Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Galatians: A Grace-full Life
Life in the flesh
Sermon Series: Galatians: A Grace-full Life
Title: : Life in the flesh Text: Galatians 5:19-21
Introduction: People all over the world celebrate what’s called ‘Carnival.’ We call it ‘Mardi Gras.’
· Brazil has a 4 day celebration in Rio De Janeiro.
· Venice, Italy has a 12 day celebration.
· And for New Orleans, it’s probably their biggest tourist event of the year.
Do you know what the word ‘Carnival means? It comes from a combination of Latin words meaning ‘farewell to the flesh.’ Think about that for a moment. I find it ironic that a festival that means ‘farewell to the flesh’ promotes indulging in the flesh: almost anything goes:
· Over eating
· Excessive drinking
· Displays of public nudity
· The streets, sidewalks, shops, and hotels on Bourbon Street in New Orleans are as near X-rated as will be tolerated by the police.
So why do people all over the world celebrate ‘Carnival?’(farewell to the flesh)? Well, it is meant to commemorate the last day before Lent, a time of fasting and penance for your sins.
The beginning of Lent is called. (Ash Wednesday) The final day of ‘Carnival’ is known as Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. The word ‘shrove’ is a Latin word meaning, ‘to prescribe penance.’
During the
middle ages, the Catholic Church would make sure there were enough priests
on Ash Wednesday to hear the confessions of the multitudes who had committed
all kinds of sin during ‘Carnival.’
The job of the priest was
not to call these people to a deep and true repentance, but to prepare them,
ceremonially, for Lent. In other words: Have your fun! Indulge the lusts of
the flesh! Just be sure to confess your sins to the priest and get your
ashes on Ash Wednesday.
(Daryl Wingerd)
Background: Here’s how this relates to our text. The Judiazers were accusing Paul of an easy-believism...(It doesn’t matter how you live, as long as you love Jesus.) That’s not what Paul was saying at all. Living by God’s grace is free, but not always easy. And it never condones sinful practices.
Paul was saying that no matter how hard you try to follow the rules (either in the Bible or man made) you will fail. The law, if it proved anything else, showed that it was incapable of restraining sin. In fact that was never its purpose. Its purpose was to identify sin. And it still does that rather well.
Paul taught that the only way to restrain sin in the life of the Christian, is by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, by choosing to be led by the Holy Spirit, as we saw in Galatians 5:16-18.
The Holy Spirit makes godly obedience possible and Scripture calls it ‘walking in the Spirit.’ The fruit of the Spirit is the natural result of ‘walking in the Spirit’ as we will see in Galatians 5:22-23.
But for those who don’t ‘walk in the Spirit’, the only other option is to ‘walk in the flesh’ and that life too has fruit...rotten fruit, but fruit all the same. It’s this rotten fruit that we will examine this morning.
Transition: Open your Bibles to Galatians 5:19 (pg. 889 in the bibles under the chair in front of you.) For it’s there we will examine ‘life in the flesh.’
I. Galatians 5:19a Identifying the terms
Read: Galatians 5:19a
Paul has just written about the battle between the flesh and the Spirit. Though it’s an invisible battle, it has visible results. Paul says they are, in fact, obvious. It is as if Paul is apologizing for having to make this list. But it is necessary because we’re often blind to the obvious.
OK, ‘acts.’ ‘sinful nature,’ ‘obvious.’ Let’s define these terms before we go forward.
· Acts: deeds, works, actions, desires. And notice Acts is plural. Sin manifests itself in many different ways.
· Sinful nature: flesh (not our body but our natural self apart from God) old self.
· Obvious: evident, clear, known.
Transition: Well, what is on Paul’s list of the obvious sinful actions as a result of living in the flesh?
II. Galatians 5:19b-21a Identifying the sin
Read: Galatians 5:19b-21a
I don’t plan on spending a lot of time here, after all, Paul said they were obvious. But...we do tend to overlook the obvious.
I understand your particular translation may use different words, but they speak of the same things.
· Sexual immorality: Sexually using others for your own benefit. This can happen even if you are married. Sleeping around. Adultery, bestiality, pedophilia.
· Impurity: Relates more to the thought life. It the opposite of pure and godly. Does not always relate to the sexual. We can have impure motives when selling something or even helping others.
· Debauchery: Is flaunting your immorality. You display no sense of shame or restraint. Gay pride. A guy/gal who boasts about their sexual exploits.
· Idolatry: Worshipping with our time/talents/treasure, someone or something other than God.
· Witchcraft: Practicing magic. Occult. Horoscopes, astrology, Ouija boards, palm reading and the like. The original word in the Greek is related to the word ‘pharmacy’ so the idea also includes using drugs to alter your consciousness.
· Hatred: Is often seen as punishing others who have made your life different then what you planned. It’s an attitude of the heart that leads to hurting others.
· Discord: Rarely getting alone with others. A combative or argumentative attitude. A person who almost always finds something wrong in another person.
· Jealousy: The desire to have what someone else has.
· Fits of rage: Flying off the handle. Loosing your temper.
· Selfish ambition: Constantly competing with others. It always asks ‘What’s in it for me?’
· Dissensions: Choosing sides. Dividing/separating from people rather then joining together with them.
· Factions: not fractions for all you math haters. It is siding with certain people and not others to serve your own interests.
· Envy: Not being content with what you have. Being angry because someone has some thing and you don’t.
· Drunkenness: Is loosing control when you drink. It also means using alcohol to escape your circumstances. While Scripture does not prohibit drinking alcohol, it does clearly condemn drunkenness.
· Orgies: Doesn’t mean sexual here. It means one who constantly parties or is always looking for a good time with others, usually involving excessive eating and drinking.
· And the like: Paul is not giving an exhaustive list here. Certainly there is more to sin than just what he lists. And not everyone manifests all of the same sins or to the same degree.
Transition: What happens to those who are guilty of these and all other sin?
III. Galatians 5:21b Identifying the consequences
Read: Galatians 5:21b
Paul taught that Christians should avoid the kinds of sins he mentioned, by living by the Spirit. He was not condoning an ‘easy-believism’ where you just accept Jesus and then live a ‘Carnival’ lifestyle.
Paul knew that we were saved, and continue to be loved and accepted by God, by God’s grade through Jesus’ finished work on the cross... not by any acts we may have done, will do or promise to do.
BUT, he also knew that Christians, have a higher moral obligation to fulfill. Not to earn salvation or to maintain God’s love and acceptance, but in gratitude for His love and acceptance.
So, Paul is implying here that to live in the flesh is open rebellion against God. And those in open rebellion against God will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Plainly put, those who live this way, who practice these and other sins...will not go to heaven!
Who are those who are in danger of missing heaven? Paul says ‘Those who live like this’ a better way to translate this would be ‘those who practice these things.’ So, this means it’s more than just having committed any of the sins on Paul’s list. It speaks of those who continually do them.
What about you? Perhaps you are thinking ‘I’m a Christian but I am concerned, because I have done or still do some of the things Paul has on his list. Does that mean I will not go to heaven? Will I lose my salvation?’
No. Paul recognizes the struggle not to sin. He mentioned that in verses 16-18. There is only a real struggle when you have two warring sides...your old sinful nature and your new spiritual nature. And if you have a new spiritual nature that can never be taken away from you.
However,
· It is a strong warning to all who call themselves Christian to take a close look at their lives and see if they are living in the flesh, constantly choosing to sin and not struggling with the choices. Perhaps your faith is more intellectual than personal. Ask Jesus for forgiveness and to be YOUR Savior.
· It is also a strong admonition for Christians to walk in the Spirit. And when we do, we will inherit the Kingdom of God, we will go to heaven and there will be obvious fruit in our lives. We will examine that fruit next week.
Conclusion
ILL:
A man prayed this prayer: ‘So far today, Lord, I’ve done all right.
I haven’t gossiped. I haven’t lost my temper. I haven’t been greedy, grumpy,
nasty, selfish, or overindulgent. I’m very thankful for that. But in a few
moments, Lord, I’m going to get out of bed. And from then on, I’m going to
need a lot of help.’ (Steve
Shepherd)
Isn’t that the way life is
sometimes? It is a struggle to faithfully represent Jesus Christ in how we
live. And that is our call, to faithfully and consistently reflect the image
of Jesus Christ through our lives to those around us and when there is no
one around us. And the way we do that, is not by ‘living in the flesh’, but
by living by the Spirit of God.
Read: 2 Corinthians 5:17 ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!’
If we are truly in Christ and He is truly in us...there will be a difference in how we live.
· New creation,
· new life,
· new thoughts,
· new desires,
· new actions,
· new choices
...all by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, in your new life. Beloved of God, live by the Spirit, not in the flesh.