Gospel Fruit - Galatians 5:16-26 - Sunday Sermon

Welcome to Boon's Ferry. If you're new

here, my name is Matis Scaring and I'm

the preaching and teaching pastor. I've

got uh few short announcements, one

really important one. Um but if you have

uh interest in getting closer uh to

Boon's Ferry in terms of ministry, you

want to serve or you just want to get

involved or you just want to know what's

going on, uh one way to start is by

filling out one of these welcome cards.

You can then hand them off to the

connection table on your right as you're

walking down the stairs. Um, if you've

never done that, if you're uh uh new, we

have a gift for you. Usually some kind

of card to something like Dutch Bros.

So, um, welcome, by the way, if you're

new. We're excited that you're here and

looking forward to getting to know you,

uh, more well, but also we use those

welcome cards as, um, prayer request

cards, and we pray every single week for

them. So, uh, just put your prayer

requests on there, and you will be

prayed for. Also, it's amazing when

people follow up. So, let's say we pray

for you regarding finding a new job and

then you find a new job. It's it's

fantastic to actually put down their

praise, uh, God gave me a new job, and

then we'll praise God for that as well.

And it's kind of closing the loop where

we're thanking God for the ways that

he's answer us, but also lets the prayer

team know those those answers to prayer.

So, that's another thing you can do. Um,

the really important announcement is um,

you may or may not know Arlene. I'm

assuming most of you do. Arlene has had

an appendicitis and she's in the

hospital and I think her surgery is

scheduled for one o'clock. I think I

think she's she's okay other than the

pain management and things like that and

Vern is updating us. Um Vern is an elder

at at Boon Ferry and he's been I keep

saying 45 years but it's more like 47

years now that he's been at Boon Ferry

and so he's uh we call him the tribal

elder

and um it's someone else's joke but I I

thought it's funny but uh you could be

praying for them praying for her in

particular. Um I've never had anything

like that but I've had friends that had

it. I it doesn't sound like it ruptured

but it sounds like it was really

painful. And so you can be praying for a

pain management and healing after the

surgery as well. And uh I will update

the church as soon as I as soon as I

know more. Um I've got one thing. This

is not an announcement or even

important, but sometimes I just like to

share life with you guys. Um and uh I'll

just tell you one short thing that I

thought was it made me laugh out loud

sitting at my desk when I was writing my

sermon thinking about this. So, we moved

from um from Toalton would in a very

suburban environment. Uh and we'd always

kind of had a dream of raising our

children on land and uh it we're always

priced out in terms of taxes and then

total mortgage payment, but God worked

it out. We were able to move on five

acres. We're now living out there. Um

it's about 24 minutes away with clear

traffic and so still works in terms of

the radius of where I need to be for

work and and all of that. Um, but I am I

there are so many things that I didn't

even know about uh that you have to

think differently when you're living on

land. And uh so for example, Christine

noticed that we don't have like a green

yard bin right in in Talatin. And if you

live in a suburban context, you know

exactly what it's like. You do a bunch

of yard work and then your yard bin

fills up and then it's full and then you

have to wait the next week until to fill

it up again. And so like, well, we don't

even have a yard bin, so where do we put

stuff there? The driveway that goes down

at the house is kind of overgrown with a

bunch of branches, and it hits the

sprinter. And so Christine wanted me to

um to cut those branches down. I just

did last night, actually. And uh anyway,

so there's also kind of an orchard

around the footprint of the house, bunch

of cherry and apple trees, and they just

dump all their leaves right there. And

so I've been thinking about I'm not

really a tools guy. I'm going to have to

become a tools guy now. And I'm thinking

about maybe buying like a a back plaque

backpack blower, either battery

operated, probably not gas. Those are

really expensive. Um, and then I was

thinking, well, how am I going to gather

all my leaves? And then as Christine was

saying that, I was like, I don't have to

gather any leaves. I'm just going to

blow them right into the woods. And so

just there's all these little things

like this that uh that are just fun new

ways of thinking, living on land. And uh

and it is in in some ways a leadin to

the sermon. Um I'm going to be

challenging you guys to to think a

certain way about the unseen world. You

know, I I had no idea the kinds of

things that I'd be learning and needing

to learn. I mean, some of them, yes, but

I'm talking about the unknown unknowns.

You know, you don't know what challenge

you'll face. We have a water leak. Uh

Henrii has the the water coming to

Sweetwood. Sweetwood is a private drive

of four houses and I'm responsible for

800 feet worth of water coming towards

our house. So we had to figure out

where's the leak 800t of water. There's

challenges that are happening and I

didn't know they were unseen. That

didn't come up in the inspection report

for example before we bought the house.

And there are unseen challenges that

happen as uh as a result of being a

Christian. Uh there's a battle being

waged and if you don't know about it,

you'll find out about it today, but if

you don't know about it, then you don't

even see it by faith. So, you're not

going to see this battle by sight. Um

it's a battle that's in the unseen

world, in the spiritual world. Um and

it's in a battle uh of desire. You're

going to be hearing me say this a lot.

It's a battle of desire. We are, by the

way, in Galatians chapter 5. Um, and

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

we're uh there was somewhat of a topical

sermon last week where we addressed the

fruit of the spirit as well. And so

there will be some review of that, but

now we're just walking through it verse

by verse. And this is Galatians 5 16-

26. And Paul talks about a battle

between the spirit and our flesh. And

that battle is unseen. You don't see

your flesh. You don't see the spirit.

And so it can be out of sight, out of

mind. And as you grow, you begin to

experience things that um you realize,

wow, this is kind of a pattern. I I I

see the battle in my heart now. And the

more scripture you understand, the more

experience you have, and the more you've

been walking with the Lord in a

surrendered way, you realize this is an

ongoing battle. And I last week we

talked about if you were here we talked

about the idea about how at the

precipice of any conflict or trial or

difficulty of testing from the Lord. Uh

those are the real opportunities for you

to grow grow in the fruit of the spirit.

So it's when you're being tempted to be

unkind that you need the Holy Spirit's

fruit of kindness. There's such a thing

as human kindness but it's it's limited.

It's not supernatural and it's not

spiritual. So when you when you get

pressed, that's when you're tempted to

be unkind, mean-spirited,

uh say a cutting word, and that's that's

that we talked about the bleeding edge,

you know, cuz velvet horns grow from the

tip and there's a bunch of blood supply

there. We talked about progressive

overload if you're a a gym person like I

am, um where you have to continue

stressing the muscle so it'll grow. We

talked about all these kinds of ideas

and today the metaphor is not too much

different but it takes the entire

passage into consideration. It's the

battlefront. What is the battlefront of

your growth in the fruit of the spirit?

Uh the battle there's there's going to

be a war and it's your entire life and

it's like I said an unseen war. You

can't see your flesh. You can't see the

spirit. And from the day you're born

till the day you die you will be

fighting this battle. Um, I want to show

you that from scripture and prove that.

Um, and it actually is is a sign of a

false teacher when someone says they are

not fighting this battle. It requires a

claim that you've like overcome all of

your sin, that you're no longer sinful,

and we ought not to do that ever. It

makes God out to be a liar. So, the

battle is unseen. The battle is

lifelong. I want to tell you about a

battle front. Uh, I think it's kind of

apppropo because we're right around the

corner of the national championship. I

know we actually have some Indiana fans

and we have some Oregon fans. I played

football at Oregon State for my red

shirt year and so I'm technically a

Beaver fan, but uh I uh I root for

Oregon whenever they're not playing uh

the Beavers cuz I I'm an Oregonian, so I

want Oregon to win. And they just got

trounced by Indiana and that was that

was actually disappointing for me to

see. I was hoping they would make it to

the national championship. So I had my

mind on football and thinking about my

own football experiences and there's a

battlefront in football, too. And it's

the offensive versus defensive line. And

so back to high school football or

college football for me. I played at

Portland State for four years after

Oregon State. And we were going down to

I think it's Ogden, Utah, and it's Weber

State. Now, you may have never even

heard of that college and it's because

it's at the time it was called Division

2 and they're just less well-known

colleges. But these division 2 teams

will sometimes have uh players that end

up playing in the NFL. I was a run

stopping mostly right defensive tackle.

And the reason they line you up there is

usually teams will stack their offensive

linemen that are the best at pass uh

pass um rushing uh excuse me, pass

blocking to the left because the

quarterback's right-handed and that's

his blind spot. So, I'm playing against

these two twins.

uh

bright red hair, freckles everywhere,

6'5", 345 lbs, and not a whole lot of

fat, like uh they had a bit of a gut,

but just arms like this. And I I wasn't

small either, just not that big. And um

playing against them, and they were

known for being dirty. Uh and so was I

actually. And and so some of the things

that I tell you that I did in response

to this battle, I'm I'm not uh not only

am I not bragging about, they're

examples of operating in the flesh. Um

but this is the kind of battle that

happens in the trenches. It gets down

and dirty and it will be down and dirty

uh in terms of battling the desires of

the flesh to not gratify them as well.

So any go up against them in the first

play and the uh left guard grabs my

throat. So underneath the the right

above the pads, underneath the face

mask, grabs my throat and is trying to

lift me up while his brother is just cut

blocking me right in my knee, right?

It's a play obviously designed to like

tear your ACL. And at the time, you guys

know this, I'm pretty candid about

stuff. I was on steroids, not trusting

the Lord at all. I knew that at 6'1, I

wasn't going to make the NFL. And um uh

steroids have an effect where they will

um it's like pouring gasoline on any

anger issue you have. You know, they

have these masculinizing effects that uh

just steroid rage is what it's called.

And so that kicked in and uh the very

next play I I got off the line, grabbed

the guy's face mask, and just uppercut

him as hard as I could in the Adams

apple. Ref didn't see it. There's a lot

of stuff that happens like that on

almost every play. Watch watch if you're

watching uh who is it playing? Indiana

and um Miami. Watch. It's the most

boring part to watch for football

unquestionably. But if you're watching

closely, you're going to see all kinds

of violent things happening between the

offense and defensive line. And he just

fell down like I couldn't breathe

because I mean I probably could have

crushed his trachea. Is that what this

is? Yeah. Um, and that's what I was

trying to do because they were trying to

end my college career. My only point is

that that's a physical battle, right?

And actually, I was fighting in a

fleshly way, returning evil with evil.

Christians ought not to do that. Um, but

the reality is with this unseen battle

of the flesh uh versus the spirit, it

doesn't matter if you're 6'5, 345 lbs.

all your raw power and athletic ability

have absolutely nothing to do with it.

When we think of battles in war, they're

mostly fought by men. There's there's

valiant uh women that have been soldiers

as well. Um but there's a physicality to

physical war. This isn't a physical war,

and your physicality has nothing to do

with it. So, it doesn't matter if you're

a man or a woman. You you have to be a

warrior. And any kind of strength men

might have that women don't generally

possess, no help at all. also

intelligence no help at all because it's

not about competence in terms of

intelligence. There are some aspects of

the mind that are involved but they're

spiritual in nature. And so it doesn't

matter how intelligent you are, you can

be losing the battle and intelligence

does not necessarily equate to being a

better warrior in this case. Like I've

already said, you can't see the battle.

And so the battle, unless you're looking

with eyes of faith, uh you get oftenimes

surprised and flanked by the enemy, uh

undermined by your own flesh in your

life. And the results can be shockingly

devastating. And so I want to I want you

to think about what would it look like

to actually

just decide to be trained up and to

become a warrior in this battle. It is a

personal battle, but it's also a battle

we're waging together. And if I have

just one main point to share with you of

summarizing really what Paul's talking

about today, we need we need to have

victory over this battle. It's a victory

over the desires of the flesh. And

unlike really any other battle, you have

to surrender first before you gain the

victory. I can't think of another battle

where you you win through surrender.

Surrender means losing.

You can, you know, when Jesus says, you

know, the first uh shall be last and the

last shall be first, there is

the kingdom isn't actually upside down.

It's right side up. Our worldly kingdoms

are upside down and so they need to be

flipped around. Uh we like to put people

first who are actually just engaging in

the pride of life and the love of all

things of the world. I don't mean you or

the church necessarily, our society

does. And that's not what God esteems.

This is not what God esteems. God

esteems those who are humble and

contrite in heart. And humble

contrition, it means actually um feeling

bad in in that deep place in your heart

about the sin that you continue to

commit or have committed, asking God for

forgiveness, and then being humble in

the fact that you don't really deserve

that forgiveness at all, but he's

offering it anyway. and then not using

that forgiveness, that grace as a cover

up or as an opportunity where we kind of

say, "Well, I'll do this now and ask for

forgiveness later." That would be a

cover up kind of thing. But then

actually growing in that grace and

receiving the power to change um that

kind of victory um the main point today

is victory over the flesh, over fleshly

desires comes only by faith in the cross

through surrender to the spirit. You can

see exactly how Paul's making this point

again. Victory over fleshly desires

comes only by faith in the cross through

surrender to the spirit.

So this is and like unlike any other

battle.

I mean we might be able to develop

cloaking devices for stealth planes

where there's almost no technology that

can see them or find them and and to the

naked eye they can't be seen at all. Um

the enemy doesn't have to develop any

kind of technology like that. He knows

we can't see him.

And that is a

that there's there's a way in which when

we're operating in our own flesh, that

is a ter terrifying enemy. You have no

idea when he's going to attack. You

can't see him coming. And so there's a

vigilance that has to be there. You you

have to have decided in your heart. I'm

going to fight this battle. I'm going to

be a warrior. There's no Christian with

any type of personality, no matter how

God put them together, can be like,

"Well, I don't like the whole battle

metaphor." This is a battle and you have

to engage in it and there's either

losing or there's winning and there's no

neutral ground. It's a black and white

battle. Okay. So again, victory over

fleshly desires comes only by faith in

the cross through surrender to the

spirit. We'll come back to the

battlefront metaphor in a moment. Verse

16. But I say walk by the spirit. You

will not gratify the desires of the

flesh. Just a short recap of the context

of Galatians. Uh what's been happening

in the church. Galat Galatians is a

letter to a region and many churches and

not just one church. Um and uh evidently

false teachers had come in. Um probably

teachers that we could uh confine to the

word Judaizers or the circumcision

party. And what they were saying, they

were acting like Christians, saying

they're Christians. They were not ne

necessarily just saying they're Jews.

And so they would they would talk about

Jesus, but what they were saying is that

you have to follow the law in order to

be saved. This what we call works

righteousness and unbelievably prideful

and false. And Paul's been dealing with

that this whole time. One of the

accusations that these kinds of false

teachers would accuse Paul of is that

his gospel, which was the only true

gospel, while their gospel is actually a

cursed according to God. That's in

Galatians 1. um his gospel really just

will lead to all a bunch more sin. And

that's not actually true because the

gospel treats sin at the root. Whereas

legalism doesn't treat sin at all, but

it pretends to on a really shallow

level. This is where you get teachings

like where Jesus talks about it's not

just that you can't commit adultery by

actually going and doing this physical

act. It starts with lust in your heart,

right? that already is adultery to the

Lord and that's where it has to be

treated. The true gospel is the only one

that treats sin at this level. And so

he's now teaching applicationally how

you do that. How do you act how does the

true gospel actually treat sin? Where's

the actual problem? um the the the

gospel of keeping the law, which is no

gospel at all and was never God's plan

with the law, as we've already seen in

in past sermons and past passages, um

has no power. Uh because the flesh

weakens um the whole process. It's not

the law that's ever wrong. It's always

good, righteous, and true. But then

because of our fleshly desire and sin,

all the law ends up doing is condemning

us rightly for the sins we keep

committing.

uh you might go home and read chapter 7

to chapter 8. We'll go to chapter 8 a

little bit of Romans where Paul talks

about that process as well. But again,

but I say walk by the spirit and you

will not gratify the desires of the

flesh. There's that word desires. So

what is the flesh? The flesh is the

sinful nature inside of you. You can't

test it with any uh scientific ad uh um

uh measure. There's there's no

technology to find it. There's no it's

also an unseen thing. Um, you might call

it the bat battle of attitudes, but I

really like the the scripture word here.

It's a battle of desire. There's

something in us, even as Christians,

when we're justified and saved, that

still wants to do the wrong thing. That

desires to do the wrong thing. This word

gratify, you might not have it in your

translation. Other translations say um

complete or fulfill or carry out. Um, if

you look at the Greek word, I I like the

definition uh of gratify. Um, I think

the ES or the the KJV has fulfill. Um,

but there's a sense of incomp completing

the desires of the flesh, you satisfying

something like the flesh is hungry or

it's thirsty and it wants to be

satiated, gratifying that. You know that

by experience. You know, we're going to

get into them in a moment, but have you

ever

felt good about being sinfully angry?

Has it ever felt good to sin in any way?

Well, that's that gratification of this

desire. It's something that's sinful in

you. It's the fallen nature. And

Christians have it, too. It just happens

to be that God has also uh created us

new, replaced that heart of stone with a

heart of flesh and given us a new na uh

nature. It's called the new creation in

our lives. And that new creation um not

apart from the spirit but with the

spirit actually desires the right

things. And that new nature is not to be

put to death and the spirit will never

put it to death. But according to Paul

and we'll go there in chapter 8, I think

it's verse 13, he talks about that we

must put to death the misdeeds of the

body by the spirit and we will live. So

the the the flesh is good for one thing

and that spiritual crucifixion to die.

And anything else it's lethal for. Those

desires may feel good. They may be

exciting. They may seem to help with the

problem. Uh and and yet ultimately they

only just destroy. They only just

destroy. I'm going to say this sentence

more than once, but the pain of

repentance is always less than the pain

of disobedience. Let me say about one

more time. The pain of repentance is

always less than the pain of

disobedience.

Paul goes on talking about uh the

desires of the flesh. For the desires of

the flesh are against the spirit.

The desires of the spirit are against

the flesh. You see the battle.

It's a war of the heart.

I'll read it again. For the desires of

the flesh are against the spirit and the

desires of the spirit against the flesh.

For these are opposed to each other.

Offensive lineman, defensive linemen.

They're always in the game. They're

opposed to each other. They're lining up

at the line of scrimmage and they're

trying to overwhelm each other. push

them back, get past them. They're trying

to win a battle on the battle front. And

there's this battle between your inner

sinful nature and the spirit of God. For

these are opposed to each other to keep

you from doing the things you want to

do. Paul doesn't specify whether he

means that the things you want to do are

of the flesh or the things you want to

do are of the spirit. You have this dual

nature. Luther famously said this Latin

phrase similus epic sim simultaneously

righteous and yet a sinner. Right? That

is that is true and good doctrine. What

is what does righteousness mean in that

case when you still have that sinful

nature that this side of the grave has

not yet fully been put to death at any

time but it can be put to death more and

more by the spirit. It means that God

has justified you by faith in the cross.

It means he's atoned for your sin. And

by faith, you think of you think of

Christ superimposed on you. So that when

God his righteousness superimposed on

you, when God looks at you, he sees

Christ's righteousness. So you are truly

righteous by faith. And at the same

time, that's that's justification. At

the same time, there's another word

called sanctification, growth in Christ

likeness, where that flesh has to be put

to death. Another fancy theological name

for that is mortification, the killing

off of your flesh. And that is always

required for advancement and

sanctification.

Okay? And so, uh, we I could weigh in,

but since Paul doesn't I'm not going to

the the options could be both. It could

be that the Holy Spirit and this battle

because he lives inside you and dwells

you is opposing your desires of the

flesh. And so even though you want to do

the desires of the flesh, you have this

push back from the spirit, uh it could

also be more similar to what um Paul was

talking about in Romans 7 where he has a

good desire but the flesh undermines it.

And so even though he knows coveting is

wrong and that the law is right about

that and he wants to not covet, he

continues to covet. Uh biblically both

can be true. And since Paul doesn't

specify, I'm not going to either way

either. But either way, there's this

battle that until it's won, your will is

caught up in. And it can be lost even

for Christians for a time. Um Paul talks

about in 1 Corinthians 3 how some

infants in Christ were still really just

acting only in a fleshly way. Infants in

Christ means they're born again, but

they haven't progressed. They've stalled

out in their growth, and they're acting

just in this mere human fleshly way.

sinful way. They're constantly

satisfying the desires of the flesh even

though they're actually saved. So, it

can happen to Christians. In fact,

non-Christians cannot do anything other

than gratify the desires of the flesh.

They don't they're not indwelt by the

spirit in the first place. They do not

have the righteousness of God yet

superimposed on them. That would happen

when God by his kindness leads them to

repentance. They come to faith and then

they gain the indwelling spirit who

comes to reside in them forever. Um, but

this battle can actually only be won by

spiritual people. And what I mean by

spiritual people is those who've placed

their faith in Christ and have the

spirit indwelling them. However, just

because you have the spirit indwelling

him does not mean you can't grieve him

or quench his work. I wouldn't want to

um over interpret these passages, but

when I think of grieving the spirit as

something you can do just by being

unkind to your wife, even though you

weren't generally in wrong direction to

the Lord, it grieves the spirit every

time we sin. I think quenching the

spirit is when you're living your own

agenda. And it's like throwing a wet

blanket on the fire. And you can do both

without the spirit ever leaving you.

It's not like he's just like, "Oh, I've

relationally now left you. You're no

longer the temple of God. You're no

longer indwell." That that indwelling is

permanent. But the Bible talks about

that as the the part where you are

relationally disconnected for a time uh

from the spirit because you're grieving

him uh as as either being filled with

the spirit or not. Right? Indwelling

permanent filling not necessarily

everyday kind of thing. So don't be

drunk on wine but be filled with the

spirit. If a Christian gets drunks dr

gets drunk uh do they lose their

salvation? No. Um, but it's a sin and so

and it's a sin that is directly opposed

to being filled with the spirit and

mentioned in that way. So what do you do

the next day when you got drunk? Well,

uh, confess it as sin. If it's a

significant pattern, you ought to tell

another Christian who's a little bit

scary to tell. Why? Because those are

the people that will hold you

accountable. If there's someone that you

have absolutely no fear of telling, it's

probably because you know this person's

not really going to help you um, in that

way. It's it's a there's I'm not saying

talk be scary on that way either. It's

just Christians that are not going to

just be like, "Hey, that's fine that

that happened." That's that's probably a

good Christian, but someone also that

will restore in a spirit of gentleness.

So

this this fight that you're fighting as

a Christian is not in the realm of

trying to stay saved. You're already

saved. It's in the realm of growing up

and into the kingdom, becoming more like

Jesus Christ. And so Paul says that but

if you are led by the spirit

which in in in in a very real way every

single Christian is whether they're

following or not those who have not yet

put their faith in Christ are not yet

led by the spirit. They may be being led

to be saved but they're not there yet.

But Paul's not really talking about if

you're led by the spirit in this passage

exclusively just by if you're as a

Christian in this verse it seems that

way. But if you're led by the spirit,

you're not under law. So all the

Christians are not under law. I don't

want to belabor this point. I've talked

a lot a lot about the idea of what it

means to not be under the law versus be

under the spirit. But if you for for

example to go to Romans 8, in fact,

let's just go there. Romans 8 talks

about how we are under the law of the

spirit. Um this verse I didn't give the

team so um don't waste your time looking

for it. But um famous verse Romans 8:1.

Romans 8:1

There is th there is therefore now no

condemnation for those who are in Christ

Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life

has set you free in Christ Jesus from

the law of sin and death. If you've been

taught this many times but feel like

some of the concepts of what it means to

be under the law and not under the law

slip from your mind. And let me give you

uh the kind of question that kind of

highlights sometimes this is a complex

doctrine. Even Peter admits that and

then people twist what Paul teaches. Um,

well, for example, do we still have to

keep the Ten Commandments can sometimes

be a very difficult question for

Christians to answer. And it's really

not that complicated. The answer, if you

just start here, it's already been kept.

Just tell yourself that it's already

been kept. Christ has fulfilled all the

the law. All of it. None of it is

unfulfilled. All of it has been

fulfilled in his person, in his

ministry, and his work on the cross.

Every requirement that the law has has

been entirely fulfilled.

So if what somebody means by keeping the

Ten Commandments is that they still have

to fulfill something in order to be

saved, that's nonsense. It's untrue.

It's an aursed gospel. It's already been

kept. If you remember that phrase, law's

already been kept, then it's easy to get

the right answer going forward in the

doctrine about this. what has happened.

Um and and also Paul talks about how

Abraham was just justified by faith too

before he was circumcised, which is like

a summary uh um example of those who

were saying, "Oh, I would be saved by

being circumcised." It's a work of the

law that is special and it gets brought

up so many times in the Bible because it

means devoting yourself to keeping the

law for the sake of righteousness. But

that's that's not actually what it means

in the mind of God. Uh in fact, he said

it's an eternal covenant. You can just

hear how the false teachers would be

like, "You're wrong that they don't have

to be circumcised. It's eternal." Um,

the way that it was eternal requires a

realm change of people where they're cha

changed from the realm, brought from the

realm of the law of sin and death, Paul

talks about, which you always only get

condemned from to the law of the spirit

of life. You're being transferred and

you are transferred by faith. So you

believe and then the law has also been

fulfilled for you in relationship to the

Lord and you do not have to keep it like

a heavy weight and then the law gets

written on your heart like tablets of

stone but it's actually tablets of human

hearts gets written on your heart.

This metaphor probably won't hit home

with everyone, but I think of like when

you're on your commun a computer and you

tap a menu and and it populates a little

menu of things that you can click and

different ways you can go and some of

them are black and some of them are

grayed out. You know what I'm talking

about? I look at when the word of God is

written on our heart, the menu is there,

but if we're not being obedient, some of

the options like the fruit of the spirit

in that time, they're like grayed out.

You got to go back. You got to ask for

forgiveness. And then that drop- down

menu becomes clickable again. The

power's back on. So when Paul talks

about we're not under the law, he

doesn't mean that the law has just

ceased to operate in its functions that

God has designed for to lead people

conviction of sin to show them what his

righteous standard is in the first place

which also shows you his character. But

ultimately that entire law is summed up

in loving God with everything you have

your heart, soul, and mind and loving

your neighbor as yourself. And legalism,

thinking you're better than other

people, is the exact opposite of keeping

the law anyway. So, it's false all the

way through. You're no longer under the

law, but you are under the law of the

spirit. You actually have the power to

obey, and it's done by continued

surrender. Now, verse 19, the works of

the flesh are evident. sexual

immorality, impurity, sensuality,

idolatry, sorcery, emnity, strife,

jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries,

dissensions, divisions, envy,

drunkenness, orgies, and things like

these. I warn you, as I warned you

before, that those who do such things

will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Heavy words.

I'm not going to spend an equal amount

of time on every single word primarily

for the reason that I uh respect your

guys's faith and I believe that there

are some of these words where you just

don't need uh long drawn out definitions

of them. others. Uh there are some very

interesting things discovered in the you

know if you have the CSB or KJV or NSB

some of these words will be translated

differently and that's because there's a

range of meaning in the Greek word and

the scholars and translators have to

decide what does this word mean. So

understanding that rage sometimes is

really powerful. One thing I wanted you

to notice though, um, this is not the

only place where Paul or other biblical

writers will say, "Hey, this is a list

of things. If they character your life,

characterize your life, you're not

inheriting inheriting the kingdom of

God." A lot of those other lists have um

sins of a like excessively fragrant

type. for example, the the biblical word

would be like abominations,

you know, and so often times they

include, if not always, sexual sin in

that way. But something I noticed as I

was looking at this is that sometimes

Christians will look at those abominable

sins and they'll say, "Well, I haven't

done that." And that that may very well

be true. I generally believe a Christian

that says that. But when you say, "Well,

I haven't done that." Aren't you kind of

being shallow in your application of it?

Well, I haven't committed adultery.

Yeah, maybe not literally physically,

but have you ever lusted after someone

whose physical form is very attractive

to you, whether you're a man or a woman?

And if you have, then you have the sin

problem down here. So, don't say, "I've

never done those things." At the same

time,

this list

doesn't just include things that are

like the absolute maximal version of a

sin. It includes ones that are just so

relatable to just any average person.

Think of fits of anger, for example.

You ever have fits of anger? You might

think, "Oh, well, not really, but I did

that one time." Remember the

battlefront?

If the enemy is tempting you and God's

coming and testing you and he brings

about a day like I recently had where I

find out that uh we I mean first quote

was like $13,000 to replace the entire

line and I'm like I'm under stress.

Okay, it's very frustrating. Frustrated

the inspection didn't show it. Starting

to have thoughts about well did the

sellers not disclose it? You know I

already know I'm not the type and so

it's extremely unlikely that I would sue

over the kind of thing. Just doesn't

seem wise because it's like it's too,

you know, there are genuine justices I

think that are worthy of going to court

over. It's not what I'm saying, but I'm

just like, yeah, I'm going to have to

fix this. And it may be one of those

things where I'm just forced to face.

So, you're under stress and it in those

times when a couple more stressors come

to the dominoes fall and then you have a

fit of anger and then you say, "Well,

it's so rare that I don't think I really

have a fit of anger problem." Let me

tell you a story of a friend long time

ago. Uh keeping it very anonymous. Um

but he and he got permission from his

wife to share this. I'm sharing it

anonymously. So I think I think it's

fine. But um

uh she she had an anger issue. I have I

just told you starting off, you know,

punching a guy in the throat like that.

There's there's an anger issue. the

anger issues in my family going all the

way back to my grandfather and probably

beyond that kind of thing. And so one of

the battles that I have um with the

desire of the flesh is anger. And I know

some of you do too. You've told me and

we've prayed together about it. So this

woman had this this issue and uh sort of

left it untreated. Didn't um

uh and and she's a godly woman, so I'm

not I'm not talking down at all. But the

let let herself continue to gratify the

desires of the flesh. And one day it got

so intense, the pressure, the bleeding

edge, the battlefront got so intense,

she got so angry, she took a cutting

board, wooden cutting board, and slammed

it on the on the on on the countertop,

granite countertop, and it splintered

right through her hand. And she had to

go get emergency surgery. Okay?

And the whole reason I'm telling you

this is because she actually told her

husband, "Let the men know. I put off

dealing with my anger issues." And

there's no doubt in my mind that God

brought this pain and difficulty to show

me just how serious it is. So don't tell

yourself, "Well, I don't have really the

fleshly issue of fists of anger." Just

cuz the only time you could remember it

was when you were under stress. When

remember the bleeding edge is where it

counts, it's where you grow. And you

could think of all of these like that. I

mean, who of us never deal with jealousy

issues? When someone else has something

that you just want, and it's not even

bad for you to want it, but then you're

jealous of that person. You begin to

begrudge them that they have it instead

of actually loving them and thanking God

that they have it. You're you're you're

becoming turned inward. And also, how

much has God given you that you don't

deserve? And so, jealousy is such a

serious sin, but we I think oftenimes

don't take it seriously. sexual im

immorality. Uh I don't think we have to

define that um a whole lot in this

church. You know, you know what it

means. But it starts with the desire. Do

you desire sexually immoral things?

That's where you got to have the

treatment. It won't it won't work to

just management manage it. You know, you

get some kind of phone app or you decide

not to go to this gym. Like you can't

avoid the flesh. It comes with you,

right? It's the problem with it's in us.

So, it needs to be dealt with. Um, I'm

going to I'm going to be talking to you

about a very specific challenge and plan

at the end of the service, uh, at the

end of the sermon about how to deal with

these kinds of things. What a plan and a

challenge for you to overcome a pattern

of gratifying the the flesh. Impurity.

>> This word could probably has the

connotation of sexual immorality, but it

can it can be beyond that. Impurity of

thought. Like for example, if you're

thinking about something that's really

an impure way to think, it's not right,

it's not straight, it's it's crooked. Uh

I think of um revenge fantasies as

impure thoughts, you know. Um I think of

like in your mind, even if you stop

short of saying the cuss words,

basically cussing somebody out in

traffic like this. These are impure

thoughts. Impure thoughts can also just

be deceptions of your mind where you

have allowed yourself to believe

something that's really just not true.

So there's all kinds of impurity that we

have to be cleansed from that our flesh

will populate and it likes to think. One

of the reasons why gossip is so powerful

for reputation destruction is that the

flesh in the ears of the hearer like to

hear it and they like to believe it. I

say they I have the very same kind of

flesh. Do you know that that your flesh

enjoys gossip?

It does. Don't say it doesn't. That's

the way the flesh is. We all have it.

Sensuality.

The first thing I think about sensuality

in America in terms of the kinds of

temptations I experience to it is like

the entertainment and food culture. Like

you just go way overboard in binge

watching stuff and and oftentimes it's

pretty sensual stuff. And then uh you

just like maybe one way to di diagnose

if you if you've been gratifying that is

is like do you just get really excited

and geeking out about some kind of

special meal but and that that's just

fine to get excited about a meal

celebratory meal or something or or just

any meal but but then when it comes to

reading God's word in prayer there's

like no excitement.

You've been gratifying the desire of the

flesh when it comes to sensuality.

Idolatry in its most simple definition

is this worship of anyone other than

God. Um and you might say, well, I

worship God. Well, it again remember

it's a battle of desire. So, you have to

evaluate your desire. Um when you start

allowing that place of worship, love of

adoration to get connected to something

that's not God, it's growing into a

little baby idol. You know, I wanted to

say something about the flesh before I

continue writing about it that I have

noticed and that applies to every single

one of works of the flesh. And and he's

not exhausting all the works of the

flesh. There's a lot of categories of

things here, but it's not every single

one. That's not the point. But there's a

basic inner dishonesty and a propensity

for selfdeception within the flesh. I'll

give you just an example because this is

one that I've just had to deal with so

much over and over again. act to anger

that I think is really relatable. Have

you uh felt angry, felt justified in the

reason for being angry and felt that

everything you're saying while you're

angry is actually true?

Then

you God cools your spirit. Maybe you

confess that you went not just it's be

angry but do not sin. There is a way to

be angry without being sinful. That's

important to know. Um, but angry burn

anger burns hot. You leave it too long.

You're going to sin. So, you've sinned.

You're convicted. You you confess that

maybe especially to the person that you

snapped off at or popped off at. And um

whether it's your children, your wife,

your friend or boss or co-orker or

whoever, someone on the phone,

I got a $6,000 bid to fix uh this leak,

which requires a dig up and then a PVC.

And I was like, that's outrageous.

That's so much money. I felt tempted to

let them know how I felt about their

bid, right? I decided to be careful in

my words and that was the work of the

spirit. Um because it was upsetting.

6,000. You got to be kidding me. You

know,

so

when when you're when you're angry, when

you're tempted like that, your mind will

just lie to you. I'm right about all the

How many times when you have a moment of

cool spirit and you're the anger is

dissipating from you and you're no

longer angry and you realize I don't

even think half the things I said. I WAS

SO CONVINCED THAT they were true before

and now I realize actually partly I

misunderstood what was being said to me,

what they meant. And then I said a bunch

of stuff I wish I could unsay because

they're not true and they've harmed the

person that like a little kid. I hate

you mommy. They don't hate you. their

flesh does.

I don't know if this is a valuable thing

to say, but don't seek love from your

children's flesh. Just came to mind.

You're not going to get it.

So, so consider those self-deceptions.

And then, and then you've you've had

that pattern multiple times. And yet

each time you're angry, you're so

certain you're right about everything.

And and I'm not saying that you're not

sometimes right about things even when

you're angry. It's just the flesh likes

to lie. And then it also likes to lie to

us about how serious the problem is.

Just like if you had one fit of anger,

but not very often, you say to yourself,

"Well, I don't really have that

problem." What if God just kept testing

you every day? Well, then the problem

would show up over and over again. Just

because he's being gracious and not

constantly hammering you with the test

doesn't mean the problem's not lurking

down there.

It's the very same thing with jealousy.

H have you ever seen a friend who's

clearly jealous of someone or something

and then you say I think you're dealing

with an issue of jealous I'm not

jealous. Who's talking there? Flesh is

talking there.

If if you're operating the fruit of the

spirit and and um someone saying I think

I think there's this issue in your life.

You're not going to immediately deny it.

You're going to think about it. You're

going to say I may be blind to that. Let

me pray about it. be you're hump there's

a humility to that

but so if you find yourself when someone

tells you something just immediately

denying it just one oh maybe that's an

issue reacting so strongly about it

one one example of the fruit of the or

the works of the flesh notice who says

doesn't say fruit of the flesh it said

works of the flesh versus fruit of the

spirit that's just that same thing about

works of the law versus things by faith

that you depend on God for um rivalries.

I looked up the Greek word rivalries and

I was actually kind of surprised by the

range of meaning. Let me read it to you.

This is just from the blue letter Bible.

I've I've showed you before how you can

use that as a tool for studying words.

Um it's very helpful. Um electioneering

or intriguing for office. The word is um

erea.

Arythea is the word and one of its

primary meanings is electioneering or

triging for office. Another option is

apparently New Testament according

distinction, a desire to put oneself

forward, a partisan and factous spirit

uh which does not disdain the low arts.

I'll be honest, I have no idea what does

not disdain the low arts means. Um if

you do, let me know afterwards. But the

last um definitional option here is

partisanship. Factiousness.

Okay. Factiousness. Partisanship. You

look at that and you can see how the

scholars came up with rivalries. I don't

know what your translation says, but I

wanted you to consider. You might think

I'm I'm not engaging in I'm not

gratifying the desires of I'm not

constantly competing with people. Uh

maybe you are in a way that you hadn't

considered. And I consider this for

myself first. You know, I will watch

YouTube mostly for entertainment,

including this category of things, maybe

political commentators or especially

people I consider to have um

high-powered minds in thinking through

social issues. So like a guy like Jordan

Peterson or maybe Ben Shapiro and I'll

watch them and oftenimes the title of

the headline is Jordan Peterson destroys

this argument or something like that you

know and then you watch it and in

general my worldview lines up uh with

with those guys not not in all the

things and I'll I'll talk to you about

where um but like especially politically

in general it it lines up and um they'll

be talking to someone who politically

doesn't line up and so there's something

satis satisfying about them just using

their superior intellect and ability to

argue win the argument. Something about

me that enjoys that. But I've noticed

this pattern where if I watch it too

long, I get kind of sick to my stomach.

And I It's not physical, but it reminds

me of like the spiritual version of

eating too much cotton candy,

you know? It's like this is there's no

transformation here. It's a noisy gong.

They're just hammering people with

arguments over and over and over again.

But there's no transformation. Even if

all of their objections to whatever the

truth is are knocked down, they wake up

the next morning with a populated new

list of objections. Some of them just

the same ones that got it's not God's

plan. It doesn't mean that they're we

don't share truth. But people aren't

transformed apart from the spirit. The

gospel is what transforms people, not a

bunch of human arguments about facts.

And you can say facts don't care about

your feelings. But guess who does? Jesus

cares about people's feelings. Even when

those feelings aren't based on truth, he

cares about their heart because that's

where the transformation is. Do you see

what we're talking about? So what am I

doing if I'm engaging constantly in the

these are rivalries and you're

gratifying the desires of the flesh?

Electioneering,

you know, and so you're just reading all

the time about all the different

election fraud. And I don't I to me it

would be asinine to claim there's no

election fraud. Of course there is.

They're bad actors. By how by how much I

don't know. I don't know. I don't have

an handle on I don't have a a security

clearance on these kinds of things. I

don't know. People think they know. I

don't know that people really know

unless they have some kind of access to

that information. And so if you're

filling with yourself with those kinds

of things, you're you're gratifying

the fleshly desire of a rivalry.

It doesn't mean you shouldn't have

political world views or never check in

on what's going on. But one way to

figure it out is like when you like are

maybe kind of like feeding on this

desire to like the entertainment of

rivalries and like we're right, they're

wrong. When when that's happening

and the last time that happened, did you

pray for the people that need a heart

change?

If you didn't, you're gratifying the

desires of the flesh or or at may maybe

not. But if it's never praying, then

there's something there. You got to look

at it. So even if again you're not a

person that's just generally difficult

to get along with in your private

thought life, you can be doing that kind

of thing. Let's move on. Fits of anger.

Talked about it quite a bit. Rivalries,

dissensions, divisions, man. Um, this is

where I wanted to stop for a moment and

talk about, you know, the flesh is set

against the spirit and the spirit's

against the flesh. And so you you have a

champion of your new nature and it's the

Holy Spirit in this battle. There's a

champion, a dread warrior, he's called.

You know, God is a man of war, the Bible

says, and he's on our side and he's

battling for us.

The spirit is that champion. Did you

know that there's a champion of the

flesh, too? It's a champion of the

flesh. He's known as the enemy, Satan,

the accuser, that ancient serpent, the

father of lies.

And and he

knows how the human flesh works and he

has power to tempt that flesh. And so I

want to show you just from um Ephesians

uh and and uh 2 Corinthians 10. If we

could put up the Ephesians 6 passage,

here's what it says about this unseen

world where the battle wages. Verse 10.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and the

strength of his might. Put on the whole

armor of God that you may be able to st

able to stand against the schemes of the

devil. For we do not wrestle against

flesh and blood, but against the rulers,

against the authorities, against the

cosmic powers over this present

darkness, against the spiritual forces

of evil in the heavenly places,

all in the unseen realm.

So Paul says,"Therefore, take up the

whole armor of God that you may be able

to withstand in the evil day and having

done all to stand therefore having

fastened on the belt of truth and having

put on the breastplate of righteousness

and as shoes for your feet having put on

the readiness given by the gospel of

peace. In all circumstances, take up the

shield of faith, with which you can

extinguish all the flaming darts of the

evil one, and take the helmet of

salvation and the sword of the spirit,

which is the word of God, praying at all

times in the spirit, with all prayer and

supplication. To that end, keep alert

with all perseverance, making

supplication for all the saints. And

we'll stop right there. So, there is the

unseen battle. I'm not just making it

up. Most of you knew that if you're new

to these things and you hadn't yet

considered them. There is a battle. It's

it's spiritual and and the enemy is like

a champion of your flesh.

He loves to tempt people to give into

that desire and he knows the desires

well. He's been around since the very

creation of Adam and Eve. And and

you know he he tempted them with exactly

the most effective way to tempt them.

We'll come back to this concept. Let's

go to chapter 10 of uh excuse me

Corinthians 2 Corinthians chapter 10 if

2 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

you can put it up. For though we walk in

the flesh, we are not waging war

according to the flesh.

You can't uppercut the enemy with your

fist.

You just hit air every time.

I saw I saw some uh there's a captain in

the army and he was telling his soldiers

to punch to push the air as hard as they

can and then he would yell at them for

not pushing it hard enough.

Oh my kind of guy. I've been through

that in wrestling so I know exactly the

sense of humor. But they're not acting

like they have a sense of humor either.

For though we walk in the flesh, we're

not waging a war according to the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not

of the flesh, but have divine power to

destroy strongholds.

Let's read on though. Verse 5, we

destroy arguments and every lofty

opinion raised against the knowledge of

God and take every thought captive to

what? Obey Christ. Verse six, being

ready to punish every disobedience when

your obedience is complete. Do you see

the connection between obedience and

power to destroy strongholds?

Strongholds can be of various kinds, but

in the context of this sermon,

when you've been gratifying the desires

of the flesh in a patternistic way, that

could be called a stronghold. A

stronghold in your heart. You might have

areas as we've been reading through

like, I just I know I should stop. I

want to stop and yet I don't stop and I

keep doing it. It's causing harm in my

marriage, harm in relationship to my

children, harm in my career, harm in

relationship to other Christians, harm

in my heart.

There's a stronghold. The good news is,

the good news is God has given us

spiritual power to overcome those,

but not apart from obedience.

Not apart from obedience. So when we

come to dissensions and divisions, you

know, the enemy is already going to be

trying to divide the people of God. He's

going to try to cause dissensions and

divisions. This word divisions uh is

probably different from the word

dissensions. Um I think the KJV and in a

in a good way uses the word factions. So

you might have a dissension without

joining a faction. But by the time

you've joined a faction, you know, like

Paul talks about, I follow Apollos, I

follow Cphus, I follow Jesus Christ. You

might think, well, surely we all should

just say we'll follow Jesus Christ. You

can do that in a fact.

You can say you're following Jesus

Christ over against

other people in in this fact rivalry

dissension. And let me just give you an

example of how conservative ev

conservative well-meaning evangelical

Christians can easily fall into this

trap.

I'm never going to preach this. In fact,

it's like at the heart of what I'm most

passionate about to preach the exact

opposite. But there are sometimes

Christians who will preach that you

don't have to keep asking for

forgiveness in this life. You've already

been justified. Everything's been given

past, present, and future. And that's

true. But now you don't even have to

confess sin. Not true. Unbelievably

false. I would call it a cursed because

what are you supposed to do when you

grieve the spirit? Just pretend like you

didn't. How are you going to continue

growing if you don't admit that you sin

to the Lord and to other people? It's so

hard-hearted and wrong. Let's just say I

started preaching that.

Happened before in the history of Boon

Ferry a long time ago, long before I was

um a pastor. People are going to be in

uproar. Doctrinally, you should be in an

uproar about that. But should you be in

an uproar in a fleshly way?

I would personally say put a teacher

like that out of the church.

You you teach that kind of thing, it is

just it's going to destroy people's

relationship to the Lord just to sit

there and think that they don't have to

confess their sin.

>> Right? It just ends the whole growth in

Christ likeness. and have I don't know

if you're maybe in a marriage or have a

friend and I mean the the ma how do you

even going to follow Matthew 18 about

talking about you know um confronting

someone's sin and there's this process

by which if they don't admit it there's

church discipline well they don't they

don't have to admit their sin so

everyone's just somebody that causes

dissensions in the church and that's

fine you never have to admit it of

course you do so what do you do well you

could because you're angry to a degree

rightly that that's being preached um

just start getting so angry in factions.

Maybe this side of the room agrees with

me and this side of the room doesn't and

you guys are treating each other like

you hate each other.

I've I've experienced a church split

like that before.

But it is possible to stand on the

truth, correct the wrong, talk to the

elders about what's so wrong and how it

needs to change, but do that in a

spiritual manner, in a self-controlled

manner, in a kind. But by the time

you're in that fight, just like when

you're angry, your flesh deceives you

and thinking, "No, I'm right to be angry

about this. I'm right to slam other

people. This guy's a heretic, and I may

very well be if I preach that kind of

thing." But in the meantime, there's all

this shrapnel and and and what it

collateral damage spiritually. And then

sometimes it takes years and even

decades for people to admit that. And

even when they admit it later and and

come back and say, "I'm so sorry for

behaved that way." Um they're still

like, "Well, it was better to be right

and this wasn't that big of a deal." But

I can we all agree that it's not God's

content, God's content, the truth, our

way. And it's not

uh God's way, but our content. It's

truth and love at all times, not

separated. You do. People say, "I'd

rather heir in the sight of love."

False. You'd rather not air at all.

Right? It's either true love or it's not

love at all. And if it's just truth and

you're hammering people, it's a noisy

gong. Because all truth is in the

service of love. Because the fulfillment

of everything said in scripture is

loving God with all your heart, soul,

and mind and loving your neighbor as

yourself. But they have and you cannot

keep them together. Your flesh wants to

separate them. I'm the kind of guy that

will more likely I don't want to. It is

error, but I would more rather more

likely like like be on the truth side,

you know? And then you see a whole

society it's like would more likely to

be on the love side, but they'll break

the truth over here. Neither of those

are Christlike. grace and truth. Full of

it. He is right. He is full of grace and

truth.

That was like Yoda popped out there.

So, uh, and I can't even do the Yoda

voice, so I won't try. But um again,

when you're evaluating the different

types of things, it's if you haven't

been living in a pattern of of

surrendering to the spirit,

I mean, who knows? You end up might be

part of a faction in division that's

actually causing the church split. And

and you're not like some kind of

malevolent person who's always trying to

do that. It's just you cave to the flesh

in that season. Sometimes the damage,

it's never irreversible in terms of what

God can do, but sometimes the damage

lasts for a very long time.

Envy, drunkenness, orgies, things like

these. I warn you, as I warned you

before, that those who do such things

will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Now, a false teacher would say that if

even once you sin like this, then uh you

know, you have to just keep doing better

and earn your way out of it. I I also

believe it would be false to say that

anybody who ever sins as a Christian

then would just uh lose their

inheritance in the kingdom of God. That

would be against everything Paul was

saying and other apostles are saying. If

we confess our sins, God is faithful and

just to forgive us our sins um and

cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But

I am not contradicting what Paul's

saying here. And I want to reiterate it

in the sense that if these sins

characterize your life without

repentance,

like you're not even repenting them for

the first time, you will not be welcomed

into heaven. You will be condemned.

That's what's being said here. And so if

these sins characterize your life and

you believe that you're a general

Christian, should you doubt your

salvation, I would never say that to

you. But man, if if there's just zero

repentance and you just keep doing them,

a certain amount of concern and

evaluation about whether have I really

repented in the first place? What's

going on? Like it's not okay to just

keep walking in those sins long term.

It's not safe. But the fruit of the

spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, self-control. Against such

things, there is no law. And those who

belong to Christ Jesus have crucified

the flesh with its passions and desires.

Let's put up the main point again

because this is where it really comes

becomes clear. Victory over the flesh of

victory over fleshly desires comes only

by faith in the cross through surrender

to the spirit.

Let me say it again. Victory over

fleshly desires comes only by faith in

the cross through surrender to the

spirit. The only thing the flesh is good

for is crucifixion.

and it hurts and your flesh will tell

you this must be wrong because what

they're telling you you need to deal

with or or they're saying you need to

forgive, they'll just take advantage or

you're saying you've sinned and you

haven't sinned. Flesh will always tell

you you haven't sinned. Uh the flesh is

sinful by nature and love's cloaking its

its actual operation. I mean, it is part

of you. It's a false part of you, but

it's there. So, it's not like

schizophrenia or something like that.

Well, and and then

you look at what has to happen to the

flesh. It has to has to die. Romans

Romans 8:13. Um, let's let's actually go

Romans 8:13

there. Romans 8, excuse me, Romans uh 8,

yeah, 8:13. It says, uh, here speaking a

very similar concept. 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.

Flesh has a lethal consequence if you

continue to fulfill it, so to speak.

Paul says, 'I appeal to you therefore,

brothers, Romans 12, by the by the

mercies of God, present your bodies as a

living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to

God, which is your spiritual worship.

The flesh always wants to get off that

that altar of sacrifice,

especially at the precipice of being

killed off. So right in that moment,

there's a part of you that's going to

feel like the solution, the

mortification of your flesh is just so

wrong, is so wrong.

And then the spirit's going to be

convicting you and saying, "No, it's

painful, but it's the way to life." So

when I say the pain of repentance is

always less than the pain of

disobedience, I'm not denying that there

is pain. Contrition

is is in part being in pain over your

sin.

it harmed somebody else. It also is

something your savior had to die suffer

and die for. So yeah, if you're really

being humble, there's pain in admitting

it. The more you get used to that that

winning the battle is always walking

through a door of pain of repentance

first. You don't you don't mortify the

flesh without pain. It's so intertwined

and something in you has to die.

Something in me has to die.

Again, victory over fleshly desires

comes only by faith in the cross through

surrender to the spirit. So don't if if

it really hurts, you're probably on the

money.

Don't deceive yourself and think this is

this can't be right. This is this is I'm

I'm being spiritually abused.

I mean, there is such a thing by cult

leaders, but man,

I've I've been accused of spiritual

abuse just for speaking the truth in

love to somebody. And I know it's the

flesh talking.

Say anything to get out of it. So will

mine.

So in conclusion today, I thought, you

know what? Something's missing from the

sermon that I wrote. And I prayed about

it and I just realized, you know what?

How about a growth plan? How about a

hyperspecific application for this? And

so I want to give you guys a challenge.

I want you to to identify a desire of a

flesh that you keep being tempted in.

Particularly one that you keep falling

to. Any one of these or any fleshly work

you find in the Bible. If it's fits of

anger, choose that one. Don't choose

them all. Choose just one. This is just

a human being challenging you. It's not

like the scripture says you have to only

choose one. But if you trust me, I'll

explain why I'm saying this. Jealousy,

strife, whatever it is. I didn't really

define sorcery. Um sorcery is like uh uh

the magical arts, divination,

manipulation is in there. Uh part of the

definition actually include the word is

pharmarmacaya. I don't think Paul is

talking about the use of poison or drugs

per se, but within the magical uh always

evil magical arts. Um

drugging and poisoning can be part of

it. You have to be very careful about uh

uh drugs and alcohol in relationship to

the the spiritual world of the occult.

Okay. Um, I think I just skipped over

that word accidentally, but I wanted to

find it. But whatever it is, I mean, if

you're dabbling in the occult, choose

that one to get out of today. I mean, if

it's as sexually immoral as orgies,

choose that one to repent of today.

Those things will destroy your life

fast.

But whatever it is that the Holy

Spirit's highlighting, okay, this is the

one. He was right about those rivalries.

I do the very same thing. And I just

geek out on enjoying these people that I

disagree with being rhetorically

smashed,

right? Gratifying the flesh always has a

negative. Whatever it is, whatever it

is, if it's anxiety like we talked

about, then what the second the first

thing to do if you're writing these down

and it might be good because then you

can remember the challenge. Identify the

desire of the flesh that you need to

deal with. Identify the desire of the

flesh.

Secondly, identify the corresponding

fruit of the spirit.

And this is going to take wisdom because

it could be multiple ones. If if fits of

anger is your problem or you're dealing

with anger issues. Well, maybe patience

is the answer, maybe peace, maybe

kindness, maybe gentleness. And you can

pray about which one of these does God

want me to work on. I also am

challenging you to choose just a single

fruit of the spirit to focus on. Okay?

Again, a desire identify a single desire

of the flesh you keep falling to. By the

way, if you can't identify any sin in

your life, that ought to be just like

flashing warning lights,

right?

That that means you're far from the

spirit because the spirit convicts us of

sin. And there's still plenty ways that

even an 85year-old person with a

faithful walk in the Lord, are they

going to say they're perfect? No. In

fact, the mature Christians actually

just continue to be more contrite and

and talk about just how clingy sin is in

their lives, right? They've overcome

some stuff, but they're continuing to

have to overcome. They're continuing to

have victory over it. Uh so maybe just

confess the sin that you're so prideful

that you can't think of a single sin.

And I meant that to be punchy.

Let's continue.

So the first one is identify the desire

of the flesh that you need to work on.

Then identify a fruit of the spirit and

you can ask the Holy Spirit to help you

do that. Why just one? The wonderful

thing is that you can't just grow in one

fruit of the spirit. They come like in a

basket that's all connected. If you're

operating in the filling of the spirit

like if it's a tree, all of the fruits

are being supplied with what they need

to grow. Okay? So you can't really go

wrong just focusing on one. But then you

stay focused. And I think maybe you'll

understand it most when you when you

hear the next thing. We just got done

reading that there's a sword of the

spirit. What is the sword of the spirit?

>> Word of God. The one offensive weapon.

So this challenge I don't actually think

is is that difficult. But memorize a

verse corresponding either to the

destruction of that fleshly desire or an

exhortation towards that exact and

sometimes they're both towards that

exact spiritual fruit. Consider, for

example, um James 1. It's a really good

one for for anger. Um I want you to

know, brothers, uh that um let every

person be quick to hear, slow to speak,

slow to anger, for the anger of man does

not produce the righteousness of God.

>> Okay. So, if the anger issues, maybe

that one. How about Proverbs 10:12? For

Proverbs 10:12

if you're experiencing a lot of strife

in your life and you're thinking, "Yeah,

I bring quite a bit of that strife. Um,

I'm I'm somewhat of the cause. Hatred

stirs up strife, but love covers all

offenses.

If you're like, I don't know which

verse, you can literally go on Google

and just type in verses about patience

verse and it'll it'll come up with it,

right? It'll just it's very easy to do.

Memorize that verse,

just one. Okay. Find identify the

fleshly desire. identify the

corresponding spirit you want fruit you

want to uh uh work on and or have the

Holy Spirit work on and then memorize

the verse and then finally pray every

single day once for 30 days about it. I

don't know if you've ever done that

about just one focused thing, man. If

it's really one of the works of the

spirit that the Holy Spirit has

identified that you need to repent of

and and if you're I don't really think

you can choose a wrong fruit to grow in,

but I'm like, you're really finding the

one that you want God to develop so it's

not just constantly not ripe in your

life. Um, and then you memorize a verse

about anger, about patience, about

sexual impurity. How can a young man

keep his way pure? by guarding his heart

according to your word. That's Psalm

119, I think 11. So, whatever it is,

it's not too big of a challenge. And I'm

not talking about praying for an hour.

The length of your prayers does not

really correspond to the effectiveness

of them. Obedience does have an impact

if you are not willing to obey. It's

like a double-mindedness, right? But so,

I believe you will and you want to. And

so, just pray, God, help me. It might be

good to pray in the beginning of the

morning, you know, of the day. Just

spend some time praying for that. Okay,

I've reiterated them enough. And I I

will check back in on this. I'm going to

be doing it, too. I'll tell you mine is

kindness. Um, and uh, Ephesians 3 or

4:32 says, "Be kind to one another,

tender-hearted, forgiving one another as

God in Christ forgave you."

I want to become a kinder man.

My flesh is mean.

I think yours is too, but

I tend to think mine is just

particularly mean based on having

experience what the flesh wants to say.

So

that's what I'm going to be praying for.

I've already memorized that verse a long

time ago with my kids, but I'm going to

be memorizing other verses as well. But

what if that 30 days leads to great

victory because you surrender to the

spirit and that sin just stops popping

up in your marriage, in your

relationship, to your children, at your

work, and in your life in general. How

great would it be to set be set remember

the champion is the Holy Spirit and he

can do it.

Let me read our main point one more time

and conclude in prayer if we can put the

main point up. Victory over fleshly

desire comes only by faith in the cross

through surrender to the spirit. Father,

I pray that you would help us to stay on

that battlefront. Yes, it's scary.

Sometimes it feels like we're going to

lose a part of ourselves that uh we

don't even know who we are afterwards,

but you know who we're supposed to be

and we can entrust yourself ourselves to

your scalpel, the chisel, and even when

it's needed, your broad sword of

correction. And so I pray Lord that as

we come to communion today that your

spirit would be ministering to us. That

we'd be able to identify a place where

we've been gratifying the flesh.

Identify the corresponding fruit that we

need to grow in pray even at the table

of communion or when we come back to sit

down and that you would bring verses to

mind that act like swords for the

killing of the flesh. Uh but also swords

to parry the enemy and all the ways he

tries to accuse us. Lord, you're not our

accuser. You're our advocate and we

thank you for that in Jesus name. Amen.