Let's give your attention to the Word of God as I read it from Galatians chapter 5. We're reading verses 16 through 25 of this chapter. I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now, the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, And those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. and those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. We live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. The fruit of the spirit is self-control. You walk into any bookstore these days and you'll find a long, long shelf of self-help books. How to improve your work habits. How to build your self-esteem and on and on. And they all approach improvement as a process of self-actualization. A program of tips and tricks by experts that promise that if you will just try harder or follow my steps, all your dreams can come true. And it's tempting to approach a message on self-control as just another self-help book. Follow my plan that's outlined in my bestseller, Self-Control for Dummies. And in 10 easy steps, you will master all of your ugly habits and become the new you that you have always wanted. Only $19.99 on my website. Now, while some of these books will have a modicum of success with their methods, they actually fail to address the root problem here. At root, self-control is not a matter of self-determination. It's not a matter of try harder. Self-control is a spiritual matter. It's a matter that is dealing with sinful desires. This comes through clearly as Paul teaches about the fruit of the spirit in the context and really in opposition to the works of the flesh. So over the last several months, I've been teaching and preaching on the fruit of the spirit. And today, I want you to see it kind of in completion. I want you to see it in its setting, walking in the spirit and in opposition to the deeds of the flesh. And this way, you will find that that self-control is indeed a fruit of the Spirit that grows inevitably by your union with Jesus Christ. By God's grace, then, you may work to bring every thought, every desire captive to the obedience of Christ. I want to begin by looking at this context. I want you to see how the fruit of the Spirit stands versus the deeds of the flesh, stands in opposition to the deeds of the flesh. So as I read today, you'll recognize that this context that Paul's discussion is, is that it considers both the deeds of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit, but I want you to expand the context to see something of bookends on either side of that. Look at your text, you'll see that in verse 16, Paul says, I say then, Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And then in verse 25, very similar words. We live in the Spirit, we'll also walk in the Spirit. There's that, the bookends of walking by the Spirit of God. The bookend is even thicker than that. So you move in a little bit. Verse 17, for the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. These are contrary to one another, that you do not do the things that you wish. In verse 24, those who are in Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. One more step in, verse 18, but if you are led by the spirit, you are not under law. In verse 23, after talking about the fruit of the spirit, against such there is no law. Let me just explain the law here, but to keep in mind these bookends, I'll come back to them. In this case, Paul is referring to the law of what were called the Judaizers. This is why he wrote the book of Galatians. There were some who were teaching that for you to be saved, you have to believe in Jesus, yes, but then you also have to do the works of the Jewish law. The works of the ceremonial law, the laws of cleanliness and things like that. You had to add to faith in Jesus Christ these works of the law. That came to be known as Judaizers, pressing back on Christianity, the works of the Jews. And what Paul does is that he contends against this teaching as another gospel. a perversion of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He says, if anybody teaches something like this, let them be accursed, because you can't add anything to faith alone. And so in chapter 3, Paul says, by the works of the law, no one shall be justified. That's because the law demands perfect obedience. We all fall short of that, day in and day out. There's not one of us that can fulfill the law perfectly. But Jesus did. This is why Jesus came. He died because our disobedience deserves the wrath of God, and he took that on himself. But he also lived to fulfill the required obedience that none of us can measure up to. So in this case, while Paul will elsewhere say the law is good and it's a pattern for us to follow, here he is saying, if you make it a requirement for salvation, that that is another gospel. So in this context, he is saying that by the Spirit, we have salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, not by merit, not by our obedience because we fall short, not by the law. So think again of these bookends. And we're going to come to see the works of the flesh and of the Spirit. Bookends are walk in the Spirit. Crucify the flesh. You are free from the law and its condemnation. In the middle then, Paul gets very, very practical. This is how God enables you through his spirit to put to death those old habits, those old sinful habits that were part of your life. And then you will, by the Spirit, indeed grow in righteousness, because you are united to Jesus. Think here of how Jesus described himself as the vine, and we are the branches. And since we are united to Jesus Christ, the fruit of the Spirit just grows naturally in us as part of that work of the Spirit. In examining, then, the works of the flesh, you find that they show human nature, as one commentator says it, shows human nature out of control and at its sinful and excessive worst. Human nature out of control. But in contrast, as a believer, as a child of God, he gives you the spirit to dwell in you, to bring about sanctification, growth and holiness, called this fruit of the spirit. And the fruit closes then with this final Christian grace, self-control. So I wanna turn and look more closely at the deeds of the flesh. I want you to see how the Spirit addresses the root issue of sin in them and how self-control plays such an important role. Now you'll see that it is indeed a necessary fruit of the Spirit. This will be something of a brief look because this list is not a comprehensive catalog of all sins. That list would fill volumes. This is representative of the excesses of sinful human nature. Representatives of human nature out of control. And I'm going to group them into four different groups rather than taking them each individually. And they fall fairly naturally into these four groups. Paul starts with sexual sins. an area where the world in Paul's day knew a lot about sexual sins. And I would hasten to say our world is filled with temptation and sexual sins as well. In Paul's day, Those that were being converted out of the Greek culture and other nations there around the Mediterranean, they were surrounded by a culture that promoted promiscuity and sexual activity and all sorts of things. Even their religion had temple prostitutes. Even their religion. was promoting this sexual immorality. And Paul's point is that such actions go against the new life you have in Christ, especially the good gift of marriage. This is where Paul draws in the rest of scripture to help us understand that that human sexuality is a good gift from God, but it's given in a certain context and with certain boundaries. That boundary is that sexuality is to be enjoyed between a husband and a wife. Sex goes beyond God's intended use, becomes a consuming idol. So Paul lists adultery, That's when there is a marriage and partners of that marriage go outside and have an affair. It also talks about fornication, and that's more general sexual immorality of those who are not married but are engaging in sexual activity. It speaks of uncleanness. This is an even more general term, but it gets at not just the outward acts, but the inner desires of the heart and the desires that we might identify as lusting after another woman or another man. And he lists as well here lewdness. And this is a word that has in mind those who not only lack self-control and sexuality, but they are blatant and brazen in flaunting their indulgences of their impulses. That was then, this is now, and the culture of Paul's day is very similar to the culture today, I would have to say. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, blatant, flaunting of indulgence of impulses, ignoring the goodness of God's gifts of marriage, surely recognize the need to listen to this warning. Paul says that those who indulge in these things and practice them without repentance are not Christian. They will not inherit the kingdom of God. And all I need to do for today is mention the rampant use of pornography. It's all around us. It's a blight on our culture. It indicates a loss of control. It indicates a heart issue that nurtures a sinful desire for sex rather than a God-given desire for sex. No wonder then that all of these other manifestations of sexual sins are so clearly seen around us. ones Paul mentions here, but you could go on into homosexuality, bestiality, and such things as this. As one who belongs to Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit leads you to self-control, leads you at a heart level to love Jesus rather than the idolatry of sexual expression. That's really what it is. It's taking something out of the context in which God has said it and claiming it and elevating it to the place that it does not belong. And it becomes an idol to you. The Lord has given sexual intimacy for a very great and a very good purpose. It is one of those great gifts from God. But it is not the end. It is not the purpose of your life. It's to be seen in relationship to your relationship to God and Jesus Christ. With all of these sins, These can be hard to put off as they get rooted down into our experience, our desires, our habits. It'd be hard to change these ideas. But in Jesus Christ, know that the Spirit of God is at work in you. There is godly change that can take place. I'll say that again because we're going to move on to the next category here. There's more aspects of the deeds of the flesh. It's not just sexual sins that Paul addresses here, but he goes on to name idolatry and sorcery blatantly. I'll group those together as well under the heading of idolatry. And you're probably familiar with the idolatry the Bible often describes as. There are people that bow down to statues. They kill animals in front of them, and they pray to these statues and ask for this God's blessing in their lives. And that is a form of idolatry, and it does still exist in some places around the world. And there are still people that pray to statues, statues of Mary and saints and things like that. But the idols of the United States are much more subtle. They aren't statues. Because anything that you love more than God is an idol. Anything that you love. That could be sex, as I just described, or fame, fashion, power, beauty, and so on. And sorcery is linked in here because it refers to those people who claim to have some connection to a special power. to magic or to supernatural incantations that connect them to other forces or other gods, along with more subtle idolatry. Sorcery and witchcraft are alive and well in America today, believe it or not. It is out there, and they rival your love for the one true God and Jesus Christ. They replace love for God with a love for a false God. Here, the good news is that Christ is greater than all. There is no God but the one true God of the Bible. And when Jesus, the Son of God, entered into the world, the angels sang in praise and the demons cowered. They trembled because they recognized him. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. So when you walk in the spirit, he will lead you away from those previous false gods, the superstitions, the idolatries. Leads you on the heart level to love God alone. The third category here I'll summarize under the heading of hatred. It's the first word that's given here. It's a larger group, and it starts with hatred, and I think that one doesn't need to be defined. But now, note the evil lines that flow from hatred into these other areas of our life. It leads to contentions. arguments that divide. It leads later in the group to dissensions and heresies. That's not necessarily theological divisions, but could include that. These are the ways that people divide up into factions. One against another, us versus them, a tribalism we might call it today. You could see that in our society as there is kind of a filtering into all of these different groups and fighting against each other, at root, a hard issue of hatred. Hatred also leads to jealousies and selfish ambitions and envy. Each of these refer to some loss of control of our own desires and being overwhelmed for a desire for what someone else has. And then a desire that is so overwhelming that we come to hate others that have what I don't have. That's what envy is. Being so consumed with not having what your neighbor has that you come to despise them. Oh, look what Mr. Jones came home with today. Sneer at that. Hatred boiling up through selfish ambition and envy and jealousy. And then very clearly, outbursts of wrath, loss of control of your temper, which can lead even to murder, which Paul mentions as well. These deeds of the flesh are also all around us in our culture. We live and breathe hatred and jealousy and envy and covetousness and dissension. It's hard to go on social media without being caught up in some firestorm of debate that is dividing one against another. And things are said there that people would shudder to say in person. That's often been observed, and it's true. On social media, you will open your mouth and say things that you would never say to that person face to face. All rising up out of a heart issue. A heart issue of not controlling hatred and anger. And I do say these are common. They are hard to put off. Can you control your temper? Can you control your tongue? Can you listen to others or do you always have to be right and always have to get the last word? You content with your possessions or do you find yourself drooling with envy as you scroll through Instagram? Come to hate the perfect Instagram people that you find there. Holy Spirit works in this area too. Teaches you contentment. teaches you discernment, love, respect for others, patience. All of these have a strong element of control of the passions that are part of this world. Holy Spirit is teaching you to die to yourself. to die to your desires and to live for Christ. He is teaching you to take every thought captive, to take every desire captive, to live for him, not for yourself. Final category is drunkenness. It has two points as well, drunkenness and revelries. And these stand for a loss of control of our appetites. It mentions drunkenness, which has to do with, well, you know what drunkenness is. But there are other appetites that you can overindulge in as well. That could be illicit drugs or it could be even good things. You could overindulge in food as well. So think of your appetites here when it talks about drunkenness. And the word revelries evokes a vision of the types of parties that often occur, where people end up passed out on the floor. That's the whole purpose of that party. What motivates this behavior? Well, there's a lack of self-control that is obvious, because it is overindulgence. But there are also other root issues involved here too. There's something that drives us to want to fit in. There's something that belongs to be part of a group, to be thought of as a comrade in this behavior and to fit in. That too has an element of loss of control to lay aside all caution for that end of fitting in. The element of idolatry raising its head. Well, here the Holy Spirit works too. He meets your root desires for acceptance by uniting you to Christ. He fills the vacuum of loneliness by the people of God around you. He is at work in you to sanctify you, to put to death, destroying those former idols and filling you more and more with love of Christ and love for Christ, which brings us kind of full circle. talked about here in the middle, the deeds of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. But remember those bookends, that we are walking in the spirit, we're crucifying the flesh, that we're free from the condemnation that the law brings since we can't obey it. And I wanna close by reminding you that self-control is a fruit of the spirit, and it's not a fruit of your determination. Self-help books will give you programs and promises that rely on your own strength and determination, but they don't address the root issue. I like the way that Brian Chappell has said it. He says, the only reason sin has power in your life because you love it. That's the root issue. It's a little hard to hear, isn't it? Because when I look at my life and I see the sins, I want to say I hate those things. So why do I keep turning to them? Because there remains in me a love for them. Just like Paul in Romans 7, I'll say, I'm ashamed of that. Wretched man that I am. In this life, there remains in me still a love for sin. At root, how do we address that? Place it with a love for Christ. Walk in the spirit. Jesus Christ came, fulfilled the law by his obedience. He paid the price for your sins. And in this way, he has delivered you from the penalty of sin. But always remember that Jesus has also delivered you from the power of sin. And if there's love for sin in your life, the power that is there is because of that love for your sin. Only way to address that is to love Christ. With all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, love Christ. And out of that union with him grows all of these fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. By God's grace, I pray that you would love Jesus. You would love God with your heart, soul, strength, and mind. And that you would find that by the Spirit that he is enabling you to bring all of those old loves to him and to put them to death. And that you would be bringing your every thought captive, every desire, under the authority and the love of Jesus Christ. May the love of Jesus bless you with a fruitful year in 2025, a year full of all of the fruit of the Spirit. Amen, let's pray. Oh Lord, our God, this is a passage that touches us deeply Lord, there is not one of us here that can claim to be free from sin. And there is in each one of us a shame to say that that sin is in my life because I love it. Lord, we confess our sin to you. We ask, O God, that you would forgive us of those things. You have promised to do so. And we're glad that the penalty for our sin has been paid by Jesus Christ. And we pray that more and more that we would be free from its power, that you would enable us more and more to walk in the Spirit. We can pray that with confidence, for Lord, you have poured out your Spirit upon us. Each in Christ has the Spirit dwelling in us. And so, O Lord, it is your plan and purpose that we would be conformed more and more to our Savior. And we look forward to seeing you face to face when all sin is eradicated from our lives. And one day we will be free from that temptation. But until then, O Lord, pray, O God, the love of Christ would fill our hearts. that you would help us in each of these fruit of the spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. We'll close by singing Psalm 1, Selection A. It gives a contrast from those who are children of God and those who are not. And there's a beauty here in this that describes the children of God as being a tree planted by the waterside. with its roots deeply sunk into all that God is providing, and it grows up and it's fruitful. There's that abiding love of Jesus Christ that produces this fruit. Let's praise God for this, Psalm 1, selection A. Please stand to sing.