back to index2016-07-10 Fruits of Freedom
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Please turn your Bibles over to Galatians 5, verse 13-26. 00:00:08.000 |
And I think it's three weeks ago, two weeks ago, I started the first half. 00:00:16.000 |
And I'm doing the second half of the sermon, where the first half, 00:00:19.000 |
I talked about how the book of Galatians is going to teach us that we're free. 00:00:25.000 |
By being Christians in Christ, we are freed people. 00:00:29.000 |
But that freedom means to be in the kingdom of God. 00:00:34.000 |
That freedom means to be in the spirit of Christ. 00:00:38.000 |
So, here in Galatians, Apostle Paul is going to exhort us, 00:00:48.000 |
I'm going to start reading from verse 13-26, and then we'll study verse 16 and down. 00:00:54.000 |
"For you were called to freedom, brethren. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. 00:01:01.000 |
But through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, 00:01:06.000 |
in the statement, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 00:01:09.000 |
But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. 00:01:15.000 |
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 00:01:19.000 |
For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. 00:01:23.000 |
For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 00:01:29.000 |
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 00:01:33.000 |
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, 00:01:40.000 |
idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 00:01:47.000 |
envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. Of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, 00:01:54.000 |
that those who practice such things will not enter, inherit the kingdom of God. 00:01:59.000 |
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. 00:02:12.000 |
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 00:02:17.000 |
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 00:02:21.000 |
Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. Amen. 00:02:28.000 |
Now, I gave you the context again that Apostle Paul is making a strong admonition here. 00:02:33.000 |
You're free. And as free individuals, you should live in that freedom. 00:02:41.000 |
The wholeness of that freedom. And he makes that into a challenge as, "Then live in the Spirit." 00:02:49.000 |
Walk in the Spirit. Be in tune with the Spirit. And then he says later, "Keep your step with the Spirit." 00:02:56.000 |
And I want to remind us that by context, why he's giving such a strong admonition is because the Galatians were in danger 00:03:03.000 |
where they first received the truth, and then false teaching came in where somebody said, 00:03:09.000 |
"No, you need circumcision too to be holy. You need washing of hands. You need observance of festivals. 00:03:17.000 |
And all of a sudden, the legalism that existed prior to the Gospel of Christ now started to come in 00:03:23.000 |
as a means by which these individuals would gain greater holiness or a greater relationship with God. 00:03:30.000 |
And so, if you turn just a page over back to chapter 3, verse 3, 00:03:35.000 |
it just summarizes the whole of the problem that the Galatians were facing. 00:03:40.000 |
And Galatians 3, verse 3 basically says, "Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" 00:03:50.000 |
And he asks that question in that sarcastic, absurd, "You began your spiritual life by the Spirit of God." 00:04:00.000 |
And what I mean by that is, every single one of us in here who is a genuine Christian, 00:04:06.000 |
you have a spiritual existence that was created not by you, but by the Spirit of God. 00:04:12.000 |
And we can go down the list here. What was it that initially caused you to have faith? 00:04:19.000 |
And so essentially, Apostle Paul is questioning, 00:04:21.000 |
"What is going to be the thing that causes you to grow in the faith and have faith now, to maintain that faith?" 00:04:33.000 |
Initially, when we heard the truth, rather than saying, "Ah, stop judging me," 00:04:37.000 |
but rather to like it, to respond to it appropriately, what caused that in our lives? 00:04:44.000 |
What caused us to repent and have contrition of heart? 00:04:49.000 |
What caused us to desire to be in Christ, to obey, to listen, to be in fellowship? 00:05:01.000 |
Now, I am not saying that there is no part on our end in terms of our energy, our actions, or anything like that. 00:05:07.000 |
What I'm saying is, what caused that initially to happen is the Spirit. 00:05:19.000 |
I am placing a confidence on what the Spirit can do in you, 00:05:23.000 |
and I am placing confidence on what the Spirit can do in me. 00:05:27.000 |
And what's more, what the Spirit has already done. 00:05:35.000 |
Do we share in the kind of problem like they did, 00:05:38.000 |
where perhaps, although we are Christian, we keep turning to things that is not of the Spirit? 00:05:45.000 |
We keep turning to things that is actually not the person of the Spirit. 00:05:59.000 |
and I can go down the list of the things by which the Spirit benefits us. 00:06:05.000 |
The Spirit is the one who continues to help us have an intimate relationship with God. 00:06:11.000 |
The Spirit is the one who actually searches the mind of God and continues to reveal that mind to us. 00:06:17.000 |
The Spirit is the one who then is actually giving light for us to see the truth of the Scripture. 00:06:24.000 |
The Spirit is the one moving in us so that we are strengthened in the inner man. 00:06:30.000 |
"This is who you should be like, the Lord Jesus Christ." 00:06:37.000 |
He is the one who convicts us what is of the devil and what is of the Lord. 00:06:42.000 |
Who convicts us what is good and what is bad. 00:06:45.000 |
The Spirit is the one who ministers to us, the paraclete who helps us. 00:06:55.000 |
It is a He who is powerful and it is He who has brought to you life. 00:07:03.000 |
And then He is embedded in you, sealing you, guaranteeing you to the end. 00:07:09.000 |
But do we have a problem where sometimes we turn to other things? 00:07:13.000 |
We have issues in our lives where we are sad, we are hurt, we are dejected, we are disappointed. 00:07:21.000 |
Typically things that will immediately satisfy, typically things where we think there are answers. 00:07:26.000 |
Sometimes we even turn to non-Christian counselors. 00:07:34.000 |
And I wonder if He, the Spirit, is saying, "Did you forget about me?" 00:07:42.000 |
Go in your Bibles please to Jeremiah 2 and we will read from verse 11 down to verse 13. 00:07:53.000 |
I want to highlight this dilemma that we as Christians, after having began our life in Christ, 00:08:03.000 |
Turn perhaps not just to something different, something entirely insufficient. 00:08:09.000 |
And then we will see how God speaks of it in Jeremiah as Jeremiah's prophet speaking God's perspective and commentary on what has happened. 00:08:36.000 |
First, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water. 00:08:42.000 |
Brothers and sisters, right now I am highlighting the benefits, the joys, the ministry of the Holy Spirit. 00:08:49.000 |
This ministry of the Holy Spirit given to us is what I talked about the last time we were here, 00:08:58.000 |
The freedom that we have framed in another way is our membership into a new country. 00:09:05.000 |
And just like a refugee in current times is running away perhaps from an oppressive country, 00:09:11.000 |
is running away perhaps from things that are just like slavery, 00:09:16.000 |
and wanting to go to a kingdom that has privileges, that has securities, and that has benefits, 00:09:20.000 |
we are in the kingdom of God in the Spirit of Christ receiving all the benefits of the Holy Spirit. 00:09:27.000 |
And Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John mentioned many times, 00:09:31.000 |
"I want to give you life. He who comes and drinks of me, you're going to have rivers of life." 00:09:37.000 |
And He says, "Because I'm going to send you the Spirit. 00:09:41.000 |
And the Spirit is going to be such a benefit to you that it's better that I go." 00:09:47.000 |
So why is it that we have such a huge confusion? 00:09:50.000 |
Why is it that many times we don't go to the Spirit? 00:09:54.000 |
And my admonition for the entire sermon is going to be, 00:09:57.000 |
"Learn what it is to go to the Spirit and continue going to Him. 00:10:07.000 |
And we need to continue then in walking with the Spirit." 00:10:11.000 |
So number one, let's take a look at verse 16. 00:10:19.000 |
And it says here, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, 00:10:24.000 |
and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh." 00:10:33.000 |
He essentially gives you a solution to the problem that every single one of you and I have. 00:10:39.000 |
Our battle against our flesh, sinful desires, sinful tendencies and habits. 00:10:44.000 |
He says not, "Hey, take up your knife and go fight." 00:10:48.000 |
He doesn't say, "Here's the tactic and strategy." 00:10:50.000 |
He says, "Walk in the Spirit, and you are not going to give yourself to that fleshly desire." 00:10:58.000 |
And the thing about it is, that simple challenge to walk by the Spirit is reiterated in verse 25. 00:11:05.000 |
And in the ESV translation, it says, "Keep in step with the Spirit." 00:11:13.000 |
But what is that? It's just to take one step and another step. 00:11:17.000 |
You need to follow those tracks and keep on cue in that marching order, so to speak. 00:11:30.000 |
I think a lot of people, and for me too, a while back, in early stages of Christianity, 00:11:37.000 |
if you were to tell me, "You need to be in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit." 00:11:49.000 |
I don't know what else to say about that, really. 00:11:54.000 |
You've heard the pendulum swing of, like, you've got to work hard to be sanctified, 00:11:59.000 |
and then you've got to be like, "You can't. You've got to let God." 00:12:02.000 |
So that perspective is kind of like, "Well, I'm waiting for the Spirit to fill me, 00:12:08.000 |
to maybe, like, knock me off my feet, blow my mind, and then stuff, like, happens." 00:12:19.000 |
But I don't think that's what he's talking about, 00:12:21.000 |
and I don't think we need to confuse what walking in the Spirit 00:12:32.000 |
I have heard recently that a good portion of our church members, 00:12:36.000 |
they go to these gyms, you know, 24-hour fitness or LA fitness, 00:12:42.000 |
And more recently, there's been this trend, and a bunch of groups of people, 00:12:46.000 |
and to tell you honestly, it sounds like a lot of fun, 00:12:49.000 |
but they're doing this Brazilian dance class called Zumba. 00:12:53.000 |
And it's pretty funny, and it's not just girls. 00:12:55.000 |
There's, like, a bunch of guys from church doing it, too. 00:13:01.000 |
And I'm pretty sure, you know, it's a lot of fun, you know, 00:13:04.000 |
being together, exercising, and it's not just, like, 00:13:07.000 |
a bunch of dudes lifting weights, but it's, like, fun choreographed stuff. 00:13:11.000 |
But typically, the way that class works is there's an instructor, right? 00:13:15.000 |
There's an instructor that you have to, what? 00:13:21.000 |
Well, sometimes, if you go to the classes with guys who are uncoordinated, 00:13:25.000 |
you're like, "It is so hard for them," you know? 00:13:28.000 |
Well, a lot of times, it's just not that hard. 00:13:32.000 |
there's only two things that could really go wrong. 00:13:37.000 |
You're, like, too distracted by the guy who can't bend his body, 00:13:40.000 |
and he's just not--there's no dexterity in him, he's not fluid, 00:13:45.000 |
You're just all distracted because you just keep looking at him. 00:13:49.000 |
or there's all these mirrors and stuff, so you're looking at yourself. 00:13:52.000 |
You're looking at something different, so you're not paying attention to the instructor. 00:13:58.000 |
Walking in the Spirit means you're paying attention to the Spirits leading in your life. 00:14:05.000 |
Earlier I mentioned, He is teaching us, He is guiding us, He is empowering us. 00:14:09.000 |
He's going to take the Word of God and be like, "See?" 00:14:17.000 |
So, yes, the Scriptures tell us, "Fill your mind with the Word. 00:14:20.000 |
Let the Word of God dwell richly in you," right? 00:14:24.000 |
The book of Proverbs, huge chunks of it, "Pay attention, give ear, listen, heed this thing, listen up," 00:14:31.000 |
So many parts of Scripture is, "Pay attention." 00:14:36.000 |
Listen to the Word of God and pay attention to it closely. 00:14:40.000 |
Otherwise, what? You can't walk in the Spirit. 00:14:45.000 |
But secondly, obviously, when you're in that classroom, 00:14:48.000 |
yes, you might be looking, but you might just be looking. 00:14:54.000 |
And the thing about it is, with choreography, there is time. 00:15:02.000 |
And so, obviously, if you're not practicing one thing, you're not going to get the next thing 00:15:08.000 |
And if you're not in the practice, you can't follow. 00:15:16.000 |
That people in godliness discern what's right and wrong by practice. 00:15:27.000 |
I go home, I'm pretty tired, and the kids want to play or something, 00:15:35.000 |
I love my kids, love my wife, count it the blessings upon blessings to have a family, 00:15:45.000 |
And then I get this little voice in the back of my head. 00:15:58.000 |
Is that hard to notice what it means to walk in the Spirit versus my flesh? 00:16:09.000 |
And Apostle Paul, I think, therefore just tells us, "Walk in the Spirit." 00:16:13.000 |
And he's not dissecting what that all means because he, I think, automatically knows 00:16:16.000 |
if you are a Christian and you have the Spirit of God who is an active living person 00:16:24.000 |
you should understand what it means when he says, "Walk in the Spirit." 00:16:28.000 |
If you really have no idea what that means, then we have deeper issues, right? 00:16:32.000 |
If you have no idea what it means to heed the Spirit versus your flesh, 00:16:41.000 |
Let the Word just deeply and frequently saturate your thoughts 00:16:47.000 |
so that the Spirit of God will use those words. 00:16:50.000 |
And through prayer and communion, you are in tune with Him. 00:16:53.000 |
And then when those moments come where you have the conviction, 00:16:56.000 |
the Spirit coming up within you, then your actions are now derived from what? 00:17:01.000 |
Someone cornering you saying, "You better do it or I'm going to spank you." 00:17:05.000 |
You have the Spirit of God saying, "This is good. Golly, this is in the form of Christ." 00:17:22.000 |
And the Spirit of God will produce that in you. 00:17:25.000 |
Now, as we think about this a little bit, I want to encourage you. 00:17:34.000 |
the Spirit of God in this struggle that I'm trying to say is already victorious. 00:17:43.000 |
The Spirit of God is not going to lose to sin. 00:17:47.000 |
The Spirit of God is not sitting there having a battle saying, 00:17:50.000 |
"Oh my goodness, this is yin and yang, 50/50 chance." 00:17:53.000 |
Scripture tells us that the Spirit of God is in us and He is greater than the world. 00:18:05.000 |
If right now I'm saying, "Hey, walk in the Spirit," 00:18:07.000 |
and you're thinking like, "Dude, man, that is way harder than you make it seem." 00:18:13.000 |
But let me be an encouragement to you and say, 00:18:18.000 |
It's not normally supposed to be failure after failure 00:18:23.000 |
And we're just getting bruised and beating at every corner. 00:18:26.000 |
What actually should be the normative is that, yes, we are sometimes bruised, 00:18:31.000 |
but there is a progression of greater and steady walking with the Spirit in success. 00:18:47.000 |
but Apostle Paul is going to highlight why that is so important. 00:18:55.000 |
So point two--the first point was just simply walk in the Spirit. 00:19:26.000 |
but that the flesh is hostile to anything spiritual. 00:19:31.000 |
because he says the flesh is trying to prevent you. 00:19:38.000 |
The flesh is trying to prevent you from doing what is godly. 00:19:44.000 |
And so what I would like to say is that's the nature of the beast. 00:19:54.000 |
And if you turn over your Bibles to Romans 7, 00:19:57.000 |
Apostle Paul in another book explains that pretty thoroughly. 00:20:04.000 |
I wish I had the time to read you the entire chapter and chapter 8, 00:20:08.000 |
but I'm going to highlight for you some things here. 00:20:22.000 |
the sinful passions were aroused by the law." 00:20:30.000 |
Now, is he talking about pre-salvation or after salvation? 00:20:45.000 |
a redeemed soul living in fallen flesh yet to be glorified. 00:20:51.000 |
If you're not a Christian, you are absolutely in the flesh with no struggle. 00:21:03.000 |
And he says that when this flesh, with all of its sinful passion, 00:21:13.000 |
And so he says that this sin and the sinful passions which are aroused 00:21:18.000 |
were at work in the members of your body to bear fruit for death. 00:21:26.000 |
so that we will serve the newness of the Spirit 00:21:30.000 |
So through context, my personal take is chapter 7 is all about pre-salvation. 00:21:41.000 |
On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the law, 00:21:44.000 |
for I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said, 00:21:48.000 |
But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, 00:21:56.000 |
"For sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, 00:22:02.000 |
"Therefore did that which was good become a cause of death for me? 00:22:10.000 |
The law in and of itself is not going to be banished. 00:22:13.000 |
And so all these free grace people who are like, "Every law is bad," wrong! 00:22:17.000 |
Jesus himself said, "The law is to be fulfilled, not jettisoned." 00:22:24.000 |
But when sin comes, the nature of the beast comes out, 00:22:35.000 |
I was a high school student when I had my last dog, 00:22:41.000 |
And then me and my brother would go chasing it down, 00:22:46.000 |
And then once we corner the thing, what do you think the dog is going to do? 00:22:48.000 |
He starts backing up, trying to go this way or that way, 00:22:50.000 |
and then we come over and grab him, and he goes, "Arrgh!" 00:23:00.000 |
Guys, I'm trying to make a serious point here. 00:23:10.000 |
comes to a sinner who has unrepentant sin in his heart, 00:23:18.000 |
and that sin is going to take chance and opportunity and rear itself, 00:23:31.000 |
that the flesh is in opposition to the Spirit, 00:23:34.000 |
and you need to be aware that the flesh is not just kind of like, 00:23:42.000 |
It is hostile to you and trying to overtake you. 00:23:47.000 |
And so you see how the apostle says it's so important for you to walk in the Spirit 00:23:52.000 |
because you have this enemy causing you to be an enemy of God. 00:24:02.000 |
we realize it's not just like base sexual desire. 00:24:09.000 |
That flesh, so to speak, is comprising of all the depraved perspective of the world, 00:24:21.000 |
And yes, it's also in our depraved desires and passions. 00:24:24.000 |
These things cannot control us, but rather the Scripture says 00:24:31.000 |
We need to put them to death and we need to fight them. 00:24:43.000 |
"Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." 00:24:57.000 |
In that verse, it says that those who will belong to Christ 00:25:08.000 |
In the Gospel, we know that God is the one who crucified sin, 00:25:13.000 |
It says in Colossians that He took the certificate of debt, 00:25:16.000 |
all that is against you, He nailed it to the cross. 00:25:23.000 |
But then He says, when you walk in the Spirit, 00:25:26.000 |
those who are in Christ and truly Christian will take your sins 00:25:30.000 |
and you will continue to place it there and keep it there 00:25:35.000 |
You are not going to have remorse over you letting go of your sin. 00:25:39.000 |
You are not going to look back on your sin with fondness, 00:25:49.000 |
We need to have a resolute, decisive repentance that kills sin. 00:25:58.000 |
I have been in the last several days and the last several weeks 00:26:01.000 |
thinking much about what it means to be truly godly. 00:26:05.000 |
I have been thinking very deeply about what it means to be truly spiritual, 00:26:17.000 |
if an individual deals with sin and is half-hearted, 00:26:26.000 |
that individual's godliness is going to shoot down the toilet 00:26:29.000 |
and we will all of a sudden realize, maybe, the Spirit of God is not there. 00:26:35.000 |
Because in the next verses, what we see is a depiction of it. 00:26:44.000 |
and I am going to call it "The Works of the Flesh." 00:26:46.000 |
And to set it up, you guys have seen boxing matches and MMA matches? 00:26:51.000 |
There is always that guy with a really cool voice, 00:26:56.000 |
And he says, "In the blue corner, weighing in at 170!" 00:27:09.000 |
And then on the other side is going to be the Spirit, 00:27:14.000 |
And he is going to depict the two as, "This is a battle, 00:27:17.000 |
and here I want you to see what this individual is." 00:27:32.000 |
enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 00:27:37.000 |
envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. 00:27:41.000 |
I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things 00:27:49.000 |
there is no way I am going to tackle every single one of those characteristics of the flesh. 00:27:54.000 |
And I am not going to because I want to be honest. 00:28:03.000 |
To a true Christian, it should not be such a confusing thing. 00:28:22.000 |
He is like, "I do not care. I want that one." 00:28:28.000 |
We do not have to dissect them to really know. 00:28:30.000 |
But we are going to go through them to get a depiction. 00:28:33.000 |
Because Apostle Paul kind of puts them in categories for us. 00:28:43.000 |
He says sexual immorality, impurity, and sensuality. 00:28:49.000 |
It is all passion behavior, lustful behavior, sexual behavior. 00:28:55.000 |
Probably you guys have heard that there is this term, "pornea." 00:29:00.000 |
But that term, what you realize is that it is a perversion. 00:29:05.000 |
Truthfully speaking, we live in a quite perverse generation. 00:29:11.000 |
Things that are supposed to be deemed completely adulterous, 00:29:17.000 |
People have perverted everything that God has deemed right and appropriate 00:29:20.000 |
for a marriage relationship between a husband and a wife. 00:29:22.000 |
Then people have just dramatized all sorts of nasty sexual perversions 00:29:27.000 |
and then put them up on movies for people to see. 00:29:31.000 |
That word for impurity, it literally means unclean. 00:29:39.000 |
That is what this generation again struggles with. 00:29:42.000 |
Now, the reason why I am going into the definitions of some of these things 00:29:54.000 |
If I am saying all the generations like this, well, the generation is like this, 00:29:57.000 |
but also I know that many in the church wrestle with sexual perversion. 00:30:01.000 |
Whether it be premarital sex, whether it be pornography, 00:30:05.000 |
there are perversions of sexual sins in the church. 00:30:12.000 |
But Apostle Paul is saying this is evident of what? 00:30:16.000 |
It is your flesh. You know it is an inside job. 00:30:19.000 |
But many people in the church today start pointing to outside stuff. 00:30:24.000 |
It is because my work is so hard. It is because I cannot handle this. 00:30:27.000 |
It is because... and then when they go to secular counselors, 00:30:29.000 |
it is because of the way your parents treated you when you were young. 00:30:34.000 |
It is because of the way your father treated you. 00:30:36.000 |
It is because of suppressed this and that anxiety and this. 00:30:39.000 |
No. We have to recognize that the Bible is teaching 00:30:43.000 |
these perversions at its root come from our flesh. 00:30:50.000 |
What is more, Apostle Paul points out that there are idolatries and sorceries. 00:30:55.000 |
In my mind, these are all stuff of the man-made religion. 00:30:58.000 |
This is the stuff where I want to dictate what I want to have 00:31:04.000 |
That is why I get to say that my God is this guy that I can make. 00:31:09.000 |
My God is this guy who is going to give me this. 00:31:11.000 |
My God is this guy who is going to give me that. 00:31:15.000 |
Sorcery is the same thing in the sense that the Greek... 00:31:18.000 |
I am not going to say all the Greek terms and stuff, 00:31:20.000 |
but we get the derivative of pharmacy, pharmaceutical. 00:31:24.000 |
Essentially, all he is talking about is drugs that sedate you, 00:31:33.000 |
I go to this and worship this, things feel better, good. 00:31:38.000 |
I go do my religious thing, I feel good, feel sedated, I am out encouraged. 00:31:46.000 |
Then here are the things that come up where he lists a bunch of stuff 00:31:55.000 |
clear indicators that your flesh is reigning. 00:31:57.000 |
He says there is enmity, there is strife, there is jealousy, fits of anger, 00:32:07.000 |
Here is a moment for us to really check our hearts. 00:32:13.000 |
My wife is right there, so I have to be honest. 00:32:26.000 |
Sometimes she wants to encourage me with something, 00:32:32.000 |
There is that kind of hostility where it is passive aggressive. 00:32:36.000 |
"What? You got something to say to me? You want to fight? Let's go!" 00:32:39.000 |
There is that kind of hostility. We do not really do that at home. 00:32:42.000 |
I am just saying, if you have that kind of mentality, 00:32:47.000 |
Please do not chalk that up to, "Well, that is what people need, 00:32:54.000 |
Why are you willing to fight with your brother? 00:32:57.000 |
That does not make any sense for a man with the Spirit. 00:33:00.000 |
What is more, he talks about strife, which is just discord, 00:33:08.000 |
People have struggled with this all their lives. 00:33:10.000 |
Just recently I read a little Shakespeare book for my kid, 00:33:13.000 |
King Richard III, where in fits of jealousy, the man is murderous. 00:33:18.000 |
I leaned over to my son and said, "The book of James talks about that. 00:33:21.000 |
You want stuff, you do not have it, you get jealous and you kill people. 00:33:29.000 |
Fits of anger, where you have temper tantrums, 00:33:33.000 |
and then you do not get it, so what you do is you get angry 00:33:37.000 |
Rivalries, where you try to one-up each other. 00:33:43.000 |
Dissensions, divisions, and envy, and that list. 00:33:46.000 |
I know it goes on because he says, "And there is more." 00:34:00.000 |
Sometimes trying to say, "Okay, I am just going to put it to death," 00:34:10.000 |
The reason why I say I know that is because I am not actually an angry person, 00:34:15.000 |
I know how difficult it is for a prideful person to try to overcome his pride. 00:34:19.000 |
Because ingrained in pride is the element of self-preservation. 00:34:26.000 |
Ingrained in pride is, "Me, I want to appear." 00:34:29.000 |
It is self-exaltation. It is self-preservation. 00:34:34.000 |
Trying to overcome it is incredibly difficult. 00:34:39.000 |
It is because if you feel like rather than you having a hold on your sin, 00:34:46.000 |
We have to recognize that it is not just something I am going to wrestle with the rest of my life. 00:34:52.000 |
I have to be that serious, that devoted to addressing that sin. 00:34:59.000 |
Then I have to be that devoted to walking in the Spirit in that sin, against that sin. 00:35:07.000 |
What I mean by that, for example, is there were times, yes, 00:35:20.000 |
everybody knew, "Hey, this guy, he has got potential, 00:35:30.000 |
I am going to tell you honestly, I was so broken by that stuff. 00:35:35.000 |
I cried and I broke and I sat at the back of the church, 00:35:38.000 |
feeling it, like, "Man, I am not worthy to be here." 00:35:42.000 |
If any of you guys have any broken relationships, 00:35:44.000 |
or you guys have past, a history in that, you guys know exactly what I mean. 00:35:48.000 |
But then when it came to the sin of arrogance, 00:35:53.000 |
If somebody said it, I was like, "I know it is there. 00:35:59.000 |
It is like, "What? Do I dare deem one sin greater than the other? 00:36:04.000 |
Do I dare think that because I have one element of my flesh in check and the other, 00:36:12.000 |
No. And that is what I mean by, when I think of godliness, 00:36:17.000 |
I think of Jesus' admonition, "If you want to be my disciples, 00:36:21.000 |
you must deny yourself and carry the cross and then follow me." 00:36:26.000 |
But then that idea of denying myself is then contained 00:36:34.000 |
the individual who desires to overcome this must deny all of himself. 00:36:39.000 |
And so the godly man understands the extent of Christ's call. 00:36:44.000 |
When he says, "Deny yourself," it does not mean just your money, 00:36:50.000 |
When he says, "Deny yourself," it goes much deeper and much further than we presume. 00:36:55.000 |
And then the godly person who is truly godly will understand the necessity to do so, 00:37:00.000 |
that he must kill and he must carry his cross and kill his sin, 00:37:04.000 |
and then he must follow the footsteps of Christ. 00:37:07.000 |
That's a godly man who understands the depth of that. 00:37:11.000 |
So that's the working of the flesh that we see, 00:37:18.000 |
And that was the end of his list, which he said, 00:37:21.000 |
"Just like I forewarned you, I told you about this, 00:37:24.000 |
that such a person who practices such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." 00:37:30.000 |
I find a need for us to be sobered by that statement. 00:37:43.000 |
Do we have temptations and inclinations in our hearts that are sinful? 00:37:51.000 |
there are those individuals who have it, but because of the spirit that is restrained 00:37:56.000 |
And then there are those individuals where that produces action. 00:38:01.000 |
There's a conduct based upon that sinful thought, attitude, and belief, 00:38:06.000 |
and then once that conduct is habitual, now you have a character, 00:38:10.000 |
and what it reveals is you are not Christian. 00:38:14.000 |
You are not saved, and you will not inherit the kingdom of God. 00:38:24.000 |
Again, this is a passage that's probably quoted a lot, to sober people up. 00:38:29.000 |
And I don't want to just necessarily beat a dead horse, so to speak, 00:38:33.000 |
but we need reminders of this to continue to keep us sober. 00:38:42.000 |
Jesus himself said, "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, 00:38:51.000 |
Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes and figs from thistles? 00:38:55.000 |
So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 00:39:00.000 |
A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 00:39:04.000 |
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into fire. 00:39:07.000 |
Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. 00:39:09.000 |
Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, 00:39:13.000 |
but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 00:39:15.000 |
On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name 00:39:19.000 |
and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?' 00:39:23.000 |
And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. 00:39:26.000 |
Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'" 00:39:31.000 |
Earlier in the list of sins of the flesh, the fruits of the flesh, 00:39:35.000 |
he mentions drunkenness and orgies, and that is lawlessness. 00:39:39.000 |
Lawlessness, that's debauchery, that's dissipation, it's lawlessness. 00:39:43.000 |
And he says, "You workers of lawlessness, go away because I never knew you." 00:39:48.000 |
So what does Jesus say? Throughout history, from Judaism to Christianity, 00:39:53.000 |
those ravenous wolves who came into the church, they didn't come out like, 00:39:57.000 |
"I'm a wolf." They always came out like, "I'm a messenger of God doing God's work." 00:40:03.000 |
So is that a danger for the church? Absolutely. Is that a danger for me? Yes. 00:40:09.000 |
And I need to make sure that I understand what the Scripture says, 00:40:12.000 |
that habitual pattern will only prove me to be an enemy of God. 00:40:17.000 |
So I have to kill it at the root where it begins in my attitude, perspective, and belief. 00:40:22.000 |
There's another passage I want to just simply read for you for the sake of time. 00:40:25.000 |
It comes from 1 John 3, verse 4 through 10, and it says, 00:40:29.000 |
"Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness." 00:40:35.000 |
And then he says, "You know that he appeared in order to take away sin, 00:40:39.000 |
and in him there is no sin. So no one who abides in him keeps on sinning. 00:40:43.000 |
No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him." 00:40:46.000 |
That's Scripture. That's Apostle John, the apostle of love, 00:40:49.000 |
telling us that he who makes a practice, who makes a pattern, 00:40:53.000 |
who has over a long period of time habitually done all the things that we talked about, 00:40:58.000 |
whether it's hostility, strife, jealousy, idolatry, sorcery, 00:41:01.000 |
or whether it's all the sensualities, that person is not Christian. 00:41:07.000 |
And he says, "Little children, let no one deceive you. 00:41:09.000 |
Whoever practices righteousness is righteous." 00:41:14.000 |
"Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, 00:41:16.000 |
for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. 00:41:18.000 |
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 00:41:23.000 |
No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, 00:41:25.000 |
for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning 00:41:32.000 |
Again, I just want to make clear, that does not mean you're going to be perfect. 00:41:36.000 |
But that means that when you are confronted with sin and there is temptation, 00:41:41.000 |
if you say, "I can't help but do it," you're not Christian. 00:41:46.000 |
And what's more, if afterwards you're not able to see that what you did is a sin, 00:41:54.000 |
But the genuine Christian is going to say, "Although maybe before I failed, 00:41:58.000 |
I have the Lord Jesus Christ and his Spirit whom he sent 00:42:02.000 |
to teach me between godliness and ungodliness, 00:42:05.000 |
and the Scripture says in Titus 2 that we have been taught to say no, 00:42:10.000 |
and that is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. 00:42:14.000 |
And we have to make sure that that voice, "No," is clear 00:42:17.000 |
and that we continue to heed it and walk in it. Amen? 00:42:23.000 |
And so by contrast, in the boxing battle, it says, 00:42:26.000 |
"Here in this corner is this fleshly man, and ultimately by pattern he is not Christian." 00:42:32.000 |
But on the flip side, there is a man who is filled with the Spirit, 00:42:38.000 |
Coming down to Galatians 22, "But," here's the contrast, 00:42:46.000 |
"but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, 00:43:14.000 |
This is a fruit of the Spirit, not just simply a gift of the Spirit. 00:43:22.000 |
The Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 12 and all the way to chapter 14 repeatedly 00:43:26.000 |
that the gifts of the Spirit are varied and in different degree. 00:43:29.000 |
The Lord gives to you according to His measure. 00:43:33.000 |
But the fruit of the Spirit is what He does to you and produces 00:43:42.000 |
That this list is not, "Oh, man, when I get disciple and I get to degree number 3 00:43:46.000 |
on the Christian level, after 5 years of learning and being under the tutelage 00:43:50.000 |
of this disciple and that disciple, I'm going to start being gentle and kind." 00:43:55.000 |
This is what norm of every Christian should be. 00:44:03.000 |
When the Spirit is in you, at least to some growing degree, 00:44:09.000 |
So that when someone looks at you, they shouldn't be thinking, 00:44:15.000 |
The person who is looking at you should be like, "Dang, for sure he's Christian." 00:44:23.000 |
This is what should be the norm of every Christian. 00:44:29.000 |
This is like--the Book of Galatians, I did my personal devotion through it, 00:44:38.000 |
Again, because of my pride, some of those things, I'm like, "Pretty good. 00:44:46.000 |
I can sit and listen to people who are long-winded. 00:44:53.000 |
If someone's in my way when I'm driving, I don't just blow, 00:45:00.000 |
But some of the other stuff, I mean, man, I really excused myself there. 00:45:06.000 |
I didn't really holistically think about this. 00:45:09.000 |
But you know what's really crazy about this list? 00:45:11.000 |
If you look at the word "fruit" and you look at the verb "is," it's singular. 00:45:22.000 |
So God is not desiring some lopsided Christian who says, 00:45:25.000 |
"Well, I'm good at this. I can teach pretty good and wax really eloquently, 00:45:29.000 |
but I can't do this stuff, but that's okay because this is me." 00:45:34.000 |
God desires for you to have a holistic growth that every single one of these spiritual fruits 00:45:38.000 |
that's listed here, everything from the love, where you should have such a care, 00:45:43.000 |
that you're willing not to simply to--in contrast to the lust, 00:45:48.000 |
We just want stuff. We just want to be satisfied. 00:46:02.000 |
I give you everything. I give you what's best for you. 00:46:05.000 |
And by doing that, I'm happy, I'm content, and I feel all my affections for you. 00:46:16.000 |
I feel like, strangely, we live in a very privileged world, 00:46:30.000 |
They're kind of like dragging their knuckles. 00:46:34.000 |
And some of them are even--many Christians these days experience depression. 00:46:42.000 |
But we are to have a kind of joy where, yes, we're going to feel pain in this life. 00:46:53.000 |
You have, you know, banked in you, deposited in you, 00:46:57.000 |
this spirit that you can turn to for that comfort and joy 00:47:01.000 |
that is independent of the many painful experiences you have in your life. 00:47:04.000 |
And all the situations that could thwart you and kind of trip you up, 00:47:11.000 |
We have a kind of peace where, again, it's not the kind of peace 00:47:14.000 |
where you go to a nice, peaceful lake, you throw your fishing pole in there, 00:47:21.000 |
But we have a kind of peace where even if we're in pain or suffering, 00:47:32.000 |
That we are so controlled by the Spirit of God 00:47:37.000 |
that we care so much about other people and we're so loving 00:47:40.000 |
that the way I'm doing things, I'm considered, 00:47:42.000 |
is this going to hurt you even if I think you need it? 00:47:46.000 |
I am even careful of how I give it to you, right? 00:47:51.000 |
That should be the kind of marks of the fruit of the Spirit 00:47:54.000 |
because that is the characteristic of our God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:47:59.000 |
And these are the things that should be wrought in us. 00:48:10.000 |
it says in verse 25 through 26 as a way of summary, 00:48:16.000 |
"If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." 00:48:23.000 |
"Let us not become boastful, challenging, and envying of one another." 00:48:29.000 |
As I was studying this passage, I asked this question, 00:48:47.000 |
that are common pitfalls for every Christian. 00:48:51.000 |
And we know these to be the common pitfall for most. 00:49:00.000 |
One of conceit, as some of your translations would say. 00:49:07.000 |
because I bet you, because Apostle Paul is talking to a church 00:49:11.000 |
who has made a living, or so far has made a system 00:49:15.000 |
by which they're able to measure their spirituality 00:49:21.000 |
perhaps there is a guy, like Jesus was talking about in Luke 18, 00:49:26.000 |
"Yeah, preach it. Preach it to those sinners." 00:49:33.000 |
When the pastor is saying, "Maybe you're not Christian." 00:49:36.000 |
Like, "Oh yeah, that one guy, maybe he's not." 00:49:42.000 |
And you, just like that guy who's in the class, 00:49:48.000 |
He is shipwrecking or he is ruining his experience 00:49:50.000 |
because he's not following the instructor either. 00:50:05.000 |
But rather, they can name all the tons of people 00:50:12.000 |
When were you the last time I dealt with this guy?" 00:50:21.000 |
Don't have this kind of animosity and rivalry with one another. 00:50:26.000 |
the greatest source of pain is going to be from your flesh, 00:50:37.000 |
Your personal relationship is where you're going to feel the most pain. 00:50:40.000 |
Your personal relationship is where you're going to feel the most trouble, 00:50:48.000 |
walk in the Spirit and do not be challenging towards one another. 00:51:06.000 |
Do not look on your brothers and sisters with, 00:51:11.000 |
Why do you have it so easy? Gosh, you spoiled little..." 00:51:21.000 |
Actually, I just recently read this book called 00:51:26.000 |
And it talks about the common pitfall of people. 00:51:28.000 |
"Oh, you know, that guy is being so love, but what about me?" 00:51:35.000 |
"How come no one is reaching out to this and no one is reaching out to that?" 00:51:42.000 |
I want to give you this encouragement from Ephesians. 00:51:47.000 |
It says, "Therefore, do not become partakers with them. 00:51:50.000 |
For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. 00:51:57.000 |
For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. 00:52:00.000 |
And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 00:52:03.000 |
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, 00:52:08.000 |
For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 00:52:11.000 |
But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible." 00:52:19.000 |
we have become really good at hiding things in the dark, 00:52:23.000 |
But Scripture is absolutely clear, and I believe it. 00:52:28.000 |
I don't actually ever care if people talk about the stuff I do, 00:52:34.000 |
Anything that is private knowledge, it's actually going to become public knowledge. 00:52:46.000 |
That even the stuff that I do in private, if it is fleshly, I must deal with it. 00:52:50.000 |
As a child of the light, I must walk in the light, 00:52:59.000 |
Father, we want to thank you so much for your grace to us. 00:53:11.000 |
so that it would continue to resonate in our minds and in our hearts 00:53:21.000 |
And Lord, we trust that the work of the Spirit is powerful, 00:53:24.000 |
and that the Spirit is capable to produce the fruits that you have spoken of in Scripture. 00:53:28.000 |
Only God, help us not to stand in the way and be resilient, 00:53:33.000 |
but God, help us to be truly repentant, broken, and moldable. 00:53:38.000 |
I pray, God, that we would be able to see transformation in our lives 00:53:43.000 |
And Lord, would you continue to do that in your grace, patience, and kindness to us.