“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Gal. 5:17
Our flesh or sin nature has lusts. Lust is simply an intense desire. The lusts of the flesh are against the desires of the spiritual birth. Consequently, there is a warfare between the old sin nature and the new nature or spiritual birth. This battle is what is happening in the Christian life. The nature that will win this battle is the one that is strongest, and the one that is strongest is the one you feed. You feed the flesh by watching and listening to sinful activities. You feed the spirit by going to church, praying, studying the Bible, and sharing the plan of salvation with the lost.
Whether the flesh or spirit wins the battle for your mind, such as it is, makes no difference whatever as to where you will go when you die. That battle is already over and Christ has won. The only thing that is required of us to go to heaven is that we must believe that God the Father’s death, burial, and resurrection is all that is required to get us to heaven, and that Jesus will never cast us out or lose us, because He is keeping us unto salvation by His own power.
Whether we have victory in the Christian life does not have anything to do with our going to heaven, however, whether we live the victorious Christian life or not has everything to do with whether or not we influence others to trust Christ so they can go to heaven.
Victory in the Christian life has nothing to do with the stopping of doing sinful things. It is all about starting to do godly things. Take the example of a hammer lying on a work bench. It does not lie, cheat, steal, smoke, or cuss. It does not commit fornication or murder, but it is not the least bit spiritual. Spirituality is simply walking in obedience to God.
Being controlled by the flesh will bring drunkenness, fornication, wrath, strife, murder, and a host of other things all of which are bad; but being controlled by the Spirit will bring love, joy, peace, and a bunch of other things all of which a great!
Dr. Jerry Lloyd
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16
Summary and Review
The first step of sin is hearing or listening to evil. The second step of sin is seeing evil. After you hear and see evil, then you begin thinking about evil. The third step of sin is thinking about evil, and then we start talking about the wrong things. The fourth step of sin is talking about evil. After we begin talking about sinful things, then we soon develop a desire for sinful things, so the next step of sin is lust. The fifth step of sin is lust.
Continuing Downward
We have digressed to the fifth step of sin, yet there has been no real action of sin. To be sure, each one of these steps are sinful, and choices all of these steps are evil sinful choices, but we have not yet begun to participate in the things we hear, see, think about, and talk about.
Actually, these steps of sin do not necessarily come in the order in which we have them listed, but this is a logical digression, and many times they digress very rapidly to lust. The reason for that is lust is literally inbred in us. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life are of the world according to I John 2:15-17:
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
“And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
The Lust of the Flesh
The old sinful nature which has the sinful lusts is that with which we are born.
Dissatisfaction-Sign of Control by the Flesh
The flesh is never satisfied. Once you expose it to some form of sin through seeing and hearing evil, it will always desire those sinful things.
Only Solution to Dissatisfaction
Therefore, it is very important to be careful little eyes what you see, and be careful little ears what you hear. That is what feeds our flesh birth. Actually, our old nature is fed by all five senses, seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and feeling, but about 95% of what feeds the flesh comes through the eyes, and 3% comes through what we hear with only 2% coming from the other three senses. Yet some have become enslaved by the feeling, tasting, and even smelling.
Remember, once you expose your old sin nature to some form of sin, it will always desire that sin. Those desires can decrease in strength by starving the flesh birth, but it will always desire the same degree of degradation as the depth to which you have exposed it. So if you dedicate yourself to the Lord, and become obedient by feeding the spirit and starving the flesh, if you ever backslide, your flesh will take you right back to where you left off in your degradation. And, while the flesh will always desire those things to which we have exposed it, it will never be satisfied by what it gets. It will always want the next step of sin.
For 43 years Al Capp used to have a comic strip in the newspaper about Lil Abner and Daisy Mae. One time in the cartoon there were a bunch of cattle that invaded Dogpatch, where they lived, and they were eating everything. Finally, they came up with a plan to get rid of the beasts. So they got everybody in town to bake coconut macaroons. These macaroons were so delicious that the more they ate, the more they wanted, and the more they wanted, the hungrier they got and the skinnier they got until they finally got so skinny that a breeze blew them all away.
That is a lot like our flesh It will devour everything in our life if we allow it to. The more you try to satisfy the flesh, the more it desires. The more you work at trying to satisfy the flesh, the weaker you get, spiritually, until your life, which God says is like a vapor, will simply blow away. James 4:14 asks, “What is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away,” and “Ecclesiastes 5:16 asks: “What profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?”
“I labored long and hard to try and win the wind.
That that was worth winning, I grasped with hand and them
It slipped right through my fingers, and traveled on its way,
And though the wind came to me, I could not make it stay.
I tried again to hold it- the wind within my grasp,
But once again I lost it as through my hands it passed.
I strove with all my might to tame this taunting task.
I finally fell exhausted-a broken man at last-
Beaten by the invisible-I could not even begin
To understand this power that had broken me-the wind.”
All the work and gains you have made in your effort to please your flesh will, eventually, be lost. That, of course, will be when you get to heaven, if you are a believer.
Ecclesiastes puts it this way in verse 15: “As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.”
Numbers 11 says, “The mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, ‘Who shall give us flesh to eat?’” This was the lust of the flesh.
Verse 5-“We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:
Verse 6-But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.”
Manna was bread from heaven. The Bible actually calls it the food of the angels, and I suppose you could say that the lust of the flesh was of the devil. So God offered them angel food cake, but they desired devil’s food cake.
Manna tasted like honey the Bible says. God provided manna every day except the sabbath. So they had to go out and gather it every day, because if they gathered too much and saved it until the next day it would breed worms and stink. So they had to go out and gather it every day, but on Friday they were supposed to gather twice as much and save half of it until the next day which was the sabbath. That that they saved until the sabbath did not breed worms or stink.
As they ate this manna every day for forty years, I suppose they tried it fried, and it was good. They tried it boiled and it was good. They tried it baked, and it was good. They tried it scrambled, and it was good. They salted it and peppered it. They mixed it with vegetables, and, eventually, after eating it every day they said, “Enough already! Give us some meat!” They got sick of it.
They began to complain, and the result was they wanted to go back to the flesh. This would be like a person who trusts Christ as his Savior. He begins to serve the Lord, and he has victory over sin.
In the life of a new Christian only the flesh has been fed up until the time he trusts Christ as his Savior, but here is a Christian who has begun to feed the spirit and has tasted the communion and provision of God. His spirit is gaining strength, and his flesh has been declining in strength. Then something happens that causes him to backslide. He runs into one of his old friends that he used to hang out with before he was saved, and instead of them going to the mid-week Bible study, they lay out of church altogether. So he misses his mid-week spiritual meal. The next thing you know, his old buddy is dictating what they will do rather than the Christian. He has started back down the path of the flesh, and the temptations and desires that he had not thought much about until his friend came back into his life are now tempting him again and dominating his thoughts and desires. Whenever a believer gets away from the Lord, where will he go. He goes right back to where he was before he started following the Lord.
Proof of Experience
I have seen it many times. The first step away from the Lord is when a person becomes irregular at church. Oh, they are regular on Sunday, but the other activities and services become unimportant. Then they even start to miss an occasional Sunday morning. The next thing you know they have dropped out church altogether. Along the way, they quit reading their Bible, and they quit inviting people to church. You do not hear from them until sometime later you hear that they are in the midst of a divorce and have started drinking again. Needless to say they no longer talk about the Lord to their friends and neighbors.
That is what happened to this mixed multitude. They got sick of God’s provision, and they wanted to go back to Egypt so they could enjoy the flesh. They wanted the pleasures of sin as it says in Hebrews 11:25: Moses chose “rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.”
If they only knew what could have been. If they only knew what would be, and if they only knew what could be. They lusted after flesh, so God sent them quail to eat, and they ate it until it came out of their nostrils. They greedily hoarded the flesh that God had given them, and thousands died from food poisoning.
If they would have simply waited on the Lord’s provision, they would have had quail every day. They would have manna in the morning and quail in the evening from then on. But the complainers died while the meat was still in their teeth.
The pleasure of Sin for a Season
Sin is pleasurable at the outset, but only for a season. Consider what will happen at the end of the growing season. God says in Galatians 6:7 that you are going to reap what you sow. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” When you sow your wild oats, at the end of the growing season, you are not going to reap the fruit of the spirit which is “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance.” Galatians 6:22-23, but you will reap the works of the flesh which are adultery, fornication, strife, envy, murder, drunkenness, and wrath. (Galatians 5:19-21: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.”
When a person feeds the flesh, that is what will come out in the Christian’s life, eventually. It started, because the person forgot to feed the spirit.
Backsliding
Let us see what happened here. Verse 18 says, “Say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt.”
They were complaining, because they thought that things were better in Egypt. They began to want some of the things from their old life before their deliverance from slavery, before there redemption. Because of what they remembered about the life of the flesh in which they were enslaved they wanted to go back to their old way of life. They kind of forgot that their old way of life was a life of hardship, misery, and slavery. We had fun. We had pleasure.
“Therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat.”
What they needed to do was complain to the Lord more, question God’s leadership more, and be dissatisfied with what God had provided, “And God will answer us and give us what we want, right?” So, what happened?
“Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days;
But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the LORD which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?”
But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.
And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.”
God continues in Numbers 11:18-21: “And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat.
Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days;
But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils.”
Physical Results of Feeding the Flesh
What does God mean that it would come out of their nostrils? That statement is a literal description of what would happen. They would continue to eat what God supplied initially for a whole month. The quail would soon become spoiled, and they would get food poisoning, and die.
“And it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the LORD which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, ‘Why came we forth out of Egypt?’”
Read what happened in verses 31-34: “And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.
And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.
And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague.
And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.”
An interesting study about what happened after that is, apparently, after the plague on those that complained, God continued to provide manna every morning and fresh quail ever evening. The point is, if they would have simply waited on the Lord’s provision, as God had taught them with the manna, they would not have had to hoard the quail and continue to eat them until they were spoiled.
“And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.
And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.
And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.”
In Psalm 16:15 God summarized it this way: “The people asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.”
Two Errors
Two glaring errors were made by the children of Israel. First, they murmured not trusting and waiting on the Lord’s provision. Then, when God did supply, they were greedy and did not gather the way God had told them to gather. Instead they hoarded the food. We should be content with such things as we have, and not complain about the Lord’s provision.
What happened with the manna? God gave them manna every day, and the children of Israel were supposed to gather just enough for them to eat that day. If they gathered too much, they were not allowed to keep it until the next day. If they did, it would stink and breed worms.
A very similar thing happened with the quail, and because of their lack of faith and satisfaction with the provision of God they messed up.
In Psalm 78:18 God tells us, “They tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.”
The act of asking for flesh to satisfy their lusts provoked God to destroy those that lusted, because they questioned God’s provision. That is what we do when we lust. We become dissatisfied with God’s provision, and we doubt God’s provision, and even His ability to satisfy our desires. This is demonstrated in the next verse. “Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?” God had been feeding them every day, but they wanted meat, not just the bread from heaven. So God sent them an abundance of meat, and the children of Israel gathered it for two days and a night. The reason they spent so much time gathering the quail was because of their greed and their lust, and they questioned God’s provision. The Scriptures say, “They spake against God.” They did not trust what God was doing and the way He was doing it.
Lack of Trust
Verse 30 says, “So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire.”
In Psalm 106:14-15 God says, “They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel.” This is talking about the same event.
“But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.”
And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.”
What they lusted after was not bad in itself, because right after this event God continued to give the children of Israel quail every day for the rest of their tenure in the wilderness. It was not so must what they lusted after, but the fact that lust is dissatisfaction with what God provided for them, impatience with the timing, and greed. God says that their lust tested or tempted the Lord. So what did God do about it?
The Flesh Is Never Satisfied
Verse 5 says, “And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.”
When you try to satisfy the flesh, it may be with stuff that are not bad in themselves, But when you desire it to satisfy the lust of the flesh, it will never happen. You will never satisfy the lust of the flesh. It will bring leanness to your soul, because your flesh will always want more, and will, therefore, never be satisfied. Much like the cattle and the coconut macaroons. Eventually, the desires of the flesh will consume your life.
In Romans 7:7 God says, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin?” This is talking about God’s law, so, obviously, the law is not sin. “God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.”
Notice that the law did not lust after evil things. It simply said, “Thou shalt not lust.”
What About God’[s Commandments?
In verse 8-13 God said, “But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence.
For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.”
Compare that with Romans 3:19-20: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
Here’s the deal. The law described sin. The law pointed out sin. How do you feed the flesh? You feed the flesh by listening to, looking at, thinking about, and talking about sin. And the law talks about and the Old Testament describes sin. So even the law can whet the appetite of the sin nature, when it is not correctly applied.
That leaves us pretty bad off, when the law of God stimulates our flesh! It sounds crazy that God’s law can feed our flesh!
You see, just knowing the law and knowing what is right and wrong is not the solution to the situation. There is something more we need to see.
Purpose of the Law
Romans 3:19 says, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that…”
As you know, the word “that” is a word that shows purpose. So we are about to see the purpose of the law. If the law can whet the appetite of the flesh by its revelation of sin and description of sin, why did God give the law? The law is good. God says, so. How can it become evil to me? Here is why God gave the law: “That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” The law was given to point out sin. Its purpose, of course, was not to stimulate sin. It was given so you can see what sin is and avoid it.
“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Verse 20.
The law is like a mirror. In fact it is called a mirror or a “glass” in James 1: 23-25 “If any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
When you look at the law, it is like looking into the mirror. It shows you what is wrong with you. You may see that your hair needs to be combed, your face washed, and your face shaved, but you do not pick up the mirror and comb your hair, wash your face, and shave with the mirror. You must use something else to correct the situation.
In like manner the law points out your sinfulness, but you go to Christ to be cleansed. Therefore, you can know the law and study the law meticulously, but, if you do not come to Christ, then you become subject to the works of the flesh and become stimulated by them. You have to realize your sinfulness, and then you have to come to Christ for the remedy to your sinfulness.
A Poor Example to Choose to Follow
I remember one fellow who loved the story of David and Bath Sheba. He did not learn from that story that we need to protect our eyes from viewing beautiful women as they are bathing. Instead he rationalized that if the great David the man after God’s own heart can sin in such a way, then so can I. He did not consider the fact that, because of David’s sin, three of his children died, his daughter was violated, he lost all of his wives, he lost the kingdom, and he lost the joy of his salvation.
Where the Law Is Driving Us
Galatians 3:24 says, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.”
The schoolmaster was not talking about the teacher. The Rabbi was their teacher. The schoolmaster was a servant that took the child to school. He was kind of like a school bus driver. I guess you could paraphrase the verse: “Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to drive us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith.”
A New Standard
Verse 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”
As a believer you are no longer under the law of commandments, but you are then under the law of love.
Romans 3:21 goes on to say, “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.”
You see, if you compare the righteousness of God with the righteousness of the law, you see that you come up short.
The Example of Christ
For one thing the law does not cover every area of your life. So how is the righteousness of God manifested without the law? We look at Christ. He is the only person to live a perfectly righteous life. If you compare what you say and do to the law, you will find that you still say and do many things that you should not, and your constant focus on the sins pointed out in the law, actually, stimulates the flesh. But it you look at the perfectly righteous life of Christ, there is not sin to stimulate your sin nature. So, rather than trying to follow the law, you should follow Christ. Do what He wants you to do.
As an example, how can you tell what kind of language is wrong to use? We have instructions under the law, but if we read a list of curse words that we are told we should not use as expletives, then we are, actually, entering these words into our mental vocabulary list. So rather than studying a list that we should ban from our reading list and our vocabulary, simply ask yourself, “Does Jesus use these words in this way?” If Jesus would not say it, it is certainly a sin for you to say it. The idea of WWJD is not really such a bad idea after all.
How to Get the Righteousness of God
So how are we going to get the righteousness of God? Verse 22 says, “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.”
This is how we get the righteousness of God for salvation. You see there is no way for us to be good enough to get to heaven, because we must have a perfect righteousness to get to heaven, but we have all sinned. If we are going to a perfect place where there is a perfect God, we must be perfectly righteous, or we would corrupt heaven with our unrighteousness. If God allowed that, then there would be death in heaven, because that is what unrighteousness causes. All unrighteousness is sin, and God says that the wages of sin is death in Romans 6:23. So we receive the righteousness of God it takes to get to heaven “by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.”
Remember, When you see a phrase like “the faith of Christ” it means “the faith that belongs to Jesus Christ.” The “of” shows possession. When we are born, God gives every man the measure of faith (Romans 12:3). That is called the common faith in Titus 1:4, because it is common to all mankind. All men have one thing in common and that is that God has given all men the faith necessary to get them to heaven. He also gives us the free will to place that faith in anything we want. That is our choice. If we give that faith to Jesus by trusting Him as our Savior, then that faith belongs to Him. So when we place our faith in Jesus Christ to save us, then He gives us the righteousness (His own righteousness) it takes to get to heaven.
If you take that faith and place it in your own commitment, works, goodness, or your own ability to keep the law, then it is your faith. It is not the faith of Jesus Christ.
You could put your faith in Satan. You could put your faith in your church. But what you need to do is put your faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Then it would be His faith.
“Unto all and upon all them that believe.” So righteousness is given to all that believe. Romans chapter four tells us about how that happens. It is called “imputation.” Imputation means to place into someone account. It is sometimes translated “reckon.” Righteousness is placed to our account or credit when we believe, and our sins are placed in His account.
Verse 23 tells us that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God (come short of His perfect righteousness). We do not deserve the righteousness of God. The law pointed that out to us, but we have the righteousness of God by faith.
Verse 24 says, “Being justified.” Justified means to be declared righteous. God makes the declaration that all believers are righteous. It is “just as if I’d” never sinned. “Justified” is a legal term. It does not necessarily mean that you are righteous, but rather that you have been declared righteous legally in God’s court. Verse 23 goes on: “Freely.” We did not have to pay for our sin. It is free to you (if you have believed in Jesus for it). “By His grace.” Grace is not of yourself (Ephesians 2:8). The test of grace is “Is it of your self?” If it is anything that you do other than believe, it is not of grace. Grace is not of works (Ephesians 2:9.) Grace is undeserved mercy. It is unmerited favor. How do we get it? “Through the redemption.” The reason God can save us by His grace is because He has redeemed us. That means that we are “delivered by the paid price.” You see, your sins were paid for. You have been redeemed when you trust Christ as your Savior “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
So Jesus justified you freely. You did not do anything to pay for your sins, because He paid for your sins. He is “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
“Whom God hath set forth to be the propitiation…” A propitiation is a satisfactory payment. That means the redemptive payment that Jesus made on the cross satisfies the righteous demands of a holy righteous God. When Jesus died for our sins, He satisfied completely the penalty for all of our sins.
“Through faith in His blood.” You must believe it. Not everybody goes to heaven, because not everybody has the righteousness of God imputed to them. They must first believe.
“To declare His righteousness for the remission of the sins that are past through the forbearance (patience) of God” That means those believers that lived back in the past in the Old Testament had their sins paid for when Jesus died also.
He continues: “To declare I say that at this time.” Now He is speaking about this present Church Age. “To declare at this time His righteousness: that He might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.”
This answers the question: “How can God save sinful man, yet He Himself not violate His righteousness and justice. When you believe in Jesus, He justifies you. He declares you righteous even though you are going to sin throughout your life. God did not save you contrary to His righteousness. He saved you according to His righteousness. How? He paid for our sin. He took our guilt onto Himself, then He, being guilty of our sin, because our sin was imputed or placed on Him, He died on the cross. The reason He could do that is because the guilty person died on the cross to pay for sin. He was not guilty because He had sinned, but He was guilty, because our sin was laid on Him.
In view of all that, what is the conclusion? Verse 28: “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”
Romans 7:18 says, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.” If you yield to the flesh there will be no good come out of it. “For to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.”
In Galatians 5:16-17 God says, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”
The flesh intrinsically has lusts, and there is no good thing in those things for which it lusts.
In Romans 7:23 God says this about the desires of the flesh: “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”
The Warfare
There is a warfare between your flesh and your spirit births. Their desires are contrary to each other.
The Solution
So what is the solution to this warfare? In Galatians 5:16 God says, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” There is the solution. This verse is not telling us to stop fulfilling the lust of the flesh. If course, it is vital that we do that. You starve the flesh by stopping watching and hearing evil things. You do not defeat the flesh by concentrating on the law. You do not defeat the flesh by concentrating on stopping fulfilling the lust of the flesh. You defeat the flesh by concentrating on walking in the spirit. Concentrate on obeying what God wants you to do.
I have a framing hammer in my shop. It has never told a lie. It has never stolen anything. It has never committed fornication or murder. It does not take drugs or drink alcoholic beverages. Sounds like a pretty good Christian, doesn’t it? It does not smoke, drink, cuss, or chew. It does not gamble or dance. Yet it is not the least bit spiritual. Why not? Because it is not doing anything for the Lord. It is not walking in the spirit.
It is the same thing with the flesh. You can keep it from lying. You can keep it from committing fornication. You can keep it from stealing,. You can keep it from drinking alcoholic beverages. You do all those things, but that does not make it spiritual.
The Christian life is a positive thing. It is not focusing on the things you should not do, but doing what you should. Instead of spending your time concentrating on not doing what your flesh wants you to do, concentrate on doing what God wants you to do. Walk in the spirit. That means be controlled by the teachings of the Bible as revealed by the spirit.
How to Flee
What does that mean? II Timothy 2:22 says, “Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
The first admonition in this verse is to “flee also youthful lusts.” Run from them! Separate yourself from them. Do not listen to sinful things. Do not watch sinful things.
Suppose you are in a house that is on fire, and it is filled with smoke. You do not have much time to get out, because it is getting ready to collapse. What should you do? You need to run from it! However, the house is full of smoke, and you are not familiar with the twisting hallways, how can you know which way to go?
There was a guest speaker at a Christian camp that was not very familiar with all the trails through the woods. As he sat beside the campfire that night, a big momma bear came charging into the group of campers. Not being familiar with the trails, rather than running off blindly into the words, he looked for someone he could follow. So he chose the camper he knew to be the slowest in the camp. He thought, “I can’t outrun that bear, but I can outrun this camper.”
To get out of that burning house, you need to find someone that knows the way so you can follow Him. So, while you are stumbling around, a fireman finds you. He has all of his fire equipment, but best of all, he knows the way out. You need to follow him. Follow the person who knows the way.
That is the way it is should be with lust. We should run from it! But which way should you go? If you run the wrong direction, you could be running right into the middle of the burning structure. Which way should you go? God tells you in His Word.
“Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
How Do We Know Which Way to Go?
Concentrate on doing what is right. “Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace,” and run “with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” Follow faith. Believe God’s promises. Obey His righteous instructions.
What happened to the children of Israel? They did not believe God’s promise. They did not believe that God would provide what they needed and wanted every day, so they became disobedient. They greedily gathered a month’s worth of quail, and wondered why it made them sick, when God was going to provide for them every day.
Who to Follow
Follow charity. Be loving to those around you.
Follow peace. God says in I Peter 3:11 God says, “Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.” Ensue gives the idea of running after something.
“With them…” Who are we supposed to run with? Run “with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
Double Minded
What does it mean to have a pure heart? It means someone who is single minded. They are not feeding both the flesh and the spirit. They are not double minded.
So that is the way we need to run, and that is with whom we should run.
In conclusion, the solution to the fifth step of sin, which is lusting after sinful things, is to flee youthful lusts by running to Christ.
Dr. Jerry Lloyd