Foundational Truth Part 3

Bibles to 1st Samuel chapter 15, that's where we're gonna start tonight. Now tonight's topic is the flesh, the heart, the wicked old heart, the flesh, that's really more the scriptural language. We'll eventually get to Galatians 5, the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, that'd be the Spirit of God, and the Spirit against the flesh, and we'll look a little bit into that in just a moment.

But I think you have a number of pictures of the flesh, and we're going to read one here just in a moment here, 1st Samuel chapter 15. It's interesting that if I was to ask you, what would be an evidence that you are saved? What would you tell me? Well the Bible doesn't leave us to wonder. You go to the first epistle of John, it's all, it's a family epistle, it's all about fellowship, and you know that what the very first chapter is taken up with? If we confess our sin.

Something that we we want to stay away from, something that we try to like candy-coat. You'll notice that a sinner does the same thing in the preaching of the gospel. The very thing that qualifies them to be saved is the very thing they won't admit their sin.

When it comes to believers, the more we, the more conscious we are of our sin, the closer we are to God. So it's just a good thing to remind ourselves just of that order that we see in Scripture. You'll hear an awful lot of people today talk about sinless perfection.

That is absolutely impossible. The Word of God would tell us in 1st John that if we deny we have sin, the truth is not in us. What is a victorious Christian life? It's not sinless perfection.

That's impossible. A victorious Christian life is not yielding to that wicked old thing called the flesh. That's what victory is.

Some people think that a victorious Christian life is, I'm gonna free myself of all of this. You will never free yourself of it. That's what I want to press upon you tonight.

You will never be able to improve the heart of man. This might sound almost, you know, not proper, but the blood of Christ could do nothing for our wicked heart. Absolutely nothing.

And it will never do nothing for it. And sometimes that battle, that struggle, as I often say to young believers and even older believers, I think there's milestones in a Christian's life. A tremendous milestone is when you get ahold of eternal security.

And it kind of puts the the death knell to doubts, right? Because you understand your position in Christ. You understand that God is not looking at my performance. God is looking at Christ and my acceptance, as we touched on last night, is in Christ.

That's eternal security. Then there comes the next milestone and it's this struggle, flesh and spirit. Well, if I'm saved, why am I still having these wrong thoughts? If I'm saved, why is there a like a magnetic draw to sin? How come one day I can be so strong to say no and the next day, gone, fell right into it? How can that be? And then you start to try to analyze all that.

But what we're going to try to show tonight with the help of God is this. That wicked old heart is not part of the new you. It's linked with the body, as we said.

Salvation has only affected two parts of us so far. Our mind, our spirit, and our soul. And that natural body, that's why it's dying.

But you'll discover in the Word of God, in Romans chapter 8, that your soul and your spirit, they are not living like a verb form. They're actually a noun. They are the life of God.

God's very life is in each one of us. 1st John chapter 3 will talk about, "...and his seed remaineth in you." That's what happened the moment of conversion. You think of seed, it's what all life will spring from.

So these are tremendous truths. We can't fully comprehend them, but they can give us enough strength to move in the power and understand just what is going on. So with that being said, let's just have a quick look here at an illustration of the flesh in the Old Testament.

1st Samuel chapter 15, it's in the life of Saul. Now if I was to ask you this question, I was actually speaking to David Gilliland a couple of weekends ago at a conference, and I asked his opinion. I said, in your opinion, brother, would you think that we're going to meet King Saul in heaven? And that's normally the silence you get.

I'm not too sure. Saul was a man after the flesh. He was a man controlled by the flesh.

Now you think of David, no question we're definitely going to see him in heaven. I'm going to show you something that the Word of God leaves for us. I would tend to lean that I don't think we will see Saul in heaven.

I would, I could not be dogmatic on that, but you would, you look at his life. But let's just look, read a few things about him here for a second. 1st Samuel chapter 15, verse number 1, Samuel also said unto Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people.

That happened a while back, over Israel. Now therefore, hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he lay wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt.

Amalek, from him comes the Amalekites. You never read about the Amalekites when the children of Israel are in Egypt, but they are the first nationality or group of people that attack Israel as soon as they come out of Egypt. Of course, coming out of Egypt is a picture of redemption.

You got the Passover, you got the Red Sea, and out they come. And then all of a sudden comes this group of people called the Amalekites, the first ones to go after God's people. And you'll find here that he's actually laying wait in the way.

So there's the idea of observing, watching, shadowing. That's something that we tend to lose sight of. We have got an enemy, the heart, which shadows everything I think, everything I look at, everything I'm involved in.

It's shadowing. It's waiting for an opportunity. It doesn't come out with bright lights and say, aha, I'm here.

You're not even aware of it. That's how subtle it is. And we're going to find out as we proceed through the night the importance of coming to this book.

Something I'll tell you right now. There's something that only the Lord Jesus is able to do that no one else can do. John chapter 13, the daily washing.

And there's two different words used for wash, as you know, in John 13. There's one word used for to wash the entire body, bathe the entire body. That happened at the moment of salvation.

Then there is another word for partial washing, hands and feet. That's the word the Lord Jesus uses when he says, listen, if I don't wash you, you've no part with me. That's the importance.

See, what happened back there in the culture was people would go to public bathhouses and they would enter into and they would wash their entire body. But then they'd have to walk back to their house. Well, their feet got dirty on the way back to the house.

And then once they entered into their house, they would do this partial washing. Well, you and I were totally washed at the moment of conversion. But we are daily walking in a filthy environment.

Do you know what we don't even realize? We don't realize the contamination that we're picking up. We don't realize how it's building. And we sort of think that we can play with sin, don't we? It's not too bad.

It's under control. And it just keeps going. And all the while, this is Amalek waiting.

He's attacking from the rear. So what? There's something that only the Lord Jesus lined up with Psalm 23. He restored my soul.

Isn't it wonderful to be restored by him? He does it in such a gentle way. We can be so hard with people and blunt. But when the Lord Jesus searches your own heart and in his presence, you're honest with him.

Amazing how he can just revive you and bring you back. So that's really the ultimate end of this whole week. It's not to get discouraged with all these things.

Because what we're going to find tonight is because of the indwelling of the Spirit of God, we don't have to walk around afraid of the flesh. Like, oh, I'm going to commit sin. Oh, I remember a brother home, back home.

I think he's a brother. It'd be hard to tell right now. Every time you met him, oh, I'm having an awful time with the flesh.

Oh, I'm having an awful time with the wicked heart. That's all he was occupied with. That's all was taking up his mind.

Why don't you give me something you're enjoying about Christ? Oh, the flesh wouldn't allow me. Oh, we can become like that. And that is a dangerous road to be on.

Never get occupied with the flesh. Get occupied with Christ. That's what it is just to be led of the Spirit.

That's what the Spirit of God would encourage. So coming back to this verse here now. Verse number three.

Listen to these words. Chapter 15 of 1st Samuel. Now go and smite Amalek.

This is about two years after Saul is king. Go and smite Amalek. Listen.

And utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not. Notice how rough this is. But slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, newborn child, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

Then we know what happened. Verse nine. But Saul and the people spared the king, Agath, and the best of the sheep and the ox and the fattling the lambs and all that was good in their eye.

And then finally Samuel comes into the picture and we look at verse number 21. But the people took the spoil, sheep, ox, and the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed. And they try to sacrifice it unto the Lord.

God said, listen, the entire thing is condemned. But they looked at it and they thought, well we're gonna pick and choose. This is a lesson for us.

There is not a speck of good in the flesh. Get a hold of that. It cannot be refined.

It can't be cultured. It can't be made religious. It can't.

It's a trap to go to even think you can. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm going to determine self-determination to not do this. I guarantee you you'll fail.

You're going to find something very interesting. God never envisioned us battling the flesh. That's why he gave us the Spirit of God.

We're not even in the battle. So that's something to see. It's not my energies.

It's not even my, my position in Christ. It's this new creation that I am that will ever be able to overcome the power of the flesh only by the Spirit of God. Now let's move ahead into Saul's life.

Come ahead to 2nd Samuel just at the end of his life now. He's had a rather unglorious life, Saul. And then we come to the end of his life.

I find this, I find what we read in verse number 5. King David, of course, he's now about to take the throne. There's been the battle that Saul and Jonathan have been involved in. As you know, they both die.

And this young man comes to David with the bracelet and crown of Saul. Verse 5, And David said unto the young man that told him, How knowest thou that Saul and Jonathan his son be dead? 2nd Samuel 1 verse number 6. And the young man that told him said, As I happened by chance upon upon Mount Gilboa, behold, Saul leaned upon his spear, and lo, the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him. And when he looked behind him, he saw me and called unto me.

And I, and I answered, Here am I. And he said unto me, Who art thou? And I answered him, I am an Amalekite. And he said unto me again, Stand, I pray thee upon me and slay me. For anguish has come upon me, because my life is yet whole in me.

I think these are sad words. So I stood upon him and slew him. The very thing that God told him to slay in the beginning of his king, kinghood, slew him in the end.

You know what that lesson we can learn from that? If you and I think that we can handle the flesh, it will slay us. We have to totally write it off like the Bible does. We have to understand what the Bible teaches about it.

And then that way we learn its advances, its attacks. But listen to this. Let your eye go up to verse number one.

Look at what God said about King David. How perfect the word of God is. Verse one.

Now it came to pass after the death of Saul, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites. See Saul was the man after the flesh. David is the man after the spirit.

And I found it interesting to think how the word of God pictures one man, he couldn't slay the Amalekites and it slew him. And here is David coming from the slaughter of the Amalekites. And then you don't read of the Amalekites in the life of David after this.

There's a spiritual lesson there for us, dear child of God. And that's significant for us to learn from that. Now let's go over to Romans chapter five.

And now we'll get into the New Testament and we're almost going to read kind of the similar idea. We're going to read about an old king and then we'll make reference to a new Lord, which is the Lord Jesus. What is interesting about the book of Romans, there's lots of things interesting about the book of Romans.

You're going to find the spirit of God is mentioned in a number of the chapters one and two and so on. The last mention of the spirit of God, starting from chapter one is in chapter five. And then you have no mention of the spirit of God in chapter six and seven.

And that's all taken up with a lot of battle. And when you come into chapter eight in verse one, the spirit of God is mentioned for the first time. How does chapter seven end? Here is a man, Paul, a saved man.

You know what he says? Who is going to deliver me from this body of death? He has been trying to fight the flesh in his own energies. And you know what he discovered? I am no match for it. Then you come into Romans eight and verse one, and he discovers the answer is the spirit of God.

Do you know what you'll find about Romans chapter eight? The spirit of God is mentioned 19 times. There's not another chapter in the Bible with so many references of the spirit of God. So obviously the spirit of God is teaching us something.

Victory comes when you're focused on the spirit of God and you're allowing him to use you and you're following him. So that's something just to notice kind of in the broad context of Romans five, six, seven, and eight and nine and on and on it goes. So let's look at Romans five and verse number 21.

Look at what we read here. Something interesting happens as he starts to develop a truth here. Verse number 21.

That is sin. Now in our English Bible, there's no definite article with sin, but in the Greek, there is the definite article. So I'm going to insert it so that you get the clear thought that as the sin, that is a reference to the flesh, the wicked heart, that unregenerated part that's linked with my body.

Okay. That as the sin hath reigned onto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness onto eternal life by Jesus Christ, our Lord. Come over to chapter six and look at verse number 12.

Again, the definite article is important. Verse 12, I'll insert it where it should be. Let not the sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the luster of neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness onto the sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Now, the definite article doesn't appear. I'll tell you why in a minute for sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law, but under grace, this, this word that's being used, reign and dominion. Do you want to know how the word of God pictures you and I member in Adam, as opposed to being in Christ in Adam, you'll discover another word in the flesh.

It's the idea of the flesh reigning like a King sitting on the throne of my life. And it had full access to these hands. It had full access to these eyes mouth had this, it had dominion over this entire body, the brain.

Sin never bothered me when I was in my sins, not until the spirit of God started to deal with me as we, as we showed you last night. Now, based on your conscience, whether you are familiar with the Bible or brought up in a Christian home or taught certain things that there might've been a certain level of opposition to sin, but you ever marvel sometimes at your friends, how easily they could commit sin and not even think about it. And you had a conscience against it.

That's before you were saved. All that is, is an enlightened conscience, but still ultimately there was this King on the throne. Do you know what happened the day he got saved? The Lord took the throne.

When I was taken from in Adam, the Adam family, and I was placed in Christ. Now I've got a Lord on the throne of my life. And this King dethroned, put out of the house, evicted.

And guess what? He's cranky. He's angry. He's not dead.

He, he was used to fully controlling me. He had full access to every part of this body. Now you no longer read in the flesh.

Now in the word of God, you read the flesh in you. It's almost like he's been reduced down to a little tiny spot, but I'll tell you this, he's trying to get control back of that hand. He says, Hey, when it comes to Scott McLeod, I was used to controlling that hand for 24 years.

And I don't like the fact that I don't have full access to that hand. So these members now that were once used for unrighteousness, now there's a Lord on the throne, the spirit of the life of God. Now these members can be used for righteousness.

What do you think the flesh is going to do? Sit back and go, isn't that nice? Let me pick on cow. Isn't that nice cows living for God? Marvelous. Do you think the flesh is going to sit back and say, well, I'm going to try to get used to this life.

I'm going to try to get used to this, this person that is now reading the word of God and join it. I'm going to try to get used to this person that enjoys praying and worshiping Christ, witnessing to other people. That's why there's opposition to your child of God, wherever you go, you and I are identical when it comes to this battle.

And you know what the flesh will do? It will resist everything. That's why we find it hard to read every day. That's why we find it hard to pray consistently.

Let me encourage the young men or the women as well, but I'm thinking more of the young men. That's why brother, it's far easier on a Sunday morning to give out a hymn as opposed to worship. Flesh doesn't care if you go to him, your heart don't care if you're singing.

Why did God save you and I? John four, worship. That's the number one thing. That's the number one thing God wants, worship.

And that's the number one thing, the devil, the flesh will try to kill. Don't worship. It's almost like activity.

Devil wouldn't care if you're all taken up with activity, the flesh activity, run, run, run, run. But communion, let me ask you, which one is easier? Activity, far easier, but communion in this busy world that we're in, in this noisy world that we're in, in this, just everything's so stimulating. Can you imagine sitting in your house for an hour with no distractions, reading the Bible a whole hour, no distractions, just me and God.

You need to develop that in your Christian life. If you're going to survive, because when you take time to read the word of God and meditate upon it, that's the Lord washing. You might not even be aware of it.

There's just an enjoyment. But what you're going to notice is this, as you start to enjoy that hour, and it might extend to an hour and a half, the flesh puts more pressure on you. Don't be surprised by that.

I remember as a young believer thinking the more I read and the more I pray and the more I take, I'm going to eventually shut this thing up and it will leave me alone. And what I found was the opposite. The more I got involved with the things of God, the more this thing got active.

And the more than wicked thoughts went across this mind. I was telling my brother, my brother even today, when I was in my sins, well that, that old fool is dead, thank God. We're going to talk about somebody that doesn't exist anymore, okay? God doesn't even know what I'm going to talk about now, because God doesn't even recognize what it was.

It was just a common thing for us before we went out to a nightclub to sit with with cases of beer and just watch pornography. That stuff is lodged up here and I can't get it out. Amazing the things you do forget and the things you can't forget.

And it plagues me. I wish I could just erase it out of my brain. Sometimes it's just like on a reel and just, it just gets me so down.

What do you do? You just gotta call it to God. You just gotta quote verses. That's all you can do.

It's the only thing that will able to stop it. That's what the Lord Jesus taught us when he was being tempted. He just quoted the word of God.

He could have. Think of it. Here's the Lord Jesus in the desert with the devil, an absolute sinless man.

Think of the intelligence. We wouldn't even be able to understand his intelligence. He could have taken the devil and tied him into intellectual knots just within seconds.

He didn't do that. It is written. It is written.

It is written. See, we're being taught something there. I think sometimes the lack of power in our Christian lives, we're not into this book enough.

We're not. We are so stressed for time. We are just basically giving God what is left.

Can I encourage every single person here? We were talking about it in the home last night. Do you want to know the best blessing you could be to your co-workers, your mother, your father, your partner, your boyfriend, girlfriend, your friends? Just enjoy Christ. Be spiritual.

Best influence you could be. You know what that ends up being? A vessel, Timothy, fit for the master's use. Just ready at a moment's notice to be moved by the spirit of God.

I can tell you of people that I have great respect for, great respect for. Godly, godly elders. You want to know how in tune they were with God? I can tell you stories of times when they would drive down a street in a car, stop at a road, pray for a minute and say, Lord, should we go down that road and visit these homes? No, let's go to the next one.

Should we go down that road? Yeah, let's go down that road and just find someone that's in need. That's possible. Christianity doesn't have to be this, whew, that was a fluke.

Look how that happened. Whoa, where'd that come from? We, for some reason think this is the flesh. Christianity is this passive thing.

We're just sort of bumping around, you know, whatever happens, happens. Instead of the active thing, actively knowing what God wants me to do, being fully confident that this is the direction that I'm to go. We can have that today, but the flesh will come in and try to destroy that.

So what we're learning here is this. Here's this king, ex-king that was on the throne, reigning in this life, controlling these members. Now you could almost put over your body new ownership.

There's a new person. Now here's my question to you. This king, the devil, the flesh, he had full access to this, the Lord, the spirit of God.

Does the spirit of God have full access to you or are there some departments you don't want him to go into? You know, why is there the hesitancy to give God everything? Why? We were speaking in the home there last night, the nation of Israel. You know what God said to them once? God says, you prove me. Put me to the test.

You know, I always tell them up in Canada, this is something we're going to get done on Friday night, the practical at workings of all this, giving. Why are we so stingy with our giving? Money, time, talent, a number of things. I'm just thinking of money at the moment.

I'm not asking for money. You want to give money, give it to somebody else. That's not the purpose of my comment right now.

But I am glad that Canada now has the plastic bills, eh? Because sometimes people hold on them so tight, at least they're able to stretch now. And almost like there's a snap. Because years ago, they ripped too easy.

You see the effect the world has upon us? We are talking about a person that held nothing back for you and I when he died for us. Nothing. Now, that doesn't mean that God expects us to be unresponsible.

We got a family to look after, you got your house, you got this, you got everything. But there can become so many extras that are really just extras. That's all they are.

They're not adding to our spiritual life. We were in the home there last night again. Materialism has never helped the gospel and it has never helped Christianity.

Never. So many distractions, right? And doesn't it become so easy to justify it? There's the flesh just working away in my life. So it's so important to be able to know this.

Now let's go to Galatians chapter five for a minute. Galatians chapter five. Oh, oh, sorry.

What I should do is come back to Romans six. I should mention the difference. For those that want to do some study, you go through chapter five, go through chapter six and chapter seven.

If you had a Greek Bible and look at the definite, the definite article with the sin, the sin, the sin, the sin, the sin, you're going to, you're going to find it all the way through chapter six at the end of chapter five, chapter six, chapter seven. What you have in verse 14 is the only time where you don't have the definite article, because now you're not looking at the flesh, but now you're looking at the deeds of sin. Notice what it says.

For sin shall not have dominion over you. You know what? Because of what salvation has done, it has brought me out of the Adam family. It has brought me out of the dominion of the flesh and it has put me in Christ.

And I have the spirit of God no longer. It's absolutely impossible for a believer to be back over here under the dominion of the flesh. But you know what can happen? I can fall under the dominion of sins, deeds.

They could become vices to me. So that's the, that's how perfect the word of God is in action. Here's, I was singing a verse today in Timothy.

The Lord knoweth them that are his. Thank God. Having this seal, let everyone that name it the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

Now I put a big question mark over anyone that tries to tell me they're saved and they have no victory over sin. They're constantly, this is the bend of their life, not saved. Just be straight.

Do not give a person like that hope that they are saved. Far better to shake them to their boots so that they look and realize what, and hey, if they are away from the Lord, great. It might just help them get back in fellowship with the Lord.

Sin is something in the word of God that is always looked upon as falling into. Never something that is planned, but we all have to be honest, don't we? God is gracious to us. Sometimes I go looking for sin and God stops me.

Amazing how kind he is to me. So let's come quickly to Galatians chapter five. This is the famous section on the flesh and the spirit.

And what I find once again is the perfections of the word of God. Notice what it says, Galatians chapter five and look at verse number 16, Galatians chapter five and verse number 16. This I say, then walk in the spirit and you shall not feel.

No, it doesn't say that you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. You walk in the spirit. You will, if you will feel the flesh, you'll feel the battle.

And if I'm speaking to someone here tonight and you claim to be saved and you're looking at me going, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't really experience this battle. It's because you're not saved.

That's why there is a real awareness that comes from having the life of God. Your conscience, I was looking at it today, your conscience, the moment of conversion, your conscience were purified, purged. You were given the life of God, new desires, and sin is now exceedingly sinful.

Now we can get away from God and we can get a conscience that's seared and so on and so forth. That's not the line I'm on right now. But sin, it's amazing, isn't it, what's happening to us because we're facing it all the time.

Isn't it something how we get desensitized to it? It doesn't even seem as bad anymore. Comes the norm. God help us never to allow any type of sin to be almost looked upon as, that's kind of normal.

No, should always keep us sensitive, keeping in touch with God. So verse 16, this I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh for, now I want you to really pay attention to verse 17. For the flesh lusteth, notice who's on the attack first.

Same thing with the Amalekites, they attacked Israel first. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things you would. Who's missing from the verse? You are, I am.

There's where the battle is. The battle is between the flesh and the spirit of God. Now where do I come in? Which one am I going to listen to? It's not that the spirit of God needs my help to battle the flesh.

That's what we think sometimes. That's where that whole idea of determination comes from. Instead of relying upon the spirit of God for the power, I'm gonna beat myself and determine never to do that again.

I'm gonna set these resolutions and I'm gonna regiment my life and you're gonna fail. Guaranteed you're gonna fail. We are no match for the flesh.

No match. The spirit of God, let's do it. For the flesh lusteth against.

We don't often think of the spirit of God lusting but in the context and the spirit against the flesh, that desire of the flesh, it just goes against the spirit of God and the spirit of God is going against the flesh. There's two words that make up that word against. It's the idea of going forward but it's also trying to press, trying to put down, to suppress.

So you got, it's quite a battle going this way and trying to hold down. Do you find it easy to witness to somebody? No, it's not natural. It's not just easy.

Why is there that debate, that war in the mind? That's what the sentence means. So that you cannot do the things you would. It's not just in the negative sense.

When there is an opportunity to do good, all of a sudden there's pressure not to do it. When there's the opportunity to do evil, there's this opposition. That's the spirit of God trying to hold you back.

When there's something good, the flesh is trying to hold you back. This is how simple it is. I was speaking in the home again last night.

We had quite a talk last night. Very enjoyable. For quite a while.

It's always good. I try to tell my wife every day I love her. I said this to them.

Sometimes I go to bed and I turn the light out and I think, I never told her I loved her today. I should tell her right now. Oh, no, no.

She's probably sleeping. Where did that come from? It wasn't the spirit of God. That's the flesh.

Do you think the flesh enjoys seeing us get along? Absolutely not. But the spirit, he wants fellowship. He wants harmony.

Do you have a desire? I was telling him I said, you know, why are we so hesitant to encourage somebody? Just to go up to somebody, a brother. Brother Kyle, I really enjoyed your worship this morning. Why are we so hesitant to do that? Someone gets up and has a word in the gospel, a word of ministry.

Maybe there's a sister and very kindly has brought fresh flowers to the hall or a little dinner or a snack, whatever. Maybe they gave you a piece of paper, whatever. Maybe they look good.

Why is it so hard to go over and say, you really look nice tonight? The flesh doesn't want you doing that. Oh, no, they might get ahead of me. I mean, God forbid if I told Jeremiah he's a better preacher than me.

There's someone better than me? No, can't be. Impossible. I mean, truth has died with me.

That's how subtly the flesh works in our lives. Why is it so hard, brethren, to get off the seat and worship? What's the first thing you normally think of? Well, normally you think of your faults that week. Okay.

Once you get over that, then you start to think it happens to me all the time. Well, I don't really have much today. Where is that coming from? It's not the spirit of God.

Do you think God cares how long your prayer is? Go to the Old Testament. Look at the range. Of things that could be used on the altar.

Do you know what sometimes we get all occupied with? We get all, oh, wouldn't I just love to bring a bullock? Look at the size of the bullock. Listen, I think I'd rather bring a dove because a bullock can't fly. There's something unique about the pigeon and the turtle dove, and he can soar into the heavens.

And here's this big old blunky animal. You'd hardly be able to lift it on the altar. Why are we so, see, there's the flesh.

Well, in order to pray, I have to have at least a five minute prayer. Oh, please for service. I see one sitter shaking her head.

Listen, if you pray five minutes, the people are saying, amen, because you sat down, not because they enjoyed the content of your prayer. Get it into your head. The flesh is always shadowing, cloaking, slipping in, doing its utmost to destroy everything.

Never goes to sleep. When I was sick five years ago, very sick. Physically, I was sick.

Mentally, I was exhausted. You know what I discovered? That old flesh don't get sick. He was as fired up as ever and just hammering me.

Never goes to bed. I go to bed and I lay down. I go to sleep.

He don't. That's why sometimes I got to wake up in the morning. I got to confess sin.

Do you know something that we're so hesitant to do? I would challenge you to go through the New Testament and write on a piece of paper where you find the list of sins. Find out how many are in the epistles written to Christians. And you know, normally what tops the list? Fornication, which covers everything from bestiality, homosexuality, adultery, all the uncleanness and wickedness.

You know something that I've come to realize? This man up here is capable of every one of those sins listed. I've got it in my heart. Someone says, well, are you sure you're saved? I know I am.

Acknowledging that is a sign, as I said, of fellowship with God. That's the very thing. That's what happens when you have the life of God.

These things, but for some reason, I would never do that. I feel like going up the first thing. I wouldn't say that.

I find people that are very quick to judge others when they fail. You know what it tells me? They're not judging themselves in the presence of God. You get into God's presence and you find out just how wicked that hurt is.

And you'll be just a little hesitant to judge sin in other people because that person is the same as me. We're all the same. Why are we so quick to judge? See, there's the flesh coming in.

So we need to understand that. And then we could read times near gone. We could read a list here.

Look, look at what we have. So the verse 18, but if he be led of the spirit. So you notice the progression, walk in the spirit, led of the spirit.

I mean, there's a number of things that expressions I've heard over the years. I've written them down. The importance of the spirit of God.

I want you to get this picture in your head. This shows us that we don't have to be fearful as Christians. You don't have to be walking around like what's around the corner.

All I got to do is stay in fellowship with Christ. You're standing before a minefield and you want to go across the minefield. How are you ever going to do it? And all of a sudden there's a man that zigzags through the field and he comes right over to you and he says, do you want to go through? Want to go across the field? Yeah.

Just follow me. Don't take your eyes off me. Just follow me.

I don't have to be worried about where my foot's going. I'm not fearful what's on left or right. I heard another brother say this way.

You got a man and a dog and a plate full of meat. As long as the dog is looking at the eyes of the master, he will not touch the meat. See, that's why you and I can survive in a wicked world.

But if I'm, if I'm going down the street, I'll worry about who am I? Just keep enjoying God. You see here, here's the thing we need to understand. Oh, well, you know what we should do? Let's, let's, let's turn and let's look at it in James for a minute.

The process, the flow. This is something that I had an awful struggle with. I thought the first time that something came into my mind, I had committed sin.

And I didn't realize that there was actually a stepping, a process of sin. So when you think of the Lord Jesus in the desert, I'm going to say this carefully. So you understand what the devil said went into the ears of the Lord Jesus and his mind processed it so that he understood what he was being asked to do.

But there was no sin in that just because a wicked thought goes across my mind. You know, like I said, we could have said it in Romans chapter seven, twice over Paul says, not I, but the sin that developed in me, Paul saw that complete distinction between himself and the wicked heart. It's almost like the flesh lobbying a ball across your brain.

It's trying to entice you. Do you know what you do right there? Lord, just give me help to keep focused upon you. Don't, don't, don't try to chase the ball.

Now let's read it here in Galatians chapter, sorry, James chapter one, verse number 13. It falls right in the midst of trials. Sometimes trials in our life can lead us to sin, but something very clear is being contrasted here.

Verse 13, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil. Neither tempted he any man notice verse 14, but every man is italicized. So it's every person is tempted.

I want you to stop there for a minute. Do you want to know what is common to every single one of us tonight? Be it the oldest saint here, be it an elder, be it a preacher, be it the most godly person you realize every one of us are tempted. We are, we're all cut from the same cloth.

No one, no one is above one another here, but what does make the distinction is how we deal with it. Okay. All right.

Keep reading. But every man verse 30, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust. Hasn't committed sin yet.

Step number one, he's tempted. Step number two, he's drawn away. The word means to be, it's the idea of a little fish in a cold and all of a sudden now he's venturing out of the safety of that code.

He's going after something. Then you read the next one. Then, okay.

Oh, oh, drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Oh, now I'm really eyeing the bait. I haven't committed sin yet.

See, see the lead up now, listen to it. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. So just because something defiling walks in front of you, you see something accidentally, the people at work are gathered around a computer screen.

You walk over and all of a sudden there's a pornographic image and you turn away. You haven't committed sin. There was the temptation.

You could have stayed there and you could have went after it. You will know when you commit sin, dear child of God, the spirit of God will be grieved right away. You'll, you'll feel that.

Oh, there's something off right away. Now here's where I want to end the meeting. What do you do when that happens? Well, let's go to first John.

I love first John. Absolutely amazing. And of course, this has been written by the pen of an apostle.

You imagine, you imagine a man that gave us a number of books in the, in the new testament, even he committed sin. It gives me a level of comfort because I'm certainly no apostle. Look at first John chapter one.

This is, this to me is probably the most precious thing about the whole thing. I can't understand it. Look at verse number nine, first John chapter one, verse nine.

If we confess now notice that word. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Notice it.

He's faithful, true to his word. He's just, he's right. This is something when sin comes into my life as a believer and I confess it to God, God is actually right to do this to me.

Remove it. Let that, let that soak in your brain for a minute. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Go down to chapter two, verse one. My little children, these things write I to you that ye sin not. And if any man, man is italicized.

If any person sin, we have an advocate with God. No, with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Okay.

Why is that important? I thought as a young believer that when I committed sin, I could no longer call God father. I thought I had to address him as God. And then once I acknowledged what I did is wrong, then I was restored back to the father.

That relationship that salvation has brought us into father and son is never altered by our sin. What did we learn last night? When I as a believer commit sin, God's love doesn't change toward me. No.

Unlike me, you sin against me. I'm not going to like you to like too much. You hurt me.

God's acceptance that he's given me doesn't change. His forgiveness doesn't alter the remission doesn't alter. We have big why? Because we have an advocate with the father.

What is an advocate? I know there's people that go with a different line. I cannot see that. They say this, that it's like a lawyer that's in the place of someone before the judge.

And it's, and there is Christ up in heaven. And here I am down on earth and I've committed sin. And the Lord Jesus is speaking to the father on my behalf.

I take what the word means. And I look at the four times it's used in the upper room ministry spoken by the Lord Jesus. And the one time that it's used here, an advocate, the word means drawing alongside of someone.

You ever had somebody come alongside of you and they put their arm around you and they kind of squeeze you and they comfort you. What did the Lord Jesus teach about the spirit of God? He says, after I'm gone, I'm going to send another comforter and he's going to come and he's going to comfort you to know what I believe the meaning of this is here. I am at my lowest.

I've committed sin. I get this. God enjoys my fellowship so much.

And he wants it back that his own son comes to me and embraces me and draws me back in. I think that's marvelous. See, I think that's, that's the washing again of John 13.

If it wasn't for this work of the Lord Jesus, I would never acknowledge my sin. Do you know what happens to me when I do sin? I don't feel like praying. I'm ashamed.

I just almost feel like not even looking at God. It's kind of like, but as a result of the Lord Jesus drawing back in, what happens? What does the word confess me? You'll notice that it doesn't say we're asking for forgiveness, but this will end. What's the importance? Well, the importance is tremendous.

When you look at the word confess, it just means saying the same thing as that's what it means. It's almost like echoing the same thing that God is saying. God has called this sin.

And I stand alongside of God and I say, God, you are right. That is sin. What does it mean to ask for forgiveness? Well, let's say Cal for a minute.

Let's say if I offend Cal, I don't know what he's thinking. So I'm going to come to him and I'm going to say, Cal, I'm sorry. I did what I did.

Could you forgive me? Because I don't know what his mind is. And I'm waiting now to find out what it is. We already know God's mind.

He says, Scott, when you commit sin, if you simply say the same thing about it that I'm saying, you already know what I'm going to do. I'm faithful to my word. I'm just, I'm right to remove it, to forgive it.

I already know how he's going to respond. So do you know what it actually is? When I, as a believer commits sin and I just follow the word of God, that's actually faith. I'm following the word of God.

Faith is honoring to God. You ever thought of that? Right in the midst of my lowest, I'm even able to bring something to God. Isn't God amazing? And then he says, I'll not only forgive it, but I'll cleanse you from it.

Cleanse you from it. I told you of the young man the other night. So broken by sin because of molesting his sisters.

So he literally, I told you, he was physically stooped over for months. He was so broken. And I remember coming alongside that man on a number of occasions, trying to help the dear man.

How many times have you acknowledged his wrong? Thousands. I said, God hasn't heard you. He only heard you the first time.

Took him to the word of God and it's completely gone. You should have saw the difference it made in that man. Within days, he was, literally he was standing.

The weight of guilt was gone. What did the flesh want? Just keep in the guilt. Don't enter into this.

Just keep whipping yourself with it. Why did I do this? Why am I such a failure? Why? Dog chasing his tail. Instead of take God at his word.

And just move, move for him again. Why? Because we will sin. Guaranteed.

I am going to sin before I get to heaven. But thank God for the word of God and how clear, how quick, how instantaneous that fellowship, not the link, but the fellowship is simply restored. And I'm back in fellowship with God.

The story is told to the, of the dear lady. And she was being, you probably heard preachers say that. And she opened up the Bible and she put it under the bed and she said, here devil, have a look at that.

God's told me it's all gone. He's forgiven. Right? I mean, I mean, no, those are cute little things, but it's a real thing in our life when we're under the weight of it and we can't seem to break free of it.

Come to the word of God. Read that section over. Just say, God, Lord, that was just wrong.

Please help me not to do it again. It's all gone. Just like that.

And then if you happen to mention it five minutes later, God is actually looking at you saying, I don't know what you're talking about. Hebrews chapter 10, he says, I will remember them no more. Thank God.

Not forget, but I will remember them no more. Thank you very much for listening. That's Bauer Henson.

We'll speak to God.