Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction - Christian Enemy #1

Are you familiar with the phrase “Public enemy # 1?” Most of us are.

I did some research on the term and discovered that most of what I thought about it is folklore.

I thought the FBI or US Marshalls had a list of the top criminals they are looking for with one being at the top.

That isn’t case.

The term has been used like that briefly in the past by law enforcement, but there isn’t an ongoing list of the top criminals or a Public Enemy #1.

Public Enemies - Wikepedia

I was intrigued to find out a little about the history of the term.

The term “Public Enemy is a term which was widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society, though the phrase had been used for centuries to describe pirates and similar outlaws.”

So I don’t have a list I can give you of our society’s current public enemy number 1.

Transition: But I can identify Christian Enemy number 1. It’s the flesh.

The Bible tells us that we have three enemies, the flesh, the world and Satan.

All three enemies are bad but the flesh is the most damaging.

It is our # 1 enemy.

Let’s begin with a definition.

Definition of the flesh:

The flesh, also called sin, is that fallen part of our nature that produces evil desires.

It came into the world as the result of the first sin and renders humanity sinners, separated from and hostile toward God.

Today we are going to see that

Bottom Line: The flesh attacks us with evil moods and desires and can only be defeated by living according to the good desires from the Spirit.

Our primary text for today is Galatians 5:16-26.

Please follow along in your Bibles, on the YouVersion Bible app or look up on the screen.

Verse 16 states the problem and the solution but does so in the reverse order.

The problem is the desires of the flesh.

The solution is to walk by the Spirit.

Sounds simple but we all know that isn’t the case.

Fortunately Paul unpacks this for us.

He gives us lots of information about our common problem.

That is that

1 The flesh produces evil moods and desires.

Look with me at verse 24.

Last week we looked at the steps to sin.

STEPS TO SIN VISUAL

The first step in the path to sin is desire.

James didn’t tells us where the desires come from.

Each of our three enemies create evil desires.

In this passage Paul tells us the flesh produces both passions or moods and desires.

Both of these words are morally neutral terms.

One dictionary refers to these as colorless terms.

A couple of synonyms for mood are “disposition or propensity,” M-M.

What do you have a propensity to feel?

We can have good moods, bad moods, cheerful moods and sad moods.

The word desire is different, it means a strong urge.

It is a more powerful feeling than a mood or passion.

We can have desires to do things, possess things and even desires to feel things.

A The flesh attacks us with sinful moods and desires.

There are lots of verses that talk about the desires of the flesh.

The word “passion” in the verse is the word desire.

The NIV translators weren’t consistent in drawing a distinction between moods and desires, which are different Greek terms.

In this verse Paul tells us that desires of the flesh work in us so that we bear fruit for death.

That’s no a good thing.

Peter describes the struggle we have with the desires of the flesh well.

The struggle we have with the desires of the flesh are like a war.

It’s a battle.

It seems that we are continually fighting the flesh.

If you feel that way, you’re normal.

Paul gives us a detailed description of the attacking desires of the flesh.

Before we look at them I want to remind you what we learned last week.

It is not sin to experience a sinful mood and desire.

It is what we do when we experience them that is sin or not.

Sin requires choice and intentionality.

We learned this in James 1 with the steps to sin.

e.g.

Let’s say you are walking down the street and look into the window of someone’s house and see porn on their TV.

Did you just sin?

No. It’s what you do next that determines if you sin.

That image is like an attacking desire.

You have a choice to make it your own or turn away from it.

We aren’t sinning when we have an evil desire.

We just don’t want to give into it.

That’s so important it’s the first thing Paul tells us in this section.

Do not gratify.

The word gratify is the verb τελέω “bring to an end,” “finish,” “complete”; and so “carry out,” “perform,” “accomplish”).

That may seem easier to say than to do.

We’ll get to how to walk by the Spirit after we see what Paul says about the desires of the flesh.

He says,

B The flesh’s sinful desires are obvious.

We read this in verses 19-21.

Even if you don’t have this list you know when you experience an evil desire.

Unfortunately the words in these verses are easy to understand but not so easy to define.

The paraphrase The Message does a great job of putting these terms into common vernacular.

How many of you find this paraphrase helpful in understanding what Paul is talking about?

(Raise hand) I do.

Each time one of these feelings comes into your consciousness it is an attack from the flesh.

Perhaps the biggest problem we have is that we are so used to having these desires that we think we don’t have a choice.

We accept them, follow them and end up in sin.

But we don’t have to do that.

We can stop the process but we can’t do it on our own.

We need help and fortunately we have it from the Holy Spirit.

2 The Spirit produces desires.

Here’s how Paul puts it.

This verse says that

A The Spirit produces desires that oppose the flesh.

That is cool!

We have help.

Do you realize you have help?

I know you know this, but do you really know it?

Do you know it so well you can access this help to defeat the desires of the flesh?

One reason we can defeat the flesh with these desires is that

B The Spirit’s desires are godly.