"The Acts of the Flesh"

“The Acts of the Flesh”

 

The acts of the flesh 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.        Galatians 5:19-21

 

We presently live in a world, NOW, where the ACTS of the FLESH are demonstrated daily, and in a lot of instances, it is flaunted and promoted by society.  The Apostle Paul gives us a pretty exhaustive list of ACTS that are carried out by those who LIVE by the FLESH.  And in some cases are found in our churches.

 

Why or how would ACTS of the FLESH creep into our churches? We know that the church is made up of people, many of who are TRUE BELIEVERS, but there are some within the church, the body of believers, who are NOT TRUE BELIEVERS, but they have a FALSE assumption that they are TRUE BELIEVERS, when they REALLY do not have a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with Christ Jesus.

 

They may be a product of being brought up in church,  or one of their relatives might have been a deacon, Sunday school teacher, sang in the choir, or even been a preacher.  Well, that does NOT make them a TRUE BELIEVER, especially if they are LIVING by the ACTS of the FLESH.

 

Just because they have walked an aisle, and repeated a prayer, been baptized, and a member of the church for forty years.  It still does NOT make them a TRUE BELIEVER.  You MUST have a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with the LORD JESUS CHRIST, and striving to LIVE by the SPIRIT, NOT by the FLESH.  Sure, NOBODY is perfect, even a TRUE BELIEVER will fall to temptation, but they DO NOT CONTINUALLY LIVE in the ACTS of the FLESH.  So this is how some of the ACTS of the FLESH, such as, ENVY, DISCORD, HATRED, JEALOUSY, SELFISH AMBITION, DISSENSIONS, FACTIONS, and the like, creep into the church.  They are brought in by those who are duped into believing they are SAVED, when they do NOT have a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with Christ. 

 

The Apostle Paul says that those who CONTINUALLY LIVE by the ACTS of the FLESH will NOT inherit the Kingdom of God.  Instead, they will inherit HELL and all of its UNENDING torment, torture, pain, agony, heartache, and despair, with NO WAY of ESCAPE for ALL of ETERNITY.  However, God has a plan to keep you from such a HORRIBLE DESTINY, if you will come to Him with a TRUE REPENTANT HEART, CONFESSING your sins to Him, asking Him for His FORGIVENESS, BELIEVING, with ALL your HEART, that Jesus died for YOU, and is ALIVE in Heaven, making intercession for you before God, then ACCEPT His gift of SALVATION, and TURN AWAY from LIVING by ACTS of the FLESH and TURN TO God, and start LIVING by the HOLY SPIRIT of the LIVING GOD.  Do it NOW, while you still can.  He’s waiting and coming SOON!!!