Christian Life on the Inside - Sermon 2 of 5 — Roy Hession

Galatians 5 and the Conflict Between Flesh and Spirit

I want you, this morning, to turn to the epistle to the Galatians because, really, you have to treat Paul's writings as all one. He's so characteristic. He always writes with the same emphasis and accent, and his terms are used consistently the same.

So, if you understand a term in one place, you know that if he uses it in another epistle he uses it in the same sense. You can almost forget which epistle it is. It's one great, glorious writing. No one quite so human as Paul, and I tell you, he and I are great pals.

And when Pam and I were going through the Acts of the Apostles, a little time ago, again, we really loved old Paul. And, you know, we felt we were part of his team, tramping Asia Minor and the Mediterranean parts of what rather attracted us in our fantasy, there were Mediterranean skies over us.

I guess that made his missionary labors just that little bit easier, though they can have their winters. Maybe you took a Mediterranean holiday and it wasn't a lot different from England. Well, that's the way it goes.

And so, here we are with dear beloved brother Paul, that's what Peter called him, beloved brother Paul. He had some hard things to say sometimes, Peter admitted, and he had some pretty straight challenges from Paul, but he still called him my beloved brother Paul.

Galatians chapter 5, we begin at verse 13. For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, liberty from the law. Only use not liberty for an occasion of the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one another. There seems to be an alternative. Either by love we serve one another, or else we're in danger of consuming one another.

Loving one another, or consuming one another. And it could be true of a home, they're not loving one another, they're in danger of consuming one another. This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

You can't do two things, if you're walking in the flesh, you're not walking in the Spirit. But if you're walking in the Spirit, you will not fulfill 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, that ye may not do the things that ye would. That I think is a good difference in the revised version. You can't do quite the things that you would either way.

The Spirit prevents the flesh, but the flesh prevents the Spirit. This is this strange mixture, which is the Christian. But, if ye be led of the Spirit, and thus are not fulfilling the works of the flesh, you are not under the law, because you don't need the law.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. And I'll read them just as they are in the authorized version, though they do need a little explanation, which we shall come to later. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, reveling, seventeen of them, and such like.

So the catalogue can be increased. Of which I tell you before, as I've also told you in time past, he says, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But, the fruit of the Spirit is love, and joy, and peace, and long-suffering, that is patience, and gentleness, and goodness, and faithfulness, I think that's right there, faithfulness, meekness, temperance, which really is rightly translated, as in the RSV, self-control, under the fruits of the Spirit.

Against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If ye live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, because when you are, you provoke the other fellow to be jealous, provoking one another, ending one another.

You may not be jealous, but you can provoke other people to be jealous, by the way in which you talk about yourself, and tell about your successes. You may be far better off to tell about your failures.

In fact, I've sometimes had the courage to go to a brother and say, well brother, good morning, where are you failing? He said, do you really want to know? Yes, I said, I'd much prefer to know about that than your successes, because I can't always identify with your successes, and I might be jealous of them.

But you can identify with where you're failing. And so sometimes, whereas we may not be jealous, we may provoke other people to jealousy. Yesterday we saw that the soul is the natural part of us. We haven't got a soul, we are a soul, this whole make-up which is ours, the real ego.

And we saw that that real ego was amoral, that in itself it wasn't right or wrong. And we saw that God's intention for this soul, this beautiful thing that he's made, just that little bit different in everybody, is intended by God to be a container of his deity.

And that has stirred me again this morning, that I'm intended to be nothing more than a container and an expresser of deity. And inasmuch as God is love, that'll be the main thing that he wants expressed through this personality, a container of deity.

The Soul as a Temple and the Flesh as an Idol

Now this, of course, explains such phrases, which we don't look into very closely, that we are a temple of the Lord, a container of deity. In another place, we're a habitation of God through the Spirit.

That personality, with its funny little ways, which aren't necessarily wrong, some brilliant, some quiet, is meant to be a temple of the Lord, a habitation of God through the Spirit. But so often, that other principle is dominating what ought to be the temple of the Lord.

That principle called flesh. Someone has said, if you want to know what the flesh is in Paul's writings, you drop off the last H and spell it backwards, self. That self-centered principle, sometimes called the sin nature, but that's perhaps a little too general.

It's that self-centered principle that came in at the fall and with which every one of us is born. And so often, what should be the temple of the Lord is in actual fact but the temple of Dagon. And there in the central place is that ugly idol itself.

And although when the Ark of the Covenant, a wonderful picture of Jesus, comes into the temple of Dagon, Dagon falls before him, we so often do what they did, put him back again. And that can happen in a meeting, or at a conference.

Oh, Dagon falls. But when you come back, go back, and you find the same old person acting in the same old way, you put him back. I heard years ago the story of, I think he was a Yorkshireman, two brothers, both Yorkshiremen, and they had a bitter quarrel, a bitter feud over some matter, probably money, that's the usual thing people quarrel over in families.

And one of these brothers who had such a bitter attitude toward his other brother was very ill and likely to die. And he thought he couldn't die with this terrible attitude regnant in his heart. With this sin upon his soul.

And so he called his brother, and he said, I'm sorry for the way in which I've acted towards you, and my attitude and reaction. He said, will you forgive me? I will. And so the other went out quite relieved.

And then just as he was leaving the door, he said, here, come back again. He said, if I should die, tis as tis. But if I should get better, tis as twas. Dagon will be once again beyond the throne, still demanding his pound of flesh.

The Flesh, the Law, and the Need for Deliverance

Now this morning, we want to look closely, it isn't going to be a pleasant morning, at that ugly god, Dagon. We want to look closely at the flesh and its works, in order for God to show us to what extent this is dominating us, that we may know his precious deliverance from it.

Because, friend, there is, as was inferred so clearly in the passage we read. Yesterday, we saw in Romans 8, its essential character in general terms. It is so centred on its own way, that it is enmity against God who wants to be the centre instead.

More than that, we saw that same verse in Romans 8, it says, it is not subject to the law of God. And it went even further, neither indeed can be. What a word! And yet we saw that this flesh, this principle, this sin nature, if you like to call it, is capable of having a moral sense.

And it's capable of moral effort. And it very often feels it ought to be a Christian, it ought to take part in God's service, it ought to be more effective in God's service, it ought to be nicer. That's the strange thing about this extraordinary thing called the flesh.

And in this, in these hopes of self-improvement, it has a great ally, from which it hopes for great things. And that ally is called the law. And this is a subject that you have frequently in Paul's epistles.

And I want to tell you the teaching of Paul about the law and its effect on man is not something for the Bible study, it's not something for the notebook merely, it's not something for a blackboard analysis of a Pauline epistle, it's something terribly contemporary.

Indeed, Andrew Murray said, next to sin, law is the greatest foe to spiritual life. And yet the flesh, hopefully, looks to the law for help, that it might be something a little different from what it really is and could climb the ladder of righteousness.

But in spite of the law, of course, you know what I mean by the law, basically the moral law, thou shalt, thou shalt not. And with the moral law goes all sorts of other laws that we make for ourselves to do with behaviour, the do's and the don'ts, and the things you ought to do in addition.

In the law for the Jew is not only the moral law, but the mosaic law, where there's not only the moral law for us, but the evangelical law, and lots of other laws. The law of your particular group. As I stump the world, I'm astonished what extra things each particular group adds.

Chuck's group has got one extra thing, another group's got another. And of course, perhaps in America, there's such a multiplicity of groups and denominations. You get a marvellous bird's eye view of the extraordinary variations of the law.

Why, the Mennonites, even the most moderate of them, they get great things, but the woman must have her head covered. And wherever they go, there's a little prayer veil. And they're beautiful, sweet high school girls.

When they go to a Mennonite school, they go all with a little prayer veil. Actually, they look very fetching in them. And they all know how to do their hair, this lovely little transparent thing on top.

But when they've lost their youth, it's not so beautiful. And I was at a Bible camp in the summer once, and I saw a Mennonite bathing in the lake. And bless my soul, she had her prayer veil on. If there's a counterpart in your life to that, then maybe you don't spot it.

We all have some little extra things, which are intended to commend us more to God, to make us more scriptural, to make us more acceptable. And the flesh hopes for great things, for a better adherence to the moral law, and for all these extra things that we add to it.

How Legalism Exposes and Aggravates the Flesh

But, several things. The nature of the flesh never changes, in spite of all its endeavours to improve. We read this morning of that terrible catalogue of ugly things, the works of the flesh. Those things come out of the man who is nonetheless trying to be so better.

It cannot be subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, and its nature is unchanged. And one moment you're promising, and the next moment, these vile things, these ugly things are being manifested.

Secondly, the very strain of trying to be better and trying to improve, makes you the more prone to act and react in these carnal ways. I mean, it's a tremendous strain to be better, and be the super-duper Christian.

Well, you're living under a strain. And you let somebody interfere with your efforts to be better, and out anger comes, or resentment. You call down to the wife, who would please tell the children to be quiet?

I'm having my quiet time. No, I can't do that to you, I've got to do this. And please don't interrupt me. I've fallen to all these things. And the very effort of trying to be that special person, makes you more prone to act in a carnal way, than otherwise.

And yet the law said, you've only got to do this, that, and the other, and you'll be different. But the attempt to do it, makes me the more prone to fail. And then the law itself has a strange immediate effect upon the flesh.

The law, the Ten Commandments, or any other commandments you apply to it, never subdues this self-centered principle, but has the opposite effect of bringing out of it, what's been there all the time.

Maybe some of it is dormant. But if you try to be a better Christian, really try, sin revives, and you die. Indeed, the effect of the law upon the flesh, is the same effect as water upon life. If you pour some water on lime, it'll start steaming, and getting hot.

Say, for goodness sake, the thing's catching on fire. Take some more water. But the more water you put on, the hotter it gets, and the more it steams. And that's what Paul means. In Romans 7, an extraordinary phrase, verse 5, for when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

Do you get that? The motions, the passions of sin, which were by the law. By the law is meant to subdue the flesh, it does nothing of the sort. It only seems to bring out what was there. And so it appears that many a person has become to great despair over their Christian life.

Because the harder they try, the more surely they seem to fail. This is the character of that other principle, which has come in at the fall, and which dominates that otherwise beautiful soul, natural part of us.

Legalism, Division, and the Works of the Flesh

And yet another thing is that, about the law and the flesh, is that it gives an opportunity for the flesh to express itself. The law does. See, the law says, now, if you do this and don't do that, if you agree to this and agree to that, if you feel that this is the great distinguishing mark, and you do that, you then have an opportunity to criticize those who are not doing it.

And from that goes on all sorts of things until they're terrible divisions. The divisions that curse even the saints are so awfully attributed to the flesh's adherence to some law, some distinguishing mark.

You see, the flesh has a hard time at first when you're saved. You've got to love. The flesh says, I'm not going to have much part in this. And so it has to lie low. But oh my, when there's a spiritual principle to be contented for the diaconate, when it's even the truth of the scripture, oh, the flesh has a chance after all.

Come on. And the flesh goes in. Or it may not be that. It may be some special thing, even the way people dress. Because, my friends, it's no good telling the young women that for legal reasons they've got to dress differently.

It must be by some deeper reason than that. But if there was some special law, well, there was, for instance, in some of these groups, that we instituted a special law. Those who adhere to that law would find the flesh said, that's just fine.

Now I have the chance to criticize those who don't. And you know, the most terrible divisions have come from this. In East Africa, in the revival, there's been the most grievous division that's lasted for years, but thank God he's overcome it.

Except for a tiny little, small, diminishing group. And it arose out of the fact that they expected people to give a certain sort of testimony. And if you didn't give a testimony, if it hadn't been awakened, it began well because the revival seemed to have died down, and then some brethren got all wakened up, and they sustained everybody else who hadn't a similar testimony.

And then there came the matter of dress, how the Africans were to do their head. And the most terrible division, and not in that, the hatred. I tell you, there's no doubt at all, the law is indeed the ally of the flesh.

Under the law, the flesh operates. Under grace, the Holy Spirit. I tell you, friend, next to sin, law is the biggest foe to spiritual life. And the flesh and law and legalism always go together. Under grace, the poor old flesh has no power.

It can't boast, it can't be something. It has to die, but not under law. It's rarely given a chance. And my friend, it's a great thing when God shows you something which is really law. It's probably something you find very hard to do in the Christian life, but which when you do approximate to it, makes you impossible with other, weaker brethren.

So the law brings out what's in the flesh. Now, what does come out? Well, the works of the flesh are manifest. And I've listed the works of the flesh as they appear in the authorised version, as they appear in the revised, the old revised version, called in America the standard version, and as they appear in the revised standard version, because we need probably all three to understand some of these words.

Bible Translations and the Rendering of Galatians 5

And by the way, on the subject of translations, may I give you the family tree of the translations? The authorised version was itself a revised version in its day, made necessary by the fact there were a number of versions, Wycliffe's was amongst them, and all sorts of sects rose up and based their wrong doctrines on their particular version of the scriptures.

Therefore they said we've got to have one authorised version, and that will be the standard and normal. And for that reason, the translators made it as literal as they could. It may make for awkwardness in some places, it also makes for its value in some places.

And if you find an obscurity in the authorised version, it's because the original was obscure. Other versions have helpfully tried to unravel that obscurity, but the authorised version was that. So that's what we're interested in.

Then in 1881, there was a revision, and the revisers were told to make necessary alterations in the interest of a closer approximation to the Greek and Hebrew, but as far as possible not to disturb the beauty of the authorised version.

There were two committees, the English committee, the American committee, they both issued their versions, there were slight variations, but only slight, and the English one was called the revised version, and the American one was called the standard version.

And now, in these later years, it is thought good that there should be a revision of the standard version. So there is the family tree of our version. The other ones, they have no family tree, the NEB doesn't trace itself to anything, but this is the one, this is the thing, and it's helpful here to look at all three.

The Works of the Flesh: Sexual Sin and Idolatry

Now this is what comes out of the flesh when given an opportunity. Now, the revised and RSV, miss out the first one, probably some manuscripts don't have it, I don't know, but the authorised version have it, and I want more rather than less in my Bible, I must confess.

So I'm rather in favour of any version that gives me more rather than less. And the authorised version says, the works of the flesh. And then I'll mention four sex sins, right away. Adultery, we know what that is, wrong sexual relations when one or both are married to other partners.

It's one of the works of the flesh, and the flesh is God's family. The second is fornication. Now here I must take issue with the revised standard version because they have consistently translated fornication by immorality.

Well that for them probably appeared a good translation, but it isn't specific enough, especially today, because what one man considers immoral, another man doesn't consider immoral in his permissive age.

But in the Greek and in the authorised, it nails a particular ad, fornication, and even in today that old word is known. We all know what a fornicator is. You can say that man's a fornicator. That girl is a fornicator.

Sex, outside marriage. And that is one of the works of the flesh, God's. It's not, there's no such thing as what's being called situational ethics, that in certain circumstances this and that could be right.

No such allowance is given in the word of God. Fornication is one of the works of the flesh. It says here, as I told you before, so I tell you now, that those that do such things, listen, shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

It's the thing that sends people to hell. And here's a person, the possibility of a person who's saved, doing that which is sending others to hell. I'm not necessarily suggesting that if he's been born again and he fails in this matter, he loses salvation, but he's doing the thing that is blighting the world, incurring God's wrath on the world, and sending the world to hell.

And yet we need, in saying all this, to have some belief. I've been married twice, and at 59 I began to court all over again. I'd forgotten what it was like to court at the age of 59, when I'd been married for 29 years.

I'd forgotten it, forgotten what it was like, this extraordinary halfway house between a close friendship and marriage. I'd forgotten how difficult it was. I'd forgotten what pressure, what pressures there are brought upon a person even at 59, how much more a young person, in whom these things, in the very nature of the case, are all the stronger.

And yet, the one who sympathises and knows and understands says, nonetheless, meditation, even the day before marriage, is one of those things, for which things sake, the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.

Please turn the cassette over now. Do not fast-wind it in either direction. The wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. And this is the works of the flesh, and dear one, we've got to repent of everything of this order.

And then follow two more words, uncleanness and lasciviousness, R .S .V. impurity and licentiousness. Now those are general words which I should say cover every form of wrong sex, from impure imaginations, to perverted things, to homosexuality, to lesbianism, whatever this world says.

Whatever our educators may say, God says it's one of the works of the flesh, for which things sake cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. And man, you may be playing in some minor way or major way with that which is bringing the wrath of God upon this world.

Belonging to one kingdom, the child of God, may in practice be living under the dominion of another kingdom. And God wants us to judge it as sin, as something which caused Jesus to die. And then, there are two works of the flesh which I suppose are associated with the occult.

Did you know anything to do with the occult? It's a work of the flesh, for which things sake cometh the wrath of God. Idolatry, there is no quarter given to idolatry. Missionaries, I don't suppose they need to emphasize it, but you could ultimately come to easy terms, no you cannot, putting the creature in the place of the creator.

And it's not unknown in our civilization, Satanism, and I mean another thing, and then witchcraft. There's a revival of this thing in our midst. I always knew there was a lot of it in Germany, I said because we don't have much of it in England, but I can't say that now.

Witchcraft, or sorcery as the RSA puts it. And then we move on to a bunch of works of the flesh which are personal reactions. Now this is where it comes very close. You must distinguish between somebody's action and your reaction to that action.

There's something you can't do very much about their action, but what about your reaction? And in God's estimate, very poor orphan, the reaction to another person's wrong is far worse and far more culpable than the wrong.

Very often the person that does the wrong is unconscious of it largely, unconsciously selfish we say, but your reaction to it isn't unconscious, it keeps you awake at night, arguing in your mind. And that is one of the works of the flesh.

Personal Reactions: Hatred, Strife, Jealousy, and Factions

The authorised version calls it first hatred. Hatred. And if you're resenting somebody and not loving them, God says I call that hatred. And he goes on to say that he that hated his brother is a murderer.

In fact I heard Dr Kenneth Buxton give his testimony at a meeting when he said this morning my wife and I were making our plans for the day and we excluded a certain possibility that would involve somebody else.

We wanted this plan. And the Lord showed them that they lacked love for that person. That's why they made that decision. Then he went further and said because you don't love them in my sight you're hating them.

So they had to go further. It's true. Part of his own family hating them. That's what it was in God's sight. And then he said and he that hated his brother is a murderer. And that doctor and his wife had to stand before God as a couple of murderers.

Hatred or enmity. The next is variance which isn't very helpful in the authorised. We don't quite know what that means. But the other versions give strife. Strife. Cross one another in a church over a big principle.

It's right to stand for the highest but it's the manner in which we do it which is wrong. Don't throw away the baby with the bathwater. But do throw away the bathwater. Speak the truth, yes. But so often we don't speak it in love we speak it in resentment.

And what the other person reacts to is not so much your stand for the truth as that resentment and they resent it back. And this is the flesh. The self-centred principle. And man is dominated by that otherwise beautiful soul.

This is what's been motivating us sometimes in certain issues. Then we go on to these further personal reactions. Enmulation. Enmulating one another. The revised versions that to both of them called jealousy.

I think the translators were quite defeated over this word. Because in the Greek Mayans analytical concordance tells me that the Greek word is zealos. The same word which is translated zeal. Or zealot.

Did you know that zeal and being a zealot for some special thing is a work of the flesh? Not zeal for Christ. But we've become very zealous for a lot of other things. You've got some special thing which is your thing.

You're a zealot for that. You want everybody else to see it. It's one of those things that God has condemned as a work of the flesh. Now here we've got to go to the margin of the revised version for its real meaning.

Factions. Faction. Not selfishness. That's not enough. That misses it I think in the revised version. Factions. The circles of the saints are cursed with factions. And there's a faction in your church.

And you're part of it. Maybe you're anti a faction. And then become a faction yourself. And friend it's this vile self-centered picture. Catch the man and you're part of a faction. The next word. Oh I want to say that here we come to group sins.

There were first personal reactions. Ending. And I missed out wrath didn't I? Sorry about that. Wrath. Anger. Well I don't think we need to amplify that. Then after wrath we come to strife, seditions, heresies.

Strife as I've said are factions. Seditions. Now that's an unhappy word. But the revised versions have got it. Dissension. Factions. Dissensions. And heresies. That's not very happy. The revised versions have got it.

Parties. Or a party spirit. Look. A group expression of the flesh. Faction. Divisions. Parties. You're for the minister or not the spirit. Which party are you in? It's that expression of that thing for which God has nothing but judgment.

The flesh. And it's entered into whole things. And if you're in any degree a party to a party. You and I need to humble ourselves before God. It's a very antithesis of the love of God for those people.

And then we go back quickly to two personal things. Endings. The revised version, the authorised puts murders too. The others don't put that. Endings. Well we didn't worry about murder. We can no doubt that's the work of the flesh.

But it's only the end of resentment. And it's the same in God's side. But endings. Now there's a difference between jealousy and envy strictly speaking. Jealousy you are jealous for something which is your own.

You're envious of what is another's. But in common parlance we do not make that distinction. And the word jealousy covers both. And that's what we know and can identify in our hearts. Jealousy. And you know it's so easy.

It happens in our heart before we have even a time to make a choice. You've only got to hear a person praised. And in under a second there's something in you which then begins to express itself. And rather some derogatory mention about that person.

It's jealousy. But you know whereas I can't do much about it before it comes. God says you can do something about it after it comes. Oh isn't it hard to say brother when you said that. God's pleased when you do it.

God accounts then that you never even had it. If you confess it after it's happened. Sometimes you know I've heard that brother being praised and I said Lord help me not to be jealous. And the Lord says it's too late to pray that prayer.

You're jealous already. Come to the cross and admit it. Work of the flesh. And then there are the social. The social works of the flesh. Which we could well speak about. Drunkenness. Drink. And revelings or carousing.

All the works of the flesh. Now I didn't start speaking till 10 to. So I'm going to take a liberty and it's not. I think you've got too much to do apart from being here in time for that film. But I shan't exceed my normal time except that with all the notices.

They we started a bit late. Now listen the work when the flesh. Begins to express itself in this way. What do we do. The natural thing for the flesh to do is to hide these things. To put them under the carpet.

Or as Chuck says to put them in the closet. But of course you understand that the. Americans don't have cupboards they have closets. But for a closet. We have to read cupboards. But we understood I'm sure brother.

It sounded rather it sounded a bit better somewhat closet. And of course their cupboards are something they're real big. You can get a lot in them. But that's what the flesh does. I don't want to say that they have more.

Perhaps a better word would be wardrobe. And that's what we do. And some of us have had all these things. Probably without exception. But nobody knows. Under the carpet. Or into the cupboard. And the thing.

Chuck. And all the time. The Holy Spirit. Jesus is there. Grieving to see that precious. Natural part of us that soul. With all its lovely capacities. Being controlled and dominated. By this wicked wicked thing.

And longing to be so. Progressively that. Captured for himself. So that instead of the works of the flesh. There appear. The fruit of the spirit. Which are delineated here in contrast. To the works of the flesh.

Repentance, the Cross, and Crucifying the Flesh

Works of the flesh speak of the factory. The works. The fruit of the spirit speak of the orchard. Where everything comes naturally. And is at peace. But this I'm certain of. It's not right. Having thought about the works of the flesh.

Then to think about the fruit of the spirit. So you say oh lord. Give me the fruit of the spirit. That doesn't get anywhere at all. God says before you think about the work. The fruit of the spirit. That love.

That peace. That patience you need. Deal with the flesh. It isn't enough. The opposite. To. We'll say. Worry. Is not taste. The opposite to worry. Is repentance. And we're then without effort. Faith comes.

The opposite to unlove and bitterness. Is not love. Don't worry about love. Don't ask for it. Judge the unlove. At the place where the judgment of sin has already fallen. At the place called Calvary. And with very little praying.

You'll find Jesus comes. And in that now self-judged. And forgiven. And cleansed. Penitent one. He reigns. The spirit reigns. And the fruit is seen. Now you get the right thing to do. In this very chapter.

Galatians 5 24. They that are Christ's. Have crucified the flesh. With the affections and lusts thereof. There it is. Black and white. It says here. Whether you like the phrase or not. Whether it fits into your theology or not.

Whether it fits into mine. It says they that are Christ's. Have crucified the flesh. With the affections and lusts. But we've got to ask ourselves. What does that mean? I don't know what it does mean.

What do you do with it? Do you pray all night? No. I think it simply means. That you change your attitude. To yourself. To that thing that's been motivating you. And instead of putting up with it. Instead of justifying it.

You're right to think that you do to so and so. You isolate what he's done. From your reactions to what he's done. Bitterness. And you change your attitude. And that which you said was all right. You now say before God is all wrong.

That the only interpretation I can put on this word. To crucify the flesh. Is to take sides with God. Against me. Dominated by the self-centered principle. Which has expressed itself in his various works.

First of all it means. I must deal with the works of the flesh. It means I must lift up the carpet. I must open the cupboard. In detail. And you didn't even worry. He's already shown you. Last night you were shown.