September 18, 2022 Trinity 14 The Sunday Jesus Heals Ten Lepers
Trinity 14
Galatians 5:16-24
September 18, 2022
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today some people are saying that you can walk whatever direction you want to walk in life and it’s all good. It’s all up to you. Whatever your self feels like doing. So if you want to pretend to be a cat or dog and walk around purring or barking, so be it. If you want to be a man or a woman or non-binary, then so be it. If you want to have a baby with no father, or a baby with two fathers, or a baby with two mothers, or pretty much any other combination, then so be it. It’ll be called good. Today, if you can dream up a direction to walk in life, then there will be people who will call it good and right.
But God doesn’t see it that way. The Bible says there’s one direction to walk that’s right and good and there’s an opposite direction to walk that’s wrong and evil. It’s not all relative. It’s not just all your opinion vs. my opinion. It’s not just all “you go your way and I’ll go my way”. No, there’s a way to walk that’s right and a way that’s wrong.
Galatians 5 today will show us two things. First, God shows us the right way to walk in this world. We’ll deal with that first. Secondly, Galatians 5 shows us how to walk that right way because it’s hard for us with our sinful flesh always pulling us down the wrong way. There’s a right direction to walk and we’re going to see how to walk it by the Spirit’s leading.
Now we get this long list of vices in Galatians 5 and then a list of virtues of the Spirit. So a list of all the bad things you shouldn’t do and a list of the all the good things you should do. There are a number of these lists in the Bible. He says, “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.” Now what God is doing for us here is laying out very clearly that you can’t just walk whatever direction you want in life and call it good. There is very clearly a right way to walk and a wrong way to walk.
If some of us get in the car together to go to Bloomington and I start driving north, what’s everyone else going to say? They’re going to say, “Why are you going this way? This is the wrong direction.” Clearly, you can’t get to Bloomington driving north. It’s the wrong way.
There’s a right direction to walk in life. You can look at the picture I put together on the insert this morning if you want to. There’s a right way to walk. In the virtues of love and joy and peace and so forth. If you turn around and walk in the direction of hating and getting angry and judging then you’re walking the wrong direction and we should all tell you, “Hey, what you’re doing is wrong and you should turn around.”
For example, is it wrong to live together with someone of the opposite sex without getting married or before getting married? Is it wrong? Of course, we’re not asking you, “Does the Pastor say it’s wrong?” That’s not the question. Of course, the pastor says it wrong. But, in the end, who cares what he says? Is it actually and truly wrong for everyone, regardless of what the pastor says, to live together in a relationship without being married?
God says it’s the wrong direction. The problem is that so many Christians today have said, “Well, I don’t really know if it’s wrong. Young people today see things differently than us. I suppose it’s not that big of a deal. As long as they get married eventually…” We’ve acted like there isn’t a right direction when it comes to marriage.
But God says there is. It’s right on our list today – sexual immorality. The right direction for males and females is for sexual relations to be within the covenant and bond of marriage and that’s it. Sex is for husbands and wives. Anything outside of that is wrong including living together before you’re married. And if you’re going or have gone the wrong direction everyone should tell you, “Hey, that was wrong and you should turn around, receive God’s forgiveness, and walk the right way from now on.”
Is it wrong to drink alcohol to the point that you become drunk? Again, we’ve excused this one over and over again to the point that we laugh at it like some old Christian joke. But it’s not a joke. Not at all. Drinking too much alcohol is the wrong way to walk. For one, it’s right on God’s list here in Galatians 5 – drunkenness. But for two, it’s clearly wrong to lose control of your mind and motions purposely, to put others in harm because you can’t take care of them in your stupor and might even hurt them in your stupor. It’s wrong and we should stop laughing it off. Alcohol is a gift of God and a good thing in and of itself. But the right way to walk with alcohol is in moderation. And if someone starts walking the wrong way and drinking too much, we should all say, ‘Hey, you shouldn’t be doing that. You should turn around, ask God’s forgiveness, and walk the right way from now on.”
Is it wrong to get angry? How many times has someone been unloading their anger to you and you say, “Oh, that’s terrible. Oh, how could they? Oh, I’m so sorry that happened. Oh, what a jerk”? We’ve almost completely forgotten that getting angry is wrong and that we should tell each other, “Hey, you’re really angry. That’s not the right way you want to walk. You should turn around, ask for God’s forgiveness and help, and work on forgiving this person who made you so upset.
We’ve got to see there’s a right direction to walk and a wrong direction. Is it wrong to look at pornography? Yes, stop excusing it away. Is it wrong to be discontent all the time and constantly want to buy new stuff? Yes, it’s wrong and you should ask for God’s forgiveness and help. Is it wrong to engage in homosexual behavior? Yes, it’s wrong and it’s not just one opinion vs. another opinion. Is it wrong to use witchcraft, to read cards, to use spells? Yes, it’s wrong. Is it wrong to curse? Yes. Is it wrong to be lazy and not work when you’re able? Yes.
Over the course of my life and I’m sure yours as well, there have been a number of times someone has lovingly and simply said, “What you’re doing isn’t right. You’re walking in the wrong direction.” And by the grace of God I’ve come to see that they’re right and that I needed to turn around. There IS a right direction to walk and the Bible gives us many lists so that we can clearly see, “This is the right direction. This is the wrong direction.”
Now if we reached an agreement that there’s a right way to walk, then the next question is, “How to walk that right direction?” Because God talks about here in Galatians 5 the desires of our flesh. And they’re strong. Strong, strong desires. “The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit…to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” The devil and our flesh are pulling hard on us to walk the wrong direction. We want sex outside of marriage. We want to drink too much and party too hard. We want to get angry and talk bad about people and judge and hold grudges. We want to look at pornography. We want to engage in homosexual acts. We want to be lazy. Now, of course, you yourself may not be pulled hard by all those things but you yourself know the wrong things that do pull hard on you. The desires of the flesh that are especially strong in you that the devil uses to turn you around and walk in the wrong direction.
By ourselves we are too weak to fight those desires. They’re too strong and we’ve fallen into them too many times. God knows these great weaknesses of ours. He knows how savagely we’re pulled in the wrong direction. And God knew that you and I would never be able to walk in the right direction without His grace and mercy and help.
So I take you to the last verse of our reading for a minute, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” All those passions and desires in you have been crucified with Christ. Nailed to a cross. Killed. Put to death. What’s he talking about? Holy Baptism, of course. You, with all your desires, all the times you’ve walking in the wrong direction in life—you have put those desires to death in Holy Baptism with Jesus Christ.
The anger, the cursing, the sexual thoughts and actions, the living together before marriage, the pornography, the times of getting drunk, the laziness, the discontent—all of those sins and desires have been crucified on the back of Jesus Christ your Savior. He’s taken them all. And you’re baptized into Christ.
Holy Baptism is like our zero-turn mower. If you’ve driven a zero turn mower you know how cool that feeling is that you just effortlessly whip that thing around and you’re instantly going in the other direction. We’re often walking in the wrong direction in life, following the desires of the flesh. But riding in our Baptism into Christ, we repent, receive His forgiveness, and we zero turn right around going in the right direction again.
That right direction is what God calls in verse 16, “Walking by the Spirit” and in v. 18, “being led by the Spirit.” The Spirit is the gasoline in your zero turn mower. He’s the energy in your every walking step. He’s the one who gives you the ability to walk in the right direction. You fill up with the Spirit in the Word, in prayer, in the Lord’s Supper and He energizes your steps in the right direction.
Don’t say it’s impossible to walk the right direction. Don’t ever tell the Spirit of God Almighty that it’s impossible to walk in the right direction. The Spirit living in you through Holy Baptism can do it. Look back over your life at some of the things the Spirit of God helped you to get rid of and start walking in the right direction. Don’t say it’s impossible to stop cursing or stop getting angry or impossible to stop living together right now with someone you’re not married to, or impossible to stop looking at pornography, or impossible to stop drinking too much. It may be hard. It may take a while and a number of times turning around and around and around all through your life. Where your flesh and desires are really strong—that means you will need more and more and more of the Spirit. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.