Scripture: Galatians 5:16-25                                                                 
Sermon Series: Galatians – Set Free, Live Free – Sermon 15

It was on a hot July day in 1861 when two armies came to blows in the rolling hills of northern Virginia. The area southwest of Washington along the creek known as Bull Run was the scene of the first major conflict of the American Civil War. What made this battle noteworthy was that both the Northern and Southern armies knew the battle was going to take place long before it did. The area had been held for some time by the Confederate Army and there had been a growing cry in the northern media to do something about it.

What made it especially interesting was that people from Washington D.C. also knew it was coming, and they knew, that since security was so lax, when the battle would begin. So many of them prepared picnic lunches, dressed in their Sunday best, and rode carriages out into the Virginia countryside to have a relaxing lunch and watch the battle.

They discovered in a couple of hours that war wasn’t a recreational activity. The Union troops were defeated and began a hasty retreat toward Washington. Unfortunately, their way was blocked by picnickers who’d realized too late their naivete in attempting to turn war into an outing.

That hot day became a bloody, insane rout with civilians and soldiers competing for the narrow roads leading back to Washington and safety. The Battle of Bull Run woke up the Union government and people to the fact that war is serious. It’s not a picnic.

In the same way, many Christians have a naive approach about the spiritual battle every believer is engaged in. That’s what this passage in Galatians is about, Galatians 5:16-25 (p. 916). “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. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”.

From 1861 until 1865 America was torn apart by the bloodiest war in our history. We call it the Civil War, but there was nothing civil about it. “Civil war” is an oxymoron. The War Between the States was an uncivil war in which over 650,000 Americans were killed. That’s more deaths than World War I and World War II combined. It’s a miracle our nation survived.

Today we want to talk about another war. It’s an inner war and it’s also not civil. It’s The Uncivil War Within. You may not have known it, but when you committed your life to Christ, you were enlisted in a war. You soon realize that a war is raging within you. It’s between your two natures. We each have a sinful nature. We call it our human nature or the flesh. When you become a Christian, God places His Holy Spirit in your heart and gives you a new nature, and the fight is on. Our sinful nature is always pushing us toward sin. The Holy Spirit and our new nature are continually encouraging us toward holy living.

The Christian life is a battleground, not a playground. During World War II, the Allied forces were fighting one enemy, but we sent troops to the African front, the European front, and the Pacific front. In much the same way, spiritual warfare involves fighting one enemy on three fronts: the world, the flesh, and the devil. We don’t just have enemies out there. We have one inside, our old nature, the flesh. That’s Paul’s focus in Galatians 5.

The Galatians are now free from the Old Testament Law and legalism, but it’s not license. Just because you’re on your way to heaven, it doesn’t mean you can live like hell. Every believer knows this within their heart.

Sin is an inside job. When you sin, don’t blame the world or the devil. Often it’s your own sinful nature. James 1:14 says, Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Victory over your sinful nature is the key to having victory over the world and the devil.

If we tell someone that if they come to Christ, their problems are over, we’re lying. When you commit your life to Christ, the struggle isn’t over, but now you’re on the winning team. At salvation we’re given a supernatural resource, the Holy Spirit, who transforms us from the inside out. Today we want to talk about The Uncivil War Within and having victory. If you’re taking notes…

1. The war was launched at the New Birth, vss. 16-18. 

One of our little-known Presidents was Calvin Coolidge. He was known as “silent Cal,” because he was a man of few words. One day, Coolidge was walking home from church and reporters gathered around him asking, “What subject did the pastor preach on today?” Silent Cal gave them a single word answer, “Sin.” The reporter continued, “What did he say about sin?”  “He’s against it.”

A Christ-follower is someone who’s against sin, so there’s always going to be this tug of war. Paul Tripp wrote: “Scripture presents spiritual warfare not as the violent, bizarre end of the Christian life, but as what the Christian life is!”

One of the best ways to answer, “Am I really a Christian?” is to ask, “Do I struggle against sin?” Christians are human battlegrounds. But before you came to Christ, there’s not really a struggle. It’s like speeding, with no cop in sight, you’re just blowing down the highway. Before coming to Christ, you sin and don’t really feel that bad about it. After you come to Christ, there’s a desire within you to live in a way that pleases King Jesus. It’s a real battle.

A Christ-follower struggles with sin and temptation. A Christian isn’t perfect or who never struggles with temptation. A Christian is someone who regularly struggles with a tug of war within their soul. There’s no such thing as perfectionism. No one ever gets to the point where they can say, “I’m free.  I’m beyond sinning.” All of us still live in the flesh, which is the sin drive of our old life. As Pogo said, We have met the enemy, and he is us.

The key to victory over our old nature is the Holy Spirit. For a spiritual battle you need spiritual weaponry. Write down The Holy Spirit. This passage overflows with the Holy Spirit. He’s mentioned seven times. He’s our superpower who alone can wage war and defeat our old nature. Without His continual empowering within our lives, we’ll lose. So, coming to Christ begins this fight. The only way to grow spiritually is to fight the old nature.

The flesh is the Bible’s term to describe the believer’s capacity for sinning.We all have it. It’s something inherited from our parents, all the way back to Eden. Flesh is the word often used to describe our physical makeup, so we’re tempted to identify this inner struggle with something physical.

But the flesh here isn’t the physical. It’s part of that immaterial being we all have. That the works of our sinful flesh have a grip on us includes things like anger, lust or selfish ambition. Scripture teaches things about the flesh that help us identify it: Nothing good dwells in it (Romans 7:18). It’s characterized by impulse and slavery (Romans 7:25). It can never please God (Romans 8:8). Its behavior leads to physical death (Romans 8:13).

The flesh is the capacity each of us has to sin. It’s native to our fallen humanity. It doesn’t end when we’re born again. Our only hope is the regeneration that takes place at salvation because our flesh never improves. Jeremiah understood the evil of the heart: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9).

Victory comes with our spiritual walk.We must walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16). Walk in the Greek is in the present tense indicating that we’re to “keep on walking.” What’s walking? It’s a series of steps in the same direction over a long period of time. It means steady progress in one direction making deliberate forward decisions. To walk in the Spirit means to let your conduct be directed by the Holy Spirit. The only way to make progress in your spiritual life is by depending on the Spirit. You allow Him to guide every sphere of your life on a daily basis.

Most of us don’t get excited about walking. It’s slow compared to driving a car or flying in a plane. Sometimes it can be tedious, slow, dull and downright boring. But if you need to get from Point A to Point B, walking eventually gets you there. But you must start and not stop until you arrive at your destination.

The Bible doesn’t say “fly in the Spirit” or “jog in the Spirit.” It commands us to “walk in the Spirit.” It’s not ecstatic. But if you started in Chicago and had the time and strength, you could walk to Atlanta or even across Spain, like John Maguire. It will get you from where you are to where you need to be.

Walking is the perfect analogy of the Christian life. It describes the ordinary action of ordinary people in their ordinary routine. Paul uses walk 32 times in his letters. The key is in the Spirit He’s our power source. You can’t will yourself into doing the right thing. You must be dependent on the Spirit and Him working through you to be godly.

If you want to be totally exasperated spiritually, try to live a godly life with your own strength. Martin Luther did that. Despite all of his attempts to live a godly life, he still was tempted to sin and not just tempted. There were times he committed horrible sins. It made him worry that he wasn’t really a Christian. Maybe you’ve had doubts about your own salvation. Does your tendency to sin cause you to question whether you really know Jesus?

The verse that helped Luther most in his struggle is here. “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” (Galatians 5:17). Luther used this verse to encourage himself.

The flesh’s war against the Spirit is a constant conflict raging inside the believer’s heart. Our desires grapple with each other, like two giant sumo wrestlers trying to push the other out of the ring. It will always be our sinful nature against the regenerate one. The result is that we don’t always do what we want to do. Often we do the opposite. At the same time, walking in the Spirit prevents the flesh from winning and indulging in its sinful desires. 

2. The old enemy is the sinful flesh, vss. 19-21. 

Most are familiar with the list of the fruit of the Spirit. This is a “vice list,” detailing the acts of the sinful flesh. These are four areas typical of sinful excess. Verse 19 says the works of the flesh are evident. If we allow the flesh free reign, it’s obvious. Fifteen traits are mentioned. The best way to look at them is in four groups.

Sexual Sins.Sexual sin is so pervasive today that to live out biblical morality is considered weird, even in the Church. Christianity was born in a world where immorality was normal. In this post-Christian age, we’re back there. And it’s not just young people. Twice in the last month I’ve had conversations where a single senior citizen believer was urged to have sex. One was told that she’d never find a man unless she was willing to sleep with him first.

The share of adults who’ve lived with a romantic partner is now higher than the share of those who have ever been married. Most Americans find nothing wrong with cohabitation. Then, 61% of Americans view porn at least occasionally and more women are watching it. 62% of professing Christians don’t consider viewing porn harmful. My friend, if the flesh is in control, you’re susceptible to all kinds of sexual sins. The cost is high, not just spiritually but mentally and emotionally, too.

Superstitious Sins. Spiritual is today’s buzz word. No one wants to be called religious. John Calvin said, The human heart is a perpetual idol factory. Idolatry isn’t just a little Buddha. It’s anything that comes before God – marriage, children, grandchildren, job, hobby, even yourself. The Bible says that anything that replaces God on the throne of your heart is idolatry.

People who want nothing to do with Christianity, believe in the power of crystals and magic for psychic healing. Last week Netflix launched an astrology hub that will recommend content based on your zodiac sign. We are a superstitious culture.

Social Sins. Our old nature is characterized by “enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy.” Paul lists out eight sinful breakdowns in interpersonal relationships.

Have you read The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne? The story is about Hester Prynne who had a baby out of wedlock. To add to her public shame, she’s required to wear a garment with the letter, A for Adultery, on the front. It’s a tragic story of legalism, sin, and guilt.

Christians today talk a lot about the horribleness of LGBTQ+ sins. What would it be like if though if everyone who lost their temper or had fits of rage was required to wear a scarlet A for Anger on their shirt? Relational sins are vile, yet we typically consider them less evil than sexual ones. But sexual sins don’t usually destroy relationships or churches; social ones sure do.

Sensual Sins. Drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. Americans are infamous for self-medicating. The Bible doesn’t prohibit drinking but does prohibit drunkenness. We have functional alcoholics in our churches.

Orgies here isn’t sexual. It refers to any kind of uncontrolled behavior like a wild party. The corresponding spiritual fruit that’s its opposite is self-control.

If you think these are all that there is when it comes to the sins of the flesh, Paul continues with and things like these. That’s the sinful nature. It’s life without Jesus. But Paul’s not done. Now he really gets our attention.

Habitual sinners aren’t Christ-followers, As I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:21b). At this point you may be thinking, “Wow! I’ve committed lots if not all of those sins. Am I really a Christ-follower? Am I going to go to heaven?”

So, is Paul saying that one strike and you’re out? No. The word do in the Greek is a word which means to practice repeatedly or habitually.

Paul is simply saying, and he sounds like Jesus here, that if you’re in the habit of committing these sins, if that’s your pattern of life then you won’t inherit the Kingdom of God. God’s Kingdom is a kingdom of godliness yet if you want little to do with godliness, you’re not part of His Kingdom. To put it another way, if you don’t love God’s rules now, why would you want to go to heaven where His rules are always kept?

So, this is not saying you’ll lose your salvation if you commit any of these sins. It is saying that if you habitually practice such sins, it may show that you never had salvation in the first place.

Please hear me. We can’t judge someone’s salvation. That’s what Jesus said, Do not judge so that you will not be judged (Matthew 7:1). So, let me try to unpack this. We know Judas was an unbeliever but until he betrayed Jesus, we’d have thought he was a Christ-follower. But then there’s Lot in Genesis. He got drunk and had incestuous relationships with his daughters. Most would say, “He’s going to Hell!” but 2 Peter 2:7 says he was a righteous man.

So, we can’t judge. If someone habitually lives for the flesh, they need to check their spiritual temperature. The key question isn’t “Do you know Jesus?. The question in the Bible is: “Does Jesus know you?” (Matthew 7:21-23).

Let me try to unpack this. Later today you’re walking in town, crossing the street near a big mud puddle and somehow you stumble, fall and get all muddy. What do you do? Well, you’re deeply uncomfortable. So, you go home, take a shower and change clothes. You want out of those filthy clothes.

My grandfather raised pigs, so I know that if you let a pig near a mud hole, pigs love mud. We can bring the pig in, bathe it, even put perfume on it. It smells nice and it’s clean. But when you release the pig, what will the pig do? He’ll go right back to the mud hole. Here’s the point. The difference between a Christ-follower and a non-Christian is their habitual lifestyle.

Someone may occasionally fall in the mud, but they want to get out. It’s not their lifestyle. But no matter how much you clean up a pig, he’s heading back to the mud. It’s his lifestyle. It’s what this verse is saying. If you like to roll in the mud of sin, that seems to indicate you never were born again. You don’t have Christ in your life. You never believed in the first place.

3. The New Hero is the Holy Spirit and His Fruit

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness. gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23). Some Bible students suggest that the fruit of the Spirit is a picture of Jesus. If the fruit of the Spirit is love, Jesus loved as no one has ever loved before or since. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us (1 John 3:16). We’d never have known what love is if Jesus hadn’t demonstrated it in His life and ultimately on the cross. Then, Jesus spoke of My joy and peace remaining in you. Love, joy and peace were characteristics of our Lord’s life.

Don’t miss this – the source of this fruit is the Spirit, not human effort. When the Spirit works within us, He produces spiritual fruit. Fruit is singular. The Spirit produces fruit, not “fruits.” The Spirit’s fruit has nine virtues.  

The first three, love, joy, peace concern our relationship to God. God is our first love and first joy. Because of Him we’re at peace. The next triad, patience, kindness, goodness describe our relationship with people. We seek their best and put up with their worst. The final three, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control describe our relationship with ourselves. Because of the Spirit we’re able to master our passions, living out a godly lifestyle.

Notice it’s the works of the flesh, while the Spirit produces fruit. Fruit isn’t something made, manufactured or engineered. The fruit of the Spirit is only by divine enablement. Spiritual fruit is a living, organic process that takes place over time. Fruit doesn’t happen overnight. The Spirit produces fruit in a believer’s life. The only ones who can exhibit these traits are Christ-followers. They’re indwelt and empowered by the Spirit. These are all inner graces first that work out as external acts or behavior.

Remember it takes time for fruit to ripen. A new believer isn’t going to exhibit all this fruit overnight. While the Holy Spirit indwells every believer at the moment of salvation, He doesn’t have control over every part. It takes growth, time and continual surrender for full control.

Some think the test of how much control the Spirit has of their life is how much work they do for the church, or how many “Christian rules” they obey, or how many of the nasty works of the world they avoid. But the true test of the Spirit’s control of your life is how clearly the traits of “the fruit of the Spirit” are evidenced in daily living. Are they evidenced in your life?

Conclusion

John Piper wrote: “A Christian is not a person who experiences no bad desires. A Christian is a person who is at war with those desires. Conflict in your soul is not all bad. There is something worse than the war within between flesh and Spirit—namely, no war within because the flesh controls the citadel and all the outposts. Praise God for the war within! The Spirit has landed to do battle with the flesh. So take heart if your soul feels like a battlefield at times. The sign of whether you are indwelt by the Spirit is not that you have no bad desires, but that you are at war with them!”

Paul concludes with how to win and have a victorious Christian life. “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:24-25).

The old nature must be crucified. Paul swings back to the flesh and talks about its crucifixion. Those who belong to Jesus have crucified the flesh. When did we crucify the flesh? When we first committed our lives to Christ. We have a total reorientation of life where we say, “I’m done with sin and disobedience against God. I want Jesus as my King.” That’s repentance.

You’re counting your old nature, dead. Romans 6:12-13, “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, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” 

The Holy Spirit must be totally depended on. In World War II when Germany attacked Poland the battle was essentially won in a week. Poland was heavily outclassed militarily They only had one armored brigade to fight nine German Panzers. They still depended on horse calvary that charged against tanks and armored cars. They were defenseless with their swords and lances. The Poles were overwhelmed.

The kind of war which is waged determines the success of the weapons employed. Many Christ-followers live spiritually frustrated lives. They’re trying to fight spiritual battles with horses and calvary against tanks and armored vehicles. I know that I did.

Now we know we can’t save ourselves. We can’t move ourselves out of spiritual death. It’s totally an act of God. He moves us from spiritual death to spiritual life when we commit our lives to Christ. It’s all by God’s grace and we can do nothing. Yet, somehow when it comes to living for Jesus, living the Christian life, we think we have to do it, that it’s up to us.

So, I need a volunteer. Can you keep all the balloons up? No. But what if we had a balloon filled with a different “spirit”?

We can’t live for God. We must have His Spirit within us, empowering us. Just as much as you depend on Jesus to be born-again, you must depend on Him and the power of the Spirit to live for Him.

So, to walk by the Spirit takes dependence. It means to depend on the Spirit and not on our own flesh or worked up obedience. To depend means that I don’t live life in my own power. As I don’t have confidence in my ability to keep the balloons up, but my confidence, my dependence is in the Spirit of God who keeps my life up.

It’s as easy as A, B, C. D.

A is to Acknowledge that I can’t keep the balloons up in my life. Once you think you can, you won’t depend on the Holy Spirit, and you’ll fail.

B is to Believe. Believe that Christ lives in me by His Spirit and that His Spirit can enable me to live in God’s righteousness.

C is to Call upon God. As you pray in confidence, you step out in obedience. It’s not passive, you have to step out. The difference is depending on the Spirit’s power to do it, to trust and obey God in what He has told us to do.

D is to Depend. It’s to trust God, trust His Spirit. The word trust permeates Galatians. Paul writes in Galatians 2:20, The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God. So, the life I live now, I live by faith. I trust, I depend on Christ who lives in me by His Spirit. It’s as easy as A, B, C. D.   

Do you want a radically transformed life? You must first surrender to Jesus; admit you’re a sinner and trust that His death on the cross paid for all your sin.

Then, you live out His resurrection power by letting His Spirit produce spiritual fruit in your life.

What does everyone in the world want? The first three listed in the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy and peace. And what is our world missing…what is maybe your life missing? Love, joy and peace.

Do you want love, joy and peace? It begins first with surrendering your life to the Lord Jesus. If you haven’t, will you surrender to the Lord Jesus today? Will you commit your life to Him as your Lord and Savior? And then, will you live and depend on the Holy Spirit?