The Second Letter of Peter- 6

Subtitle: The Problem of False Prophets 3

2 Peter 2:6-10. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, August 16, 2026.

We continue today looking at the examples of divine judgment that Peter gives in 2 Peter chapter two.  Last week, we talked about the judgment of The Flood in the days of Noah.  God judged the rebellious angels and wicked humans who followed them in sin.  At the same time, God rescued Noah and his family from the waters of The Flood by having them build an ark that could raise them above the destruction.

Peter then turns to the example of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  At this point, let me insert that God is not trigger happy with His destructions.  They always come after long periods of wicked people “getting away with” wicked deeds.  This was true in The Flood episode as well as with Sodom and Gomorrah.  We can also recognize that same grace being extended to the modern world.

The modern world can be very hypocritical in this area in its attacks on the God of the Bible.  On one hand, it can complain that a truly good and all-powerful God would not allow so much evil on the planet.  Yet, on the other hand, they are also the loudest voices of complaint against God’s judgments that are recorded in Scripture.  Thus, God is accused when He judges and when He doesn’t judge.  In the end, this is an assertion of human wisdom over the top of the divine wisdom found in Scripture.  This assertion never ends well for those who insist on casting off God’s wisdom for their own.

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah stands as a warning to those who think God’s judgment is “sleeping” or a myth.  The day will come as sure as the fact that many will not be ready though they were warned well in advance.

Let’s look at our passage.

Example # 2 Sodom & Gomorrah (v. 6-10)

The destruction of Sodom and the other cities is found in Genesis 19. However, in Genesis 18 God tells Abraham what He is about to do.  He is going down to investigate whether the condition in these cities is as bad as the “outcry” that has come up to God against them.  It is not explained, but we can imagine people crying out to God in prayer or just venting to the “heavens” about the treatment they were receiving from these places.  Thus, the angels coming into the city is the investigation by God.

This also leads to a discussion between Abraham and God about any righteous people who may be impacted by such a judgment.  Would God really destroy the cities if there were at least 50 righteous people in them?  Abraham continues this questioning all the way to 10 righteous people.  Genesis 18 ends with a statement from God, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.”

Of course, the cities are later destroyed with only four people heading the call to escape the coming destruction.  We should note that the events of Genesis 19 contain within them a statement of God, to Abraham or any who have the same question, regarding his judgments upon the wicked and any righteous people who may be caught up in it.  The message is simply this.  God knows how to judge the wicked while rescuing the righteous.  His rescue doesn’t have to always look the same, but He will rescue the righteous.  We saw this with Noah and his family (note that the whole planet had less than 10 righteous individuals).  In this passage, Peter emphasizes God’s rescue of “righteous Lot.”

Peter also tells us that the judgment of destruction upon Sodom was “an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter…”

Sodom and the plain around it were struck by brimstone raining fire upon the area.  This was most likely a meteor that exploded in the atmosphere above the area.  This would have heated the air to thousands of degrees in a fraction of a second, moving forward in a blast wave and followed by burning particles that would pepper the area. 

This is what happened to those cities.  The warning is not so much about the details of the judgment.  Whether God sends a great flood or rains down fiery meteors, the warning is that He will eventually judge men for their wickedness.  His judgment is a real thing that all people will have to face in one way or another.

The men of Sodom had given themselves over to sin that was transgressing all kinds of moral boundaries.  When you transgress boundaries, you don’t always know where it will take you or how far it will take you.  How many visiting strangers had they violated and “got away with it?”  The point is not so much that they picked on the wrong guys (i.e., angels who they thought were men).  Rather, this was the day of judgment.  God was beginning to hold them accountable, and they demonstrated the righteousness of His judgment in their grotesque activity.

This is true of all nations or empires no matter how great they are.  God is able to judge them in a second, bringing them down to destruction.  How then ought we to live in light of this?  Are the cities of America more righteous than this?

The ultimate destructive event is found in Revelation 20.  Fire comes down out of heaven melting the elements of the earth.  Heaven and earth are found no more, and all humanity stands before the Great White Throne to be judged.  The wicked are cast into the Lake of Fire, walled off from God’s new creation.

We might ask, “How does this connect to the false teachers and false prophets that Peter is saying will come?”  Where did Sodom learn the wicked things that they were doing?  They didn’t learn it from Noah.  Over time, men led by wicked spiritual forces taught others to transgress the proper, moral boundaries passed down by those who had seen God’s judgment in the past.  They became perverted sexually and perverted religiously through idolatry.  Their degrading domination of strangers was completely antichrist, demonic.  Do we not have such things today?

Not all false teachers are religious and show up in churches.  We have many false teachers within philosophy, the sciences, education, the entertainment industry, government, and false religions.

Thus, we have this ancient problem.  There are those who do not want to retain the knowledge of God and quickly grasp at the teaching of those who say, “Did God really say such and such?”

Peter describes Peter as righteous.  He may not appear very righteous in all of his actions, but he did remain faithful to God during his time there.  He protested the wickedness of the men of the city.  In fact, Genesis 19:9 describes their disdain for him.  “This one came in as a sojourner and is already acting like a judge…”  They didn’t want to be reminded of righteousness.  They wanted to pursue wickedness.  If you serve the purposes of Christ, warning people of the dangers attached to their sinful activity, many will hate you for it.  Lot was acting as a teacher of righteousness in the face of recalcitrant, moral renegades.

Peter also describes Lot as being “oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men.”  These men recognized no boundaries to their desires.  The oppression of Lot displayed in the Genesis 19 story is their willingness to disgrace those who were his guests.  They then told Lot that they would do worse things to him after they were done with the two visitors (the angels). 

God was there that day.  The threats of these wicked men were empty and hollow.  By the morning, they would be gone.  However, how many people were violated by them or perished under their hand without God’s intervention?  This can be troubling to us.  The timing of God’s judgment may feel like it is too late.  However, before we pull on that thread, we should note that the oppression is not just the external things that happen.

Peter speaks of Lot’s righteous soul being “tormented day after day by their lawless deeds.”  We have people and cities who are currently living wickedly in the face of such examples and warnings from God.  Yet, none of them are “getting away with it.”  Their destruction is just as sure as the people who were destroyed by The Flood and those who perished in Sodom and Gomorrah.

The question is this.  Am I being corrupted by the constant pressure towards sexual immorality, materialism, unloving actions, and overall godlessness?  Or am I living for Christ and sharing the torment of my soul with him and with other believers?  We can also carry this internal burden as we attempt to break through their desire to live for the flesh by sharing the truth about God’s Judgment, Repentance, and God’s Grace.

Verse 9 serves as a conclusion to what these examples illustrate.  The judgment of false teachers and those who live in wickedness is surely coming.  However, this conclusion focuses on God’s ability or knowledge in matters of bringing judgment.

We can look at a powerful government, powerful rich person, a powerful supernatural entity and think to ourselves, “That’s impossible.  No one can stop that.”  However, God knows how to deal with these things.  We might think it is impossible, but that isn’t important.  So what?  Are you now going to refuse to do what God has told you to do?  It may seem to be impotent in front of the wicked and powerful.  However, the same God who has told what He desires of you is also planning the judgment of those powerful, wicked forces.

Peter first speaks about rescuing the godly from “trial.”  Dealing with false teachers and those who belligerently live wicked lives is a temptation and a test.  We can be tempted to go along with them by our own flesh.  Or we can be tempted to give up on righteousness out of discouragement.  Yet, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from such things.  He supplies spiritual strength and wisdom from the Holy Spirit in the present.  Ultimately, there is a great trial that is coming upon the whole earth.  It is sometimes referred to as the Great Tribulation of the Last Days.  Only God can deliver the righteous from the trial of the wicked and the trial of His judgments upon them.

Both the example of Sodom and The Flood have to do with ultimate judgments.  There seems to be a pattern here that Peter is describing.  God either removes the righteous (Enoch, Lot) or He protects them through the judgment (Noah).  So, it will be in these last days.  God has a plan that will remove the righteous before He pours out His wrath upon the nations.  Yet, those who repent during this time of wrath can be protected through the trial.  In fact, even if they physically die, their spirits are protected and held unto a time of resurrection.  This is the ability of God to rescue the righteous in various ways that only require us to trust Him.

The flip side of this is that God knows how to reserve the unrighteous for the day of judgment.  In verse 4, Peter spoke of the angels “reserved for judgment.”  Also, there were the spirits of all the wicked humans held in reserve in the grave awaiting the judgment day (they are still there).

The great Judgment Day that is scheduled for the Nations of this world, leading up to the Second Coming of Jesus, is only a taste of the greater Judgment Day that happens a 1,000 years later at the Great White Throne Judgment.

God knows how to judge the wicked while protecting the righteous.  It is not that we cannot be touched by difficulties.  It is a sure protection that brings us through all that we may have to face and brings us to the great future that He has prepared for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.

Verse 10 begins the transition out of the illustrations back to the false teachers that we face in this Church Age.  He describes them as “especially those who indulge the flesh and its corrupt desires and despise authority.” 

Indulging the flesh is similar to Paul’s phrase “walking in [according to] the flesh.” This is a person who let’s their flesh make the decisions of what they do instead of listening to God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. 

Peter says that these desires are corrupt.  The word has the sense of being polluted or defiled.  Desires in and of themselves are not bad.  Desires become corrupted when we do not recognize God’s ordained boundaries withing them.  Thus, sexual desire is not the problem.  It is that our flesh desires that there be no boundaries in our sexual activity (at least only boundaries I give myself). There is no end to the boundaries that sin will pull us past in the name of satisfaction.  However, it never satisfies.

False teachers are not happy with the proper boundaries that God has given to truth and right living.  They develop interpretative schemes and stories that reinterpret the clear truth of God’s Word. 

They also despise authority.  This area is fraught with problems.  Many church leaders have abused their authority.  However, all true authority comes from God.  It is God who gives parents authority over their children.  However, He does not want them to abuse that authority.  Rather, they are supposed to image His loving purposes.

These false teachers despise the authority that God gave to the apostles like Peter, Paul, John and others.  They were to lay down a foundation of teaching and principles that Christians could live out and know that they are good with God.  False teachers don’t like what Peter has written.  They don’t like what Paul has written, so they write their own ideas down and promote them against the truth sent by God.

We see each of these components (walking in the flesh, despising authority) in the two examples.  The angels rebelled against God’s authority out of a fleshly desire to have offspring like humans.  The ancient world followed in this rebellion against God for their own fleshly reasons.  Sodom and Gomorrah cast off the restraints of morality even despising those who reminded them of the boundaries.

We must not be deceived.  God is not mocked.  If we sow to the flesh, we will reap corruption from the flesh.  However, if we sow to the Spirit, we will reap eternal life!  Let us follow Jesus and his commands by faith.  We will be tempted and tested.  However, God has a plan for rescuing us and dealing with the wicked around us.  In fact, this is so sure that we can offer salvation to those who are in the camp of the wicked.  Of course, they will not all repent.  However, it is always surprising when people break down and repent of the choices they have made.  Until Jesus comes, let us focus on being teachers of righteousness but also teachers of repentance and grace, teachers of God’s great love for whoever would put their faith in Him.

False Prophets 3 audio

Walking in the Holy Spirit

Galatians 5:16-26. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, May 24, 2026.

We focused last week on how the Holy Spirit helps us, empowers us, to share the Good News of the salvation made available to us in Jesus.  We share that through the words we speak and through the actions of the life we live.  These work together by the help of the Holy Spirit to draw people to Jesus.

Today, we focus on the transformed life that we can live because of the power of the Holy Spirit within us. We should take a moment to recognize that this contrasts with the powerlessness of the Law to transform us.

Both Paul (Romans 3:20) and James (James 1:23) point out that the purpose of the Law is to show us our sin.  It is a great mirror to us of our own life and how short it falls.  However, that is the most it can do.  It cannot give us internal strength to battle against that sin.  Of course, it is helpful to at least see the problem.  Yet, it gives us no power or strength to overcome sin in our life.  What the Law and its penalties were powerless to do, the Holy Spirit is able to do within us.  He leads us in the battle of becoming like our lord Jesus.

He is the one who convinces us (convicts) that our righteousness is woefully lacking, but that Jesus is completely righteous.  He convinces us that Jesus is God’s means of salvation for us.

This internal work of the Holy Spirit to help us be transformed is the amazing grace of God for us.

Let’s look at our passage.

The Spirit of God versus the flesh (v. 16-18)

Notice that Paul uses the contrasting phrases of “The Spirit of God” and “the flesh.”  The flesh is not the same word as “body,” but it is connected to the body.  The flesh is that internal response that is rooted in the desires of our mortal body.  Because it is internal, it takes on spiritual overtones and can even seem like something other than us.

We have a multitude of strong desires that are rooted in our physical bodies.  Paul describes the difficulty of obeying God’s law in Romans 7.  Our flesh often wants what our mind knows to be bad.  It is also true that our flesh may not want what our minds and hearts know to be good for us.  Thus, both Romans 8 and Galatians 5 depict the flesh as being bent away from God and in towards pleasing self.  These appetites may have come about through experimentation or seeing peers and society “enjoying” them.

I bring this up because it is not God’s desire to keep heaping more and more laws on top of us.  He knows that our sinful flesh will continue to hijack our ability to obey them.  Yet, it is important for us to understand this because we are a people of way more laws than Israel ever was.  These united States of America have more and more laws every year.  However, they are not making us more and more righteous.  It was precisely because Israel had 1400 years of following the law that they could understand the amazing grace of God that was made available in Jesus the Messiah.

God’s solution was not more laws.  Rather, it was to first make Jesus available as the perfect man who could live in perfect obedience to God the Father and then make a way for those who would believe to follow him.

This all starts with the help of the Holy Spirit for us now in our mortal flesh, but it leads to the day when we will receive immortal, glorified bodies.  We will no longer have a flesh that is bent away from God and towards the lesser desires of our mortal bodies.

This flesh is not just contrasted with the Holy Spirit.  Paul states that the flesh and the Spirit are “contrary” to one another, or “opposed” to one another.  In Romans 8:7, Paul uses a stronger word.  They are “hostile” to one another.

This hostile opposition between our flesh and the Spirit of God leads us to a situation where we find ourselves wanting something but not doing it.  This can be a desire born of the Spirit that our flesh tries to keep from happening, and it can be a desire born of the flesh that the Spirit challenges us to put to death.

At Pentecost, something completely new was happening.  God was taking up residence within all those who put their faith in Jesus.  This internal presence of God works to give us power to reject the wrong desires of our flesh and follow the Spirit.

What exactly are the desires of the Spirit? John 15:26 tells us that the Holy Spirit comes to testify about Jesus.  Thus, He desires that we come to Jesus and follow him.  John 16:8-11 further details this that He desires to convict the world of its sin, need for the righteousness of Jesus and the judgment that looms over us.

In this passage, we will see that the Holy Spirit desires to express the character of Jesus in our lives.  Jesus is our master teacher; we are his students.  We need to learn his way of life and follow him in it.  We could never do this in our flesh because our flesh is hostile to the idea of actually following the words and life of Jesus.

All of this comes under the idea of walking “in” or “by” the Spirit.  Prepositions in one language do not perfectly map over to prepositions of another language.  Both of these prepositions work.  In some ways, the Holy Spirit is like an external guide with whom we walk.  In another way, He is the river in which we are born along in the right direction.  We could even say that He becomes the power and means by which we are able to walk with Christ, i.e., we walk with Christ by the help of the Spirit.  Yet, the Holy Spirit does all of this from within us.  He helps us to be aware of our actions, attitudes, direction, purpose and goals, and then, to tune them to those of Jesus.

(v. 19-21)

Paul tells us in verse 19 that the deeds of the flesh are obvious.  His point is not that our flesh wants all of these things at all times, but that these are the kinds of things that our flesh desires and leads us to do. 

No intellectually honest person will say that the Holy spirit wants us to do these things.  It is sad that some Christian groups have developed a theology that emphasizes grace to the point that you can do any sin you want, while thanking Jesus for his forgiveness.  This is a travesty and a heresy.  The Holy Spirit wants to help us live a transformed life that becoming more and more like Jesus.

Paul ends this by reminding them that people who live a life of doing the deeds of the flesh will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  Inheriting the Kingdom of God here is not talking about joining a church or being a professing Christian.  He is challenging people who are Christians not to follow after their flesh.  On one hand Christians are a part of the Kingdom of God in Jesus.  He is our King and we live out His commands by the help of the Holy Spirit.  However, the Kingdom of God is not yet fully here.  The verb “inherit” in verse 21 is future tense.  He is looking forward to the Second Coming of Christ when Jesus sets up a kingdom over this earth.  The saints, Christians who have been faithful to him, will be resurrected to serve as his administrators in this coming kingdom.  This is an inheritance that God has promised for those who come into a spiritual relationship with the Messiah, Jesus.

We have many opportunities to walk with our flesh every day.  This does not change when the Spirit indwells us following faith in Jesus.  Of course, Paul is not talking about a one-time thing.  “If you ever do one of these things, you will not inherit!”  No, he says, “those who practice” such things.  This is an ongoing choice to keep walking with your flesh in opposition to the leading of the Holy Spirit. 

We all have moments in which we fail, but it isn’t over.  Think about what the Spirit does when you fail.  He convicts your heart about what you have done and calls you to repentance, i.e., change your mind and turn back to the righteousness of Christ.  None of us will inherit without continuing to repent and keep our eyes on Jesus.

(v. 22-26)

On the other hand, if I let the Holy Spirit produce the fruit of Christ in me, then I will inherit the Kingdom of God.

Paul could have continued by speaking of the “deeds” of the Spirit, but he switches to the picture of fruit.  Fruit is an organic process rather than a work project.  It is borne from within because of our new nature and grows a little bit day by day.

The Spirit of God within you empowers a whole new dynamic in which the character is slowly formed in you and expressed in your life.  This will go from an empty branch to buds to blossoms to fruit to ripening of that fruit.  In a sense, we have two natures: the old nature and new nature.  Which of these natures are you expressing?

The list of love, joy, peace, etc… are essentially different facets of our love for one another fueled by the presence of God Himself within us.  On one hand, I am letting the Holy Spirit do something within me (yielding to Him).  On the other hand, I am doing the things that the Spirit is showing me to do.

No fruit tree can be fruitful without pruning.  Bad branches that are broken or diseased must be cut off.  These would be the things on the list of the deeds of the flesh.  However, some branches need to be cut off in order to make room for other branches to be more fruitful.  In other words, sometimes the Spirit teaches us to remove things from our life, not because they are immoral or wicked, but because they are keeping me from being fruitful.  They are taking up too much space in my life.

Furthermore, sometimes God prunes things from my life.  I have nothing to say about it.  It just happens.  Yet, other times, the Spirit of the Lord points out something that we need completely prune out of our lives.  He works within us to convince us and empower us to do it.

This is the powerful evidence (fruit) of the Holy Spirit within us.  We will see all of these things start to show up in our life.  Yet, the Spirit will not be content with just a little love in our life.

None of us will be (are) perfect at this on this side of death.  However, we are not under the law of sin and death.  Verse 18 states that those who are led by the Holy Spirit are not under the Law (judged by it).  Rather, we are under the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2).  Entering the presence of Christ upon death is not based on our perfection in these areas.  Rather, it is based upon His perfect work being applied to our lives by faith.  Those who trust Jesus and His Spirit to the end of their lives will enter into His presence.  In fact, some of our greatest righteousness will include repentance and forgiveness.

Paul ends with a description of what it means to follow Jesus.  To belong to Jesus is to crucify your flesh with its passions and desires.  It should be obvious that a crucified groom (Jesus) would only want to be with a crucified bride (all those who believed him enough to follow the Spirit).

“If we live in the Spirit” is a statement about the spiritual life we have in Christ.  If I truly have put my faith in Jesus and his eternal life has taken up residence within me by the Spirit, then I need to walk by, with, and in the Holy Spirit.  It is not enough to be made alive.  We need to cooperate with the Spirit so that the righteousness of Jesus might be growing in our lives.

Praise God that we have a savior who covers our sin and yet does not leave us stuck in them.  Let’s put our faith in Him and put to death those desires that hold us back from becoming more like him.

Walking in the Holy Spirit audio

The Letter to the Colossian Church- 9

Subtitle: The Victory of Christ vs The Deceivers- 2

Colossians 2:20-23.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 7, 2025.

We stopped last week between at verse 20.  Paul was warning the Colossians about the deceivers who were coming to them.  Whether these were Jewish teachers who were pointing to the Law of Moses and the traditions of the elders or Greek teachers who were pointing to Greek philosophies, they both had the same problem.  They were men inflated with their own ideas and imaginations, rather than following the Spirit of God.

This brings us to verse 20.

Paul’s question for them (v. 20-23)

Paul slams his point home by asking them this question.  If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of this world, then why do you submit to the decrees that these teachers bring your way?  This idea of dying with Christ is important.  For a Jew, it would be dying to all the things that are commanded for you to be a good Jew in the Law.  Another way to think about it is to recognize that the law of Moses had only and ever condemned you as a lawbreaker. 

For a Gentile, it would be dying to all the social customs, philosophies, religious instructions and all the underlying worldview assumptions underpinning them all.

Christ died to what he could have done in this mortal flesh.  We too die to the legend of the great “me,” or at least the attempt to make such.  We become servants of Christ taking the Gospel of His salvation to the ends of the earth.  We spiritually die to ourselves and the life we could accomplish on our own.  We no longer follow the self driven life.  Instead, we look to the Lord and what he would have us do.  We are following the journey of Jesus who lived the crucified life long before he ever hung on a cross.

Verse 21 demonstrates the thrust of the teachings these charlatans were pushing.  “Don’t handle, do not taste, do not touch!”  These in general tie back to the earlier reference about food and drink.  These men pushed many prohibitions.  In fact, legalism is generally about what you can’t do.  Yet, those who follow Christ are to be focused more on what we should do, i.e., being led by the Spirit of God.

Of course, legalists like lists.  With lists we can find the loopholes and learn how close to the edge of the cliff we can get without falling off.  Legalism does really care about the heart of God, but more about the image of my religious self.

We might recognize how Gentiles end up in such a state.  But, how did the Jews end up in a legalistic system that has become anti-God and antichrist?  It happens little by little over centuries of placing one man’s human reasoning upon the human reasoning of another man.  We can reason ourselves out on a limb, even twenty feet beyond it, and not realize that we are no longer in the tree, much less close to the trunk.

Jesus challenged the Pharisees that they would break the Law of Moses in order to keep their traditions.  This is how bad they were.  Before we judge them too harshly, we should recognize that we are doing the same thing today in the United States of America.

I could look at the religious angle, but lets talk about the Constitution of the United States of America.  It is supposed to be the supreme law of the land.  However, over the years case law and its decisions have built up around the Constitution.  Supposedly the human reasoning of past judges is impeccable, but even a teenager can see that our federal government breaks the constitution in order to conform and keep the constitutional case law.  They don’t do many things that the constitution says they are given power to do, and they do many things that the constitution never empowers them to do.  All because of brilliant men from one generation building on top of the brilliant ideas of men from another generation.

Without God, we can find ourselves in a political or religious system made up of the traditions of men that have exalted human reasoning above the Word of God.

Paul wants to know why they would accept these prohibitions on what they can eat and handle when they have nothing to do with Christ.  These foods perish with their use (or consumption).  How does a temporary thing doing anything good or bad for me spiritually, or even eternally?

For the Jewish people, the dietary laws were abrogated by Christ in Acts 10.  The dietary laws were always symbolic.  They were intended to teach the importance of holiness until Messiah would come and bring about a deeper holiness than was ever possible through law-keeping.  Before Christ, the Jews needed to be careful of their interactions with Gentiles and certain foods.  These symbolic laws pointed to the defiled Gentiles that God was going to cleanse one day.  This is what Jesus told Peter.  “Don’t call defiled what I have cleansed!”  Now that Christ had come, He was not only making the food holy, but more importantly, He was making Gentiles holy.  The holiness of Christ in you is greater than any “defilement” that an unholy person had.  In fact, the holiness of Christ in you could even be used to make a Gentile holy!

These deceivers were not in touch with Christ and the Holy Spirit.  Otherwise, they would have known these things and would not have pushed these food restrictions and festival observances.  The Gospel had been revealed by Christ to His Apostles.  This was laid down once and for all within the Church.  Anyone else who came along, claiming to have visions and a word from God, would have to line up with these prior teachings.  The deceivers in Colossae fell woefully short.

In verse 23, Paul admits that these things look wise on a certain level.  In fact, the traditions and teachings of the elders in any society have a powerful pull upon the people within those societies.  If you are dropped into a society foreign to you, then it would probably not look wise.  However, if you grew up being indoctrinated in it, it has an appearance of wisdom.

These teachers had a certain allure that looked wise.  They were impressive to those who were looking with the eyes of flesh.  Paul mentions that they had a self-made religion.  The word is literally “will-worship.”  They have come up with all the ways that they wish, or want, to worship God.  It is a self-made religion that makes an outward show of humility and severe treatment of the body.

Our flesh always wants something that it can attain, to which it can point.   “Look at me!  I have accomplished this great thing.”  True spiritual disciplines can devolve into proud achievements in the mind of a person who is not right with God.  We can be impressed by things such as: how often we have read the Bible, how long we pray, how many seeds we have planted, how many converts we have made, etc.  Others who do not do these things may even give us adulation for the accomplishments.

Accomplishing an achievement feels better to our flesh, than simply saying, “Yes,” to God.  Our flesh loves the first, but God is not someone we can control.  He is not easily enamored with us and our accomplishments.  We should focus on trusting our loving Father, even though some of the things He allows in our life might seem harsh.

In fact, legalistic systems are generally harsher on people than our heavenly Father is.  Yet, people still hypocritically protect such systems because they have become skilled at performing within them.

Paul then focuses us on the real problem.  These men look religious and sincere, but their asceticism has no power against the indulgence of the flesh.  It is not that God is against prohibitions.  Murder is always wrong and will never be acceptable.  But, the Spirit of God is about so much more than not murdering others.

No amount of Spartan living and observance of special days can give us power over our sinful flesh.  A man can take even greater pride in his humility and observances than a man who flaunts his pride.  We see this in the attitude of the religious leaders in front of Jesus.  There is a sense where they are full of themselves.  “Don’t you know who we are!”  Yet, they are ignorant of just who he is.

In the end, Christians are called to die to the things of this world.  We cannot look to food as a way to be acceptable to Christ.  Yet, neither do we become a slave to it in gluttony.  Rather, we listen to the teaching of Christ and his apostles.  We pray and ask for his leading through the Holy Spirit.  We live in order to glorify him, instead of trying to justify ourselves.

The Gospel itself creates a kind of tension.  It does not pat us on the back and pretend that we are okay.  It calls us to repentance.  It calls us to turn from our way of thinking, living, towards God’s way.  God loves us too much to leave us entrenched in sin.  He is setting us free.  Ultimately, we cannot celebrate falling short, but neither do we trumpet our successes.  We are not balancing between the two, but instead, we are learning to let the Lord lead us by his Spirit through our faith.

This is the problem with such false teachers.  They draw you into systems that stroke your flesh and yet, leave you trapped in your sin.

Victory of Christ 2 audio

The Battle of the Mind- 3

Subtitle: The Leverage of Desires and Emotions

Galatians 5:16-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 22, 2025.

As we continue this series on the mental battle that Christians encounter, we must deal with the reality of our desires and emotions.

Desires look toward something in this world or future.  It focuses on bringing something into our sphere of experience.  Emotions, on the other hand, have more to do with the way that the world (reality) around us affects us.

Of course, these can play off of one another.  I may desire something, but the reality of whether it can happen or not can create frustration and anger, or it may create excitement, anticipation, and a euphoric feeling of near success.  Similarly, our emotions can spin off new desires.

This world of desire and emotion is a powerful part of what it means to be human.  God created our ability to desire and have emotions.  Therefore, there is something about them that is good and should not be excised from our life.  Yet, in our fallenness, they can lead to all kinds of harmful actions and patterns of life.

An example of this is the area of sexuality.  God designed humans as sexual beings and called it “very good.”  Yet, if we let our fleshly desires drive our sexuality, it will become destructive to ourselves and others.  It will pull us outside of the good design, the good purpose, for which God intended it.  Thus, it is not a person’s sexuality that should be “fixed.”  Rather, it is that world of the mind and heart in which we make decisions on how we are going to express that sexuality.

These desires and emotions are strategically placed within a person.  They wield an incredible amount of leverage upon us.  With that in mind, let’s look at our passage.

Be led by the Holy Spirit and not your desires (v. 16-18)

A follower of Jesus should seek to be led by the Holy Spirit and not the desires of their flesh.  This is what Paul is saying.  However, we should note the chain of understanding.  We are disciples of Jesus, followers of him.  However, he is not on the earth right now.  How can we follow him?  Yes, we can read his words and live them out, but Jesus promised something even greater than that.  He promised to pour out the Holy Spirit upon believers.  Jesus would lead them through the work of the Holy Spirit.  Thus, to be led by the Spirit is to be led by Jesus (is to be led by the Father, too). 

Though He does speak to us in our hearts and minds, the Holy Spirit often uses the Scriptures and other believers to speak into our lives, or at least, to trigger His communication to us.  This inner dialogue between our spirit and the Holy Spirit is not meant to exclude these others in our life.  Instead, it incorporates it.

In verse 16, Paul uses a word for desire that has been translated as lust in other versions.  It simply means a strong desire or passion for something.  The desire may or may not have a bad target.  Ultimately, a believer should always pay attention to the target of their desires (is it good and acceptable to God). 

However, this word also involves a strength of desire that is greater than normal.  You could picture a person driving a car around a corner that is designed for 25 mph.  To drive your car around the corner is clearly in alignment with the design of the road (the target is good).  However, the speed at which you drive could be compared to the strength of your desire.  To drive around the corner doing 125 mph is going to end in disaster for me and anyone else in the car.  Am I carried away by the strength of the desire?

We tend to think of strong desire, or lust, as bad.  But verse 17 compares the “strong desire” of the flesh with the strong desire of the Holy Spirit.  This is important.  God has strong desires for us.  However, He doesn’t have the problem of “going too fast around the corner.”  As humans, the strength of our desire can overwhelm our ability, but the Spirit of God can have strong desire without it pulling Him off track.

Thus, we should not focus so much on how strong our desires are, but rather on the source of them.  The strong desires of my flesh will pull me off the way of the Lord, but the strong desires of the Spirit will keep me in the way of the Lord.

Typically, desires are rooted in the senses of our body.  I want to feel this, taste that, see this, hear that, etc.  Notice that God gave us senses to help us.  There is a good way in which we are to operate in these areas.  Desire can also be something more abstract.  In 1 John 2:16, we are warned against the “pride of life.”  The feeling of pride that often comes from the adulation of people and their willingness to serve us for favors is just as real though it may not be directly tied to a physical sense.

Thus, we should see the problem as an internal one within our natural self, rather than our body per se.  Our nature is to desire something as an end in itself.  “I’ll be happy once I get that job, …make that amount of money, …get that person to love me, etc.”  But, God did not design our senses and the things of this world to be the goal of our life.  These things are all means by which we can live a life that reflects God to the world around us and walks in harmony with His purpose.  To make them the goal is to turn them into an idol.  They are supposed to be an aid to us in going after the greater goal.

One pastor- I believe it was Spurgeon- pictured the death of a human as becoming a worm carnival.  In other words, you leave this body behind and a bunch of worms will revel in destroying it, and then they will die.  I bring this up because we become like those worms when we live for things, rather than for God.  We simply consume the things of the world around us that are dead in and of themselves.  There is no true life in these things, no matter how much I consume.  If your life is just a carnival, then it will come to an end one day.  You will die and realize you wasted your life consuming dead things that cannot help you.  May God help us to live for a higher purpose, that the things of this life would only be means by which we image Him and worship Him.

The flesh strongly desires to target things as an end in themselves, but the Holy Spirit has a strong desire to help us become like Jesus, perfectly imaging the Father.  Thus, we need to learn how to let the Holy Spirit become the source of our desires.  We should seek to desire what the Holy Spirit desires, instead of our natural self.  This creates an internal battlefield.

The battlefield already existed before you were a Christian.  However, you had no clue about the desire of the Holy Spirit.  You were a casualty of your own desires and those of the culture around you.  Yet, when you became a believer in Jesus, you became aware of this problem within your flesh.

Praise God that we are not left alone in this battle.  At salvation, we became aware of the strong desire of the Holy Spirit that we put our faith in Jesus.  Once we yielded to that, the Spirit then works to make us more like Jesus.  He does that by taking up residence within us.  He works in our heart and mind to make us aware of all the ways that the strong desires of our flesh have pulled us off track.  He also gives us strength to get back on track.

In fact, let us be clear.  Paul says that your flesh and the Holy Spirit will desire things that are hostile to one another.  Your flesh will not want to cooperate with the Holy Spirit.  When someone is confronted with the truth about Jesus, there is a battle in them.  The Spirit of God is showing them that it is desirable to follow Jesus, but your flesh wants to shrink back away from that in fear.

Still, you are more than the desires of your natural self.  You can choose to follow the Holy Spirit (who supplies strength for you to follow through by faith on that choice), or you can choose to operate from the natural self.  In fact, a life of living for the flesh can be covered up with an outward appearance of following Jesus (think Judas). 

Verse 17 talks about the way in which we can want to do one thing, but end up doing another.  You may want to follow the Spirit, but the flesh is pulling  you off track.  You can even analyze this in your mind and despise your lack of following the Holy Spirit.

Yet, this is not just a problem for Christians.  Even unbelievers who are ruled by their flesh cannot simultaneously satisfy all of their desires.  In order to have one, they may be forced to sacrifice another.  One person desires to feel good (euphoria) over other desires and pursues a life of substance abuse.  Whereas, another may never touch drugs and the like because they desire money and the power it gives them greater than feeling good right now.

To bring this back to Christians, you may desire to be moral and good, like Jesus, but your natural self simply seeks satisfaction and doesn’t care about the morality.  Without Christ and the Holy Spirit he sends to us, we would be powerless in this battle.  Thus, all people deal with this reality that some desires are stronger than others for them.  Whereas the next person struggles with a different hierarchy of desires.  The Holy Spirit is given to empower us in this fight.

Throughout this passage, Paul has used two different phrases that are basically synonymous: walking in the Spirit and being led by the Spirit.  The second has the Spirit as an external guide showing us the way.  The first is less specific.  It can be seen as the person who has a relationship with the Holy Spirit within them.  We have seen this before with the difference between being filled with the Spirit (internal picture) and being baptized with the Holy Spirit (external picture). 

Part of our spiritual battle is to recognize that the Spirit is within you to lead you.  Reading the Word, prayer, godly counsel are all ways that the Spirit uses to show us the path forward.  However, this brings us to a point of action that requires faith.  He truly is trying to lead us on behalf of Jesus. 

We should also see the Holy Spirit as a path or atmosphere that we are seeking to stay on or within.  He is our helper, and if we stick with Him, stay in step with Him, then we will be far more successful in this battle.  The battle to follow the Spirit and not our natural self is essentially a battle in our minds and hearts.  As it is won, we can then do those things that make us more like Jesus.

The flesh will result in not inheriting the Kingdom of God (19-26)

Paul warns the Galatians that they will not inherit the Kingdom of God if they let themselves be led by their flesh.  Is this about salvation, or is the Kingdom of God a particular reward that God gives to certain believers?

In Romans 8:6, 13, Paul makes it clear that following the flesh leads to spiritual death, but following the Spirit leads to eternal life.  So, this is not just about a particular reward in the future that certain believers will experience.  It really is about eternal life, salvation.

The Kingdom of God can be thought of something that is in the future.  That is, Jesus is going to come back and set up a kingdom on the earth.  This is not to ignore the fact that the Kingdom of God is already here in a very real sense.  The point is this.  The Kingdom of God has phases in regard to what God is doing.  It is best to think of it as the particular way that God is expressing His life to believers at a particular time. 

Right now, we can participate in the Kingdom of God that has been made available through Jesus.  By the Spirit, we listen to our Lord and live out his commands.  However, a day is coming when I will die.  Am I leaving the Kingdom of God?  Of course, not.  My spirit will go to Christ at the right hand of the Father.  My participation in the Kingdom of God and the life He gives through it will have changed.  After the resurrection and return of Jesus to earth, glorified believers will attend Christ to the earth.  This too will begin a new expression of God’s Kingdom and the life we receive through it.  Thus, the Kingdom of God is eternal, but not static.

Yet, we should note that the term inheritance is in general a reference to our reigning with Christ in resurrected (glorified) bodies.  Some people who appeared to be followers of Jesus, but really were masking a life of following their flesh, will find themselves shut out from what God is doing.  This is essentially the picture that is given to us with the Lake of Fire at the end of the book of Revelation.  The wicked will be shut out of the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Verse 21 introduces a word that is translated as “practice” in the NASB.  “Those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”  We tend to connect this verb to things like sports and music.  In this case, practice is about something that is not the real event.  It is merely preparation.  However, when we say that a physician practices medicine, we do not mean it in this way.  In that case, it speaks of the very real decisions that a physician makes as they care for their patients.

This word speaks of what we do, but not just in a point in time.  It is talking about something we continue to do.  It also focuses not on the end of the action, but on the routine of it.  A person who routinely practices (does) what works of the flesh will find themselves shut out of God’s goodness. 

Paul moves from the flesh to the Spirit.  However, he does not continue to use the “practice” word.  He could have, but instead, Paul uses a different word, the fruit of the Spirit.

This contention between works and fruit is being used to highlight the powerful differences between following our flesh or the Spirit.  Of course, we are to practice the works of the Spirit, but the fruit of the Spirit adds a powerful idea.  Like a fruit tree, we are to connect to Jesus.  The Holy Spirit comes from Him to us.  The supply of the Spirit in our lives enables us to bud, blossom, grow, and evidence ripe fruit.  This demonstrates that more is going on than just choosing to do certain things.  Rather, the presence of the Holy Spirit within us supplies and works life into us and through us.  The list of fruit is not even about giving us a set of check boxes.  “I have the love fruit now!”  Rather, it shows us a list (not exhaustive) of the kinds of things that will be expressed when a person is following the Holy Spirit.  Fruit is not always in season, but it is on a path to ripeness.  Give yourself to the Spirit of God, and He will help you to grow in these kinds of things.

Verse 24 speaks of the need to crucify the flesh, our natural self and its desires.  When we come to Christ, we have had years of serving the flesh, so it has a lot of leverage upon us.  The flesh is not only hostile to the strong desire of the Spirit, but it is also hostile to us crucifying its desires.  Thus, we need the help of the Holy Spirit to put these fleshly desires to death and give ourselves to the spiritual desires of Christ. 

We should see our flesh like a spoiled child who throws a fit in the grocery store in order to get what they want.  There is no easy way to deal with this.  We basically deal with the flesh one fleshly desires at a time.  As they crop up, we need to recognize them for what they are, and then, we need to ask the Holy Spirit what the positive, spiritual action would be that will enable us to become more like Christ.  Crucifying the flesh is more than not doing fleshly things.  It also involves doing what the Spirit of Christ is leading us to do.

For example, a person who is a thief, but becomes a Christian, doesn’t just stop stealing.  He also works to make restitution to those he stole from.  He may even have to face jail time.  Paying the price of our wrong actions and carrying the burden of their effects can be done in praise to God.  Yet, it is amazing how often God takes the negative effects of our sin and redeems by the help of the Holy Spirit.

This weekend, there was a wedding at our church.  A couple who had been living together, but not married, chose to honor God by being married.  For them, crucifying the flesh involved committing to one another in a way that their flesh had resisted for a long time.  Yet, now, they repent of their past actions and choose to honor God going forward.  Their marriage won’t be perfect, but they are doing the spiritual thing that will bear fruit in their life as they continue to follow the Holy Spirit.

Let this be our prayer everyday.  “Lord, strengthen me to say no to this desire of my flesh and show me the positive thing that I should do to break its hold on me!”

Desires & Emotions audio