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Bible, Bros, & Brew is all about helping you navigate your relationship with God in practical, real-life ways. Hosts David and Phil dig into scripture—'chopping up the word'—and bring it to life with insights you can actually use every day. And while they’re at it, they share their favorite 'brews'—don’t worry, it’s not booze! Just a solid lineup of classic coffees and teas to keep the conversations flowing.
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Walking in the Spirit: What Are the Works of the Flesh? | Bible, Bros, & Brew
Many of us are familiar with Paul's list of the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-23, but what often gets overlooked is that this list was in contrast to another list that preceded it--what Paul called the "works of the flesh". Without careful study, it can be easy to overlook the significance of this list, as it describes what human nature often defaults to without the influence of the Holy Spirit. In this latest installment of our series on "Walking in the Spirit", David & Phil explore this sobering list in Galatians 5 known as the "works of the flesh", and provide key insights to help believers recognize and resist these destructive activities.
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Okay, check this out. The condition of things in Galatia wasn't good. There was a lot of evil behavior that was going on throughout the region of Galatia, and so when we come to Galatians, chapter 5, verse 19, where Paul starts laying out the fruit of the Spirit, it's not just a random list, but he's talking to the people in that area about the things he's seeing and, ultimately, what must be done in order to get things right. You're really going to love this up. Next, on bible bros and brew. Hey everybody, and welcome to Bible Bros and Brew. I'm David.
Speaker 1:With me tonight, or today, are Philip and John, and we are so glad that you've joined us tonight, if you haven't already, go grab a cup of coffee or some tea or some hot brew for yourself. Grab your Bible, grab a notepad. You just put the pause button there for a second. Go grab those things and then come back and pick right up as we dig into the word tonight. And it's going to be good tonight, it's going to be really good. But before we do, let's find out what everybody's drinking tonight. So, philip, what's in the cup?
Speaker 3:I'm so pleased to announce a new coffee from Peregrine. I'm so pleased to announce a new coffee from Peregrine. This is one that's been already shot to the top of my list as far as flavor and enjoyment. That is the Burundi Romero. And what's interesting is dude. You know, it says here that it has notes of raspberry, lime and cola. And I was kind of skeptical, like I don't know that I like any of raspberry, lime and cola. And I was kind of skeptical, like I don't know that I like any of that together possibly. But then I said, man, let me just let it rip and see what happens. Man, this coffee is so good, dude. And then, like I'm the kind of person I don't really put sugar in my coffee, I just kind of go with cream and that's it. And, man, when I put the cream in.
Speaker 1:it's like it went, Set it off.
Speaker 3:The glory fell on that cup. So yeah, man, I was supposed to say, shout out to Peregrine, because there's some good stuff right here.
Speaker 1:Awesome, cool. What about you, john? What are you drinking tonight?
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, I had to stick with Old Faithful Black Rifle Coffee Cup. I had to stick with Old Faithful Black Rifle coffee cup. I don't have the little. I wish I brought it out with me. But this is a Black Rifle like mocha. What's it called? It's like there's a K cup but it has the mocha mixture in it and it comes out so like, it's just so smooth and it's very tasty and sweet, like it's. I'm very much like a default like coffee flavor person. Um, and man, I gotta tell you it is I don't know, it's just doing it for me right now. It's also like my second cup today. So, uh, um, it's reliable. It's definitely reliable, for sure.
Speaker 1:Tonight I'm popped up on Jim's Organic Double Chocolate. Let's see if I get that to go in there. There we go, double Chocolate from Jim's Organic. Really cool. It really is like a nice double hit of chocolate. Add a little cream to that, a little sugar and you are in the glory. That sounds awesome man. It is really nice. Wow and it's because of this coffee we can talk about anything tonight.
Speaker 3:There you go See.
Speaker 1:See how coffee is the blessing.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes. Well, that's what's in our cups. Now we're going to dig in a little bit to the Word. You know, over the last couple of weeks we've been focused primarily around Galatians, chapter 5, verse 16. It's kind of our rooted statement, if you would, which says this I say then walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Speaker 1:And so we've been talking about the concept of walking in the Spirit. And what exactly does that mean? And so far we've kind of narrowed it down to that when we walk in the Spirit, we are literally walking with and in the Holy Spirit as he speaks to us, with the breath of God. Because, remember, the Holy Spirit will tell you, he says what the Father says, he does what the Father does. So he is communicating the Father's will to us, the knowledge of the Father's will to us, as we walk day by day. So we have the breath of God upon us and we have the leading of God through the Holy Spirit who, as we're walking, he's telling us avoid that step, come over this way, go that way. And he's ordering our steps as we walk through our everyday lives. And so we've come to grips and understanding that if we are to walk in the spirit, that means we're to be walking led by the spirit. And if we're walking led by the spirit, then when we come to obstacles of the flesh, then we have a greater opportunity to overcome the obstacles that the flesh presents to us. And inevitably in life, as we talked about last week, there will always be opportunities for you to fall prey to your flesh. And we're getting ready to dig into a little bit, because this flesh, that comes from the greek word sarx and um. It basically means according to your own will, by your own doing, right, uh? And it implies apart from god. So you're, you can see that it gives the impression that when we talk about the flesh, we talk about man being out on his own, doing his own thing, apart from God.
Speaker 1:And so when we get down here and we start looking at what's happening in Galatians, chapter 5, and I believe it's starting at verse 19. And I believe it's starting at verse 19, 519 starts us down this path where Paul tells us now the works of the flesh are these, and he goes on the list of about 15 or so things that he lists that are works, or the outpouring of the acts of the flesh and then after that he follows up by telling us about what the fruit of the spirit is. Now, one thing that I think is important to understand is that these are not opposite lists. It's not a concept of if you do this on this list, then you'll be free from that on that list. Now these are even born from two different places. The works of the flesh are the works of man. A fruit of the Spirit is born of God and ultimately he determines the yield of every harvest. So there's the Spirit that's involved in the works or in the fruit of the Spirit. It's never you on your own, it's always the Holy Spirit, always the Father, always Jesus at work with you, producing that fruit in your life, versus the works of the flesh when you are producing in of and by yourself. So that's a very serious place to be.
Speaker 1:So we thought tonight that we'd look a little bit at the works of the flesh, and I think that you'll be very surprised here, because one of the things I think to put in context here, especially as I read it today you know context here, especially as I read it today you know Galatia was not in a good place and the Christians in Galatia were not in a good place. You had Christians who believed a lot of different things. You had Christians who still believed in the whole bit of circumcision. In fact, the beginning of this chapter Paul is dealing with the concept of the circumcision and those who believed that if you were going to be Christian you also had to be circumcised. And Paul is saying those two things couldn't be further from the truth. What happens in your physical flesh has no part in what happens in the spiritual well-being of man. It's a spiritual choice that man has to make, not a physical cutting of the flesh anymore. That will determine man's condition.
Speaker 1:And so Paul is dealing with those. He's dealing with people who think that their morality, there is no more morality, and that their thinking about themselves and how things ought to be is greater than any moral law. So they're above the law of God. They're above, you know, the dealings of what Paul is trying to teach them are how we ought to live. Then you had those free spirits that existed in that time period.
Speaker 1:I think they're called. It was called nomialism. Don't 100% quote me on how I just pronounced that, though. Most people just believe they had free will about everything and that everything was okay for them. And so there's all this stuff going on in Galatia and Paul is trying to right the ship with the believers there who are following him and directing them and saying there's a different path for those of you who believe and follow Christ here, looking at the works of the flesh, and in those works we're going to see some of the stuff that creates a bigger problem and why there was so much going on in Galatia at that point. Philip, what are your initial thoughts as we dig into this?
Speaker 3:I think it's interesting the contrast that Paul draws. First of all, he gives these two lists. He says the works of the flesh are manifest. That's what the King James says, and the word manifest there means obvious. It's like the works of the flesh are very apparent, they're glaringly obvious, and they are these. And it gives the whole list. And then he gives another list, the fruit of the spirit. And so you have works on one side, fruit on the other side.
Speaker 3:And I just think that's interesting because when you think about works, you think about something that you're putting effort into and something that requires labor, whatever, whatever.
Speaker 3:But then when you think about fruit, that's something that simply just grows, it's something that is a byproduct of light water cultivation, the different inputs that you put in to help that, whatever seed you're planting grow, the end result or the product of that is the fruit of whatever you've planted.
Speaker 3:And just to harken back real quick David, to that, the running theme we've had is that fruit is the natural product of seed and, as we've talked about already in a few episodes, seed in this context refers to the seed of the word of God and that's what Jesus said in the parable of the sower, refers to the seed of the word of God and that's what Jesus said in the parable of the sower. It was heavily emphasized that if you don't really get that parable about the seed being the word of God, you can't get any of the other parables. But besides all that, I just thought it was an interesting contrast of Paul saying, okay, we got works over here and then we have fruit over here, and the only way to get the fruit part is through fellowship with the Holy spirit locking into God's word. The only the way that you're naturally going to get the the works of the flesh part is just defaulting to doing things your own way without God. End of story.
Speaker 1:Well, we can wrap up right there, if you want to.
Speaker 3:And that is it for us now. We'll see you next week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been great folks let's look at. Now. I want to read a little bit from a commentary that I've been using. It's the New American Commentary for the Book of Galatians. Like a lot of deep commentaries, you'll find that the New American Commentary is broken up into many volumes and usually there's a book per volume until you get towards the latter letters where sometimes you'll get like a Philemon and those little smaller books. You'll get John Jude, Philemon together, that kind of thing. But in looking at this book in Galatians it it breaks it down, and I do want to say that I believe they used an older version of the King James. But there are just a few things that I want to point out. The first of all is that he breaks in this commentary.
Speaker 1:They break down these works of the flesh in four categories. Category one are the sins of immorality. Category two are the sins of idolatry. And let's just, as we're looking here, the sins of immorality would be adultery, fornication and uncleanness and lasciviousness, no-transcript. The third is the sins of animosity. The sins of animosity, which are hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresy, envying, murdering, and then the final set is the sins of intemperance. And what that word, that word intemperance, means is that in one sense it means unable to modulate, unable to find. You know, I can't think of the word all of a sudden, but you know when you, when they say you know, don't drink too much, and you say I'll just have to and you go out, and you only have two, versus some people who go out and they just can't stop once they get started. So intemperance is the person who can't seem to stop once they get started. Right, that's drunkenness and revelings, which actually turns into something much, much uglier than you would think. And there's another interesting thing about all of these that what makes them part of the works of the flesh is these things and I think Philip and I said it last week have a way of compounding on top of one another.
Speaker 1:You inevitably aren't just involved in some type of sexual immorality. Usually there's some sexual immorality going on. You've been drinking while you're doing it, and there's envy, somebody else's, something that you want. There are other things that often are always involved in these things, and one kind of sin, one work of the flesh, compiles upon another work of the flesh, and it's never just seemingly one thing that you're dealing with, but it's a group of things, because they all kind of come piling in and they carry and cover on top of one another. For example, drunkenness and revelings always seem to be the same thing or go together, because drunkenness is just that being drunk, and everywhere you go. But revelings is directly connected to drunkenness because usually wherever you're partying, you're drinking, Right right, and so there's always this connection between these things that just make them even nastier than what you may have originally thought that they were Okay.
Speaker 1:So let's start with looking at the sins of immorality, the sins of I've got to find my 19 again adultery, fornication, uncleanness and lasciviousness. I told Philip something you know a little earlier today, and it was that you know for the years that I've been born again. I've looked at these fruit of then, these works of the flesh before. I know Phil has others of you may have, but I'm telling you I see it in a very different light, and one of the reasons why is because I didn't realize that one of the things that paul is doing here is not only does he is he telling you what these works of the flesh are, but he's also giving you an inclination by understanding what they really mean and how they were affecting the people of galatia and how he wants you to handle it, and that comes really nicely through in the commentary that I read.
Speaker 1:I just want to start by this opening salvo. It says it is significant that the first three acts in Paul's list of sins have to do with loose sexual relationships. This typically Pauline feature characterizes his listing of evil offenses in other writings as well. So when we talk about other writings, there are a couple of places like 1 Corinthians 6.9, 1 Corinthians 6.18, 6, 9, 1 Corinthians 6, 18, Ephesians 5, 5, 1 Thessalonians 4, 3, where you get, and then we could look at some others I know they're in 2 Timothy as well and some other places Ephesians chapter 4 as well, where Paul goes off on lists and he just started listing things out. Does that sound familiar to you too as well, Philip?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, definitely, definitely. Paul was a big lister of things he would like. I think there was a list in, like you said, first Corinthians six, and he said no, you don't be deceived. Neither whoremongers, nor adulterers, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, blah, blah, blah, none of those will inherit the kingdom of God. So he's got a list there. And then he had a big list in Romans 1, I think it was.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:The kind of behaviors that were common among the Gentiles, the people that didn't have covenant with God. He said they were full of envy, murder, backbiting, deceit, hatred. So he was big on that stuff, man. And what's interesting, as I'm sure you'll probably be pointing out, is that a lot of the lists are I mean, it's similar across the board the types of product that fleshly behavior produces.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good, philip. And one of the other things to note is that you'll see here at the end of this section, paul uses the words and such like in the King James Version, which means that this is by no means an exhaustive list of the types of works of the flesh that are out there, just like, philip just named a couple of others off. But the one thing that you can commonly see throughout Scripture is that the works of the flesh bring you to the point where you will not see the kingdom of heaven. That's right. You will not see the kingdom of heaven, that's right. There's no other outcome but for you to miss God when you're living and working by the flesh. It's a bad place.
Speaker 1:But he was talking about those verses and he says it resonates with Jesus' own categorizing of unclean acts that come out of the heart and defile the whole person.
Speaker 1:In Jesus' list, evil thoughts and sexual immorality precede theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly, and so there's something about sexual immorality that and you see it again it's throughout the New Testament.
Speaker 1:There's something about sexual immorality that has its own particular flair of problem and it comes down to this statement here its own particular flare of problem, and it comes down to this statement here that I want to read out of this commentary as well, and it says this it says acts of sexual immorality, although often done in the name of love, are really the antithesis of love, which is the foremost fruit of the spirit. Wow, and when we look at those first three fruit, uh, the first three works of the flesh, how many times, philip, have we seen that people use the opportunity to commit adultery, to just flat out fornicate or get involved in levels of impurity? It says the Bible says uncleanness, the Greek word means impurity. And how many times have we seen people use the term or the phrase I love you as a means to then not bear fruit of the Spirit but to participate in the works of the flesh?
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Come on, do you want to touch on that for a minute?
Speaker 3:It's a big topic. There's a lot of different ways this thing can go, man, but nowadays it's it's very common to to have this idea that you can call a lot of things love that really aren't love, because I think people judge love more by what emotional thrill they might be getting at the moment versus you know. What the Bible actually teaches is love, which is a state of giving and a state of selflessness.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:I mean, there's no such thing as a person operating in love and selfishness at the same time. I don't think that's possible.
Speaker 3:But, we see, you know, and honestly and this sounds pretty rough, but you hear that word used a lot in abusive relationships when you've got somebody who's maybe physically beaten their spouse and saying, well, it's because I love you, their spouse and saying, well, it's because I love you, I just want you to do right. And they're very demanding and things like that, and so they're using love as their pretext for trying to keep this other person straight. I've seen things like that before, just different instances and stories I've heard about even where there was one where there was a husband who every time before his wife would leave to go to work, he would literally call her over and have an inspection of her outfit and he made sure that there was no nothing showing as far as cleavage goes and couldn't have too much room underneath her arms if she was wearing like a you know a strap thing or whatever it was. He, he literally was just overly obsessed with her, you know, I guess, dressing moderately to his standards or whatever, and so she felt completely imprisoned by uh, this, this whole you know wacko inspection job he was doing every day and and, of course, if she didn't dress properly there'd be hell to pay, literally. So, um, but he did it all in the name of I just want.
Speaker 3:I'm doing it because I love you, you know, and what it's really doing is showing a level of possessiveness that can't come from love, because any type of possessiveness is going to be self-serving, it's not serving the other person, you know, and so that's just one example. I know that I might have focused on that. It is not really a comprehensive thing, but the bottom line is there's a lot of deception out there as far as what is love and what is not love, and I think, to be honest, it's just too much dependence on emotionalism and if it makes me feel good, then it must be love versus what love actually is, which sometimes, honestly, love doesn't feel good at all. You know, it can be very self-sacrificial and hard on the flesh to love.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So just some thoughts there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good, philip, if. If a man or a woman is using the term I love you as a means to access your underpants, that's not love at all. They're. They're trying to use a good word and a good terminology that is meant to produce good things.
Speaker 1:Do something evil and to do something that's wrong. It's so interesting, this sexual immorality, which is what these first two words here, adultery or fornication, are wrapped up in, come from the Greek word pornea, and you might think instantly you think pornography. I know, that's what I first thought, but as you dig a little bit more, it has to do Pornia first of all. Originally it meant prostitution.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:So it was referring to the concept of prostitution and how back in the way back days not 400 years ago, so please don't get stuck but how back in the biblical days where there was, there were slaves, and the slaves were sold and some of them were sold for prostitution. And then by the time we got to Paul and his communication, pornea had to do more with just the all-encompassing sexual misconduct.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:And so the word and its understanding evolved over time. But now, when you get to this next word, this word uncleanness, that's connected with it. That's good, john, a selling off.
Speaker 1:I'll go back to where you were A selling off of sexual purity, wow, promiscuity of any and every type, pornia. So, as you can see, it's not just pornography, but it has to do with what you're doing with your body, and in Galatia this was a problem. And so when you get to the next word in that, which is uncleanness, I believe it's uncleanness which has to do with impurity, it means uncleanness. And then it speaks of defilement, of sexual sin and the separation from God that it brings, wow, wow. So not only are you now, because you've been involved in this sexual sin of different types and doing the things you've been doing, but it creates an uncleanness in you and that uncleanness also creates a separation from God.
Speaker 3:Man Wow, wow.
Speaker 1:And that's just. That's serious, that's serious stuff. But fortunately you follow that up and it says the remedy for such sin is confession and repentance.
Speaker 3:Mm, hmm.
Speaker 1:So it goes back to breaking the cycle of sin that we did several weeks ago. God makes ways out of these works of the flesh so that you have a means of escape in order to move back into the fruit of the Spirit and produce something different in your life. And, trust me, this is an area where you want to be quick to repent, quick to confess your sin, because the more defiled you become, you move into this next thing, which is debauchery, which is connected with lasciviousness. Lasciviousness is a Greek word that has to do with it means the inability to put on the brakes. You are out of control, wow, wow. And with it comes the word debauchery. And I found this so fascinating when I was telling Philip. It says that Barclay defines this particular vice as a love of sin so reckless and so audacious that a man has ceased to care what God or man thinks of his actions. You want to talk about that for a minute?
Speaker 3:You know, it reminds me of this thing I read one time. I think it's a type of moral philosophy called being a libertine.
Speaker 1:Yes, libertines, and the libertines are people that Paul were dealing with.
Speaker 3:There you go, there you go. It's this idea of not only are you doing whatever you feel like you need to do and should do, and you have no breaks on anything that you want to do, but you're also proud of it. You know, it's like it says in Romans. It says not only are these people oh gosh, it's at the end of Romans one. I'm going to look it up real quick. Actually, John, if you could pop over to Romans one for me, I'm totally springing that on you. But it says at the end of Romans 1, it was talking about this very thing, about what the Gentiles were doing back in ancient time, when there was no revelation from God, there was no nothing in the earth that told us what God's will was. And actually, if you can scroll down to the end of Romans 1, I believe it's there Ba ba, ba, ba ba.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's Paul's list in verse 29. He said their lives became full of every kind of wickedness sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior and gossip. They're backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud and boastful, and look at this, they invent new ways of sinning. Well, that's hard to do, it seems like, in today's world, but evidently these people were getting creative with it and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, they break their promises, are heartless there's that thing, David like just don't care. And they have no mercy. They know God's justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die.
Speaker 3:Yet they do them anyway, and worse yet they encourage others to do them too.
Speaker 1:Goodness, I think in the next verse Paul starts talking about the blind, leading the blind and running them right into a ditch. Yeah, but it's the concept to me, philip, and you know, I know you can talk about this it's this concept that when people, particularly Christians, when we get into sin, we have, like I'm thinking of a situation right now, where the person that I know is involved in sexual sin, they are knowingly involved in sexual sin. They preach at their church, yeah, they sing, they give out godly advice to people and do all of that stuff, but are trapped I was about to say trapped in booty, but it's true.
Speaker 3:That's another level of issue there.
Speaker 1:Look, the spider has come out. Just like in Proverbs, the spider has come out and trapped them in the web. And so you know, ever regularly, when they're feeling their flesh start to tell them they need some, they head over to old girl's house and partake in sexual immorality. Goodness man, and just, you, can't Pull that Romans. Pull that Romans back up. You can't pull that Romans. Pull that Romans back up. And they already know that it's wrong and they shouldn't do it. But now that person has a friend who has also now created a sex buddy, and now he's traveling out of town to go chase something similar to what the other guy is doing.
Speaker 3:My goodness.
Speaker 1:And instead of saying this is wrong, neither one of us should be doing it he's encouraging the other guy to do them too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's funny because first of all seems like nobody wants to be in sin by themselves.
Speaker 3:This is the issue with a lot of the political establishment that we have in our country. It's like everybody's dirty and because everybody's dirty, they won't tell on each other, because they all know they have dirt on each other.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:It's this thing of like. You know, hey, as long as we're, all you know, wallowing around in the muck and the mud and dirt, then it's all good. You know, nobody should disturb our groove at this point. But, bro, there is a serious thing about a hatred of goodness in the earth, especially if you know you're out there doing stuff that you shouldn't be doing. For some reason, just the thought of holiness or the thought of purity can produce a bit of a resistance in you, almost to the point of anger Sometimes. It's like, you know, then that's why they um, who was it? I'm trying to think of the guy, um, maybe Joseph. It's like his brothers couldn't stand him because he stood out so much. He was obviously someone who was different and special and favored, and they couldn't stand it, you know.
Speaker 1:We'll see it again here in a minute. And you've already mentioned it, but they envied him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there it is. That's what it was, and it's interesting too. When they crucified Jesus and when they were trying to bring him up on charges you know, trying to get Jesus to catch a case it's interesting. They brought him before Pilate and it said, pilate noticed that the Jews did this to him out of envy. I thought that was fascinating. That was the observation Pilate had was oh, they're jealous of this guy, you know. So sometimes it's like if you got a bunch of folks over here doing wrong and you got the one person who's trying to do right, they will immediately turn on that person and do everything they can to just disrupt their life or even take them out. You know, it's fascinating, man. It's the same reason why whistleblowers get persecuted in a large company where everybody's doing wrong. Same type of moral environment there.
Speaker 1:Right, look. Jeremiah 615 says are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all. They do not even know how to blush Gosh.
Speaker 3:Wow. So I mean that's like the definition of shameless Right. It's just no conscience, no, no shame at all, buddy. It's like what the Bible calls a reprobate mind. It's this. Or like Paul said in 2 Timothy I think it was 2 Timothy 3, maybe he said they have a conscience seared with a hot iron. They're morally bereft, if you want to say it that way.
Speaker 1:We've already said it once, but it's worth saying again the only way to come back from a conscience seared is you have to have God unseared.
Speaker 3:There you go.
Speaker 1:You must have a new birth, yeah, and you have to come another way yeah, and that's the answer to all of these works of the flesh. If you find yourself operating in one of the works of the flesh, confession and repentance is the way back.
Speaker 3:That's it. There's nothing else you can do. Nothing else you can do, man. I mean that should be step one. And it's just interesting, like, because people a lot of times people think that Jesus came to preach just love and ooey gooey stuff, but then you read what he actually said in the gospels. The first thing he said was repent, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. He was saying look, you got to do some changing here. The way you've been living ain't cutting it. And even John the Baptist, before Jesus came, john the Baptist was rebuking the Pharisees and he said you guys think that you're okay because you claim your lineage from Abraham? He said no, that's not going to cut it. He said you need to bring forth fruit that is meat for repentance, meaning I need to see some evidence that you've repented. I need to see that your life is a reflection of your so-called repentance that you're doing.
Speaker 3:You know, and it's not easy. It's not easy but it's what's required. You know, the Bible says in Proverbs 28, I think it is. It says he who covers his sins will not prosper, but if you confess and forsake them, you'll have mercy. So there's the confessing of it, but then there's also the forsaking of that sin. That's when God's mercy comes in.
Speaker 3:And I think, like you said, david, you've got people who, unfortunately, unfortunately, you've got folks who are standing up in pulpits every week.
Speaker 3:And we're finding out, left and right, dude, all these ministries that are getting just blown apart from the inside, with scandal, with folks coming forward, finally, even after decades going man, this person sexually abused me for years and all of a sudden now, things that were hidden for a long time are starting to come to light and it's like, okay, I think God's trying to clean houses. It's one of those things where, like in first Peter, it says you know, judgment must begin at the house of God. And I feel like that's happening right now, dude, because it isn't okay for a guy to be preaching every Sunday and then carrying on an affair with some lady when he's married, or whatever the case is. It's not okay for a dude to be running the youth ministry and you find out later that he's been molesting some of the kids in the ministry, right, right and just standing up every Sunday like there's no problem. Dude, you're going to bust hell wide open with that foolishness.
Speaker 1:Look, dude, can we just can we? I know this is a little sidelined everybody. Well, we're already down the road. Anyway. It's this concept field, phil, and we've talked about it. I don't know, maybe we need to talk about it again, but it's that these people don't fear God. There's something in them that believes that what they read, what they see, what they hear of the word, somehow or another isn't going to come back and meet them, and that you can continue. Because, look, if you look around the church today, you see it everywhere. They're falling left and right. You see it everywhere. They're falling left and right. And then what's? I think, what's well, what's next to fall? And it's you already kind of see it happening, because there's no fruit being born in their churches anymore.
Speaker 1:Are these people who won't teach the word yes. Yes, you know, because if you're going to be a Christian, you know maybe we'll get to it tonight. But one of the things Paul is encouraging the Galatians to do is one of the pieces of walking with the spirit is you need the scripture you. You need the closeness and proximity to the Holy Spirit, but there's also a place for fellowship, and when your scripture is off, the next part's off.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then you'll get into bad fellowship and there's so many people out there right now who just are not teaching the word, or they're teaching a manipulated word or they're. I mean, it's just why it's sometimes y'all it's wild out in these streets. And you know, I know again. I'm off the track now, but I heard somebody say today, if you went to pastors and said we're going to take your salary away from a year, he said I wonder how many would just quit and go on and do their other thing.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:And then he was like that's exactly what we need to do, because the ones who stick around, you'll probably find, are the ones who are serious about this. But I mean, it's genuinely serious now when you literally see people who are playing in the pulpit. Why is a pastor out here going and, as a pastor, pledging Omega Psi Phi?
Speaker 3:Makes no sense, dude, what is he doing out? Here pledging a fraternity sense dude, what is he doing out here pledging a fraternity? It's just, it's silliness, it's flesh, it's carnal, it has nothing to do with the Spirit of God. And actually, if you want to trace it back and I'm not trying to go way off the mark or way off the path, but it's actually a holdover or like vestiges of the ancient Greek cults, the things that were happening back then those.
Speaker 3:they had several of them. They had what they called mystery schools in ancient Roman world, greek world, where you could join in a cult of some or a cult of some kind, and it always required some type of initiation. You know you had to do something weird or something you know whatever to try to, you know, be accepted into it. And it's honestly the vestiges of that are where we get this idea of sororities and fraternities from. That's why they call it going Greek. You know, it's that whole thing of we got to initiate you in so you can be part of our secret society, if you want to call it that same type of vibe that was going on back then. That's what this stuff is now. But so to me I'm not trying to pledge to nobody, but Jesus bro, I'm not, I'm not out there you know, doing all that foolishness.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of stuff that I think is just compromised left, right, no-transcript the world in order to do that man, that's not going to work.
Speaker 1:So, and ultimately it leads to lasciviousness and debauchery.
Speaker 3:It does, it does.
Speaker 1:So it does circle back around. Paul said Paul was not saying that all the Galatians were guilty of such extreme licentiousness, but he was warning, and we're warning you against a loose disregard for standards of sexual purity, a liberal lifestyle that in the end would lead them to the very pit, wow. So look at what Paul's trying to do, and by having this conversation, we're trying to do some of the same things with you. If we open this up and we get you to understand debauchery and lasciviousness and sexual impurity and all of these things you know, pornea then, understanding what these things mean, you begin to see the depths of just how incendiary they are to your Christian life and how they can literally keep you from the kingdom of God. And that's all we've ever desired in our hearts.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely what's interesting, david, and I'll say this real quick yeah, absolutely what's interesting, david, and I'll say this real quick. I know we're trying to wrap up, but what's interesting is that every single thing that you mentioned about the debauchery and so forth lasciviousness if you could name any type of activity in that category, like excessive drug use, sexual promiscuity there's a ton of stuff you can name Every single one of those things always ends up being self-destructive Every time. Every time you can get away with it for a while, you could have, you know, your fun for a while, and many people do. But I'm going to tell you, man, there is a price to pay eventually for doing that stuff. And you, we've all heard these stories of people that tell you, man, there is a price to pay eventually for doing that stuff.
Speaker 3:And we've all heard these stories of people that you know like, let's say, they're a famous rock star or whatever famous athlete who climbed the ladder of success. They had access to everything, all the money they could want, all the women or men they could want, whatever, all the drugs and sex and rock and roll they want. They could want whatever all the drugs and sex and rock and roll they want. And after a while, after they went bananas to their heart's content, their heart still wasn't content, you know, they still felt an emptiness, they felt like still something's missing.
Speaker 3:I don't get why I can't ever be satisfied. What is this? And so they just keep barreling away at those same things and all it does is lead them further down a path of destruction. Man to the point, many of them completely just lose it either die, overdose or or whatever else might take them out, but inevitably this stuff ends up in self-destruction in one way or the other. Man. So this is why God told us what they are. He wants us to be able to clearly identify them so we can avoid that stuff and not get caught in those self-destructive patterns.
Speaker 1:That's good, Phillip. I thought we would get so much further along.
Speaker 3:Well, we can dream, can't we?
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is just. That was just the first one the sins of immorality. We've got a few more to go as we look at these fruit of the spirit, but do be encouraged, because looking at these is not designed to make you feel bad about your life choices and decisions. Number one it's to provide understanding In all of your getting get understanding, because once you understand the thing, you can then take action and do something about it. Right, but until you understand, a lot of times things about the why and all of this stuff are a mystery to you, and so we wanna unravel the mystery so that you can then take action, if you're struggling with any of these areas, to get on the right track, because, ultimately, what Paul wanted for the Galatians, what David and Phil want for you, is for you to live for Christ and die to sin. Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:That's what matters most, because that's where the happiness of life is and ultimately it's the key to eternal life, so that it doesn't just have to be now that God blesses you, but that you live a life fully in the presence of Jesus. And that's what I'm longing for and looking forward to. But I also have that presence in Him with me now, and that's because I'm born again and I know Him. So if you don't know Him, I want to encourage you. The Bible says you must be born again and it's just a simple prayer to say Lord Jesus, I recognize that I have sin and I have sin in my life. I repent of it and I ask you to forgive me. I believe that you died for my sin and I want to live with and be with you forever. I'm yours, I'm yours.
Speaker 3:Praise God.
Speaker 1:And just a simple prayer like that makes all the difference in your world and moves you from being a child of hell to a child of the King and invites the Holy Spirit to start dwelling in you and walking with you and to lead and guide you and to begin to reshape the way you think. Philip, any final thoughts for you?
Speaker 3:I would say I know we went kind of all over the place in this podcast, but I would definitely say, listen back to it and look up some of the scriptures that David and I have mentioned. I know we kind of skimmed a few and mentioned just by chapter and verse a few of them, but definitely take some time to really dig into this, in your private time or whatever, and really just pray and ask God. You know what he wants you to see from these scriptures. Let the Holy Spirit lead you and then, whatever you may find out, share it with us. You know we'd love to hear your take, your perspective you can send us. Well, we'll go through all this contact information in a little bit, but we would love to hear from you about those things for sure.
Speaker 1:Yep Phil. Let's pray for the people tonight. Let's pray for God to do what only he can do in their lives.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, father, thank you first of all for your mercy and your faithfulness to us, that even when we do stumble and fall, you're right there.
Speaker 3:You said in your word, in Psalms 84, that you're good and you're ready to forgive, and you're plenteous in mercy to everyone who calls upon you.
Speaker 3:And so, lord, I pray right now for everyone listening to this podcast.
Speaker 3:I just pray that, if they've been in that type of situation and they've been feeling distant from you, whatever the case is, we pray, father, that you'll reveal to them your perfect will for their life, your perfect purpose for their life, that you'll pull them out of whatever that low place is, that sunken place that they might be, and pull them up and set their feet on the rock.
Speaker 3:Father, encourage them in their hearts, strengthen them with might by your spirit in their inner man, help them, father, to get back on solid footing in their spiritual life so that they can reconnect and draw near to you. And we just give you praise for that, father, that you said in your word in John 10 that no one's able to pluck us out of your hand, lord, I thank you for that. For every person listening that not one thing, not one person, not one situation will be able to pluck them out of your hand, and we just give you praise for that, father. We thank you for your keeping power, because you said that you're able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before your presence, and so we thank you for these things now, in Jesus name, amen.
Speaker 1:Amen, man, we're so glad that you've joined us tonight. We'll make much more progress next week, we promise. Until then, don't forget that you can connect with us on social media. You can reach us on Instagram. We're also out there on X and Facebook, so make sure you find our pages, you like them and join in any conversations that are going on over there, and we'd love to have you Also.
Speaker 1:If you've got questions or comments, we'd love to hear them. You can email us at gotbrewed, at biblebrosnet, and you can also reach out to us on any of the podcast platforms or YouTube Rumble. You can use the comments section in those places. We check those places regularly and if you've got a question, comment, issue, need or concern, we'd love to hear about it and we'll do our best to help you and to walk with you. Just remember, we're brothers and sisters in Christ and anything we can do to help your journey we'd be pleased to do, because that's what we do we help people on their way. We love you guys, appreciate you so much. For now, I'm David, he's Phil, oh, he's Phil, sorry, not Phil and we're out of here. Peace.
