©1998 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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7/12/98
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No Confidence In The Flesh
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Phil. 3:3
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7/12/98 No Confidence In The Flesh
Following our time together last week
I had a person come up
and ask a clear, obvious question -
he said,
"So what is the difference between
using my natural gifts for the Lord
and allowing the Lord to live through me?"
Half way through my attempt
to answer that question
in my conversation with him
I was struck with the sudden terror
that I couldn't do it.
I was listening to my own words
and even to me
they just sounded like
a series of religious phrases
and platitudes.
This past week
as I planed for our time together
I was engulfed in the same frustration again.
For the past two weeks
we have been talking about
the two different types of flesh responses -
the fearful flesh,
and the boastful flesh,
and we have
talked at great length
about how any attempt to live the Christian
life based on the flesh
is always destined to fail.
We have seen the Lord's concise statement that:
John 6:63 "It is the Spirit who gives life;
the flesh profits nothing;...
and we have heard Paul affirm that
"...we put no confidence in the
flesh...",
and heard him proclaim,
2 Cor. 3:5 Not that we are adequate in
ourselves to consider anything as coming
from ourselves, but our adequacy is from
God,
2 Cor. 3:6 who also made us adequate as
servants of a new covenant, ...
We have gone on to raise
the very logical questions,
How can we tell the difference
between the work of the Holy Spirit through us
and the human results
of our natural talents and abilities?
And how can we tell the difference
between the leading of the Holy Spirit
and our feelings or emotions?
And how can we tell the difference
between what my flesh is prompting me to do
and what the Holy Spirit is prompting me to
do?
In other words,
how in the world can we learn the difference
between
what I am doing for God through the flesh,
and what God is doing through me
by His Spirit?
The question is central
to the whole Christian life.
There will always be those within the church world
who have no true heart of passion
for their Lord.
They may be fiercely loyal
to their doctrinal beliefs,
even highly moral individuals
in a selective sort of way.
But they are deeply rooted
not in the Person of Jesus Christ,
but rather in their religious heritage.
There is no passion,
no fire,
no intensity in their Christianity
because the Christian religion
can never generate that kind of intensity.
Only a living daily union
with God Himself
can produce that kind of vitality.
Those who do not know God in that way
could care less about the difference
between life in the flesh
and life in the Spirit.
But I believe many of you here
care very much about it.
You long for solid footing
in your walk with your King.
You don't want to waste your life
or your efforts.
You certainly don't want to spend
large chunks of time
running down rabbit trails
that lead you nowhere.
I can see it in the questions you ask
and the urgency with which you ask them.
You know there is a world of difference
between cranking out worthless man-made
religion
and walking securely in the firm confidence
of the life of Christ within you.
You know there is a difference,
but you are frustrated with being able
to clearly and consistently
recognize that difference in your own
life.
It is to you that my comments are addressed in this
series.
And I think I know the source
of the growing frustration I have felt
as we have moved ahead with this study.
It is a frustration born out of three things:
1. First of all, I know all too well
that we are creatures of the flesh -
it is our world,
it is what we know,
it is all we know prior to our union
with Christ.
Even now it is mostly what we know
and understand.
Why do you think
the whole Christian world
responds so positively to lists
and rules
and systems?
The new Christian asks, "How can I grow in
Christ?"
and we say, "By faithfully having morning
devotions
and attending church regularly."
And they say, "Thank you"
and walk away pleased with their shiny new
rules,
and we walk away pleased
because we knew the answer.
And when it comes to learning
the difference between life in the flesh
and life in the Spirit
the first thing that happens within us
is for our flesh to rise up eagerly
and look for the 3 steps
or 5 points that will guarantee
that we are walking in the Spirit
and not in the flesh.
And part of my frustration at this point in our study
grows out of that eager anticipation of the flesh
within each of us.
2. The second thing that contributes to my
frustration
is that I know what we need to learn
at this point in our study
is not a truth,
or a fact,
or a principle,
but an ATTITUDE.
And it is impossible for one human being
to teach another human being
an attitude.
Before we finish today
I will put that attitude into words,
but I have no illusions
about that being the same thing
as my being able to make that attitude
a part of your life.
3. And the final major factor contributing
to my frustration
is my knowledge that
only God Himself
can accomplish that process within
us.
But, having said all that,
lets go ahead and give this a try.
I'll begin by giving you the goal in a single
statement,
and then we'll try to bring some life to it.
When we are living in the flesh
we look to the resources of the flesh
to accomplish the things that need to
be done.
When we are living in the Spirit
we rest in the life of Christ within us
to accomplish the things that must be
done.
HUH?
That is an attitude.
That is not something we can learn
through jotting it in the margin of our Bible
or memorizing it off of a 3x5 card.
Do you remember that statement of Paul's
we looked at last week
in which he said,
Phil. 3:3 for we are the true circumcision,
who worship in the Spirit of God and glory
in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the
flesh,..."?
That last phrase
is an excellent one-line statement
of the first half of this attitude-building
program within us.
"We are those who put no confidence in the
flesh..."
Now that sounds great,
but the truth is
the only way for our confidence in the flesh
to be removed
is for the Lord to lovingly
wrench it out of our grasp.
No child of God
ever has or ever will
quickly or easily let go
of his confidence in the flesh.
But until we do
life in the Spirit at any level
can never become a reality in our lives.
And I just want to make one important distinction
here
so that we can avoid confusion -
life in the Spirit
and the gifts of the Spirit
are two totally different things.
When we come to Christ
every believer is given
or at least given access to
certain gifts of the Spirit,
or spiritual gifts,
selected by God for that individual
in order to help equip him
for the work and the role God has for
him.
The gifts fall into two broad categories:
Speaking gifts,
and Serving gifts.
God tells us that once those gifts are given
they are given for life.
Paul says,
Rom. 11:29 for the gifts and the calling of
God are irrevocable.
We can abuse them.
We can neglect them.
We can use them for our own personal gain,
and God will never take them away from us.
I had a Bible teacher when I was in school
who was one of the most effective Bible
teachers I had ever known.
He clearly had a powerful spiritual gift of teaching.
When he taught
people learned and grew through his teaching.
The year after I left school
it was discovered that this man
was involved in a blatantly sinful,
immoral lifestyle.
He was removed from his Bible teaching position
as a result of it.
Q. Why was he still able to exercise his teaching
gift
when he was deeply involved in immorality?
Because the gifts and the calling of God are
irrevocable.
So, all I'm saying here is that
just because we see a person
exercising a spiritual gift
it does not mean
that they are involved in the life of the Spirit.
We can actually use our spiritual gifts
for purely fleshly goals
and God will not remove them from us.
Now, let me get us back on track.
No child of God
ever has or ever will
quickly or easily let go
of his confidence in the flesh.
But until we do
life in the Spirit at any level
can never become a reality in our lives.
And here is where I want to prepare you
for the first great step
you can expect God to lead you through
if you genuinely long to know
the true life in the Spirit.
The first thing God will do
is to wrench from your grip
your focus on
or confidence in your flesh abilities.
And to help make sense of this
we need to go back to our two forms
of flesh expression
we have been looking at
for the past few weeks.
You remember the fearful flesh, don't you?
The fearful flesh looks to the abilities
of the flesh and sees itself falling woefully short
of what is needed
for true success.
I got laughing at myself this past week
because right in the middle
of my writing up my notes for today
I took a lunch break
and happened to flip on the TV.
This ad came on for Robert Schuller
and his Hour of Power program
from the Crystal Cathedral.
He was offering some powerful,
positive, "something good is going to happen to
you" affirmation to his listeners,
and I suddenly found myself thinking,
"I really should be more positive
and upbeat in my preaching like he is."
Then I instantly thought of that test question I
offered you for the fearful flesh -
the fearful flesh says to itself,
"If only I were more like so-and-so
I would be able to live
a truly effective Christian life."
Anyway, for the fearful flesh
wrenching our focus from our flesh
will no doubt involve
an ongoing process in which
God thrusts us into situations
where we feel totally inadequate
or unequipped for what needs to be done
and then we see Him
work through us in ways that force us to
acknowledge
that He is more than able
to work through us
in spite of what we perceive as all of our
obvious personal deficiencies.
Very likely
during the early phases of this program
the fearful flesh will come away
still focused on the flesh,
still overwhelmed with its inability
to truly be of any significant value,
feeling like God in His kindness
simply stepped in and delivered them from
certain disaster.
But then, as God repeats the process again and
again in the life of the fearful flesh,
gradually his obsession with his own
fleshly shortcomings
will be replaced by a growing
confidence and security
in the presence of Christ within him,
and the ability of Christ to live through him.
If you'd like a great case history of this process in
Scripture,
you would enjoy reading the Old Testament
account of the life of Moses
beginning with his encounter
with the burning bush at age 80.
The account begins in Exodus chapter 3.
And how about the boastful flesh?
The goal, of course, is identical -
to bring the boastful flesh to the point
where his focus on his own fleshly abilities
is replaced
by a quiet focus on
the Person and life of Christ within him.
But the learning process for the boastful flesh
follows a very different pattern.
If you would like to see the classic Biblical example
of the boastful flesh process
take a look at the Lord's dealings with Peter
in the Gospels.
The pattern the Lord follows for the boastful flesh
is not complicated -
1. First He allows the boastful flesh
to place the full weight of his confidence
on his own fleshly abilities,
2. and then He allows him
to crash and burn big time.
Sounds fun, huh?
It amazes me when I see
the teaching pattern the Lord followed
with His disciples,
and especially with Peter
during the years of His earthly ministry.
Peter was deeply devoted to Christ,
and fervently longed to "succeed" in his
discipleship,
but he was also 100% flesh-based.
For the first two years of their life together
Christ did not bring up the flesh-Spirit thing one
time.
He just let Peter take his flesh
and run wild with it.
Then, just one time,
half way through their earthly time together,
Jesus spoke just one line to Peter:
John 6:63 "It is the Spirit who gives life;
the flesh profits nothing; the words that I
have spoken to you are spirit and are life."
At that point Peter didn't understand, of course,
but the concept had been planted in his mind.
It was not until Peter's devastating series
of public denials of Christ
just preceding the Lord's crucifixion
that Peter's confidence in his flesh
was finally shattered.
Years later,
when Peter wrote his first open letter
to the family of God,
in I Peter 4:1-2 he said,
1 Pet. 4:1 Therefore, since Christ has
suffered (death) in the flesh, arm
yourselves also with the same purpose,
because he who has suffered in the flesh
has ceased from sin,
1 Pet. 4:2 so as to live the rest of the time
in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men,
but for the will of God.
Talking to his fellow boastful flesh
brothers and sisters he told them
that the only solution to boastful flesh
is death,
the death of our confidence
in the ability of the flesh
ever to perform the work of God.
We're out of time,
we still haven't answered our questions,
but we are a little bit closer.
The beginning of life in the Spirit
is the Lord building into our lives
an essential attitude -
that we put no confidence in the flesh.
Until we have given up
attempting to do God's work for Him
we cannot begin understanding
His commitment
to perform His work through us.