Father, we know because of Jesus and his death upon the cross for us to save us that you love us.
And so, Father, we know that even when you warn us, you warn us because you love us.
And so, Father, we ask that you make us a people who believe your promises,
the promise of the Holy Spirit, the promise of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives,
but that you would also make us a people, Father, who hear your warnings,
who take them to heed.
Father, pour out your Holy Spirit upon us deep within as we think about your word.
And all this we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Please be seated.
Some people are just really miserable and like to humiliate you.
I had one summer job a long time ago, obviously, when I still had summer jobs,
where it was sort of a working class job.
And one of the guys who'd been there a long time,
he just delighted in finding different ways to embarrass and humiliate the summer students.
He would tell them to do absurd things or impossible things.
And then when they tried to do it, he would laugh at them, laugh at us,
and make fun of us for being so stupid to try to do something which was impossible.
And if you tried to call his bluff, he would harangue you that you weren't listening to him
and he was your boss and your supervisor and you're supposed to do what he said.
He was just a really miserable person.
For a lot of people in Canada, when they hear about the Bible,
they think the Bible is like that boss.
That the Bible just likes to tell us to do impossible things.
And when we just say to him, we can't do those impossible things,
then the Bible will just tell us off and castigate us and put us down.
And a text like the text that we have today would be a perfect example
how for many people in our culture, when they hear it, they begin to roll their eyes.
And it's not just people in our culture.
We live in our culture.
Like we don't, I mean, every, I mean, I don't know,
maybe there's a guest here from Kenya today, I don't know.
But it's not as if we live in Kenya and fly in in our private jets
to have Sunday morning service and then we, and here in Ottawa,
and then we fly back.
We live in our culture.
We breathe the cultural air.
And for many of us, if we're honest, sometimes we read the Bible,
we feel profoundly uncomfortable with it.
In fact, just to give you a heads up and just to say this,
this is not a party church, not in terms of we don't have parties,
but in terms of it's, we're, this isn't, we're not some political movement.
We're not a group that's just trying to, you know,
bring back Canada to where it used to be when it was great.
I mean, if you want to do some of those things, that's fine.
It's, you know, but that's not what this Sunday morning is all about.
We just want to, we want to hear what,
we want to hear what God says to us through his word
in light of what Jesus did for us on the cross.
And we want to hear all of what God has to say.
And we want to be present as God speaks at the very command center of our lives,
sometimes challenging us.
So I just want to warn you, I'm going to talk about same-sex marriage
and I'm going to talk about abortion.
And I know that's going to be very painful for people.
That's why I said this isn't a party church,
but the Bible today talks about that in other things.
And so we're going to look at it.
So if you could get out your Bibles and turn in them to Galatians chapter 5,
Galatians chapter 5, we're going to be looking at verses 16 to 25.
And here's what it says in Galatians chapter 5, verse 16,
which is in some ways a bit of a,
it's one of those powerful statements that the Bible makes,
which in a sense is to govern a lot of how we understand life
and also is to help us understand actually the next,
I don't know, about 20, 25 verses in the Bible in Galatians,
although we're not going to look at all of that,
just some of that today.
And in Galatians 5, verse 16, it says this,
but I say, walk by the Spirit.
And just as a pause here, the Spirit should be capitalized.
If you're reading a version of the Bible where the word Spirit isn't capitalized,
it's going to be very misleading.
It's very clearly referring to God.
So one of the things I'm going to do is when I read,
just to make it extra clear, I'm going to say the Holy Spirit.
The word holy isn't there,
but it helps to emphasize to us as we listen
that it's referring to God, the Holy Spirit.
We'll talk about this a little bit more.
It's been a great source of confusion to many people
to hear Spirit and not hear it that it's referring to God.
So I'll read it again.
Verse 16,
And we'll just sort of pause there.
We're going to camp on that.
Actually, we'll read verse 17 as well.
Sorry, verse 17.
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit,
and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.
For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
And we're just going to camp on that verse for a little bit.
So here's the first thing.
In some ways, actually, for those of you who have dabbled in Buddhism a little bit,
this actually sounds almost like it's a Buddhist text.
Those of you who know anything about Buddhism is the great problem in Buddhism, of course, is desire.
And often in that world, not necessarily in Buddhism in a strict sense,
it's often a bit of a contrast between the Spirit or God and things like human desire.
And so some people might listen to this text and also just sort of wonder,
okay, what's going on here in the Bible?
Is the Bible saying that our bodies are bad, that it's bad to have desires?
And, George, that's just...
And sorry, if you're here and you're seriously seeking Buddhism,
and you've come to be with us, we're really glad you're here.
But I can tell you that most Canadians would say,
George, if this text is telling us that the body is bad and desires are wrong,
that's just nuts.
But here's the...
If you could put up the first point.
The flesh does not refer to the body.
If you read through the book of Galatians and you read through the New Testament,
the word flesh often has different things which it refers to.
You have to be able to tell from the context what it's referring to.
Sometimes it's just referring to the fact that human beings are frail.
It will contrast...
It's trying...
The Bible will be trying to contrast the fact that human beings are frail
with how unchangeable and powerful and real God is.
And occasionally, but a bit more rarely,
the word flesh will be used to refer to something being earthly.
It's mainly used like that in the book of Revelation,
where it's contrasting something which is earthly and just right now
with what God is promising to do in the future
when he brings in the new heaven and the new earth.
And occasionally, the word flesh does just mean body,
but probably the major meaning,
and the meaning which is right here,
is if you could put up the next point.
Well, the main thing that it teaches
is it teaches something about human nature now.
And so the first thing is that the Bible teaches
that some things come in twos,
but it never teaches dualism.
I've gotten mixed up in my notes here.
Here's the thing to take up a little bit of a backward step.
A very, very common way that people refer to the flesh and to the spirit,
especially in many, many churches,
is that spiritual things are higher things.
And what are higher things?
Well, higher things are things like good poetry.
Higher things are things like classical music or opera.
Higher things are good works of art.
And that what we need to do
is that we need to not be concerned
with these lower, grubby, natural things,
but we have to be concerned with the higher things.
It's a very, very common view.
If you look at a lot of church signs,
especially mainline churches,
often they have this implicit type of idea
that God calls us to higher things,
and by higher things they mean,
well, classical music and stuff like that.
And, you know, this is a real put-off for somebody like me
because, frankly, I like football more than poetry.
And if you were to invite me to a poetry reading this afternoon
and another person was to invite me to go watch an NFL game with you
and have some beer and potato chips,
I would not think very long about that decision.
I would very quickly choose the grubby lower things
rather than the higher elevated things.
Whatever on earth that means.
Like, just be frank.
That's just class consciousness.
That's just upper class people looking down their nose at lower class people
and trying to make it look as if it's somehow divine and godly.
It's religion.
And that's not what the Bible means.
It's not, Bible isn't contrasting grubby things
like people who go to Tim Hortons
and their idea of great poetry is saying,
I'll have a double Mac, please.
Which, for many people, that's the height of poetry.
I'll have a double Mac, please.
A side of fries and a Coke to go with it.
Not Shakespeare.
That's poetry.
You know, the Bible isn't saying anything at all about higher things.
And because you see, when you hear talk about higher things,
it's a type of dualism.
And here's the thing.
This is the point behind this point.
The Bible teaches that some things come in twos.
Male and female, for instance.
Good and evil, for instance.
But it never teaches dualism.
Nowhere in the Bible is dualism taught.
And even now, as you're going through this text about the flesh and the spirit,
it's not dualism.
The fact of the matter is, is that the Holy Spirit is referring to the Holy Spirit.
And the flesh is referring to something in rebellion against the Holy Spirit.
And the fact of the matter is, is that every human being in the world
can shake their fist in God, at God.
But there's no dualism.
God is God.
He just decides to stop upholding everything by his will,
and everything would cease to exist.
And so the Bible, whether it's a dualism between male and female,
or higher and lower things, or spiritual and bodily things,
or anything like that, the Bible always rejects it.
It constantly slips itself back into Christianity as something spiritual,
but the Bible will have none of it.
It always rejects dualism.
And whatever Paul is saying here, when he says,
but I say walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh,
it's not dualism.
It's something that comes in two, but it's not dualism.
And some of you might say,
okay, George,
well, no, sorry.
Lost place in my notes here several times.
One of the great prejudices that we have in our age,
and it affects Christians all the time,
because it's a very, very constant temptation.
I've felt it many, many times.
I've succumbed to it many times,
that the Bible needs improving,
and that the Bible doesn't contain serious thinking.
But when we read the Bible,
this is very, very serious thinking.
In fact,
part of the problem that the average Canadian has with the text
is that most of us don't do any serious thinking whatsoever.
And when we come to the Bible,
we don't actually know how to handle it,
because we're actually coming face to face
with very, very serious thinking.
Like, just for instance,
the average Canadian,
without thinking about the consequences at all,
would just assume that what's taught
about naturalistic evolution is true.
And they'll just think that that's true.
And then with the very, you know,
in a very next breath,
they'll say something like,
well, our loved one who died,
they've gone to a better place.
Well, that doesn't fit together at all.
Well, it's completely and utterly,
like,
how you understand how things came to be
has really serious consequences for everything.
So in Hinduism,
one of the things which is part of the Hindu stories
about how things came to be
is that in those very foundational texts,
the way things came to be are divided into castes.
It's one of the reasons why it's very hard
to eradicate the caste system in India
because their creation stories tell them that.
That it's just part of this tragedy,
which is human existence,
which we have to break out of
so that we can become part with the one.
But part of this tragedy is,
in a sense,
part of the way that we know
that we're getting out of the tragedy
is that a lower caste person,
when they die,
maybe because they've been very good
dealing with the issues in their lower caste,
they'll come back as a higher caste.
That in some ways,
then,
it's justified or right
that some people are superior to other people
and that superior people
can treat lower people in a certain way.
And, you know,
one of the reasons it's within the caste,
you know,
another thing which has very,
very serious consequences
is like in Buddhism,
that in Buddhism,
part of how things came to be
is a result of a sort of an unexplained cosmic tragedy
where the one gets broken up into bits and pieces.
And this bits and pieces
is why we have so much difference.
And the fact that there's all these different things,
different people,
different objects,
the world,
that's not really the way it's supposed to be.
And we experience sorrow
because we desire things,
but we're treating those things
as if they're real.
And really what's to happen
is that we're to die to all desire.
We're to practice these practices
so that we die to all desires
and so that we can eventually
just lose all desire
and merge to the one.
But that,
like that's just a bit crazy.
It's really anti-human, isn't it?
Like it's anti-human
to think that if I desire
the good for my children,
that there's somehow something wrong with that,
that it just doesn't really make sense.
But it's what you end up doing
when your foundational stories tell you that.
And I've told you many times,
it's worth going on the Dig and Delve website,
it's worth seeing the YouTube video
of Aus Guinness discussing,
having a conversation
with an atheist philosophy professor
from the University of Toronto
who's a serious atheist.
He's a serious thinker.
And it's on the discussion
of the meaning of life.
And he's very frank.
Because he accepts
the basic creation story
that all Canadians accept,
he's not sure if free will exists.
And he definitely doesn't really believe
that meaning exists.
And so,
because the average Canadian doesn't,
it's sort of this odd situation
where the average Canadian
doesn't think that what you find
in the Bible is serious thinking,
yet at the same time,
the average Canadian
actually rarely does
any serious thinking themselves.
And so,
when they actually read the Bible,
not understanding
that it's very serious thinking.
I mean,
yeah,
they didn't have cell phones,
they didn't have an Instagram account,
they didn't have a Twitter account,
they didn't know how to use the internet,
they didn't have a webpage,
yeah,
they didn't have flush toilets,
but that doesn't mean
they don't do serious thinking.
And so,
here,
if you could put up the next point,
please,
that would be very,
very good.
What the Bible teaches
is that God created
everything that exists.
And,
it doesn't describe
the mechanisms
or how long it takes
and all of that type of stuff,
but that at the end of the day,
he created everything,
he created everything good.
And that,
he created human beings
to be at home in this universe,
and have a special role
in this universe,
only human beings
were made in the image of God.
Only human beings.
And as God's image bearers
in his created order
that he creates,
he sustains,
he made it for us,
in a sense,
he made us to be priests.
He made us
to lead the praises
of all creation
to praise God.
He made us
to walk in the garden
with him
in the cool of the day
that we would have fellowship
with him
and friendship with him.
He made us
to have a role
of caring for the garden
and caring for this created order.
And he made us
to explore
the entire created order.
And he made us
as the ones
most like him,
but still created.
And we human beings
who have this role
in a good creation,
rather than choosing God,
what do human beings do?
Human beings doubt God.
Human beings say,
as it's told so brilliantly
in the book of Genesis
in chapter 3,
when the serpent says,
did God really say?
Did God really say?
And human beings
begin to doubt
what God says,
doubt God's goodness,
and not only
do we begin
to doubt those things,
when doubt in and of itself
isn't a sin,
but that human beings
and the person
of Adam and Eve
decide that they will be
God themselves,
that they will be
like God.
And in that act of rebellion,
culminating in their doubt
of God,
you know,
that now all of a sudden
their doubt of God,
of who he is,
of his goodness,
of his provision,
of his power,
of his wisdom,
of his grace,
their doubting of God
in all of these ways,
and their desire
to be God.
And if you see that
in a sense,
that when you doubt
that God is good,
when you doubt
that he provides,
when you doubt
that he is full of grace,
when you doubt
that he is full of mercy,
when you doubt
that he knows
what he's doing,
when you doubt
that he desires
to have fellowship
with you,
and when you desire
to be God yourself,
what you're really saying
is,
God,
you are a lower God,
you've stood up,
I'm going to do better.
I'm going to be
greater than you
because you're not,
you don't provide enough,
you aren't good enough,
you aren't wise enough,
and I'm going to do better.
And in that primal
decision of human beings
to rebel against God
and to be like God
themselves,
what happened
is that everything
in human being
became bent.
This act of rebellion
touches
every single aspect
of whatever
makes a human being
a human being.
So I put it up here,
the desire to be God
has touched
every aspect
of what makes
a human being
a human being.
And the flesh
refers to human nature
in rebellion
against God.
If scientists
or philosophers
or poets
come up with
some other aspects
of what it means
to be a human,
then whatever
those other
new aspects are,
our rebellion
against God,
our desire
to be God
has tainted it.
there will be
nothing discovered
by philosophers
or theologians
or scientists
or poets
or mystics
about what it means
to be a human being
that has not
been touched
and bent
by our desire
to be God.
And so when the Bible
says,
but I say,
walk by the Spirit
and you will not
gratify the desires
of the flesh,
the Bible
is very,
very frank.
It's very serious
thinking.
It understands
the importance
of the creation story
and what has happened
to human beings
and how it explains evil.
And let me tell you,
when you look
at these creation stories,
the creation story,
first and second,
Genesis 1,
2, and 3
and how the Bible
unfolds it
throughout the entire Bible
as it develops
the nuances
of that story,
there is no wiser
account of existence.
than what is provided
in the Bible.
There is no wiser account
of human existence
than what is found
in the Bible.
No other account
has such explanatory power
of what it means
to be human,
of the complexities,
the tragedies,
the glories,
the brokenness,
the goodness,
nothing compares
to the richness
of this biblical story,
explanatory power.
And so when you see
the word flesh
in the New Testament
and when I,
and it's not talking
about the body,
it's not talking
about being frail
and when it's not
talking about
being earthly
as opposed to
something that's coming
in the new heaven
and the new earth,
it's talking about
the fact that
there is part
of every aspect
of what makes me
a human being
that is in rebellion
against God
and all of those
different bits of me
have desires.
And those,
it's not that
every human desire
is wrong,
it's not that
everything about
human beings
are evil,
but that this desire
to be God
has tainted,
bent,
twisted,
hurt
every aspect
of what it means
to be a human being.
And so what has happened?
Jesus comes to redeem
human beings
because human beings
that every single part
of me that makes me me
has been somehow
bent slightly,
in some cases
not slightly wildly
and spectacularly,
but even the parts
that aren't wildly
and spectacularly bent
are still slightly bent
and I can never
leave myself
to save myself
and so the constant
message of the Bible
is to tell us
about who we are,
to reveal to ourselves
who we are
so that we would
come to the point
where we would say
only God can save me.
Unless God
has grace and mercy,
I am screwed.
Sorry,
but that's true.
And so the Bible
describes God's
rescue mission
in the sending
of his Son
and part of that
sending of his Son,
we're going to unfold
this more in a moment,
is the presence
of the Holy Spirit
in lives of believers
and the Holy Spirit
is always going to be
moving in a different
direction
than those parts
of us as human beings
that are in rebellion
against God.
Why?
Because the Holy Spirit
is God himself.
And so it's a description
of God
in the person,
the third person
of the Trinity,
God the Holy Spirit
being present
and active
in the life
of a Christian
coming against
those parts of us
that want to be God.
Think of it that way.
The real God
shows up
in those parts
of my life
that desire
to be God.
The real God
shows up.
The real God
shows up
with power.
power.
That's what
this is describing.
But some people
might say,
George,
here,
religious people
are full of pride
and greed.
Like,
George,
the way you've
described the flesh,
like you even
sort of said,
George,
that in churches
they've made
all these mistakes
as if it's somehow
talking about
higher things
versus lower things.
And so George
doesn't,
isn't this just
one of those things
where the Bible
describes it
but it's not
any help?
Like,
religion
seems to be
helpless against
all of that.
Doesn't this sort
of disprove the Bible?
Not at all.
Why does it not
disprove the Bible?
Well,
because that's
what the Bible
tells us.
Look again
at verse 16.
But I say,
walk by the Spirit,
the Holy Spirit,
and you will not
gratify the desires
of the flesh.
Now just skip down
to verse 18
and you'll notice
it even has
the same structure.
But if you are
led by the Spirit,
you are not
under the law.
And the law
is a bit of a symbol
here for religion.
All the way through
the book of Galatians,
the law is a bit
of a symbol
of religion,
of spirituality.
And so if you could
put up the next point,
what the Bible
itself is saying
is that the flesh,
that is human nature
in rebellion
against God,
exists very comfortably
under religion.
And it exists
very comfortably
under no religion.
Last Sunday,
some of you,
you know,
with the bad weather,
not as,
you know,
some of you
who are here
who survived
the rude winds
wild lament
last Sunday,
I said how
for many people
in our culture,
when they leave
religion behind,
they leave
higher things behind,
for instance,
and they just
become ordinary people
who just
like to wear,
you know,
just like to do
ordinary things
and completely
and utterly
leave God
and the gods behind
and spiritual things
behind,
for many people
they find it
as a relief,
as a release.
No more pretending.
But,
and I think,
I still think
that's true.
It's a very,
very common thing
for people to describe.
But when I talk
to people in coffee shops,
it's a very common thing
to say how freeing
and releasing it was
to no longer bother
with having to go
to that church
and do those things
and it's like a release.
But here's the thing.
The flesh exists
very comfortably
under religion
and under no religion.
To leave religion
behind
might feel
a little bit liberating,
but it actually
doesn't liberate you
at all.
Both in
under religion
and under no religion,
you are still trapped
in self-justification.
And under religion
and under no religion,
you're still trapped
under self-salvation.
Under religion
and under no religion,
you're still looking
for created things
that are going to give you
meaning in your life
and they will always
not satisfy you.
Both under religion
and under no religion,
you will still be caught up
in your own particular
God project
for all of the different
pains and sufferings
that it happens.
And it feels like
it's a release,
but it actually doesn't
deal with the problem.
You see,
here's the thing
about the Bible text
is the Bible text
is not like,
when it's talking
about the flesh
and the spirit,
it's not like
that boss
that I began
my sermon with
who loved
to find ways
to humiliate
the summer students.
And if he couldn't
humiliate them,
then he would
give them
a bit of a tongue-lashing
about the fact
that they wouldn't
obey him.
And the Bible
isn't like this at all.
The Bible here
is like when you
go to the doctor
because your wife
or your sister
or your friend
finally cajoles you
into going
and you have
some pains
in your body
and maybe you
have some rashes
and the doctor
says,
I have some
very bad news
for you.
You have cancer.
But the good news
is because you
came in,
we think we
can cure it.
And that's
what's going on
here in the Bible.
It's not God
trying to belittle us.
It's God
trying to catch
our attention
so he can save us.
So,
George,
I'm still a little bit
confused,
you might say.
Like,
okay,
so what is it
that the Holy Spirit
puts new desires
in us
and takes away
old desires?
Like,
like I don't quite
understand what's
going on.
Well,
here's where
it's a little bit
helpful to know
the original language.
Look at verses 16
again.
But I say,
walk by the Spirit
and you will not
gratify the desires
of the flesh.
And in verse 17,
for the desires
of the flesh
are against the Spirit
and the desires
of the Spirit
are against the flesh
for these are
opposed to each other
to keep you
from doing the things
you want to do.
But if you are led
by the Spirit,
you are not under the law.
So here's the thing.
The word desires,
if you could put it up
the next point,
what actually
the text is saying
here is that the flesh,
it's by the nature
of the flesh
to over-desire.
It's of the nature
of the flesh
to over-desire.
And the translators,
when they're translating
the text,
the word desires
connected to the Holy Spirit
isn't there.
But there's a translation
issue.
In the original language,
it says that the desires
of the flesh,
the over-desires
of the flesh
are against the Spirit.
And the Spirit
comes against them.
But it comes against them
with power
and it's a translation problem.
So desires catches it
for all of us.
But it's of the very nature
of a God project
to over-desire.
And this is all
where Genesis 1, 2,
and 3 is so wise.
So is it right
for me to desire my wife?
Yes, it is right
for me to desire my wife.
If I lost desire
for my wife,
that would be a problem.
She would experience
it as a problem.
And if I was to share it
with you,
you'd say that's a problem.
So the text is in here
saying that I should
lose my desire
for my wife
or my desire
to see my kids thrive
or my desire,
I mean,
other types of things
or my desire
to have some money
so I can pay my bills
or to have some control
in my life
so my life is in chaos.
Those aren't bad desires.
But what happens
is that our God project
leads us to over-desire.
That all of a sudden
in my life,
no matter how much money
I'm making,
I always think within myself,
if I only was making
an extra 10 grand,
my life would be
so much better.
And then you make
the extra 10 grand
and what's still going
on in your heart?
If I only made
an extra 10 grand,
my life would be
so much better.
Or you over-desire
over-desire your wife
and all of a sudden
you're putting too much
on your wife
in terms of your happiness,
your satisfaction,
in terms of getting meaning,
of you become suffocating.
You know,
we all understand
how you can over-desire.
And that's just what
the Bible is saying
is that what happens
is when the Holy Spirit
comes in and opposes,
it doesn't oppose
proper desires,
it opposes over-desires.
It seeks to heal
the Holy Spirit.
He heals
and restores
our desires.
And if you could
wrap up the next point,
this is really important
for you to understand,
is that when I put
my faith in Jesus Christ,
I put the word I there
so that if you write it down,
you're writing it down
for yourself.
When I put my faith
in Jesus Christ
to save me,
he does save me.
This is very important language.
Jesus always is the one
who saves.
I contribute nothing
to him saving.
My spirit,
my flesh,
will always want
to make it think
that I've contributed
some little thing about it.
my winsomeness,
my ability
to seek after God,
my ability
to know the Bible,
my, you know,
whatever it is,
my ability
to sort of be open
to the Holy,
like, I'll always want
to keep slipping
in something,
but I never add anything.
Jesus does it all.
And you know what?
The more you grow
in Christ,
praise God
that he does it all.
Why?
Because I am weak
and frail.
I am weak
and frail.
And sometimes
I do absolutely
horrible things.
And even when I don't
do horrible things,
I think horrible things.
And sometimes
everything within me
wants to turn my back
away from God.
And if I had to contribute
something to my salvation,
woe is me!
Woe is me!
Praise God
that I don't add anything
to what he does.
He does it all.
He saves me.
I put my hand out
to receive
what only he can give
and only he can do
and he has done
in the person
of God
has done in the person
of his son
dying upon the cross
for me.
When I put my faith
in Jesus Christ
to save me,
he does save me.
And what else happens?
The whole book of Galatians
is always telling us
other things.
Well, we become adopted
as his child.
We've been made free.
We've been guaranteed heaven.
There tells us
a whole pile of things.
And in Galatians chapter 3,
if you go back
and look at it earlier,
chapter 3 verse 2,
I think it is,
or 1 and 2,
one of the things
that happens is
I put my hand out.
In fact, really,
God helps me
put my hand out
and I receive
what only he can give
in the person
and the work of his son
and God saves me
and at the same time
the Holy Spirit
is bestowed upon me
to indwell me.
The Holy Spirit
indwells the Christian.
And that's why
if you look at this text,
the Bible here,
I'm starting to run out of time,
the Bible here
really wants to emphasize
the focus
on the Holy Spirit
in this text
in light of Jesus.
Jesus.
And
it does it
by using
four similar verbs,
but they're not
identical verbs.
If you could put up
the next point,
look at chapter 6,
verse 16.
It says,
but I say,
walk by the Spirit
and you will not
gratify the desires
of the flesh.
This verse
is really important.
Like,
I recommend you
memorize it.
Notice it doesn't say
walk by the Spirit
and don't gratify
the desires of the flesh
as if they're equal.
It says the focus
is on thinking
about Jesus
and what he did
first upon the cross
and the gift
of the Holy Spirit
and the focus
is on the Holy Spirit.
And the more we focus
on walking
by the Spirit,
a consequence
is not walking,
is not gratifying
the desires
of the flesh.
And so here
in verse 16,
what does it say?
Walk by the Spirit.
Jump down
to verse 18.
But if you are
led by the Spirit,
jump down
to verse 24.
And those
who belong
to Jesus Christ
have crucified
the flesh
with its passions
and desires.
Verse 25,
if we live
by the Spirit,
let us also
keep in step
with the Spirit.
Four times
in a small number
verses,
it keeps saying
the Holy Spirit,
he is in you.
He's not tame.
He's not just
like somebody
that you can just
snap your fingers
at your beck and call.
He's God,
you're not.
But he dwells
within you.
And he is a person.
And he has a heart.
And he has a will.
And his will
within you
is to constantly
bring you back
to Jesus
to constantly
restore you
to the way
that God desired
to make you
in all of your
uniqueness,
in all of the ways
that you are
special and irreplaceable.
And he's going
to heal your desires.
He's going to
reorder your desires.
For your desires
that are weak,
he's going to
inflame them.
For your desires
that are over desires,
he's going to
tame them.
He's going to
bring them
to their proper place.
And so,
because the Holy Spirit's
presence in your life
is so important,
because his work
is so important,
think about Jesus.
Think about the gift
of the Holy Spirit.
And every day say,
Father,
help me to walk
by the Holy Spirit today.
As I go into this meeting,
Father,
help me to walk
by the Holy Spirit.
Help me to be led
by the Holy Spirit.
Help me to live
by the Holy Spirit
so that I understand
my life comes
from the Holy Spirit,
not my success
in this meeting.
Help me to keep
in step with the Holy Spirit
because he is going
to go before me.
And it's just like,
I don't know,
if there was really
deep snow
and I had a two-year-old
with me
and I'd say,
listen,
I'm going to go
through the snow first
and I'm going to walk
like this in a shuffling way
so that I'm going
to make a big ridge
and you come behind me.
And that's what
the Holy Spirit
desires to do
in our lives.
You know what?
Let's look at sin
because now
that the Bible
has set this,
it wants to say,
okay,
what does the flesh
look like?
Verse 19.
Remember I said
the Bible's very serious
and
if the Bible
wounds us
by talking about
things in our life
that aren't right,
it only does it
in the context
of this
constant reminder
to remember Jesus
and remember the Holy Spirit
that instead of
giving ourselves
to these things
that we walk
by the Holy Spirit,
live by the Holy Spirit
or led by the Holy Spirit
and are keeping
in step
with the Holy Spirit.
And so look
at verse 19.
Now the works
of the flesh
are evident.
Sexual immorality.
Now I just have a,
okay,
sexual immorality
in the original language,
here's the other thing.
If you want to look
at the end of the list,
look at the list,
verse 19.
Now the works
of the flesh
are evident.
It's going to give
a list of 15.
Look,
skip down
to verse 21.
I warn you
as I warned you
before
that those
who do such things
will not inherit
the kingdom of God.
Could you put
the next point up?
The Bible wants us
to have an assurance
that God saves
and it wants
to warn us
about the danger
of complacency.
And it also
wants to warn us
about the danger
of presumption
and self-serving faith.
And the Bible here
isn't saying
that if we do
any of these sins,
it means,
or if we're still
doing any of these sins,
that it means
that we're not
a Christian.
This latter part
of the verse,
here's a simple way
to understand it.
Just because you have
to dash for the bus
doesn't mean
you're training
for a marathon.
Just because
sometimes you dash
to catch the bus
doesn't mean
you're training
for a marathon.
And the Bible text
here isn't talking
about the fact
that Christians
do these things,
it's talking about
those who begin
to train in them,
that begin to make
it a way of life.
And the Bible
is warning us
that if, in fact,
it's becoming
a way of life,
maybe it's a sign
that we've never
given our lives
to Jesus,
or maybe it's just
a sign that we are
going very, very
far from God,
far from fruitfulness,
and we need to call
out to Him
in repentance.
So this word
about porneia,
what this word
sexual immorality
means,
is it means
that God
designed sex
to be between
a man
and a woman
in the context
of holy matrimony.
And that any
sexual gratification,
sexual gratifying
yourself,
or sexually
inflaming yourself
outside of marriage
is a sin.
outside of
heterosexual marriage.
And that's
what the Bible
teaches.
This church
originally
owned the building
just up the street.
And we used
to be called
St. Albans.
And one of the
reasons
that we left
the Anglican Church
of Canada
is that the
Anglican Church
of Canada
believes
that there is
a way for a man
to sexually
know a man
or a woman
to sexually
know a woman
that is not,
that is actually
holy
and blessed
by God
and should be
upheld
and blessed
and called
holy
by the church.
But the Bible
here says
that those
who train
in sexual
immorality
will not
inherit
will not inherit
the kingdom
of God.
This becomes
a salvation
issue.
And because
it's a salvation
issue
as well as
an issue
as to whether
or not the Bible
is actually
true,
we as a
congregation
had to leave
at great cost
the Anglican
Church of Canada
and become
Church of the
Messiah.
Now if you're
here and you
struggle with
those things,
you struggle
with,
like,
the Bible
is,
it's a hard
teaching,
but it's a wise
teaching because
God designed
us that if
we are called
to holy
matrimony,
that we are
called for
that season
to,
for a man
to be with a
woman,
just one woman,
and for a
woman to be
with a man,
just one man,
and that that's
God's intention.
The others,
very,
very briefly,
sexual immorality
is sort of the
general term.
Impurity
is actually,
it would
actually
characterize
the transgender
movement.
It would
refer to
outside of the
perspective of
one man to
one woman
in holy
matrimony,
odd
types of
sexuality,
and that's
what it's
referring to,
and sensuality
refers to
sexualizing
everything.
It would
condemn a lot
of the
advertising that
happens on
our televisions
where everything
is sexualized,
and then the
Bible here
talks about
religion in
particular,
idolatry,
which is the
actual
worshiping of
idols,
if you
take a
yoga class,
and in the
yoga class
you are
encouraged to
use a
mantra,
you are in
the mantra
calling out
to a
Hindu god,
and you
would be
violating
idolatry.
Sorcery
is engaging
in
witchcraft
or dabbling
in spiritual
things.
sorcery.
If you
use
words,
you are
violating
this
command.
If you are
going to
a
naturopath,
not just
because you
have to
have some
herbs or
something,
but if they are
giving you
these herbs
because there are
spiritual forces
in your body
that have to
be balanced,
then you are
claiming to be
able to
manipulate these
spiritual forces,
and that would
be sorcery.
in the ancient
world as well,
one of the
primary uses
of potions
was to
create abortions.
So this
text is in
fact also
warning you
against anything
that you would
do, any
drug that you
would take
to artificially
cause an
abortion.
If you are
here today
and you have
had an
abortion,
I know this
is a very
painful thing
to find in
the Bible,
but the
Bible confronts
us with our
sin so
that we
would,
with broken
hearts,
come to
God for
healing and
restoration,
not for
condemnation
forever.
Enmity
is to
inflame
anger
between
groups.
Strife
is actually
also connected
to it,
actually being
involved,
not just in
trying to
stir up
people being
angry with
each other,
but to
actually cause
there to be
conflict.
Jealousy is
sort of just
what it
says.
It's
desiring too
much what
somebody else
has,
feeling angry
at what they
have,
desiring to
take it
away from
them.
Fits of
anger
isn't a type
of holy
anger,
but it's
especially
true of
those who
nurture
anger and
allow it to
have a
great
simmering
or even
boiling role
in our
lives.
Rivalries
is going
into
organizations,
especially
churches,
and trying
to create
parties.
And rivalry
dissensions is a
similar type of
idea as is
divisions.
It's just an
escalating of
going from
having we're
all one
group and
there's other
groups to
creating arguments
between them to
actually splitting
and causing
breakdowns in
human relations
and families
and churches
and unions
and government
over matters
which don't
really at the
end of the
day matter.
Envy is
feeling sorrow
of a blessing
that somebody
else has.
Drunkenness is
obvious.
It would also
include most
drug use.
And orgies,
there's no good
word in English
for the word
orgies,
but it's not
referring to
sex.
It's referring
to gathering
together with
other people
to take drugs
and get
completely
hammered.
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.
But the
fruit of
the Spirit,
remember this
all begins by
the fact that
the Holy Spirit
is moving in
our lives.
And notice
that the word
works is
plural,
fruit is
singular.
Works implies
things that we
do,
fruit implies
that it's
something God
does.
But the
fruit of the
Spirit is
love,
joy,
peace,
patience.
Love, by the
way, here,
all of these
words, some of
them sound like
they're emotions.
These aren't
emotions, but
all of these
things have
emotional
consequences for
our lives.
Love means
self-giving
love.
Joy means that
you are drawing
close to God
who is the
source of all
joy.
peace means
that you're
having a type
of balance
in your life
that comes
from having
your desires
properly ordered
and having
Jesus as the
Lord of your
life.
Patience is
the ability
to put up
with people,
to not
flare up
with them
in anger.
Kindness is
not just
putting up
with them,
but actually
looking at
them and
desiring to
do them
good.
Goodness just
means being
good.
Faithfulness
means that
you're learning
how to keep
your word.
Gentleness
means that
when you're
dealing with
people who
otherwise would
inflame you
and make you
angry, that
you have
habits and
practices to
deal with
them well
just gently.
And self-control
means just
the Holy Spirit
is bringing
healing into
your life so
that your
passions and
desires come
under some
type of
control.
people.
Just a
couple of
things in
closing because
I've gone
maybe a bit
too long.
If you could
put up the
next point,
the three
points just
very quickly
in closing.
The works
of the flesh
are radically
different than
the fruit of
the Holy
Spirit.
Fruit is
definitely telling
us that it's
God who's
doing it.
Next one.
The gifts
of the Holy
Spirit are
not assigned
to the
sanctification
becoming more
like Jesus.
The fruit
of the Holy
Spirit is
the sign of
sanctification.
Next point.
Sanctification
is slow.
It is
measured in
years,
not in
seconds.
One of the
things that the
devil likes to
do to beat
us up is
make us very,
very aware
of our
failures of
the day
and blind
us to the
changes that
have come
in us
over a
year.
I invite
you all to
stand.
You've been
very patient.
And I'm
going to pray
in a moment,
but I just,
I think I'd
like to just
do,
um,
yeah,
we're just
going to,
we're going
to pray.
And then,
uh,
then I'm
going to
invite you
all to
sit down
after I've
just prayed
over you.
And I'm
going to
give you an
opportunity to
pray out
loud,
uh,
to be
audible and
brief and
clear,
uh,
around the
different things
that the Holy
Spirit might
have put on
your hearts
as the
sermon has
been preached.
Maybe just a
calling out to
God for the
Holy Spirit to
work in our
lives more,
uh,
calling out to
God for the
fruit of the
Spirit more,
just in whatever
way.
If it's just
comparative
silence because
there's kids in
the room,
then that's
fine as well.
And I'll,
I'll,
I'll bring it
to a close by,
uh,
having us go
into one of
the colics that
will be up on
the screen.
But let's just
bow our heads in
prayer.
Father,
uh,
we thank you for
Jesus.
We thank you for
what he did for
us on the
cross.
We ask,
Father,
that your Holy
Spirit would
make us disciples
of Jesus who
are gripped by
the gospel.
And as we are
gripped by the
gospel,
that we would
be a people who
are walking by
the Holy Spirit,
who are led by
the Holy Spirit,
who are living by
the Holy Spirit,
and are keeping
in step with the
Holy Spirit,
as we crucify
the flesh,
and live for
your glory.
Father,
we ask that
your Holy Spirit
would do that
in our lives,
and that we're
doing our lives
as individuals,
and as a
congregation.
And we ask
this in the
name of Jesus.
Amen.