The War Within: Flesh vs. Spirit | Tyrone P Jones | No Other Gospel

Man, God bless you, you can be seated. What you're gonna see on the screen now is actually kind of the big idea of this particular message, because the Christian life really is walking in step with the Holy Spirit. That's really what the Christian life is about. And when we do so, then obviously there's gonna be some war against the flesh. So the Christian life is walking in step with the Spirit who wages war against the flesh. This is what I know and hope that you know, that there is an invisible battle going on. Every Christian ought to feel the tension, or know the tension. The idea that you love God and yet still struggle. Or you pray and lose your temper. Or worship on Sunday and then wrestle with temptation on Monday. Your whole desire being in Christ is to live wholly unto the Lord. And yet you find yourself saying things that you know you don't wanna say, doing things that you know you don't wanna do. Responding in ways of things that you know you shouldn't respond. Having thoughts you shouldn't have. And then you keep telling yourself, I'm not gonna do that again. I'm not gonna do that again.

I guess the good news to this is if you feel that struggle, you're not failing. Honestly, you're just alive. You're just alive. It's part of this walk with Christ. We live with a tension that is not to be banished, or will not be banished. It's a tension that we manage, or has to be managed. Paul does not deny the tension at all. As a matter of fact, he does a wonderful job of explaining it, not just in Galatians, but in Ephesians. He does it in Romans, to some degree in 1 Corinthians. What we know is that the gospel has a tremendous beneficial effect upon all of us, the Christian community and those we come in contact with. That the effect of this contact is our ability to cooperate with God's spirit and allow him to guide our lives and empower us. It's right in the name. Holiness comes from the Holy Spirit. Holiness comes from the Holy Spirit. Holy living does not come from our performance at all. It's more so the Lord. God working us, if you wanna use the term, God performing in us through the Holy Spirit. And so that's why the scripture teaches, we teach, it's so important to be filled with the spirit of the Lord. Here in Ephesians 5, 17 through 18, it says, don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.

So that statement alone stands by itself, to be honest. Don't act in a irreverent manner. You belong to Christ, you've been called in Christ. Know what it is that the Lord wants you to do. Therefore, so don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit. So he's saying, if you know what God's will is, there's no other element that's gonna get you to what God wants you to do except the spirit of the Lord. And so I'm gonna give you three statements and usually I'll give you some points and then I'll give you some application on that. I'm not gonna do that. I'm just gonna make three statements and the truth of the scriptures and the application is in that. So if you're normally thinking, okay, I'll get what he's saying about the scripture and then I'll get the whole essence of the scripture when he wraps it up, I'm not wrapping it up. You just gotta get it as I go because that's the approach that I'm taking. You just gotta pay attention. And here's the first point. realize that you're in a war. You got to realize it. I want to read verse 17 again in the New Living. Listen to it this way. The sinful nature wants to do evil. The sinful nature wants to do evil. Now, that is a statement about every one of us. Every one of us are born into a sinful nature. The sinful nature, that nature part of you, that natural part of you that comes from birth wants to do evil, which is just the opposite

of what the spirit wants. And the spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other to try to keep you, or as the scripture goes on to say, so you're not free to carry out good intentions. So there's good intentions that you have a desire to do, but there's war going on within you constantly to keep you from doing the good thing that you desire to do. Paul is straight up honest about this. He says this is happening in every believer. There is no believer that's not experiencing this. Now, I need you to hang with me here, but I'm going to say this. If you do not have this going on within you, you're not a believer. You're not born again. Or you're so young in your faith that you're not sure what's going on. So young that you're not sure what's going on. But it doesn't miss anybody. There's not a soul in here that can say, oh man, I don't deal with no stuff. Really? You don't deal with nothing. No bad thoughts, no ill action. I mean, you always only do good things. Ask the person you're sitting next to and see what they say about that. So I didn't mean literally do it, Keith. I didn't mean for you to do it right now. You can talk to your wife on the way home. But here's the issue. Paul uses some military language and the truth of it is the flesh and the spirit are not negotiating. They're opposites that are not negotiating. They're absolutely opposed and they're always in a fight, always in a battle. The flesh, I guess for definition's sake, the word is sarts, but for definition's sake, it's that part of us, that fallen humanity that remains with us after we surrender our life to Christ. It's that old way of living, that old man. After we've been saved, after we've been born again, there's that unredeemed humanness that wants to live according to self-rule instead of God's rule, that wants to live independent instead of rather than dependence on God. It has a desire to live detached from the divine design of God. That's our flesh. Every one of us have it. Every one of us live with it. Then the spirit, of course, as you know, is the Holy Spirit, God Himself, that comes and lives within every believer, not just for influence, but for presence and for power. The Holy Spirit is not just a force like something in Star Wars. It's an absolute presence and power. And the spirit doesn't improve, that would be the word. The spirit doesn't improve your flesh. It opposes it. Catch this. The spirit does not make your flesh better. It opposes it. It was never designed to make your flesh better. But that conflict doesn't mean that you're losing. You're not crazy because there's times you feel like,

man, I'm just having a hard time being the Christian that I profess. You're not so broken, you're beyond repair. What you're experiencing is whatever every believer experiences. So Paul talks about this in real time, actually, in Romans chapter 7. The whole section is 13 through 25, but I'll just read a few verses here. They'll be on the screen. And I know that nothing good lives in me. That is in my sinful nature. That's a straight fact. Nothing good lives in this sinful nature. I want to do what is... right, but I can't. I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do, sorry, I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. I don't need you to be too honest, but if Paul didn't write this, how many of you can say I wrote it? I have discovered this principle of life, that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart, but there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. The power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. He's talking about a real struggle, a struggle that exists. And so you know that your propensity to sin is actually because of that sinful nature, because of that fallen humanness. It's not that the Holy Spirit is not right, not good, not working. It's that humanness of us whenever we sin. There's nothing wrong with the Holy Spirit that God has given you. There's nothing wrong with the salvation that you have. It's this human part of you. Romans 8, 7-9 says this, for the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws and it never will. That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. So it's a matter of determining who you're going to let guide your life. Every one of us can give in to the sinful nature and let the sinful nature really be the key to catalyst to what you do. You got all freedom to do that. That's one of the great things about being born again, is that we're now free. Free to give in to the fallen nature or free to allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and lead you in the truth. Now, here is the thing. The unsaved person, a person who does not have the

Spirit of God, they may regret some of the things they do. They may regret their actions. They may feel guilty and feel pain for the consequences of what they do. But it's not a spiritual warfare going on. They're just responding to what the flesh does. And when they have issues with it, guilt or feel the pain, it's not because they're warring against the Spirit, it's because they went against their conscience. Not against the Spirit of God because they don't have the Spirit of the Lord in them to help them do the right thing. So they're only doing what they do. I cannot, I cannot throw Tesla out of the house because she barks. That's what a dog does. But now, if she walks around the house and starts meowing, she's out. She is out. That is absolutely going against what's natural. So I want you to hear me on this. We honestly cannot blame unbelievers for their behavior when they're only doing what they naturally do. They're doing what they naturally do. There's no conflict. There's no internal conflict because of the Spirit of God. They may be battling against conscience, but not against the Spirit. It's only in the lives of believers that the Spirit can fight against the flesh. If you don't have the Spirit of the Lord in you, there is no fight against the flesh. Which, if you follow that thought through, you understand why the only thing that we would proclaim for anybody's life is Christianity and Christ living in you. Opposed to all other religions, opposed to all other faiths, there is nothing about Islam that teaches the Holy Spirit living in you. There is nothing about Buddhism, and we can go down the line all the way through, nothing about it, about the Son of God who has sent His Spirit living in you. Every other religion wants you to act right, but they got rules, they got principles, they got precepts, they got all kinds of things to make you do right. But the only one that gives you the ability to walk right is the Spirit. of the Most High God, the only one. And so a believer is not actually involved in, and if you're not actually involved in resisting evil, if you're not actually involved in seeking to do good, then you're not being led by the Spirit. And so for us, the true desire is for us to work with God's Spirit. Here's what Ephesians 4, 22-24 says, throw off your old

sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. He's saying, listen, that's what you're wearing, it's part of you, but I need you to toss that aside, toss that away. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes, put on your new nature, create it to be like Christ, truly righteous and holy. And so the Christian life is not an absence of conflict, it's just the presence of a new power. It's the presence of a new power, Ephesians 3, 14-16. Paul, when he was teaching the Ephesians, he summarized all this because he spent so much time talking about the work of the Spirit. And then he says this, when I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the creator of everything in heaven and on earth, I pray that from His glorious unlimited resources, He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. That's the prayer, and that's the prayer all of us should have. You can just imagine if two alpha dogs was fighting within you, the one is going to overpower the other and is the one that you feed. So know that there is a war. Here's the second thing, the source of your walk has to be the Spirit. It has to be the Spirit. The source of your walk, the source of you living unto God has to be the Spirit. Just backing up a verse, verse 16, I say then walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of your flesh. Notice that Paul does not say try harder. Notice that he doesn't say be more disciplined. He doesn't say follow more rules. He says walk by the Spirit. Walk by the Spirit. It's relational. It's a daily thing. It's a daily dependence. Walking by the Spirit actually is our way of life. To walk by the Spirit means beginning each day surrendered unto Him. Just surrender, responding to the Spirit's promptings because He will lead you. He will guide you. Pastor Bob will talk on Wednesday night about hearing the Spirit of God, but know this, the Spirit of the Lord is speaking. God talks. He speaks to us. He speaks through us, but He also speaks to us. He prompts. He guides. He leads. He's not a passive leader. God is a God that wants His people to walk in the fullness of Him. And so He guides us. And so we stay sensitive to His conviction and we let God shape our desires and not our behavior. Now I heard two things today. One was in the baptism with Brianna which was wonderful, and I think someone after that, maybe Billy or someone on stage also made the statement that the Spirit is not demanding perfection, which is so true. And the statement I think of both of them, Brianna and whomever mentioned it, is that

God is calling us to be bold in our faith, and that is the truth. I take that. I love that. But I want you to put this in your lunch box. The Spirit is not demanding perfection. He's inviting participation. He's inviting participation. He wants us to participate with Him. He's not demanding perfection. Walking by the Spirit is like a child learning how to walk, and the parent has the hand of that child. The power is not in the child's strength. The power is in the parent's grip on the child. And that's how the Holy Spirit works with us. He doesn't empower us under condemnation, but only assurance. As we walk this walk, the Spirit leads us and guides us, and He doesn't condemn us when we fall to our human nature. He only assures us. Romans 8, 15 through 16 says, you received God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now, we call him Abba Father, for his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. So it's not condemnation that occurs in this walk and in this warfare and in this battle. It's only assurance that we are his children. The Holy Spirit is a sanctifying. So that we may enjoy this Christian liberty. So I want you to take note that walking, just the very word, implies progress. That you're going from one point to another. Walking implies progress. When the Holy Spirit is allowed to be the leader of our life and we're walking with the spirit of God, you move forward in your spiritual life. It's the automatic outcome. If you're walking with the spirit of God, you're going to move forward in your Christian life.

Peter explains this. He talks about walking according to the spirit and how this helps us to become more aligned with Christ. Listen in 2 Peter chapter one, verses three through six. He says this, by his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We might have received all this by coming to know him. Sorry, we have received all this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he's given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires. So here is what Peter is teaching us, that he's given us everything we need, which means, obviously, we're partakers of the spirit of God. He's given us those things and the precious promises that go with it, that we might indeed become more subject to the spirit and align with him. Philippians says it so, so good in Philippians 2, 13. Listen to this, for God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. I love the language of that. I love it because I think all of us understand this, there's things that we desire to do,

but we don't have the power to do. We don't have the power to do it. And there's some things that we have the ability to do, but we don't have the desire to do it. If you have the desire, but you don't have the power, you're not gonna do it. If you got the ability, but you don't have the desire, you're not gonna do it. So the Lord doesn't leave that up to us. He says, I'm not gonna give you part of what you need and you figure out the rest. He said, I'm not gonna give you the ability and you try to figure out whether you got desire. He says, I'm not gonna give you desire and you figure out whether you've got the ability. He says, with the Holy Spirit, I give you the desire to do right and the power to do right. You cannot fail with the Spirit of God because everything about the Holy Spirit is wanting to align and please God the Father who saved you. And everything about the Holy Spirit is saying, I'm also gonna give you the power and the ability to align with God the Father who saved you. So God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him. And so that's the second point, the source of your light, your walk has to be the Spirit. And here's the third thing. The Spirit provides a new way of living.

That's really just simply put. The Spirit provides a new way of living. Galatians 5.18, and I have this one out of the Amplified. It says, but if you are guided and led by the Spirit, you're not subject to the law. Now, if you've walked with us through Galatians, you know the big point that Paul was making to the Galatian church is that they were getting condemned by the law and even being taught by some of the teachers that if they don't live up to the law, that they can't consider themselves Christian. Remember, the bottom line of the law was to prove to us that we're incapable of living in godliness, which is a fact. God's law says this, what the things that we should do, shouldn't do. You can simplify. as simple as the Ten Commandments or obviously there's 613 or 631 laws, whatever the number is in the Old Testament. And the whole impetus of that, the bottom line is, we see over and over again, we cannot keep all those laws. The flesh won't allow us. The old nature won't allow us. Our fallenness won't allow us. So the law was set against us to prove that we're incapable of living ungodly. So our inclination is to sin. But when we live according to the Spirit, we're freed from the sins of the law. We're actually freed from the overwhelming effect of the law because I'm not any longer looking at the law day by day to say, okay, I don't do that. So I mean, I got to get myself together so I don't do that. I have to do this so I got to get myself together so that I can do that. I don't look at the law anymore. You just go by the direction of the Spirit,

which will always lead you in line with the things of the Lord. So I no longer live according to the law. Are you following me? We're guided by the Spirit of God. Now, this doesn't mean at all that we allow ourselves to go into any kind of lawlessness. What it does say is that the law can no longer condemn you because the Spirit of God writes God's desires in your heart. And so those struggles that you can read about in Romans 7, 13 through 25, I only read part of that, it no longer characterizes our life. We can resist the temptation to sin. Team, you can come. We can resist the temptation to sin. Why? Because Christ has set us free. Christ has set us free. Let's look at Romans 8, 31 through 32 and verse 36. Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, if you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. If you continue in my word, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free, verse 36. So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free. You really will be free. What the Holy Spirit does is continue and directs and sanctifies the work of Christ that's been done in us. So this liberty that we have, this freedom that we have from Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit continues that work, directs that work, so that we're not bound any longer to any kind of degeneracy. Understand this, it's not enough to live with the knowledge that there is a Holy Spirit for you. It's not enough. You have to absolutely walk alongside and let the Holy Spirit walk us alongside you so that you may conform to the manner of Christ. And so, here is a question, and I know I only simply read the works of the flesh. I'm not going to ignore them. You're going to hear all of them next week. Every one of these things that are bad, we're going to hear. Every one of these things that are good. But here's the question, and I think it's a relevant one that all of us should know. And hopefully, I encouraged this in the message last Sunday, that you have reflected upon your year. But hopefully, all of us can...

You know where you wore the most intensely. You know where the biggest battle is for you. Is it your thoughts? Is it your attitude? Is it the way that you behave? Where is it that you wore the most intensely? Because there's nothing about this sermon, honestly, that's for the person sitting next to you. None of you should get in your car and say, did you hear what the pastor said to you? No, no, no. Every one of us have to answer the question, where do I wore the most intently? I have the privilege as a couple of young men, Elaine Mellon and Brett McDowell, that I spent Tuesday mornings with. And I kind of talked them through what the sermon was about and then knew this ain't going to do us any good if we're not able to be honest with each other and say, hey, fellas, here's where I battle the most. It's a real question for every one of us. Where do we wore the most intensely? Where are you feeding the flesh or feeding the spirit? What are the spiritual practices? This is that you can say that keep you aware of the Spirit's presence in your life. A sailboat is not gonna sail until you raise those sails up to catch the wind. You gotta let the Spirit of the Lord be the one that guides you. Here is the good news. There is a promise of victory. There is a promise of victory. Listen again to what Paul said. Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Walk by the Spirit and you will not. That's a promise. You will not. I'll say it this way.

If you walk by the Spirit, you cannot gratify the desires of the flesh. It's a promise of victory. He's not saying that you'll never have temptation, but he is saying that the flesh will not have the final word. The flesh will not have the final word. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 7, 24 and 25. Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God the answer is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. There it is. Victory is not found in willpower. It's not found in dependence. The Spirit doesn't just restrain us. He absolutely replaces our desire. So the truth of it is, and there may be a little bit more focus on this next week, is that many of us have been fighting with the wrong weapons. We've been trying to train ourselves and don't do that, don't do that, don't do that. We've been trying to teach ourselves how to be right, how to act right, how to do right. And we've been using the wrong weapons. Because this is not a fleshly battle, it's spiritual. And here's what 2 Corinthians 10, four and five says. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They're not fleshly. They're mighty in God. That's where we land is these weapons that God has given us.

Submitting ourselves daily to the Holy Spirit, allowing the Word of God to feed our spirit, our prayer life. We ain't getting ready to go into fasting starting this evening for 21 days. Fasting is certainly warfare. If you've never done it, you'll see it's a battle. If you have done it, you know it's a battle. But it's one of those ways where we just draw ourselves closer to the Lord over these next 21 days. And allow the Holy Spirit to change our desires so we can tell the flesh, no, no, no, no. You're not in charge. You're not in charge. If you wanna know how well you're doing by walking by the Spirit, jump into some fasting. I'm telling you, the flesh will start calling your name. You'll be on your way down 16th Street. Tyrone, you know you want In-N-Out Burger. You know you do. The flesh will talk to you. But the Holy Spirit will give you the ability to say I'm not doing that. I'm dead to that. I'm gonna live according to the Lord. So I'm inviting you. The Holy Spirit actually is inviting you to stop striving and start trusting in Him. There's not anybody in this room, and you can stand, by the way.

There's not anybody in this room that I don't believe wants to be better. It's a matter of how you get better. It's a matter of how you get better. We talked about this, I think, on the 28th. On Sunday, I'm not sure, about how many times people start New Year's resolutions. Usually by February, those things are done. Whatever it is, you're gonna eat better. You're gonna work out more and watch less of streaming stuff. Whatever the case may be. Talk to your parents more. Visit friends more often. And usually that stuff fades away in a matter of time. Why? Because that's a fleshly endeavor that we have to trust the flesh to help us do it. You wanna see your life change right now? Surrender to the Spirit of God. I'm talking right now. Your life can change. I'm talking to the believer who has the Holy Spirit. Surrender to him and watch you be who God aligned you to be. But if you're in the house and you have not accepted Christ as Savior, and you've tried everything to be a better person, and do right, and break addictions, and overcome stuff, and you're failing and failing. Failing and failing.

You wanna see your life get better right now? Surrender to Jesus Christ. Surrender to Jesus. Prayer team, come. Let me pray with you, pray for you. And we'll close out with a song. Father, I wanna thank you for this opportunity to share your word and to speak the truth. Lord, Galatians 5, it's direct. I say thank you for it. Lord, I pray that every one of us will embrace this opportunity to become more like you, more holy, walk according to the spirit. For those of us that know you, let us surrender. For those that are in the house, for those that are in the house that haven't even began to trust you, I pray that this is the day the Holy Spirit convinces them that change is right in front of you, it's right before you, it's very present in the cross of Jesus Christ, and the day you can change your life, that they may surrender to Jesus. Father, you're amazing and wonderful, and I thank you for your great patience and your love. In Christ's name we pray, amen. God bless you. Have a great day.