Sins of the Flesh

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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June 11, 2020

00:00: Take your Bibles and open them to Galatians chapter 5.
00:03: And we're going to begin to work our way to the end of this book.
00:08: After chapter 5, we get to chapter 6, and it's a relatively short chapter.
00:14: Chapter 6 is only really a few paragraphs.
00:21: So probably by, where are we at now, middle of June, first of June? Well, probably by the end of July, we'll be completely done with Galatians and be able to look at the next set.
00:39: Now if you remember, chapter 5 of Galatians begins with Paul saying, For freedom Christ has set us free.
00:48: Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
00:52: The freedom that he's referring to there is the freedom of the conscience that the believer receives when he comes to Christ and his sins are forgiven and he is then free from the condemnation of the law.
01:05: The law no longer has any ability to condemn you if you're in Christ because Christ has paid the penalty.
01:13: Christ has already taken in Himself the complete punishment that you deserve.
01:18: If you are in Christ, you're safe.
01:20: If you're outside of Christ, you're not safe.
01:22: And I often liken that to the ark.
01:25: In the time of Noah, if you were inside the ark, you were safe from the wrath of God.
01:31: If you were outside of the ark, the wrath of God was going to destroy you.
01:36: And that's the same way with Christ.
01:38: That's a picture of Christ.
01:39: If you are in Christ by faith and repentance, if you have received Jesus and have been placed in Him, the Bible says in Him many, many times, that language is used.
01:50: If you're in Christ, it's just like being in the ark.
01:52: The wrath of God will not touch you on the day of judgment.
01:56: However, if you are outside of the ark, the wrath of God will destroy you and you will spend eternity in hell.
02:04: And so that's the distinction.
02:06: And so when Paul says you're free, what he's saying is you're free from the condemnation of the law.
02:12: But then in verse 13, he says, you were called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.
02:21: You see, Paul is not saying that because you're free in Christ, that you're free to sin, because that would be in opposition to what Christ saved you for.
02:31: Christ didn't save you to continue to live in sin.
02:35: He saved you that you might follow Him in righteousness, never trusting your own righteousness, mind you, but being able to see in your life a growth in sanctity, a growth in holiness.
02:49: The Bible says that without holiness, we will not see the Lord.
02:54: And so there should be a practical holiness that's growing in us, a desire for the things of God.
03:01: And that is what brings us to verse 18 that we looked at, actually, verse 17, we looked at last week, which says, 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 one another to keep you from doing the things that you want to do.
03:23: That tells us that the Christian lives a battle in his life.
03:28: The battle is this, in my spirit, that is my inner man, where the Holy Spirit lives within me, I have a desire to do what is good.
03:38: I have a desire to serve the Lord.
03:39: I have a desire to do the things that are pleasing to Him.
03:42: I have a desire to follow His word.
03:44: But then I have the flesh, which yearns for that which is evil.
03:49: Remember Pastor Mark's sermon Tuesday night? I got to come and be with you guys Tuesday.
03:54: I don't often get to do that, but I enjoyed it.
03:57: And one of the great things about his message, he pointed out the proclivity to fail and he used Peter as the example.
04:03: He says, what happened with Peter? He said, I'll never fail.
04:08: And as soon as the opportunity arose where it was his skin on the line, where it was his life that was imperiled, I never knew him.
04:20: I tell you, I do not know the man.
04:23: And the Bible says he even invoked a curse, meaning he cursed and I don't know him.
04:31: So we all have the capacity for failure.
04:34: And why? Because Jesus said the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
04:40: And so Paul in verse 17 makes a distinction between the spirit and the flesh.
04:45: And he says one is at war with the other.
04:49: Then we get to verse 18 and we haven't, that's where we are today.
04:52: We haven't really looked at it, but I want to begin at verse 18.
04:55: I want to read all the way down to the end of the chapter.
04:58: And that's going to be our focus, because what we're going to do today is we're going to look at the distinction between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit.
05:09: We're going to make the distinction between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit beginning of verse 18.
05:16: But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law.
05:21: Now, the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these.
05:37: I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
05:45: But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things.
05:57: There is no law.
05:58: And those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
06:03: If we live by the spirit, let us also walk by the spirit.
06:09: Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
06:14: So what we see here is we see Paul beginning in verse 18 to establish for us two ways of living.
06:24: Notice verse 18.
06:26: If you are led by the spirit, you are no longer under the law.
06:33: So the first and I'm going to write it on the board backwards because I'm going to make a line and we're going to say that which is on the right is led by the spirit.
06:54: Paul says, if you're led by the spirit, you're no longer under the law.
06:57: Now, that's kind of a that's kind of an odd way of saying what he's trying to get across.
07:02: But it's important that we understand what he's trying to get across.
07:05: What he's saying is there's two there's two lifestyles that you can have.
07:10: You can have the lifestyle that's led by the spirit.
07:14: And if you have the lifestyle that's led by the spirit, you're no longer under the condemnation of the law.
07:19: You're in the new covenant.
07:20: Your life is now hidden with God in Christ.
07:23: You are a new person and you have a new life.
07:26: And that's a distinction being in the spirit, being by the spirit, being full of the spirit, being regenerated by the spirit.
07:34: That is a new life.
07:36: But then you have the distinction here.
07:39: You're not under the law.
07:40: The reason why you're not under the law is because you're under grace.
07:42: You're led by the spirit.
07:43: You're in the new covenant.
07:46: But then you have the other side, which is led by the flesh.
07:57: Now, that's not the language he uses, but that is the distinction that he's making.
08:01: So I'm I'm being a little liberal with the use of language.
08:04: That's the point that he's making.
08:06: He said you're either led by the spirit.
08:07: And if you're led by the spirit, you're no longer under the law.
08:09: But if you're led by the flesh, you're still under condemnation because you do not have the spirit.
08:17: So the difference is the distinction between those who are who are living according to the flesh and those who are living according to the spirit.
08:27: And then in verse 19, he gives us what he refers to as the works of the flesh.
08:34: And I want to make a quick distinction here.
08:39: He says works of the flesh, that's verse 19, and then he says fruit.
08:48: Of the spirit in verse 22, that's the two distinction you say he could have said works of the flesh and works of the spirit, or he could have said the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit.
09:01: You say, well, he didn't say that.
09:02: Why? I think the distinction is made in the use of language because the works of the flesh, these are what the flesh want to do.
09:10: It wants to work out its pleasure.
09:13: It wants to work out its desires.
09:16: But the fruit of the spirit, the Bible, when it uses the word fruit, is always talking about something that's positive.
09:25: And it's it's in Paul is trying to make a distinction between works and the result of faith.
09:33: You see, the fruit of the spirit is not your works, but it's the works of God within you.
09:43: Therefore, it's fruit.
09:44: It's God bearing fruit.
09:46: What do we learn when we see the story of the four soils, says the first the seed fell along the pathway and it was eaten by the birds.
09:56: Some was fell among the weeds and it was choked out and some was some sprung up for a time, but the was withered in the in the sunlight.
10:05: But what was the what was the fourth soil? It was a good soil, good ground.
10:10: And what did it do? Reproduce 160 and 30.
10:14: It produced a crop.
10:15: It produced, if you will, fruit.
10:18: It bore fruit.
10:20: Why? Because it was it was fertile ground.
10:26: And here's the thing a lot of people don't realize.
10:28: I always try to point this out, even though the text doesn't say it, it's implied in the text.
10:31: The land was prepared by the sower.
10:36: God opens the heart, he kills the heart and he implants the word within us.
10:41: That's the picture that James tells us that the the implanted word comes and that bears fruit.
10:46: It's like a seed.
10:48: And the fruit is what grows out of that, so that another way of looking at it, the works of the flesh are us.
10:57: The fruit of the spirit is God.
11:00: As Augustine said, I am responsible for what I do that is evil and God is responsible for what I do that is good.
11:10: Therefore, I can say, God, forgive me of what I do evil and thank you for those things that I do that are good, because any goodness that I have is God within me.
11:23: So that's, again, why it's fruit and not works, because it's not really us.
11:27: It's the spirit working himself out in our lives.
11:32: And what we're going to do, we're going to write every one of these up on the board.
11:37: And I'm going to try to give an explanation of each one of these words.
11:41: Notice that in the from verses 19 to 21, there are I didn't count them, but one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.
11:52: There's 15 named works of the flesh.
11:56: And then there are seven fruits of the spirit.
12:00: So we're going to look at each one.
12:02: I'm going to talk about each one.
12:03: I don't know that we'll get through it all in one day, but we can.
12:05: I mean, it's just basically defining language.
12:09: But the key to this, the key to this is at the end of verse 21, when he says, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
12:20: If you see the word do, there is in the sense of making a practice in your life.
12:29: In fact, if you have an ESV, there's a little superscript.
12:32: And if you follow to the bottom, the word do is expanded.
12:36: And what is it? So you got an ESV, Bobby? What's at the bottom? That's right.
12:41: It's the idea of making something your lifestyle.
12:45: Here's the thing, nobody wants to hear this, but you can tell if a person is a Christian, not by what they say, but what they do.
12:54: And I'm not, I didn't make that up.
12:56: That's Jesus.
12:57: You will know a tree by the fruit it bears.
13:02: And if a person is constantly bearing wicked, rotten fruit, we can be certain that it's a wicked, rotten tree.
13:12: I mean, that's the...
13:13: For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, and a bad tree does not bear good fruit.
13:16: Now, again, this is not saying we are saved by our works.
13:19: And please be very careful.
13:20: You've heard me preach for the last year on Galatians.
13:23: By the way, we just reached over a year.
13:25: I looked, it came up on my Facebook page and it said, it had my first set of notes.
13:29: It was one year ago.
13:31: So this is how long we've been in this book.
13:34: And I've said since the beginning, it's not of works.
13:38: But what do our works do? They testify of the state of the tree.
13:43: The fruit that's bore on the branch testifies to the health of the tree.
13:51: Okay, so that's the picture here, the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit.
13:57: We're going to, I'm just going to write them down as we go.
14:00: As I said, there's 15 of them.
14:02: If you want to write them down, that's fine.
14:03: You don't have to.
14:04: They're in your Bible.
14:05: But I want to make a note about each one of them.
14:07: And then I'm going to show you some categories that come up.
14:10: We have sexual immorality, impurity.
14:20: Give them to me.
14:21: If you guys have your ASV, that's a translation.
14:23: Sensuality.
14:25: That's next one.
14:26: What is it? Idolatry.
14:31: Sorcery.
14:32: In me.
14:35: Thank you.
14:37: You can go.
14:40: I hope I might run out of space.
14:46: All right.
14:47: I mean, fits of anger.
14:52: And then dissensions.
15:00: Envy.
15:02: Drunkenness.
15:03: Murder.
15:04: Hold on.
15:05: Dissensions.
15:05: Divisions.
15:08: Murder.
15:09: Murder.
15:10: Okay, I want to make sure we're all on the same.
15:14: It's envy, drunkenness, orgies is what I have.
15:17: That's it.
15:18: Okay.
15:18: Do things like these.
15:20: Yep.
15:20: Is that correct? That's why I've got to keep it in one translation when I'm doing this.
15:25: Because the ASV doesn't use the word murder.
15:32: Does somebody else have murder? I heard somebody say murder.
15:36: What's that? King James.
15:38: That's fine.
15:39: That's fine.
15:40: That could certainly be a translation of fits of anger and those things.
15:51: So, yeah.
15:52: Okay.
15:54: Hostility.
15:55: Okay.
15:57: Well, we're going to go over all that.
15:59: A faction is a division in a group.
16:02: So, if you have two groups that are battling with each other, that's two factions.
16:06: That's two groups.
16:08: Okay.
16:09: And that's the thing I wanted to point out.
16:10: I wish I had a different color marker.
16:12: Because what I wanted to show you is a lot of people think, a lot of people think the works of the flesh, it's always about something, some kind of like addiction or sexual sin or something like that.
16:26: And he does mention that.
16:27: But that's not the main thing that's up here.
16:29: If you categorize these things and group them out, what you see is the main thing up here is not so much sins that we do, that are things that we normally think of the flesh, like sexual immorality and things like that.
16:41: The main things are social sins.
16:44: The way we treat other people.
16:45: And that's like a huge part of this.
16:49: In fact, if you really, if you stop after sorcery, right here, the rest of it is how you treat other people.
17:03: Enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies.
17:08: The only one that isn't really about other people is drunkenness.
17:12: But the rest of those are all about how you interrelate with people.
17:18: Why does this matter? Well, what are the two great commandments? Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor.
17:24: So you see how, why that's so important.
17:27: And when he's listing sins among those listed is so much about how we treat other people.
17:33: But the very first one is the one that hits us all square in the face.
17:37: It's the one that every man battles.
17:40: It's the one that I've met very few men in my life that I believe genuinely didn't struggle with this area.
17:48: And it's the area of sexual immorality.
17:50: That's the first one.
17:52: The word for sexual immorality in the Greek, I don't have enough room to write it, but you may know this, you may not.
17:58: The word for sexual immorality is the word porneia.
18:04: Porneia in Greek.
18:05: And it's where we get the word porn.
18:08: And pornography, ogography means photograph.
18:14: It refers to image.
18:16: So pornography means an illicit image.
18:20: But porn means something that is immoral.
18:25: Sexual immorality.
18:27: In the Latin, it's even more clear, because remember the Bible was translated in Latin about the 4th century, well 5th century.
18:35: In the Latin, the word is fornicatio.
18:42: Fornicatio.
18:43: What's fornicatio? Fornication.
18:47: I remember years ago having a conversation with young people, because I used to be a youth leader.
18:53: And I remember having a conversation with young people.
18:56: And they said, the Bible never says anything about premarital sex.
19:01: Premarital sex isn't wrong.
19:03: Adultery is wrong.
19:04: You shouldn't cheat on people.
19:06: But the Bible never says anything about premarital sex.
19:09: And I said, really? It doesn't say anything about premarital sex? And they said, not a thing.
19:15: So I took them to this passage, and I said, what is the very first thing in the list of the works of the flesh? And they said, sexual immorality.
19:24: And they said, oh, well sexual immorality can be anything.
19:27: I said, oh nay nay.
19:29: Words have meaning.
19:31: Oh nay nay.
19:32: Words have meaning.
19:35: And if the word in Greek has a meaning, pornea, which means illicit sexual activity, and it's translated into Latin fornicatio, which again means illicit sexual activity, and it's translated into English as sexual immorality, what does King James say? Fornication, probably? I mean, this is original.
20:03: Fornication.
20:03: It says both? It uses both? Okay, that's interesting.
20:07: This is the new.
20:08: It says adultery, fornication, uncleanliness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contention, jealousy, outbursts of wrath, self inhibition, dissensions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, rivalries, and the like.
20:22: Okay.
20:23: And the point I'm making is the King James is actually translating it as two different things, adultery and fornication, because pornea can be both.
20:32: If you remember when Jesus was talking about the issue of divorce, He said a man is not permitted to divorce his wife except for the cause of pornea.
20:40: That's the word that He uses.
20:41: We often translate that as adultery, but it's actually sexual immorality.
20:46: And so it's illicit sexual activity.
20:50: And so my question to the young people was, is it illicit to have sex outside of marriage? And they said, no.
21:02: You probably know who I'm talking about.
21:05: And they're like, no, because what's wrong with that? I said, well, let's take a step back.
21:13: Upon what basis are you arguing that? Because they'll say, well, if two people love each other, then it doesn't matter if they have a piece of paper.
21:23: Ever heard that garbage? Maybe you've said it.
21:27: It's garbage.
21:28: Just so you know.
21:29: It is garbage.
21:31: Just so you know.
21:35: Because marriage is a covenant.
21:38: Marriage is not you going and having sex with a woman.
21:43: If that's what made a marriage, then you maybe have been married several times.
21:50: I don't want to go there.
21:53: The point being, marriage is a contractual agreement.
22:04: Marriage is a promissory note.
22:09: Why do we give the ring? Because it's a symbol of a promise.
22:13: You and you only till death do us part.
22:19: Now, we could debate all day long how much influence the state should have in that.
22:24: Because that's often the issue.
22:26: Should the state manage marriage? Well, at this point it does.
22:30: And the Bible says for us to be good citizens and to honor those who put in authority.
22:35: And the state, I think, does have a legitimate reason for it.
22:39: Because the state is in the business of managing society and its laws.
22:44: And the smallest form of government in any society is a family.
22:51: So it makes sense that the government would know who's in the family.
22:58: And what constitutes.
23:00: Because when two men, or excuse me, well that too.
23:02: But when a man and a woman shack up, that ain't a family.
23:07: I hurt your feelings, whatever.
23:09: I ain't here to hurt your feelings.
23:10: But if you got sensitive toes, you probably shouldn't come to my class.
23:15: And we'll step on them every once in a while.
23:16: And the reality is, when a man and a woman shack up, that ain't marriage.
23:20: I know there's something called common law and all that.
23:22: But all of that is in violation of the very simple fact that Jesus identifies marriage like this.
23:30: For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will cleave unto his wife and the two shall become one flesh.
23:38: That is a contractual, covenantal relationship.
23:43: You know why divorce is so evil? Because it takes what was one flesh and it destroys it by making it two again.
23:50: It breaks apart what was one unified body into two.
23:56: What would happen if I took your body and broke it into two? You'd die.
24:02: That's why divorce is so repugnant.
24:04: That's why the Bible says God hates divorce.
24:06: Because it's taking what God has brought together and it's rendering it asunder.
24:12: So marriages, this is why Hebrews tells us the marriage bed is held in high honor.
24:18: And no one should defile it.
24:21: And this is why adultery is such a lewd and lascivious breaking of the covenant because you've gone out of your marriage bed and into the bed of a whore.
24:35: So the question of whether or not sexual immorality, it's anything outside of marriage.
24:41: And guys can be gross, so please don't be gross.
24:45: But I've had people ask me questions.
24:48: Well, does this count? If you have to ask, probably.
24:53: But going back though, working with teenagers for so many years, I used to work at a high school.
24:59: I was a middle school substitute teacher.
25:03: And people find out you're a pastor, everybody wants to talk to you.
25:06: Everybody wants to ask you questions.
25:08: And the big question was, well, can't people kiss before they get married? I mean, you might not think that's a big deal, but people say, well, because then it's like, well, how far? Well, can we make out? Well, can we, you know, under the clothes stuff? I mean, you start getting into all these questions, right? And you say, well, what constitutes sin? And part of it's conscience.
25:28: But also, you know, I try to relate to the children.
25:31: If I wouldn't do it in front of her father, I shouldn't do it when her father's not looking.
25:36: That's a good rule of thumb.
25:40: But sexual immorality, specifically in this context, is anything that is done outside of marriage that is sexual in nature.
25:51: And you can define that, you know, loosely or harshly if you want.
25:55: The point is, if the simple fact is if two people have sex and they're not married, they shouldn't have.
26:04: I mean, that should go without saying.
26:06: And the problem is our current society does not believe that.
26:09: And I didn't mean to make today all about sexual immorality.
26:11: I meant to say stop on number one.
26:13: I'm going to do 15 things.
26:14: I should have known better.
26:15: But society today doesn't believe that.
26:19: Society, I mean, you watch any television show.
26:22: It's no longer about father knows best, you know, dad, mom, and the three boys or whatever.
26:27: It's no longer Warden June Cleaver.
26:32: You have people living.
26:33: Think about friends.
26:35: Television show ran for what, 15 years.
26:39: Nobody got married until, like, the last season when they all started splitting off and going their different ways.
26:45: But every one of them had illicit sexual relationships throughout the show and everybody was fine with it.
26:51: Do you know the time when they were filming I Love Lucy? They couldn't even show the bed in the bedroom unless it was two separate beds.
27:03: And Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball were married.
27:07: In real life.
27:09: And they couldn't show them sharing a bed on television.
27:14: Fast forward half a century and there is nudity on network television.
27:26: Yeah, and the thing about that is that's exalted.
27:30: The best relationships, watch this if you watch television, the best and healthiest relationships are always the homosexuals.
27:38: And the ones that are unhealthy, and the ones that are cheating on each other, the ones that are misbehaving, are always the ones who are the heterosexual married couple.
27:47: They're always unhappy.
27:48: They hate each other.
27:50: They represent marriage as a curse and they represent homosexuality as a blessing.
27:57: The Bible says, Woe unto those who call good evil and evil good.
28:00: And that's exactly what we have.
28:03: So like I said, I didn't get too far into that.
28:05: But the next one is, in the ESV it's impurity.
28:12: Each of these has a Greek phrase.
28:13: This one's a little harder to say.
28:16: Akatharsia.
28:17: Akatharsia.
28:19: And what it means is lustful, luxurious, profligate living or licentious living.
28:28: So he starts with sexual immorality and then he says impurity, which essentially is moral degradation.
28:38: Can you be morally degenerate and not be sexually degenerate? Yes? Yeah, I mean you can have things that are immoral.
28:46: Or a mean person.
28:50: Right? You can be immoral.
28:53: Somebody said, well I don't cheat on my wife, but I cheat on my taxes.
28:58: I don't cheat on my wife, but I sure enough will steal or lie.
29:05: People always want to announce their own goodness, right? What's the goodness? I don't cheat on my wife.
29:12: I flirt with my secretary all the time.
29:16: And if she gave me the time of day, maybe.
29:18: You see what I'm saying? That's the attitude, right? I don't do this so I'm okay.
29:25: No.
29:27: Basically it's an expansion.
29:29: If you think you're okay because you're not cheating on your wife, or you think you're okay because you're not committing fornication, take a step back.
29:36: And now he's expanding from that to a wider thing.
29:42: The next word, the word is sensuality.
29:45: I want to read the definition of this word.
29:48: It says the conduct and character of one who is, and the Greek word is aselgia.
29:56: And where this word comes from is the root isselge, which is the name of a city where the citizens were excelling in strictness in their morals.
30:09: So when you put the alpha primitive on the beginning, that means putting an A in front, like the word atheism.
30:15: You have the word theist.
30:16: You put A on the beginning.
30:18: That's called an alpha primitive.
30:19: That creates the opposite.
30:21: So aselgia is, you have the selgias who are strictly moral.
30:25: Aselgia would be the opposite of that.
30:29: So notice he's gone from sexual immorality to impurity to sensuality.
30:33: What is sensuality? That's a person who lives by the desires of the body.
30:39: They want to fulfill every desire.
30:42: You ever heard of the Stoics? The Stoics tried to eliminate all pleasure in their lives, and they tried to eliminate everything that brought them either joy or anger.
30:54: They tried to be Stoic, which means to be stoned, to be like stone-faced.
30:58: They didn't want to be happy or sad.
31:00: They wanted to have this sort of just, almost sort of like Buddhism.
31:04: Buddhism teaches that you should find this place of harmony where you're not angry, you're not sad, because the whole goal of Buddhism is to become nothing.
31:13: That's the idea of nirvana.
31:14: Nirvana means to go into the nothing.
31:16: And so your goal is to have no treasure, nothing of value, no relationships that have any long-lasting meaning, because all that's going to go away anyway when you go into the nothing.
31:30: So the idea is let go.
31:31: You ever see Star Wars? Remember when Yoda was talking to young Anakin, and he said, you have to learn to give up everything that you love.
31:38: You have to learn to not love everything, not love anything.
31:41: That is Buddhism.
31:42: That is Taoism.
31:44: The idea that the goal of life is to become unfettered by any type of relational connection.
31:50: It's anti-human, because the very nature of humanity is to have relationships, to have meaning in life and purpose.
32:01: I've kind of gone off the rails a little bit.
32:02: The point is, that was Stoicism.
32:05: Stoicism said we're going to eliminate all pleasure.
32:07: We're going to eliminate all those things.
32:09: Well, the opposite of that were the Epicureans.
32:12: And the Epicureans were the people who believed that the goal of life is self-satisfaction.
32:18: They would eat so much that they would make themselves throw up just so they could eat more.
32:23: They loved the taste of food and the filling of their body so much that they would eat until they were packed.
32:29: They would force their finger down their throat, vomit it up just so they could eat more.
32:34: These were people who were consumed with filling the flesh and satisfying.
32:41: Have you ever heard in the Bible it talks about their God is their belly? The people who are always trying to satisfy the flesh.
32:51: That's the idea of sensuality.
32:53: Sensual.
32:54: Flesh-filling.
32:56: Flesh-fulfilling.
32:56: That's the idea of this word.
32:58: So the first three, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, that is a group.
33:14: That constitutes the first group of...
33:19: If I was wrong.
33:33: So we've looked at the first three.
33:35: All of them essentially dealing with the lust of the flesh.
33:39: What are the three things that the Bible warns us against? The lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life.
33:47: That's the three.
33:48: Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of possessions, or pride of life.
33:51: So we've got those three categories.
33:54: So here's the first category.
33:56: Lust of the flesh.
33:59: Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality.
34:03: You could categorize them all together as lust of the flesh.
34:10: The next two, idolatry and sorcery, I think are parallel, though not the same.
34:22: Idolatry is kind of a long word in the Greek.
34:26: It's eidololatria.
34:28: Eidololatria.
34:29: And if you know a little bit about the Greek language, latria means worship.
34:34: And eidololatria means idol worship.
34:36: That's the word.
34:38: And so what it means is it means to worship a false god.
34:47: And as simple as that is, it's not that simple.
34:53: Because idolatry is a problem not only of wood and stone and precious metals, but idolatry is a problem of the mind.
35:06: I'll give you an example.
35:08: If I say to you, God hates sin and he will punish sinners in hell.
35:15: And you stand up and say, my God would never send anyone to hell.
35:20: I would agree with you.
35:22: Because I would say you are worshiping a false god.
35:26: Your god does not exist.
35:29: You have an idol.
35:30: You've created that idol in your mind.
35:32: John Calvin said this, he said the human mind is a perpetual factory of idols.
35:39: It's constantly creating something new to believe in so it can avoid believing in the God who truly exists.
35:47: The mind is creating a false view of God so that we can avoid having to deal with the true God.
35:54: I've told this story before, but it's such a good one, I'll tell it again.
35:57: When I was at Kmart.
35:59: Walked into Kmart, gave the lady gospel track.
36:01: She comes later, she hands it to me.
36:04: I don't want this.
36:06: Okay.
36:07: And she stands there angry.
36:09: Okay, you want to talk? Let's talk.
36:11: She says, my goddess would not send anyone to hell.
36:16: I said, that's true.
36:18: I said, because your goddess doesn't exist.
36:20: You literally made her up in your own mind.
36:23: You created a God that's like you.
36:27: And by the way, that's what idolatry is.
36:28: It's making God like us.
36:31: Hey, we're back.
36:34: Yes, that's right.
36:37: Idolatry is making God like yourself.
36:42: Because ultimately, everybody is really good at self-justification.
36:50: I mean, brother, you know this.
36:52: When somebody does something wrong, what do they do? Well, I had a good reason.
36:55: Justify.
36:55: That's right.
36:56: Self-justification.
36:57: They want to justify themselves.
36:59: And so they create a God who will justify them.
37:04: One of the things you will often hear people try to do is people try to...
37:10: Yes.
37:12: One of the things I hear people often try to do is they try to accuse Jesus of sinning.
37:18: They'll say, well, Jesus surely sinned.
37:20: He was a man.
37:20: All men sin.
37:21: Blah, blah, blah.
37:22: But do you know why people are so bent on trying to argue that Jesus was a sinner? Because they want to...
37:27: Huh? I'm sorry to interrupt you.
37:29: I was just saying because they want to be like us.
37:30: What were you going to say? I was going to say because they were trying to make it okay for their sin.
37:33: That's right.
37:34: That's exactly right.
37:35: They want Jesus to be a sinner because that would justify them in their mind.
37:39: Well, if Jesus was a sinner and I'm a sinner, then it can't be that bad.
37:44: When we say Jesus was without sin, that creates cognitive dissonance.
37:48: Our minds are like, I can't even imagine somebody...
37:50: I can't imagine growing up as Jesus' little brother.
37:52: Can you? I mean, I have a sibling, you know.
37:58: It's tough enough to have an imperfect sibling.
38:01: I wasn't born.
38:02: Yeah, you...
38:07: Yeah, I know.
38:11: Jesus never sinned.
38:13: And so...
38:16: But people want Him to.
38:17: People want to have a God that's like them.
38:19: They want this idol.
38:21: That's what idolatry is.
38:22: It is...
38:23: And in the time of this historical period, it was very pronounced because there were temples.
38:34: And there certainly would have been temples in and around the region of Galatia where people would actually go and sacrifice the idols.
38:41: We don't see that a lot in America anymore.
38:43: You don't see people carrying goats into your local temples and sacrificing them.
38:50: And then everybody going and eating the meat from the goat in a big festival in honor of Zeus or in honor of Jupiter.
38:56: We don't see people doing that today.
38:58: But that would have been the normal lifestyle of the Galatians.
39:02: They would have been seeing people do that all the time.
39:04: They would have been seeing people living that idolatrous life.
39:08: But Paul's calling them, and he's saying that's a work of the flesh.
39:12: The works of the flesh, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, and idolatry.
39:20: And then he says the next one, which is sorcery.
39:25: Now, I said these two go together, and the reason why I think these two go together is because sorcery is a form of idolatry.
39:34: Sorcery is trying to replace the miraculous of God with the magic of men.
39:42: Go ahead, brother.
39:43: Q.J.
39:44: Madison, witchcraft.
39:45: Yeah, same idea.
39:48: And the actual Greek word is pharmakeia, which is interesting because it's where we get our word, pharmacy.
39:56: Pharmaceutical.
39:59: Sorcery, witchcraft, medicine.
40:03: I'm not saying medicine is witchcraft.
40:04: Be careful.
40:05: But, but, but, hey, having said that, what is the scourge on so many people in our world today? I have a sister-in-law who passed away not because of heroin, but because of doctor-prescribed medicine.
40:28: Prescription.
40:30: People go in.
40:32: There's looting happening around the United States right now because of all the things that are happening.
40:38: And one of the things that has happened is people are going into pharmacies, breaking in and stealing all the medication.
40:45: Why? Because they're going to turn around and sell it or use it.
40:50: So I'm not saying medication is bad.
40:51: And certainly, pharmakeia, it's gone through many derivations to get to the word pharmacy.
40:57: Because I think when I was a kid, when my mom would say, I'm going to the drugstore, I would say, Drugstore? Drugstore? Why are you going to the drugstore? You know, because you think drugs are bad, right? Same way with pharmakeia.
41:06: The idea, though, is those who would seek to create some type of magic, potions and sorcery and snake oils.
41:19: What's that? And methamphetamines.
41:21: Oh, yeah.
41:22: And I mean, yeah, a tonic.
41:28: Snake oil.
41:30: Snake oil.
41:31: And you see how this would go with idolatry, right? Why do people go into drugs? Because they're looking for something to satisfy a need, a desire, or something that they want.
41:44: And so if God is not satisfying, I can be satisfied in the bottle.
41:49: Or I can be satisfied in the needle.
41:51: Or I can be satisfied in this sexual activity.
41:54: I can find something else.
41:56: Anything can become an idol, right? Because it's finding your satisfaction in something other than God.
42:01: In fact, John Piper has a great quote.
42:04: And as I age, I'm getting more understanding of what he meant.
42:09: As I grow in my own understanding, John Piper said this, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
42:18: Let me say it again.
42:19: God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
42:24: See, the problem is we are not satisfied in God, so we look for something else to be satisfied in.
42:29: Maybe it's the accumulation of wealth.
42:31: Some people want to be rich.
42:33: Maybe it's the accumulation of stuff.
42:35: People want to have toys and things.
42:38: Maybe it's the accumulation of sexual partners.
42:40: I want to be the man and have had bedded many women.
42:43: Anything, right? All of these are attempting to be satisfied in something other than God.
42:57: Gambling can be a very deadly sin because it can destroy lives.
43:08: Lord, bless me.
43:09: You know, man, so I'm trying to comprehend in the right aspect of how to handle it.
43:16: Most lottery winners end up in more debt than when they started.
43:19: Amen.
43:20: Yeah.
43:21: And while that is very true, I want to add this.
43:24: The concept of gambling is actually, there's a lot of discussion about whether or not it's sin or not sin.
43:31: You know, can two men play a friendly card game and it not be a sin? I think they could.
43:37: I think two men could have a friendly game.
43:39: You know, even if there were some, you know, maybe a little stakes involved to have a little fun.
43:43: But the difference between that and somebody who lives a gambling lifestyle.
43:48: Gambling is, in my opinion, and again, you get what you pay for, in my opinion.
43:53: In my opinion, it's a demonstration that you're idolizing the concept of chance.
44:04: Oh, my chances are so good.
44:05: This machine is about to pay out, or this blackjack table is hot, or these dice are going to roll hard.
44:13: You know, it's a concept of trying to find satisfaction, just like what you just said.
44:18: Could gambling be an idol? Absolutely.
44:20: People die at the crap tables and at the slot machines.
44:25: I mean, old people fall over dead at the slot machines in Las Vegas because they're so desiring to hit that jackpot.
44:34: And that's the most important thing to them.
44:36: And when that becomes the most important thing, God has taken not only a back seat, but He's taken the final seat if that's the most important thing.
44:43: So, yes, it certainly could be an idol.
44:45: It certainly could become sinful, you know.
44:48: I'm not saying if somebody goes and puts a nickel in a slot, you know, that that's a sin.
44:52: But when it becomes the consuming passion of your life, that's the problem.
44:56: You know, the things they had, I just feel they closed all of them.
45:02: Yeah, the game rooms? You know what's funny about that? When the COVID-19 crisis hit and everybody was worried about social distancing, everybody going to put on a mask, wear gloves, sanitize your whole body, take a hot shower five times a day, all that stuff.
45:18: The game rooms in Nassau County were still packed.
45:23: I would drive by.
45:24: There's one by the house.
45:25: At least it was.
45:28: Packed! Because apparently COVID-19 ain't going to get you if you're on a roll.
45:37: Yeah, and like I said, so, yes, idolatry, absolutely.
45:41: And, brother, you had something you wanted to ask.
46:01: Yes, and oftentimes witchcraft and sorcery, they are perversions of good things.
46:09: Like I said, there was a good sacrifice that was made by the priest in the temple, and it was a righteous thing.
46:15: It was God's sacrifice.
46:17: It was the day of atonement.
46:18: Now, that we don't do anymore because the atonement has been done through Christ once for all.
46:23: But there was a time when sacrificing was good, and it had a purpose in the people of God.
46:28: But there have always been the false religions, like the prophets of Baal, who would sacrifice.
46:34: Remember when the prophets of Baal were battling with Elijah? Yeah, and they came out, and they sacrificed their animals, and they did their thing, and they started cutting themselves? And what did Elijah do? Love Elijah.
46:50: Maybe your God's on the toilet.
46:54: It's literally what he said.
46:55: You read it in the original language.
46:56: Maybe your God is relieving himself because he's not listening.
47:05: The sanctified sarcasm of Elijah does my heart good.
47:09: Is he constipated? He's not listening.
47:16: Maybe he's relieving himself.
47:17: Wow.
47:18: Because nowadays, people are so uber-sensitive.
47:21: Everybody wears a chip on their shoulder.
47:23: Everybody's just waiting for it to get knocked off.
47:24: Nobody could handle the Old Testament prophets.
47:30: Nobody could handle Jesus.
47:33: I'm doing a podcast Monday, and the question of the podcast is, Was Jesus a nice guy? The reason why I'm asking that question is because I'm going through the book of Luke.
47:44: And in Luke 11, I think is where I'll be, Jesus starts going, Woe to you, Pharisees.
47:50: The word woe is judgment.
47:53: People say today, Well, if you use judgment language, you're not a nice person.
47:58: Then Jesus was not a nice guy.
48:01: I had a guy tell me one time, Jesus was always loving to people.
48:05: He was never harsh with people.
48:07: And you're too harsh.
48:08: He told me that.
48:09: You're too harsh.
48:10: Jesus would never act like you.
48:16: I said, well, first of all, I'm not Jesus in the sense that I would never compare myself to Jesus.
48:20: But to say that Jesus would never be harsh with His language means you have read the Bible very, very superficially.
48:30: Remember when the woman came to Him and wanted a blessing? And He says it's not good to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs? And it was a test.
48:43: It was an opportunity for her to say something.
48:45: He responded, and there was a positive ending.
48:47: But the statement is pretty rough.
48:54: Dr.
48:54: R.C.
48:55: Sproul did a whole lesson called The Hard Sayings of Jesus where he just went through, and this is a hard thing.
49:07: Idolatry makes God the way we want Him, makes Jesus the way we want Him.
49:10: And sorcery, as you said, brother, just a minute ago, sorcery is the perversion of God's good things.
49:17: Yes, the ungodly, wicked people, they create sacrifices.
49:25: I mean, the wiccans and the pagans, they do all kinds of things.
49:28: They cut themselves.
49:30: They drink each other's blood.
49:31: They try to find anything they can to try to have some kind of satisfaction, right? Because they're not willing to be satisfied in God, they'll find satisfaction anywhere else they can get it.
49:40: No.
49:42: Because that's the thing about sin, man.
49:44: It'll satisfy for a hot minute, but it will not last.
49:47: It will always want more than you are willing to give.
49:54: And it will take you where you're not willing to go.
49:57: And it will leave you with no hope.
50:01: So here's these two.
50:02: Like I said, we're going to categorize sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality.
50:08: And then you have idolatry and sorcery, which I think are sister sins.
50:11: Not the same, but they can be compared.
50:14: And then next week, because time's up, we're going to go beginning with enmity, strife, jealousy, all of the rest of these, except for drunkenness.
50:22: It's the one outlier.
50:23: And even it could be an example of a social sin.
50:27: Because what happens when you get drunk? You treat each other poorly.
50:31: What's the big issue with drunkenness? What happens when you get drunk? You lose inhibitions.
50:36: And you know what your inhibitions do? They keep you from being a jerk most of the time.
50:43: Because your inhibitions are the little voices in your head saying you ought not do that.
50:48: And when you drink, that little voice gets drunk right along with you and says go on, do that.
50:57: So hopefully this was helpful.
50:59: Like I said, we'll probably spend next week, we'll look at the final ones, and then we'll move to the fruit of this.
51:03: I'm so much more excited.
51:05: But let me finish with these words.
51:09: Person who is led by the Spirit.
51:14: Please understand what I'm about to say.
51:17: Because I am not giving a license for sin.
51:20: A person who is led by the Spirit could fail in any one of those areas.
51:28: In fact, next week we're going to see that we all have a tendency to fail socially with things like jealousy.
51:34: Jealousy comes up before we even realize it.
51:37: We're jealous.
51:38: Somebody's got a bigger this, or a better that, or a prettier this, and we're all...
51:42: And so why? Because we're still in the flesh.
51:47: The difference between those things coming up and living in those things is the huge difference.
51:52: That's why I pointed out in the beginning, He says those who do such things, the word do, those who make a lifestyle practice of those things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
52:00: Why? Because those who make a lifestyle practice of those things have not met Christ.
52:05: Their lives are still led and driven by the flesh and not by the Spirit.
52:13: Alright, let's pray.
52:14: Father, thank You for this time to study.
52:16: I pray that this has been useful and fruitful and in the weeks to come we'll become even more in tune with what You're saying to us in this text.
52:23: Help us, Lord.
52:24: In Christ's name, amen.