Happy Sunday my friends!
As we like to do each week, I’ve got a great Sunday Gospel Message for you and I’m so happy to announce our good friend Pastor Robb is back this week.
From Pastor Robb:
Today’s Sunday message is titled, “The Works Of The Flesh Are Evident.”
ADVERTISEMENTToday’s message is part 1 of The Works Of The Flesh Are Evident.
This message will help you learn about what the Works of the flesh are. Every Christian has this battle against the flesh. Every person struggles with something different. Today you will learn why we deal with strongholds in our lives. You will be surprised at how lengthy this list is.
Pastor Robb Goodman
Sr. Pastor of Zion Freedom Fellowship USA
Please enjoy:
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Pastor Robb Goodman
Hey, good day everyone. My name is Pastor Rob Goodman, and I am the senior pastor here at Zion Freedom Fellowship in Maryland.
And presently, while I am filming this on Saturday evening, we are having thunderstorms passing by. So, I’m trusting the Lord that I will not have any power outages. The electric flickered a few times, so I had to wait a little bit. It seems like it may be passing right now.
But thanks for joining us today. I have a wonderful message for everyone, and I trust that the Lord will minister to you and cause you to be strengthened in the Lord. You know, God wants us to be strong in Him.
He tells us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. In the power of His might. Hallelujah. So we can be strong. And He tells us to put on the whole armor of God. Every piece of the armor is important for you and I to wear.
ADVERTISEMENTSo before I share the title of today’s message, let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, we give You honor and we give You glory for Your holy, holy, precious Word of God. Lord, let Your Word of God come forth out of my mouth today.
Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus that I would speak perfectly according to Your will. Let Your Word come forth from Your throne room, O Lord, from the fullness of the rivers of the living water that flows from Your throne, Lord.
Let the Word of God go forth in Jesus’ precious holy name. We thank You and we praise You that we will go through these scriptures today and that people will understand the Word of God.
Give revelation, Holy Spirit. Bring forth revelation and let Your power and Your mighty, mighty Spirit bring forth the resurrection life of Jesus Christ in every believer’s heart.
Lord, thank You that our minds are renewed by the Word of God and that we know the truth and the truth will make us free.
We pray these things all together in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen and amen.
Well, praise be to God. Thank You, Lord.
ADVERTISEMENTLet me get a sip of my coffee here and get myself powered up. Well, the coffee ain’t going to do it. You all know that, but I’m just making a joke.
Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord.
Well, the title of today’s message is:
“The Works of the Flesh Are Evident.”
ADVERTISEMENTThe works of the flesh are evident.
Let’s turn to Galatians Chapter 5, and we’re going to read verses 19 to 26, I believe. So I’m reading out of the New King James Version today.
“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousy, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like;
of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Now that is a warning.
And then he goes on to say:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law.
ADVERTISEMENTAnd those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
So we got a lot of instruction there from the Apostle Paul.
And of course, we know that the Word of God was authored by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the living Word of God.
So, I’ve got some notes that I’m going to share with y’all today, so bear with me as I go through these. I’m going to go through each category of the sins of the flesh and the works of the flesh.
And so bear with me. I’m going to try to get through this in one message, but it might be necessary to cover it in two.
So let’s go again. We know that we just read Galatians 5:19-26.
“Now the works of the flesh are evident.”
Paul has just written about the battle between the flesh and the spirit in every believer.
You know, we don’t always like to admit it. We don’t like to admit to others the areas of the flesh that we’re struggling in. But often it’s a good thing. Oftentimes it’s a good thing to do because if we confess our sins one to another, we’re going to be healed.
We’re going to be delivered. We’re going to be set free.
ADVERTISEMENTSo I urge you to find a pastor, to find a good friend, a confidant, a person that you can trust, that you can share your issues, issues of the flesh that you might be walking in, and trust them to pray for you and to give you good counsel.
Amen. That is truly a very important thing.
Thank You, Lord.
So though it is an interior, invisible battle, the results are outwardly evident.
It’s almost as if Paul apologizes for having to make this list because the works of the flesh are evident.
Yet under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he knows it is important to be specific because we must know specifically how we walk in the flesh.
We can’t see the battle of the flesh, but we can see what it does.
So this is a battle of the unseen. It’s a battle that every believer faces.
It’s a battle that the enemy tries to bring forth in new believers.
Those that have recently learned to put their faith and their trust in Jesus begin to struggle with certain areas, and temptations come your way.
Now, the scripture tells us in 2 Corinthians Chapter 10 that we are to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
So you and I have power and authority over our flesh.
We have power and authority over every demon spirit that tries to rise against us.
And we ask the Lord to give us understanding, wisdom, revelation.
And of course, we need the knowledge of the fear of the Lord—how to put these things aside and not allow them to rule in your life.
Amen.
Okay, now we begin to talk about these different sins that are listed.
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and then lewdness.
These are all sensual sins relating to sex.
We are often appalled at the sexual immorality of our day. But we should remember that the times that Paul wrote these were as bad then, if not worse. They were just as bad as today.
There is ample evidence to show that the sexual life of the Greco-Roman world at that time of the New Testament was utter chaos.
I mean, when you look at movies like Spartacus and you see how the Romans conquered different worlds and how they were, they would have sex with young boys before they went to battle.
ADVERTISEMENTThey thought it was okay.
They were truly, as my notes said, in utter chaos.
Truly terrible.
Such evidence has come not from Christian writers, but from pagan writers who were disgusted with the unspeakable sexual immorality.
Think about that.
They were even disgusted with what was going on.
And they were not people who were saved either.
All right, let’s now take time to define each and every one of these words.
Adultery is violating the marriage covenant by sexual immorality.
This word is excluded in the list of many ancient manuscripts.
So many translations, such as the NIV, do not include it.
ADVERTISEMENTBut that doesn’t mean that God gives a free pass on adultery.
Now this is very interesting, what we read here, because even if Paul didn’t write the word in his list, it is included under the next word, which is fornication.
Adultery is sin, and those guilty of it should confess their sin and repent of it instead of excusing it.
Holy Spirit never led anyone into adultery.
It does not come from God.
You cannot make excuses for any kind of sexual sin.
Fornication is the ancient Greek word porneia, and it speaks of sexual immorality in a broad sense.
Porneia started out meaning the use of a prostitute. But by Paul’s day, it was used for a wide variety of sexual sin.
And a scholar by the name of Marsh wrote this:
“Therefore, fornication covers illicit connection between single or unmarried persons, yet often signifying adultery.”
Also, Webster’s Dictionary defines fornication as voluntary sexual intercourse between two unmarried persons or two persons not married to each other.
Sex before and outside of marriage, which Paul calls here fornication, was so widespread that it was apparently accepted as a normal part of life.
That’s the deception of the enemy.
See, the enemy will do everything in his power to try to deceive you and tell you things that are not lining up with the Word of God.
The Word of God is our rule book.
Sorry guys, I’m just not comfortable in my chair like I usually am.
Anyway, the Lord is good. Amen.
So we all have things and struggles that we struggle with, but we must overcome the flesh and have the fear of God in our hearts so that we will steer fast away from living a life of the flesh and the sexual sins that are involved with the flesh.
So fornication was so widespread that it was apparently accepted as a normal part of life.
Paul cannot accept any such view of the practice.
He sees it as totally wrong.
Holy Spirit never led anyone into fornication.
Never.
He will not lead you into any type of sin.
He will lead and guide you into all truth.
Jesus told us, and we know that Jesus told us, that we will know the truth and the truth will make us free.
Amen.
Do you believe that David committed adultery with Bathsheba?
He also committed murder by having her husband Uriah the Hittite killed.
I mean, this was dreadful.
David was a king.
He took a break from battle, and one evening he couldn’t sleep. He got up, went up onto the roof of his house, and saw Bathsheba bathing in the night and was very attracted to her.
Uncleanness is another broad word referring to sexual impropriety in general.
It should be thought of as the opposite of purity.
If it isn’t pure before God, then it is uncleanness.
It covers many sexual sins that are not actual intercourse or even interaction with other persons, such as pornography.
Uncleanness also covers impure speech or suggestive speaking filled with double meanings.
The Holy Spirit never led anyone into uncleanness.
Never, ever will He even do that.
The Law of Moses demanded pure offerings to be sacrificed to the Lord.
And let’s look at a scripture.
Let’s go to Romans 12.
We’re going to look at verses 1 and 2.
Romans Chapter 12, verses 1 and 2.
And here’s the Apostle Paul.
He says:
“I beseech you. I cry out to you. I beg you. I implore you.
Therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present—offer, present—your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”
It’s expected of us, right?
“And do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
You know, I’ve often heard people explain this verse of scripture in the past.
You know, there’s the good, the acceptable, and then there’s the perfect will of God.
No, that’s not true.
The good and the acceptable is the perfect will of God.
There are no different wills of God.
The will of God is one.
It is the Word of God, and the Word of God backs up the Word of God.
You know, I teach scripture by scripture because scripture confirms scripture.
It’s just the only way I believe is the correct way to teach the Word of God.
So, praise be to God.
Let’s continue to move on and learn about this topic of overcoming the flesh.
Be honest with me.
Don’t have to make any comments or anything, but how many of you right now are struggling with anything in this list that Paul gives in Galatians Chapter 5, starting with verse 19?
I have in the past.
I struggle with certain issues.
We all do.
Be honest with me.
Come on.
Be honest and shame the devil.
Tell the truth and shame the devil.
Be honest.
Don’t hide it because God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit see everything.
Every thought that goes through our mind, He knows and He understands.
Wow.
That’s amazing.
That is truly, truly amazing.
So we want to prove what is the good, the acceptable, and the perfect will of God.
ADVERTISEMENTWe live it out each and every day.
If we’re walking according to the Word of God, if we have a struggle and we look up a scripture and it tells us what to do, obey the Word of God.
Jesus said:
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
And I like verse 3 here:
“For I say, through the grace given to me, that everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”
So we’ve all received a measure of faith.
It’s up to us to make our faith grow.
And we can do that by meditating on the Word of God, by listening to teachings, by being in the Word each and every day.
Because without the Word of God, you cannot live a godly, pure life before the Lord.
It is impossible.
It is totally impossible.
All right.
Now let’s look at the word lewdness, translated as licentiousness.
It has the idea of being ready to sin at any time.
You know, that’s the way sinners are, right?
Somebody that’s not been converted, we might think, “Oh, how can they do that?”
Well, you were like that once.
You were once a sinner.
Praise God you were saved by grace.
And make sure you’re careful how you think, and take heed lest you fall, because it’s so easy to slip away and fall away from the Lord Jesus Christ.
But if we rely on the grace of Jesus—oh thank God, Jesus, for Your grace.
Thank You for the grace of the blood of Jesus that sets us free from the law of Moses and the criminal nature that we all had in us at one time.
We’re freed and redeemed from sin.
It speaks of someone who flaunts their immorality, throwing off all restraint and having no sense of shame, propriety, or embarrassment.
Marsh defines it as:
“A disregard of accepted rules; conduct that knows no restraint.”
Lewdness can be thought of as public and open uncleanness.
A man may be unclean and hide his sins, but he does not become licentious until he shocks public decency.
And a scholar by the name of Lightfoot wrote that we live in an incredibly lewd culture.
The Holy Spirit never led anyone into lewdness.
Sodom and Gomorrah is an example of lewdness taking over a society.
Can you imagine?
Just remember what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah.
And look what happened to Lot and his wife and daughters.
They went to live in Sodom.
And the people there were so wicked that the men that came to the door of Lot’s house wanted to have perversion, or sexual interaction, with the angels that were sent there.
And thanks be to God that even Lot said, “No, no, no. Don’t do that. I’ll give you my daughters.”
They didn’t want the daughters.
They wanted the angels who appeared as men.
ADVERTISEMENTIt was crazy.
All right.
The next words are idolatry and sorcery.
These are religious sins.
They are sins of worship and remind us that it isn’t only tragic to worship the wrong god or to seek the wrong spiritual power.
It is sinful as well.
Idolatry is the worship of any god except the Lord God revealed to us by the Bible and in the person of Jesus Christ.
When people serve a god of their own opinion, their own creation, they reject the true and living God, and that is sin.
Someone might say, “Well, I can believe whatever I want.”
And they certainly can.
But they also bear the consequences of their wrong belief.
You know, if you’re living a lifestyle that’s not according to God, you’re going to reap the fruit of it.
Perversion is going to take root, and it’s going to reap a harvest not only in your present life, but also in the life of your children, your grandchildren, and so on and so forth.
It is something that we need to be very, very serious about.
They will bear the consequences of their wrong belief.
Again, Holy Spirit has never led anyone into idolatry.
He leads us to worship the true and living God.
Modern idolatry is no longer about bowing to physical statues.
It is the act of elevating anything above God or placing our ultimate identity, worth, and security in worldly things.
The most pervasive modern idols are these:
Self, success, materialism, and digital validation, which offer false promises of fulfillment.
We live in a digital world today.
It’s so easy to find pornography on the internet.
It’s so easy to find the pleasures of the lust of the flesh on the internet anywhere you want to look.
And that can fall into different categories as well.
Sorcery, which is translated “witchcraft” in the NIV, is the service and worship of occult and spiritual powers apart from the true God.
It also has another dimension revealed by the word sorcery.
In the original language, Paul uses pharmakeia, from which we get our word pharmacy.
Pharmakeia means drug abuse.
And again, the scholar Marsh defines sorcery as the use of any kind of drugs, potions, or spells.
In the ancient world, the taking of drugs, especially hallucinogenics, was always associated with the occult.
And the Bible’s association with drugs, drug-taking, and sorcery points out that drugs open up doors to the occult that are better left closed.
William Barclay once wrote:
“Literally, this means the use of drugs. It came to be very specifically connected with the use of drugs for sorcery, of which the ancient world was full.”
The Holy Spirit never has led anyone into sorcery or getting high on drugs.
It’s crazy.
It is absolutely, absolutely crazy.
Hard to believe.
Let me do something in my notes here.
All right.
Check something real quick, guys.
Thank You, Lord.
Sorry, I’ve got so many notes here.
I just want to keep everything straight.
All right.
The next group is hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, and murders.
These are people sins.
They are sins that primarily express themselves in how we treat others.
God cares about our sexual and moral purity, and He cares about the purity of religion and worship.
He also passionately cares about how we treat one another.
ADVERTISEMENTThe fact that Paul uses more words to describe these interpersonal sins shows how important our treatment of other people is to God.
That is a very true statement.
Contentions translates the ancient Greek word eris.
Originally this word had mainly to do with rivalry for prizes.
It means rivalry which has found its outcome in quarrelings and wranglings.
The scholar Barclay made that comment.
Most commonly it is translated as strife in Romans 13:13 and 1 Corinthians 3:3.
In fact, let’s take a moment to look at that.
Romans 13:13.
And the Apostle Paul says in verse 13:
“Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”
Make no provision.
So we don’t open up any doors.
When we open up a door and we begin to meditate on something, we begin to think on it, then we are opening up a door.
And the more we think on that thing, we are more likely to give place to that action.
Which is something that we’ve got to learn to understand and to discern and say no to.
Literally say no out of your mouth.
“No. I will not submit to that. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I’ve been born again. I overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of my testimony. And I will overcome.”
And just say those words, and that temptation will weaken and it’ll fall off your back.
Praise be to God.
And then the next one is 1 Corinthians Chapter 3, verse 3.
“For you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?”
In other words, you’re not acting like someone that’s been born again.
You’re acting carnal.
ADVERTISEMENTAnd we have to fight carnality all the time.
We have to fight carnality.
It is something that is absolutely necessary for us to do.
It simply speaks of a combative and argumentative spirit.
Wow.
A combative and argumentative spirit.
The Holy Spirit never has ever led anyone into a contentious lifestyle or situation.
It is not of God.
The next word is jealousies.
It translates an ancient Greek word, zelos, that is sometimes used in a positive sense, as for being zealous for something good.
But here clearly the connotation is wrong.
In this context it means the desire to have what someone else has.
Wrong desire for what is not for us.
The Holy Spirit never, never has led anyone into a jealous type of lifestyle or spirit.
Jealousy is going to lead you in the wrong direction.
Wanting what somebody else has or desiring to have what someone has been blessed with.
Well, you know what?
I’ll say something here.
You have no idea what that person has walked through.
You don’t know how long that person has been obedient to the Lord, and now God is blessing them.
And you’re thinking things like, “Well, they got that, and I should be able to have it.”
Well, have you walked with the Lord for that length of time and to the extent that that person has?
Have to wonder about that.
Why are you jealous and envious of what someone else has?
Think about that for a few minutes.
ADVERTISEMENTAmen.
Just think about it and see.
Talk to the Lord about it and see what He has to say to you.
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