The Second Letter of Peter

Subtitle: Growing in Godliness- 1

2 Peter 1:1-9.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, July 12, 2026.

As we begin to look at Peter’s second letter, we should note up front that Peter clearly treats this letter as if it will be his last.  He states that he will shortly put off his body, as the Lord has shown him. 

Let’s look at the letter.

Introduction (v. 1-2)

The letter starts off with a statement of who is writing or sending it.  This is the Apostle Peter.  This is just as he introduced himself in his first letter.  However, Peter adds the name Simon.

In some ways, this is his name, and it is normal for him to use it.  However, in the first letter, he did not do this.  There he introduced himself only as Peter.  It was Jesus who gave him the name Peter.  Thus, Peter emphasizes his new life following Jesus his master.  Yet, Simon would also emphasize that he is that same Simon who has been being transformed by the teaching of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit.  God was redeeming Simon through Jesus, making him into the rock that Jesus had called him to be.

Peter also adds that he is a slave of Jesus Christ.  This may seem contradictory in light of the Apostle Paul’s emphasis that the Jews time serving under the law was a slavery.  In Jesus, they are now set free from the law of sin and death.  Yet, Peter is not calling himself a slave because Jesus has made him one.  No, Jesus has set Peter free.  Yet, Peter so loves the Lord Jesus that he considers himself a slave of Christ.  He volunteers to live only for the purposes of Jesus and not his own.

Peter does not address this letter to a specific group.  However, in 2 Peter 3:1, he will mention that this is his second letter.  Thus, it seems reasonable to think that this letter was sent to the same people as the previous letter (central Asia Minor).  Yet, it is possible that it had a wider circulation.  He simply says in verse 1 that he is writing “to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours.”  He is essentially addressing it to believers.

Faith involves what we do but also is a description of the truth about Jesus that we are called to believe.  We are walking out the faith that others before us have passed down to us, but we are also walking in the faith to which the Holy Spirit has drawn us, even stirred up within us.

This faith has been made possible by “the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”  It is his righteousness that lays the foundation for our faith.

It is important to note that in English this phrase could be read as either calling Jesus God, i.e., he is both God and Savior, or it can be read as speaking of two persons, the Father and Jesus.  The Greek grammar behind this phrase is fairly clear that God and Savior are both describing the same person, Jesus.  This is one of those clear places in Scripture where the divinity of Jesus is explicitly declared.  We see a similar statement in Titus 2:13. You may find some Greek Scholars who dispute this, but it is generally seen to be a conclusive statement of the divinity of Jesus.

Peter ends his introduction with a salutation of “grace and peace be multiplied to you…”  Grace is the good gifts of God in a variety of forms.  Peace is both an external peace (no longer enemies with God) and an internal peace (an assurance of right standing with God resonating in our hearts).  Peter prays for it to be multiplied to them (as it is needed), but particularly in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.  The knowledge of God has been given to mankind through Jesus.  When we understand all that Jesus has made available to us, it becomes a source of never-ending grace and peace to the believer.

Peter gives a final exhortation (v. 3-21)

What we have been given (3-4)

Chapter 1 lays out a final exhortation of the Apostle.  He starts out by describing a couple of things that believers in Jesus have been given (or granted).  These have been granted by “his divine power.”   Jesus exercised divine power throughout his ministry, death, and resurrection.  On top of this, his divine power has secured many important blessings for believers.  Peter sums this up by saying that we have been given everything we need for life and godliness.  When you feel like you can’t do what God has given to you to do, remember that Christ has supplied everything you need to live a life that displays the godliness of our lord Jesus.  Yes, our flesh fights us and even wins some battles.  However, in the end, we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord.  We must learn to thank God for His supply in every situation.  We must learn to walk in faith knowing that He is going before us to make the way.

We must be clear that it is the purpose of Jesus that we should live a godly life in his name.  Yet, at the same time, it is he who also supplies everything we need to do that.  He has supplied the message of truth, the presence and empowering of the Holy Spirit, the family of believers along with many who are spiritually mature and can help us, and finally, he has supplied us with the Scriptures that have been confirmed and proven trustworthy.

The second thing that has been given to us is “his precious and magnificent promise by which we partake of the divine nature.”  This is a mouthful and says a lot.

The promises of Jesus are that he will not abandon nor forsake us in this life.  He will also send the Spirit to aid us.  He will bring us to himself so that where he is we may be there too.  He has secured an inheritance within the kingdom of God for us.  We will be his jewels on the day of his second coming.  These are only some of the great promises of Christ for those who follow him in faith.

What does he mean by “partakers of the divine nature?”  It does not mean that we are becoming gods ourselves.  Rather, God is supplying to us things that are His by nature.  He is eternal by nature, but He has made it possible for us to partake (have a portion) in his eternal life.  We also partake in the eternal fellowship among the Godhead.  This is about a relational bond and life that we can share with God.

The flip side of this partaking is that we are those who “have escaped the corruption that is in this world through lust.”  By nature, we are those who are being corrupted by the lusts of the flesh.  By partaking in the divine nature, we are enabled to escape the death that is brought about through the lusts of men.

In your faith, diligently add these things to your life (v. 5-9)

Faith is the foundation of our walk with Christ.  However, we need to add some things to our faith.  In fact, we need to be diligent in this matter.  The following list is similar to Paul’s fruit of the Spirit.  It is clear that they are not intended to be exhaustive.  Rather, Peter is telling us not to settle for faith alone.  We must go on to let the Holy Spirit help us to bear the fruit of His presence.  These character traits are to be in our lives.  They will ensure that we are not stuck doing one thing to the exclusion of all other virtues.

To our faith in Christ, we need to add virtue (moral excellence).  How we live matters.  To our virtue we need to add knowledge.  Peter is not talking about the knowledge of humanity.  We need to add the knowledge of God that has been made available in Jesus.

Let me just insert here that this may sound strange.  How can I supply virtue to myself?  Though Peter does not make this explicit, the previous mention of the fruit of the Spirit is part of the answer.  God is supplying His Spirit in order to transform us into the image of Jesus.  However, this requires me to “supply” the faith and courage to walk these things out.  I must be intentional.  The question is never about God’s supply.  He is faithful.  However, the question is whether I will take up what He is supplying and adding it to my life.

To knowledge, we must add self-control.  Notice that knowledge in and of itself can puff us up with pride.  Thus, all of these virtues working together keep us from falling short of the image of Christ.

To self-control, we are to add perseverance.  Many people can do good things for a short time.  We are called to stick in there and endure to the end.

To perseverance, we are to add godliness.  Sometimes people who have endured many hardships can become arrogant and hard towards others.  We can cease to be like Jesus in our care for the lost.  We need both.

To our godliness, we are to add brotherly love.  This emphasizes the relational love that develops between family and friends as we do life together.

Finally, we are to add love (agape).  This is a love without condition.  It is love for the sake of Christ.  I love you, not because we have done life together and I have a bond with you, but because Christ compels me to do so.  This seems to serve as the capstone of Christ-like character we are to emulate.

Peter then makes a conditional statement.  “If these are yours and are increasing…”  It is up to you to listen to Jesus and to his apostle.  You can add these things because God is faithful to help you, supplying all you need to do it.  Instead of calling for a certain level, Peter emphasizes that they are increasing.  It may be hard to know if you are increasing in love over the short term.  However, over time, we can see how God transforms our life as we trust Him and obey.

If we have these and they are increasing, then we will not be useless and unfruitful.  Without Christ, our lives are essentially that: useless to God and unfruitful for the things that matter.  As God pours into your life, He is also working to make you spiritually fruitful to others in your life.  He will be able to use you to impact people who are spiritually lost, or brothers and sisters who need a helping hand.

Jesus even told his disciples that God will sometimes prune perfectly good things out of our life in order to make us more fruitful.

As we read verse nine, we can see that certain people were kicking against Peter’s command to grow in godliness.  Thus, Peter challenges those who refuse to follow this instruction.  They are blind and short-sighted.  They are blind to all that Jesus is trying to do in their life, and they are short-sighted to the day when they will give an account to the Lord they claim to have trusted.

They have forgotten their purification from former sins.  This is what Jesus is doing.  He has first legally purified us from our sins.  Yet, he then enlists us in a lifelong task of cleaning sin out of our lives.  We are not saved because we do this.  Rather, we do this because he has saved us.

For the life of me, I do not understand how some people have twisted grace into the idea that they don’t want to “work.”  Somehow you are encroaching on their freedom if you challenge their sin.  Jesus did not die to give us freedom to sin as we please.  He died to set us free from sin.  If we are not blind to the deleterious effects of sin in our life, then we will rejoice to have his help in this.

Praise be unto Jesus who delivers us from these bodies of death!

Growing in Godliness 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 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

The Battle of the Mind- 2

Subtitle: The Help of the Holy Spirit

John 14:16-18, 25-27.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 8, 2025.

We have been talking about the mental battle that Christians face.  This battle would be too much for us alone.  However, God gives us help through the Holy Spirit.

Moreover, God has helped us all along the way.  He has assisted humanity by acting within time to reveal His plan.  He sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins and lead us into an inheritance that none of us deserve.  He also restrains the full extent of what the devil would do if he could.

Today on Pentecost Sunday, we are going to focus on the help that we receive through the gift of God’s Holy Spirit.  Let’s look at the many different ways that the Holy Spirit helps us.

The Holy Spirit is given to help us (v. 16-18)

At its core, the message of Jesus here is that he is going to send the Holy Spirit after he leaves.  This happened 50 days after his death on the Feast of Pentecost (also called the Feast of Weeks).

The Holy Spirit is not taking the place of Jesus in an absolute sense.  He only does so in the sense of expanding the ability of the man Jesus to teach and lead every believing heart at once.

When Jesus told his disciples that he would not leave them nor forsake them, we can in a snarky manner that he did leave them.  Yes, Jesus physically left, but through the Spirit of God, he is spiritually with every believer in a very real way.  He works through the Holy Spirit.

In verse 16, a word is used of the Holy Spirit that is translated in various ways.  The NASB translate it as “Helper.”  Other versions choose “Comforter,” “Advocate,” and “Counselor.”  All of these can be good translations depending on the context.  In this context, I think that some of them are too narrow.

The Greek Word is technically called the Paraclete in English, and has the idea of One who is called alongside of another for assistance.  There are a multitude of contexts from dire to anxious that would color just what assistance is needed.  In this passage, the emphasis is on the Holy Spirit helping us in the ways that Jesus had been doing.  I think that Helper is the best translation here because it leaves room for all the many ways we can need help.  Whatever we need, the Holy Spirit comes alongside of believers to be God’s help for us, whether comforter, counselor, advocate, even teacher, rebuker, conviction, and the one who disciplines us.  Of course, God can use people in our lives, and He does.  However, there are some things that only God can help us with.

Let me focus on the idea that the Holy Spirit will be a helper like Jesus (i.e., another helper).  Imagine how these disciples would feel.  Israel had waited 15 centuries and before that the patriarchs too.  God was not sending Messiah to do a 3 ½ year work and then just leave.  Yes, Jesus is trying to explain that he is going away.  Yet, at the same time, he wants them to know that the Holy Spirit will be given to them.  The assistance that Jesus had given in those days would continue through the help of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit would cut through the religious deception and the nationalistic patriotism, to the core of a right relationship with God.

Jesus would continue to work on the heart of his disciples through the Holy Spirit, which is called the Spirit of Christ in Romans 8:9.  In fact, it has actually increased his ability to speak and work in the lives of his disciples world-wide, all at once.

The wisdom of God is in this reality.  It allows for a time of teaching and training mortal believers.  It is good for us to learn to wrestle with our flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit.  We become more like Jesus in this.  It also gives opportunity for people to turn from rebellion against God and switch allegiance to Jesus before he comes to reign on this earth.  This is the mercy of God.  Lastly, as I’ve already pointed out, Jesus is enabled to work beyond an earthly body at one point on the earth.  He can do much more in preparing this earth for the kingdom of God.

Now, God has always been a helper to those who trust Him.  Psalm 46:1-3 says,

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.”

When we look at this passage, we can envision God being a great help in the time of natural disasters, and of course, He is that!  However, these things are also metaphors.  Mountains are often used to picture the great powers that rule on the earth.  The bigger the mountain the bigger the kingdom.  The sea and waters is often used as a picture of the peoples of the earth.  It is also a place where the chaos dragon (satan) swims and lurks. 

Of course, Noah had both the literal and the metaphorical all at once!  Yet, God was His help.  Such things cause us to fear, but we can trust in God, His power over all things, especially death, and refuse to let the fear control us.

Verse 17 of John 14 refers to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth.  The Holy Spirit was the one who moved upon men to write down the truth that God was revealing to them.  He is a truthful Spirit, but He also comes to reveal the Truth, point to the Truth.  Jesus is the ultimate Truth!

Notice that it says, “whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him or know Him.”  This is talking about the world system that has conformed to the spirit of the devil, antichrist, error, non-Truth.  That unholy spirit that works in this world is not at all like the Holy Spirit.

Of course, the world can conform to things of Christ in the same way that Judas did.  It can do things in an attempt to look like a follower of Jesus, but in the end, it will never truly embrace the transformational power of Jesus that comes through the Holy Spirit.

This world and worldly Christians are tuned into a different spirit.  They receive and chase after a false-help that only harms those who rely upon it.

Though the world does not know the Spirit of Truth, the disciples of Jesus will know Him because He will be with them and in them.  In relation to the world, we are pressured to conform to a system and an image that is antichrist and anti-Holy-Spirit.  However, when we turn from the world and put our faith in Jesus, we can receive the Holy Spirit, the help of God.

Back in verse 1 of this chapter, Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled.  You believe in God; believe also in Me!”  All of this is done in order to encourage his disciples, us, that we are not being left alone in this world as he goes away.  He is shoring up their minds for the things ahead so that they do not collapse under the weight of the enemy’s attacks.  Their minds are set on reigning with Jesus any day now.  But, that was not to be.  Yet, the Holy Spirit would help them to navigate the reality that they would instead be persecuted and abused.

How the Holy Spirit helps us (v. 26-27)

We are going to look at some particular ways that the Holy Spirit helps us in these two verses.  Then, we will look at some other ways from various passages in a rapid-fire fashion.

Jesus had spent a lot of time with these men and had taught them many things in the last three years.  Yet, their heads were full of notions of ruling Israel and kicking out the Romans.  In other words, they weren’t paying attention at the level they should have.  Who can blame them?  Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit would help these men to remember all that he had taught them.  This is one reason we know that we have an accurate record of what Jesus taught.  He promised that the Holy Spirit would help to make this happen.

You and I have not had the same experience as these men.  We need to read the Gospels and the letters of the Apostles in order to know what Jesus taught.  However, the Holy Spirit will then help us to remember the words of Christ, that we have read or heard, when we need them.  At the due season, the Holy Spirit brings things strategically to our remembrance.

Jesus also told his disciples that the Holy Spirit would teach them all things.  It is clearly understood that it would be all the things that God would want them to know and that would be helpful to them.  This is not a guarantee that the apostles would become omniscient and know everything.  We can become fascinated with figuring out things that are only a diversion at best.  This promise is not about that.

In John 16:12-13, Jesus said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth."  Just as Jesus had counseled them in the moment, so the Holy Spirit would help the early Church to establish a clear record of what Christ taught, and led them to believe through the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is still leading the Church of Jesus, but we need to exercise caution in this area.  We must walk in humility.  All saints wrestle with the Truth of God’s word and their own shortcomings.  The Holy Spirit is here to help us, but we need to listen humbly.  The Pharisees and the Sadducees laid claim to this, but they had abandoned the Word of God for the sake of their own traditions.  They had become antichrist all while claiming to be waiting for the Christ.  Yes, the Holy Spirit will lead us into all Truth, but sometimes that will be despite the contrary efforts of authority figures in the Church.

The Holy Spirit would also help them with peace.  Verse 27 focuses on the peace that Christ would leave with them.  Contextually, the peace is both what he is telling them, and specifically, the peace-giving effect of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Here are a couple of verses that emphasize the peace that we are given by God.

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3, also

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”  Romans 8:5-6.

When the Holy Spirit resides with in us, there will be liberty, joy and peace.

Looking at some other passages, we can add other aspects of the help of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy spirit makes us fruitful in the virtues of God.  Virtues are those moral qualities that are quite selfish without the Holy spirit.  Many of them are listed in Galatians 5:22-23.  Using a fruit metaphor, Paul describes what happens in the life of a person who truly has the Holy Spirit within them.  They will evidence these things (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control).  However, they will be as God defines and not as the culture around us defines them.

The Holy Spirit will work within you to teach you how to love, have joy and peace, how to be patient and kind, how to be good to others, how to be faithful to God first and also to the people around us, how to be gentle and control ourselves.

All fruit trees require pruning.  Some branches are cut off because they are dead and have no life in them.  These represent the works of the flesh that are contrary to the fruit listed above.  However, other branches are cut off to make room for fruit in our lives.  This can be things that are perfectly good, but get in the way of what God is doing in our life.  In fact, when it comes to pruning, there are some things in our life that God will prune Himself, without asking us.  Yet, other things He will not prune for us.  Instead, the Holy Spirit points them out to us and shows us how to cut them off.  Of course, we need to be humble and trust the Spirit of God.  How fruitful do you want to be? 

We can even recognize that some things change rather quickly, whereas, other things only change over long periods of time.  Jesus doesn’t say that you will never fail.  But he does promise that the Holy Spirit will be there to help you.  You may fail, but He will not fail to keep teaching you the better way to live and follow Jesus.

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us that we are the children of God.  This is one of the areas that people struggle with when they first put their faith in Jesus.  Am I really a child of God?  Did I really receive the Holy Spirit?  These are valid questions.  Paul emphasizes the help of the Holy Spirit in this area in Romans 8:15-16.

This inner testimony of the Holy Spirit may be subjective from the perspective of other people, but for you, it is very real.  When people ask me the questions above, I remind them of that first time they knew they needed to turn away from their old life and embrace Jesus.  No one just does that on their own.  I mean no one does that in a real way.  Sure, there are many pretenders, but pretenders always know that they are only posers.  Just as the Holy Spirit first touched your heart and mind in a way that you knew what to do, so He continues that same work.  Yes, there is a mystery to it, but you know it when it happens.  It is He who testifies to you (from time to time) that you really are a child of God.

God did not make us to be slaves to our flesh and useful idiots for the devil.  This world system and the devil do not want you to follow the Holy Spirit.  But, the Holy Spirit testifies to us that we can turn our back on the world and the devil and learn to image our Father in heaven by becoming like Jesus.

The Holy Spirit also helps us pray.  Again, in Romans 8:26-27, Paul speaks to this.  You see, the Holy Spirit not only helps us know what to pray about, but He also fills in the gap when we don’t know what to say.  Perhaps grief has hit you or your heart is overwhelmed by something else.  You may be perplexed and cry out to God in tears.  Like Israel in Egypt, their cries were heard by the Lord.  I don’t think all of them were praying prayers, though some surely were.  Yet, the Spirit interprets the anguish of our heart before the Father.

The picture of verse 27 is that God’s Holy Spirit plumbs the depths of our hearts and relays what is discovered there back to God.  Yet, all of this is done according to the will of God, that is, for our good, to build us up and not to tear us down.

Lastly, the Holy Spirit fills us with power for life and service for Jesus.  God intends for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  We see this in Acts 1:7-8.  Jesus wants his people to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that they can have power for living the Christian life, which involves a battle against our flesh, the world, and the devil.  He also gives us power for serving our fellow believers through giftings that are not from a natural source or talent.  It is a gifting directly from the Holy Spirit.  He also empowers us to share the Gospel with those who do not know Jesus.  In fact, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would empower them so much that they would take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and people from every nation, tribe, and tongue would become followers of Jesus.  This is exactly what we have seen over the last 20 centuries.  Are you taking your place among this people of power who are enabled to share the Gospel with the lost?

In all of these things, we are being helped by the Spirit of God.  The best way that we can thank Jesus for this gift of his Spirit is by embracing the help of the Holy Spirit in your life today!

Holy Spirit Helps audio