The Troublemaker Within Us - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, October 3rd. Today we look at the struggle believers have to live a truly transformed life. Let's learn why we struggle and how God equips us to win. I used to wonder if the Christian life really and truly worked. I don't mean I wondered that as soon as I was saved. I even wondered that after I'd been a pastor for a while. Because I would look at the Scripture now and look at my life. And they didn't always match.

It wasn't because I didn't wanted it to match. It was somehow I didn't understand how do I live this Christian life. With all the difficulties and the hardships and the trials and the temptations, how do I do it? I want you to turn, if you will, to Galatians chapter five. Galatians chapter five, the apostle Paul has been talking about the freedom that we have in our life once we trust the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. And so one of the things he says in this thirteenth verse, he gives a little warning of his fifth chapter. He says, For you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Then beginning in verse sixteen he says, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.

For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, Indians, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live with the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. And so I want to begin by simply defining what the flesh is, because usually when people think of flesh, they think of this, you know, our skin, blood vessels, and so forth. This is the flesh. And certainly Paul uses the word flesh to indicate that sometimes, but he also uses it to indicate a spiritual truth.

So what is it that he means when he says the flesh? Well, let me remind you that when you not trusted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, He saved us, He forgave us of all of our sins. He broke the power of sin in our life. He redeemed us, as he says, sanctified us. He justified us, declared us no longer guilty. He wrote our name in the Lamb's Book of Life.

We are forever His children. But still remaining in us is something that we all have to acknowledge. We still have a propensity towards sin.

There is something within us that still leans in that direction at times. Somehow within us, there are desires that crop up within us that we know do not fit who we are as children of God. And so when we think about what that is, some people call it an old sin nature. Some people call it propensity to sin. Whatever people call it the truth as the Scripture says, you and I have within us those desires that we're going to be there for the rest of our lives.

And that is things that come and go. It isn't who we are. That is, we have a new nature and so our desire is to be obedient to God. We want to do what's right. We try to do what's right. And yet in spite of that, there are those times we have this desire to do what we know is not right.

Where did that come from? Well, it's part of our inherited nature from Adam. We came into this world. We came into this world, every single one of us, with an old sin nature. That sin nature works every bit the best it can in order to do what?

To detract us from God, move us away from God, distract us from those things that are godly and holy, to upset us in our Christian walk, to detract us in our relationship and our mind upon Him. And so we have within us this propensity, this leaning, this yearning at times that causes us to want to do the wrong thing. Now, let me say this about it. We inherited it. It isn't something we chose.

But let me remind you of this. You cannot clean it up. You cannot change it. You can't wash it away. You can't pray it away. You can't repent it away. You cannot educate it. You cannot eradicate it. It is there as long as you and I live.

Somebody says, well, that is very encouraging. Well, I'm just telling you the truth. It's there. It's going to be there. It'll always be there.

As long as you and I are living in these bodies of ours, it's going to be there. God, listen, when He sent the Holy Spirit, He broke sin's power. He broke the power of the flesh. But, when you and I agree with these attitudes that we have, then we find ourselves in trouble. And so, when Paul uses the term flesh here, what he's referring to, he's referring to that thing within us, whatever you want to call it, that attitude, that longing, that yearning for those things that you and I know do not fit him. Now, all of us have it and it affects every single aspect of our life. It affects the way we think. It affects the way we feel. It affects our relationships with other people.

Every aspect of our life is affected by it. And so, whatever this is we call the flesh, this propensity towards sin, this inherited corruption that we got from Adam, there is something within us that still has yearnings and desires to be disobedient to God. Now, remember this. When you were saved, the Holy Spirit came in. Before that, you had flesh, every person's got it.

So now, we have a problem. We have the flesh, this tendency towards sin. But all of a sudden, now we have the Holy Spirit who would lead us to live a godly life. So instantaneously, this warfare starts in our life. This is why you look at the unbelieving world and you think, well, they seem to be doing very well and they don't seem to be upset and they live like the devil and seem, does not bother them.

You know why? Because listen, the only war that could go on inside of them is the war in their conscience. Now, you can have a conscience without having the Holy Spirit.

Your conscience may nudge you about some things depending upon the way you grew up and what you were taught. But when you have the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is going to convict you of sin. Now, He's not going to say, ah, that was bad.

He doesn't operate that way. He doesn't say you're not a good person. He says lying is sin. He says cheating is sin. Adultery, fornication is sin. He's stealing is sin. Gossip is sin. Laziness is sin. Slothfulness is sin.

So He always identifies it. So when we look immediately at this passage of Scripture, we know we're going to have a conflict here. So look at this, if you will, in the sixteenth verse. But I say, walk with the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires or the lust of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. That is, you cannot live the Christian life in your strength.

I can remember this very moment where I was, the very moment in my life when I realized for the first time, you know what? I can't live the Christian life. I've been struggling, trying, fasting, praying, pleading, confessing, repenting. The truth is, I can't live it. It's not in me. I can't do it.

That was a moment of partial freedom when I realized, you know what? You might as well give up because you can't live the Christian life, and neither can you. You say, well, now, but my pastor told me I could. No, he didn't. If he believes the Word of God, you cannot live the Christian life in your own strength.

You cannot do it. Look what he said in this passage. He says, for the flesh sets its desires against the Spirit.

We've got warfare. And the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. You cannot live a godly life in your own strength.

It's impossible. Now, I want you to turn to the eighth chapter of Romans here because Paul describes it even more thoroughly here when he speaks of this whole idea of the effect of the flesh in our life. If you'll notice here, beginning in verse five. Now, watch this.

Very important you follow closely because, listen, I'm not talking about something that may happen to you one of these days. I'm talking about something you have to deal with this very moment because you could be sitting here saying, I sure am hungry. That is pure flesh. You're listening to the Word of God, and if you're thinking about anything else, it's flesh.

Now, watch this. Beginning in verse five. For those who are according to the flesh, that means those who are allowing their life to be run, to be dictated by, by the flesh. Those who are according to the flesh set their mind on the things of the flesh. But those who are according to, that is living by, governed by the Holy Spirit, they think about the things of the Spirit.

So you can divide everything up into one of two things. It's either spiritual or fleshly. Now, you don't go around just trying to figure out, well, is that flesh, that spirit?

No. The Spirit of God within you is going to dictate to you, is going to indicate to you what is of the flesh and what is of the Spirit. What I want you to see is this. He says those who live after, who follow after the flesh, they've set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those of us who set our minds on the Spirit, we desire to walk after the Spirit, to live after the dictates, the guidance, the direction of the Holy Spirit. Verse six, for the mind set on the flesh is death.

What does that mean? That is when we set our mind on things that are of the flesh, those sinful attitudes and ideas and habits and conduct and life, He says it's death to the things of God. I don't have to tell you that when you are living in sin, when you're disobeying God, when you get down to pray, you cannot tell me you feel this awesome sense of oneness with God.

You cannot. You can fudge, you can rationalize, you can pray all you want to if things aren't right. Because your sin has done what? Your sin has hindered your relationship to God. You can't live in the flesh, that is, you can't live after the flesh and follow the dictates of the flesh and be right with God.

Because it's totally opposite. And so notice what He says. He says now for the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. That is, when you and I are walking after the Spirit, obeying Him, there's going to be a sense of peace in our heart and our life begins to be enjoyable. Look, verse seven, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God. For it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it's not even able to do so. Now look, He says when you and I are yielding to sin, yielding to our old propensity towards Him, yielding to our fleshly desires to sin, He says what's happening is He says those attitudes and those actions are hostility before God.

What's He mean? Simply this, that in this warfare going on inside of us, when we yield to sin, what we've done is we have hindered our relationship to Him, hindered our response to Him, hindered what we were being able to hear from God. We have damaged ourselves personally when we yield to sin.

Now notice what He says though. He says because the mind set on the flesh, that is when you're tempted to do something and you begin to think about it, it begins to grow in you. Your mind set on the flesh is hostility toward God.

You are about to commit an act. You are spending your time thinking about something, listen, that is obnoxious to God, that God knows is going to bring hurt and harm in your life and He loves you unconditionally and doesn't want that in your life. Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, it does not subject itself to the law of God, that is, listen, when you and I are, listen, we are following the flesh, we are living in rebellion toward God.

Look what He said, we'll not subject itself to the law of God, it's not even able to do so. That is, our flesh is not going to change. Now watch this, it has nothing to do with age. Your flesh, you can mark this down, I can speak from experience, your flesh is just as strong no matter what your age, whether you are twelve or ninety, it's still there.

That does not mean that the intensity of it will be the same everywhere. Because now watch this, every single one of us has a or weaknesses in certain areas of our life. And any person who says, well I don't have any weaknesses in my life, you are about to tumble. Because every single one of us has our weaknesses.

Our flesh knows exactly where to hit us and exactly when to do it. There are moments in our life, seasons, times in our life when we are weaker than others. And so when the flesh can dominate, you see the flesh always desires to dominate. That is that propensity toward sin, that something within us that longs and yearns for us to walk away from God, turn our back on God, do those things that are disobedient to God.

It's always there. And so he says, look, it's hostility. Verse eight, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Now watch this, however you're not in the flesh but in the Spirit if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. Now what he's simply saying is, what he means thereby in the flesh is this, a lost person is in the flesh.

That's the only thing they can be. They're living by their naturalness, by their unredeemed humanness. They're doing the natural things and so this is why they can live in sin and feel all right. Now they may have a tinge of conscience, depends on as we said before the way they were brought up. But when people are brought up, you just think about how many kids today, how many young people today are brought up in a godly home where God sharpens their and makes sensitive their conscience by the teaching of the Word of God since so many of them grew up with ungodly parents.

Don't go to Sunday school, don't go to church, don't hear the Word of God. Their conscience is as numb as it can possibly be and so they can do things, even take somebody's life and have absolutely little or no conscience about it and wonder why you and I get upset. And they think those of us who are believers and live by the Word of God and want to do what's right and talk about holy living and righteousness and obedience to God, they think what in the world's all that about?

You know why? Because if you do not know Christ as your Savior, you do not understand. And all the rationalization of the world not get you accepted in the eyes of God just because you choose not to believe. And so what he's saying, he says, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Absolutely impossible. What does that say? When your friend says to you, well now, I'm not a Christian, but I pray. God hears my prayer. The only prayer God hears from one without Christ is a prayer, a plea for forgiveness of sin based on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there are lots of people pray, but you know what?

They live like the devil today and pray tomorrow or tonight. Or let's say, now watch this carefully, listen and say amen. Because I want to show you something in a moment, something that is very deceptive about the flesh, extremely deceptive.

And there are lots of people who are very deceived by it, they think, well, I don't do this and I don't do that and I don't do the other. And you mean to tell me that God's not pleased with me? No, He's not. Because you're deceived without Him.

Now watch this. He says, now however, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn't belong to Him. Now listen, either this book is the Word of God and it's true or it's not true. It is absolutely true from beginning to end. And the Scripture simply says, if the Spirit of God is not in you, you're not of God.

Listen, He says, you do not belong to Him. Now look over here within the seventh chapter of Romans and look at verse eighteen. Here's the apostle Paul now, one of God's greatest servants who's ever lived. What kind of problem did he have with the flesh?

Sounds just like us. Watch this, beginning in verse eighteen. For I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh, but the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not, but the good that I want I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. Ever felt that away?

Every single one of us has. Well, what is that? That is nothing less than the flesh itself. And so when Paul is describing the nature of it here, he simply says, look, this is the way it operates in your life.

This is what you can expect. This is what happens when you and I begin to understand what is this flesh all about. As we said, it's unchanging, cannot educate it, cannot eradicate it. It doesn't go away with age. It's always there. And I think if you meet anybody, no matter what their age may be, they will say, yes, there are those times when I feel very tempted or whatever it might be.

It will always be there. Now, we sin, we get in the flesh because, listen, we are tempted by something and we choose to yield. We don't have to. You say, well, do you ever reach a stage you don't?

It's not going to happen. Long as we're in these fleshly bodies of ours, we're going to hit those moments of weakness and frailty and we're going to yield. The difference is we deal with it.

We know it doesn't fit us. We step out of that back into the Holy Spirit. So how long does it take you to get from the spirit of the flesh? Well, it takes you just a thought if you choose to follow that thought.

How long does it take you to get from the flesh back in the spirit? Father, thank you for showing me that was not right. Forgive me of my sin. I truly repent of that, God.

You're on. God isn't going to say, because you sinned, well, well, well, well, now let's stir that up and you've got to just feel bad enough and you have enough pity party and you've got to wallow in that long enough until I think you deserve to be forgiven. You know why I know that I'm instantaneously forgiven? The cross. He took our sin dead and full once and for all of the cross. I don't have to wallow around in sin rather to step back into relationship with God because He says the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, is continually cleansing us from all sin. Thank you for listening to The Troublemaker Within Us. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.