Religions > Bible > The Works of the Flesh and the Fruit of the Spirit
| Topic: |
Religions > Bible |
| User: |
"Carl" |
| Date: |
07 Jul 2007 11:44:00 AM |
| Object: |
The Works of the Flesh and the Fruit of the Spirit |
The following lesson from David Jeremiah is a study on Galatians 5:16-26. I
recommend it for my Christian brethren.
May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/
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The Works of the Flesh and the Fruit of the Spirit
by David Jeremiah
Read: Galatians 5:16-26
OVERVIEW
The world has gone mad after meaning in life. Its people are searching,
fighting and scratching for something to ease the pain of the emptiness they
feel inside. What we commonly call sin-in Galatians 5 referred to as the
works of the flesh-is simply the variety of ways people search for meaning
outside of God. God's plan for humanity was that we find life and find it
more abundantly. This life was to be found in God Himself, and He created
each of us that we might know the possibilities and potentials that are in
us as we are related to God. Unfortunately, many in our world have rebelled
against God's plan for their lives and have gone out to find their own plan.
They have set out on a journey that has ended in despair and
meaninglessness.
The fruit of the Spirit and the works of the flesh are really the only two
choices open to us. We can live our lives according to the principles of the
Word of God and let Jesus Christ be the center of our lives or we can live
our lives as though God did not exist.
The Concept of the Flesh
The concept used to describe life lived apart from God is the concept of the
flesh. The word "flesh" in the Bible sometimes means what it sounds like:
flesh and bones, flesh and blood, the outward, material part of humans. But
in most of its uses in the New Testament it refers to something other than
that. It refers to people as they are apart from God.
The flesh is used to describe what it was like for us before we were
Christians. When we came to Christ, God took away the emptiness and filled
it with Christ. Now there is meaning in life.
The Characteristics of the Flesh
The Bible goes to great lengths to describe the limitations of our life in
the flesh. The first characteristic of the flesh we'll look at is that the
flesh cannot please God.
Romans 8:8 says, "So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
That means you cannot come to God apart from what God is doing in your life
and bring anything to God that pleases Him. The best you have to offer with
God on the outside is not going to make it. You can't please God in the
flesh.
Not only is the flesh powerless to please God, it is also powerless to
produce righteousness in our lives. Yet how many people are running around
trying to impress God with all of their works, somehow trying to get up to a
standard of righteousness where they feel they are accepted? One of the
great maladies in the church today is created by men and women who are
trying to do the Spirit's work in the energy of the flesh.
Paul asked the Galatians why if they came to Christ by the work of the
Spirit they are so foolish to think they can please God in their own energy
(see Galatians 3:3). The Bible is very clear that the flesh is weak. Apart
from God, we are not able to bring anything to God.
The Conflict of the Flesh
The flesh is at war with the Spirit and the Spirit is at war with the flesh.
There are two parts of me-what I was before I became a Christian (that part
of me is still there) and what I am because I am a Christian. Those two
parts of me struggle inwardly.
When I came to Christ I didn't at that moment become a totally spiritual
being. I didn't lose the flesh. I've had people say to me, "If you accept
Christ, all the struggles in your life will be over." But the day I accepted
Christ my struggles began. Before I became a Christian there wasn't any war
going on because I was totally committed to the flesh like everyone is. I
used to think that meaning was found in me. When I accepted Christ, I
discovered meaning is found in God. Those two concepts have been at war
within me since the day I became a Christian.
That conflict is one of the most difficult things for Christians to
understand. They may go through all of their lives defeated on account of
the struggle. Why doesn't God take away the struggle? How do you explain the
fact that we are born again, saved and ready to go to heaven, and yet we
have this intense struggle?
The Impact of Your Age
One of the things that causes the struggle is the difference between your
spiritual age and your physical age. When I was about fifteen years old I
became a Christian. For me, the flesh has a fifteen year head start. Maybe
your flesh has an even longer head start. All of those years, the flesh was
implanting within the computer of your mind the patterns, the philosophies,
the impact of the world and what it was teaching you. When you accepted
Christ, all of those grooves etched in your mind didn't go away.
The Influence of Our Culture
You can walk a long time in this world before one thing will influence the
spiritual part of you. We constantly receive stimuli from our culture. We
are constantly being bombarded with counterfeit meanings from the world. The
very world we live in is geared to feed the flesh. Someone has said the
flesh is the bridge that is in touch with the world. The world crosses over
that bridge into the believer's life and produces attributes that are in
opposition to God. Those stimuli never go away.
The Inadequacy of Your Teaching
There are hundreds of Christians who have never been told there is a
struggle. They go through their whole life wondering what's wrong with them.
They never get any information to help them deal with the conflict in their
own life. The teaching of the Word of God is for the benefit of presenting
the Christian mature and perfect in the Lord. Someone has said the Word of
God is the whip which subdues the wild tendencies of the flesh. But if we
are never taught about the Spirit of God and the conflict in the Christian's
life, we will never know how to deal with it.
The Incompatibility of Your Lifestyle with the World's
Once you become a Christian, immediately you are out of sync with
everything. We are unique as Christians. A. W. Tozer puts it this way: "The
real Christian is an odd human being anyway. The Christian feels supreme
love for One he has never seen. He talks every day with somebody he can't
see. He expects to go to heaven on the virtue of somebody else. He empties
himself in order to be full. He admits he is wrong so he can be declared
right. He goes down in order to get up. He's strongest when he's weakest,
richest when he's poorest, happiest when he feels the worst. He died so he
can live. He forsakes in order to have. He gives away so he can keep. He
sees the invisible, hears the inaudible and knows that which passeth
knowledge."
This is why the spiritual part of you is struggling with the part which is
still flesh. You're incompatible. And it isn't going to get any better.
The Irresponsibility of Your Own Life
All of the other reasons for the conflict of the flesh don't involve us.
This last reason is our own responsibility. We have conflicts of the flesh
because of the irresponsibility in our own lives.
God has given us in His Word the instruction we need in order to deal with
this matter in our lives. Yet we are all about as holy as we want to be.
Many people who go to worship services leave before Sunday School. My
question to these people is: What have you found in your life that has made
it possible for you to arrive at such a place in your spiritual growth and
development that you can successfully avoid the opportunities God has
provided for you to grow and mature in your faith?
By our very absences from the teaching centers of the Word of God and from
the opportunities for growth and development, we become responsible for the
defeat in our lives because we do not expose ourselves to the opportunities
God gives us in growth. It's true in our relationship with the church. It's
true in our relationship to prayer. It's true in our relationship to the
Word of God. One of the reasons we struggle so much is because while the
world is feeding the old nature, the new nature is being starved to death.
We have put it on a low calorie diet.
The Conduct of the Flesh
The flesh and the works of the flesh are the expressions of a person's life
who is trying to find meaning apart from God. Paul says to the Galatians
that a person who seeks to find meaning apart from God will find himself
involved in the following kinds of things.
Meaning in Sexuality
The first few have to do with those who find meaning in sexuality. These are
adultery, fornication, uncleanness and lasciviousness. Paul said there is a
whole group of folks who think that meaning is to be found in the sensual.
Our world is running wild in that direction. People who find meaning in sex
act as if the glands in their bodies are their gods.
Meaning in Prosperity
There is another category of people who believe that meaning is found in
prosperity. We shove the word idolatry back into the culture of the Old
Testament, but it's alive and well. Someone has defined an idolater as one
who has made up his mind where and how he will find life, and whatever it is
he will work feverishly to get it. He will guard it, sacrifice to it, and
worship it. To lose it is to lose life. Materialism is the idol we have
built in our generation.
Meaning in Religiosity
The next is a list of people who find their meaning in religiosity. The word
"sorcery" in Greek is the word pharmakea. It means "drugs." It speaks of a
group of people in the day Paul wrote who built their religion around the
occult and the use of mind-bending drugs. These religious people found
meaning in life in religion. Today there are many hundreds of people who are
involved in the expression of meaninglessness in church.
Meaning in Independence
The fourth category is the longest list. It describes those who find meaning
in independence. This is the most prolific group of people in our day. This
list-hatred, variances, emulations, wrath, strife, sedition, heresy,
envyings, murders-holds the expressions of one who has set himself up as
god. So many people believe they are god but they have to live with other
people who also believe they are god. Pretty soon, they bump into each other
and the independence of this one gets into the independence of that one and
the work of the flesh then becomes these interpersonal relational sins.
Meaning in Debauchery
The last list is a group of people who find meaning in
debauchery-drunkenness and revelries. This is the activity that keeps them
busy so they don't have to think about how empty their lives are. But God
has something better. God wants to bring such meaning into your life it will
no longer be necessary for you to push life away through the exercise and
the energy of the flesh. He wants to make your life so beautiful that the
fruit of the Spirit is the portrait of your life. He wants to come to the
emptiness of your being and make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life. If you
are not a Christian then the only things you can do are works of the flesh.
If you are a Christian and you have not put Jesus Christ on the throne of
your life, it is possible for you to be operating in the energy of the
flesh. The only real answer is replacing the emptiness with the Son of God.
APPLICATION
1. "The flesh" is used to describe what it was like for us before we were
Christians. Read Ephesians 2:1-3. What are some of the ways Paul says we
conducted ourselves before we were made alive in Christ?
Read Galatians 5:19-21. Do you recognize any of these works of the flesh as
works you did before you became a Christian? Which ones were most common for
you?
Are any of these works of the flesh still a part of your life? If so, which
ones?
2. Read 1 Peter 1:17-19. What does Peter say we were redeemed from?
Write your own definition of meaninglessness.
3. Read the following verses:
John 6:63
Romans 7:18
Romans 8:8
What must we do in order to please God? Where must our efforts come from?
4. Read Galatians 3:2-3. What point is Paul trying to make?
Where do you stand in this area? Do you find yourself trying to be accepted
by God by the works you do? If you do, what can you do to remind yourself of
God's grace?
5. The flesh is at war with the Spirit. Read Galatians 5:17. Do you ever
find yourself doing things you don't want-with your spiritual side-to do?
Think about where your struggles with the flesh lie. What is their
relationship to your life before Christ?
What is the difference between your spiritual age and your physical age?
6. Read the following passages:
Romans 12:1-21
1 Corinthians 15:34
1 Peter 1:13-16
How much do you think you are responsible for your struggle in the flesh?
What remaining percentage of the struggle would you allocate to each of the
following categories:
spiritual age vs. physical age
cultural influences
inadequate teaching
incompatibility with the world
7. Read Galatians 5:19 and make a list of sexual works of the flesh.
Read Ephesians 5:5 and Colossians 3:5. What is covetousness?
Read Galatians 5:20-21a. Which word goes under the category of finding
meaning in religiosity? Make a list of the words that describe those who
find meaning in independence.
Which two words go along with the type of life that wines and dines and
dances its life away?
Write a description of how God brings meaning into life.
DID YOU KNOW?
In the third century, Cyprian, the Bishop of Carthage, wrote to his friend
Donnatus, "It is an incredibly bad world, but I have discovered in the midst
of it a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They have
found a joy which is a thousand times better than the pleasures of our
sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are
masters of their own souls. They have overcome the world. These people,
Donnatus, are Christians, and I am one of them."
.
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| User: "RedFox" |
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| Title: Re: The Works of the Flesh and the Fruit of the Spirit |
08 Jul 2007 10:31:45 PM |
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In article <f6ofsi$gni$1@news.utelfla.com>, "Carl" <saints@nettally.com> wrote:
The world has gone mad after meaning in life. Its people are searching,
fighting and scratching for something to ease the pain of the emptiness they
feel inside.
Nope
Mostly they are fighting to escape intellectual, spiritual, economic, and
physical repression.
They are trying to escape having crap poured on them - an act in which you
are, sadly, one of the perpetrators.
People are searching for sanity and you cannot even offer or allow them that
What kind of a person are you perpetuating this drivel?
How many more religious based killings before the likes of you get the
message the rest of us are desperately trying to give you? You are a part
of what straps kids to bombs Carl
We have had a gutful of the religious meaning to life
And many of us have no doubt Jesus himself would have reacted similarly to
your nonsense.
RF
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