Title: The Parable of the Sower – 9
Thorny Ground – Flesh vs. Spirit
Text: Mark 4:18-19
“Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”
In the first few weeks of this series we learned the power of the Word. The Word of God is filled with supernatural, dynamite power! The last few weeks we have been studying the Parable of the Sower. We have studied four different strategies that satan uses to bring trials and temptations into our lives to choke out the Word.
➢ Affliction - The Greek word for affliction is “thilipsis:” Meaning, “pressure of circumstances, anguish, or tribulation which can be financial, physical, mental or emotional in nature.”
➢ Persecution - “A pressure, anguish, trouble or a situation where people are used as the instrument.”
➢ Cares of this world
➢ Deceitfulness of riches
We are going to finish on the subject of Thorny Ground this morning. We have talked about the cares of this world being a thorn that chokes out the word, we have also talked about the deceitfulness of riches being the thorn that choked out the Word and today we are going to finish with the last one.
I. THE DESIRE FOR OTHER THINGS
Another way of saying this is the flesh is a thorn that chokes out the word. It is the flesh that has a lust or a desire for things that are not of God.
➢ Choke – To crowd out or to strangle
➢ Desire – Another word is lust – A longing, especially for what is forbidden or desired.
When Paul mentions that the desire for other things chokes out the Word, he is actually talking about the desire for something other than what God has provided you. People often think about sex when we talk about lust. Sex outside of marriage can definitely be a result of lust, but this word specifically refers to desires for something that isn’t God’s will for you. In Luke’s version of this Parable, it is translated as pleasures of this life. This is one of the greatest reasons why the Word produces no harvest in our lives.
In his book, Fuzzy Memories, Jack Handey writes, “There used to be this bully who would demand my lunch money every day. Since I was smaller, I would always give it to him. Then I decided to fight back. I started taking Karate lessons, but the instructor wanted $5.00 per lesson. That was a lot of money. I found that it was cheaper to pay the bully, so I gave up karate.”
There are enemies that every Christian faces in this life. The biggest enemy of our soul is the devil. Too many Christians do as Jack Handey did, and they believe it is easier to pay the bully than to learn how to defeat him. Many Christians do not realize they are living on a battlefield and not a playground.
Each and every one of us is a soldier in the army of Jesus Christ. Some of us may not want to be in the army, but whether we want to be enlisted or not, if we are saved, we are in this army of Jesus. We are not in the reserves. We are in active duty. We are in an all out conflict. We have an enemy that has already been defeated, but he is still trying to get us to believe that we have been defeated when we are really in total victory. He wants to steal your seed.
If we are in the army and in a conflict, then there must be an enemy and there must be a battlefield. We all know who the enemy is, but what tactics is he using to get us defeated. Right now as we speak, there is a three-fold assault going on against us. I am going to narrow in on one of those tactics because it affects our harvest.
• Our FLESH, the WORLD and the DEVIL.
• We have our FLESH wanting our old life back.
• We have the WORLD trying to drag us back.
• And we have the DEVIL making sure it all goes according to the plan.
II. THE FLESH
When we talk about the desire for things that are against the things of God, we are always dealing with the flesh. It is incredible, but our flesh, our old nature, fights against the Spirit of God. It is fighting against the things that God wants in our life. It is a constant war between the flesh and the spirit.
Galatians 5:17, “For the flesh lusts (fights) against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”
This carnal flesh, this is what gets exhausted. This is what gets sick. It battles fears and insecurities. Your Spirit may be strong, but your flesh is weak. Your flesh lacks faith and lacks physical strength. It is like an anchor that drags us down.
For example, some of you did not want to be in church today. You woke up, thought about it, and actually considered skipping out this morning because something inside you said, “it really won’t make much of a difference. It doesn’t matter if I miss one little service.” There are some that are not here this morning because of those feelings when they woke up. That is not God giving you those feelings, that is not even the devil giving you those feelings, that is the flesh warring against your Spirit. Your Spirit knows you need to go to church, but your flesh just doesn’t want to.
Some of you didn’t feel like reading your Bible this week. That was not the devil giving you those feelings, that was your flesh. It was an attack from your flesh against your Spirit. The thorns keep trying to grow up and choke out the most necessary thing in your life. The Spirit knows that the Bible is just what you need to get you through the day, your flesh says, “I don’t need that today, I can get by without it.”
Some of you didn’t feel like praying this week. That was not the devil giving you those feelings, that is your flesh warring against your Spirit. That is why Paul says in:
Galatians 2:20; “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives within me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Paul realized that he still had to live in the flesh. He still had those old carnal feelings, but he says, “I am crucified with Christ.” My flesh died when I was born again. I am now a brand new creation. The flesh shall not have dominion over me any longer.
Paul also told the Roman people in
Romans 7:18: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.”
Romans 8:8; “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Romans 8:13; “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
Galatians 6:8; “For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”
Paul was one man that understood this battlefield. He understood that He couldn’t please God in his flesh, which is why he must live his life in the Spirit. He cannot please God in the flesh, so he must die to himself daily and allow the Spirit of God to live through him. This is what being full of the Spirit is all about.
There are so many times that we think the devil’s on our tail and we just don’t know how to shake him. We rebuke him in the name of Jesus and it just doesn’t work. We speak that powerful name of Jesus over and over again and nothing seems to happen. Most of the time the reason nothing happens is because we are rebuking the wrong thing. There are times that the devil has nothing to do with our mess ups, he has nothing to do with our failures and our problems, yet we are rebuking him when all the time we need to be rebuking ourselves and dying to ourselves instead of rebuking the devil. It is not the devil’s fault when you find yourself lusting after a woman that is walking down the street. It is not the devil’s fault when you find unforgiveness harbouring on the inside of us. That is the flesh at work in your life and your flesh is warring against your spirit. We need to spend more time on our ground and stop being so concerned with the devil and start being more concerned with ourselves.
So, how do we overcome the flesh? We die to our flesh by not giving exercise to it. We die to our flesh by building up our Spirit. How do we build up our Spirit? We exercise it, we read His word, we watch His things. We listen to His music. We communicate with Him all day. It is time we overcome the flesh and stop giving room to the enemy in our lives.
What are the works of the flesh? They cover quite a variety of things.
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: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
We blame the devil for the majority of these issues dealt with in this Scripture. The Bible makes it very clear that these are not works of the devil; they are the works of the flesh. That is why it is so important to deal with the flesh before you end up in situations that you could have prevented if you had only crucified the flesh.
In order to overcome the flesh we must walk in the Spirit. If you walk in the Spirit, you will not give in to the desires of the flesh. Let’s keep reading:
Galatians 5:22-25, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self- control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
