Flesh or Spirit?

Galatians 5:19-21

October 4, 1998

 

Does your behavior betray your profession? Most people in our nation profess to be Christians. We would find this to be especially true in our part of the country. Yet the level of behavior seems to betray any reality of true faith. Professions come cheap. The reality of a life truly born of God will be mirrored by moral and ethical behavior. The argument Paul sets forth for us is that the reality of our lives, whether by flesh or by the Spirit, will become clear.  

 

The moral climate of our nation continues to plummet into the abyss of sexual perverseness and moral slackness. Sadly, we have been exploited by the entertainment industry's insatiable appetite for immoral behavior. Talk shows, sitcoms, movies, and even game shows typically have an atmosphere of blatant or underlying sensuality. Unfortunately, professing Christians are the ones who talk about how wrong these kinds of shows are, yet continue to patronize them by giving their evenings to such banality. And where does this lead us?  The more we fill our minds with such moral decadence, the more it seems we find professing Christians slipping into the same sort of practice. While ignoring the teaching of God's Word, professing Christians excuse their sexual immorality or else ignore it. Churches give no thought to disciplining their members who engage in immoral behavior. It is alarming that statistical data shows that there is no measurable difference between the morality of those in church and the morality of those outside the Christian community!  In fact, one poll from the Roper Organization showed that moral behavior "actually deteriorated after the born-again experience for many people" [National & International Religion Report, 1990). The level of our moral standards as Christians faces a crisis point. Will we stand upon God's Word or will we cave-in to the prevailing attitudes of our the culture? Will we call for professing Christians to live out their profession or will we excuse rampant immoral behavior?

 

I believe that such alarming data also begs another look at what the Bible says will characterize true believers. The realization that no distinction exists between professing Christians and non-believers is due in part to the presumption that a mere profession constitutes true conversion. The whole message of the epistle to the Galatians demands that we expose such presumption. The ones who have met Jesus Christ and Him crucified are changed.  

 

Those who are truly in Christ will manifest the fruit of the Spirit, while those who are not in Christ will manifest the works of the flesh. This is not a standard toward which we work as Christians, but a clear reality. The evidence of a Christian is the fruit of the Spirit, not his outward profession. The evidence of an unbeliever is his deeds of the flesh, not his professed Christianity. Does your life manifest the fruit of the Spirit or the works of the flesh?  

 

I. Nothing hidden  

 

Paul has been explaining the difference between the works of the law--human effort, and the works of the Spirit--that which is totally of grace. While the Judaizers, his adversaries among the Galatian believers, sought to promote the Law as a means to justification, Paul sought to explain that the Law is inadequate because it has no power to change the human nature. It is only as good for righteousness as the one who is trying to live by the Law. Unless a man's essential nature is changed then he can only produce the fruit of his nature, regardless of how slavishly he adheres to the Law or how much effort he expends.  

 

He wants the Galatians who are considering reverting to the Law and abandoning grace to see the end result of this type of religion. He demonstrates that when a person is under the control of the Holy Spirit by having been justified through faith in Christ, his whole nature is now bent in a godly direction. A change has taken place by the work of the Spirit so that the true believer walks by the Spirit rather than carrying out the desires of the flesh (5:16). Not so with the flesh!  

 

1.  The nature of "deeds of the flesh"  

 

How does Paul use this word "flesh" in our text? "Now the deeds of the flesh are evident," he declares in prefacing an accounting of fifteen different manifestations of the flesh. The word "deeds" implies the moral character of a person which works out of his life. It is that which he is consistently. At the root of his personhood, this is what you will inevitably find.  

 

When Paul qualified "deeds" by the term "flesh," he gave us the clear message of what he describes. John Calvin stated in a sermon on this text that "under the word Flesh is comprehended all that is a man's own" [Sermons on Galatians, 764]. By this he refers to the essence of the man's life apart from life in Christ. If you want to know what he is you can cut through whatever facade he portrays and realize that he is characterized by a life that is bent away from God and in defiance to the law of God. Sin dominates the landscape of his heart and outward life. 

 

Timothy George writes, "The 'works' of the flesh are the products of fallen human beings in their devising, conniving, and manufacturing (in the sense of "made with one's own hands") efforts at self-actualization" [NAC, 390]. In other words, when man rules his spirit he will go the very opposite from God. He may have a veneer of pious words and religious sentiments, but his focal point is himself. He wants to rule his own life. He rejects any dependence upon the merits of Christ or the work of the Holy Spirit. All that he is, he is "by nature and inheritance" as an expression of his "fallen condition," not a life transformed by the grace of God [John Stott, The Message of Galatians, 146].  

 

The nature of "the deeds of the flesh" is one of unregenerate man. "The deeds of the flesh reflect the sinful desires of unredeemed humanness, which are in spiritual warfare against the desires of the Spirit" [John MacArthur, MacArthur NT Commentaries, 160]. The Apostle's whole contention is that flesh and Spirit cannot co-exist (5:17). You cannot be a believer and an unbeliever at the same time. You cannot be a recipient of grace and one who lives with dependence upon the Law simultaneously.  

 

Be honest with yourself. Where are you more at home? In the deeds of the flesh or in the fruit of the Spirit?

 

2.  A distinct contrast  

 

You will notice that the larger text sets forth a contrast between "the deeds of the flesh" and "the fruit of the Spirit." As to the outworking of the flesh, Paul gives a summary list which encompasses (1) the sexual/moral realm, (2) the spiritual/religious realm, (3) the personal/relational realm, and (4) the social/temperance realm. "Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these...." His list was more summary than complete, for he added, "and things like these." Take a look at these evidences of the flesh. Do they bring joy and peace to life? Do they honor God in any fashion? Do they help and upbuild others? My friend, this is precisely what works out of the unregenerate life. Here lives each one of us apart from the grace of God!  

 

In sharp contrast is the fruit of the Spirit, which is designated in singular fashion as "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control...." These areas of evidences of Christ's indwelling life are not part of a shopping list from which we choose or reject. Instead, as "fruit" they come as a gift of the Holy Spirit working constantly in the life of the believer. They may be manifest in varying degrees, but the assurance of this text is that they will be manifest in the life of every believer. Our spiritual growth results in a greater outworking of this fruit.  

 

How do you contrast the flesh and the Spirit? John Stott writes, "'the flesh' stands for what we are by natural birth, 'the Spirit' what we become by new birth, the birth of the Spirit" [146]. The deeds originate from the flesh, while the fruit is born by the indwelling Spirit. The deeds of the flesh describe the outworking of the human nature apart from grace, while the fruit of the Spirit describes the new character wrought in the believer by the Holy Spirit. 

 

The deeds of the flesh are ultimately dependent upon no one but oneself. Even when a person seeks to be religious and seeks to attain righteousness through the Law, he is still living in dependence upon himself--which is the essence of the lost condition. The believer lives with a new dependence upon the Holy Spirit who has taken residence in his life in the new birth. It is the Holy Spirit who works the righteousness of Christ in practical terms through the character of the Christian (cf. Wm. Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armor, where he calls this "imparted righteousness" in distinction from the imputed righteousness of Christ). The fruit of the Holy Spirit in the believer has all come as a gift from God rather than the believer's own contrivance. Martin Luther stated this clearly when he wrote:

Whosoever, then, do believe in Christ, whether they be men or women, bond or free, are all saints: not by their own works, but by the works of God, which they receive by faith. To conclude, they are saints through such a holiness as they freely receive, not through such a holiness as they themselves have gotten by their industry, good works, and merits [Commentary on Galatians, 342].  

 

It is not the self-effort of the flesh, even though seeking to conform to the Law, by which the fruit of the Spirit is manifest. It comes instead by the gift of God. The use of the word "fruit" helps us to see this so clearly. If you have an apple tree planted in your yard, can it produce oranges? What if you use a special 'orange tree fertilizer'; can this make an apple tree produce oranges? Of course not, because the nature of an apple tree is to produce apples. It cannot produce oranges, for that would be contrary to its nature. By the same contrast, Paul is explaining that the nature of an unbeliever will produce "the deeds of the flesh," while the nature of the regenerate person through the Holy Spirit will produce "the fruit of the Spirit."  

 

II. Sampling in the moral realm  

 

We would be remiss if we simply read through this list of "the deeds of the flesh" without considering the nature of each one and how they affect our lives. Part of what Paul is doing is not only exposing the nature of unbelievers, but warning Christians who may have lapsed into sin that such behavior is reprehensible and must be repented of if that person is a true believer. Because of the large number of this list, I have chosen in this message to consider only the first section which addresses the moral/sexual realm of sins.  

 

1.  Explanation of moral sins  

 

While he could have utilized more words in this list, Paul used three terms to encompass the entire realm of sexually related sin:  "immorality, impurity, sensuality." Lest you think that he had a narrow view of these sins and thereby okayed those not on the list, we must again note that Paul was not trying to name every possible sin, but to give a summary. We see this especially by his attached note, "and things like these," to imply that the list could have been much longer, but this will do to get the point across. What are these sins?  

 

(1) Immorality is the translation of the common Greek term, porneia. As the word sounds, it is the root from which we get our English words pornography and pornographic. This is a broad word that refers to engagement in any form of illicit sexual behavior. It was a sin which was so common in the ancient Graeco-Roman world that the apostles in the Jerusalem Council prescribed that believers were to "abstain...from fornication [porneia]" (Acts 15:20, 29). It was this sin which Paul singled out in discussing the work of sanctification with the Thessalonian believers. He wrote, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality" (I Thess. 4:3). He continues on in this same passage in not only prohibiting sexual immorality but giving instruction of how the believer is to live in regard to sexual matters: (a) he is to exercise personal discipline over his desires; (b) he is not to follow the ways of the world in their animalistic pursuits of sex; (c) he is not to be unfaithful by stepping outside the boundaries of his own marriage relationship to gratify his sexual desires.  

 

The word was used to describe "prostitutes" in the Greek society. Extramarital affairs were more common than in our own day, with female slaves often being purchased simply for this purpose. As the word developed it came describe not only prostitutes, but when a person becomes involved in sexual immorality of any sort he/she is prostituting himself or herself. Do you realize the implication? When we seek to fulfill the God-given gift of sexuality outside the parameters of marriage which our God has established, then we are prostituting ourselves. There are plenty of people who would look down their noses at a woman who sells herself for sex, yet to violate the biblical parameters is no different than such a woman.  

 

Quite typically, many people try to get around this prohibition by stating that even though they are not married what they are doing is a demonstration of love. Or they say they have married the wrong person and now are just expressing love by their adulterous relationship. But you never find God rescinding this command nor changing its parameters to permit sexual relations outside of marriage. Perhaps there is someone present today who is walking in porneia, you are fulfilling your sexual desires outside the parameters of marriage. Then I urge you to realize that this is an evidence of an unregenerate heart. No matter how much you profess to know Christ, if you persist in this practice with no true desire to repent, then you are under the judgment of God, you "shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 

 

(2) Impurity is the word akatharsia which refers to the state of moral impurity. It is the opposite of the word for "cleanse" or "clean." So it implies one who is not clean, here with the specific sense of sexually unclean. The word was often used to describe the oozing of a wound which would make a person ceremonially unclean.  

 

How is this term applied to us? It is not just the sexual act outside of marriage that constitutes moral impurity. When we engage our minds and indulge our eyes in immoral scenes and activities, then we have fallen prey to "impurity." Paul is using this word to describe the unregenerate person subject to his natural desires. Rather than seeking to live in conformity to the commands of God, he lets himself go and engages his mind in impure fantasies and his eyes in that which God has forbidden.  

 

If you have not physically engaged in immorality, yet you indulge your eyes and mind in immorality, this text serves as a warning that such behavior characterizes "the deeds of the flesh" and not "the fruit of the Spirit." We are being swamped in our day with everything from pornographic magazines to pornographic-rated pictures in respectable publications to sexual innuendoes on television to open sexual scenes. It seems that many of the top-rated television shows have a foundation in smut and immoral behavior. Sometimes we pride ourselves on not watching those kinds of things in our homes, yet we will feast, goggle-eyed at the movies upon such a platter of sexual perversity. Our computers can become pipelines of immorality if we dare to tap into the multitude of sources for sexually-explicit material. 

 

Are you caught in such a trap of impurity? My friend, to persist in it without repentance is an evidence of being unregenerate. So heed the warning of God's Word. Flee from such wickedness! As the writer of Proverbs warned the one who would dare to engage in immorality, "Her house is the way to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death" (Prov. 7:27). 

 

Am I speaking to a young person or to even a married adult who has been tampering with impurity in the things you watch or in the places you go or the material you read or the activities in which you engage or the sites you browse on the Internet? Turn from these sins. There is forgiveness with the Lord and deliverance by His power. But know that He will not be mocked by professing Him publicly while you indulge your fantasies in a cesspool of impurity.  

 

(3) Sensuality is the translation of the word aselgeia which expresses behavior which lacks moral restraint. Some of the older translations call it "licentiousness." It means unbridled behavior that would shock the public. The ancient Greek world used this term to express someone who "lives like a dog" or "acts like a goat," with both implying promiscuous sexual behavior. Who is this person? He is the one who follows the practice of hedonism with his sexual desires. He gives himself to his desires without restraint. He loses his mind to the pursuit of his sexual appetite.  

 

We have been inundated with such displays of sensuality in recent days. We turn to a popular athlete who professes to be a Christian, yet has shown no restraint on his sexual desires. We even look at the highest office of our land and with shame, we admit that our nation's leader has shown no restraint in his sexual desires. This open shame has been placarded on every media outlet imaginable. My concern is that we will become so accustomed to the immoral behavior that it no longer causes us to blush; it no longer distresses our moral sensibilities. 

 

The sin which Paul lays before us is of such a character that if one persists in it then he warns, "those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Let us not point fingers at others without examining our own lifestyle and spiritual condition in light of God's Word. The easy way out is to apply this to others but not to ourselves. But I must remind you that Paul was writing to a local church when he made this statement about the deeds of the flesh. They were to examine themselves. Yes, they were to use this as a standard for helping to understand what constitutes true conversion and false conversion. But it served primarily as a means for self-examination. If this is your practice, and you refuse to repent and seek for God's mercy, then you shall not inherit the kingdom of God. What the Apostle explains is that if the bent of your life follows after these sins rather than after Christ, it is evident that you do not belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.  

 

2.  Severity of moral sins  

 

I realize that stating moral absolutes is not popular in our day. The postmodern mind rejects any objective standards of moral criteria. Yet look at any nation which has crumbled and you will likely see a triumvirate of greed, idolatry, and immorality having gnawed away at the foundation. It happened to Israel, Judah, the mighty Greek empire, the grand Roman empire. Why are we to stand against the sins of "immorality, impurity, sensuality" as Christians? Several reasons appear to stand out for our consideration.  

 

(1) These kinds of sins are contrary to the moral nature of God. Since we are created in the image of God, then the redemptive work of Christ constitutes a work of restoring this image in those affected by the Fall. As we are "new creatures" in Christ, this newness is evidenced by our being distinctly different from the world about us and even its standards. Instead, we find our lives shaped by the nature and character of God.  

 

(2) These kinds of sins create a leavening effect upon the local church and upon society in general. In a passage which addresses immorality in the church at Corinth, Paul warns "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened" (cf. I Cor. 5:1-7). Just as yeast placed in a batch of dough causes the entire batch to be affected, Paul warns that tolerating immorality in our church will do the same thing. We live in an unregenerate society which can laugh about such behavior. So we must be salt and light to impact this world. We must set the example for the world to understand the distinction between Christians and the world.  

 

(3) The unique nature of the sexual union demands that we guard ourselves from sexual sins. In I Corinthians 6:16-17, Paul explains to the church at Corinth why they must guard themselves from immorality. "Or do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For He says, "THE TWO WILL BECOME ONE FLESH." The sexual union affects a person emotionally, psychologically, physically, and spiritually. If a person belongs to the Lord and gives way to immoral behavior, he is prostituting the temple of the Lord. He is not only committing physical adultery but also spiritual adultery, for he has already been joined to the Lord to live holy unto Him (I Cor. 6:17-20). The sexual union within marriage is a wonderful gift of God. But any degree of stepping outside the marital relation to participate sexually, whether physically or mentally, brings severe consequences. You ask any pastor who has done marriage counseling about this and he will tell you that at the root of a multitude of marriage problems is the systemic issue of immoral practices. Sometimes it is a physical relationship, other times it is an indulgence in pornography, yet other times it is a fantasizing that has been brought on by perverted sexual images. Young people, you cannot play around with sexual matters now without it affecting you later in marriage. I plead with you to heed the warning of God's Word!  

 

(4) Sexual sins are not only against the Lord and possibly someone else, but also against your own body. I Corinthians 6:18 tells us, "Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body." That may not mean anything to the unbeliever. He may say, 'So what!' But to the Christian this is of utmost importance, for his body is "a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own...you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body" (6:19-20). To sin sexually is to use your body, which has been bought with the price of the blood of Christ, for that which is against the glory and honor of our Redeemer. You have no right to commit immorality as a believer! The Scripture declares, "the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord is for the body" (I Cor. 6:13b). To indulge in sexual immorality will cause you to lose your self-respect so that you open the door for even more perversity in your life. Sexual sin can become a barrier to truly loving your spouse and living in harmony with him/her. Such sin can even lead to a dissatisfaction with normal sexual relations within marriage.  

 

Let me put it like this. If you tamper with immorality you are lighting a fuse for a bomb that can destroy you. It has destroyed many homes; wrecked careers; and worst of all, brought reproach to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are those who have been so enslaved to this sin that they have spurned the cross of Christ and plummeted into the darkness of hell.  

 

We will look at the balance of this text in more detail next week (D.V.), but in the meantime, let me point briefly at four warnings, which we will expand upon later.  

 

III. Warning set forth  

 

1.  Distinguish true and false conversion  

 

Jesus gave the same principle which Paul is explaining, you will know a tree by the fruit which it produces (Matthew 7:17-20). A life which is bent on immoral behavior is an unregenerate life. Can the Christian slip into such sin? Yes, indeed. We have only to look at the life of godly King David to understand how weak we are apart from a constant dependence upon God's grace.  Let us be fair in evaluating our own lives. Do we show forth the fruit of a Christian or the deeds of the unregenerate?  

 

2.  See the end result of the flesh  

 

A dependence upon the Law for salvation cannot save. For such dependence only leads to more manifestations of the flesh. Yes, a person may be restrained by the Law to a degree, but his own heart will fall deeper and deeper into the sin which makes up his unregenerate nature (Mark 7:20-23).  

 

3.  Cease presumption  

 

Do not think that you can engage in immoral behavior, impurity of thought, or the unrestraint of sensuality without it affecting your life. And the clear warning of our text is that if this is the patter of your life, regardless of your Christian profession, then your sin has affected your soul. You may be presuming upon God and deceiving your own self. You need to delay no longer in pleading with God for mercy.

 

4.  Repent for lapses into sin  

 

As a believer, our text demands that we repent if we have lapsed into sin. Oh, realize that it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can resist these sins which wage war against us. Know that the Lord can deliver you! That the mighty power which raised Jesus Christ from the dead is at work in you, delivering you from the chains of sin which defile you.  

 

Conclusion  

 

One man wrote, "It has been said that chastity [moral purity] was the one completely new virtue which Christianity introduced into the pagan world" [Leon Morris quoting Barclay, Galatians: Paul's Charter of Christian Freedom, 170, fn. 42]. The enemy of our souls is seeking to bring down as many Christians as he possibly can with sexual sin. Let us pray for one another. Let us hold one another accountable in this area of life. Let us live with a dependency upon the Holy Spirit and a disciplined mind to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

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