Galatians 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
The Christian life is not complicated. The life of sinners is complicated. They are the most confused people in the world. They have been given a mind by God. They have the ability to think and to reason. However, due to the sin nature, that ability is corrupted. Lost people think they are independent thinkers. The devil was able to deceive Eve in the Garden. Eve was able to convince her husband to eat the forbidden fruit. Deception is very common for lost humanity.
The good news is that in spite of all the devil is trying to do, God is greater than he is. God has preserved His Word from this generation and for ever. The devil cannot destroy God’s Word. He has many perversions on the market and most people are content to read and follow the perversions. Again, the pride of man causes him to think he is going the right way when he is not. The evidence of this is overwhelming but the spiritually blind cannot see it. Occasionally a spiritually blind person’s eyes are opened to see the dead end they are on. They turn to God in repentance and are saved.
Those that are saved have the blessing of having the Holy Spirit live in them. They also have the ability to know the truth. The Holy Spirit will never lead any of His temple into false teaching. He guides the true child of God into the truth.
I Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
God was directing the apostle Paul to challenge the saints receiving this letter, to walk in the Spirit. They were saved by faith in God. The Holy Spirit lived in them. They had the faith of Christ. However, the flesh is still there. The flesh is the lesser part of the saved person. However, the flesh can still take the true child of God off track. That was the problem with the Galatian saints. That can still be a problem for true saints today.
Thus true saints need to choose to walk in the Spirit. If we do that, we will not fulfil the lust of the flesh. The Bible shows us that the lust of the flesh can be very subtle and very enticing.
In verse 17 we see the battle that takes place when the true saint is in doubt of the Truth. The flesh will be with us until we die. It is important to put the flesh to death daily.
I Corinthians 15:31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
This is again why the true child of God needs to begin each day with the Word of God. Advertisements talk of having a nutritious breakfast to start the day right. Then they show a box of cereal that has very little nutrients in it.
In the Spiritual realm, we need the pure Word of God every moment of the day. As we see in verse 17, the flesh is not the friend of the true child of God. If we do not choose to walk in the Spirit, we are fighting a battle we cannot win. It will be like the U.S./Israel war against Iran. That is unwinable war. The U.S. president will try to spin it as a win even though it is not.
In the Spiritual realm, we can win.
Romans 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
We can win in Christ. Verse 18 of our text begins with two important words: “But” and “if”. We, those who are saved, have a choice to make moment by moment. If we are led of the Spirit, we are not under the law. If we are led by the Spirit, we have a much greater standard.
Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
The only hope of man is found in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and then surrendering to God as Lord of our lives. The true child of God knows that he cannot live successfully on his own. He knows he needs the Lord to guide and direct him moment by moment. The flesh says, ‘you can handle this one on your own’. We see the disaster of that all through the Bible. We are studying the book of Joshua in our Sunday afternoon services. In chapter 7 Joshua discovered the disaster of trying to go it alone. He lost thirty six men and the nation was embarrassed in fleeing from the men of Ai. The reason was there was sin in the camp of Israel, and Joshua did not know it. He had not consulted with God and thus he was incapable of knowing that.
That is a picture of what happens when a true child of God walks in the flesh.
Today is the Lord’s Day. It is another opportunity to go to a good church to learn of God. There are people who think they are wiser than God. They might attend a secular church, but they refuse to attend a true church. They might think they have success for a time, but God has His ways of showing the depravity of humanistic religion. It comes up short every time. Family relationships cannot be right apart from submission to God’s will.
Again, if you are in our area, we invite you to join us for our services at 9:30; 10:30 and 2:00 pm. God will bless you if you will listen to Him. We are praying that God would be glorified in your life today.
Pastor Bartel