Summary:

Psalm 34:8 says: "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!" There is a seeing and tasting that is infinitely deeper than physical. Tasting God, who is supremely beautiful to the heart and exquisitely sweet to the soul, precedes seeing God.

The only true way to master our harmful desires is to counter them with healthful desires. How can we learn to crave that which is best for us? Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, God can recalibrate your taste buds, physical and spiritual. Only when this happens, can we talk about "tasting God."

Audio Transcript:

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Heavenly Father, we pray that you send us the Holy Spirit to show us what the Holy Spirit desires and, Holy Spirit, you desire to vivify in us and liven in us, resurrect in us affections for God. And why? Because only God can ultimately satisfy. God, you alone are truly beautiful, ultimately beautiful. You alone satisfy the depths of our souls. Lord, we come and we confess that we do not love you as you deserve. We don't love you as we ought because there's so many things competing for our affections, and often those desires are harmful. And I pray today, Holy Spirit, replace harmful desires with healthful desires, and show us that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can grow into the image Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, as we root ourselves in the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we see Jesus how much you have sacrificed to love us, to pour your love into our hearts, to redeem us, that that alone is what can transform us, that alone is what radically can humanize us and transform us into the people you've created us to be.

So I pray, Lord, today that you show us where our harmful desires need to be supplanted with healthful desires and where the taste buds of our souls need to be recalibrated, and I pray that you do a deep work. I pray for those who are Christians and are caught in sin and shackled in sin. I pray today send liberation. You've saved us for freedom, you call us to stand firm in that freedom, and I pray for anyone who's not yet a believer. I pray today radically regenerate their hearts, draw them to yourself. Lord, there's nothing that we can do to convert anyone, proselytize anyone, Lord. We believe that regeneration is a miracle, supernatural. I pray today, Holy Spirit, save many, and I pray this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, amen.

So we're in a sermon series that we are calling Tough and Tender: Developing Resilience for a Life, and what we're doing this series is we're looking at the paradoxical nature of Jesus Christ, that on the one hand he's the lion of Judah. He comes as a king. He comes as the Lord. But on the other hand, he's also the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That he dies as a lamb. He's slaughtered as a lamb, burying the wrath of God that we deserve for our sin upon himself. He's both. He's a lamb who gives himself and he's a lion who devours vehemently Satan's sin and death. And when we see that Jesus Christ is both lion and lamb, and the more that we worship him, the more we revere him, we begin to resemble him in our daily life. So we're looking through this prism of lion and lamb, tough and tender, and we're looking how this applies to every single area of our lives.

Today we're talking about desires.

Recent data from the Institute of Health Metrics and Valuation shows that the U.S. is among the world's highest rates of substance abuse, has one of the highest rates. Dr. Steven Sussman in a study from 2017 entitled Substance and Behavioral Addictions: Concepts, Causes, and Cures, he says, "Around half of the population of the United States at any one time is addicted to something." Marijuana 17% of 18 year olds are addicted to it, 2% of 50 year olds. Illicit drugs, non-marijuana 8% of 18 year olds, 5% of 50 year old. Tobacco is 15% of the U.S. adult population. Alcohol 10% for older teenagers and adults. Food addiction 10% of the U.S. population, 25% for those who struggle with obesity. Gambling 1-3% of the U.S. population. The internet at least 2%. Exercise 3-5%. But if you are in college, that number jumps to 26% addicted to exercise. Workaholism, addiction of work is 10% of the U.S. adult population. Significantly more probably anecdotally from just living in Boston, in a place like shopping addiction 6% of the U.S. adult population.

Dr. Sussman says in the study, he says, "What's fascinating is that income per capita in the U.S. has more than doubled since 1972, and yet our levels of happiness or just general subjective well being has not changed and actually has declined." And he concludes the study by saying, "The U.S. is suffering from three series epidemics, obesity, substance abuse, and depression." That's the study. There's no solution.

Well, we believe that solution is in Jesus Christ, that he alone is the one who ultimately satisfies our souls. Today we're going to use the word epithumia. This is a word that shows up in our text simulations five, over and over and over. Epithumia, and it's a neutral word that sometimes epithumia is used positively. Jesus says, "I long, I epithumia. I want to have the last supper with you," he tells his disciples. Same Paul says, "I long to be with Christ," in Philippians 1:23. In First Thessalonians he says, "I long to see you face to face." On the other hand, it's the same exact word that's used to describe our lust or ravenous appetites and inordinate craving. It's desire out of control that we need something to feel alive. It's as if our souls are naked and empty and looking for clothing.

Blaise Pascal talked about this gigantic vacuum in every single soul, and we long for it to be filled. And we try to fill it with creation, things around us, experiences or people, or money, or power, et cetera. And the more we get, the more we want. It's like trying a satiate thirst with salt water.

Today we're looking at Galatians 5:16-26 to frame up our time. Galatians 5:16-26. Please follow along either in your Bible or on the screen.

"But I say walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual morality, impurity, sexuality, idolatry, sorcery, amenity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, decensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherent the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such things, there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and evil desires. If we live by the spirit, let us also walk by the spirit. Let us not become conceded, provoking one another, envying one another."

This is the reading of God's holy inherent, infallible authoritative word. May he write these internal truths upon our hearts. Three main sections to the sermon today. In Roman Numeral format because there's seven practical points to take away. So I've tweaked the formula because a couple sermons ago the main points were numbered and then the sub points were numbered and everyone got confused. So Roman Numerals, practical points. You're welcome.

So number one is crucified as a lamb, resurrected as a lion, that's Jesus. Two is crucify your sinful desires like a lion, and there's five practical points there. We'll get into them. I won't read them now. You can take a picture if you want to follow along. And then three is resurrect your holy desires like a lamb.

Number one is crucified as a lamb, resurrected as a lion. Of course we're talking about Jesus Christ. Every other world religion in every misguided flavor of Christianity teaches the following, this is a distilled version of their path to salvation. It's be good and do good. In order to gain acceptance, in order to make your way to Heaven, be good and do good. At the heart of Christianity is the gospel, and the gospel, this is what Jesus preaches his very first sermon. Again preaching the gospel. And the gospel is not what we do for God. That's not the good news. There's nothing that we can do to make ourselves right with God. The good news is that Jesus has done everything. The good news is that Christ died for the ungodly. There's nothing that we can do to atone for our sin. There's nothing that we can do to earn penance before God. Christ has done. When did he die for us? When he saw that we would be good people or would fulfill his commandments. No. He died for us when he saw that we were still ungodly. Christ died for us when we were yet sinners.

Isaiah 53:3-7. Isaiah 53 is one of the great prophetic passages about the Messiah who's come. Written 700 years at least before the birth of Christ. It says, "He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not." Meaning we did not desire Christ. We did not desire God. And that's the story of humanity. It's the story of holy scripture. "Surely he has born our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed strick and smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our inequities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the inequity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. Like a sheep that before it shears is silent. So we open not his mouth."

We went astray like sheep. He comes and he sacrifices himself like the sacrificial lamb as a blood offering, substitutionary atonement for our sins. This is what happened on the cross. Jesus Christ absorbs the wrath of God that we deserve for our sins, for our law, breaking for our rebellion. But he doesn't stay dead. He absorbs our wrath like a lamb, but he comes back in the third day like a ferocious lion. After he ravenously consumed, defeated Satan's sin and death. Why did Jesus do that? Jesus didn't destroy the power of death, the power of sin just to forgive us of the penalty of our sin. Jesus didn't die just to forgive us of the penalty, just to remove the penalty, but he also died in order to remove the power of sin over us. He died in order to free us from the bondage of our sin, from the bondage of our harmful desires.

So Galatians 5:1, this sets the context for our text. Galatians 5:1 says, "For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yolk of slavery." He set us free from what and free for what. Well, here we got to ask the question what is sin. Sin isn't just breaking God's laws by committing bad things, by doing. The essence of sin is not doing, the essence of sin is desiring. And we get that when we understand what the 10 Commandments are. The 10 Commandments aren't just don't do these things. The 10 Commandments are be careful that your heart's desires are not drawn to these things that pull you away from God. So have no gods before me. Thou shall not have any idols. Thou shall keep the sabbath day holy, devote a day to God. And then Jesus comes in, he looks at the 10 Commandments and the sermon on the mount, this is the greatest sermon that was ever preached. And he says, "You know the commandment around adultery, I shall say to you that whoever looks at another person that they're not married to with lustful intent has already committed adultery."

And then Saint Paul talks about the fact that he didn't even know how sinful he was until he read the 10th commandment, which says thou shall not covet. He said, "I didn't understand that the commandments weren't just about action, they're actually about desire." So Christ comes and he says, "Sin is love for things that harm us." Therefore Christ wants to free us from loves or desires for things that harm us, and replace those evil desires with righteous desires for things that actually give us life. From harmful desires to healthful desires.

This is the beauty of the gospel. That God does not just command that we love him. God actually compels us to love him. He does this through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. As you see, what Jesus Christ is doing on the cross, when you realize that he did that for you, that if you were the only person to have ever lived, Jesus would still have died for you because he's so loves you. Your name is graven on his hands, written on his heart, we sing. That Christ came and he loves you infinitely more than anyone has ever loved you, and when you realize what he did in order to show that love, his love is poured into your heart. And your heart is freed from loving lesser things.

One of the things that Augustan said is that the problem with humanity, the problem with humans and the human condition is that our loves are disordered. When we take creature, when we take creation, when we take things and we take a good thing even and we place it in the position of preeminence and we make it an ultimate thing, then that thing begins to control us. And this is how addiction works. Instead the gospel comes in and says, "No, Christ deserves a position of preeminence in the throne of your heart. When you realize what you did in order to free you, you're freed now to love him with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind." This is the beauty of the gospel. It produces love for right things. It doesn't mean you manufacture it. It produces it organically.

Christ did not come just to give us a get out of Hell free card. A lot of people view Christianity like this. You come to God, you pray this prayer. Okay, you're out of Hell. No, you can live anyway you want. If you get into some really bad sin, come back to church, pray another prayer, you'll be fine. Christ didn't come to get us out of Hell and to get us into Heaven primarily. Christ came not just to get us out of Hell. He came to get Hell out of us. Harmful desires, insatiable sinful desires, hellacious desires. God wants to remove those and replace them with vibrant desires, desires that lead to life. And God doesn't primarily compel our obedience through fear. Though he could. He could've. Jesus could've come and said, "I'm Lord. Get on your knees and worship me." And force everyone to become Christians through fear. He doesn't do that because what fear does, it produces a surface level obedience, and actually it's at the heart of it, it's very selfish. It's not God honoring. It's only you honoring. You're doing this because it's the best thing for you, and you want nothing to do with God.

God doesn't motivate us to change by saying, "If you don't obey me, you'll go to Hell." He motivates us through love. Fear doesn't change us, love does. Every parent knows this. I've got four daughters and my wife, we got four daughters. And the thing with my daughter, they're beautiful and they're also little. In comparison, I'm a giant to them, and I tower over them. And I could cower them into submission, "Go clean your room," or, "Go wash the dishes," finally. I could do that. My wife and I could say to them, "If you don't obey us, we are leaving forever." It might be effective for a day. It would never change their hearts. How do we parent? We parent with love. We lead with love. This is how much we love you. This is how much we sacrifice for you. So when I tell you to do things, it's because I love you and I want the best for you. So our rules, our commandments in our house, they're not fences to keep you from fun. They're guardrails to keep you from going over the cliff.

And this is how God talks about transformation. It's not just about our behavior changing. It's not about behavior modifications. It's about heart transformation. Christianity's actually a spiritual heart transplant. God takes out our heart of stone that's numb to God, desensitized to God, seared to God. And he replaces it with a heart of flesh that is sensitive to God. That's what changes us. What changes us is showing us the extent of God's love. What was the extent of God's love? That Jesus Christ on the cross literally goes through Hell and back in order to save us. This is how much I love you, the gospel says. God says, "I'm wiling to go to Hell, take Hell for you." When you realize that he did that particularly for you and you believe that with every fiber of your being, it absolutely changes you to the core. And now the spirit enters your heart. You are regenerated, and you have the power of God within you. You have new affections, new desires, and you have the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is how Saint Paul compels the church in Ephesus to stand firm in the faith. He says, "For this reason," Ephesians 3:14. "I bow my knees before the father for whom every family in Heaven on earth is named. That according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power. Through his spirit, in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." So Christ is in you, power of God is in you that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breathe and length and height and depth, an to know the love of Christ that surpassed knowledge. To know Christ's love so deeply in your core, in the core of your being that it's not just intellectual ascent. You don't just understand it with your mind, you understand it with your heart, with all of your being. To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Stand firm, therefore, is a military term. It means that if you do not stand firm in the freedom for which Christ has set you free, you will be pulled back into the bondage of sin.

Scripture often talks about Christianity in militant terms, militaristic terms. Fight the good fight. Saint Paul uses the term agonism. Agonize in your faith. What's he talking... He's talking about this warfare between the flesh and the spirit, and then the flesh isn't just our body. It's the sinful nature, unredeemed nature of every single one of us, the darkness deep within. He's saying stand firm in the faith or else the flesh will take over. And then there's Satan in the world that exacerbate the desires of the flesh. So how do we stand firm? By standing firm in the gospel. How do we grow in the faith? By standing firm in the gospel. The gospel, the work of Jesus Christ.

Here I got to do a little theology. So if you left, come back for just a little bit. This is important to understanding the rest of the sermon. I've done this long enough that eyes glaze over in evening services. This is how salvation is described in the holy scripture. It begins with justification and then it starts the process of sanctification, and it ends and culminates in glorification. Justification, sanctification, glorification. Justification is I have been saved. Sanctification is I'm being saved. That's from the moment of conversion to the moment that you die. I'm being saved, and then glorification is I will be saved. At the moment that you believe in Jesus Christ, you are justified. That means you are acquitted of all of your sins. God looks at you as if you have never sinned. You're fully accepted, legally righteous. You're justified. Just as if I'd had never sinned.

Then it begins the process of sanctification. Sanctification comes from a Latin sānctus faciō, which means to make holy. We grow into holy. So grow in righteous, and we grow into the image of God. We are being saved from the power of sin, and then finally when we're glorified in Heaven, we got glorified bodies. Heaven is a physical, embodied existence. We'll have perfect bodies. Everyone's going to be 4% body fat with six packs. No acne. Everyone's going to be perfect. That's Heaven. Glorification, no calories. Don't have to work out. That's glorification. But in the process from justification when you met Jesus to glorification when you'll see Jesus face to face is the process of growing into the image of Jesus Christ. Justification is Christ puts his robes of righteousness on you. Sanctification is you're growing into his clothes. His righteousness begins to grow in you. We're incrementally transformed. And Jesus Christ is the benefactor who gives us justification. He's also the benefactor who gives us sanctification.

It's his justification, he's righteousness, and it's also his sanctification. This is important. First Corinthians 1:30, "And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." Jesus is our sanctification. He's our righteous sanctification and redemption. Meaning that when you grow in your faith, when you grow in righteousness, that's not you. You're part of that process, but that's not your power. So you don't get glory for God does. How does this work? When we believe in Jesus Christ, we are placed in Christ, and he's placed in us. Kind of trippy, I know. But that's theology. We're in him, he's in us. We're reunited with him.

So everything that he's done is counted to us. So his death is our death. His death for sin is our death for sin. His resurrection to a new life is our resurrection to a new life. So Jesus died for our sins, which now gives us power to put our sin to death. Jesus was resurrected so now the holy desires to live for God can be resurrected in our hearts. Christ took up a cross, died for sin once and for all, but he tells the disciples, what? In Luke 9:23, he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let me deny himself and take up the cross daily and follow me. Deny yourself and take up the cross..." This is the negative part of sanctification. "Deny yourself and take up your cross on a daily basis." You're putting your sin to death by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is called mortification. You mortify or you kill sin within, sinful desires. Then he said, "Follow me." This is the positive aspect of sanctification. "Follow me," this is your vivifying. You vivify. You give life to godly affections. So it's not just fighting sin. It's replacing evil desires with righteous desires. You're fighting fire with fire, desire with desire.

When we're joined to Christ by grace through faith, because of the historical act of his life, death, burial, resurrection, we're saved. But also that act, what he did on the cross, has an operative efficacious effect for us today when we use it, when we use the resource that he has given us. This is point to, that we first of all crucify our sinful desires. How do we do that? How do we put our sin to death? Well, primarily begins by humbling seeking, and this is the first practical point, humbling seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

So Galatians 5:16-18, several times he talks about the spirit. So first he says, "Walk by the spirit." That's active. Then he says in verse 18, "If you are led by the spirit," that's passive. Being led. You're still walking, but you're being led. Verse 25 says, "If you live by the spirit," that's active, "then let us keep in step with the spirit." It's like a mixture of active and passive. So this is really important because a lot of people ask, "What's my part? What am I going to do?" In the practical, give me a list of practical things I got to do, and I'm going to do that. And then I'll be done with sin. I'll be all set. That's not how relationships work. Do this together by his power.

The most helpful verse about this incredible paradoxical relationship or active and passive with us and spirit. Ephesians 5:18 where Saint Paul says, "Do not get drunk with wine." So do not give control to a substance over yourself. And then that is paralleled with, "Be filled with the Holy Spirit." So don't be filled with something that will pull you away from Christ because you lose control, but be filled with the Holy Spirit, which actually makes you more like Christ. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. And this is fascinating because be filled is both active and passive. Be, that's a commandment, it's imperative. Filled, that's passive. Be filled. It's imperative that's in the passive voice. Meaning you've got to do something and be filled. But you can't fill yourself. It's like your gas tank. Gas tank, thou shall be filled. How's it get filled? You drive into a gas station in New Jersey where it's full service, that's the illustration. That always catches me off guard. "Oh, okay, I can't do this myself. Get a dollar out."

Be filled with the Holy Spirit, meaning you place yourself in a position where the Holy Spirit fills you. This is what I mean. So how does this work? It works just by recognizing your desperation. Lord, I can't overcome these sinful desires myself. Lord, I need you. Lord, I'm nothing without... I'm morally bankrupt without you. I'm spiritually inept without you. Please, Lord. And it doesn't begin with cleaning you our lives, and then we're filled with the spirit. It's actually vice versa. It's be filled with the spirit, walk in the spirit, be led by the spirit, and then you won't gratify the desires of the flesh. It's not a matter of sheer will power. It's the matter of utter contrition before God, humbling coming forward. God, please help me. And God pours his spirit into your heart and he fills you up. But then we need to do something with that power, and that's when we exert all of our energy. We pray. We plead. We position ourselves. We exert our energy. It is our responsibility to obey.

One of the most effective programs to fight alcoholism and other addictions is the 12 Step Program for Alcoholics Anonymous. And the first step is powerful because they understood this principle of submitting to God, of admission of powerlessness. And it's the first step of the liberation. And it goes like this, "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable." Admission of weakness, powerlessness is the first step to liberation. And their second point is, "We've come to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." And this is what we believe when it comes to sinful desires that have hijacked our walk with the Lord, habitual sins where we come to God and we say, "God, we're helpless. We're entrapped. We're unshackled. Please help." And at that moment, God is always delighted to help those how seek his help humbly.

I've seen this issue often with Christians, we just get stuck in the faith where they become Christians by repenting of sin and believing the gospel. And something happens along the way where now they think this is how I stay in the kingdom, this is how I stay in a rightful relationship with God by my works. So I wasn't saved by my works. I'm saved by Christ's works. But I stay saved by my works. So I'm going to try to clean up my sin by myself. That never works because that right there, you're operating out of pride. And whenever we operate out of pride, that right there it actually pushes God away because God, he resists the proud. Often if you think that you are strong enough to do what God has called you to do, God often allows you to keep struggling with particular sin, to get you to a point of brokenness, of humility.

I got this idea from John Owen who wrote this incredible book called Mortification of Sin. You can pick it up. It's an old work, but there's a newer version, a revised version. It's abridged version. It's 80 pages, J.I. Packer did the introduction. And this is what John Owen writes. He says, "Says God," here's a Christian. "If he could be rid of this lust, I should never hear of him more. Let him wrestle with this, or he would be altogether lost. Wasn't it a correction to Peter's self confidence that God left him to deny his master?" That's so profound. Peter's the one that told Jesus, "Jesus everyone else is going to leave, betray, deny you. I will never do that." And Jesus said, "Oh yeah? Tonight before the rooster crows this morning's dawn, you are going to deny me three times." Justification, we have absolutely nothing to do with that. Sanctification, we're empowered by the Holy Spirit to watch, praise, strive, take actions as we cry out to God.

How does justification start? With a cry of desperation. God, save me. How does sanctification continue? With the same cry of desperate. God, keep saving me. God, help me. Galatians 3:3, Saint Paul says, "Are you so foolish having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" You began by the spirit, now you think you can do this on your own. You can't. We can't. God wants us from us a broken heart, and we start by grace. And we take every step by grace.

First, humbly be filled with the Holy Spirit. Second, call a sin a sin. And this is important. As I write the list, there was something you probably heard and you were like, "What? That's in the Bible? What? He read that out loud in church in Boston 2019? What?" What he's doing here is he's calling sins by their name. Why? What's he doing? He's countering the enemy's attack. This is what Satan did when he came to Eve in the Garden of Eden. He said, "Did God really say..." What's he doing? He's questioning God's word. Saint Paul comes in and says, "No, this is how God views these actions. This is what God calls these actions." And here we have 16, and I'm calling it 16 decaying fruits of the flesh. 16 decaying fruits of the flesh. They come in four categories.

The first category is a sexual sin because often this is one of the primary ways the flesh reveals itself. This is one of the primary ways that our flesh rebels against God. There's three words here, sexual morality, porne in the Greek... This is sex between unmarried people. Impurity, unnatural sexual relationships, sexuality, uncontrolled sexuality.

The second category is corrupted religion, idolatry, and sorcery. Idolatry is worshiping or craving, desiring created things more than the creator. And then sorcery, this is trying to manipulate God or the spiritual realm. By the way, a lot of people view Christianity like this in terms of sorcery. What do I need to do? Get God off my back. How much money do I need to give? How many times do I need to come to church in order to do penance or atone for my sins? And then I'm out. It's actually sorcery, we're manipulating God for our ends.

Third is relational conflict, and this shows us how important it is to God or our relationships with other people. Amity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, descensions, divisions, envy.

And the fourth category here is substance abuse. He talks about drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. Whatever you need to feel alive. Whatever you need to get that dopamine rush. It could be alcohol, drugs, pornography, prostitutes, drugs. I mentioned impulsive buying, media. Your soul feels dead. It feels empty. Philosophers talked about spiritual unweave that every single one of us feel, and sometimes we look to these substances to feel alive. And this is important that he calls a sin a sin. He calls sexual immorality, sexual immorality. He doesn't call it living together. He doesn't call fiscal responsibility, he calls it covetousness and greed. Amity, he doesn't call it... I just want they have it. He calls it envy. And what he's saying here is unmasked the self deceit. This is what sin does. It blinds us to its own existence. And then point three is see sin for what it really is in God's presence.

Galatians 5:21, "I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherent the kingdom of God." And do such things means this is the lifestyle, it's habitual practice. It's not falling into the sin, repenting quickly, getting up and following Christ. It's that you fall and you stay and you never get up.

So what he's saying is look to the cross. Look what it cost God to forgive us. Look what our sin deserves. The very son of God dying on a cross. Our sin doesn't just evoke God's displeasure. It evokes God's just wrath. When we feel the weight of our sin in light of its eternal punishment, that begins to reawaken us and our conscious.

Some people here push back and say, "But my sins forgiven, isn't it? Jesus died for my sins past, present, and future. So why do I need to keep fighting sin?" Well, again, it's not just about get out of Hell free card. It's about you being a child of God. You're adopted into the family of God. First John 3:9 says, "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning." You don't continue in this pattern of sin. "For God seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God." What marks a Christian isn't the absence of sin. What marks a Christian is the deep grief over sin. We grieve over it. Every time we sin, there's a brokenness because we understand we broken God's heart.

Four is be killing sin or it will be killing you, and I got this term from John Owen. This is Galatians 5:24, "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and evil desires." You belong to him. You're his. And you have crucified the flesh with this evil desire. Now it's not an utter destruction of sin. It's not a concealing of sin. But it's the suffocation of sin. You're crushing the life out of it. You're constantly draining the life out of it. It's a tug of war between the flesh and the spirit. You feed the spirit, the desires of spirit, and you emaciate those desires of the flesh. So how do you do it? You refuse it. You starve it. You reject it. It takes strength, power, and resolve. Jesus Christ actually said, "If you struggle with sin, if you eye causes your sin, pluck it out." This is Matthew five. "Cut off your arm." Matthew five. He's not talking about literally, hyperbolic language in order to communicate just how important it is to deal with sin with resolve. And the moment you become a Christian, God gives you this desire to fight sin. To be intolerant with it, unaccommodating. That we are spiritual assassins. This is scorched earth sanctification.

If all of my sins have been forgiven, why do I need to work for a righteous life? Scripture says if you are Christian, you don't ask this question. If you are a child of God, you want to honor God with all of your being, so you want to ask how can I fight my sin. Romans 6:1-2, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by know means? How can we who have died to sin still live in it?" True justification and sanctification always go together. So when we try to see have we been justified, am I a Christian. Well, are you continuing to walk with Christ.

So my oldest daughter was born when Tonya and I were in seminary. By the way, I was 26 years old. I look back and I'm like, "This is crazy. I had a kid at 26." 25. Whatever. 25, 26. I look back now, and I'm like no one asked me to take a test. There's no IQ test, there was no drug test. There was no test. I have to do more to get a drivers license than I do to get a kid. So we got to the hospital, and they're like, "Here's the kid." I'm like... So I go home. I did all this research about making sure your kid stays alive, and they're like kids actually are like... I was super afraid of this thing called sudden death syndrome where kids just die in their sleep. So every night I would come up to her bed, "Is she alive? Is she alive?" Now in order to prove that she's alive, what do I do? Do I go to her birth certificate and say, "Yeah, she was born. Okay, we're good." Do I look in the stuff that we bought for her, "Yeah, we're good." No. To prove that she's alive, what do I do? I listen to breathing. Is she breathing? I listen to her heartbeat. Is she alive? Yeah. Praise God.

Are you a Christian? Don't just tell me, "Yeah. I prayed a prayer. Yeah, I was baptized. Yeah, I grew up in a Christian family." Do you have a heartbeat for God today? And justification, sanctification, they go together. You can't have one without the other. Separating them is like separating the heat of the sun with the light of the sun. No. If you have the son, you have both. If you have Jesus Christ, the son of God, you have both justification and sanctification. So never use justification as a justification to continue sinning. If that's what you do, then most likely you're not a Christian.

The more we grow in our sanctification, the more we actually realize how sinful we are. The most mature Christians I have ever met are absolutely blunt about their sin. Saint Paul at probably the pinnacle of his sanctification following Christ, he says, "I'm the chief of sinners." John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace, "You've saved a wretch like me." At the end of his life, people asked him, "You must be a saint already." He says, "No, there's only two things I know that I'm a wicked sinner, and I have a great savior." The more I'm a Christian, the more I realize I've so much more to go.

I had a conversation today about the veracity of Christianity. Why don't we do more proof of why we believe in Christianity? We do that all the time. There's sermon series 2014 with a whole series on exploring Christianity. Last fall we had a sermon series on Jesus among other gods. There's so much objective evidence for the existence of God, for the life so Jesus Christ, for his death burial, and his resurrection. It's incredible. I'm a Christian not just because of that. I'm a Christian mostly because of these subjective experience of Christianity. I am a wicked sinner.

My wife actually recently, she's like, ты ужасный. That's what she told me. ты ужасный. You don't know Russian yet? "You're horrible. You're a terrible person." She said, "Where would you be if you weren't a Christian?" And I was like, "I know where I'd be. I'd probably be a Russian mobster drinking distilled vodka. That's all I'd be doing." It's a very similar skillset to being a pastor of a church. I know that a part of Jesus on a daily basis, I'm fallen. I'm gone. So I thank God for great...

By the way, this is also how I view parenting my kids. This is anthropology. This is from biblical perspective that they're born as very cute, very pudgy, very scrumptious, very delightful little wicked sinners. My youngest, her first two words were nope and mine. Rebellion and selfishness. That's my job to teach, to help her. She definitely needs some sanctification. So point two is take immediate and radical action when tempted.

First Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation is overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you maybe able to endure." So as soon as a sinful inclination rears its ugly head. At that very moment, we are to mortify. Why? Because it has a power over us that's suicidal. What sin does, as soon as we let it in the door, the very first thing it does, it goes to the wheel center of your being, and takes over. You let a sin in. You're on fire for the Lord, and then you let a sin in. And then you're like, "I don't even think I'm a Christian." Spiritual amnesia kicks in. There is a suicidal destructiveness over your mind, over your desires, over your will. The more you get it, the less you want to fight it. And then it takes control where you don't even enjoy anymore but you can't shake it. You're like an addict. When you're done with that sin, it's only begun with you.

This is John 8:34, Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin." This also includes eliminating any triggers. You got to know yourself, and you got to know your sinful temptation, where you're prone and proclivity. But eliminate those triggers. Eliminate the people that pull you back into sin. Place the situation. Romans 13:14, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires." So don't lead yourself into situations where you'll be tempted. And this category three, resurrect your holy desires.

Galatians 5:22-23, "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control against such things there is not law." Fruit, singular, meaning that when you mature, you mature in all of these. And you are only as mature spiritually as your weakest fruit here. So this is practical point six desire with the holy spirit desires.

Galatians 5:7, "The flesh had desires, but the spirit also has desires. And they're opposed to each other." So what does the Holy Spirit desire? So desire what God desires. What does the Holy Spirit desire where he's called the Holy Spirit. He desires holiness. And the Holy Spirit is gentle. He's like a dove who's easily scared away. He's easily grieved. He's easily quenched with our sin. So we have to desire what Holy Spirit desires, he desires to glorify Christ, to glorify God the father. He desires for the gospel to go out. He desires all of this fruit. How do we grow in this fruit? We grow in this fruit by casting deep roots in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The heart can't but love. So what the Holy Spirit wants to do is replace sinful desires with righteous desires. I follow these motivational gym bros on Twitter who try to help millennial guys become men. Just for entertainment I follow these guys. This is what they do, this is their whole thing. They sell these eBooks and become millionaires. So they start like this. They're like, "If you struggle with laziness, you pathetic, lazy, little boy. Stop playing video games and move out of your mom's basement. Cut it out, start working out." And what's the motivation? So they replace the idol of sloth and they're like, "Because you're single and you can't get a girl." Now the motivation is get girls, get girls, get girls. And that's why you want to work out. That's why you want to stop being lazy.

So they're replacing one idol with another idol. And then they're like, "Well, you got girls. But you don't have any money. That's why they're not going to stay with you. So get money, get money, get money." They replace this idol with another idol. And then they're like, "You've got all this money. You are such a waste of life. Actually learn to enjoy your life." And then they kick you all the way back to the laziness part. Idol after idol after idol, back to the very first idol. And they sell their eBooks for $19.99. And they make a fortune. That's how a lot of people grow in life. That's how they progress. Christianity says, "No. You got to supplant sinful desires with righteous desires. The desires the Holy Spirit desires are the fruit of the spirit."

And then seven is pursue the means of grace habitually. You need to deny flesh, pursue Christ on a daily basis. So much so you string winds together. Follow Christ today, focus on today. Tomorrow comes, follow Christ. Follow Christ. When you string those together, now your character begins to change. Your habits begin to change. And now it takes less effort to follow the... You're still humble. You're still contrite. But now you're focused on other battles.

CS Lewis Screwtape Letters, incredible work. There's this demon called Uncle Screwtape. It's a head demon. He has an apprentice, a nephew demon. And one of the apprentice's patients becomes a Christian, and then Uncle Screwtape writes to him and says, "There's no need to despair. Hundreds of these adult converts have been reclaimed after a brief sojourn into the enemy's camp and are now with us. All the habits of the patient, both mental and bodily, are still in our favor." Habits didn't change. So we need our habits to change, and we do this primarily through the means of grace that God has given us.

The reformers talk about means of grace. They're kind of like waterfalls where if you stand under these particular waterfalls, God sends extra grace in order to strengthen you and wash the sin. The first one is the word and prayer as a means of grace. Jesus talked about in John 17:17 that the truth of God's word is for sanctification. Sanctify them in the word. Your word is truth. When we study God's word and we do it prayerfully that gives us power to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Suffering is a means of grace. Sometimes we ask God, "Why are you sending suffering into my life?" Well, God sometimes ordains suffering as a tool for the purpose of sanctification.

Fellowship of the church is also a means of grace. Fellowship with believers and worship. The weak need the strong, build each other up. The spirit is given to individuals, and when we come together, we experience that spirit. Gifts are intended for the body and the church is this community of prayer. And also we get accountability where we help one another keep from relapsing into sin.

If you missed any points, they're right here. They're right here. There you are. You can take a picture. They're all there. All the points.

Now I'm going to transition into another means of grace, and we celebrate this once a month at Mosaic. It's the means of grace of communion. What is communion? Communion is the celebration of our participation of the death, the burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why is it called communion? It's called a common union that we are united with Christ. First Corinthians 10:16, "The cup of blessing that we bless is it not a participation, the blood of Christ. The bread that we break is it not participation, the body of Christ." Who's communion for? Who partakes in communion? Communion is for the repentant. So if you're not a Christian and you have not repented of your sin and trusted in Christ, it's not for you.

If you're a Christian and there's sin that you have not repented of, this is not for you also. We get that from First Corinthians 11:27-32, "Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, unrepentant manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let the person examine themself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For everyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself." That is why many of you are weak and ill. Some have died. But if you judge yourself, we truly would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

So we don't do this flippantly. We do it reverently, with repentant and contrite hearts. And when we come to God with repentance, God is delighted to extend forgiveness. So this isn't a glum time to navel gaze on our sin. It's a time to give our sins over to the Lord and feast on his grace.

The way that we celebrate communion here is the ushers are going to hand out the elements, the bread and the cup. The bread symbolizes the body of Christ, the cup symbolizes the blood of Christ. Please hold onto the elements until everyone's received them, and then we will we partake together. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you, God, that your word is powerful. That it does vivify our affections. Lord, we long to desire you more. We long for more of your presence, more of your power, more of your Holy Spirit. Lord, give it to us. We repent of all our sins, our wrong headed, harmful desires, and I pray that you replace them with helpful desires for your glory. We pray this in Jesus name, amen.