So open your Bibles if you would
to Galatians chapter 5. We will continue our study in
this wonderful book. Galatians chapter 5. We're going
to read verses 13 to 21 of Galatians chapter 5. Just for the context. of the verses we're studying
today. This book is written by Paul
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God to the churches
in the Roman province of Galatia. There's multiple churches that
have been established in this province. The Romans were at
war with the Gauls for a long time. The wars have ceased now.
The provinces have been subdued, and now it's a Roman province.
And Paul, again, do you see how the Lord worked all that out
by his providence, had them subdued and all that? And they were worshiping
false gods and all kinds of stuff. And then here comes the gospel.
Isn't that amazing? Isn't God's providence incredible?
And so several churches are being established in the churches in
Galatia. in the province of Galatia and
the problem is though now false teachers have crept in called
Judaizers and they're teaching that you have to be circumcised
along with faith in Christ to be saved. So this letter is written
to those churches in Galatia that have been under the influence
of these false teachers And what he's going to do here, he's going
to make so clear, and we've seen it all the way up to chapter
five, we've seen how clear he's made the fact that salvation's
in Christ alone. And the wonderful thing we've
been looking at lately is the freedom and the liberty that
we have in Christ. We're so free. But then he warned
us, right? Don't use that liberty to sin.
So I was talking to Vicki about it, I said, I'm being amazed
as we study through Galatians the practical aspects now that
we're getting into. Everyday life things, right? Being led by the Spirit today
we're seeing. That's every day, right? We seek to be led by the
Spirit every day, right? The flesh, now the message is
called the war in the believer. We have a war, don't we? Every
single day. This flesh, this body of flesh,
wars against the new nature within us every single day. And only a born-again believer
knows that. Unsaved people don't have this.
Never had it before the Lord saved me. Didn't bother me at
all, the sin. Now it bothers us, doesn't it?
Now it bothers us, oh my. So Paul's clearly set forth in
this epistle, again by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, that
a man or woman can only be justified before God to be able to stand
in the presence of God by Christ and his perfect redeeming work,
and to be clothed in his righteousness. And he's been, again, discussing
the liberty, but we're not to lose that liberty that we have,
that freedom that we have to sin. And now by inspiration of
the Holy Spirit of God, Paul will put forth these words about
the works of the flesh compared to the fruit of the Spirit. Now
this is the introduction to that. The next two weeks, next week
we'll look at the works of the flesh, Lord willing, and then
the week after that we'll look at the fruit of the Holy Spirit
of God. So I'm gonna break it up into
two sections, because it's so important. And we will find that
the works of the flesh, We all do. It's so natural for us. It's just incredible. So let's read verses 13 to 21
of Galatians chapter 5. For you, brethren, have been
called unto liberty, freedom, only you sought that liberty
for an occasion to the flesh, or sin, but by love serve one
another. For all the laws are filled in
one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,
But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be
not consumed one of another. This I say then, here's the start
of our verse, walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the
lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit. That's
so true, isn't it? For every single one of us, for
every believer, that's so true. And the spirit against the flesh,
and these are contrary. That word contrary in the Greek
word, is absolute opposition. Contrary. Totally contrary one
to another. Totally in opposition to each
other. Isn't that amazing? How that's brought forth by the
Holy Spirit of God. The one to the other so that you cannot
do the things that you would. I'm sorry. But if ye be led of
the spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the
flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envyings, murders, drunkenness, revilings, and such like of the
which I tell you as I've told you before in a time past, that
they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
And then we see in verse 15 here, let's go back to verse 15, but
if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed.
Now we didn't really look at that a whole lot in our last
study, so we're just going to do a quick little thing over
that. Biting and devouring one another are terms that refer
to the evil tongue, our tongue. The hardest member, James says,
to control in the whole body is our tongue. You ever say something
and go, oh, I wish I'd never said that. I wish I could take
that back. Right? Say something to a loved
one, just cutting. And you're like, oh, you know
it. That was wrong. I shouldn't have
said that. But you can't take it back. All you can do is apologize. So this refers to the evil of
the tongue. It can have reference to sinful
attempts to destroy the unity of the saints by those who do
not believe the gospel. And this is what's being brought
forth here. These Judaizers didn't believe the gospel because they
said you had to be circumcised to be saved. Adding to the gospel,
which Paul told us in chapter one, is a perversion of the gospel. So it's not a gospel at all.
And biting and devouring here talks about backbiting, slanderous
gossip. One little spark can cause a
whole forest fire. One spark can cause a whole forest
fire. My oh my. And that forest fire
can destroy thousands of acres, can't it? Starting from a little
spark. Oh how we have to guard our tongue.
And make sure we don't bite and devour one another, right? Oh
my. And fire has no mercy. You ever
think of that? Fire has no mercy. Once it starts,
it just burns. Right? It just burns. It burns. Everything in its path
is scorched. So it is with the tongue. So
it is with the tongue. The tongue is a little member,
James wrote, and boasts great things. Behold how great a matter
a little fire kindleth. Oh, Lord, guard our tongues.
So biting and devouring one another is earthly and sensual, devilish,
James says in James 3.15. It doesn't come from the Holy
Spirit of God. That comes from our flesh, beloved.
That comes from the flesh. And that's what we're going to
see in our study on the flesh and on the spirit, that the things
of the flesh are natural for us, but the things of the spirit
are unnatural for us. And it's the fruit of the Spirit.
You're going to hear me emphasize that so much. It's not the fruit
of anything we can do. It's the Holy Spirit working
that in us. Do you know any good that we do comes from God? Any
good we do. And do you know we've been ordained
to good works? We don't know what they are. But God's ordained
us to good works that will glorify Him. And I don't mean works to
save our soul or save anyone else. You know that. But there
are certain things we do. Serving the Lord, right? My, it's incredible. And let us always remember, too,
what Paul wrote in Galatians, a little 11, 11 is the whole
lump. Henry Mahan said, if you are
critical, unforgiving, unkind, and filled with bitterness and
division, you will destroy the unity, peace, and fellowship
of the church. For the love, the love of God shed abroad in
our hearts is the cement that holds us together. I would say the blood of Christ
too, right? The blood of Christ and the love. Remember I told
you before that Satan can't counterfeit that love we have for one another
and for the gospel? He can counterfeit a lot of things.
You can see somebody think, well surely they're a Christian and
they're not. They'll be exposed eventually.
Eventually they'll be exposed, but my oh my. Satan can't, he just can't counterfeit
that love. If you see someone for years
and years professing to be a believer and they're backbiting and slanderous
and they're mean and rotten, I'll tell you what, I'm gonna
say it. That person's probably not regenerated.
Because that's not the spirit. That doesn't mean we can't be
mean. Oh, I can be mean as a rattlesnake, can you? I can, I admit it. I don't like it when I'm like
that and I repent when I'm like that, but I can be mean as a
rattlesnake. I can sit in my chair and just
start going off. You ever done that? Right? See? Praise God we're saved sinners,
right? Praise God for his blood and
his mercy and his grace and his love. Love shed abroad in our
hearts. Because whenever we start doing
that, you're fine. You just go in and all of a sudden
you just get convicted. That's the Holy Spirit, beloved.
That's the Holy Spirit in our hearts convicting us. My. And that's wonderful. Because
he doesn't do that for the unsaved. He only does that to his people.
Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. Let's read verses 16 to
18 together. This I say then, walk in the
spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the
flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh
and these are contrary the one to another. So that you cannot
do the things that you would. But if you be led of the spirit,
you are not under the law. Again, we keep seeing this not
under the law popping up, don't we? Who's the true author of
these words? This isn't Paul's opinion, is
it? This is the Holy Spirit telling us that in Christ, we're not
under the law. Now, we don't disregard the law,
do we? It's wonderful, it's beautiful,
it's holy. But we can't fulfill it, can
we? We're crucified with Christ. When Christ died to the law,
we died in him, beloved. That's why we're dead to the
law, because of what Christ did. He don't have nothing to do with
what we did. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.
Yet not I, but I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved
me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2.20. It's in this
very book we read. My, it's wonderful. It's so liberating,
so freeing for us. Let's read verse 16 again. This
I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the
lust of the flesh. Our heavenly father, beloved,
sends the spirit of his son into our hearts. And we become new
creatures in Christ, right? We're born again. We're born
again by the almighty power of God, the Holy Spirit, and we
are not the same people we were. We now have a new heart. We now
have a new nature within us, all by an operation of God. We're
made willing in the day of God's power, and we run to Christ only
because we were made willing. But oh my, I'll tell you what,
we're miracles of God's grace. Do you know that? Every one of
us sitting here, we don't feel like it. Do you know every one of
us is a miracle of God's grace who believe on Christ? Miracle. Miracle. Yeah, we were dead,
man. We were dead. We were dead, dead,
dead in the doornail. And now we're spiritually alive
in Christ. We're made alive. Now we rejoice in the things
of Christ. Redeemed by the precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're born again, regenerated
by the life-giving power of God the Holy Spirit. See, without
the life-giving power of God the Holy Spirit, we're still
dead. And a dead person can't make
themselves alive, right? As they say, oh, just walk an
aisle, make a decision. How can a dead person walk an
aisle? Now, men can be persuaded by manipulative acts. to do something like that, and
yet there's no regeneration. I really agree with Henry Mann.
We do not know the damage this side of heaven that Arminianism,
this bow-your-head, easy-believe-ism has done. We do not. We won't
know the damage this side of eternity. So many people who
think, well, I'm saved, and then they go off and they live however
they want. Now that's antinomianism, isn't
it? You see, Armenians are actually antinomians. Because they say,
well, yeah, Cousin Jake, he made a decision way 10, 15, 20 years
ago. Well, he just got a little wayward. He's not walking with the Lord.
Well, maybe not even saved. That's probably what's wrong.
You see? Now, I'm not saying we can't
be backslidden, because, well, I've been backslidden myself.
And I'm sure every one of us felt that. And we can be backslidden and
still attend in church and be backslidden. Right? Yeah. Backslidden doesn't mean you're
not attending church. I've experienced being backslidden
and being in a church. My. And then the Lord just, you
hear the message and it just touches your heart with love.
How much he loves us. How much he, what he did, what
he gave for us. His life. Redeeming us with his
precious blood. And the Lord just kindles that
flame again. Reviving us again. I love that
song, revive us again. And he revives our heart again. We'll go through a great trial. He just keeps our hearts burning
through the whole thing. He's wonderful. That's our God. And He enlightens our mind. God
the Holy Spirit enlightens our mind, giving us spiritual understanding,
what we never had before. Turn a few words to 1 Corinthians.
We're going to turn here. I wasn't going to have us turn, but I'm
going to have us turn here. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Now, through the
eye of God-given faith, we see Jesus Christ as the God-man,
our Lord who redeemed our eternal souls with his precious, precious
blood. And before being born again,
we saw ourselves, didn't we, as the Holy Spirit's drawn us,
what did we see ourselves as? Hell-deserving sinners, didn't
we? And then the bomb of Gilead is placed. Oh my, he saved my
soul. He saved my soul, mine. Now we still see ourselves as
how deserving sinners, except for the mercy and grace of God,
right? I remember talking to this old timer down 13th Street.
He's in his 90s and he comes to me. He says, Wayne, it's still
the same now as it was when I was a young man. It's still just
as hard now. Sin is just as hard now at 97
years old as it was when I was young, but praise be to God for
the blood of Christ. I've been redeemed. Isn't that
wonderful? He's just looking to Christ,
just trusting Christ, beloved. Oh, it's wonderful. Look at this
in 1 Corinthians 12, verses 12 through 14. For as the body is
one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body
being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit
we're all baptized into one body. See, universally, the universal
church, Right? Of all the born-again, blood-washed
believers, the Universal Church is one body. One body. The true born-again, blood-washed
saints. Being many, our one body, so
also is Christ. For by one spirit, we are all
baptized into one body, whether it be, look at this, Jews or
Gentiles, I'm looking at a bunch of Gentiles, you're looking at
a Gentile. Praise be to God. That's us. Whether we be bond
or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit, born
again by the same Holy Spirit. For the body is not one member,
but many. Look at that. A number that no
man can number. Charlie and I were just talking
about how wonderful it would be to see Denise in glory. My
oh my. And I think, I'm not preaching
here, but I think it'd just be a millisecond. We turn around
and our loved one's right there because one day to the Lord is
a thousand years, right? There's no time in heaven. There's
no time in heaven. We're locked in time. And this
is just me, my own little thing. I think that we're just going
to turn around and go, oh. Isn't that wonderful? Or that
our loved one in glory is just going to turn around and go,
oh. Isn't that amazing? Because there's
no time. They're not constrained. Oh,
my. I hope that's so. I really do. Oh, back to the preaching. Here
we go. My, oh, my. Now that we've been born again
by the Holy Spirit of God, we see ourselves just as ill-deserving
of this mercy and grace, don't we, Charlie? It's just amazing.
We're just like, my goodness. This is incredible. Absolutely
incredible. And the Holy Spirit dwells in
our hearts now and enables us to now be on guard against the
old nature. We're still plagued with sin.
We carry around this body of death, aren't we? We're still
plagued with sin. But now we have a sincere desire
to put away that sin when we didn't before. To put off the
old man and to put on the new man. And it grieves us when we
yield to the lust of the flesh, doesn't it? It grieves us. My oh my. And is it not true? Is it not true, Brother Brian,
that it's every believer's desire to walk in the Spirit, not in
the flesh, right? Well, that's what we desire.
That's what we desire. We don't desire to go around
sinning all the time. People say, well, if I believe
like you, you've heard me say a thousand times. If I had a
nickel, I'll tell you what, if I had a nickel for every time
somebody said that to me, I'd be a wealthy man. Well, you can
just go and do whatever you want. Oh my gosh. You know, Paul just tells us, right,
don't use that freedom to sin. You see, they don't understand. But I always have empathy, and
I know you do too, because we were there, weren't we? We were
there. My, I'm just a dumb sheep, I'll
be honest with you. I keep doing the same things.
You think I learned by now. Right? I'm telling you. My, oh my. God's so good. Isn't he so merciful? Isn't he
so long-suffering with us? My, let's all be real, right?
It's just incredible how good he is to us. Oh my. And we have this ongoing problem
now. We have this battle, this war now as believers. And do
you know this battle won't end until we breathe our last breath?
But brother Zane, when we breathe our last breath, we won't ever
battle again with the flesh. It'll be put away. It'll be put
away. Isn't that wonderful? Never to
bother us again. And then we'll have a new body.
My. A whole new body. That'll be
amazing. Now, the believer is a person
with two natures, right? Two principles warring against
one another continually. And these two natures are the
flesh and the spirit. I was thinking about that old
saying, you know, where they say there's two black dogs, there's
a black dog and a white dog, and which one's stronger, whatever
you feed. Well, I was thinking about that,
and I thought, you know, I don't really agree with that, because
we feed the black one all the time, don't we? Right? It's only by the grace
of God that we have any grace in us. It's only by the grace
of God that we're gracious. It's only by the grace of God
that we're loving. Right? We can testify to that, Brother
Dave. It is. It's only that. That's the only
reason. My oh my. So it's all God's working in
us. And there's folks who deny that
we have the two natures, but look at verse 17, Galatians chapter
5, look at this. For the flesh lusts against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary,
the one to another, so that you cannot do the things that you
would. My, now the flesh there refers to the old man. The old
man, the old nature of corruption that we inherited from Adam.
brought sin and death into this world, corrupting and condemning
the whole human race, because when Adam sinned, we sinned in
him. Scripture says this, wherefore as by one man, Adam, sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. So because our father Adam fell,
We're born dead then, spiritually. He fell spiritually, didn't he?
He's still physically alive. See, that's where people misunderstand
that. But he fell so much that the whole man is depraved. Body,
soul, and spirit. My. And this flesh now, all it
wants to do is sin. You know what? Try not sinning. Too late. That was perfect, Dave. Soon as someone thinks they don't
sin, they're toast, right? Self-righteousness, it's a killer. Pride, it's a killer. My, too
late. That was perfect. My, oh my. Now, if we don't have the spirit
of Christ dwelling in us, there cannot be any inward spiritual
war then. I never had this war in me before
the Lord saved me. This battle with the flesh, did
you? Flesh was all we were ruled by. It consumed us. We were governed
by a dead nature that was being motivated by the lust of the
flesh and we did whatever we desired, didn't we? Praise God
he restrained us actually from doing whatever we desired, right? Just think how wicked we could
have been if God hadn't restrained us. You know, people say, well,
look at what the Germans did to the Jews, and look at all
this. That's in every one of us by nature. That is in every
one of us by nature. My. See, and only the believer
will admit that. Unbelievers say, well, what are
you talking about? I'm a good person. No, you're
not. You're disproving to me that
every man's a liar, just like I said I wouldn't get a dog for
10 years, right? I've proved that every man's
a liar. Gonna get a new dog. My oh my. No, but it's true though,
isn't it? Isn't it? We all are prone to
lying. My oh my. And do you know what
our old nature will never do? We can testify this, brother,
before when we were dead and sinned. It'll never give any
glory to God. Never. Never. Yeah, it'll blame God. It'll
get mad at God. But you know what the new nature
does? It just wants to glorify God. Isn't that wonderful? See how they're opposed to one
another? The flesh and the spirit? The flesh that wants nothing
to do with glorifying God. And all the spirit in us wants
to do is glorify his mighty, mighty name for the wonderful
things that he's done for you and I. Oh, it's amazing. I'll tell you why. It just gets
better and better and better, doesn't it? And the unregenerate man cannot
love the saints of God. They can't show kindness to the
saints of God. They may be benevolent to them. But I'll tell you what,
I told you I used to sit around the table making fun of a brother
in Christ that actually gave me my first Bible. And my whole
family, we used to ridicule this guy. Oh, he's one of them born-again
guys. Look what the Lord's done. Now
I'm a born-again preacher. Isn't he got a great sense of
humor, the Lord? He's amazing. My, oh my, yeah, now I'm a Bible
thumper. That's what my brothers call me, too. They think I'm
a Bible thumper. That's what the family calls me. Oh, Bible
thumper. Yeah, call me whatever you want.
Some people say, well, you guys, you believe in election. You're
just puppets. Oh, if I'm God's puppet, that's fine. I don't
mind. I don't mind being God's puppet. I'm not a puppet, but
I don't mind being a puppet. If I'm God's puppet, if he's
wearing the strings, then I'm happy. Are you? Amen. Oh, my. Oh, praise his mighty
name. My. And if God does not send
the spirit of his son into our hearts, then anything we do will
all be for our own glory. See, that's the difference, too,
now. Now we seek to do things and
serve the Lord and give him glory for it, right? Before we were
saved, we were actually glorifying ourselves. Because we were doing
anything we wanted to fulfill the lust of the flesh. But now,
see, do you see how this is wonderful? I don't think we're gonna get
past this verse today, but that's okay. But do you see how wonderful
this is? That the fact that we are not what we used to be, that
we're new creatures in Christ now, by the power and the operation
of God, the Holy Spirit, we've been redeemed, beloved. We've
been redeemed. My, it's wonderful. Pastor Henry
Mahan said, the flesh is the corruption of nature, which is
still in every believer. The spirit is the internal principle
of grace and divine life that is born in us by God, the Holy
Spirit. So we see here in our text that
the spirit is contrary or opposite to the flesh. And do you know
the flesh and the spirit are as opposite as light and day?
Or night and day? Light and day. That didn't come
out. My. See, I love you guys. You just
smile when I say something like that. Canadian, yeah. The flesh and the spirit are
as opposite as night and day. They're just opposite. They're
not the same. Day is not night and night is
not day. Right? My oh my. And they're absolutely
contrary to each other. Do you know they're enemies?
They're enemies actually. My, that's why there's a war.
That's why there's a war within us now. One seeks to hurt or
destroy, which is the flesh, so that, you know why? So that
you cannot do the things that you would. The flesh don't want us serving
God. Yeah. It just wants to, it doesn't
want to do nothing for God. It wants to, it wants to please
self. You see? And the spirit doesn't
want to please self anymore. It wants to please God. There
it is. Total opposition to each other.
But remember, greater is he that is in you than he that is in
the world. Our flesh is in the world, isn't
it? part of this world, but greater
is he that is in us than he that is in the world. My oh my. And the believer would do perfectly
good if we could, couldn't we? Brother Steve, do you sin more
than you want? Yeah, amen, me too, brother,
me too. We desire not to sin, but we're
sinners. Praise God for the blood of Christ.
Praise his mighty name for the blood of Christ. The blood and
righteousness of Christ that cleanses us from all sin. Therefore
our old nature would do evil. My, it would do whatever it wants,
but it can't do whatever it wants. Because now the divine nature
is present. Christ in us, the hope of glory.
Isn't this wonderful? My oh my. Our flesh, I'll tell
you what, if our flesh could, it would plunge us headlong into
hell. Right? But praise God for the
Holy Spirit of God. Praise our great God. As Brother
Travis preached, eternal grace. Brother, that was wonderful.
Eternal grace. Grace that never changes. It
does never change. That grace has been set upon
us from eternity. My, I wrote Karen, I said, you all
didn't hear, but I was shouting last week from the house. My,
that was wonderful. He just preached a God-honored
sermon. My, it was absolutely wonderful. My, and when we learn that we
are fully and freely forgiven by the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who redeemed us from all our sins, what do
we find, brother, what you said tonight, this morning? Peace. Perfect peace. The peace, the
scripture says, that passes all understanding. Where the world
goes, how can you guys, how can you be so peaceful amidst all
the stuff that's going on in this world? Because we know who's
in control. Right? God, our God, I'm going to close
with this. Our God reigns. he rules and he reigns right
now in heaven right this minute my brother Travis can you close
us in prayer today