The Battle Between Flesh and Spirit

SPEAKER 01 : 0:00

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, September 11th. Are you walking in the power of the Holy Spirit? As we continue in the book of Galatians, discover why daily dependence on the Spirit is essential for truly living the Christian life.

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Have you ever felt like just quitting the Christian life? I mean, you’ve tried and tried and tried to be the kind of person you think God wants you to be, and you’ve read the Bible, and you’ve prayed, and you’ve done just about everything you know to do. In fact, Every time you turn around, it’s one struggle right after the other, and you think, hey, I don’t think I’ve lived this life. Either I’m missing something, somebody didn’t tell me something, or this is really not all it’s cracked up to be. You ever felt like that? Well, probably if you have felt like you have been defeated in your Christian life and it’s just not working, join the crowd because all of us at some time in our life or the other have probably felt something similar to that. That’s why the Holy Spirit came into your life and my life and we were saved because God knew that you and I were absolutely inadequate to live the Christian life. And the Christian life in essence is this. The Christian life is the Holy Spirit who indwells the believer. responding to the believer’s yieldedness and empowering and guiding and leading and expressing the very life of Jesus Christ through that believer’s conduct conversation and character moment by moment day by day step by step in the believer’s walk you say well that sounds real passive and what you’re saying is that all we have to do is just let God have his way and and just let go and let God and we don’t have anything to do I didn’t say that at all Because you see, every single time a decision comes up and every single time you’re not tempted, we have to make a decision. Our responsibility in the Christian life is decision making. That’s what it’s all about. And my decision is, shall I rely upon the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit within me to enable me to face this, whether it’s a temptation or some trial or some heartache or some burden or some sorrow, will I allow Him to enable me to face this victoriously, or am I going to try in my own strength and in my own energy? You see, the more self-confident you and I become in the flesh, that is in our old humanness, When we look around, we say, well, you know, I can do that and I can do this and I can handle that. Then what we do is we get in trouble. Every time we begin to live the Christian life in our own strength, we make a mess of things. Because you see, God never made us to live this life apart from the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. And so that’s why he sent him. Essential to the life that you and I have to live. Essential to the work that God has called us to do. And when you and I rely upon him and the work that he’s called us to do, he makes it a success. Whether you’re a mother changing diapers or making the sandwiches for your kid to go to school or picking them up in the car and asking them how the day was, it doesn’t make any difference what it is. When you and I are relying upon the Holy Spirit to enable us, if you’re a man in business, you want to be wise in your finances, you want to be wise in your relationships, wise with your personnel, you want to treat people properly, you want to give them what you say you’re going to give them, do for them what you say. You’re trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom and discernment and divine guidance and direction so that you’ll be the man God wants you to be and achieve the things that God wants you to achieve. He said, I’m going to send you a comforter. You remember the other word he uses? A helper. He knows we can’t do it. We can’t live it and we can’t achieve it apart from the Holy Spirit. That is, he sent him in order to achieve and to accomplish what he knows we cannot do. Now listen, the terms he uses, walk, Step by step by step, I’m to do what? Rely upon the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. I don’t know how much simpler he could have made the Christian life than that. It is a walk. Every decision, every single work you and I carry out, we are to rely upon the presence and the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. That’s the reason he’s there. Why doesn’t God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit all just sit up in heaven together? Because the Lord Jesus knew we’d never make it unless he was down here on the inside of us, living this life through us and enabling us through his powers, rely upon him. So when he says walk by the spirit, that means to rely upon the power of the Holy Spirit. To face any and every circumstance and every situation of life. Now, what does that require? It requires several things. First of all, it requires to be regenerated. That is, to be born again. That is, to give your life to Christ, to be saved. Secondly, it requires yielding my life to Him. You see, I’m not going to rely upon Him if I’m not yielded to Him. And listen very carefully. You cannot rely upon the Holy Spirit… whom you will not yield your life to, whom you’re living in disobedience to, whom you’re grieving and whom you’re quenching. So it requires yielding my life to Him. That is, if I’m going to walk by the Spirit, I must yield myself to Him, I must rely upon Him, and then I must trust Him. Now, He says, verse 16 now, chapter 5 of Galatians, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Now, we said, how do we do that? The requirements are real simple. I must yield myself to Him. I must rely upon Him, then I must trust Him to do what He says He’ll do. But we’ve got a problem here, and the problem is this thing of the desire of the flesh. Now, what in the world does that mean? Well, let’s go back and let me say here, first of all, we said… The believer is commanded to walk by the Spirit. And secondly, according to this passage, the Bible says, the believer can be victorious in conflict when he or she is walking by the Spirit. Now, you recall in the last message on the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, almost all of that message was given to how the Holy Spirit empowers us and equips us and energizes us for the work that He’s called us to do. The emphasis of this message is that he empowers us for the life that he’s called us to live. We’re talking about walking by the Spirit now. So what does he mean up here when he says that we’ll not carry out the desires of the flesh? Well, the believer has three enemies. First of all, there’s the devil. Secondly, the world. And third, the flesh. Now, we are rather familiar with the first two. The devil, we know who he is. And let me say about him that he is more powerful than any person on the face of this earth. So, if you intend for Satan to be defeated and you think you’re going to defeat him, you’ve had it. Because you’re not going to defeat him. God, through the Holy Spirit within you, will defeat him, but you can’t defeat him. What’s this world we’re talking about? We’re talking about the world system. This world system in which you and I live, and we’ll live until Jesus comes. The world system is society without God. And you and I look around us, and friend, it’s very evident that the majority of people in our society… We’d rather live without God. This is an anti-God world. That is an anti-Christ, anti-true God world. Because the Bible says if you love God, you love his son. If you love his son, you love God. Jesus said if you know me, you’ll know the Father. If you don’t know me, you don’t know the Father. So most folks don’t. So therefore, this is a world system. That is the political system, the financial system, the scientific system, the educational system, the religious system. It’s all anti-God. And so, but we live in this world. You work among people who are unsaved. You may work for somebody who is. And their ethics are not what yours are. Their standards are not what yours are. We live in this world. And we’re going to be here until Jesus comes, until he takes us away. Now, that’s the first two, the devil and the world. What about the flesh? Let me say something about the world and the devil. First of all, they are exterior. We can’t do a whole lot about them. You’re not going to change the devil and you’re not going to change the world system. We may change, we may see certain changes take place in our society, but we’re not going to change the world system because the God of this age is running the system. It’ll always be here. You’re not going to improve the devil and you’re not going to improve his system. It’s here to stay, friend, until Jesus wipes it out one of these days, which he’s going to do. But now what about the flesh? Well, you see, I can’t change the world. I can’t do much about that. I can’t do anything about the devil over here. But there is within me something that I have to deal with, which the Bible calls the flesh. Now, When you were saved, the Bible says that you were taken out of the domain of darkness and placed in the domain of light. That you were in Adam and now you are now in Christ. Christ in us. We are in Him. And that when we were saved, we became partakers of His divine nature. So living within us, now the Bible says, is the Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says we become partakers of His divine nature. We’re new creations in Christ Jesus. He says our old man was crucified. If you crucify something, it’s dead. But because of something that remains. Now look at this. In Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30. Listen to what he says. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Now remember this. That when you gave your life to Christ… He saved you. But there’s some parts of us that are not fully redeemed. This physical body of mine is not redeemed yet. It’s the same old body I got born in. With this body came all my five senses and all the desires that are legitimate. Legitimate desire for rest, for food, for pleasure, for sex, and for God and all the rest. Now, all of those are legitimate desires that God has given to us. And as long as we keep them in the sphere… of God’s will for our life, everything works fine. But when we begin to desire those things outside, that is, he says, the desires of the flesh, the lust, those strong desires, when we begin to desire those things that are outside of God’s permissive will, what happens? We get in trouble. So in the life of every single believer who has a new nature, there is still, because we’re in this human body with its normal, natural humanness, Because it is there, we still have the potential to sin against God at any moment. Now because we have that, that’s why, listen, the Holy Spirit came to live within us so that when we are tested and we are tempted and we are tried, we have the privilege of relying upon the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to enable us to say no to sin and yes to God. And that’s why He’s there. Essential to the life God has called us to live. So He says, look at this. He says, I say, when you walk by the Spirit, relying upon the Holy Spirit, He says, you won’t allow your normal, natural desires to get out of their boundaries. But when we begin to try these things ourselves, we get in trouble. We sin against God. We disobey Him. And every time we do, it’s because we rely upon ourselves rather than upon Him. Now, When you and I face any given situation in life, we have the privilege of making a choice. Now, you and I know that sometimes our walk is very slow and sometimes our walk is very, very fast. And so the faster you go, the more careful you have to be. The faster our walk… The faster our pace, the more involved our schedule, and the more demands that are upon us, we have to be more careful about our walk. Because the faster you go, the further ahead you better look. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit that no matter what we face, We don’t have to, as a second thought, hope He’s there. The Holy Spirit is there every single time, every moment, every step of the way. We are running, jumping, or walking slowly. We can rely upon the Holy Spirit to enable us to make the right decision and make the right choice. Are we going to make the right choice every time? No. Are we going to obey Him every single time? No. Can we? Yes. If God said you’re to live a holy life, but you’re going to have to do it in your own strength, in your own energy, God would be unfair, unjust, and we’d be lost. So what does he do? Knowing that in these physical bodies of ours, because we’ve not been fully redeemed yet until the day of redemption, that is when this old physical body is gone, and I have a renewed body, and you have a renewed body, and everything is absolutely perfect then, we won’t have that problem. But as long as we live in this life, The devil out there and the world system out there, I can’t change those. I can’t do anything about that. But this tendency within me that at times wants to have its own way and to do its own thing, I have to choose every single time, shall I rely upon the Holy Spirit to enable me through this or am I going to do my own thing? That is the believer’s walk. As a believer… indwelt by the Holy Spirit, full of the Holy Spirit. We want to be obedient to God. We want to do what God wants us to do. But every once in a while, something rises up within us that does not want to do what God wants, or what we’d like to say is, God, I would like to do this with your approval, which we know is an act of disobedience to God. Now, has God left us here? And I hear these illustrations like, in every believer, there’s these two dogs. One of them is a mad dog. One of them is a good dog. And they’re always fighting with each other. I’m going to tell you, I’d hate to think I had to get up every morning with two mad dogs inside of me. You’re talking about being discouraged about the Christian life. Brother, I’d be discouraged. I’d just say, Lord, would you just take me on home today? Let’s get this fight over with because I’m tired of being in the middle of a big dog fight. Listen, I’m going to tell you why I don’t believe that. Listen to this. My peace I give unto you, not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be oppressed. That’s not a dog fight. That’s relying upon the Holy Spirit who’s living within me to enable me to be and to achieve the things that God has set out. But my friend, you’re not going to reach any plateaus while you don’t have to rely upon the Holy Spirit. No matter how long you live, what you do. Now listen to this opposition. He says, the flesh against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh. Now, here’s what you and I are capable of apart from Jesus Christ. And let me go one step further. We’re capable of most of this, even with Jesus Christ in our life, unless we’re relying upon the Spirit. Listen. Look in the 19th verse. Here’s what you’re not capable of. Now, the deeds of the flesh… are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envians, drunkenness, and carousing. That’s a pretty ugly looking sight, isn’t it? My friend, don’t ever get to the point that you think, cleaned all that up, don’t ever have to worry about that anymore, Satan’s not going to bother me in that area. My friend, where you drop your guard, Satan launches his most vicious attacks. That’s why he said, listen, walk by the Spirit and you will not yield to the flesh. You won’t give in to those strong desires that sometimes come. That’s the only way not to give in to them. Now, you want to know what you’re capable of when the Holy Spirit’s in charge? Look at this. Verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is what? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Now, if I had my choice, I’ll take the second. Amen? I prefer the second group myself. But I want to tell you something. Apart from the Holy Spirit, we’re capable of the first group. There is no stage whereby you ever reach that you’re saved. Don’t have to worry about sin anymore. As long as you’re in this human body, the capacity is there. And isn’t it wonderful that Jesus loves you and me enough to say, I’m not going to leave you comfortless. I’m coming to you in the presence of the Holy Spirit. And as you walk with by him relying upon him in every given situation he will empower you and he will enable you to be the person I want you to be and to achieve the work I’ve called you to do. Now if you’re not saved and you’ve wondered about being a Christian and you’ve said I can’t do it we want to tell you my friend you’re absolutely right you can’t but you’ve heard how you can and your responsibility and mine is simply exercising faith in the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us, moment by moment, day by day. Salvation is a step. The Christian life is a walk. And they’re both successful on the basis of the same word, faith. Faith in Christ for His forgiveness. Faith in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit for His continuous enabling, moment by moment, day by day. And that’s why you and I don’t have to worry and fret about a lot of things that many other people do. Why? Because we know that we have someone on the inside of us who will see us through it. It may be tough. We may come through bloody. But we will come through victoriously. Because 1 John chapter 4 verse 4. He who is within us is greater than all those who are in the world. And the Bible says this is the victory that overcomes the world. the flesh and the devil, and the word is simply faith, trusting him. Father, we love you and praise you for making such a marvelous, wonderful, accessible, instantaneously accessible opportunity, power, and enablement through the Holy Spirit that will enable us to walk moment by moment in your love, in your grace, in your goodness, in your mercy, under your divine protection, in your provision, facing all the circumstances of life. I pray for those who are unsaved that right now they might be willing to confess their sins and by faith ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive them and simply say to him, I’m trusting you as my Savior, my Lord, and my life this very moment. I pray, Father, for those who are struggling with areas in their life that they know are disobedient. It may be some area of immorality. It may be something that has to do with drugs or drink or finances or relationships, whatever it might be. Would you just assure them today that through the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit, if they’re willing to rely upon Him, yield it to Him, trusting Him, You can rescue them this very moment out of that habit, no matter how evil it is. For you promised in your word that he that is within us is greater than all, not just persons and demonic powers, but things and habits and all else. He that is within us will enable us with the greatest strength and energy and power than all that’s in the world. We love you, we praise you, we thank you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

SPEAKER 01 : 20:28

Thank you for listening to The Holy Spirit, The Believer’s Walk. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.