Galatians 5 then, Galatians 5
and verses 16 to 18 this morning. Looking at what I've entitled
civil war within. You know, civil war when a nation
divides into two armies that fight one another. And that's
the believer's experience. I believe the scriptures again
and again show us that that is the case. So, are you happy? Are you happy? Simple question. am I happy? Answer? Well sometimes
yes and other times definitely not it's a mixture isn't it and
for a Christian for a Christian there's quite a paradox because
a Christian is at the same time the happiest of people you know
you think you think I mean Peter in his prayer was mentioning
the blessings and the riches happiest of people but yet at
the same time the most mournful of people the saddest of people
the greatest sorrows for those who are lost and perishing around
them for the sin that's within those with the greatest of peace
because what better peace is there what more perfect peace
is there than peace with the eternal God to know as that hymn
says it is well it is well with my soul oh that's a tremendous
thing but at the same time to have your such turmoil within
because of what you are because of the fact that you don't produce
that fruit that you so desire to produce and there's the fact
and the experience of these things these things are true they're
our experience the testimony of scripture supports these things
as well look at the the nation of Israel in the Old Testament
And what a paradox it was of the greatest peace, the greatest
prosperity in the days of David and Solomon, and yet the greatest
of conflicts and the greatest of trials and tribulations. And
the Psalms, particularly the life of David, and all the things
that they teach us, they talk so much of an inward conflict. An inward conflict. You know,
they're not just moralizations on life and society. They're
talking about an inward conflict. and the Song of Solomon you might
remember hearing just over a year ago Don Faulkner preached a sermon
on the Song of Solomon on a verse at the end of chapter six of
the Song of Solomon verse thirteen and it says this return return
O Shulamite now Shulamite is the feminine of Solomon the word
is the same word and it's just as the church is the bride of
Christ The Shulamite is the... Solima, I think is the word.
It's the female, it's the feminine of Solomon. And so, the Shulamite
was the bride of Solomon. And it's a picture of Christ
and his bride, Christ and his church. And it says, return,
return, O Shulamite, return, return, that we may look upon
you. What would you see in the Shulamite? What would you see in the Shulamite?
As it were, it says here, the dance of the two camps, or as
I prefer in the authorised version, the company of two armies. The
company of two armies. That's what we're like. This
is what the believer is like, a company of two armies. Within,
it's as if there's these two separate armies arrayed in battle
against each other. That's the testimony of Scripture.
We read in Romans 7, the things that I want to do, I don't do,
and the things that I don't want to do, those things I do. And
I find this principle within me that I, the one who delights
in the law of God after the inner man, is in turmoil because I
sin continually. It's my constant experience.
And it's the testimony of believers of Bunyan in The Pilgrim's Progress.
Spurgeon, you read what he wrote, he's so conscious of the fact,
it's not that you're conscious of becoming progressively more
holy, you're conscious more and more of how settled and safe
you are in the Lord Jesus Christ. But how much more vivid that
appears, that sin that is ever with us until the day that we
take off this mortal body, until the day that we go to be with
Him. now why is this? we've already
seen in this epistle to the Galatians that believers are free in Christ
absolute liberty because Christ has fulfilled all obligations
of law for us in our place and so therefore the believer is
not under any obligation to do anything that Christ has already
done on his behalf you must hear that carefully and see what I'm
saying the believer is under no obligation whatsoever to do
anything that Christ has already done for us he has fulfilled
all the obligations of the law in our place now that doesn't
mean I'm not saying because I can imagine people throwing hands
up in horror at statements like that I'm not saying shall we
sin therefore that grace may abound of course not the Romans
and Galatians they speak of this again and again not at all but
Christ has performed everything that we need he's performed all
law works that we ever need to perform as our substitute all
holiness all righteousness is established in him he's paid
every single penny of the debt that we owe as believers to the
law of God he's paid it absolutely specifically when he was made
sin for us and so therefore the testimony of scripture is this
you are not under law and that doesn't mean you are not under
ceremonial law or you are not under the civil law that applied
to Israel but you are under the moral law it means what it says
you are not under the law all of it the law of God you are
under no obligation to it you don't owe it anything for the
debt to it is paid absolutely in full and therefore the scripture
says in Romans 8 verse 1 there is therefore now no condemnation
to him who is in Christ Jesus those who walk not according
to the flesh but according to the Spirit nobody can condemn
us you know one of the most condemning things is your own conscience
isn't it you live with it it condemns you it accuses you. You know, Satan, who is the accuser
of the brethren, comes and prods that conscience and makes it
accuse you and say that you will never stand in the day of judgment.
You're not good enough for God. You haven't done enough good
things from Him. But that same chapter of Romans 8 says, who
shall bring any charge? Shall even yourself bring a charge? Shall any devil? Shall anybody
else? Shall any religious person bring
any charge against God's elect? They can try, but it won't stick.
it'll be kicked out of the court of divine justice because Christ
has died this is the argument read those verses Romans 8 33
34 who shall bring any charge nobody can bring a charge that
will stay for Christ has paid for all charges he's dealt with
it he's finished it and so therefore we mustn't let verse 1 of chapter
5 of Galatians we mustn't let anyone shift us from that freedom
that is in Christ stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ
has made us free and do not be entangled again with a yoke of
bondage to do that is a denial of the gospel as he goes on to
say anybody becomes circumcised Christ will profit you nothing
not you'll miss out on something he'll profit you nothing it's
a denial of the gospel but having seen that liberty clearly we
saw last week that there is a right way to use that liberty and there
is a wrong way to use that liberty and in summary it was this it's
at the end of verse 13 the end of verse 13 this is how to use
that liberty that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ by love
through love serve one another put to death self through love
serve one another deny self by love, serve one another, look
out for the interests of others. And there's a warning there in
verse 15 that the alternative is selfish and damaging disunity. So, against such positive encouragements
that we've seen already, why then is there this paradox which
is in a Christian? now the answer is in the next
two verses verses 16 and 17 and we'll read them I say then says
Paul 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 to one another so that
you do not do the things that you wish why? Is there a paradox? It's because there are two natures
within a believer. The flesh and the spirit. Couldn't
be clearer. Verse 17. The flesh within you
and the spirit within you. They lust against each other.
The spirit? What is the spirit here? It's
that new creation. If any man is in Christ, he's
a new creation. It's that new creation implanted
by the Holy Spirit at regeneration. at the new birth. Unless a man
is born again, he cannot even see the kingdom of God. But in
the new birth, a new nature is given. A spirit is formed within. It's the Spirit of Christ. Romans
8, verse 9. If you haven't got the Spirit
of Christ, you're not a Christian. If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of His. So those who would claim that
you become a Christian and then sometime later you have the experience
of having the Holy Spirit come upon you, that's a lie. That's
not true, it's not backed up by the Scriptures. If any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. No, this Spirit
is the nature of God in the heart of the believer. It's the new
manager within. The flesh then, what is that?
The flesh is the natural man. That natural man that Paul speaks
of in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14 the natural man cannot see the
things of the Spirit of God they're foolishness to him neither can
he know them it's the natural man not talking about the physical
body but about the fallen human nature that stamp of Adam that's
in each one of us that fallen human nature that selfish human
nature as Paul says in Romans 7 18 I know that in me that is
in my flesh in this in this human nature of mine there dwells no
good thing no good thing a lot of people call themselves Christians
reckon that there's a fair bit of good in that flesh you know
it's getting better all the time there's a fair bit of good in
it it's not all bad but Paul's testimony was this in me in my
flesh there dwells no good thing and we'll see it when we come
on to verses 19 to 21 You see, the spirit and the flesh are
there in the experience, in the life of every believer, every
child of God. And they lust against each other. The flesh lusts against the spirit,
and the spirit against the flesh. They lust against each other.
I know you've all had the experience, I certainly have. If you want
to know which supermarket trolley's got the wonky wheel, then follow
me to the load of supermarket trolleys. I'll pick the one with
the wonky wheel out of all the ones that are there. And you're
steering it along the supermarket lovely smooth aisle and you want
it to go straight ahead and it wants to veer to one side and
you end up twisting your back as it's lusting against you,
isn't it? That's the way it goes. This
is the picture, the flesh and the spirit. One wants to go one
way, the other wants to go another way. And they're constantly in
tension, lusting against each other. The spirit wants to serve
God. If you're a believer this morning,
you should be able to say yes to all these things. If I'm a
believer, what's your greatest desire? It's to serve the living
God. To serve him honorably and rightly. To be free from sin. Because
the more you go on, the more you find your sin a horrible
thing. A horrible thing. You want to
be free of it. You want to be free of the experience
of it. You want to be free of the desire,
and let's not kid ourselves, the desire of it, the pleasures
of sin for a season. The Scriptures make no mistake,
to the fallen human nature, sin is a pleasurable thing. The pleasures
of sin for a season was what Moses rejected in Pharaoh's palace
as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He rejected those things. There's
the temptation of sin. I want to be free of that temptation. I want to be free of the consequences.
I'm not talking about the consequences in judgment. In Christ you are
free. from those consequences in judgment
for Christ has paid but in this life as it was with David you
know when David committed that terrible sin and he was told
that he would not die your sins have been forgiven the prophet
Nathan came and said your sins have been forgiven however you
live with the consequences of this and what turmoil there was
in his family what anguish what bitterness Absalom his own son
rose up to slay him and take the kingdom from him. The terrible
bitterness that flowed from it. And I want to be free of the
consequences of my sin. Of that nature that is within
me, that fleshly nature. So the spirit wants to serve
God. I want to be fruitful in Christian graces. I want to adorn
the doctrine of our God and Savior in all things. But the flesh
always tends to sin. It always does. It always wants
to promote self. It always wants to have its own
way as quickly as possible. It doubts God. Oh, that evil
heart of unbelief. You say, oh, it's not particularly
evil. Stealing something from somebody
or being violent, that's evil, but not believing God, that's
not it. Yes, it is. It's at the root of all evil.
Doubting God. Breaking free from the restraint
of the spirit. That's what the flesh wants to
do. Now, there are those, before we go much further, I must make
this point, there are some who make this issue of whether a
believer has two natures, they make it a cause for division.
I don't want to get into that. I don't want to split hairs about
definitions. They say that when Romans 12
says, be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, it's talking
about improving the physical nature and therefore there aren't
two natures well I'm not going to split hairs about this to
me it is absolutely plain there's the flesh lusting against the
spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these two are facts
it's the plain fact of this passage and of many others and it's undoubtedly
my experience absolutely my experience let me give you some scriptures
Psalm 36 verse 1 It's interesting I spoke to Don
yesterday evening and we only had a very brief conversation
because no doubt he was doing a bit of phoning round and it
was so good to hear from him and I emailed him to say how
good it was to speak to him and not ten minutes later an email
came back with a piece from Robert Hawker because I told him what
I would be preaching on this morning and he said you must
read this piece from Robert Hawker and so he said this big article
and it's very very helpful and we were reading it this morning
and it's on Psalm 36 verse 1 now if you look up Psalm 36 and verse
1 in your new King James Bible you will hear it say something
like this an oracle within my heart concerning the wicked there
it is an oracle within my heart concerning the transgression
of the wicked there is no fear of God before his eyes as if
here's a man standing on the sidelines and he's got the word
of wisdom about the wicked that are over there There's no fear
of God before their eyes, but here am I, righteous old me,
standing here. Here's righteous old me looking
across at those wicked people over there. The way it says it
in the King James Version, and the reason I keep going on about
this is because it's the standpoint from which the translators did
the translating that is so important. That's the key thing. It says
this, the transgression of the wicked saith within my heart
that there is no fear of God before his eyes. The transgression
of the wicked saith within my heart. What that means is, that
transgression of the wicked is in my heart, it is my experience. If you rightly divide the word
of truth, that is what that scripture says. Within your heart, the
heart of the believing man who wrote Psalm 36 is the transgression
of the wicked. That's in my heart. the Song
of Solomon chapter 6 and verse 13 we've already referred to
it return return O Shulamite return that we may look upon
you what will we see in the Shulamite as it were a company of two armies
you see two natures two natures within contrary to one another
Psalm 73 that we read some of earlier is an object lesson.
The leanings of the flesh, looking on the ungodly, by which I mean
those who do not believe God, who do not trust Christ, who
are not in Him, and all of their apparent prosperity, and all
of their apparent ease of life, and all of their apparent easy
time that they have as they go through this life, and the envy
and the doubting of God that it brings in the heart and mind
of that believer. and the desire for revenge, a
revengeful, bitter spirit towards them. And then it's countered. You see, that's the flesh speaking
there. The flesh is speaking how it was envious of the wicked.
That's the flesh speaking. But then he goes on and he counters
with the light of God's spirit, with faith, with trust, with
confidence, with peace. and he's in a state of vexation
it says in verse 21 of Psalm 73 I was vexed in my mind and
this is the believer's experience there's vexation because there's
the spirit and the flesh and the two are contrary to each
other and the two lust against each other and so that you do
not do the things that you want and Paul says in Romans 7 talking
about this battle that's going on who shall deliver me from
this body of death a wretched man that I am who shall deliver
me I thank God you see he's not left in a state of despair I
thank God through Christ Jesus my Lord and therefore there is
now no condemnation and finally with these examples of scriptures
1 John chapter 3 if you were to read there just turn over
to it now 1 John chapter 3 you see he says in verse 8 he
who sins is of the devil verse 9 whoever has been born of God
does not sin he cannot sin because he's been born of God in this
the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest whoever
does not practice righteousness is not of God nor is he who does
not love his brother for this is the message that you heard
from the beginning that we should love one another that cannot mean that believers
do not commit sin because he's already said in chapter 1 if
we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us that we have an advocate when we sin we have an advocate
if anyone sins chapter 2 verse 1 if anyone sins we have an advocate
with the father Jesus Christ the righteous is the advocate
with the father What John is saying in chapter 3, to my mind,
is contradictory nonsense unless it's referring to two natures
within the believer. The one who cannot sin is the
one who is born of God. The one who never does anything
other than sin is the fleshly nature that is still there. So
why does a Christian have these two conflicting natures? Well,
all I can do is speculate. But this is my opinion. I believe
it's all part of God's chastening and training of believers in
this life. It's part of the believer's experience. It's preparing for heaven. It's
so that when we get to heaven we will see grace set amidst
the backdrop of all that's gone before and it will be all the
more glorious for it. It's that contrast that there
is in creation, the glory of grace is set against the backdrop
of the fall, so that it might seem more precious. Now, I don't
claim to understand these things at all. I don't claim that they
don't cause me confusion at times, but nevertheless they're what
the Word of God teaches. that there's this tremendous
truth that the glory of grace is set against the backdrop of
the fall of man and the sin of man and in the believer's experience
there it is in microcosm there's that highest thing the new man
within from the spirit of God warring against that old flesh
So how do we live with these two natures? Well look, we've
seen in verse 17 the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit
against the flesh but verse 16 Paul says this, I say then walk
in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh
walk in the spirit living with these two natures he's exhorting
walk in the spirit now to walk in the scripture means to live
live in the spirit live your life it's often used in that
way Enoch and Noah are both men who were said to have walked
with God Noah walked with God and was righteous in his generation
Enoch walked with God and was not for God took him they lived
the life of faith they walked with God they lived their life
of faith and it was a life of faith without which without which
it is impossible to please God if you would please God you can
only please God by faith it's only by the faith of the Lord
Jesus Christ that anybody is pleasing to God that's what Hebrews
11 verse 6 says and so Enoch and Noah walked with God means
this they looked to Christ they look to God's substitute for
all of their acceptance with him so he's saying walk in the
spirit make a conscious decision to walk in the spirit there's
a conscious choice to be made if you look back at Deuteronomy
don't do it now but Deuteronomy chapter 30 and verse 19 the scripture
says this I call heaven and earth to record this day against you
that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing
therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live therefore
choose life there's a conscious choice to be made it's not as
if the sovereign choice of God is being set aside in such exhortation
because His people, it says in Psalm 110 verse 3, the people
of God are made willing in the day of His power. Those who by
nature are not willing, by the regenerating power of the Holy
Spirit are made willing in the day of His power, so that when
He says, I know I keep using the example, but when He says
to the man with the withered arm who couldn't, couldn't, for
physical disability, stretch out his hand. He said to him,
Jesus said to him, stretch out your hand, and in the giving
of the word, he gave the power to perform the choice to stretch
out his hand. As he did with those, rise up
from your bed, and so on and so forth. It's not as if the
sovereign choice of God is set aside, but his people are made
willing in the day of his power, and are able to make choices
concerning the direction of their walk. This is what the scriptures
are saying. we could use the example of Joshua
in Joshua 24 and verse 15 where Joshua is exhorting the Israelites
he's talking about the way they have this constant tendency to
drift away and he says to them so therefore choose for yourselves
this day whom you will serve whether the gods of the other
people or the true God choose for yourselves we could refer
to Elijah or Mount Carmel with the people choose who is the
God and they said the one who will send fire down he is the
God Paul is saying there is a choice for you to exercise in your daily
life as Christians with God's spirit within and with that spirit
within he's saying you have the ability to exercise that choice
into good ways and to bad ways walk in the spirit and you shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh but consciously decide that you're
not going to bother to walk in the spirit and the implication
is that you will constantly fulfill the lust of the flesh if you
let go of that supermarket trolley with the wonky wheel it's not
going to go straight down the aisle it will go crashing to
one side and so this is what he's saying I'm not setting aside
the sovereignty of God in all of this. I'm saying that with
the power of the Spirit within, God gives the ability to make
right choices. We're told we're exhorted in
other places not to grieve the Spirit of God, the obvious implication
being that we're able to grieve the Spirit of God by the things
we do and the choices we make that's Ephesians 4.30 we're told
in Galatians 2.21 not to frustrate the grace of God the implication
being that if we go against what Paul was saying we have the ability
to frustrate the grace of God so we're told walk in the Spirit
and you shall not you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh
Do you see how positive that is? Walk in the Spirit and you
may not. No, it doesn't say that. It says
walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of your
flesh. If your heart's desire is to
be free from sin and its consequences, then walk in the Spirit and you
shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. As for me, is what
Joshua said, wasn't it? Choose for yourselves this day
whom you will serve, but as for me, and my house we will serve
I will make a positive decision I'm gonna do this I'm gonna go
and worship God today I'm going to walk in the spirit and not
fulfill the lust of the flesh I'm gonna choose that way as
for me by God's help by his spirit my desire my determination my
objective is to walk by faith in the Son of God I'm quoting
again from Galatians walk by faith in the Son of God who loved
me and gave himself for me and thus subdue the lusts of the
flesh. You see? Flesh doesn't improve
in its basic nature. The flesh which is ours by nature,
that basic human nature, does not improve. This is so misunderstood
and misinterpreted. This idea of progressive holiness
progressive sanctification, becoming more and more holy, making the
flesh inherently more holy until you reach a state when you're
fitted for heaven. I always come back to this, that thief on the
cross, he didn't have long, did he? He didn't have long to become
progressively more holy and be fitted for heaven. It was there
in that moment that he was given that promise, today you shall
be with me in paradise. The flesh doesn't improve its
basic nature, grace does not improve the old nature but what
grace does do is it gives a new nature within the spirit lusting
against the flesh i always feel wary of christian biographies
and i've heard others say this and i totally agree i'm very
wary of christian biographies that paint such a rose colored
picture of what a What a wonderful, sinless life a certain person,
a certain missionary lived. Sorry, that's not true. That's missing the point. That's painting a rose-coloured
picture. And it's not true. And I'm very sceptical and very
wary about this. You know, God's saints say this.
You talk to Henry Mahan, you know, 80 odd years old, the most
faithful preacher of the gospel down all of these years, and
yet he would tell you, he would absolutely confirm to you that
he's never been more conscious that he's a sinner. Absolutely
nothing other than a sinner. I can't remember who it was that
had put on his gravestone, so-and-so, SS, sinner saved. It was Huntington,
wasn't it? Yes, I think it was William Huntington.
S.S. Sinner saved. What's the best
thing you can claim for yourself, William? I'm a sinner saved. I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all but Jesus Christ. He's my all in all. Now this
is where we come to the practical New Testament teaching of all
of the epistles in the context of grace and that's how I want
to finish just very very briefly just a couple of minutes. You
see there are those who say the New Testament epistles are divided
into two halves the doctrinal halves and then the practical
halves and you know you extract all of the you know you squeeze
all of the juice all of the doctrinal juice out of the doctrinal parts
and then you come to the practical parts and they end up so far
adrift from the doctrinal part that talks about your standing
in Christ they drift away from it so much that when they talk
about the way we should live it sounds like law it sounds
like legalism being preached because they've completely got
away from the context of the exhortation and so it becomes
a law exhortation thou shalt live in a certain way and thou
shalt be punished if thou dost not live in a certain way and
so on this is how the preaching sounds when it's like that but
no the practical teaching of the
New Testament epistles is always to be kept in the context of
grace always in the context of standing in Christ so for example
let's look at some Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 1 I'm just
gonna pick some out Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 1 I therefore
the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling
with which you were called. Paul is beseeching them, exalting
them, encouraging them to walk worthy, the implication being
that by negligence or neglect they will not walk worthy of
the calling with which they're called. if they don't watch and
pray as we were singing in the hymn before they will drift away
from that and they will not walk worthy of the calling verse 3
of the same chapter endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit
in the bond of peace it's talking about endeavoring trying making
a good effort at keeping the unity of the spirit the implication
being that if you don't endeavor you won't you'll drift away from
it same chapter verses 22 to 24 and he's exhorting them again that
they put off concerning your former conduct the old man which
grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed
in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which
was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness
consciously put off the old man those are the works of the old
man put them off put on the works of the new man which is created
according to God in true righteousness and holiness chapter 6 and verse
11 there's a whole load of armor that God provides for his people
in this world but it's no good if it's just lying there in the
corner you've got to put it on verse 11 put on the whole armor
of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil the implication being that you can neglectfully fail to
put it on and you will be subject to them and you will not be able
to stand against the wiles of the devil but consciously put
on that armor of God all of it Philippians chapter 2 and verse
5 Philippians chapter 2 and verse 5 let let this mind be in you
which was also in Christ Jesus consciously let this mind be
in you which was also in Christ Jesus the implication being that
by neglect you will fail to have that mind of Christ within you
as you walk through this life let this mind be in you one more
Philippians 4 and verse 8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are
true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever
things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are
of good report, if there is any virtue, if there is anything
praiseworthy, meditate on these things, consciously. Make a choice. You know, if your eye offend
you, pluck it out. If that thing you're looking
at is appealing to the fallen nature, don't do it. consciously
steer away from that the spirit lusting against the flesh and
the flesh against this walk in the spirit and you shall not
fulfill the lusts of the flesh so it's always all of the practical
aspects of the epistles are always in the context of grace It's
always in the context of freedom from law, because Christ has
done all, and there is nothing left for us to do. There is no
debt left to pay. There is no righteousness left
to earn. He has done it all. But in the context of that, walk
in the Spirit, consciously. Conscious of being complete in
Christ, of there being nothing more to do, choose the right
path. of walking with Christ in the
Spirit and he says in Galatians 5 and verse 18 but if you are
led by the Spirit you are not under the law led of the Spirit
the picture is like a little child little Timothy weak and
tottering and falling over and you hold his hand and you hold
him up and it's like that if you are led by the Spirit you're
not under the law you're led by the hand away from Sinai to
Christ, to rest in Him, for justification, sanctification, righteousness
and wisdom, and thus not under the law to restrain our walk,
but constrained by the love of Christ.