Okay. We're alive coming at you here from what's how the lake or what Taga Lake or however, and actually not completely sure how you say it. Um, but it's just been beautiful here. Um, enjoy the last few days. Um, if you hear, um, very loud barking, that would be my daughter Maria's dog, uh, down there at the dock. And, uh, they just got back from canoeing. I haven't really been able to do that because I'm still recovering from the dog here on here. from the little surgery that I had, and feeling much better, thankfully. Hopefully all that screaming and yelling is not gonna make this too hard to hear. So if you're watching on the channel chat over there, let me know if this is too loud, if the kids down there are being too crazy. I've been baiting worms and fishing for the last several days and trying to keep kids from falling in the water and trying to make sure nobody gets sunburned and things like that. But it's been a great, great relaxing time. I've gotten some good sleep, drunk some coffee. But anyway, I want to talk today about what happens when the gospel is believed. What happens when the gospel really takes hold? I've been thinking about this a lot lately and delving into the charismatic cessationist debate again. It's kind of like... In my life as a pastor, and even just as a Christian before I was a pastor, I would go through phases where I would study something and really get into it and really try to understand why it was so important and try to understand the implications of various ideas and how they affect the Christian life and how they affect the way we think, the way we act. But I've been listening to a lot of stuff on Justin Peters. YouTube channel, and he has a video called, What Really Happens at Bethel Church? And they do what's called the fire tunnel, where people walk through, people kind of line up on either side and they get a fire anointing from the Holy Spirit or something like that. And they do all kinds of wacky stuff. They headbutt each other. There was a guy who had a puppet and was like acting like a ventriloquist and the puppet was kissing people on the head and Bumping them and people writhe around on the ground just really weird bizarre stuff and I was thinking about how Morbidly dishonoring that is to the Holy Spirit to pretend that that has something to do with Christianity really is It's so sad and vile. It really makes me angry. It really angers me. Because I was corresponding, you know. When I'm on vacation, I do try to put things aside. But I try to keep my inbox relatively purged. Because I hate getting back to work and having hundreds of emails. But there's a lady that I correspond with occasionally. She's one of many people. They can't find anywhere to go to church. You know, this poor lady says, you know, I can't find anywhere that they consistently preach the biblical gospel that were justified by faith alone and they don't confuse works and grace and where the work of the Holy Spirit is taught the way it's actually taught in Scripture. And I just, I see things like that, it just breaks my heart, it really does. And I just really feel for folks today. We live in such odd times, we really do. for this morning's devotions with the family here on the front porch. And this is just a beautiful, it's just a, you know, a house here on Lake Watauga Lake and Watauga Lake is beautiful and it's, it's not too far from where we live. It's like an hour drive. And hopefully the dog down there, we bought a, what's called a lily pad. It's this gigantic, huge flotation thing and they can all sit on it and the dog will get on there with them. But the dog doesn't like to get in the water. So if they get away from the dog, the dog just barks and barks and barks. And that dog is part German Shepherd. That's why it's so blood curdlingly loud when it barks, but great, great family dog. But, um, yeah, everyone's down there. My mom is here. They've been down there fishing. I was fishing all morning fishing and taking fish off hooks and baiting hooks and all kinds of fun stuff. So anyway, This morning's devotions here on this wraparound porch, we looked at Galatians chapter 5, and I was thinking about, this is a description of the true work of the Holy Spirit. This is what the work of the Holy Spirit really is. It has nothing to do with fire tunnels. It has nothing to do with people supposedly marching into town with all kinds of fake miracles, saying, oh yes, we have a signs and wonders ministry. In fact, I was listening to someone, it was on the The Remnant Radio, I think, the charismatic YouTube channel. And they said, oh, yeah, that's the way the apostles did it. They would go into a town with signs and wonders and miracles. And that's exactly what we have to do today. I just laughed when I hear that. I'm like, and that's exactly what you don't do. And that's what people are not doing today. Nobody does that today. There is no one who has those kinds of miraculous sign of wonder gifts. And the thing is, the purpose for them has now expired, has now passed away. God is not authenticating new revelation to the church. Certainly God does the miracles still, but there are not miracle-working ministries, miracle-working apostolic-level types of ministries, not even lesser apostolic-level types of ministries as if Scripture teaches any such thing, that there's a lesser form of apostle that has a special divine backing or special anointing and things like that that's just not taught anywhere in Scripture. When the apostles of Christ settled the churches and were done planting the churches, they appointed and ordained elders and deacons. And that's what the pastoral letters give us. Elders and deacons. Now, Galatians chapter 5, Paul here gives a very good description of the contrast between the works of the flesh, the works of our sinful nature, and the work of the Spirit. If you really want to understand, what is a true work of the Holy Spirit? What does it look like? How do you know if the Holy Spirit really is in some place? You know, when I was in charismatic circles, you would always hear this saying, the Holy Spirit really showed up that night. Yeah, the Holy Spirit really showed up last Sunday. What do they mean by that? What they meant was a lot of people got emotional, a lot of people were crying, a lot of people were raising their hands, the singing was particularly loud, and things like that. That's what is seen as this felt presence of God, special move of the Holy Spirit type thing. And eventually looking at Scripture, looking at what the Bible says about a true work of the Holy Spirit, that has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit at all, nothing to do with the Holy Spirit, that kind of thing. And certainly fire tunnels and all the stuff that has gone on for decades at these various groups and I tell you I feel like every time I get on the internet I read about yet another high-profile charismatic leader that has fallen into or years ago fell into some kind of terrible horrible sin and that's you know I for my part I didn't even know who Robert Morris was never even heard of a guy because I once I left the charismatic movement I left it and that was a long time ago I mean that was when I was let's see 20 four, you know, 24 years old and I'm 49 now. So a quarter of a century is coming on. I just don't keep track of that kind of stuff except when the weird blessing thing started happening like the Toronto Brownsville. I read about Brownsville when it happened and what a, what a nightmare that was. And also the Lakeland revival with Todd Bentley and I followed some of that. but I haven't really kept track of a lot of stuff. So, I didn't know who Robert Morris was. I'd never heard of Mike Bickle or even Bill Johnson, you know, the IHOP, Kansas City Prophets, blah, blah, blah, and Bethel Church in Reading and all the wacko stuff that they do trying to raise people from the dead and grave soaking or sucking or whatever they call it. You need to understand, if you want to understand who the Holy Spirit is and what his true work looks like, John 14, 15, and 16, Jesus' Upper Room Discourse in the Gospel of John, John 14, 15, and 16. And then there's many other places that describe the true work of the Holy Spirit. And I love Galatians 5, 16 through 26 because it provides such a striking contrast between the works of our flesh, the works of our remaining indwelling sinful nature, and the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, when I was growing up, a lot of times the fruit of the Holy Spirit was presented as though it was, as though they were imperatives. Like, you had better have love, and you better have joy, you better have peace, and you better be patient. Rather than recognizing, it's describing fruit that grows on a certain type of tree. And what we need to understand is this, the fruit that grows on the tree does not make the tree good or bad. It only makes it known to other men whether the tree is a good tree or a bad tree. And works do not make us good or bad. They serve only as proof of the justification that came earlier by faith alone in Christ alone, apart from fruit and apart from anything that we do, apart from our works. And so what Paul's describing here is the life of a non-Christian, what it's characterized by, and the life of a Christian, what it's characterized by. And it's also describing the struggle. It's describing the struggle. You see, your life actually might be fairly carefree and worryfree and, you know, you're pretty good at getting along with people. You are converted. You become a Christian. That's when the trouble very often starts. It starts once you become a Christian, and now you find yourself at war with the unbelieving world, and at war at times with your own family, and at war with yourself. That's one thing. I did the first sermon in the series, and I might only get to preach on it once a month because I only preach on Sunday nights one Sunday a month because my beloved intern Brother Ryan, very thankful to have an intern, is preaching the other two Sunday nights a month. But that's okay. If it takes, you know, a year to get through the spiritual warfare stuff, that's fine. But I emphasized in that opening sermon, I would encourage you to go listen to it. And also to purchase the book, Truth or Territory, Truth or Territory by Jim Osmond. That's O-S-M-A-N, Jim Osmond, Truth or Territory. What I emphasize is that the battle, the battle against in the spiritual realm is a battle about truth. It's a battle about truth. It's not really primarily against demonic forces or anything like that. It's a battle against falsehood and lies and things like that. Okay. So let's talk for a moment here about true spiritual warfare and let's also talk about What is a true work of the Holy Spirit? I wish Charismatics would emphasize this stuff instead of all the wacko craziness. You want to see some weird stuff. Do a YouTube search on Brownsville revival. And just watch for a while. Watch the stuff that was going on wherever that church was down there in Brownsville, Florida. And the crazy stuff that they were doing. And people prancing around on stages yelling and screaming, fire, fire, fire, fire, more Lord, more Lord, more Lord, more Lord. And you think, what in the world does any of that have to do with Christianity? What does any of that have to do with the Bible? What does any of that have to do with The true work of the Holy Spirit? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. So, let's look at the God-breathed scriptures. Paul says in Galatians 5, 16, I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Very important verse. Now, think about what that's saying. Walk in the Spirit. How do we walk in the Spirit? How do we walk in the Holy Spirit? You know the Word of God. Your mind is filled and saturated with scripture. You memorize scripture. You are there attendant upon the means of grace. You attend upon the preaching of the word with diligence, preparation, and prayer. You come to church prayed up and ready to receive from God, longing to hear and see from God. It says, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Notice it doesn't say, and you won't experience the lust of the flesh. The lust of your sinful nature, it's going to describe exactly what that's talking about here in just a moment in the passage. The lust of our sinful nature never goes away. And so when I hear, as I've heard many times, people like Todd White and Joyce Meyer and some of these other charismatic types actually say they haven't sinned in 18 years, I think you are miserably deluded. If you think you haven't sinned in years and years and years, I'm sorry, I don't understand how you could possibly really even be a Christian then. Sincerely, if you think that you've actually gone for 18 years, let alone a day without sinning and transgressing God's laws, you're deluded for sure. Paul says here, Kind of in verse 17 of Galatians 5 is kind of a one verse summary of Romans 7, 14 to 25, that whole block of text. Listen to this great passage for the Holy Spirit here. For the flesh, our sinful nature that's still within us, even as Christians, for the sinful nature lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. So, as a Christian, I've got contrary desires. I've got this war going on in my own heart, in my own mind, and in my life and in my body. Paul describes it in Romans 7.22 in these words. For I delight in the law of God, according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members." When he says law in my members, he means I see this other principle within me that is doing this warring against the law of my mind. There's like a principle of rebelliousness that's still here, that's still in my heart, that is making a war against the law of my mind that wants to do good, that wants to be godly and holy. and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. And then Paul says, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, with my sinful nature, the law of sin. And so many people that I have talked to through the years have, we all share that same experience as Christians. You can start out a day, start out a week, a month, a year, with the best of intentions, and everything in you is determined to be godly, to be holy, to be more disciplined about reading your Bible, more disciplined about fighting against your besetting sins, and then you almost, you promise God, I'll stop doing this, and you do it again. I'll stop doing this, and you do it again. Lord, I really mean it this time. I will stop doing this. And you do it again. And who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, the people that are so deluded to think they never sin, why would they ever say this? Oh, wonderful person that I am. I haven't sinned in 18 years. Rubbish. That's a lie. Paul says, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. There's no condemnation. What's up? I'm live. I'm live to the world. I can hear you from all the way down to the dog. Here, well, why don't you come up? You want to come say hello to everybody? I don't think I should. I'm so excited. That's my precious daughter, Maria. Here, you wait. Here, pup. You got to meet this dog. Everyone can hear the dog barking all the way down there. Here, say hi. Say hi, puppy. Say hi. Can you give us a big bark? That dog is a psycho. So, Galatians 5. If you are led by the Spirit, verse 18, you are not under the law. Now, it goes into, specifically, the works of the flesh. The works of the flesh are evident. Which are, listen to these first few here. I mean, these are all sexually related. The works of the flesh, the works of our sinful nature, adultery. Fornication, the term means sexual immorality. So, for married people, adultery is the first thing listed as a work of the flesh. See, once you're married, and even before you're married, you're supposed to be chaste and pure No sex outside of marriage or before marriage, not even lustful thoughts. That's why we need a savior, because we all struggle with things like that. But adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, the battle. is in our minds for so much of this. Everything that we end up doing starts in our hearts and our minds. And, you know, we often tend to be pretty bold in the things that will play out in our imagination where nobody can see it except us and God. But those are the works of the flesh. Those are the works of our sinful nature. Idolatry is another one. Idolatry, don't think of idolatry merely as having a silver or a wood or a golden statue that you bow down to. Idolatry is anything that competes with God for your ultimate and highest affection. Anything that does. It could be your marriage. It could be your relationship with your children. It could be your relationship with your grandchildren. It could be, for a pastor, how attentive people are being in worship when you're preaching. That can become an idol. How many people show up when you do a Bible study? That can be an idol too. And it can be really tough to fight against these kinds of idols. Okay. Sorcery. Sorcery, hatred, contentions. Okay. Jealousies, outbursts of wrath. Think about all of those. Those are the works of our sinful nature. Sorcery? That's the work of our sinful nature? Sure. Anything that you do to try to manipulate or control reality. You know, I had a friend tell me that, um, His mother, who professes to be a Christian, will leave Bibles strategically placed around her house. Open Bibles strategically placed around the house to sort of kind of, I guess, ward off evil spirits that might try to come through that part of the house or something like that. And I thought, wow, that is idolatry. That's actually sorcery. That's attempting to manipulate or control spiritual realities with things like that. Okay? Hatred. Sinful hatred is a work of the flesh. Are there people in your mind that you fantasize about hurting? Or you fantasize about their downfall? Or you would just love to hear that they did something and wrecked everything in their life? Now there might be people who have grievously wronged you, but remember the scripture tells us, do not rejoice when your enemy falls. Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, lest the Lord see it and he remove his wrath from him. Don't be governed by hatred. Don't be governed by thoughts of vengeance on the people who have wronged you. Contentions. Someone who is contentious. What does that mean, to be contentious? Someone who just fights. Someone who just constantly is arguing. They never concede a point or anything like that. That's a contentious person. And if you've been in the church for a while, I'm sure you've met people or have had relationships with people who have contentious dispositions. They just want to fight and argue about everything. Jealousies is a work of the flesh. Jealousies is a work of the flesh. What is jealousy? It's interesting to me that jealousy for a person, for us, usually, almost always, is sinful. Now, if we're jealous for the glory of God, obviously that would be a good thing. But God is jealous. God describes himself as a jealous God. He is jealous for all of our attention. But if you put it in, you know, concrete terms for us, let's say for married people, or for someone who has feelings for someone else, and you see that person clearly is interested in someone else, we might be consumed with thoughts of jealousy, with feelings that are jealous. I want that person's attention, and it bothers me they're giving that attention to someone else. But that very often can happen in marriage, and that's a huge problem. But jealousy, sinful jealousy, is a work of the flesh, because we're supposed to be content, okay? Outbursts of wrath, someone who loses their cool and explodes in anger, that is a work of the flesh. You know, through the years, I've had guys that I have discipled or tried to help and encourage through the years. And there's been a few that almost every time I've seen them, they've got a new phone. And it's like, what happened to your other phone? Got mad and threw it against the concrete, threw it against the wall, broke a mirror, punched a hole in this wall or that wall. Outbursts of wrath are a work of the flesh. Selfish ambitions, selfish ambitions, a desire to be the center of attention, a desire for people to look up to you and to value what you say more than what other people say and have a bigger following and more accolades, more praises to you and things like that. I remember R.C. Sproul saying one time in one of the many talks I've listened to by him over the years, someone asked him the question, so Dr. Sproul, What do you make of all of the praise and stuff that people lavish on you about what a great teacher you are and everything like that?" And I remember him saying something along the lines of, the majority of it doesn't mean anything to me. And the person asked, why? And he said, because I've always had the sense that the vast majority of it is flattery. I thought, wow. Yeah, that's that's rough, but people can be selfishly ambitious where they they thrive on that kind of thing They're not wise like like Sproul was and realizing that you know people people might praise you for all kinds of reasons, but you got to take Compliments and criticism with a grain of salt, but selfish ambition is a very serious sin dissensions heresies There's one. I mean does anybody does anybody think heresies even possible today I? mean Reform celebrities or some people that claim that they're reformed and claim that they're Christian and there's their Followers and handlers will make excuses for everything they say Remember, you know interacting with with the disciples and followers of NT right NT right is not capable of saying anything heretical according to them No matter what I've pointed out. They've got well, you didn't see what he said over here. You didn't read what he said over here Well, he clarified that over here and he did he said this over here over there like yeah, but he did say this here and Well, you're just not being charitable. Wilson's followers, the same thing. Piper's followers, exact same thing. But heresy is a work of the flesh. Envy, murders, drunkenness, those should be pretty obvious. Envy is not a good thing. Sinful envy, wanting what someone else has, that's coveting. murder, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those who live in those sins and are unrepentant for them, they're not Christians. They're not going to go to heaven when they die. But now we come to the fruit of the Holy Spirit. What does a true work of the Holy Spirit look like? How do we know if the Holy Spirit's really present somewhere with someone? But the fruit of the Spirit, what that means is, the fruit that grows on a Christian tree, someone who is indwelt by the Spirit, this is what you will see in them. love, joy, peace, long-suffering or patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Those are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Where He is present, you will hear Christ being magnified, preached as the only salvation of sinners, Christ crucified, And then you will see these fruits. Notice what's missing from this list. Fire tunnels. People raising their hands and swaying back and forth. People fake speaking in the tongues of angels when really they're just repeating the names of Japanese auto dealers. Should have bought a Honda, Hyundai, Toyota. Just saying syllables over and over and over again. That has nothing to do with God. Nothing to do with God at all. What's missing also is being slain in the spirit, writhing around on the ground, barking, clucking like chickens. Those are the kinds of things that were going on in Toronto and Brownsville and these other mindless orgies of pure nonsense that have nothing to do with the gospel, nothing to do with repentance, nothing to do with faith in Jesus Christ as the only means of justification before God. But I want to talk briefly here about love. love, you know that the Holy Spirit really has gained a foothold in a person's life and really indwells a person when they learn how to love, especially in their marriage, especially in their marriage. Someone can know theology backwards and forwards and still not really believe it in their hearts and be transformed by the power of God working through the Word, the Spirit working through the Word. But love, that term agape, refers to the self-giving love. In this way, God loved the world, John 3, 16, agapao, the verb. It's just the verbal form of the noun agape. Okay? God loved the world in this way that he gave. He gave. A person who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, who is the subject of a true work of the Holy Spirit, or excuse me, the object of a true work of the Holy Spirit, will love. And that will show first in the way they treat the people that they are most called by God to love. You see, when I think about the work of the Holy Spirit, I don't think about weird things happening in church. I don't think about You know, someone falling out of their pew into the aisle and like running a lap for Jesus or jumping up and down and yelling and shouting hallelujah. To me, it's the man who decides, you know what? I need to put away this gaming system. I need to get rid of this PlayStation or Xbox or whatever it is now. I need to get rid of this stuff. And I need to spend time with my wife. I need to invest more time in my kids. I need to open up scripture and read it to my family, even if it seems like they're not paying attention, even if I don't feel like I'm accomplishing much. I need to attack my sins with more gusto, with more passion than I have been lately. I need to love stronger. I need to be less selfish. You see, that's one of the things, I think, that really characterizes a true work of the Holy Spirit. It's gonna be stuff behind the scenes. It's not gonna be the strange phenomena that you see in these weird YouTube videos of supposed works of the Spirit. Those things have nothing to do with the Spirit. I was watching one of Stephen Cozart's, or no, excuse me, it wasn't Cozart, it was Long for Truth. That couple, their last name is Long. That's a good YouTube channel, too. I was introduced to them. Hey, babycakes. What's up? What's up? I'm wet. It's okay. Good to see you. This is my Gianna. Say hi everybody. Hi. Get over here baby. You having a good time? I'm having a good time. What are you doing? Gotta do my live program, babe. Or the world gets mad at me. I'll be down in just a minute. Love you, babe. As I'm... Yeah. Yeah. I gotta go watch, uh... What is that? Oh, The Emperor's New Groove. That movie's hilarious. Yeah, some of the kids movies they watch are corny in the extreme, but for some reason they say if I watch it with them, it's funnier. In fact, at some point I need to do a tour through my office of all the stuffed animals. Anything I laugh at in their movies, they'll buy me a stuffed animal. So in my office right now, I have Buddy the Christmas Elf, Mike the Mouse from Sing It, I have Buster Moon from One of the sing-it movies, I think, the little koala bear. I have Bob Wiley from What About Bob? Gimli from Lord of the Rings. And what else is in there? There's a bunch of other stuff in there. Just anything I've laughed at in movies, they'll buy me a stuffed animal version of it, and it's in my office, so I need to, when I'm back in my office, I'll do a little spoof video for you. Okay, what in the world were we just talking about? Love, loving the people that you are called to love. And that is primarily your family. And so it's not going to be, it's like, no trumpets please, no trumpets, okay? And it kind of takes place behind the scenes, out of sight. It's the people that they start becoming more godly in the way they treat people, in the way they love people that they've been asked to love. It's very important. Okay, let me see what's going on. There's a bunch of chatter going on over here. Let me see what's being said. Alrighty. Yes, good fruit is evidence that a tree is good, but it is evidence that a tree is good. It doesn't make any sense. Todd White says he hasn't lusted in years. Yeah, that's true. He makes that claim, and he's delusional for it. Let's see. Bobby Yu and the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him. on white horses for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." That's right, there is a real righteousness of the saints. It's not what justifies us or gets us into heaven in any way, shape, or form, but there is a real righteousness of the saints, and it is the righteous deeds of the saints, you bet. Sanctification is a real thing, and every true believer will bear these fruits, and because they go up to God associated with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, God even accepts our works, not for salvation, but for rewards, as 1 Corinthians 3, 10 and following teaches. Let's see. False teachers say that Jesus Christ died spiritually and went to hell. Yeah, that's Word of Faith stuff. That's Kenneth Copeland and all that wacko craziness. Okay. We magnify the Word, but not at the expense of the Spirit and vice versa. Amen. The Spirit works through the Word. The Holy Spirit works through the Word. Okay, it doesn't say the righteous acts, it says the rightification, which in context to the gospel, is being made. Righteous, let's see. Let's see who else is on here. So these guys are kind of arguing about something, I'm not exactly sure. Yeah, Shadabata seem to be the most popular fake tongues. You can actually go to YouTube videos and they'll teach you how to speak in tongues, Pretty weird, I thought it was a spiritual gift that God just gave certain people. But if they can just teach you how to have a private prayer language, of course the apostles of Jesus Christ and the foundation layers of the church would have no earthly idea what you were talking about. Okay, let's see who else is over here chatting. However, we interpret dikayo mata a Christian does good works Let your lights are shining for men that they may see your good color works erga and glorify your father in heaven true. I'll see Thank you for this been going through a hard time, but this has been refreshing good Yeah, Tyrell. I know I remember you brother. Remember chatting with you. Just keep pressing on and keep keep pressing on with the fighting the good fight brother and know that I The simple fact is, what Jesus pronounced blessed in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the poor in spirit, that's how we're gonna feel. We're gonna have that sense of poverty for the rest of our lives. As long as we're in the body and we're not in heaven yet, you don't get there. You know, someone needs to tell Todd White, first of all, someone needs to explain the gospel to Todd White so maybe he would, you know, believe it and be saved. But someone needs to let him know, dude, you don't ever get there. You don't ever arrive, you don't ever get perfectly sanctified, you don't ever become sinlessly perfect. It is impossible, this side of glory, to be sinlessly perfect. And no one is! And no one ever has a day where they stop sinning, or anything like that. Okay. So let me continue on here. So the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The thing is, Where you'll see that manifested is in the lives of people who really lived their Christian lives and labored away in anonymity, and nobody knew who they were. And honestly, that's really how I kind of, I think of myself as rather anonymous. I mean, I had a YouTube channel years ago, and I did a video and somebody, a reformed celebrity retweeted it, and I immediately got like a bazillion subscribers, and I deleted that whole channel. because I just wanted it to be through word of mouth. You know, I'm not good at video editing. I've actually been trying to take a little class through Skillshare on video editing, but I haven't had time to work on it. But I'd like to make things a little bit more professional. But the thing is, content is what I'm after. That's why I love Brother Rich's channel so much. He's about content, and it's about the high theological stuff. And he posted a video that was a link, also had a link in it to, it was an audible reading of a book on an evangelical ministry. I can't recall the name of the guy That essay is so great. I found it online and printed it off and have been reading it and rereading it. I want to do a video on it because it's so good. I want to try to go through it slowly, but he understood. He understood just so. He understood the importance of clear gospel preaching, okay? So the fruit of the Spirit, a true work of the Holy Spirit, you're going to see love. And you'll see love at the most basic level in the lives of the people that a person is called to love, namely their family. Like for me, In all the preaching that I do, when the gospel really breaks through and you really see the work of the Spirit, what you will see is individuals becoming holy and treating the people around them better, becoming less selfish. One other point I wanted to make, I wanted to make sure I made this before I was done today, because I need to get in there and hang out with the kiddos. The thing is, when the Holy Spirit of God gets a hold of someone, they will stop thinking of themselves primarily as a victim. Now, there's not a doubt about it. We are victims of other people's sins. A lot of people in my life have sinned against me. From the time I was little, I had a lot of people that sinned egregiously against me. But when Jesus broke through and I understood his grace and the gospel, everything in my mentality changed on that front. And I quit thinking about the ways I had sinned, or excuse me, the ways that others had sinned against me. And all I could think about when God finally broke through was how I had sinned against others. And primarily now, that's what I think about too. And I'm so thankful for that. I don't sit around thinking, well, this person did this with me, and boy, I sure hope God gets someone back, this person back for the way they sinned against me. I don't really care that much about that. I'm much more concerned about the ways I have failed the people that I'm supposed to love, namely my wife, my children, and how I want to do better every day. I want to be more holy every day. I want to see the work of the Holy Spirit come out primarily in my wife's countenance and her face and her smiles. Folks, that's what the work of the Holy Spirit is. It's these fruits, love, joy, peace, love, and suffering. When a person really understands that we're justified by faith alone, that our good works play no role. They don't even make one contribution to our salvation whatsoever. And the good works that we do and the judgment of our works in Romans 2, 2 Corinthians 5, 10, and James, well actually James 2 isn't even about the final judgment. or the judgment of works. 2 Corinthians 5.10, Romans chapter 2, we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. When you understand that has nothing to do with our salvation, nothing to do with being right with God, that the righteousness by which we enter heaven is given to us as a free gift by faith alone, completely apart from our works, apart from our transformation, apart from how well we're doing with our besetting sins, then you can finally get to work showing gratitude to God by loving people better. That's what we're called to do. That's the real work of the Spirit. It's not this weird phenomena. It's not the strange stuff you see in charismatic churches. It's not that. It's not that. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are born in the lives of those who've been born again by the Holy Spirit first. And people are only born again when they hear the gospel. And the gospel is that heaven is a free gift. The law of God, the commandments of God condemn every person on earth. And if you think you actually keep the 10 commandments, you need to read the Sermon on the Mount. The prohibition against adultery is a prohibition, not just against the physical act of adultery, but lustful thoughts in our hearts that are sexually motivated. It's also requires us to be content at all times. We're not allowed to complain or grumble. We're not allowed to have anything in our hearts that competes with God for our highest affection. We're not allowed to have hatred towards anyone without cause. We're not allowed to steal. We're not allowed to lie ever. Those commandments, I've often described the 10 commandments as the 10 daggers to the soul. Every one of them slays the world. The great Charles Hodge, the Princeton theologian, in his systematic theology, in his section on the 10 commandments says, the law of God was not given to justify us, the law of God was not given to make us right with God, the law of God was given to slay us. It was given to slay us. Who is Bobby Yoo over here? Early on in Felt Like Luther did, remove the epistle of James from scripture. Why? Why would you want to remove James from scripture? It's a beautiful book. It's a very important book of scripture. James chapter two, the passage that Roman Catholicism misuses constantly, is about the justification of professions of faith before men, not the justification of a person before God. And that's why it says, show me and I will show you. Okay. But someone will say, you have faith in my works, show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. That's right. Good, great passage. Okay. I'm suspecting Bobby Yu might be a Roman Catholic. He's talking about Luther and Luther took James out of the Bible. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The reason that Luther did. Well, Luther was wrong. Luther was wrong. James chapter 2 is a gloriously important chapter. You need to think of the book of James. James is kind of like the New Testament proverbs. There's proverbs in the Old Testament and the New Testament, which is shorter than the Old Testament. We have the book of James, it's wisdom literature directed at Christians as to how to live the Christian life. James 2, 14 to 26 is about, and it's teaching us about how professions of faith, someone saying I have faith, how that's justified before other men. And that can only be justified by works. Passage isn't about how we're justified before God. Okie dokie. All right. I, uh, I'm going to wrap it up there. Uh, the fruit of the spirit there. That's what the work of the Spirit is. It has nothing to do with fire tunnels, nothing to do with falling down on the ground, raising your hands, rocking back and forth, pretending to speak in tongues, headbutting people in the Spirit or anything like that. You want to know what the true work of the Holy Spirit is and how it contrasts with the works of our simple nature? Look at Scripture. Look at Scripture. Don't look at Bethel Church. Don't look at Gateway Church. Don't look at Stephen Furtick. Don't look at Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, or Mike Bickel and the International House of Prayer or whatever. Don't look at any of that. Go to the Word of God. Read Galatians chapter 5 very slowly, very carefully. That's what the true work of the Spirit is. And read John 14, 15, and 16 if you want to see who the Holy Spirit is, who the Comforter is, and what he does. He bears witness of Jesus Christ. Here's how you know where the Holy Spirit is not present. He is not present anywhere. He is central. One of the weird demon slayers, Alexander Pagani. Says, as you grow, you become less Jesus-focused and more Holy Spirit-focused. I mean, it's, it's, they're even called, they're not called the gifts of Jesus, they're called the gifts of the Spirit. I'm like, we're Trinitarians, aren't we? But I was just thinking, if you, you're trying to direct people away from Jesus to the Holy Spirit, that's because the Holy Spirit has no part in your ministry whatsoever. The Holy Spirit bears witness of Christ, and you know the Spirit is present, where Jesus Christ and him crucified is being preached as the only hope of the salvation of sinners. You want to know a true work of the Holy Spirit? Look at the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Paul taught the Galatians. Here's how you know where the Holy Spirit is. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control. Against such, there is no law. That's the work of the Spirit. And you'll see every one of those fruits show up primarily, primarily in your relationships with the people in your family and in your church. Do you exhibit those fruits in the way you treat them? Do you exhibit those fruits in the way you treat them? When the grace of God really is at work and is sanctifying us, that's where you'll see it the clearest, in the people that God has asked you to love. Thank you for watching or for listening.