Galatians 5:19-21

A preacher was riding his bike around the neighborhood, one day, when he came upon a little boy trying to sell a lawn mower. "How much do you want for the mower?" asked the preacher. "I just want enough money to go out and buy me a bicycle," said the little boy. After a moment of consideration, the preacher asked, "Will you take my bike in trade for it?" The little boy asked if he could try it out first, and, after riding the bike around a little while, said, "Mister, you've got yourself a deal."

The preacher took the mower and began to try to crank it. He pulled on the rope a few times with no response from the mower. The preacher called the little boy over and said, "I can't get this mower to start." The little boy said, "That's because you have to cuss at it to get it started." The preacher said, "I'm a preacher, and I can't cuss. It's been so long since I've used bad language that I don't even remember how to cuss." The little boy looked at him, snickered and said, "Just keep pulling on that string. It'll come back to you."

Certainly, the little boy is right.  The Sarx is right there all the time and uses stuff like lawnmowers to make us feel the pressure to cuss, or whatever. What I have found is the Sarx – the Greek word for sinful inclination or selfishness - strikes at the most surprising times.  When we are not expecting it; when we are happy as clams; when we have our guard down the Sarx can sneak one it on us.

In my last two sermons we have begun to work in the 3rd section of Galatians.  This last section of Galatians, 5:13 – 6:10, is about fighting the Sarx, or spinning it positively, it is about sanctification.  I want to be more like Jesus.  I want my life to be for him and about him and in him and like him.  Sanctification is all about lawnmowers and how we deal with them.

Our first answer to dealing with the Sarx was surprising. 

Galatians 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature (sarx); rather, serve one another in love.

It is in community.  It is in fellowship; it is in serving each other in love where we take the first steps toward sanctification.  It is like the old story of two groups who were given plenty of food to eat, but required to use these really, 6 foot long, forks to eat.  One group starved to death because they could not figure out how to get the food in their mouths because the forks were too long. But the other group did fine because they fed each other.  Sanctification is difficult by yourself.  But in the cauldron of community we learn to get over ourselves.  We learn unselfishness.  We learn to feed each other.  Wow, that was a surprising and significant answer to the Sarx; the sanctifying community.

Last week we looked at the second answer to the Sarx.

YLT Galatians 5:16 And I say: In the Spirit walk ye.

…holding hands with the Spirit.  We explored that beautiful metaphor of walking with the Spirit; being led by the Spirit.  We allow the Spirit to guide us in our life.  When pressured by the Sarx, we rely.  When tempted by the Sarx, we ask.  When confused by the Sarx, we follow.  Listen to that wonderful promise from our Lord:

Luke 11:9-13 "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?  If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

We have a yippy promise from Jesus… that if we ask, he will give us the Spirit to guide us past the Sarx.  Answer two: holding hands with the Spirit. 

This morning in Galatians 5:19-21 we find a third answer.

Galatians 5:19-21 The acts of the sinful nature (sarx) are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

I think the third answer to the Sarx is… know your enemy.  I am reminded of Pogo’s most famous saying…“We have met the enemy and he is us.”  That is the thought in this passage.  It is knowing your own passions that we can deal with them.  When we can learn to recognize these passions stirring in our hearts; when we can identify these feelings moving us; when we become aware of these temptations; it is then we can remember to use our first two answers; community and holding hands with the Spirit.  

In 1960 I was in the 1st grade in Orlando, Florida. The astute historian will know what unusual thing we did in our elementary school; Atomic Bomb Drills.  When the alarms would go off, we would file out into the halls and kneel down and cover our heads. This was in the context of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  I’m not sure what that would have accomplished.  If there were a nuclear weapon dropped on us, but that is what we did.  This sin list, this list of 15 works of the Sarx, is kind of the same thing.  We can use this list as a warning system that nuclear spiritual war is eminent.  Understanding these acts of the Sarx should be like radar; like an early warning system. Let’s call this list the NSWS; the Nuclear Sin Warning System.  

As I said last week, all of us are going to experience the Sarx, we are going to feel these passions, but we must stop it before its completion. Don’t let it do its thing and eat your lunch. Recognize these passions as they begin to swell in us.  Use the NSWS to prevent the Sarx from bringing these to the completion of biting and devouring each other.   So, the third answer is, know the enemy; know these 15 passions and use them to set off the NSWS. 

By recognizing the warning of when the Sarx is attacking us, we can better learn when we must rely, ask and follow.  Let’s do a little exercise.  Pick one on the list… sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies. Visualize a situation when you may be feeling such. For example let’s take fits of rage.  I am seeing in my life a time when I might feel this emotion coming on; this irritation which triggered a hateful retort, which prompted a hurtful word, which was about to initiate a rage.  Now, if I am using the third answer of this emotion setting off the Nuclear Sin Warning System (NSWS) and I hear the alarms going off in my head, here is what I do.  I change the picture in my head.  Instead of bringing this sin to a completion, I visualize myself as the sheep in the 23rd Psalm and holding hands with the Spirit. I say to myself, “I rely upon you being here.  I ask for your presence in this interaction. I follow your lead.” If I am able to do that, what do you think would happen?   

I suspect if you can do this then that will go a long way toward sanctification.  Learning to hold hands with the Spirit whenever we feel any of these 15 temptations would be amazing. If we can use the NSWS we could avoid so much of the Sarx’s pressure.    

Let’s not forget the first answer; community.  There are some important connections.  This is fascinating; preacher fascinating.  Many scholars have worked on these 15 works of the Sarx and have attempted to sort them into categories and sequences.  Ben Witherington III has ordering that both makes sense and has an important lesson about community. 

It will be seen that by sheer weight of numbers the emphasis in this list is on social sins against the community of faith.  I would like now to suggest that there is even more method to Paul's arrangement of these sins - the first and last ones listed have to do with sins associated with the sort of fellowship that went on in their pagan world, while those in the middle refer to sins that went on within the very different fellowship of the community of faith. There was danger from without and from within for the Galatians. Without there was the lure of the pagan environment, within there was the divisive teaching of the agitators.  – Ben Witherington III –

It can be diagramed like this:  (circle with sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery; idolatry, witchcraft, drunkenness, orgies on the outside and hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy on the inside of the circle.)  Paul arranges his list to dramatically and poetically make two points:

1) There is danger on the outside of the church from their sinful culture.  The pagan world of 49 AD in Asia Minor was rough.  It was exactly as Paul describes.  Their pagan rituals and worship involved sexual immorality, temple prostitutes, drunken orgies and debauchery. Isn’t that a great word; debauchery? That was the world, their religious world outside the church.  There had to be a temptation to go back to that life.  The Sarx was ever present in tempting them to sneak back into that debauchery. These Gentiles, who had come out of paganism and were still threatened by it.  There was outside pressure from the Sarx. 

2) The problem that Paul is really addressing is the 2nd threat; from within.  There was danger on the inside of the church from selfishness.  The agitators were causing disunity.  They were causing bitterness and dissensions and factions and all that goes with that.  They were advocating a legalist solution to the Sarx which inevitably leads to factions and bickering. The more dangerous threat was not from the pagan world without, but the more frightening problem was from within.  The Sarx was eating their lunch on the inside. 

What do these two points mean to us?  The same thing; we are threatened without and within. 

Although our without may look a little different than Galatia in 49 AD, you certainly could list most of the same sins in our culture. We face sexual temptations from the Sarx all around us as never before with the media and entertainment and the internet and books and magazines.  All the stuff around us certainly is a threat to our purity.  Drunkenness certainly is still here especially if you throw in drugs both legal and illegal.  Our word debauchery is still very real in our world. The threat from without is significant.  We must be vigilant in our NSWS to not succumb to the Sarx on the outside.

But the really scary thing we need to be afraid, that should cause to pause, is that inside list: hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy within the fellowship.  If the church fellowship is biting and devouring each other, there is no place for sanctification.  That is why it is so crucial that we maintain our serving each other in love.  Our fellowship should be a haven, a place of comfort, a place of healing, a place of sanctification.  If not we are in deep trouble.  We must have a community of people who love each other radically so that we can fight the Sarx! 

Next week my plan is to explore the 15 works of the Sarx in more detail to see how the NSWS should work and in the weeks to come the specific remedy to each of the 8 inner works of the Sarx. But, let me close this sermon by stating the obvious: We have met the enemy and it is us.  This list of the works of the Sarx must be a clear nuclear sin warning of the dangers, without and the more scary dangers within. 

Los Alamos Church of Christ
August 23, 2009