Flesh Works

Good morning. Just a few things to cover here before we step into our passage. We had yesterday the first of the three planned fall cleaning days, and I guess quite a bit of work was done here. And if you see a little bit of humidity on the windows and things, that's part of it. Anyway, we have a couple more opportunities coming up, and sign-ups are out in the lobby. If you feel led to join in helping with that, that should be appreciated. Also, one more thing. Don't have a slide for this? Next week, that's when they give you back the hour that they stole from you last spring. Okay? All right, so next Sunday. All right. Another is a new supplement.

It's two pages. It's on the cabinet to the right. This is one on describing what is the old man and the new man and the old nature and the new nature and how does that fit in with the will and faith and grace. So anyway, that's available on the cabinet to the right as you exit the room. It's also on the All-Hills website if you'd like to take advantage of that. Okay. We have today what Wayne read for us here.

These are a listing that Paul gives of the works of the flesh. But before we step in the list, we want to clarify a few things here. Paul's going to list several kinds of expressions of the sin nature. He calls these in this passage the works of the flesh.

Based on the words that you see right at the end of that list, and things like these, we know that this list is not exhaustive. It's things of that kind. Things that are representative. And so that's an important thing to keep in mind. Could you add more to the list? Oh, yes. Very easily.

But, the one thing to keep in mind, the unbeliever not having the new nature, the unbeliever not being in Christ, has no choice but to always express the sin nature, even if that looks nice at times. The unbeliever is, as sometimes described, hardwired in to operate out of the energies and motivations of the sin nature. Believers are called upon the motive that the Lord provides, grace. and the enabling and empowering and energizing of the Holy Spirit.

Here's a diagram that was on another handout. This is from Hal Malloy, and I think Sue did the cleanup work on this. But we as believers are all in Christ. We have Christ's nature by position. But while we're in our physical bodies, this sin nature is in us as a believer. The sin nature has the place of a deposed dictator. Got that? The sin nature has the place of a deposed dictator. It is not removed as long as we're in these bodies. As long as we're in these bodies. So even for us as believers, these typical expressions that Paul's going to list of the sin nature, can be expressed in us as believers as well. Yeah. And you wonder why. Okay? That's why.

The sin nature, however, and this is a key point, the sin nature never gets any better. The sin nature cannot be improved upon. The sin nature does not change. You know the reason that they have those bars and big sheets of glass when you go to the zoo? between you and some of the critters there is because the nature of those things behind the glass and the bars doesn't change. Okay? So they very intentionally put a separation between the two of you because the nature of those things, they may bring it into the zoo, but the animal is still in the animal, even if the animal is in the zoo. The nature doesn't change.

The sin nature doesn't change. Now, so a key thing, the flesh is the flesh is the flesh. The sin nature doesn't get any better, and we should not fool ourselves into thinking that it can be improved, or that that's our job, or that that's what God is in the process of doing. He is not. Now, it is a nature. What's a nature? It's a collection of, and we say fixed, unchanging, spiritual and moral and ethical attributes. A collection of spiritual and moral and ethical attributes. That's a nature. Unchanging. The sin nature, when expressed through our bodies, is called the flesh. That's what it is. Paul uses the term sin, or the sin, in Romans chapter 6, and he'll use the term flesh here. It's the sin nature expressed through our bodies.

One thing that's key, the flesh does not always appear as bad as it could. And that's really a good thing, because it could be a lot worse. But the flesh will always have the capacity to be as bad as it can be. You get the difference there? The flesh doesn't always appear as bad as it can be, but it always has the capacity to be as bad as it can be.

Some of us here have seen the sin nature at its ghastly worst. And I'm not going to, I'm sure, be listing all the different possibilities among us. I know, I think it's Doug that fought in the Battle of the Bulge and fighting a pretty ghastly enemy. And a lot of people had to put their lives on the line and many lost their lives fighting what was very apparent as an awful expression of the sin nature. And Bud was over in the Pacific Theater opposing terrible expressions of the sin nature there.

In my own experience, I used to sit in PTA meetings, eating across the table from this mass murderer. Twelve years after I graduated, I went back to the same high school. Well, I didn't learn. I went back to the same high school. and taught. I taught at the high school, 12 years after I went there, and they gave me an assistant teacher. I only found out after I left there that the assistant teacher's husband, whom I had met, turned out to be a serial killer. Killed up to two dozen people, and it never did quite get the number figured out. It was hard to tell all the parts.

The law stokes Paul is going to list these expressions, and why is he going to list them? People will often think, well, we've got to have law, because otherwise these things will get out of control. The reality is, law provides some restraint, but it's not the answer, because the law stokes the sin nature's fire. It provides even more impetus. Paul himself said it, Romans 7, 8. But sin, and the Greek there has a definite article, the sin nature, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of a little bit?

No. Every kind. Boom! Gasoline on the fire. Imposing law on the churches at Galatia had made things a lot better? No. had caused them to get to a place where Paul was warning, you're biting and devouring one another. Be careful or you're going to consume each other. The law stokes the sin nature's fire. Now, it's true, even the world recognizes that the things that Paul's about to list for us here in this passage are a problem.

The world certainly recognizes that. It sees that and there are whole systems that we have in place. We have a world of laws and legal systems. We've got prisons and punishments. We've got all sorts of enforcement people. This is Nevada State maximum security prison. My son is working there right this morning. Keeping Nevada's worst of the worst under lock and key.

It's all because even the world recognizes some of these things that Paul is about to describe are downright rotten and dangerous for society Now One of the things that scripture makes clear however the unbeliever and we saw this way back when we're studying Ephesians Ephesians 4 18 and The unbeliever is excluded from the life of God. Not just lacks, but is excluded from the life of God.

Separated. Why do we say that? We've laid out the principle here. Death means separation. The unbeliever is separated from the life of God. That's what it means by spiritually dead. Doesn't mean that he can't move around. Doesn't mean that he can't do anything that has any spiritual impact. He does. But death is separation when it says he is separated from the life of God. That's what it means by spiritually dead. The believer, even while depending upon the sin nature, even while we are in Christ, can be working for death. Yes.

Romans 6.23.

If it's life you want, Romans 6.23 says, the free gift is eternal life. But even for the believer, death is the wage that's paid. Separation from God, not eternally, but through each step in life. Yeah, the believer can work for not eternal separation, but moment by moment loss of fellowship with the Lord. One of the other things to note as we step through this list here is starting with the word wrath. In the Greek, it may or may not be revealed in English, starting with the word wrath, the rest of the words are plural.

Isn't that interesting? He starts off singular on the list, all of a sudden he shifts into second gear, plural. Why the plurals? It may be that there's sort of a sense of a building momentum, jumping from the singular to the plural. It may also convey the idea of things being widespread, repeated and common, increasingly so. Notice also that there's this sinister grand finale in the list that he has. Addiction and excess, as we'll see here. Drunkenness and carousing. And we'll take a look at that in more detail, of course. Before we step into it, something else. The flesh is everything that Jesus Christ is not. Everything Jesus is not. Paul is going to give us sample expressions of here's what the flesh looks like, okay?

The sin nature is always going to be a spiritual wannabe. The sin nature puts its hand up and says, Pick me! Pick me! And it's always wanting to step into the place that is, by all rights, the Lord's. The sin nature will always want that spot. And the expressions of the sin nature are always going to be fake life.

Perhaps you've seen it, maybe in homes, maybe in a furniture store. They've got this fruit, and it's funny, no matter how many days go by, the fruit always looks the same, other than a little bit of dust. It's plastic or it's wax. But it never gets any better, it never gets any worse, it never changes. It's just fake. And the Sin Nature's life is like that. The Sin Nature has a marketing program. And it's constantly telling you, This is what's real. This is what's real. Pick me. Pick me. The expressions of the sin nature are always going to be subject to the ruling principle of diminishing returns. Well, what do we mean by that? Always two words, more and again. Okay?

More and again. I've already consumed this, you know, drink after drink after drink after drink, and it's not enough. Well, you need to do it some more. I'm not getting quite as much excitement as I did last time, so I have to do it more and again, more and again, more and again.

Those are the two words that the sin nature always throws back. The other thing is the sin nature always pays a wage that costs you. You get a paycheck and a bill. How about that? And the bill always eats up the paycheck. Every time. It's a paycheck that costs you.

Christ is everything that the flesh is not. It's the reverse, and more. Jesus Christ is the life, real life, and the source of eternal life. The sin nature tries to promise to be, but never is, because it's fake life. Jesus is real satisfaction, not plastic fruit. He is the one who loved us, scripture tells us repeatedly, and gave himself up for us, for the joy set before him.

He's the beginning of the new creation. Now, here's the deal. We are right now, in this creation, this physical world, the only way The only way that anybody's getting from this creation into the new creation is through Jesus Christ. He took the price of all the sins of the world upon Him. It's by faith in Him and what He has done and accomplished that anyone of any type will get into that new creation. He's the beginning of the new creation and He's what it's all about. Compared to Jesus, the sin nature just has nothing to offer.

But boy, does it want you to think otherwise. Alright, let's step through the passage. The first line here is going to jump out at us. Now, the deeds of the flesh are evident. Real evident. Words are certainly thought of as actions. Things done. Things that we do. Things that we accomplish. These are the things that humans do.

Works of the law, for example, under Moses. Both in Romans, and we've seen multiple times in Galatians, we get the message loud and clear. The law, works of the law, will not save anyone. So works or deeds, not going to pull it off. In Ephesians 2.10, for we are His workmanship. His work is what will count, not us. created in Christ Jesus for good works.

So good works are underscored there. In First Timothy, Paul calls for women to be adorned with good works. That is the primary attraction. Later on in that same letter, he appeals those who are to receive help as widows or to those having a reputation for good works. And finally, in that same book, Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works. This is those who are wealthy. Be rich in good works, generous and ready to share.

But not all works are created equal. We've seen some passages here, especially in 1 Timothy, about good works. But aside from those good works, we've got some other works. We've got evil works. Saw those in Colossians. Dead works. We have on top of that works of the law, brought up previously in Romans. Unfruitful works, ungodly works, and works of darkness. And as we see in this passage, works of the flesh. So it's interesting, works can go both ways.

Now in this first line, that now the deeds of the flesh are evident, what's interesting is that it's at the end of this line, in the Greek it's the first word of the sentence. So it's emphatic. Evident now, the deeds of the flesh are. That's the way Paul puts it. Evident. It's emphatic.

As the flesh works itself out in people's lives, the character of the flesh becomes evident. It shows itself for what it is. It has the capacity to show itself as very, very ugly. Even if a lot of the expression of the sin nature doesn't make the headlines and evening news. Now, the last line there, evident.

Which are, we're not talking about which is an are, okay? It's not that. It's which are. As we said before here, Paul's list has, it's a representative list, spiritually, morally, ethically representative list of the expressions of the character of the flesh. It is not exhaustive. It won't list everything, but it's still quite a list. The Greek words translated here, which are, actually echoes the idea later on in the passage there, of which kind. It has that built into the understanding of the Greek words there.

You have on your handout, this table here, categories of the flesh's expression and then the specific kinds. What we'll find is that Paul has listed four different categories of expression. You have sexual expressions, religious expressions. Oh yes, the sin nature is religious. Societal expressions. and addiction and excess expressions. Those are the four categories. And then you could even add to that the generic category, things like these, additional ones. But those are the four that he lists specifically. The first of those comes up as immorality.

It's from the Greek, pornea. I'm not going to bring up the Greek all the time, other than this one is one that obviously shows up on our own language. Or we have words like pornography that comes from that. Sexual relationship or activity outside of what God intended in marriage. That's the valid expression of sexuality is within marriage. Everything else is porneia. Everything else falls under this category. Marriage is God's intended area of expression between a husband and wife. The next thing he has there is impurity.

This is what begins in the heart and in the mind and gets expressed that way. This is unclean thoughts and fantasies. And sometimes those get carried out even in the way of jokes. Maybe even some crude teasing gets carried out that way. That's what this word conveys. These are things that go from the mind out in verbally and in other expressions. Sensuality.

This is the expression of sexuality that's without regard for God or other people. The Greek text here also has, behind the King James Version, also has the word adultery and that would fit in this category and certainly fit in character. with this list that Paul has given here in the first category. Now we get to the religious expressions of the sin nature. Idolatry is the first one. It's often thought of as some kind of an image. We have here the golden calf image out of the Canaanite religion and even had some expression in Egypt as well.

And certainly it can mean that. But I think it's real important that we're not limited to that. Why? It's anything which takes God's place. And what do we mean by that? Anything that calls the shots in our lives as first priority. Or higher priority than the Lord. Right?

So we shouldn't just take idolatry and just shove it off and let somebody else's problem because I don't have any of those things around my house. That's not the issue. The issue is not the images. The real issue is something else demanding my worship, is something else calling the shots in my life.

That's what idolatry is. And that's why we find repeated warnings of it throughout the New Testament, even among people where you would think it was no longer an issue. Why? Because it's real easy, even right now in our modern culture. for other things to call the shots in our lives, to demand our attention, to demand our obedience.

Might be food. Could even be work. I think I've had both of those happen in the course of my life. It could even be a hurt. How about that? A hurt in our heart. that has centered our emotions and attentions. Boy, it grabs us. I was beholding the Lord, but then this hurt came along and boy, I've got to look at that first. I was walking in fellowship with the Lord, but then this hurt came along and boy, it's got my attention so good and so solidly that that's first. That's the idol. And it's not made of pottery and glass and metal. But boy, does it grab my attention. The sin nature even knows how to turn what is good and what God made and intended to be good into an idol. It's amazing.

We'll talk more about that. The next one that Paul lists is sorcery. And I bring up the Greek word on that because the Greek word is pharmakia. You may recognize that. We get our word pharmacy out of that. And the reason that that comes up It's basically, it was sorcery, but by New Testament times, it had developed into a sorcery that involved the use of drugs and alcohol, often in mixtures of different kinds, in order to enhance the so-called religious and spiritual experience.

There's two other places where this word is going to crop up again in the New Testament. We've touched on it before, about six years ago, when we studied the Book of Revelation. In the middle of the tribulation period, this word is going to crop up again twice. Drugs and sorcery will be major prominent activities during the tribulation period. Now we've got this next category, the third category, societal sins.

And one of the things I want to bring out here, these are all shades of the same thing. It may be one thing, you know, you look at it and you'll think as I'm going through it, well, that sounds a lot like this. Well, yeah, it does. And the reason is Paul is looking at facets of the same problem. So when you see the similarities, good, because that's exactly what you're supposed to see. He described a large congregation of issues all centered around one real middle central problem.

The first one on the list there is translated as enmities. This is a personal animosity from the heart. Personal animosity from the heart. Strife. This is rivalry and discord, and what's interesting is that Paul uses this in a letter to each of his apostolic delegates, Timothy and Titus, and he connects it with false teaching both times. Isn't that something? Strife, false teaching. You want to get strife going? False teaching will work just fine. False teaching will do the trick.

Oh boy, will it. The next one, jealousy. Being jealous about another person's better situations or advantage that they happen to have. The circumstances that they have. I really like that. Jealousy. Outbursts of anger. Explosions of rage, wrath, and temper. You know, what's interesting, this outburst of anger thing, I have a few humorous pictures there, the reality is it can be pretty unhumorous. Think about what happens. A lot of times our anger about something, and it may even be about something done to ourselves, something impacting our standing or status, and boy, we can get downright livid. and really what's going on. We perceive, and it may in fact be true, that there is an injustice.

What these outbursts of anger, I'll put it this way, refuse to recognize is that God either has dealt with, is dealing with, or will in the future deal with every single injustice, absolutely, no exceptions, not to the smallest, slightest detail. There is no injustice that has happened in your life that has been done to you. There is no injustice that has been done to me or that I have carried out or that any of us will be involved in that God will not have dealt with. Was not every injustice that you and I are guilty of, and the people that we know of are guilty of, paid for on the cross? Is not that judgment carried out sometimes even in this life? And when it comes to eternity, those who believe will have taken advantage of Christ's payment on the cross for every injustice. that we've ever done. Those who do not believe, will they not have the consequence of every injustice that they've ever carried out?

All injustice of all time has been, is, or will be dealt with. Period. What outbursts of anger assume is God didn't do it there, the cross. God isn't doing it now and he won't do it then. Outbursts of anger are positions of complete non-faith in what God has done, who he is, and what he's going to do. Isn't that something?

Next. We have both as a popular movie and as a popular expression. As a matter of fact, I've talked to people who have been through classes in this. Anger management. As we looked earlier in this book of Galatians, just a few verses back, Paul talked about the anger issue that the people were having among them, where they were biting and devouring each other.

And his response to that is, walk by the Spirit. You see, God's anger management program is for us to walk by means of the Spirit. Do you think for a moment that the Holy Spirit has an anger problem? Do you think for a moment that Jesus Christ has a sinful anger problem? Well, if you're walking by means of the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is pointing you to Christ, and Christ is indwelling you, what kind of a problem could that be?

How are we going to manipulate the sin nature to fix it? How are we going to manage the anger? We aren't. It's not a matter of us managing anger. Reckoning ourselves dead to the sin nature. The sin nature, by the way, does not want to recognize what Christ did on the cross to deal with injustice. The sin nature doesn't want to recognize God's activity now to deal with injustice or the future things that God will do for eternity to deal with injustice. The sin nature doesn't want to deal with that. But we as believers can consider ourselves dead to the sin nature who doesn't want to recognize God and be alive to God.

Here's in Romans 13 and 14. Paul says, let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regards to its lust. Here's a list of expressions of the sin nature that's basically the short list of what we're seeing in Galatians 5, isn't it? It's the flesh. Only it's listed succinctly, briefly. What's the answer? Managing the flesh here, how do you manage the flesh? You make no provision for it. None. Zip. Nada. Zilch.

But, so here's this Greek word, Allah, simple Greek word, that pops up here. Sharp contrast. In sharp contrast to those things that are expressions of the sin nature, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. His character. You have it in your position. Live by it. That's what he's saying. We have more societal expressions here. Here are disputes. It's a devotion to division. That's what he's talking about. This disputes is a devotion to division.

Boy, I've got to divide things up. You ever see anybody like that? Boy, no matter what's going on, they've got to figure out some way to slice this thing up. Slicing and dicing is their cup of tea. Dissensions. For whatever is being said, they're driven to take a contrary position. Oh boy, you've never run into that, have you? Here's somebody, it doesn't matter what's being said, I'm going to argue the other way. Factions.

This is a choosing and promoting moral and doctrinal division and deviation. Boy, let's get separate groups going off here and there and the other way. Let's break off according to this little thought. No, that's what they're doing, let's go this way.

Envying. Selfishly desiring another's possessions. The fundamental idea, if I have what this other person has, then I'll be happy, then I'll be satisfied. It's interesting, going through business school, one of the things that I took was a course in advertising, and one of the things they said right off, advertising is designed to make you dissatisfied with where you are. How about that? It's this. make you dissatisfied with where you are, make you want what they have to sell. And up until then, up until you make that purchase, you're to be dissatisfied and unhappy and envying those who have this, whatever it is.

Then we get into addiction and excess. This is drunkenness. This is intake of alcoholic beverages, either chronically or in excess, publicly or privately, either way. Carousing he has here, this is the sharing of the alcoholic beverages and sexual excess and abuse with others. So it's definitely in the social realm. Also known as orgies. So now he's listed both of these. These are given both in the plural, indicating the idea they're widespread and repeated.

Our modern term for this is addiction. The truth is, if you notice everything else we've listed up to this point, it can all become addictive. Matter of fact, one of the ways we recognize that is we take whatever it is and we put a holic after it. Every single one of them is addictive, but there's a connection I think it's important for us to make. Remember I said idolatry is not just having this little stone or glass or porcelain statue or whatever it is, but idolatry is having something or someone else, Call the shots in our lives. Grab first place. Addiction and excess has an idolatry connection.

Doesn't matter what's going on, I've got to have more of this thing. Doesn't matter what's going on, I've got to do that activity more. Not satisfied with that? That's alright, do it again, and again, and again. The idolatry calls the shots. What does God want me to do? I don't know, but I've got to have another one of these. I've got to do this again. See? The idolatry connection.

So how do we really deal with addictions and excess? Certainly, these substances, and I'll even add to that, activities, activities, have a physical and a physiological component. And we don't want to ignore that. But, A lot of secular counseling and even some nominal Christian counseling can easily go in and ignore the spiritual component by trying to manipulate the sin nature. By trying to manipulate the sin nature.

What did we say earlier? You're not going to change it. Right? You're not going to change it. So all you can do is sit there and manipulate it and massage it around and try to get some behaviors to come out. that maybe look a little better, but the reality is you're not going to touch the spiritual heart of the problem. For each believer, Paul's exhortation is that these expressions of the sin nature, idolatry, addiction, and the excess all together be dealt with by walking by means of the spirit. Give no provision for the flesh.

This handout that we've made available in times past, that's still available on the church website, looks like this. And by the way, I think starting about here, your page numbers are going to be out of sync because I didn't get that updated when I made a change. But follow along with me as you can.

This sin nature, as expressed by a human body, which is the flesh, is the entity in a human being that can be addicted and indulge in excess and commit idolatry. The sin nature is the part of a person who does this. Counseling, whatever treatment or whatever, attempting to manage the sin nature, a lot of times the world just doesn't have any choice. That's all they can do. I'm not saying that the physical and physiological things shouldn't be dealt with. Yeah, they probably should. But we mustn't fool ourselves into thinking that we're going to step around the spiritual problem. But there is a solution.

The Holy Spirit is never addicted. Can you imagine that? Is the Holy Spirit addicted? No. The Holy Spirit is not addicted. The Holy Spirit directs us and points us to Christ. Christ is not addicted. The fruit of the Spirit doesn't include the works of the flesh. Remember, we said that they're things apart. God's answer to the spiritual aspect of addiction and excess is, first of all, to be saved, and secondly, to walk by means of the Spirit. That's the spiritual answer. Scripture touches on that.

Hebrews 4.12. says that the Word of God is alive and powerful and it touches at what level? Between soul and spirit. It gets deep. You can't get anything at the pharmacy that's going to touch that. And no counselor who doesn't know the Lord is going to be able to tell you anything that gets that deep. This is touching at the spiritual level.

And now at the last part here of verse 21, This ought to cause us to ask some questions. So what's Paul doing with this warning? We said a couple of weeks ago that warnings are certainly a good thing. Warnings are definitely a good thing. So why is he doing the warning?

The legalists, the Judaizers are going to claim, you need the law. That's what the Judaizers are going to claim. If you don't have the law, why don't you just go hog wild? You'll go nuts. So they say you need the law. But Paul is really clear in Galatians. He's giving them the law is not applicable to you as believers and you don't need to go hog wild because God's got an answer for that. It's neither one. You don't need the law. You also don't need what the flesh has to offer. Instead, walk by means of the Spirit.

So who are those who practice such things? The Greek word here for practice has the idea of continual unbroken behavior. Those who are just stuck in this wheel, running the wheel constantly in this continual unbroken behavior. This is unbelievers he's referring to. Paul isn't talking about we who believe, but he's talking about unbelievers. Those who continually practice these things.

It's not that we as Christians won't struggle with some of these issues. We will. And we have. Yeah, there'll be struggles with these. But the unbeliever is just stuck in the work of the flesh rut. He's going to do what the sin nature says to do because he has no other choice until he believes.

The kingdom of God is this coming millennial kingdom, the reign of Christ on the earth, which continues on into the new heavens and new earth, on into eternity. The kingdom was predicted by the prophets of the Old Testament, in the Old Testament times. The kingdom of God was predicted in the Old Testament, but the church was not.

And we in the body of Christ, however, will have an inheritance in that kingdom. What's that inheritance? It's not centered on the land of Israel. Our inheritance is not centered upon the blessings that will be during that reign, but will be centered on Christ himself. Ephesians chapter 1, where it says we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, talks repeatedly about our inheritance in Christ. It's in Him. It has to do ever with Him and where He is and being in His presence.

Why are these expressions of the sin nature so negative? How come? This warning shows that he cares. He doesn't just say, oh well, they're just going to do whatever they do and just let it ride. No. He cares for them. Paul also talked negatively because that's just the character of the sin nature. That's what the sin nature is. That's the way the flesh looks. The flesh is the flesh is the flesh.

But Paul isn't going to leave everything in a negative light here. He's not going to leave everything with a negative tone. And that's because, right in the next very verses, he's going to talk about the fruit of the Spirit. And it's all out of God's grace. He's not going to leave it negative at all.

It is about who you are. That's the issue. Who you are in Christ. You've been placed into Him. Baptized into Him. These works of the flesh will have nothing to do with who you are eternally. You know, in the new heavens and the new earth, there will be no expression of the sin nature of the flesh. Gone. The works of the flesh have nothing to do with Christ and don't come from His life. And nothing of them will pass into eternity.

1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses about 10 through 15. Describe the change that will take place We have expanded and explained. I'm going to bypass that and leave that to you to follow through on But we have as believers we've been given this motive of grace We've been given the means provided by the Holy Spirit to walk with him for Christ to live out his life in us in every part of life We have a tremendous opportunity We have the opportunity for the life of Christ to be lived out for the sake of our families, for our homes, for our merits.

We have the opportunity to be free from the sin nature calling the shots. We have the opportunity for the life of Christ to be expressed at school and at the office while we're driving down I-25. have the opportunity even while we're right here. That's a tremendous opportunity. Praise the Lord. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for what you have laid out as truths for us. We thank you for what you have done for us because you love us and care for us. And we just thank you for what you have made possible, Lord, to accomplish in our lives and what you have intended because you love us. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.