Galatians 5:13-18 | Discernment | Alex Culpepper

Amen. Well, moms, once again, we are very grateful for you. I want to read this Proverb from Proverbs 31. It says, Strength and dignity are her clothing. And she laughs at the future.

She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household, and she does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also, and he praises her. Scripture commands us to honor our father and our mother.

So I want to just thank you moms who have operated from the impulse that God has given you to care for us. And I want to thank Jesus. I'm very thankful for what good moms reveal about our Father's character to us. And so you are a blessing and an influence. And so I know that there are some among us who are grieving and who have the difficulty of either having lost a mom or you had expectations of what motherhood would look like in your life.

And so I just also want to pray for you. I want to bless you that the Lord would tend to your brokenheartedness in this time, in this season, because this is what he does. He binds up the brokenhearted, even when we have these kinds of grief. Church. We are going to be in Galatians this morning.

Galatians, chapter five, if you want to open there. And I want to talk about moms, and they have this thing that I like to call the mama bear instinct. And you may know about the mama bear instinct, but moms basically know exactly what their kids need to stay healthy and safe, right? They have, like, just like implanted in their head into their DNA. They know how to create safety around their kids.

And so when. When I was in eighth grade, there was a kid that I hung out with, and I would. I would hang out with him during the day, right? Because after school and stuff like that. But.

But my mom had this firm boundary of, you're not going to stay overnight his house. Now, why would she do this? Well, because she wasn't naive, right? She knew the parents of this kid. She knew that those parents had no rules or really boundaries for what could or couldn't happen.

She knew that I was in eighth grade, that I was very persuadable by my friends to kind of be involved and that it would be a trap for me to go outside of the boundary of, yeah, you can hang out with them after school, but not more than that, that I was going to get my. In a whole lot of trouble. She knew this, and she probably knew Enough to know that the trap even wouldn't have been just a one time thing, but had I been allowed to stay overnight, even one time, that that could have led to greater and further opportunity and ramification down the line. And so she used her instinct to protect me from something that would have been really bad for me. But I saw her know to me as restricting, right?

Like how? Like this is not fair. How can you say this? How can you do this? But the reality is that she was not restricting me.

She was actually actively fighting for my freedom. So today we're starting a series in the book of Galatians called Spirit or Flesh. And here Paul is concluding his letter to the Galatians in these last two chapters. And he's this letter is intended to confront false teaching of a group of people called Judaizers. They taught that salvation was not complete until you brought yourself under the law of Moses, under the old covenant law.

And Paul says that the law of Moses, if we try to put ourselves under that law, interestingly enough, there are curses in the law of Moses and it says, cursed be everybody who does not abide by this whole law, right? So if we fail to fulfill the law of Moses, we actually end up cursed. The law of Moses becomes a testimony against us. The law of Moses condemns us if we're under that law. Paul's conclusion here is if we're under that law, then we're toast, right?

We have no hope. But then he says, we're not under that law in Christ. We're under a new law, a new covenant where Christ grabs us with the strength of his grace, right? His power to do that which we cannot do. And Christ spilled and poured out his blood for us on the cross while people stood accusing him and mocking him and condemning Him.

And he kept himself on that cross until the last drop of his blood was spilled. That way we could be forgiven, that we could have his righteousness applied to our life and he could take our unrighteousness upon Him Himself and die for it. And that that blood that he sheds for us cleanses us so that the Father might then deposit His Spirit in us, right? That he actually comes to live inside of us. The living God who created the whole world, comes and gives, breathes new life into our bones and renews us from the inside out to change our hearts, to love God and to love people.

And it says, instead of being under the law of Moses, God takes His law and, and he writes it on our hearts and we get transformed affections, the things that we Love change. Because we have been utterly rocked to our core by the scandalous nature of the grace of Jesus, that he would love even sinners like us and spill his blood for us. And so this series, what we're looking at now, that was kind of everything we looked at. What we're looking at now is like, how do we then live life from the Holy Spirit who has been deposited in us? How do we live from the Spirit?

How do we walk by the Spirit, as opposed to living life out of our flesh, which has been corrupted by sin and is destined to death? So this series is about living out of freedom in the Holy Spirit today, as opposed to, say, receiving a future promise of eternal life in heaven from Jesus while we live out of the slavery of our dead, corruptible flesh in the here and now. Like, how do we live out of the freedom of the Holy Spirit here and now? And so today, today's sermon is all about discernment. So in Galatians 5, verses 7 and 8.

And this is kind of. We're going back to some things we looked at before, but I want to kind of give us a primer for what we're headed into today. Verses 7 and 8 says this from the Apostle Paul, you were running well, who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. You know, what's.

One of the very interesting things is that Paul in this letter compares himself to a mother. As he's talking to the Galatians, as he's caring for the Galatians, and he's warning them, and he's providing boundary for them. His words to them are, hey, I'm like a mother who is in labor until Christ is formed in you, right? And what is this image of labor? Most children.

Most children, unless they are daughters who later become mothers, most children do not understand the physical and emotional anguish of childbirth. Like, after. After both of my children were born. And I witnessed that experience, I said, you know, there's literally nothing that I could ever, ever do in my life that will top what she just accomplished. Like, I just could.

I. The thought that I had was, I could not become President of the United States. Like, if I did that, that couldn't even match the accomplishment that she just accomplished. Like, this is literally the visceral experience that I had. There's nothing that I could do that could top that because of what she had to endure and the anguish she had to do to her, everything she had to push through.

And so Paul uses this really powerful imagery, this emotional Imagery to describe the anguish that he is experiencing over the reality of false teachers who are misleading people who he loves. He's saying that they need to pay attention because this persuasion is not from him who calls you.

God is not the creator of the idea that they're entertaining. And so I just want to kind of give us a self evaluative question that is going to move us forward this morning. What ideas do I entertain that did not originate with God? This is an important question for us to ask because the Bible speaks about strongholds, thoughts that come from different places, all over the place. And we have ways of thinking and ways of seeing the world and ways of relating to the world and ways that we live and people who share ideas with us.

And all of these ideas are coming from somewhere. But what ideas do I entertain that did not originate with God? Paul in this text is addressing a specific heresy, the heresy of the Judaizers. But he begins employing here in this passage a broader principle that we need to pay attention to. That principle is that some of us are holding persuasions that are not from God.

Some of us are maintaining perspectives that are not perspectives that God shares. We subscribe to ways of thinking that are not from God. So, like, don't, don't make the mistake of thinking that, like, what I'm talking about is just like religious stuff. Like, I'm not just talking about religion because you know what? God does not divide between like the sacred and the secular.

Like, it's all his, the earth is the Lord and everything in it.

That persuasion is not from him who calls you. Right. Let me give you another example. Some people, well, there's just this reality of the Bible. It says every, every follower of Jesus, every believer in Jesus, we are all ministers of the gospel.

And when I say that you might go, oh, maybe you, but not me. I just tell you that persuasion is not from him who calls you. That's not God's thought. Right. God's thought is, if you're a believer in me, then I've called and I have commissioned you to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Right? How about this? And this is probably one that we really strongly cling to and believe, right? But what's most important for you is that you're happy. This persuasion is not from him who calls you.

That's not a thought that comes from God. God is far more interested in your holiness than he is in your happiness. And so Paul is issuing a warning to these people to pay attention because he's saying, hey, when you hear what they have to say. You think that this is from God, that this teaching feels right to you, that the idea resonates with you, that you vibe with the frequency of this concept. Right.

However you might say, or that God told you that this was right. Yeah, God told you, right? But guess what? You know what Scripture says there is a way that seems right to man, but its end is death. Or in Paul's words, this persuasion is not from him who calls you.

So Paul. Paul is doing for the Galatians what my mom did for me. Like, I couldn't see the harm. I couldn't see the threat. Like, I. I wanted to trust what felt right in me, but my mom knew better.

And so the key to all of this is discernment. So I just. If you can open up to Galatians 5, 13, I'm going to read Galatians 5, 1326. We are committed to the public reading of Scripture, and I think this is just a very helpful thing. So we're going to read as we ask the Holy Spirit to set our hearts right into the Word this morning.

So hear these words, for you were called to freedom. Brothers and sisters only, do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident.

Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, destruction, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such things, there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with his passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Let us not become conceited, provoking one another and envying one another. Would you pray for me?

Father, we thank you for the holiness and the purity and the truth of your word.

God, I ask that by the power of your word you would pierce our hearts. God, I ask that you would send Holy Spirit to bring power to these words. Lord, may I increase. May the role of the speaker decrease. Lord, may the role of the speaker decrease and may you increase.

Holy Spirit, may you empower your word for the effectiveness of bearing fruit in the lives of your people. And bless us all with the work that you desire to accomplish. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. So right in the middle of the passage that I just read is one of the most memorized, well known passages of Scripture in the entire New Testament. It's called the Fruit of the Spirit.

And Paul provides these words, these fruit of the Spirit to not just discern for them, right? That's he's been spending the whole letter writing to them and doing discernment for them. What he is now doing is he is giving them tools to begin discerning for themselves. And the principle that he provides or that he operates from is the same principle that is described by Jesus in Matthew chapter seven. So let me show you.

This is what Jesus says in Matthew 7. It says, Beware of false prophets. By the way, the Judaizers are false prophets, right? The people who have come into Galatia, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles.

And so he's saying, you're gonna be able to figure these people out by what is coming out of their lives, the fruit of things that are coming out of their lives. And so then he goes on to verse 17, and verse 17 might be the most logical statement that many of us in the room need to hear right now. Verse 17 says, so every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

And then in verse 20, he gives the secret to discern any person who. Or any idea or any way of life or any way of thinking. In verse 20 he says, Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Jesus gave these words in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. It's actually very close to the end of the Sermon on the Mount.

And the Sermon on the Mount is his most famous, oft repeated kind of set of teachings. His disciples, they went around they traveled and they. I believe that many of them, as they preached about the Kingdom of God, they. They shared the teachings, many of the teachings from the Sermon on the Mount, right? So it's like a bunch of.

A bunch of how Jesus just understands that the kingdom is coming near. What does this mean? How does it change people? Who are the disciples of Jesus? What kind of character should we display in the world?

And so this, this Sermon on the Mount actually completely upended how we think about things, things working in the natural world. Because Jesus said things like, you know, blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who don't think too highly of themselves. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. Wait, which blessed means highly favored by God, right?

That God highly favors and that what? Like what a conundrum? Like what a misunderstanding? Because you look at a person who's being persecuted for righteousness sake, and you would say, that's not a blessed situation. And yet God says they're blessed.

He says, oh, and also, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Forgive everyone who has wronged you. And he says, hey, if you rage at your neighbor, if you're angry with your neighbor, I just want to let you know you're liable for the sin of murder. And so he says all of this, and near the end of it, he. He kind of goes into this section on false prophets. He said all of that stuff before, and now he's saying, so now, would you look at the fruit in the lives of the people who are talking to you?

Do they resemble the kingdom that I described to you, or do they resemble something else? So naturally then Paul, when he teaches the Galatians, he's teaching out of this secret that Jesus gave to discern the people and ideas that influence us. And so here, here is the secret. What is spiritual fruit? Spiritual fruit can be discerned by beliefs, behavior, and outcomes.

So spiritual fruit does not. Or discerning spiritual fruit, it does not start with. First with the question, like, do they sound convincing? Right? Like, you know, pastors get trained all the time in rhetoric and how to stand in front of people and how to build a message and how to talk and how to persuade and how to convince.

But. But we actually, we should not be a kind of people who concern ourselves with whether or not a person sounds very convincing, right? What spiritual fruit, what discernment looks at is. It's asking, okay, what do they believe? How do they behave?

And what fruit are they producing? Or what? You know, if you follow this way of life, this way of thinking, this way of operating, six months down the line, what will come come out of it? A year down the line, five years down the line, what's going to be the result of that? And so the answer is simple, actually.

If you know what to look for, you will know the spirit of the person by their fruit or by their behaviors, their beliefs, and the outcomes of their life. Okay? So with that being said, I'm going to. Actually, I'm going to take us back. I'm going to revisit some teaching that we've looked at before.

Because there's this part that we just looked at says, what do we look for in discernment? Or what do we look at in discernment? But there's another part of discernment that says, where does it come from? Right? So these are the.

What are we looking for? But each of these things have a source, right? They have a place that they come from. And the whole of the Bible gives us clear categories for where ideas or ways of life actually, actually come from. There are one of three places in the Bible that these ideas or ways of life can come from.

There are three sources of fruit in the Bible. The first source of fruit, the most significant and important source of fruit is fruit from the Holy Spirit. That's what Paul is writing about in the book of Galatians. You need the fruit of the Spirit. John 10:10, Jesus says, I've come into the world that you may have life and have it abundantly.

The fruit of the Holy Spirit brings about the things that produce life, abundant life. And here's how Paul describes the fruit in Galatians 5, 22 and 23. Says, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. And so when the Spirit is in control, what this is saying is when the Spirit is in control, or when a person is surrendered to, to the Holy Spirit, you will see these things or the pattern of these things in the life of the person. So we'll spend a lot more time here in the next two weeks.

But that's just kind of a primer. This is what life, abundant life, fruit of the Holy Spirit looks like. The second source of fruit is fruit from the flesh, right? This is the flip side of the coin that Paul presents to the Galatians. The flesh is concerned with self.

I gave us actually this definition a couple of weeks ago. The flesh is everything you do when you're trying to be your own God. The flesh, what it does is it takes you and it Puts you at the top of your life. The flesh makes you most important, the flesh focuses on your experience. And here's how Paul describes fleshly the fruit of the flesh.

In Galatians 5, he says the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these, right? So if we did, if we haven't named the thing, we'll just give a big category to say things that look like this at the end. And so once again, we're going to dig into that in the coming weeks. But the flesh, you need to know, the flesh is self obsessed and self reliant and self protective and self glorifying.

This is what the flesh is. It is all about the self. The flesh comes from us, right? It is what we bring to the table, right? It is our fallen nature at work.

That is, it is sinfulness broken in us, but it is also our willingness to keep, commit sin, to take care of ourselves. That's the flesh. But here's the reality, and this is something that we don't often think about. Things that we do in the flesh can open the door of our lives to influence from a third kind of source, right? Because there is a third kind of source that the Bible describes and that is the fruit of evil spirits.

Now, Galatians is not really emphasizing much the fruit of evil spirits, although Paul kind of oriented our attention towards it earlier in the book when he's saying, hey, the teaching that you're going after, this false teaching and false prophecy from the Judaizers, you need to know that it actually originated from the same demons that were trying to enslave you to your paganism, right? So, but this part of Galatians is not so much focused on the fruit of evil spirits, but I just want to give us kind of tools for discernment here. So once again, if you were to go to John 10, John speaks of a thief. Jesus says, hey, there's a thief who comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that you may have life.

There's a thief who comes only to steal, kill and destroy, and false prophets and false teachings and false ideas. What they do is that they appeal to our flesh, our desire to lift ourselves up, our desire to be on the throne of our lives. They appeal to our flesh in order to bring about destruction in our lives. In fact, there are a host of different names in scripture used for Satan, who is the chief of the evil spirits. And the majority of these names have to do with different forms of destruction, right?

So he's called the devil or diabolos. That's, that's destruction of reputation. One who slanders, one who lies about your reputation. There's the word apollyon, which literally means the destroyer. Right?

And then you got another place. Jesus refers to the devil as Beelzebub, which is lord of the trash heap, right? Lord of the flies. But where do flies congregate? They congregate over the trash heap.

Lord of the trash heap. The purpose of this, the reason, the reason that these things destroy is they want to appeal to your flesh in order to corrupt the images of God. And so this is serious and this is real. This is why Peter is like when he writes, he says, hey, your adversary, the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. And this is why discernment is crucial and why Paul uses such intense language with the Galatians when he talks to them.

He talks about being a mother in childbirth until Christ is formed in them. And he speaks his boldest words that he has to speak against any false teachers in this letter. Okay, so remember, spiritual fruit is discerned by beliefs, behaviors and outcomes. So I asked you a question at the beginning. That question was a self evaluative question, like what ideas do I entertain that do not originate with God?

So what is it? A belief. Right, a belief. And with beliefs we would ask, is this idea that I'm believing, is this rooted in reality as God has defined it? Right.

Not as it rooted in my truth or not? Is it rooted in somebody else's sense of truth or. No. God describes and defines reality for us. And so is this idea rooted in reality as God has defined it?

If it's not, then it's not from God Behavior. What question do I ask behavior? Well, if I'm trying to figure out and I'm trying to discern, I'd simply ask what kind of character is displayed? What is the character that is displayed in my heart as I'm following this way of life or this teaching, or this thought or this idea? What kind of character is displayed in the lives of people who are teaching this idea or concept?

Is it in alignment with the Sermon on the Mount? Is it in alignment with the fruit of the Spirit as Paul describes it? And then finally, outcomes. Outcomes could generally be put into the category of like, is this of life or is this of death? What things does the Bible call life and joy and peace and goodness and is it bringing about the living breath of the Holy Spirit, the living truth of what God wants to do in us?

Or is it corruptible? Is it something that's going to burn up at the end of the age? And so it's beautiful that before Paul really explains or develops his framework, he actually starts by giving them an example, right? He creates this contrast between the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. But his starting point is an example.

He says in verses 14 and 15, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. One thing, but contrast with another thing. If you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another, right? What he does here is he's creating a natural contrast for them to help them see this is one thing or another thing so that they can evaluate, right? Love your neighbor as yourself, right?

That's the Jesus way. That's what Jesus taught. That's in alignment with the fruit of the Spirit. That's life. That's from the Holy Spirit.

But, but if biting and devouring is a regular aspect of the culture of your church or the culture of the people who believe this teaching, guess what? You can know that a different persuasion is at work. That this persuasion is not from God, that that did not come from him who called you, right? He's the same. He's essentially saying like, you know how I know that what you are believing or what you are being persuaded to believe is not from the Lord.

Look at how you're treating each other. This does not display the character of Jesus in the slightest. This does not come from a heart that is being changed by grace. This is coming from something else. So verse 16 he says, but I say walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. So let's apply the rubric that I gave to the Judaizers beliefs, behavior, outcome. Let's talk about the Judaizers belief. But we've been talking about the Judaizers belief in the last many weeks leading through this.

Paul has already identified that their gospel is a false gospel that comes from the elementary principles of the world. In other words, comes from hell and demons, right? He's already displayed how this, the gospel that they're bringing is opposed to the testimony of Jesus and opposed to the testimony of the apostles. He's talked about this false gospel from the Judaizers, about how it makes actually a mockery of the cross of Christ and how it's at odds with what the Old Testament prophets taught about a new Covenant. Right?

So this idea, this belief is clearly not rooted in reality as it is defined by God. Okay, so that's their belief. Let's talk about their behavior, then. Let's evaluate their behavior. Paul already knows that the Judaizers will stoop to fleshly levels to protect themselves.

They have already spoken words of flattery over the Galatians in order to gain influence over them. They have lied about Paul by exaggerating Paul's words and Paul's beliefs. They even said that Paul was, hey, Paul's actually in favor of our teaching. Didn't you know this? And Paul's like, no, they don't know what they're talking about.

They lied saying that they. So they came from Judea up into Galatia. They actually posed as representatives of the apostles who also lived in Judea. Right? So they lied about that.

So they are displaying, in their belief, they're displaying favoritism towards a particular category of people. And they're like, hey, we are God's special people. You need to become like us, and God will make you a part of our people. All right, so that's just like all of this is behavior, right? There's like a sense of competition.

There's a sense of having to prove yourself or thinking highly of yourself. But then let's talk about the outcomes. Finally, the outcomes of the Judaizers. You know, the Galatians didn't know their outcomes yet. They had just been introduced to this teaching.

They just started believing it. But Paul is forecasting the outcomes. When he used words earlier like severed from Christ and fallen from grace, right? So you don't need to know the outcome. Paul is saying, hey, this is the direction you're headed.

This is where you will end up. And so you look at the beliefs and the behaviors and the outcomes, and you say, it's not connected to the life that God wants to bring. So what? So what? Number one, discern the spirit.

What spirit is at work by honestly examining the fruit it produces in you. So when you're dealing with an idea or a way of life or even a person who's giving you ideas, what is it producing in you? Is it producing anxiety, division, bitterness, competition? Like, remember earlier we talked about mama bear and mama bear instinct and all of that, right? Like, mom may not know everything about what's going on in your life.

But mom can discern when you have less peace and less prayer and less scripture and more secrecy and more venting in your life and more distance and more compromise. So if any of these things are going off in you, there is a high likelihood that an idea or a person or a way of life has made an influence on you. And a lie has now gotten between you and Jesus. Because the Holy Spirit does not produce these things that I described. And so look out.

I would just say look out in your life, especially for pride, which is like my sense that I to protect myself, that I need to be defensive, that I need to make sure that I look good in the eyes of other people, that I need to say words that would make other people view me highly, that I can never admit when I'm wrong, that I get scared when other people are trying to critique me or criticize me. Right? Like all of this is rooted in pride, right? So you gotta be aware of pride because pride produces fruit of the flesh. Or look out for shame.

The Holy Spirit does not produce shame in a person. The Holy Spirit does convict us of our sin, not to keep us far off, but to invite us into bending the knee to Jesus and surrendering to Jesus. Right? But shame would keep us far off and say, I can't approach him. I can't be near him.

I can't go into that place. I can't be around those people. That's not the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And then I would say, also, look out for fear. Fear is another tool.

Like, if you're walking into a situation and you're afraid, there is something. There's a false idea in your head about the situation. There's something with the people that you're oriented around. And so all of these tools, when these things are present, it's not to say that, like, if I'm in a relationship with a person and I'm getting a sense of fear in my relationship with that person, it's not actually like, telling me that that person is a bad person. But it is telling me that there's something wrong with how I'm interacting in this situation.

Right? And so if fear exists, I need to pull back and discern where is this coming from, what is this rooted in, so that I can appropriately deal with it. All right, so what? Number two, we need the humility to immerse ourselves in things that produce good, good fruit.

So I just want to tell you as a pastor, like, I am not above this. There are powerful forces at work to trick and mislead us. And I have found actually that the most powerful force that I can be duped by is my own flesh. Let me read a text that some of you may know, some of you may not. But Jeremiah 17, verse 9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

Who can understand it? I am your pastor and it is my duty to God and to you to tell you, don't listen to anyone who tells you to follow your heart.

The desires of the flesh are powerful enough to deceive you into thinking that something is good for you when it is the opposite of good for you. Like just look at the Galatians. Just go with, go with what they were being taught on the surface. Like, isn't it a good thing to follow God's law? Yeah, I mean, that is a good thing.

If you were to just ask me that question on the street, you say, is it a good thing to follow God's law? I'd go, yeah, like, if I have that question with no context, yeah, I want to, I want to follow God, I want to honor God, I want to obey God. Yeah, it's a good thing. Like, shouldn't we all want to be more like law abiding people? Shouldn't we want the world to be a better place full of people who follow the rules and do the right thing?

Like all of that? Like, oh yeah, that's actually sounds good. And so there's something about that message that resonated with their hearts, but actually it spoke to their pride. Look at how impressive you can make yourself. You too can be a good person.

You too can prove yourself acceptable to God. And it takes away all humility in one's relationship with the Lord. So it's something that seemed good to them on the surface, but what was actually happening is that this teaching was getting hooks into their pride to lead them astray. And so now most people are unaware of what God says. And so that's Jeremiah 17:9.

The heart is deceitful, desperately wicked, desperately sick, who can understand it? But then he goes on in verse 10 and he says, I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his weights, according to the fruit of his deeds. So God searches out the heart to see what's in it. God tests the mind to see what's in it. And he repays us according to the fruit of our life.

I want God to look at my life and to look at your life and see the fruit of the Holy Spirit. But that means that our hearts need to be trending to towards spiritual health and that we need to make sure that we're led in everything by the Holy Spirit. Which means that we need to kind of daily immerse ourselves and our families in places like church and Bible studies and small groups or like the secret place of prayer. Right? All of these things are places where the Lord meets us.

We need immerse ourselves around people and around ideas that will help bear Holy Spirit fruit in us. And these people in these places and these experiences, they have the power not just to restrain the wickedness of our hearts, but actually to heal our hearts and make the soil of our hearts healthy and able to bear good fruit. And healthy hearts do produce spirit led good fruit. And the beautiful thing about this is Paul's speaking these things out and he's putting these boundaries and he's saying no to this and yes to this. Because he sees what God wants to do in these people and he has a vision for them and he's calling them into Would you walk by the spirit?

Would you pay attention to the ideas that are seeking to mislead you so that you can ensure the soil of your heart stays healthy? Would you pray with me, please?

So Holy Spirit, we ask for your empowering to discern.

Or to discern when a thought or an idea or a way of living is at odds with you, Lord. To discern when there is something that's seeking to get its hooks into aspects of the flesh that we are prone to weakness in.

God. And as we move forward into this series, would you help us more than anything else, Lord, would you help us, equip us to walk by the Spirit so that you might receive honor and glory from the lives that we live, so that we might experience the freedom that you desire to bring about by the reality of what Jesus has done for us. So Holy Spirit, our confession is that we need you. That if we're to trust ourselves, we have no resource. But if we look to you, we find grace.

Great resource, more than we could ever deserve.

So strengthen our hearts now by the power of your spirit as we turn to the table, turn to communion and turn our attention and our hearts to worship. Pray this in Jesus name, Amen.