Flesh or Spirit 1975

Romans 8, 5 and 6. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death.

But to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. Usually, when we hear the term flesh, we tend to think of X-rated movies, immorality, gluttony, passion and violence. No one can deny that all those things are indeed works of the flesh.

But whenever the term flesh is found in the New Testament, it is invariably connected with a message which is addressed not to gluttons or prostitutes or drunkards, but to people who outwardly appear to be very much taken up with spiritual things. Jesus didn't talk to the woman at the well about the difference between flesh and spirit without giving this woman any lectures about her moral life on which he indeed did put his finger as a statement of fact. Jesus offers her living water.

He doesn't have to tell her that she's in bondage to the flesh. She already knows it. And so he opens the door to the kingdom of spirit and offers to this woman living water so she'll never have to thirst again.

But when Jesus talks to Nicodemus, this teacher of Israel, this apparently upright man who knows his scriptures from A to Z, to this man, Jesus, hits hard at the difference between flesh and spirit. Because beneath the facade of vast scriptural knowledge and good works, Nicodemus is also imprisoned in the kingdom of the flesh. And the fact that he doesn't realize it makes him far worse off than the woman at the well.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh. Never mind how good it looks, or how together it seems, or how wise it sounds, if flesh still rules that heart. It cannot see, much less enter the kingdom of God.

Only that which is born of the spirit and is in the spirit can move in the realm of God's kingdom and spirit. So Nicodemus, you, for all your knowledge of scripture and all your reputation as a teacher in Israel and an upright man, must be born again. Another thought that flashes across the mind when we hear the term flesh is fun.

Flesh means things that are fun, while spirit means things that are dull. But when Paul wrote to the people in Galatia as people who had departed from the realm of spirit and had sunk back into the kingdom of flesh, he was not writing to people who were having fun. He was writing to people who had become enslaved.

They weren't having any fun in Galatia. They were becoming gloomier by the day. The joy of God which they once had, that river of life which once flowed over them from the cross of the Lord, was gone.

And now they were nothing but a bunch of religious snobs fighting and devouring each other. They were measuring one another's lives. According to religious standards which men with divisive spirits had imposed upon them.

And so they were setting up rules, they were requiring circumcision, they were trying to justify themselves before God by the works of the law. Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified, let me ask you only this. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are you now ending in the flesh? And even when we finally get to the place where we admit that there is such a battle going on in our own lives between flesh and spirit, we still try to remain neutral.

You know, we'll jump right in and hack away at the battle going on in somebody else's life. But when it comes to the battle that's going on in our lives, we try to minimize this thing. We don't take it seriously, we don't consider ourselves in any serious danger.

And yet, the crux of every single problem we face in our personal lives and in our corporate life is this war going on between flesh and spirit. And remember, the more religious you become and the more spiritual you seem to be, the deadlier the war gets. Don't think that because you're born again, the battle is over.

My friend, it's only begun. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these two are opposed to each other so that you cannot do what you would.

Now, the only way that we can win the battle on the side of spirit is to begin by recognizing flesh for what it is. Flesh is not just your body, and it's not just your lower inclinations. Flesh is found especially in your higher inclinations, bringing them right down to the dust.

Flesh is simply self, disconnected from God. In me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Flesh is me.

All for my own, up there ahead of Christ. The minute I begin to assert self in any way, all my insights, deep and spiritual as they may seem to be, turn to death, both for me and for anybody else I touch. And don't think that because you read your Bible and say your prayers that you're all set, that you have flesh under the control.

Now, I agree, we need to read our Bibles and say our prayers all the time, but if while you're reading your Bible and saying your prayers, you're still all wrapped up in yourself, scheming, worrying, planning your next self-campaign in the home, or at work, or in the body, then even while you're praying, you're in the flesh, and you know it, and God knows it. When Peter said to Jesus, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, then he was in the spirit. See, at that point, Peter was lost in the apprehension of who Jesus was.

He had forgotten himself. But immediately after this, when Peter has to take Jesus aside and presumptuously rebukes Jesus for even mentioning such a thing as going to Jerusalem to die, Peter's right back into Peter himself. And then Jesus has to turn around and say to Peter, Get behind me, Satan.

You're a hindrance to me. You're not on the side of God, but of men. And the next words that Jesus speaks to his disciples are these, and mark them well, because they're connected, and they apply to us.

If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and don't even think of trying to do anything else for me until you are ready to deny yourself. Sometimes we're like those Galatians. We start out in the spirit, and we're running well.

And we have insight, and we have vision, compassion moving straight down from heaven, and authority of all kinds moving in our ministries and our lives, and then we slip back into self. Only this time, we're back into religious self, and we're very conscious of our spiritual destiny. Now we're God's secret weapon.

We're God's special agent, unaware of the fact that we have allowed ourselves to become the opposite. In fact, a weapon in the very hands. Now there's only one thing to do with flesh, and that's kill it.

If you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of a body which grow out of self, you will live. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with his passions and desires.

And don't pretend that you don't realize what you're doing, that you're really serving yourself, when you're going around acting like you're serving God and brothers and sisters. You know what you're doing. You know when you're on a flesh trip, and if you don't repent, then God has to teach you the hard way.

See, if we keep this pretense up too long, this pretense that we're in the spirit, when we're actually in the flesh, pretty soon we believe it ourselves, and we don't even know the difference. And then, in his time, God has to allow somebody to cross our path who doesn't appreciate how spiritual we are, and what happens? We seethe with rage. And then some brothers and sisters hurt our feelings, and we sulk for weeks.

And then we're ignored, and we have to go around setting fires to get some attention. And then, we wonder where this all came from. But what these fleshly responses that have popped up out of nowhere, from our own hearts, indicate where we were all along.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. We're much too easy on the flesh, and we can't afford to be. Jesus isn't.

The instant he catches the flesh coming up in Peter, he deals with it. And when James and John want those seats at the right hand and on the left, Jesus immediately holds up before them the cup of death. And when Paul gets wind of flesh getting in anywhere and starting to tangle up and mislead the saints, he's right there with strong words.

God help us to crucify the flesh, and to accept those blows to our egos. Ask from him, and to set our minds on the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.

But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. And to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. To set the mind on the Spirit is to set the heart on pleasing God and no one else.

So I'm no longer trying to prove my rightness. No longer trying to defend self. No longer trying to make things go my way under a cover of religious sanction.

No longer trying to impress brother so-and-so or sister so-and-so. All I want to do now is the will of my Heavenly Father. And until we learn that lesson of denying self all the way, and only living for God, truly in our hearts, we will never please God.

Until we learn that lesson. We'll be running around all our lives doing spiritual things. Impressing people who are like we, locked in the kingdom of flesh.

Building on a foundation of sand. And it will all have to come down, and it will. God holds each of us responsible to know the difference between flesh and Spirit.

Any teaching, or any man, or even an angel that appears that it came out of heaven, misleads us and takes us off into the kingdom of flesh. We have no one to blame but ourselves. For the Spirit of God, who is among us, is quite able to lead us in the right way, if we're willing to be led by Him, and by Him alone.

So, Lord God, we ask that the vision we all need of this deadly warfare that goes on in every one of our lives, and also that goes on in the body, may be seen and understood by each of us. And Lord God, we pray that wherever any of us, in any way, have been adding weight and force to the kingdom of the flesh, and the enemy, the father of lies, on top of it, that we may be brought to true repentance even this day. And where, in any way, we have been misled by things that are flesh, strictly flesh, that we may be enlightened and may turn, and that the Spirit, who brings us only to Jesus, and through Jesus to you, Lord God, Father, may indeed be our only guide, now and forevermore.

Amen.