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The Longest War (Galatians 5:16-18)
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The Longest War (Galatians 5:16-18)
Galatians: The Truth of the Gospel :: A Study of Galatians
Sunday Message recorded 30 January 2022
by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
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Transcript
Introduction to Growing in Grace Ministry
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milan Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message. If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, fbccolumbustx.org. And now take your copy of God's timeless word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
The Spiritual Battle: Flesh vs. Spirit
00:00:44
Speaker
Hello, good morning. Thank you so much for being here. We're gonna look today in Galatians 5, 16 through 18 about a certain battle. I wonder which war would you say was the longest conflict known to mankind? I did a little bit of research this week and it seemed like a lot of historians point to the Reconquista. It means it's Spanish for the reconquered, the reconquered wars.
00:01:13
Speaker
If the battle of Covadonga in 718 would be the starting point, and then the siege of Granada, this is not in South Texas, this is not Grenada, but anyway in 1492, then what you would come up with is a period of 774 years.
00:01:33
Speaker
Now that is a long battle. It all started when the North African Muslims captured the Iberian Peninsula. And so the Spanish and the Portuguese Catholics tried to reclaim their territories. It must have been incredible to see just generation after generation just fighting, fighting, fighting over and over again. But you know what? I think there's a battle that's been going on longer.
00:02:01
Speaker
It's been going on at least for 6,000 years. It started with Adam and Eve, went to Cain and Abel, kept on going through the Tower of Babel and so forth. I believe it goes all the way back to Genesis 3, to Genesis 4, to Genesis 11.
00:02:18
Speaker
But this morning, because the Lord led me to chapter 5, 16, 17, and 18, I feel that the Lord wants us to step into His war room. Listen to the strategy. How can we have victory over the flesh? He's actually going to address that. So let me invite you to stand in honor of God's Word one more time. Let me read these three verses and pray, and they will begin.
00:02:44
Speaker
Galatians 5, 16 begins this way, but I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
00:03:14
Speaker
But if you are led by the Spirit,
00:03:17
Speaker
you are not under the law. Let's ask the Lord to give us insight on an individual basis. Lord, I thank you so much for inspiring the word of God. And so Lord, now we're asking that your Holy Spirit would give us illumination, that as we read your living word, that you would make it come alive with personal application. Lord, each one of us, we need to hear a fresh word from our Creator, from our Redeemer, those of us who know you as personal Lord and Savior.
00:03:46
Speaker
And for those that still do not know you as Lord and Savior yet, I pray today would be a turning point for them. And so we put it all into your hands and ask that you would speak to us. We're listening, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you. You may be seated.
00:04:03
Speaker
These three verses introduce us to four truths that every believer needs to know. So I hope that you'll really listen up to what God has for us as we look at these verses. Rather than beginning with verse 16, if I may, I would like to begin with verse 17. Verse 17 begins by saying, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit.
00:04:28
Speaker
Right off the bat, you can see that there's something not working right. God's wanting to go this way, and the flesh wants to go the opposite way. The flesh actually says, I don't want to go God's way. And so what you're going to see from the very beginning is this war with the flesh. War with the flesh.
00:04:50
Speaker
You see, when I talk about the flesh, I'm not talking about our human body that God made and gifted us with. There's nothing wrong there with the body, but I'm referring to the sinful nature that always wants to make everything about self, rather than saying, I want God's will to be done in my life.
Life Controlled by Self vs. Christ
00:05:12
Speaker
The first glimpse of the war with the flesh, of course, can go all the way back to Genesis four, verses three through seven. Sin's desire, God tried to tell Cain was to rule over you. You know, Satan wants to work in such a way in our lives that we give in to that flesh, to that voice that always says, it's all about me. I want to have my will done, not someone else ruling over me.
00:05:41
Speaker
A friend of mine in our church that's a mentor to me has let me borrow some books by Bill Bright. He used to be the leader of Campus Crusade for Christ. Now it's known as CRU.
00:05:53
Speaker
But he come up with a diagram of what he called the self-directed life, the self-directed life. If you look at that diagram on the screen there, you'll see there's like a chair. Let's call that chair the throne, the throne of your life, the control center of your life. Notice what is on the throne. It's a big S. Let's say that the S stands for self.
00:06:19
Speaker
so that you are directing your own life. But notice where Christ is. The cross is not in life. The life is represented by the circle. And so Christ is outside of your life. And so all the different things in your life, all those dots, they're being directed, not by Christ.
00:06:39
Speaker
But by yourself, you're in charge of your own life and you're just making all the decisions. You don't care what the word of God says or what anyone else says. And so what happens is when you have a family full of self-centered, self-directed people, when you have a society full of self-centered, self-directed people, guess what happens? Disharmony, frustration, anger. There's all kinds of things that happen whenever self is in charge.
00:07:09
Speaker
You know, in 1 Corinthians, verse 2 and verse 14, the Apostle Paul says, this kind of person is like in our natural state, a natural man, natural woman, natural person, because it's just natural. Our sin nature says, I'm in charge, not God. I'm controlling things here.
00:07:30
Speaker
As a matter of fact, Peter in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 11, you know what he said about the flesh? He said that the flesh wages war against our soul. The flesh wages war against our soul. So have you ever felt that? It's like this tug of war going on in your life.
00:07:49
Speaker
Well, what happens is whenever we're still without price, then definitely the flesh, the self-centered fallen nature is always going to be in charge. But I want to introduce you to something as we transition to the next point. Titus is an interesting book. It's not very long.
00:08:09
Speaker
But in Titus chapter three, verses three through seven, you're gonna see when the war with the flesh begins to change.
Transformation Through Surrender
00:08:16
Speaker
Listen to Paul as he writes, I mean, this could be my testimony. I came to know Christ whenever I was a freshman at the University of Memphis. And my life is very much depicted by Titus chapter three and verse three. Listen to what it says, for we ourselves were once
00:08:34
Speaker
foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others in hating one another.
00:08:48
Speaker
I'm sorry to say, but I want to say it transparently and truthfully. That's the way I was. When I was at the University of Memphis, that's the way I lived. I lived for myself. Self was on the throne, and that's the way that everything was going. But then one day, all of that changed in January of 1979. Some of you weren't even born in 1979.
00:09:11
Speaker
Trust me, there was a day called 1979, but let's go to verse four of Titus three, because this is when everything changed for me and everything will change in that war for you. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us. That word means rescued. He rescued us. He saved us. Not because of works done by us in righteousness,
00:09:39
Speaker
but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
00:10:01
Speaker
See, that's when it all changed for me, and it can change for you. For many in our congregation, that's where it all changed for them. Whenever we said, you know what, this is the way I've always been living. I've always been losing this battle. I feel like I always do the wrong thing. My life is so mangled from all these bad choices that I've made.
00:10:22
Speaker
But all of that can change whenever you realize that God, when He sent Jesus for you and for me, He came in mercy. He came in grace. He didn't come to fight you. He didn't come against you. God came because He loves you. He went to the cross.
00:10:38
Speaker
to pay the price for our sins so that we could be welcome into His family. And whenever we repent of sin and put our faith and trust in what He did for us, you know what He does? He says, you know what? You're not going to be alone. I'm going to, it says in Titus, pour out the Holy Spirit. He will now empower you and strengthen you for all that God will expect from your life.
00:11:03
Speaker
So the war with the flesh is going to begin to take a different turn. Let's go to the second truth. Go back with me, if you would, to Galatians chapter five, and let's look again at verse 17. It goes on to say, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other. Well, let's just stop right there. These are opposed to each other.
00:11:34
Speaker
Then listen to what he says, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. So you see what, it's like God now, now somebody has asked Jesus to be their Lord and Savior. But here's what's happening. Instead of following Jesus and letting him be Lord of their lives, instead of the Holy Spirit being free to fill them and work in power in their lives, you know what's happening? Self is back on the throne again.
00:12:00
Speaker
Notice where Christ is in that diagram. Self is back up there on the throne. Jesus is in their life, but he's not controlling their life. He's not directing. He's not guiding because the person doesn't want to hear what the Bible says or what Jesus says. And so what's the result of that? The Bible calls this a carnal Christian.
00:12:22
Speaker
unable to daily live in spiritual victory because we're refusing to yield to Christ. We're refusing to say, you know what, I gave you my life when I was 18. And so I did that, but now, you know what, I got a lot of pressures on me. So I'm going to live life the way I want to live it. And so what happens is there's this spiritual draw. It's like God is not getting his way in our life.
00:12:48
Speaker
But then we can't really go just like any direction we want to because the Holy Spirit now is saying, you're kidding. You're not going to do that now that you're a Christian. So the carnal Christian, this person's miserable because they're being pulled in both directions.
Internal Conflict and the Carnal Christian
00:13:05
Speaker
God's saying this way. The flesh is saying this way.
00:13:08
Speaker
So it's like, who are we going to listen to? Nobody's winning. You're not winning. God's not winning. Flesh isn't winning. You're not going to do what you want to do, is what that verse says, right? Well, it sounds to me a whole lot like what the Apostle Paul described in Romans chapter seven.
00:13:28
Speaker
In Romans 7, the apostle Paul describes this back and forth thing with these words. Romans 7, 15, all the way down through verse 25. Listen to the ambivalence, back and forth. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Does that sound like you?
00:13:51
Speaker
Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right,
00:14:12
Speaker
but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it's no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law.
00:14:34
Speaker
that when I wanted to write, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law, waging war, there it is again, against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
00:15:03
Speaker
I got to thinking about there's only one person that can live the Christian life. You know who it is? It's Jesus. It's Jesus. That's why we have to get him back in charge in our lives. We have to go to him and say, Lord, you know what? I'm going to face temptations today that I couldn't handle in the flesh. I need you.
00:15:23
Speaker
to be on the throne, directing my life, empowering my life, and so forth. You see, if you go back to Galatians 5 and verse 17, you'll notice once again these opposite desires, right? The flesh is desiring this, God's desiring this, the spirit is desiring this. But notice how they disagree with one another.
00:15:44
Speaker
You know, it's one thing to have a desire, but then when you meet someone who has another desire, then it's called a disagreement. So he says here, the desires of the Spirit, they're against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other. Opposed is even going beyond disagreeing. Now it's like defiance.
00:16:01
Speaker
Because the Holy Spirit says, I'm not going in the direction of flesh and the world and the devil. We're going this way. But then you see the flesh and the flesh is saying, I'm not going to follow your ways of holiness and obedience. I am not going in that direction. And so they're they're defying one another. And so what happens?
00:16:22
Speaker
Division. It's like a civil war within. There's a draw. You're not getting what you want. God's not getting what he wants. Flesh is not getting what he wants. There's no way that's a happy life right there. That's somebody so miserable, being pulled in so many different directions. So what is the key?
00:16:41
Speaker
There's two things I wanted to point out before we end this message. We need to go to the third truth that's mentioned here. We're going to go down to verse 18 and we'll come back to verse 16. I'm not going to leave it out, I promise. But verse 18 says, but, he's been talking about the back and forth, he said, but,
00:17:00
Speaker
If you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. If you're led by the Spirit, you know what I think we need to do? When somebody else is going to be in charge of your life, somebody else is going to lead your life, you know what? I would call it waving the white flag. You wave the white flag. You raise the white flag. It's an international symbol of surrender.
00:17:22
Speaker
Some say it may date back to the Eastern Han Dynasty in China back in 8025. That's way back there. We know that the Roman historian Tacitus mentioned the white flag of surrender back in 109 AD. So it's been around a long time, but have you ever said to the Lord on a daily basis, today I'm going to wave the white flag. I am going to surrender to you, Lord, as Lord and Savior in my life.
00:17:52
Speaker
If you don't do that, if I don't do that, any of us don't do that. You know what happens? Futility, there's futility without surrender. It's not gonna work, okay? It's not gonna work. And I like what John MacArthur wrote in his commentary about verse 18, why it won't work.
00:18:10
Speaker
It says in verse 18, if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. Well, why not? Because if you're going to try, try your best to do everything just right, it's not going to work. And here's why. John MacArthur writes this, to live under the law is to live by the flesh. So you see your flesh is going to be trying to do it.
00:18:32
Speaker
Yet the flesh is powerless to fulfill the law. It can't do it. But then get this last statement, yet plus the law is powerless to conquer the flesh. See, it's not going to work for you. And so that's the futility without surrender.
Daily Surrender and Spiritual Victory
00:18:53
Speaker
But notice the clarity that comes through surrender. Look again at verse 18. It's so simple. Just listen to it.
00:19:01
Speaker
But if you are led by the Spirit, if you wave the white flag, if you yield to the lordship of Christ in your life, if you start each day and say, oh, Lord, you know, I want you to go, I'm so tired of what the flesh has done in my life, I lose it every single time.
00:19:20
Speaker
There's another really good cross reference here that's found in Romans chapter 6. In Romans chapter 6, here's what he says in verse 12, let not sin therefore reign.
00:19:36
Speaker
in your mortal body. Don't let sin get back, don't let sin or self get back up there on the throne of your life and reign. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness. Here comes the key, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life
00:20:04
Speaker
And your members to God as instruments for righteousness, for sin will have no dominion over you, since you're not under law, but under grace." You see what he's saying? He's saying, just present yourself every morning. Lord, I present myself to you. I'm going to be your servant today. Lord, I can't do this today apart from you. So I'm just surrendering to you right now before the day gets going.
00:20:30
Speaker
Notice one little word in Galatians 5, 18. It's a little word, but it has big, big meaning. It's the possibility of surrender. The little word if, he says, but if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law.
00:20:50
Speaker
You see, really, you're the only one that's gonna get Christ up there on the throne, in the control center, guiding your life. You're the only one who can defer. And say, okay, your mom can't do it, your dad can't do it, your husband can't do it, your wife can't do it, your grandfather, your grandmother, no, it's gotta be just you.
00:21:10
Speaker
You've got to say on an individual basis, oh Lord, you know what? I'm gonna surrender to you. That is huge right there. Are you willing to yield to Him as Lord? Are you willing to deny self? If so, look at what happens. Now, see all those little lines going out to those dots? See how orderly life has become? All because Christ now is on the throne directing all of your life.
00:21:38
Speaker
All of your attitudes, your relationships, your words, the way you go to work each and every day. Well, let me close with the fourth truth.
00:21:48
Speaker
You see, after someone invites Christ to rule, you must continue, I must continue to walk by the Spirit. I promised that we would get back to Galatians 5, 16, and now it's the time. But I say walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. I want you to notice something about there's a command,
00:22:14
Speaker
And there's a promise, a command and a promise. There's a command for victory over the flesh. It's a present imperative. What it means is you need to keep on doing this. So when he says, but I say walk by the Spirit, you know what he's really saying? Keep on walking by the Spirit. Not just, you know, you accepted Christ when you were 18. You accepted Christ when you were 10. And back then you started walking by the Spirit.
00:22:43
Speaker
But then you stopped. So you have to say, OK, Lord, I'm going to yield the throne to you. And every day now, I want to walk by the Holy Spirit. That is the command if we won victory. And notice, once again, these little words, the little preposition by, it's so important because what it means is not in the spirit. That would mean you're going to decide if any given day you are in or out.
00:23:09
Speaker
You're gonna walk by the Spirit. And what he means is, you're gonna do it not by your strength, not by your might, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. So I'm gonna walk by the Spirit. God's gonna give me the strength to obey him as I lean upon him.
00:23:29
Speaker
And then notice what he says here. There's this promise of victory over the flesh. Now I thought about the difference between this command and this promise, and I thought about this dependence on God. When I was in Ethiopia and sharing along the street one day, it was just an old dirt road, and we had a crowd gathered there. My translator was translating for me. I'm standing, I had a fence behind me, so I'm standing at a fence.
00:23:55
Speaker
And because I dehydrated, make sure you keep hydrated, okay? I had dehydrated and I just began to feel dizzy. I began to feel weak like I was going out. And I was preaching about how the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus yielded his life to Christ.
00:24:11
Speaker
And I said, the apostle Paul yielded his life to Christ. And I said, my translator is going to tell you exactly how that happened. I just slid down the fence like that. I had a seat. I never went out, but I was right there on the edge. But you know what happened after they led them to Christ and so forth? I had one Ethiopian brother in Christ get under my right arm, and another Ethiopian brother in Christ got under my left arm. And those two guys helped me walk
00:24:40
Speaker
back to the van. You see, the command to walk by the Spirit is not on your own. It's not in your strength or my strength. We're kind of like I was that day. I had to have strength in order to get back to that van.
00:24:57
Speaker
And so we need strength. But then the promise, if you'll do that, if you'll walk with the Lord, you'll yield to Him, you'll say, okay, I'm gonna obey Him, I'm gonna depend on Him, then you're given and I'm given an incredible promise. You won't believe what it says in the original Greek here. It says, but I say, keep on walking by the Spirit and you will not, you know what the word is? You will never, you will never gratify the desires of the flesh.
00:25:27
Speaker
You see, whenever we give in to the flesh, don't blame that on God. It's not God's fault. We have sufficient strength and power to obey Christ every single
Invitation to Turn Towards Christ
00:25:38
Speaker
day. The problem is we're not leaning on Him, because we have a promise here that says, if I will walk by the Spirit every single day,
00:25:49
Speaker
then I'm not going to gratify the desires of the flesh. That is so powerful. That's something that the flesh can't do. That's something only the Holy Spirit can do. Will you let Jesus Christ be the Lord of your life? Will you put Him back on that throne if you put something else, someone else, up there on that throne? I want us to close with an invitation.
00:26:12
Speaker
I'll invite our musicians if they would come back to prepare to lead us in this closing song. But what we do during this song is I stand down front. If there's some decision, maybe you'd say, you know what? I'm like the natural man. Christ is on the outside. He's not in my life. We can pray with you about that. Or maybe you would say, no, I'm like the carnal Christian. I know I'm a Christian, but Jesus is not Lord of my life.
00:26:39
Speaker
So definitely we could pray about that and see how you can get Christ back in the center of your life where he's directing it. But maybe you'd say, no, he is in charge of my life. And so I pray today's message only strengthened you. So why don't you pray for others as we go through this invitation. Let's stand together and let me lead us in a prayer. Lord, we just wanted to give those that are gathered here this morning an opportunity to respond.
00:27:06
Speaker
There may be someone in this room that's still without Christ. They need to turn from sin. They need to say, I'm tired of running things. I want Jesus to be Lord. And so I'm willing to trust Him as my Lord and Savior. Follow Him until my last breath.
00:27:23
Speaker
Others may say, Christ is in my life, but to be honest, other things have taken first place. Jesus is not telling me what to do. I'm listening to crowds. I'm listening to social media. I'm deciding. Someone else is deciding my future and my life. Lord, it's miserable. I know.
00:27:42
Speaker
Would you help them lay their burden down and reestablish the fact that Christ wants to guide them, guide them in growing to be more like Him, guide them in glorifying God. And I know your Holy Spirit will give them victory if they'll do that. So whatever is needed today, help us respond to you in Jesus name. Amen.