans chapter
1, by calling it a reprobate mind. There are people who don't
have a conscience anymore. They had one starting out, but
they don't anymore. So think about that. Now, the
next thing I want you to understand is that the true struggle described
in the Bible by the warfare of the flesh and the spirit is one
of the clearest evidences that a person is actually converted. And the reason I say that is
because some people say, well, if I'm a Christian, why do I
struggle so much? I'll tell you, it's because you're
a Christian you struggle so much. This struggle now, this particular
struggle, whether to glorify God or to promote self, whether
to live for the good of others, the good of the church, or get
my way. See, too many people, I want
my way. And believers have that struggle. That doesn't go away
when you come to Christ. It's a warfare. And it's an everyday
warfare. But that struggle is one of the
clearest evidences that a person is a Christian. And if you ever,
listen, if you ever don't have, if you stop having that struggle,
you never were a Christian. And then here's another thing,
thirdly. This is why, now listen to me very carefully, this is
why we have to draw our motivation in this warfare and our assurance
of salvation and God's favor toward us, not from what we see
inside of us and not from our perceived progresses in holiness
and digresses in sin. but from the word of God and
his promises as they are sure and certain in Christ. If you're looking within to find
your assurance, I pray you never find it there. Because when you
do, when you do, you know what you've done? You've given into
the flesh. When you find your assurance of salvation by what
you perceive within yourself, YOU'VE GIVEN INTO THE FLESH.
HOW DO WE RUN THE RACE OF GRACE? HOW DO WE FIGHT THE WARFARE?
LOOKING UNTO JESUS, THE AUTHOR AND THE FINISHER OF OUR FAITH.
YOU LOOK TO CHRIST. YOU LOOK TO THE CROSS. GOD FORBID
THAT I SHOULD GLORY, HAVE ASSURANCE, CONFIDENCE, OR EVEN BOAST, SAVING
THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. MY SALVATION AND MY ASSURANCE
OF SALVATION is totally wrapped up in the glorious person and
finished work of Christ. And I want to tell you something.
Now, I pray that we all grow in grace and in knowledge, but
seeing our assurance in Christ is really the only victory we
have right now. Look at verse 13 of Galatians
5. He says, for brethren, you've been called unto liberty. Galatians
5, 13, you've been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty
for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Now there are several things here that you have to understand
that are foundational to understanding this warfare of the flesh and
the spirit. First of all, you've got to understand what the flesh
is. And secondly, you've got to understand
what spirit is. And thirdly, you've got to understand
what liberty is. What liberty is he talking about?
You see, liberty has something to do with opposing the flesh
here. Because he said, don't use your liberty, your freedom,
for an occasion or to make a way for the flesh to operate. Whatever
he's talking about. This liberty has something to
do with opposing the flesh and serving one another in love.
Look at verse 14, he says, for all the law was fulfilled in
one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Christ said that. And they ask him, what is the
greatest commandment? He said, well, this is the love
God supremely and love your neighbor as yourself, love. Now he's talking
about divine love, agape love, Christian love there that binds
us together in Christ. That's what he's talking about.
He says in verse 15, but if you bite and devour one another,
that's opposition, that's friction, that's trying to put down one
another. He says, take heed that you be
not consumed one of another. That's the flesh. What he's talking
about is a person who says, I've got to have my way, my desires,
and not the glory of God. So he says, walk in the spirit.
Well, what is the flesh? The Bible uses that word flesh
quite often. Sometimes the word flesh is referring
to just humanity. All flesh is grass, withers away. Sometimes it refers to this physical
body. Sometimes in the Bible you'll
hear the physical body referred to as the flesh. For example,
our Lord had a physical body. Now, the Greeks back then, they
had an idea that the material body, the physical body in itself
was sinful, but that's not so. That's not so. Our Lord had a
physical body, that's why some denied that he had come in the
flesh. Remember John said that in 1 John chapter 4 when he said,
test the spirits, he said, any man who denies that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is not of God. He was speaking to those
who would claim that physical flesh is inherently sinful. It is not. It is not. Our Lord had physical flesh.
He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, yet He
was perfectly sinless. Sin is not a substance that you
can pick up and put down. It's not a liquid that you can
drink. It's not a solid that you can
take up here and move over here. Sin is a law. That's what Paul
called it in Romans chapter seven, a principle, a powerful one.
But what is the flesh? Well, what he's talking about
here in the flesh here has to do with sinful human nature. That's what he's talking about.
Human nature is sinful. We're born in sin. We fell in
Adam. We're born in sin. The Bible says we're born dead
in trespasses and sin. We're born, listen, and when
we're born again by the Holy Spirit, we become spiritual human
beings. Listen, when you're born again
by the Holy Spirit, you do not become divine. You have life from the divine,
but you don't become divine. We're not Mormons, folks. Now that's right. You don't become
divine. Nothing becomes divine. Let me
tell you something about the divine. The divine always has
been, always will be, and always is. It's never created. It's never formed. That's why
when Moses stood before the Lord and he said, now I've got to
tell the children of Israel who sent me to them. And he said,
tell them I am sent you to them. I am. And that's just a way of
talking about the eternal existence of the divine, God the Father,
God the Holy Spirit, God the Son. I am, I am. You had a beginning, I had a
beginning. Our new birth had a beginning. But God has no beginning. He's the Alpha and the Omega. He's the be all and end all of
everything. So when you're born again, you
do not become divine. You have life, spiritual life
from the divine. You do not have a divine nature
when you're born again. The divine nature is God. Do
you see that? When Peter spoke of that in 2
Peter 1, 4, he spoke about being in fellowship with the divine
nature. We become partakers, fellowshipers,
partners with the divine nature. What does that mean? That means
when I'm born again by the Spirit and brought to Christ, I am in
fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I was
alienated. You know what death is? Death
is separation. Physical death is separation
of the body and the soul. Spiritual death is separation
of the person from God. Alienated from God, Scripture
says. And when you're born again by
the Spirit, you're brought into union with Christ, union with
the Godhead in Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you're complete in Him. John said in 1st John 1, we have
fellowship with the Father and with the Son by the Spirit. And that word fellowship that
he used in 1st John 1 is the same word that Peter used as
partaker in 2nd Peter 1 for when he said partakers of the divine
nature. You don't become divine. But when we are born again by
the Spirit, we become spiritual human beings. There's the natural
man who receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. And then
there's the spiritual man. That's the sinner saved by the
grace of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, given life by the
Holy Spirit, given faith, all the fruit of the Spirit that's
mentioned here in Galatians chapter 5. And I'll get to that in another
message. But all of that, that's the spiritual
man. And in that spiritual man, there's
spirit and there's flesh. And there's a warfare. What is
this flesh? The flesh is the sum total of
ignorance. That's what the flesh is. They
don't know God. It's the sum total of ignorance
of all spiritual things. Ignorance of Christ, ignorance
of ourselves. It's the sum total of all the
remaining desires, motives, attitudes, thoughts of sin within us, and
the actions that proceed from fulfilling those things in our
lives. That's what the flesh is. The flesh, now listen, let
me caution you here. Now here's one thing. You know,
when people talk about fleshly things, mainly where our minds
go to are sexual sins. Isn't that right? Sins of the
flesh, lust of the flesh, and we think about sexual sins. And
let me tell you something, those are included. They sure are. But let me tell you something
here that has to be revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. The
flesh also describes man's efforts to fight sin within himself. His own self-efforts to fight
sin within himself. Look over at Galatians chapter
three, look at this. What's the problem in Galatia?
Paul wrote a letter to the Galatians. They were... Paul had been in
this area. He'd started churches. Some say
several churches around this area, and so he's writing to
them all. But what happened? They had come to Christ by the
power of the Holy Spirit, and then later on when Paul left,
certain false preachers crept into these churches preaching
another gospel, a gospel of salvation. and preservation and holiness
by your works. They were called Judaizers. They
said, yes, Christ is our savior, salvation is by grace, but you
have to be circumcised to really be saved, to really be holy.
Paul called that another, that's another gospel, he said. You
see, the gospel is salvation by Christ alone. The gospel is
justification before God, not based upon what you do for God,
but what God has done for His people through the blood and
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Righteousness cannot
be attained by your works or my works. Righteousness can only
be attained in Christ, who did all the work in His obedience
unto death. We're justified before God based
upon the righteousness of God in Christ imputed, charged to
us, not what we do. Our faith is not our righteousness. Our repentance is not our righteousness. Our obedience is not our righteousness.
Christ is our righteousness, period. Don't add anything to
it. Don't take anything away from
it. And when you do, it's another gospel. And so look at what he
says in verse 1 of Galatians 3. He says, O foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you, literally put a spell on you, that you
should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath
been evidently set forth crucified among you. What's he saying?
I preached unto you Christ and him crucified for all salvation. His shed blood for the forgiveness
of all my sins. His righteousness. He was made
sin. Christ was made sin. Our sin
imputed to Him that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. His righteousness imputed to us. I preach Christ
to you. I didn't preach works to you.
I didn't preach salvation by works or by circumcision or by
ceremony, I preached Christ. And he's been evidently set forth
among you. In verse two he says, this only
would I learn of you received you the spirit, that's the Holy
Spirit, by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Now
what is it to receive the Holy Spirit? You know what it is?
It's to come to Christ. That's simple as that. It's not
a second work of grace. It doesn't mean you start speaking
in tongues now. No, sir. Doesn't mean you get
baptized in water. It means you come to Christ because
the Holy Spirit's work is to bring a sinner to Christ. And
you didn't hear that by the preaching of salvation by works, the works
of the law, but by the hearing of faith. What is the hearing
of faith? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. Now, look at verse three. Are
you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, having begun the
race, looking to Christ? Are you now made perfect by the,
what? The flesh? By being circumcised? All right, you started looking
to Christ, but now are you made complete and perfect and righteous
by your circumcision? You could put anything in there,
by your works. Is there anything that we do
that completes what Christ started? And the answer's no. Again, Colossians 2, nine and
10. In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you
are complete in him. Christ is my wisdom, my righteousness,
my holiness, my redemption. Everything that God requires
of me, I find complete in Christ. All, listen, all the satisfaction,
all the righteousness, all the holiness is complete in Christ. Christ finished the work. He's
my Sabbath. I rest in him. He said, come
unto me, all ye that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you
rest. That's what he did. Now, are
you so foolish as to think that you start this race out in Christ,
but the, you know, people say, well, you can be saved, but you've
got, you can be lost now if you don't work hard and keep it going.
Are you so foolish to think that you begin this race in Christ
and then you're made perfect by the flesh? Look over at Galatians chapter
two and verse 16, listen to this. What's the issue here? How is
a sinner justified before God? How is a sinner made righteous
before God? How is a sinner accepted before
God? Is it by my works? Or is it by
totally what Christ accomplished in His obedience unto death,
His righteousness alone, His blood alone? It can't be both
or a mixture of the two. He says in verse 16, knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by
the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law for by the works of the law shall no
flesh be justified. Turn over Philippians chapter
three. Here's a definition of a Christian in Philippians chapter
3 and verse 3, right here. He says, for we are the circumcision
which worship God. He's talking about spiritual
circumcision there, that's the new birth. And we worship God
in the spirit, that is from the heart. Now what is spirit? When
you see spirit with a little s and not a capital s, the capital
s means the Holy Spirit. When you see spirit with a little
s, It means the heart. It's talking about the spiritual
life within us, within our hearts, within our minds, affections
and will. That's what it's talking about. We'll see that in just
a moment. But he says we worship God and rejoice, that is we have
confidence in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in what? The
flesh. Now what's Paul talking about?
Well, he says in verse 4, "...though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof
he might trust in the flesh, I more." I've circumcised the
eighth day. "...of the stock of Israel, of
the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews, as touching the law
of Pharisee." You know what he's talking about? You know how he's
defining the flesh? He's talking about his pedigree,
his heritage, his ethnicity, who I am, I was born here, there,
I'm a Jew, and his religious works. That's the flesh. The
sinner who's seeking to be saved, the sinner who is seeking to
make himself accepted and justified and righteous before God by his
works is acting in the flesh. You see that? That's what the
flesh is, it's false religion. Yes, it's the sexual lust. Yes, it's the pornography. Yes,
it's the murder and it's all that comes from self, selfishness.
It's all of those debauchery, all the debauchery that you can
think of is according to the flesh. But here's the problem,
so is false religion. It's just as much fleshly as
anything you could ever think of. Now that's so. And that warfare includes that.
Well, what is spirit? Well, look over at Romans chapter
8. Look at Romans chapter 8. Now, what is spirit? Now, we've
already talked about it. Again, when you see the capital
S, that's the Holy Spirit. When you see the little s, that's
talking about the spiritual man, that spiritual life that resides
in the heart. And I'll say this, I don't want to burst anybody's
bubble, but now the King James translators didn't always get
that right in my view. Sometimes they'll put a capital
S where they should have put a small, and a small S where
they should have put a capital. But, you know, listen, it's not
a matter of life and death on that issue, all right? But I
may have an opportunity to show you some of those things. But
look here at Romans 8, verse 13. What is spirit? Now, he says
in Romans 8, 13, for if you live after the flesh, you shall die.
Now, however you live after the flesh, that's death, whether
it's a life of debauchery, or a life of false religion, it's
death. Mark it down. I mean, you could
be the worst scoundrel that ever crossed the city line in Ashland
and that kind of life is death, isn't that right? Immoral, irreligious,
rebellious, hate everybody and everything. That's a life of
the flesh and that's bad and that's death, that's sin, self.
Or you can be a pastor behind a pulpit preaching a false gospel,
starting up charities, preaching a false gospel, a gospel of salvation
by work. That's the flesh too, that's
death too. Remember what Christ told the Pharisees, you're of
your father the devil. So if you live after the flesh,
you die. But now look at verse 13, but if you through the spirit,
now that's the Holy Spirit, Do mortify the deeds of the body.
Put them to death, you shall live. What does he mean, put
them to death? Look to Christ, who died for my sins. That's
what he's talking about there. You see, I put them to death.
They're not dead in me. I still have sinful desires.
I have the flesh to deal with. I have to fight it. I still have
too much self in me. But it cannot condemn me. And
it cannot keep me from looking to Christ for all my salvation. Why? Because of the Holy Spirit.
And he goes on, he says, For as many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, that's legal fear. but
you receive the spirit of adoption whereby we cry abba father the
spirit of adoption the holy spirit who testifies of the adoption
of grace in christ verse sixteen the spirit itself the holy spirit
himself it should be he's the holy spirit is not an id he's
a person himself beareth witness with our spirit spiritual life
that he's put within us that we are the children of god he
bears witness with our spirit We've been born again by the
Spirit of God. What is that Spirit that he's speaking of? It's the
sum total of all spiritual knowledge in Christ. It's the sum total
of all the motives, attitudes, desires, thoughts of godliness
imparted to us by the Holy Spirit, by which we seek to know and
believe in and follow Christ. You see, before we're born again,
we're spiritually dead. We're ignorant and separated
from God. But when the Holy Spirit gives
us life under the preaching of the gospel and brings us to Christ,
we're brought into union and communion with God in Christ.
And the conflict between the flesh and the spirit, as I said,
it's not between one part of me and another part of me. It's
between the Holy Spirit and me. Now, lastly, listen to this.
What is our liberty? Remember, he talked about use
not your liberty. Now, this is the foundation of
this warfare. Flesh versus the spirit, and
we fight this warfare in liberty. Well, what liberty is he talking
about? We'll turn to Romans 6. This liberty has two facets,
all right? Two things about this liberty
you have to understand. Number one is the foundation,
and number two is the fruit. Number one is the foundation.
Number two is the fruit. You remember Christ? We talked
about that in John 15. He's the vine. You're the branches. The
branches bear fruit. All right? Him being the vine
is the foundation. The bearing of the fruit, the
branches growing is the fruit, bearing fruit. And that's what
this liberty is. Number one is a legal liberty. It's our justification before
God in Christ based on His righteousness imputed. Look at it. in verse
1 of Romans chapter 6. He says, What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Now understand
that this liberty does not mean a freedom to continue in sin. This liberty involves a life
of fighting sin. Warfare. That's what we're talking
about. Those who use their liberty and grace as an excuse for their
sin, they don't know Christ. They don't know God. They don't
have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Now we're
sinners saved by the grace of God, and we sin too much. But we cannot excuse it by grace.
We cannot excuse it by liberty. So he says, God forbid, verse
two, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
Now that dead to sin is the foundation. What's he talking about, dead
to sin? Does that mean that when I become a Christian, I don't
have any sinful thoughts or sinful desires? Well, if it does, I'm
not a Christian. And you're not either, be honest. And you can go through the annals
of the Bible and you'll find all those who God puts in the
hall of faith, they're not Christian either if that's what that means.
He says in verse three, know you not that so many of us as
were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death.
That baptism there doesn't mean water baptism, that means literally
placed into, you were placed into Christ. before the foundation
of the world when God chose you, you were placed into Christ when
He went to the cross and died for your sins, and you're placed
into Christ in the new birth when the Holy Spirit brings you
to Him. And He says in verse 4, Therefore we are buried with
Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. The reason He died is not that
we could continue in sin, the reason He died and provided that
foundation and that ground was to produce the fruit of an obedient
servant. Walking in newness of life, verse
five, look at it. He says, if we've been planted
together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the
likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him. What is the old man there? Well,
that's my oneness with Adam under condemnation. CHRIST CRUCIFIED
THAT ON THE CROSS. AND THAT'S PAST TENSE THERE.
THAT'S A DONE DEAL THERE. THAT'S NOT SOMETHING THAT STARTED
AND IS ONGOING, THIS CRUCIFIXION. THAT'S DONE. IT'S FINISHED. HE
SAID IT'S FINISHED, DIDN'T HE? WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT
HIS CRUCIFIXION IN DANIEL 9, 24? HE MADE AN END OF SIN. HE FINISHED THE TRANSGRESSION.
HE BROUGHT FORTH, BROUGHT IN EVERY LAST... IT'S DONE. And
that the body of sin might be destroyed, and henceforth we
should not serve sin. Verse 7, for he that is dead
is freed from sin. That word freed there means justified.
Now what does that mean? Here's the foundation of our
liberty. It means we're free from sin's condemnation. You hear that? Sin can no longer
condemn us. Sin is no longer charged to the
account of God's people, never was. Because Christ became our
surety from the foundation of the world. That's right. You know, Christ, if you're a
believer, if you're a child of God, Christ has been responsible
for you your whole life, even before you were born. Put away my sin. I'm justified
based on his righteousness charged, accounted, imputed to me. And
sin cannot be helped. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity." That's the ground of this liberty. I'm free and I'm dead to sin
in that sense. Sin can no longer condemn me.
All right? Now, here's the second aspect
of that liberty. Look at verse 17 of Romans 6.
He said, but God be thanked that you were the servants of sin.
Now, a servant of sin there is an unbeliever. UNREGENERATE PERSON. BUT YOU HAVE OBEYED FROM THE
HEART THAT FORM OF DOCTRINE WHICH WAS DELIVERED YOU. THAT'S THE
GOSPEL. YOU'VE OBEYED THE GOSPEL. YOU'VE COME TO CHRIST. HOW DID
YOU DO THAT? BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
WHO GAVE YOU LIFE. VERSE 18, BEING THEN MADE FREE
FROM SIN. THAT WORD FREE THERE IS LIBERATED.
THE WORD FREE OVER IN VERSE 7 IS JUSTIFIED. HERE IT'S LIBERATED.
YOU'VE BEEN PUT OUT OF JAIL. God, the great judge, has pronounced
you not guilty and has pronounced you righteous in Christ. That's
your justification. You're dead to sin. Here, you're
being let out of jail. That's the new birth. He says,
being then made free from sin, liberate, you became what? Servants
of righteousness. What is it to be a servant of
righteousness? It's to be a servant of Christ. It's to be a servant
of the word of God. is to be a willing, loving bond
slave of Christ. Now, let me close with this.
You know, in our Revolutionary War, we celebrate our independence,
don't we, on July 4th each year. Why was that war fought? It was
to gain our freedom. It was to gain our independence.
Now, the warfare that a believer fights between the flesh and
the spirit is not a warfare we fight to gain our independence
or to gain our freedom. It's a warfare we fight because
our freedom and our liberty has already been accomplished and
established eternally by the Lord Jesus Christ. He said in
John chapter eight, he said, if the Son therefore set you
free, you shall be free indeed. You're not fighting for your
freedom if you're fighting the warfare of the flesh and the
spirit. You're not fighting for your salvation if you're fighting
the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. You're fighting because
you're already saved by the grace of God eternally, completely,
and unchangeably, and you're already free. Free at last. Isn't that right? Now, we're
going to talk more about that freedom and that liberty and
the power that God has given us, but that's the foundation
of it. Don't use that liberty to make
a way for the flesh. Use it to fight the flesh. That's
what he said. That's the warfare of the flesh
and the spirit.