Paul’s Letter to the Gauls (Galatians) – Chapter 5

By having the exercise and experience of walking in that realm, the spirit grows, and in the growth of the spirit, there is the diminishing of the desires or the power…I’m going to call it the power of the flesh. Learn to walk in the Spirit. Come to Atlanta this summer; we will get practical about it. Learn to find the other realm and walk there, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. Have you ever been in the flesh while you were in Spirit? Have you ever been in the flesh while you’re in Spirit? Absolutely impossible. It can’t be done. That’s like being in heaven and hell at the same time. You can’t do that, saints. Well, when you’re tempted to be in the flesh, what do you do? Make a beeline for your spirit. That doesn’t work too well and works very rarely, but sometimes we can report such an incident. The best thing to do is to spend a little time walking around in that realm every day, and that is your best guarantee that you will not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.

Now then, verse 17, and this is really exciting. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. Now, it doesn’t say the spirit lusts against the flesh. It says the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, but the implication here is that the spirit lusts against the flesh. Now, you wouldn’t think of the spirit as lusting, would you? Because it’s an ugly negative connotation. So, I’m going to change that a little bit and say the flesh lusts against the spirit, or I will say the flesh desires against the spirit and the spirit desires against the flesh. What in the world are they desiring? Do you have any ideas? Audience: Dominion?

Dominion…yeah, but that’s no good. That doesn’t tell me anything in the world. What are they both? Yes, brother. Will you stand up, brother, and do that where we can all see it? You don’t have to say a thing. Just do it. That’s right. That’s what the flesh is after: You. And that’s what the spirit is after, and they battle one another. We have spirit. We have flesh. We have soul…and that’s you. The spirit is taking over the realm of the human. The flesh wants to, and they battle. You don’t stand a prayer. I mean, take a choice. You don’t stand a prayer. You’re outclassed. In your flesh dwells a living thing that is more powerful than you are – sin. And in your spirit dwells the living God, Jesus Christ, and His Holy Spirit. You’re outclassed. One way or the other, friend, you’re outclassed. Either way, you are outclassed. Choose who you want to win. One of them is going to get over there and walk in this realm, or get over there and walk in that realm. You will be conquered.

Now, I want you to watch the most un-legalistic man in the whole world. And by the way, I really wish we had the opportunity here to spend some time on experiential things about walking in the spirit, and I will try to give you a little at the end of this message. If you walk in, if you are led by, if you live in, if you experience and grow in the other realm, if the Spirit leads you, you’re not under law. He did not say you are not under flesh. He said you are not under law. If you are not under law, you are not as vulnerable to the flesh. I’m going to illustrate this one more time.

Let’s say that we’re walking down Fifth Avenue in New York. They got some of the longest blocks in the world. Beautiful, beautiful part of the city. Showrooms with exotic gifts, exotic furs, dresses, and suits in them, and you’re watching, and you’ve gone now, you may have walked a mile just enjoying the showroom windows, and then you come to one glass pane that says, “Do not throw a brick through this window.” It has never occurred to you during all this time to sin. You have just been enjoying the view, walking down the street, when you come to a window that reads, “Do not throw a brick through this window.” Now, I’m telling you, I’m not asking you, what is your first impulse? If you were going to insure every window on that street but one, which one would you pick not to ensure? It is so obvious what you’re going to do, or somebody is going to pick up a brick and put it through that window. That’s the law that provokes sin, but if the Spirit leads you, you’re not under the law, and that provocation to throw the brick through that particular window, you have been delivered from it. Isn’t that wonderful?

Now, brothers and sisters, here is Christianity at its best – verse 19. Paul says, “Okay, you’re new Christians. I’m just going to make it really simple for you. I want to tell you what the works and the deeds of the flesh are.” And he gives you a list. Sexual immorality, impurity, living by your five senses, worshiping idols, witchcraft, which would include drugs, enmities, strife, jealousy, and you know, at this point, I’m rather surprised. I see a switch in the list after sorcery. Do you? I do. Enmity, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger. Some of that surprises me. Outburst of anger doesn’t seem to me to belong under the flesh. I’m dead serious. Every one of us has had an outburst of anger, but I want you to remember that at the end of this list it says, ‘those who continue in it.’ I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, we live in the flesh when we have no control over our temper, when it just happens again and again and again.

Now I see another list, another switch in the list. I don’t know what they are, but I can feel them. Can you feel it with me? Immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery. He starts with the worst ones. Disputes, dissensions, factions, enmity, envy, and the last two seem to me belong at the top of the list. I think Paul had another one of those, ‘Wait a minute. I left out a couple.’ The drunkenness and carousing, and then he says in such a way, and that’s for your conscience to tell you. Now these are the deeds of the flesh. Do you notice that he does not say “Do not do these things.” Neither does he lay down a law that says, “These things are not to be done.” Here is the difference between the Christian and the Old Testament Jew. The Old Testament Jew got a list of outward things. You, dear friend, are given a peek at inward things. Not the mouth of the river, but the source of the river. Not the outward dos and don’ts, but a living creature. Sin dwells in your flesh. That’s the New Testament. Sin livingly dwells in your flesh. Has no place in your spirit, fights to gain hold in your soul, and thereby takes you from Christ, and its instrument is the law. Paul is doing away with the law and telling you to look at this thing not from an outward list, but spiritually. Look at it spiritually. Look at sin working in your flesh, and these are the things that sin, working in your flesh, does. Immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, drunkenness, carousing, backbiting, envy, strife, outbursts of temper, party spirit, and a few other things like that.

Now, brothers and sisters, walk in the Spirit so you will not give the flesh opportunity for these things. That is so beautiful. Maybe it’s not to you, but to me it’s so beautiful. There is no command here not to do these things, even though you are not supposed to do them, and it is quite evident, but there’s no rule laid down. He lists the things that the flesh does, and he says, “You are not in the flesh nor of the flesh. You are of the Spirit.” But if anyone is not informed as to what they are, here they are. The Ten Commandments don’t read like this at all. The Ten Commandments say, “Obey the Sabbath.” The Ten Commandments say, “Do not steal.” The Ten Commandments…what else do the Ten Commandments say? “Honor your father and mother.” Things like that, and it also says do not commit adultery, but its list of negatives is not as long. When you walk up to those commandments, all you can see is black and white rules and things to do and not to do. Pick and choose. Some of that’s flesh. Some of that soul. Some of it, you don’t know what it is, but here you are given the source. Here you are shown the place from which the wrong things come. The things of death come. The things of another life form. Angelic fallen sinful nature. The rebellion of an archangel. It comes. Having indwelled your flesh, it comes from your flesh.

I would say to you, as a believer, just read that list once, get a good fix on it, and know that it is a spiritual list from other realms. It originated in rebellion at the throne of God. It is a spiritual thing. There is something of other realms brought into you from a spiritual being, a fallen angel. Sin was put into you through the fall, and this is where it is now close at hand in your life, but also close at hand in your life is another form of Life, higher than angels, higher than sin, and it is the Life of the Living God, the Father Himself, who is a Christian.

Well, again, this will get a little clearer as we go along. I warned you before; I warn you now. Those who practice these things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Do you have any idea what that means? Do you have any idea what that means? If you do this, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do you know what that means? Do you know what it means? You don’t know what that means. Not really. Honestly, theologically, you could not answer the question of what that means. Neither can I. I don’t have the foggiest idea what that means. I mean, I can bluff, but I don’t really know what that means, and it makes me nervous. If I practice doing that list, I’m not going to inherit the kingdom. Now, I’m a Baptist who believes in once saved always saved, but I’m also a Christian who knows that if I do those things, I will not inherit the kingdom of God. Does that mean I’m going to go to hell? It didn’t say I’m going to go to hell; it said I’m not going to inherit the kingdom of God. Babs, what does that mean? Does it mean that if I don’t inherit the kingdom of God, I go to hell? Audience: The kingdom is within you.

I’m not going to have the kingdom within me. Now, I love that; that’s beautiful. I have no idea what it means, but I don’t intend, I don’t, Lord, I don’t want to be left out. I’m a spirit being, and I come from another realm. My citizenship is in another realm. I have God’s life living in me. I have all the opportunities. I have utter and total freedom from law and all rules and regulations, but there’s a list of things going on in my flesh that have nothing to do with law. These are living things. Got nothing to do with rules. They exist as humans exist. There are living things going on in my flesh. Living. They are not laws. They are not rules. They are living. If I practice them…if I continually practice…if I keep on practicing them, I’m not going to inherit the kingdom of God.

Y’all do me a favor. Don’t let me get away with that. I ask you publicly, don’t let me get away with that. As a member of the body of Christ, don’t let me do that. Help me. Don’t let me do that. Keep showing me my spirit. Encourage me in my spirit. Keep reminding me how to be in my spirit. Tell me how you’ve been in your spirit. Remind me that I am in my spirit and that I am in His Spirit and I am in Him. I’m just going to wrap this up in one very simple sentence. Here’s a list of things. Read it once and know that those are living things in you that you should not do, and forget all the laws in the universe. Your instincts, your spiritual instincts, know what those things are. You don’t need any man to teach you. You know. If you don’t know any other way, you know how you can know? Ask the world. Even the world says that’s sin. Even the atheist will say that’s wrong, and if you’re dumber than an atheist, I can’t help you.