TRANSCRIPT:
Galatians 5:19-21 tells us, "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."
Let us pray. We come to You, Almighty Father, the One who gives us all good things. We ask now that You would give us the Holy Spirit of promise, that He might give us ears to hear what You have to say to Your people, and Lord God, that He might empower me by the same power that Your people's faith would not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Visit us, we ask, in Your mercy and love, and with Your great salvation, we ask in Jesus' name, Amen.
Last week, we considered Galatians 5:16-18, where we looked at life in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit. But now, we come to the manifestations of the flesh life, and in the next few verses, verses 22 onward, the manifestations of the works of the Spirit in our lives, of the fruit of the Spirit. The Geneva Bible aptly puts its heading, summarizing this section in these words: "He shows them, that is, Paul, the battle between the Spirit and the flesh, and the fruit of them both."
We come now to this section in Scripture where we have looked at life in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit, but now Paul explains what the manifestation of both those lives look like and the fruit of both of those ways of living. Now, both manifestations of the work of the Spirit in us, producing fruit in us, all the works in the flesh producing evil in us, both of them are evidences of life or the lack thereof. The words of verse 22 indicate that regarding the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, you know a tree has life by its fruitfulness, and therefore, what Paul is trying to explain is that there is life in the Christian where you can see the fruit of the Spirit. But on the other hand, also, he shows us that the works of the flesh are also signs of the absence of life, where there is deadness of soul, where there is no work of the Holy Spirit. And so, at the end of verse 21, after listing all those sins, he says, "and those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."
What Paul is showing here is that a wrong view of freedom, whether it's a view of freedom that is licentious, where you can live however you please and live how you want, or a view of freedom that is less than true because it is legalistic and is not true Christian freedom, both of these will manifest themselves in the works of the flesh, both the evidences of people not knowing the work of the Spirit within them.
Now last week, I mentioned something that I'd like to build upon this week, and that is that we considered in verse 17 that there is an internal warfare in the life of the believer: the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, so that you cannot do the things that you wish. And I mentioned that it is a sign of the presence and work of the Spirit in converting the sinner, and that is true. It is true that in the life of those who believe in Jesus Christ, there is an internal warfare. But Paul is not satisfied to say that that is a sufficient sign of conversion because there are many reasons why you and I can feel a conflict of soul and still not be converted. For example, people's consciences can be troubled because they fear man, they fear the idea of being caught, and so when they do something wrong, they can feel a sense of guilt, and it not be the work of the Spirit. There are those that feel a sense of guilt because they're afraid of the punishment or they're afraid of the social pressures that surround them and the consequences that come from living contrary to what is considered as good living in our society. There are those that feel guilty because they feel like they will lose their personal happiness; they perceive and set up a standard of happiness as being something where you respect yourself, and so therefore, when they do something wrong and they disrespect themselves, they lose that sense of happiness and they feel guilty about that. There are those that have this moralism standard, they have this legalistic framework by which they judge themselves, and when they fall or they feel guilty about that, there are those that have religious convictions, and when they violate those religious convictions that have certain views about God and maybe about karma and all this kind of stuff, and so when they do something wrong, they're like, "Oh no, this is not good," and they feel guilty and they can't rest their heads at night because they are disappointed in themselves. These are all ways in which there might be the sense of internal conflict but not truly the mark of the Spirit's work in producing that spiritual warfare in our lives.
And so what we learn by even just looking at this briefly is that we understand that even though there is a war in my heart, it is not sufficient evidence that I am converted. There's a more objective sign than an internal struggle, and what Paul says is that objective sign that is more sure than your subjective experience of an internal struggle is holiness of life. And he shows then in this passage of Scripture that life in the Spirit doesn't just look like internal struggle; it looks like not practicing the works of the flesh, that is negatively, and it also looks like a life that produces the fruit of the Spirit. So that the Spirit that saves you and indwells you keeps you from practicing sin and also produces in you righteousness and holiness, that is true righteousness and holiness that proceeds from our hearts toward God and toward others.
The Christian life is marked, or ought to be marked, by certain growth and progress, and we must not deceive ourselves to think that simply because we have some sense of a battle in our hearts that we're safe. We must ask further questions: What am I practicing, and what fruits hang off my tree? But what Paul is saying in this passage also is that the flesh does remain in the heart of a believer. Remember, he's talking to believers here and describes that these are called the works of the flesh, and that there is a struggle between the flesh and there is a struggle between the Spirit, and they are to walk in the Spirit because if they don't walk in the Spirit, they will fulfill the lust of the flesh.
And so what Paul has in this passage of Scripture is all the possibilities for the Christian. When you read the works of the flesh, these are all the things of which you and I are capable of doing. But listen, as a Christian, you are not capable of practicing them. Here are the possibilities of the conduct that you might find in our hearts, that we do find in our hearts, that describe the flesh lusting against the Spirit, but a true believer does not live in sin. And what Paul goes on to say then is that such fleshly practices are not inconsequential. He goes on to tell us that if you practice these things, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. God's holy judgment will fall upon you, and you will be excluded from the kingdom of God.
And this text of Scripture flies right in the face of easy believism. Easy believism cannot stand the test of this text, that belief by which you just say, "All I have to do is profess Jesus Christ as Savior, and you know, end of the day, it doesn't matter how I live as long as I've said the words, you know, if I confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in my heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Yes, true, amen and amen. But understand this, that those who truly believe in Jesus Christ are those who have been regenerated by the Spirit of God, and they must go on to holiness; otherwise, their profession of faith is in vain. So therefore, your profession is not enough as an assurance of your salvation, your testimony is not enough, your subjective experience of God and maybe even seeing miracles and maybe even feeling God in your heart is not a sufficient sign that you belong to God. The question of this text and of next week's text is simply this: Where is the fruit of holiness within the life of those who profess they believe in God, those who profess that they believe in Jesus Christ?
Now the Bible teaches us here that the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and so as the flesh produces sinful desires in us, the list that we have here, simply the fruits of those desires, the works of the flesh in this passage of Scripture, acts of the soul, of the mind, and of the body that are motivated by debased, unholy appetites that still remain in the hearts of those who believe. And what Paul is saying here, these are things that are possible for you, these are the things that you must refrain from, but if you practice them, you prove that you never belonged to God.
Now the list of sins in this passage is not exhaustive. I mean, that's quite clear by the last part of verse 21. Look at it, it says here, "envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like." Well, what Paul is showing us here is that he's not actually intending to state every sin that is possible, and neither is he intending to distinguish certain sins from other sins too strictly because a lot of these sins overlap, like envy and jealousy and outbursts of wrath and anger and murder and hatred. These are all sins that align themselves closely and share a lot of overlap. But what Paul is doing here deliberately is by the overlap, giving us a catalog of sins that help us understand the depth and the range of the sinfulness of sin, so that a life that is not yielded to the spirit is a life that is capable of the deepest and darkest corruptions that have ever and can ever be imagined among men. So he gives us this catalog of sins that are really can be separated into key categories that cover most of the areas in which we sin.
The first category that he gives is sexual sin in verse 19, from the word "adultery" all the way to "lewdness." He describes sins that are sexual sins, sins that violate God's holy order of intimacy between a man and a woman in the context of marriage, sins that may be of the mind or of the body, whereby they undermine God's holy order of marriage, sexual relations between a man and a woman that are married in holy matrimony, joined together by covenant grace from God. What Paul is telling us is that the intimacy that God has ordained in the marriage context is a gift from God and it ought not to be opened either in our minds or by our bodies outside of the context of marriage, and therefore, all unlawful desires from the flesh that cause us to lust with the eyes and with the heart or to practice with the body sexual immorality, whether it be unfaithfulness in the marriage context with adultery or whether it be fornication, which is a general word that covers all kinds of sexual promiscuity, whatever it may be, all sexual sin is contrary to God's order and is a product of the works of the flesh. The lewdness in this passage is the lack of self-restraint that really gives rise to the fulfillment of those desires, and the uncleanness in this passage is that dirtiness that comes into your heart because of the violation of God's holy order and law.
The next category is religious sins. He talks about here in this passage just two of them, idolatry and sorcery, that covers a whole range. It gives us a good understanding of what he's getting at, but this could include anything from Ouija boards to tarot cards, to horoscopes that are so openly published in our newspapers today as though it's just a glorified thing. I'd love them to see a gospel article come in there and see what happens. Ouija boards, tarot cards, horoscopes, Eastern mysticism that has crept into our society in the West through kinds of healing, kinds of therapy, which really open up the soul to demonic activity and cause men and women to depend upon another power other than the power of God or through ordinary medicine that is not coated with darkness of spiritism. The word actually here for sorcery is "pharmakeia," and so it also includes issues, things like drugs that are used by people so as to loosen the discernment of the mind and to open the heart to all kinds of influencing spirits that can possess and destroy souls and does do that today. Drugs loosen the mental defenses and open up the heart to demons. Any spirituality that is sought outside of Christ and His gospel can be categorized here in this list of religious sins. Any spirituality sought outside of Christ and His truth and the Spirit of God and His gospel, and we really need to be careful of this because in the modern church today, all kinds of Eastern mysticism creeps in in the name of Christianity. We must be on guard against the wiles of the devil. You say, "What's the problem with a bit of spirituality that doesn't really come from God? Isn't all spirituality good?" No, there is a problem with that. Firstly, God is holy, and therefore, He is a jealous God, and He made you for the worship of Himself, not to worship demons, not to worship yourself, not to worship in ways that He has not prescribed. God is holy, and He is jealous, and idolatry and sorcery is a refusal for man to trust and praise God as Creator. Idolatry ultimately is the dissatisfaction with God, that God is not enough, so I must take unto myself other gods, and sorcery is a deliberate seeking to manipulate circumstances, to seek to do your own will. Why do people go to a sorcerer? Because they cannot trust in the providence of God, who has ordered the end from the beginning, and they need to know what's going to happen tomorrow. Why do people read horoscopes? Because they find a sense of peace to have a bit of an idea of what may be coming up or what their day is going to be like or whatever it may be, and they do not trust in the living God who orders and directs and strengthens and keeps His people.
This is the sin of the children of Israel in Isaiah 8:19-20, "And when they say to you, 'Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,' should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Why should God's people seek after wizards and mediums who whisper and mutter and say things? They should be seeking their God. They should be realizing that God is the one who holds the future. God is the one who orders my steps. God is the one who directs my way, and I do not need to manipulate circumstances and understand the future. I can trust in the law and in the testimony because God has spoken. There's something deeply dark in the heart of man that always just wants to know and know and know. It's a controlling spirit, not from God, but God says, "Here's the law, and here's the testimony. Trust Me, believe Me, lean upon Me, walk by faith and not by sight. You don't need to know everything." It doesn't mean God can't reveal things to us, but there is an obsession today in the Christian Church, especially amongst the charismatic and Pentecostal movement, about this thing, and you wonder whether their hearts are being open to other spirits that are telling them other things that are not from God when those prophecies fall to the ground. An obsession with having to know things that God is not wanting us to know.
Religious sins that depend upon other means and not on God alone, and then also in this list is the longest section here from hatred through to murders, social sins we could categorize them as. A whole list of things here: you got hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries. These sins are social sins because they are ultimately sins of conflict. They are so often even performed in the name of truth, sins that divide people from one another, sins that disrupt relationships, sins of discord. They go all the way from hatred through to murders, discord in the family, discord in marriage relationships, discord amongst children, division in the churches of God, people expressing self-ambition and self-will, not submitting themselves to one another in the fear of the Lord, nor submitting themselves to God and to His word. Sins that arise from anger and frustration and hatred that lead to murder, sins that mark this faction-causing spirit in the church that was similar to that of the Corinthians, "I'm of Paul, and I'm of Apollos, and I'm Cephas, and I am Christ." And Paul is saying that is nothing of the works of the flesh, sectarianism that marked the Pharisees that caused them to look down on others, all fit within the category of social sins here.
And then you have in verse 21 the reckless sins, just to drunkenness and revelries. Drunkenness and revelries, essentially revelries is like parties, partying spirit. Drunkenness, the idea is that there's a loose lifestyle of wild partying whereby people give themselves to substance abuse so that they can forget their problems and get on with their lives. It is looseness, and it is licentious, and it is reckless, contrary to self-control. And the range of these sins includes all kinds of people, both the libertarians that want to live that licentious, loose, and party lifestyle, they are condemned at this point, and so is the legalist with their dissensions and high-minded self-ambitions by which they seek to establish factions and their own party spirit in the churches and in the world. And so you have the pagan Gentiles that are included in this, and you have the religious Pharisees. You have the Jew and the Gentile. This is the works of the flesh, works that are found in the heart of all of us, the seeds of which are present in all of our souls, things which any of us can relate to and find ourselves moment by moment and day by day tempted with these things and falling into these sins.
These are the sins that put our Lord on the cross, quite actually, as the Pharisees with their anger and murders and dissension and parties where He could not receive the Lord in His word, but also they put the Lord on the cross because He died for these sins. He died to forgive sinners who commit such sins. He died to destroy the works of the flesh and of the devil.
Now, the lessons from this passage are quite clear to us in the context. The first lesson that we learn is that Paul is simply showing us that the law may reveal sin, but the law cannot fix the problem of the flesh. You see, "Walk in the Spirit," he says in verse 16, "and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh." What are the lusts of the flesh? They are the desires that stir us up to commit the works of the flesh. How do I deal with the works of the flesh? By walking in the Spirit. And Paul's whole argument is it doesn't matter if you're a legalist or you have this view of libertarianism, end of the day, you living under the flesh, under the law, and not by the power of the Holy Spirit, you will find yourself in bondage to these very sins. The law can reveal but it cannot fix the flesh problem. Listen to what the words of Scripture say in Matthew 12:33-35, "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things." Or as Paul puts it in Romans 8:7-8, "Because the carnal mind, or that is the mind of the flesh, is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God." What we learn from this passage of Scripture is that the law may reveal your sinfulness, but we need a new heart. We need to be awakened by God's Spirit. We need to have that stony heart removed and a heart of flesh put in us, and more than this, we need the Spirit of God to indwell us so that we can walk in God's ways. We need regeneration. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. The answer to our sin problem is not more laws. The answer to our sin problem is the power of the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven to take away the stony heart, to give us a new life, to make the bad tree good, so that the tree can produce good fruit unto God because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. And listen to this, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will always speak. So, I need a new heart. I need a regenerated heart. I need a heart in which the Spirit of God dwells so that when the flesh lusts against the Spirit, the Spirit fights against the flesh, so that from my tree can hang fruit that is pleasing to God. We cannot legislate the works of the flesh away. The law may restrain, but listen to this, it cannot stem the tide of corruption because corruption is in the heart of man, and the Lord has not changed the heart of man.
I was reminded of this when I saw in the news in Victoria about the machete ban the other week. It's almost like they felt like they found the way to stop murder and violence in their state. Now, I'm not going to get into the discussion of whether we have machetes or not. I mean, we lived in the Solomon Islands, and people live by machetes, as in they have to cut their coconuts to drink and eat and cook, and they cut their grass with machetes, so we can argue about whether it's a necessary thing or not. But I want you to understand the way that the world thinks about sin. We legislate to get rid of machetes. What's going to happen? No one's going to get hurt anymore? Is that what you think? Maybe you should have thought about the consequences of banning scripture in school back in 2015 and 2016 before you start thinking about holiness and righteousness in the law and how legislation is going to change all that. It's back to front. You can't... You put a man in prison, he comes back out, he goes back in prison. Most of the people that are in prison are reoccurring offenders. What's the problem? The heart of man. And man will murder because in his heart is murder and hatred and violence, and he'll rise up like Cain against Abel and slay him with his bare hands or with a rock or whatever he can find, even in the Stone Age, to kill and to murder. And our politicians in the world, and even the Christian Church, need to wake up to see that the issue of man is the gravity of his own heart, so that they who are in the flesh cannot please God. And the answer to our nation's recovery is not legislation, although we should enforce good legislation, but we need to pray for revival sent from God, from heaven, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, so that we, first and foremost, might live as lights and salt in the world and rub off on the world around us, and secondly, that the gospel will go forth in power, so that people will see and hear and know that there is a God in heaven who reigns, and that His kingdom is forever and ever.
We need to believe this about the gospel. We need to believe this about the human heart, and we need to believe this by understanding that the works of the flesh cannot be fixed without the grace of God.
Our nation needs the fear of God, the fear of God that fell upon that generation in the preaching of Wesley and Whitfield, the preaching of Jonathan Edwards. You look through the history of the church where God raised up men who proclaimed a message of life from the dead, who proclaimed the message that did not just say the gospel is a nice story about Jesus who did something 2,000 years ago, but this very Jesus, by His Spirit, should invade your lives to change you from the inside out. A life that doesn't just say you're converted because you prayed a prayer, but a life that shows that the true believers in Jesus Christ are those who are filled with the Spirit and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and have a changed life.
The flesh unchecked will produce all kinds of wickedness, is another lesson we learn from here, all kinds of wickedness that will lead us to hell. This passage should be a warning to us, all of us here today. You say, "I know I'm safe." Not the point. This passage is telling us something that we need to hear, to the churches of the Galatians, and so to the church at Camden Valley Baptist Church. Here's the message: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. That's for us. That is for us. The possibilities of all those sins that are before us that we see, yes, in our lives, Paul says if you practice those things, God says if you practice those things, you're not gonna enter the kingdom of God.
Oh, but Josh, I got right theology. I know my doctrines of grace, and I can tell them to you one by one. I can explain to you and quote scripture and give you the gospel. More than this, Josh, I've been baptized, and I've prayed the prayer a thousand times for God to save me, and I'm sure one of them has got to work. Even worse, I've kept up religious appearances, and I'm in church, and I take of the Lord's table, and I'm a Christian. Never forget what the Word of God says, that without holiness, no man will see the Lord. If you try and get that holiness by legalism, guess what? You'll get the works of the flesh. And if you try and get that holiness by your own ways and your own methods, you'll get the works of the flesh. But if you come to the cross of Jesus and have your sins forgiven and believe on Him who is able to make you holy, then you will have the power of the Spirit, and your life will be changed. But the end result is true: Those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. It means we should look at a text like this and ask ourselves, "What is my life like?" Examine our lives. I'm not talking about the casual fallings and failings from which you repent. I'm not talking about the times in which you fall into any of these sins. I am simply trying to make a point that Paul is making here, and that is this, that you need to examine, and I need to examine our habitual practices and ask ourselves, "Am I going to make it into the kingdom of God?" You should be asking yourself this question: What fruit hangs on my tree? What marks my life and my testimony? Am I known to my family and to my friends as a man that is always angry, outbursts of wrath, always angry, always grumpy, always fighting? Am I a person that is marked by lust, day by day swimming in lustfulness, day by day watching pornography, addicted to pornography, addicted to committing sexual sin in relationship, perhaps with your boyfriend or with your girlfriend or someone else? There are Christians that live in the same house together for years and sleep in the same bed together for years and think that they will see the kingdom of God. They will not if the Bible is true. They will not. If you practice such sins, you will not. That is the warning of the text.
Christians should not be known as people that cannot hold and maintain friendships. They shouldn't be known as people that are unsavory, that no one really wants to be around and befriend. If that is your life, you have to ask yourself, "What fruit is hanging on my tree?" I mean, is the Spirit producing in me love and joy and peace and patience and goodness and kindness and self-control, or is my life looking like, "Man, you want to stay away from that person"? The Christian gospel, dear people of God, is a gospel that promises to change us. When Jesus died, He died to destroy the works of the devil, and He died so as to make us holy unto God. As I said, you can believe the statement of faith of this church, you can be baptized, you can be a member, you can be serving in the church, and you may not inherit the kingdom of God. The question we have to ask ourselves is the promises of the new covenant true in my life, that He will cause me to walk in His ways?
The reality is that there are countless people that will be shocked and ashamed in that day when they stand before the Lord, thinking that they were sheep, only to be discovered that they are goats, thinking that they were wheat, only to be found out that they are tares. And they will have something to say to the Lord like in Matthew 25:41-46, "He says to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.' And then He says, 'For I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to You?' Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' They did not love their neighbor as themselves as evidence of the power of the new life, living in the Spirit, and these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
Our gospel is a gospel of repentance and of regeneration. Maybe you look at this list of sins and you say to yourself, "Man, there is no hope for me. Look how wicked all these things are: murders, drunkenness, revelries, hatred, contentions, fornication, adultery. Man, is there any hope for me of entering into the kingdom of heaven?" You look at a passage like this and say, "How can God forgive a man marked by such consistent filth?" Well, He said these very words: "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
Why don't you ask that question of the Scripture? Ask it of Saul, the chief of sinners, or of Abraham, a pagan called by God out of Ur of the Chaldeans. Why don't you ask that question if God can forgive you, marked by such constant filth? Once you ask that question of the history of the church and look at the story of men like John Newton, a slave trader and a ringleader in blasphemy and wickedness, or a man like George Müller, who was a liar and a thief and a gambler and a robber. Ask the Scriptures whether God can forgive you and see what it tells you. Look at the history of the church and see of the people that God has forgiven and saved and redeemed and washed and cleansed and given a new heart to. And dare I say, if I was to open it up to us here and say, "Why don't you ask the people here before us?" and see what they tell you about their anger and their murder and their blasphemy and their strife and their wickedness and their drunkenness and their revelries and their partying. Why don't you ask the people that are around you and see whether or not it is true, whether God can forgive a filthy sinner like yourself? The evidence is all before us, and as the Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."
How can a God forgive me with so much filth as marked by the works of the flesh? Ask the people at Corinth, "Such were some of you." God says to you this morning, "Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." He calls you this morning to wash yourselves and make yourselves clean in the blood of Jesus Christ. Stop trying to satisfy the law of God by your own strength; you will find yourself back and back again in the works of the flesh. Come to Christ and be set free forever by the power of the Holy Spirit, where He will change your life, that you will not practice those things anymore. You may commit them, but your life will be different, marked differently. And as we'll see next week, a life marked by the fruit of the Spirit.
Let us pray.