For now, I'll just mute you. I've been to boys I've seen, but I've never been a church boy. All right, let's go, I have time for you. Okay, just a second. Okay, thank you, I'm sure it is. Okay. Okay, do you want to take some time to sit down? I'll sit, I'll sit. Oh, thank you. Yeah, that's good. Okay. So it'll, it'll connect us. She's messing it up further now. I know. wait 9 Amen. Welcome to Grace Covenant Church. So good to see everyone today. We're going to have our call to worship here in just a moment. I have a few announcements. If you have your bulletins, the first thing I want to announce is that the ladies are playing the ladies tee. And so we have wonderful flyers that Miss Barbara had made and printed. So make sure to grab one. It is on May 24th at 11 a.m. and that is at the Howden's home. So thanks Laura and Jonathan for opening up your home. And so please RSVP I think we said by May 11th and there's a number or email to RSVP on there. So we're really leaving it to sort of your discretion as far as children ages 4 and over. Doesn't mean you have to bring all of them but kind of that age range is sort of the limit. So we have a good mix of the ladies, but also, you know, just so that it's all age appropriate. So if you have any more questions, you can see Miss Barbara or Laura or any of the other ladies that are helping the plant. I think a lot of them are helping, so. I know they're looking forward to that. Also today after service we have a member meeting and so that's going to be about 30 to 45 minutes after the service is over. If you're not a member and you'd like to watch and be part of that's perfectly fine you're open to that. We'll just have you kind of sit in the back and have our members kind of sit take about 30 to 45 minutes. I'll kind of give a little 5-10 minute warning when we're ready to begin that. So we have a lot of fun things to cover today for our member meeting. And then also we have, oh just a sort of a housekeeping item. Those big trash dumpsters, those are for trash bags only. So adults and children, don't throw any loose trash in there. Our trash service pickup, they only get the bags out. So please don't put any loose trash in there. I know we appreciate that. And there's also a lot of other events coming up that are in your bulletin, so make sure that you are marking your calendar for our spring picnic and Friday service. We also have a spring work day coming up for everybody, ladies, men. There's going to be jobs for everyone, children. So make sure that you make plans for that. And oh, and then another thing, last week I had mentioned, but there are these flyers here as well on the fruits of the spirit or fruit of chapter 5, and the deed of the flesh. Make sure you pick up this as I encouraged you last week. Really give some time during your study outside of church to really dive into this text. I think it's going to be edifying for us all. So I think that's it for now. So let's have our call to worship, and let's use this time. The call to worship is calling ourselves to worship, but it's also a way to frame your mind and to open your heart and to prepare yourself if you haven't already, which we should be preparing ourselves Saturday night, Sunday morning. But now's the time to prepare yourself so that you can honor Christ with the way that you worship, with the way you hear the Word. I will sing of the loving kindness of Yahweh forever. From generation to generation, I will make known your faithfulness with my mouth. For I have said, loving kindness will be built up forever. In the heavens, you will establish your faithfulness. I have cut a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn to David, my servant. I will establish your seed forever and build up your throne from generation to generation. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this Wonderful opportunity that we have or to gather together as your people those who you've redeemed Those who you've transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of your beloved son Father we give thanks and honor and praise to you the Lord I pray now by your grace you grant us a heart of thankfulness Lord that we would enter Lord, help us to make a joyful noise to you, Lord. Help us to worship you with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. God, give us minds to understand your word today. Give us hearts to receive it and to not be just doers of the word, but to be, excuse me, not to be hearers of the word, but to be doers of the word today. Lord, we pray that Christ would be glorified in our worship, Lord. I pray that you would meet your people, your sheep, Lord, meet them where they are. Father, speak to their lives, whether it's encouragement, conviction, edification, whatever it is, God, you know best what each of us need. Lord, I pray that you would, by the power of your Holy Spirit, do what is best for you and your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, if you'll open up your hymnal to In the Church of Christ, we'll measure onward on With all of Christ our captain We're bound to be, and say that they are strong In the strength that God has given, we'll shield our faith To a gnarly foe, whose battle cries love, reaching out to those in darkness. I call to war, to what the captives hold, and to rage against the captor. And with the sword that makes the wounded bold, we will fight with faith and valour. The price. in grace Resounding triumphs of His grace, And here at last, I wonder for the day, Will Christ be still in glory? And he cried, have everyone go out from me. So there was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. He wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard of it. Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him. whom you sold in Egypt. Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Now therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father all Egypt, come down to me, do not delay. You shall live in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children, and your children's children, and your flocks, and your herds, and all that you have. There I will also provide for you, for there are still five years of famine to come. and you and your household and all that you have would be impoverished. Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth which is speaking to you. Now you must tell my father of all my splendor in Egypt and all that you have seen, and you must hurry and bring my father down here.' Then he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck, He kissed all his brothers and wept on them. And afterward, his brothers talked with him. You may be seated. And then, we talked the other day about Brother James. You didn't recognize him. He said the temperature has crossed the threshold of wearing a hood, so. Amen. All right, so next we have our catechism. If you open up your bulletins on the inside left, we're going through the ordinances of the church and we're learning about baptism. So each, like we do each Sunday, I'll say the question and we'll say the answer in unison. Question number nine, are the infants of such as professing believers to be baptized? Answer? The infants of such as professing believers are not to be baptized because there is either command or example for giving the whole body of water in the name of our Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, according to Christ's institution, and the practice of the Apostles, and not by strengthening the form of water, but by dipping some part of the body after the traditions of men. church, we believe in the full immersion of baptizing believers. I'm not going to get more into sort of the apologetic of it, but what I do want to just mention is that, you know, this catechism was written back in the 1600s, and most of the Reformed church was Reformed Baptists and Reformed Presbyterians, and they actually, if you do a little bit of history, it's interesting because these, the And what I mean by that is there were back then, there were even Presbyterians who were finding Reformed Baptist churches because they liked all the doctrines, but they still, their conscience held to infant baptism. And I explained the differences last week, right? It's not a salvation issue when our Reformed Presbyterian friends baptize their babies. But they had the same challenges as we do today. Many Reformed Baptists around the nation But this interesting thing, because a lot of the PCA denominations are going that way, and people want to stay this way, right? So a lot of people are leaving Reformed Presbyterian churches and coming to Reformed Baptist churches. I speak to many of the pastors that have the same challenge. The Reformed Baptist churches kind of held, they all had their own different way to handle that. Some of them were stark, you cannot be a member of this church unless you truly believe in believers' baptism. There were some, like Benjamin Keech, who wrote this catechism, that's where he stood. Others, like John Bunyan, left it up to the conscience, and they would actually accept members as Presbyterians, but they obviously wouldn't baptize babies, wouldn't baptize their babies. So that's sort of where we landed up with this church. But it is one of those things that we navigate when we're talking about different doctrines and as we believe different things. But we do believe that it is rightly, the right way to minister baptism is believers, but we do allow for that room, if you will, for people who still believe in that and want to come over to our church and still, you know, believe in infant baptism, but we do ask, you know, be open to teaching. There's a lot of teaching on this, there's a lot of great resources on this to kind of see both sides. There's both approaches, meaning, like, if you just look at the New Testament and baptism, you can exegetically see that it's believers' baptism. But also, like, the Reformed Baptists back in the 1600s, they got their view of baptism out of the covenant, out of the covenants of God, and so that's where the a lot of wealth of information, I don't have the time, it would be a multiple series lecture on God's covenants, and how they viewed God's covenant, and the outward, the fruit of the covenant, as studied from the Old Testament and the New Testament, the New Covenant, is that all those in the New Covenant are believers, therefore those who are baptized should be believers. Again, I don't have the time to dive into that, but I just wanted to share that. As we grow, and as our church grows, we will see more people that come from Presbyterian churches, and I welcome that. I love that. There are some smaller, very conservative Presbyterian denominations out there, but there are far few between. I don't think there's any around here, but we do see the drift in many of those bigger Presbyterian denominations. So, that's really all I want to say about baptism. But a lot of good resources. If you want some more, I can point you in that right direction. But anyway, let's take it. If you were born in church, if you would stand and open your head a little, So number 98, my worth is not in what I own. This will be our song of the month in 98. My worth is not in what I own, not in the strength but in the costly wounds of war on the cross my worth is not in skill or name in win or lose in right or shame but in the blood of Christ I rejoice in my Redeemer Greatest treasure, wellspring of my soul I will trust in Him no other My soul is satisfied in Him alone As summer flowers we pray and I Vain youth and beauty hurry by But life eternal calls to us at the cross I will not boast in wealth or might Or human wisdom to divide I will boast in knowing Christ at the cross. I'm rejoiced in my Redeemer, greatest treasure, wellspring of my soul. I will trust in Him no other, for my soul is satisfied in Him. my man Amen. Our next song is on the back of your bulletin. It is Christ, the truth, and brotherhood. This is a wonderful song. Christ the true and better Lad, Son of God and Son of Man, Who intended in the Garden, Never yield and never sin. He who makes the many righteous, Brings us back to life again. Dying, he reversed the curse, then rising, crushed the serpent's head. Christ the true and ever rising, humble son of sacrifice, who would climb the fearful mountain there to rise. Played with faith upon the altar Father's your and only Son And there salvation was provided For a fool and boundless son Christ the story is the glory Hallelujah Amen Christ the true and better Moses called to lead the people home He's been equal to earthly powers With His arms stretched wide to heaven, see the waters flooding too. See the veil is torn forever, winds will blow and we pass now through. we share We shall be. From beginning to end Christ the story is the glory Hallelujah, Amen Amen, Amen Amen. You may be seated. Amen. I like that song. Brother Jacob and our singers, this is a wonderful time to sing praises continue our study of Galatians. We're in chapter 5. Today we're going to look at this section of text by the Apostle Paul on the works or the deeds of the flesh. So turn to Galatians the few verses before, when it comes to conflict and addressing the Galatian churches biting and devouring one another, using the opportunity they have of freedom for the flesh and not walking in love and walking by the Spirit. So let's look at Galatians chapter 5, beginning at verse 19. Here are the words of our Lord. Now the deeds of the flesh are evidence, which are, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, people by the power of your Holy Spirit. Give us eyes to see, ears to hear, heart to receive your Word today. May we leave this place, Lord, may we leave changed by your Word, sanctified by your Spirit, chapter 3 verse 3 where the Apostle Paul called the Corinthians saying that they're acting fleshly. He uses this text to introduce the idea of two classes of Christians. I mentioned this last week and these classes of Christians he says are he says that carnal Christian, that the carnal Christian is one that, quote, is characterized by a walk that is on the same plane as that of a natural or unsaved man. In other words, Schaeffer was saying that the carnal Christian is one who truly in fact is saved you can notice no difference between this person and how they live their life, how they talk, walk, behave, act, react, their day-to-day activities. There's no difference between that person and the unsaved person. He says that they're a Christian, but they're a carnal Christian. Now, this would actually have been a very novel concept in Schaeffer's day in the early 1900s. And you actually saw opposition by those like B.B. Worker at this time. This was a very novel concept. It was quite a new idea, and it was absent from the historic Orthodox teaching of Christianity for almost 2,000 years. The idea that Schaeffer introduces here gave way to separating Christ's Lordship from salvation. You can make Jesus your Savior, but not your Lord. Proponents who would argue for this idea would say that making Jesus as Lord, or actively deciding to submit to the Lordship of Christ, is adding a work to salvation. So, they would separate the two. I've met people like this who live like the world, they talk like the world, they're in sexually immoral relationships even, or they're on substances like they're a drunkard or other things. I make Jesus my Savior, and then they kind of smirk, but I hadn't really made Him my Lord. This is an absolute novel concept. It is against an opposed 2,000 years of historic Christian thinking. The idea that you can make Jesus your Savior, and then later somehow become a spiritual Christian and make Him Lord. The problem with that, friends, is that you cannot make Jesus Christ If someone claims that they made Jesus their Savior, but not their Lord, they have in fact rejected Him as both. They are living in outright rebellion and thereby proving that they have not transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Christ. This false dichotomy, which began with Schaeffer really in the early 1900s, has plagued the Church for over a hundred years and has caused the rise of easy-believism and has produced an unregenerate and emotional-driven Church. Because you can be saved without submitting to Christ's Lordship, you get millions of false converts, who either don't stay in church because they're not saved and they have no interest in Christ, so they fall out of even going to church, or they find churches that attract the flesh and give no calls to submission to Christ. We have many of those churches. One of the biggest in the nation, in fact, right here in our backyard, and that's Elevation Church, but even also you have hundreds of smaller little Elevation model type churches who never call people to repent Savior, but not their Lord. I'm just a carnal Christian. They find these churches to appease their conscience, because these churches just attract the flesh. That's how they get people to come, and that's how they keep people in their churches, by just appealing to the flesh. And if you're walking in the flesh, as we learned today, you're not a child of the King, and so you're not going to be attracted to churches like ours. obedience to Christ while those who oh yeah and then excuse me putting godly pressure on these people that claim that they took Jesus as their Savior but not Lord if you're trying to put pressure like the example I gave you earlier that the guy who kind of smiling I hadn't made it my Lord try to put godly pressure on I'm trying to use the God's Word to call them into submission and you really start to see the ever-regenerative heart come out, because you can't question my salvation. Now, while those who are saved, who have come to Christ on His terms through repentance and faith, do sin, and do often act fleshly, they do not habitually live an unremorseful, Galatian churches a list of deeds of the flesh or works in the flesh and reminds them of the warning of those who habitually practice these sins are not in fact saved but have to see themselves they are weeks excuse me they are the tears among and the tares were gathered and burned in the fire. They are the bad fish among the good fish, who were gathered up at the harvest and thrown out. They are the dinner guests at the great banquet, who by all accounts thought they belonged, they thought they were invited, but they weren't dressed in wedding clothes, and they were kicked out, they were bound up and thrown into outer darkness. These are those who have deceived themselves and have been deceived by shallow theology and by a half-gospel and by easy-believism and this idea of having a carnal Christian and a spiritual Christian. They have been deceived by that type of teaching. They've deceived themselves into thinking let's look. Galatians chapter 5, we're going to begin at verse 19. Apostle Paul says, by implication, the Holy Spirit says, now the deeds of the flesh are evident. And then he begins to list these things. Paul is carrying first over the idea back in verse 13, if you look, for you were called of freedom, brothers, only do not turn your freedom into opportunity for the what? For the flesh. And then again in verse and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. And then in verse 17, the flesh sets its desire against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. Paul says, now look, here are the deeds of the flesh. Don't use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. The flesh wars against the spirit, spirit against the flesh. Now here are the deeds, or the outer working, or you can even say the fruit of the flesh. Here they are. And look how he introduces this list in verse 19. He says, the deeds of the flesh are evident, meaning they're obvious. They're so apparent. This word means it's disclosed in public, like it's so obvious and manifest. Everybody knows this. Everybody knows these deeds are deeds of the flesh. It's so obvious. deeds of the flesh." This is a catalog, if you will, a list, followed by nine fruits or fruit of the Spirit. Now, these lists of vices and virtues were common in Paul's day. You actually don't see this a lot before 400 BC. You don't see this in in Paul's day, and it could actually be traced back to Plato around 400 BC, where you saw these catalog lists of like four to five vices and then four to five virtues. So this was very common, and actually it's very common throughout the New Testament. Paul gives a very similar type of list in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. In verse 9, he says, Jesus gives a list of vices that mark 721. From the heart proceeds evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, coveny, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. Those are just a couple of examples, but there are a lot of other examples in the New Testament of these lists of vices and virtues. Romans 1, 29-31. First, my name is 5, 9-11. Full option is 3, 5-8. First, Timothy 1, 9-10. There's about five more. If you've taken notes, these are good cross-references to go look up. So this is very, very common. It would have been very common for the relations to see this list and virtues, and it actually became very common for how Christians communicated to each other during an early church, and is evidenced in early church fathers' writings in the 2nd and 3rd century. Now, these lists of vices and virtues were used for different reasons. Ultimately, in the New Testament, the general use of world has entered into the church with these deeds of the flesh. Now here in our text, Paul uses this list of vices and virtues in two ways. One, number two, kind of piggybacks on number one. But he uses these lists, number one, the list of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. He uses this list of vices and virtues, number one, to emphasize the contrast between the spirits and the flesh. the flesh. This is an ongoing theme, and it begins back in Galatians 3, verse 3. Remember that? We talked about how he said, are you so foolish, having begun in the spirits, are you now being perfected in the flesh? Paul then begins, and it's sort of culminated in our text today, to contrast He continues in chapter 4 with Paul when he used Sarah, Haggai, Isaac, and Ishmael as an allegory, if you remember, for those who were born of the Spirit, through the promise, and those who were born of the flesh, through Hagar. Then in chapter 5, he continues this contrast with those who walk by the Spirit will not carry out the desires of the flesh. So he's contrasting spirit, flesh, spirit, flesh. So he's doing this now. He's giving a full list to show the full culmination of how they are in opposition to one another. They can't coincide. They are against each other. So he's trying to lay out a clear contrast. The second reason why he uses these two lists ultimate conclusion to show the evidence between those who are in the kingdom, those who are in the spirit, walk in the spirit, have the fruit of the spirit, and those who are out of the kingdom, those who are in the flesh. In verse 21, at the end of listing these 15 vices, look what he says after it says, envying, drunkenness, corrusion, and things alike, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice the kingdom of God. So before we dive into deeds of the flesh, I actually want to look at this verse right here. He gives us this list, and then he warns them. He says, I'm warning you. The idea here in the original language where he says, of which I forewarn you, has the idea of foretelling. He's saying, I'm telling you now in advance, just as he says, I have also forewarned you. He's telling them to open up their eyes. Listen, I already warned you of this. Now I'm forewarning you again. Paul is giving a sober warning to the Galatians. While there was conflict happening, you had the false teachers coming in and trying to move people away from the purity of the gospel of salvation by faith alone. You had, you know, other people trying to fight against them. You had factions going on. You had dissensions going on. How do we know this? Because He's telling them not to bite and devour one another, in verse 15, unless you consume one another. Don't walk in the flesh. Walk in love, He's saying. Serve one another, verse 13, through love. And Paul is giving them a warning here, and he's telling them, in the midst of all of this, you have to understand, I want you to understand that if this exemplifies your life, and we're gonna get into what this is, if you are identified and you're known by these vices, you are not in the kingdom of God. That's a strong statement, but we're gonna look at that, we're gonna unpack that. things that we're going to go through will not inherit the kingdom of God. There's no caveat. not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived." And then he gives this list, those who are sexually immoral, idolaters, so on and so forth. He says, none of them, verse 10, will inherit the kingdom of God. Again, no caveats to that. or to be busy with, to carry on about. And it's in the participle mood. Getting technical, but just follow me for a minute, okay? A participle is a verb that describes a noun. So an example would be like, if you had a bunch of men outside, okay, and I said, hey, look at the jumping men. Jumping's a verb, right? That verb is like a participle. of the flesh. We know how to identify the jumping men out there, because the ones who are jumping, right? That's what Paul is saying. The practicing ones, the ones that are practicing and ongoing doing these things, will not inherit the Kingdom of God. That's how we would identify these people. So here it is, the practicing ones, those who are practicing the those who are known by these deeds, and look back again at verse 19, excuse me, verse 21, those who are known by practicing these deeds and things like these, look at the beginning of verse 21 at the end of the list, and mean drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. So this is a comprehensive these things and things like these will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now the idea of practicing such vices supposes that there's no remorse, no repentance, no sanctification, no mortifying of the flesh. So while believers still sin, saying that that doesn't happen. What Paul is saying is that those who habitually, without remorse, repentance, live in these types of sins, or the like, will not inherit the Kingdom of God. God has appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. Verse 9. No one who is born of God practices sin. There it is. It's exactly what Paul is saying. No one who is born of God, who has the Spirit of God in them, practices sin. It is known for somebody as that carnal Christian, I said earlier at the beginning, who is known for an ongoing, unrepentant, unremorseful, sinful life. That's what the Apostle John is saying here. No one who is born of God practices His sin, but His seed abides in Him. That's the Holy Spirit, and He cannot sin because He is born of God. Now, people have taken that out of context, and that's where you get the sinless perfectionism, which is out there, that you can attain a perfectional state, and that is not true. It says, by this, the children of God, look at verse 10, what I just read, that children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. This is again what Paul was saying, the deeds of the flesh are obvious. And Apostle John is saying, children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice his righteousness, he says, is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. of Christ, but many times they think they're inside of Christ. These are, as I mentioned, the wheat among the tares. Now, we must not kid ourselves. Jesus promised that there would be wheat among, excuse me, tares among the wheat. Okay, you understand that. The tares are the ones who are growing along with the wheat that look the same. They look like a Christian. They talk like a Christian. But when the harvest comes and the fruit happens, then you can distinguish the one from the other. And we can't pretend that that doesn't happen in churches like ours. We can't pretend that there's not tears amongst the wheat. I don't know them. You don't know them oftentimes. God knows the heart. We all speak Christianese here, but we can't pretend because we have sound church, and we can't pretend that they're not wheat amongst the tares. This is why we have these types of passages, and other warning types of passages, to be able to evaluate ourselves. And so stop thinking about, oh, so-and-so, maybe that person, right? Or maybe that, oh man, I saw that person in the deeds of the flesh the other day. No, God wants you to use this passage to evaluate yourself, okay? Now this is speaking to the youngest to the youngest adult, to the oldest adult. We are all to use these passages. Paul is giving this passage not for the Christians to say, oh yeah, those people are not saved. Paul is giving this passage to the people of the church to evaluate their own lives. So we must not pretend that that doesn't happen, even in the best of churches. But this text provides us with a stark warning that we must take God at His word and evaluate our reactions, evaluate our desires, evaluate our speech, evaluate our relationships, and determine if we are the practicing ones. So let's dive into these deeds. Many commentators have tried to categorize these deeds in three or four categories. I see four here. Sexual, religious, relational, and reveling. So I actually want to cover, we're not going to go in order, I want to cover the first and the third and the fourth category briefly. Then I want to pack the second category, which is the relational vices. Because I believe this is at the heart of what Paul is addressing with the churches in Galatia, how they were relationally sinning against each other. And this is why the majority of these deeds, eight of them, are all about relational vices. the side type of sins that we have in our life. The sexual are obvious, the religious, the idolatry, we're going to get into those. Those are easy to hide, but the relational ones are not. So let's look. First, the first three are sexual. He says, verse 19, flesh or evidence, which are sexual morality, impurity, and sensuality. Sexual morality is porneia in the Greek. This is often translated as fornication. The broad sense is sex outside of marriage, which includes adultery, but it's not limited to adultery, okay? So this is why a carnal Christian who's living in an open, unmarried relationship with another person That person is showing their evidence that they've not been saved. That is not how a Christian would practice their entire life. Then you have impurity. Impurity is not only sexual morality, but impurity has the idea of more unnatural forms of sexual activity. For the sake of little ears, I won't list all those, but homosexuality would be like the starting point, right? It's not only sex outside of marriage, in God's natural state, man, woman, you can start to get unnatural things, like homosexuality, and we see how our country has gotten more pure, more pure, more impure, and so that's kind of the direction that that word goes. And then you have sensuality. This has the idea of being excessively sensual in your sexual needs, indulgence. Now, this is not inside the confines of a marriage, but this is somebody who's excessively lustful, and that marks them. It's not just their are religious. So he says, idolatry and sorcery. Idolatry is putting something as your god. This could be serving a false god, which was happening back then, happens less now, but idolatry comes in the form of serving other things other than God, making money your god. Sometimes spouses can make their children their God, and everything forms around their children. Or, anything that drives somebody to worship and center their whole life around something other than God, you have now walked into the camp of idolatry, and that's what that word means there. Sorcery is from the Greek word pharmakeia, which sounds like what? Pharmacy. Sorcery has the idea of using different types of drugs, hallucinogens, and it was back then mixed with false religion, or the occult. Taking drugs as a way to get into a state of worshiping false gods, that's what sorcery is. there. But these are deeds of the flesh. Flesh leads to these types of things. It leads to idolatry. It leads to false worship. It leads to using drugs to enter into a state of hallucinogens or whatever to get to the relational. So if you jump down to the last two, which is in verse 21, he says, "...and being drunkenness and carousing." Drunkenness is obvious. This means to be drunk, okay? I have no qualms about sitting up here and saying it is a sin to be drunk. The Bible clearly explains drunkenness as a sin. It's not a sin. I can't show you from Scripture it's not a sin But it is a sin to be drunk. And it is a grave sin to be a drunkard. And that's what Paul is saying here. Someone who lives in drunkenness, right? Now again, I want to make the clarification. Believers have fallen into drunkenness, okay? For the first couple of years of my walk, coming straight out of the world, that was one of my fascinating sins. But I didn't live in it. I repented. I hated it. That's the difference because the Spirit of God was leading me away from it. The flesh was lusted against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. Okay? So drunkenness is obviously the easy one, and carousing has the idea of partying, right? Party to party, out late at night partying, and there's always, in this word usually, there's alcohol involved. Okay? Those are the easy ones. so for the most part we can suppress these seven vices sexual religious drunkenness or not just suppress them for most of us that's not even near to us in our in our walk those are easy sins like yeah I don't do that so here's where I want to get to these eight cannot be hidden from. And as a believer, you can't hide from these either, because we're going to go down this list, and you're going to hear the feel of a lot of ouches in your spirit. It's like, ah, done that, been there, right? You can't hide from these sins. And especially in the context of what Paul is preaching here is in what? Conflict. But if you bite, devour one another, he's saying, be careful you don't consume one another. So when conflict arises, whether it's in a marriage, a family, a church, this is where these eight And you can't hide away from these, and an unbeliever can't hide from these. Okay, so let's look at these. And it begins in verse 20, after sorcery, idolatry, sorcery. You have enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy. These eight relations, It wasn't just enough, you can go up and look up these definitions, but I found a really good sort of summary of these aimed by Alexander Strauch, he has a great summary. Hostile feelings and actions. This is the idea that Paul is giving. Remember the context, you have false teachers, you have conflict, you have them biting and devouring one another. He lists this first as a relational sin because obviously that was happening. You have hostile feelings to one another. Strach says on this, he says, quote, hence believers were biting and devouring one another, provoking one another to fight and making personal attacks on one another. A hostile mentality, he says, So, again, this is a hard text. Think about it. He's saying, those who practice these types of things, having hatred towards one another, enmity, personal attacks, having a hostile mind towards another person, those will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Next, you have strife. This word means to have discord or contention. This term is often defined as engagement in rivalry, especially with a reference to positions in matter, strife, discord, or contention. Strauch says, And in Proverbs 6, verse 19, the seven things that God hates, guess what's listed there? hate, strife. So in discord, especially, it says in Proverbs 6, 19, amongst the church, amongst the brethren. The next word is jealousy. Now, the last one is envy. They're very similar, but there's some distinctions. But jealousy here is a sinful hatred and resentment towards one another. Envy, Jealousy is like having actual hatred in your heart towards another person, resenting being hostile towards another person because of what they possess, or their successes, or fill in the blank. Okay, so that's what the word there for jealousy means. This is a work of the flesh. As we're going through these, it's a time to evaluate your heart. Where are these areas in my life, and does my whole life mark this, and do I really not care about these things? Am I just using the excuse of, well, that's just me, and I've always been that way. Friends, there's no excuse. of the flesh. The next one is outbursts of anger, or fits of anger, your version might say. And this is just a fruit of these other relational devices. This is out-of-control anger, as opposed to the fruit of Spirit itself, control. The Spirit of God will allow us to control ourselves when we're being provoked to to control our tongues, to control our bodies, but somebody who lives a life practicing outbursts of anger, who has strife, jealousy in their heart, and they fly off the handle at whatever, whenever they're provoked to anger. Now again, making the distinction, because many of us in here have struggled with the sin of outbursts of anger. The difference is, is that if you're a believer, the Spirit of God wars against that. hates it, not just because you may have hurt somebody you loved, but because it's displeasing to God and you've disobeyed your King. But someone who's marked with outbursts or fits of anger is an indication that they may not have the Spirit of God. This is an idea of destructive rage, whether it's with our hands, our body, or even with our mouths. I think we can all either think about somebody who doesn't something triggers them and they have an outburst of rage. I was watching something the other day that Live Action put out, some of you may have saw it, with a lady who was interviewing people on the sidewalk about their whole thing trying to defund Planned Parenthood, and they interview this other lady and it starts asking questions about what Planned Parenthood does and so on and so forth, and they start very pro-abortion, and she got to the point, her logical conclusion, the other lady did a wonderful job, was basically making her admit that yes, we should just kill born babies in foster care because they aren't being treated well. That was her logical conclusion. And so at one point, you see it in her eyes, something triggered her, and this bigger black woman, and they're both black, it's irrelevant, but went and hit her, like punched her twice, and The lady fell down, she was bleeding, and the other lady just walked away. But you can sort of see, this kind of reminded me of the outburst of anger. You can see the anger rise up in her. You can just see it in her eyes as the other person's talking, and she was just triggered, and she punched this other woman. Outburst of anger. Now, we may not go to that level, but we get triggered, and then we just lash out and start screaming. Next is selfish ambition. This is also translated, maybe in your Bible, as rivalries. This word has a self-seeking heart without regard of the interests of others. Strauss says this, this sinful vice is often manifested by power plays, fights for control, and manipulation of people. Here we have, I think, many people, especially the way that we're raised and are autonomous, rebellious, me, myself, and I, and about my desires, my wants, then that comes out in our life by these, what he says, power plays, fights for control, manipulating other people to get what you want. That is the deed of the flesh. That is selfish ambition, and it's not how you are. It's not how you are, or it is how you are, but you can't use that as an excuse of that's just how I am. It's wrong and needs to be repented. Dissensions. Dissensions, this is the idea of sort of like what was mentioned earlier with strife, but dissensions are manifest through bitter arguing, Strauss says, gossip and provoking one another and ending one another. strife. As you keep having strife, and at the end you have this big dissension and sort of a falling out because of all these other deeds. And then you have factions. Factions is another sort of logical sequence of strife, dissension, and then factions. Factions come from dissensions. Selfish ambition as well. You don't get what you want, you can find people who All of a sudden, you have factions within a family, within a community. within a church. This happens very often in churches. Especially, I can't remember who I was talking to about it, especially with like church leadership, where you don't have a cohesive, unified leadership, and you have sort of one leader who doesn't agree with everybody else, and he sort of makes it known to other people. And then there's other people who are like, yeah, I agree with him. And all of a sudden you have this strife, dissension happening, and now all of a sudden you have a faction in the church, and you have is envy. Envy is a selfish desire. Coveting is to possess what you don't have. Strauss says, it is the cause of a great deal of fighting and resentment as it drives people to speak of others, to find fault, to maliciously tear them down, and to gloat over the failures and tragedies of others. So think about what that might look like. You see it in the workplace often, right? You see people being critical of others when they're successful, and you see that comes from an envying spirit. It could happen in your own household. Children, it could happen in your own heart. Something good happens to a sibling, and you find yourself finding fault with them. That could be a root sin of envy. You're envying the other person, and that could turn and lead down the path into worse sins. These eight relational sins you absolutely cannot get away from. Especially in times of conflict, like I mentioned. Consider the times of conflict that you've had in your own house, in your own workplace, in your own relationships. Where in your life are you seeing these sins of the flesh bubble up to the surface? And, do these sins outside are you identified by those closest people closest to you those around you are you identified as somebody who practices these relationships these in verse 21, but it is a comprehensive list. I believe it does sort of touch every area of our life. So does your life reflect these works of the flesh? I want to end with that exhortation to reflect of your own heart. Can you be identified by those around you, as I mentioned, with these sins? It's one thing to have besetting sins of a sexual nature, for example. Lust, pornography, where you fall into this temptation, but hate when you do it. Seek forgiveness when you do it. Seek to mortify the flesh when you do it. It's one thing It's one thing to have a besetting sin of an outburst of anger. Or you can fill in the blank of any of these. But an outburst of anger, maybe you fall prey to it and hate it when you do it. That's one thing. And seek reconciliation and forgiveness. But it's another thing to have outbursts of anger and to really not care at all. To feel justified. Maybe sorry for hurting someone else. Which one marks your life? Do you have a desire is the battle there as Paul says in verse 17 is your spirit? Warring against the flesh When you read these deeds of the flesh and when you hear me explain what God means by them is there something inside? kill these things in your life, not only because you're hurting people, but because it is displeasing to God? Or do you just really not care? Now maybe that's you, the former, and you do hate these things, and you see yourself acting in these ways, and you hate it. Here's my encouragement to you. Because it's got to be by the grace of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to mortify these sins. But here's an extra encouragement. This is what I was thinking about when I was wrapping this up in my study time. If these sins are sins that mark those who will suffer in hell forever, As a believer, how much more should I strive to mortify, to beat and submit my body to the Spirit of God?