How do we defeat sin and overcome the flesh? Feat. Stephen Bartley

SIN! A pervasive reality that by our own selfish volition has ravaged our lives and the surrounding world. Yet with Jesus we have seen and do see victory. The real question is what is sin's role in the life of a new creation indwelled by the Holy Spirit? Why is sin still a fight? How do I overcome it? Can I be sinless? All questions we explore in this pod.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:31 What is the flesh?
• 5:39 With sin comes the capacity of the adverse
• 5:56 Sowing sin will reap what we don't want
• 8:30 Is the flesh all bad?
• 11:11 How do we deal with our flesh (sin)?
• 24:16 RECAP
• 26:42 We CRUCIFY what we think is the flesh, when in reality we resurrect a monster
• 31:19 How do I actually apply what you have said to overcome sin?
• 36:45 A summary
• 39:18 Conclusion

Transcript

WILDFIRE, the youth branch of Hope to Families, seeking unity and community, helping people come to know Jesus and pointing people to the local body. We're here again, take three. And we're talking about, you know, the topics aren't getting easier. No, no, you put me through them. Yeah. And I could think of no better person to put them through, to be fair. What is the flesh? Yeah, so you hear, especially in Paul's epistles, Paul uses the term the flesh and... It's confusing for some people whenever they read the Bible for the first time because sometimes the Bible will use the term flesh and blood and it's referring to your physical body. But then Paul says, you know, you know, my flesh is against the spirit and the spirit is against the flesh and some people then have taken that to interpret it to mean you know anything of your body is evil so oh you shouldn't be enjoying your food there you need to you know live a very poultry life or you shouldn't enjoy your sex life or you shouldn't you know enjoy your physical side but you should be more spiritual right and that's been a false interpretation that some people think the Lord is for the body, the body is for the Lord. This is then getting to that answer. What do we mean by the flesh? The flesh is our humanity in rebellion against God. So to take, let's say, if you imagine this is a body, this body has a series of desires. Okay. So it has a desire to eat, right? The flesh with God says, eat, eat your food and enjoy yourself and get a kick out of it and live for what you feel is best. Forget about God. Your sex drive. So you have a body, it is physical, it has libido, it has sexual urges but it just says I'm not going to enjoy that under God's way in the confines of a marriage where it's secure and safe and wholesome and flourishing. But I'm going to go and do that with whoever I want whenever I want and I'm going to really enjoy myself, right? Which is basically the idea of our society. But the flesh is our humanity in rebellion. against God and if you take Galatians 5, Paul lists about 21 examples or iterations of the flesh and he categorizes them into sexual sins, into religious sins, into social sins and then like into selfish sins. So I could just you know sexual ones, obvious adultery and fornication and the savageness. The religious ones are idolatry and witchcraft. Then we see the other ones would be with one another and then the selfish ones would be like drunkenness and revelry and things like that. But it's basically my humanity, my God given desires used in an ungodly way and that's what the flesh is. So the problem is every human being is fleshly. The reason why we say a human being is fleshly is because our spiritual man is dead. So a man who's shut off. It's dead to him. God is dead to him. The supernatural is dead to him. What is real to him is what he physically feels. So I can remember reading years ago was a book by Albert Camus called The Stranger or The Stranger and he was an atheist and in his book he often criticises the priesthood and he criticises all these people. But throughout the book the character, I can't remember his name, but he always writes about what he feels, experiences he has, you know, and he talks everything about the physical because the physical is more real to him than the spiritual and that's what the flesh is. The flesh is no consciousness of God, no awareness of God, no desire for God. I live for what is real to me and whether that is simply, you know, as I say, food and sexuality and sleep and feeling good and looking good and being self-centered to some degree, that's what the flesh is. living under the reign of your body but not under God. Yeah and in Eden we see that there's creation and there's order and the order is good but then with the introduction of sin brought by ourselves we see chaos now enter the order and so God gave us good desires and that was all a part of the order but with sin comes chaos so there's now this capacity for imbalance. And I was thinking to myself recently, it's like, like how can we live in a world where there's this, where there's all this like, where there's all this sin and there's all this capacity for depression and hurt and pain. And I just stopped people and say, God created us and created an ordered design. And God created us with this capacity for whenever we have sex to have that pleasure and that joy. And whenever we eat food to have that. that pleasure and that contentment for our taste buds to enjoy it. And that's a part of the order and the design. And that's good. And there's this perfect balance. But then with the introduction of sin, we now see that there's the capacity for the opposite, the adverse reaction. Yeah. Right. So you feel comfort and peace with the introduction of sin. It's now possible for you to feel anxiety or disorder for the adverse reaction. Cause that is the point because that's what the Bible says, if you sow to the flesh, you will rape corruption. So. This is the thing. The flesh says, yeah, I'm going to live for what's real. I'm going to live for what's really, really good. And what I feel, you know, whether it's pleasure, comfort, independence, you know, what makes me feel safe or makes me feel content or fulfilled. I'm going to live for the flesh. Right. But the Bible says, you know, to the power phrase, play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. And that's what it comes down to. And the Bible says, yes. OK. God says, yes. OK. You want to live that way. You want to, you know, live your selfish life. You want to see what you see. but all you will find is a trail of destruction following you. So take the example of the prodigal son, he doesn't want relationship with his father, which is what the flesh is, I don't want relationship with God the Father. I want to live for me, I want to live for what's real, I want to gratify what feels real to me. So he goes and basically sleeps with prostitutes, lives a riotous drunken life. And then the Bible says, and then he came to an end of himself. And that's the problem. The flesh will always lead to a terminal point. It will always lead to disintegration and corruption. And that is the problem. If people live in the flesh, as you say rightly, it creates anxiety, shame, guilt, self-loathing, regrets, tension, dysfunction, causes all those things, which are the fruit of the flesh. And that's what our world is reaping right now. It's the scripture says you sown the wind and you're reaping the whirlwind. And that's what we're seeing. You know, so people say, I want to be free. I want to free. I want to do my own thing. OK, God says, go for it. But says, oh, but I don't like depression. Oh, and I don't like this feeling of being on my own. And I don't like this feeling of feeling guilt. And I don't like this. And I look and God's like the father in that Prodigal story, just saying, well, this is what you've chosen. And the judgment of God on a people is that lets us do what we want. He doesn't force his will on us, he doesn't impose himself and be a big bully to say I'm going to beat you into the ground to do what I told you to do. But he says if you feel it, go for it. And Romans 1 says he gives us over to our own deceitful hearts and our own deceitful lusts which is the flesh. So that's the flesh, what it looks like, it's humanity in rebellion against God. It doesn't want to countenance God but it certainly wants the blessings, it wants what God has given us. But no God thank you, we want God. So just to get clarification, is the flesh all bad in terms of right, like, oh my desire for sex, my desire for food, I know we've touched on it, but just to really hit home because I think especially in like the LGBTQ plus arena, it's almost like they can, their line of attack against followers of Jesus is that we're against desire or against the body. we're anti human. Yeah, it's like this is my humanity. This is what I feel. It's like you're anti against it. And there's like an element where it's like, well, that's true because there's a deep flaw of humanity, which we've touched on. It's like, what about the appetites for food and for sex, which we have talked about? And is that the flesh whenever we talk about the flesh? Is that what we mean by the flesh being bad? And the way I'd illustrate it. And I mean, I'm just I'm using a literary example, but Dr. Jacqueline, Mr. Hyde. So Dr. Jackal is this really clever, gifted man, but Mr. Hyde is this monster. But as you read the book and as you've seen maybe films and all you realise, they're one of the same person, right? And so that's what I would describe it as. You have the jackal, you know, which is the good, the virtuous and all those things. And, you know, good things God has given us to enjoy. But the problem is we want those on our own terms. I want God's blessing, but I don't want God. And I want to do what I want to do. And I don't care what God has to say. And I don't care whether I get punished for it. I'm going to do what I'm going to do because it feels good. It feels real to me. And so we revert into the jackal. Sorry, for going to her hide. Sorry, we're going to hide. monstrous and like in that book he murders and kills and causes chaos. So that's the way to describe it. There is technically no such thing as evil, only the perversion of good. So Satan is not an innovative, imaginative thinker, he just twists what God has made. He twists what God has made. So he takes the gift of sexuality, makes it into some other feels good to you, you go for it. Right. And he twists what is good. Right. Or, you know, he takes relationships that should be wholesome and healthy and then makes them dysfunctional, unhealthy. So Satan is never actually an innovator. He's never a creator. He's just a disorder. That's how you would describe it. Or he always destroys something that God has actually made. And that is our humanity. So our humanity unchecked, our humanity outside of God is the flesh. I just got really deal with that. First and foremost, a man has to be born again because you stop living out of that realm of just this is real to me. The only the physical world is real to me and pleasure and comfort and security is real to me. But now God is open. Now the spiritual world to you and the presence of God to you. So for the Christian, We're in this very unusual experience where we're living in a fleshly body, but we're spiritually alive and we're aware of God. So we're actually being in a tug of war between two worlds. And Paul says that the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and that we cannot do the things that we would. So that's the misery of the Christian. The man who's unsaved, lives only for the physical, only lives for his humanity, but he has no alternative. He's no alternative. himself more and more to it but the Christian is in this unique position with the sin. Well wait a minute there's a God and this is, that's real to me as well so that's where the struggle starts to kick in. So how has the flesh been defeated? Yeah now this is interesting because just from a practical anecdotal point of view I think of so many Christians who come to me maybe and they're saying look I'm really struggling with the flesh. OK so these are the common ones. These are the ones I get all the time. Guys come to me and say I struggle with pornography. I struggle with lustful thoughts persistent all the time. Can't get free. Can't get free. Right. Maybe you have a girl come to you and she says I really struggle with jealousy and bitterness towards this particular other girl. And we never get on. I wish it was better but it's always like this. And they struggle with the flesh. What they go and do. every Christian does it and it makes me smile and it makes me despair at the same time. What they do is they say I must be holy. I must become holy. Common strategies. I'm going to read my Bible more. I'm going to read a chapter a day. I'm going to pray 15 minutes every day. I'm going to be extra zealous to what it means. I'm going to try my best. I'm going to try my best. I'm going to try my best. And they come to me then and said, Stephen, I'm in an absolute state. I am a guy and I am addicted to pornography. I'm praying, reading, going to meetings and I tried more and more and more. And I'm still there. The girl says, I keep falling out with my best friend. I keep falling out with my mom. I keep falling out with. And I cannot seem to get victory. And I'm trying really hard. And what I find really funny is that the Bible tells us, as in 1 Corinthians 15, that the power of sin... Many people say, all right, I'm interested, what is the power of sin? Because if I could get rid of this power, then I could get victory. And many people, if they were being given the sentence, the power of sin is dot, dot fill in the blank. They'll say Satan. They'll say Adam's fallen nature. They'll talk about some demon or something out there. OK. But the Bible says the power of sin is the law. And that sounds really contradictory to our thinking. But think of it just generally speaking, if you put anybody under rules, they will be broken. I mean that's how it works. That's why speed limits don't work because people break them. That's why you put, look how many Christian ones have you looked at, like young people and they've been brought up in really strict homes. And when they hit 18, they'll do either one or two things. Either they become complete robots that are submissive to mum and dad and the religious system and they just do what they're told and be good wee boys and good wee girls and you just realise you're not a real person. You really aren't a real person. And in actual fact if you dug deeper into their lives you realise they are really up to a secret hidden sin but the outward appearance is lovely. That was what the Pharisees did. They kept the rules because they were terrified for being shamed. The other thing happens when is they go absolutely clean-buck mad. And they go out to every pub, every nightclub, they're in every person's bed, they're into every form of drugs, they're just wild. Because law can never do it. So Romans 8 says, the law was weak in what it could not do. The 10 commandments cannot make somebody holy. They can only tell you what's holy. It's like a brochure. A brochure has no power to change me. It just gives me information. As much as I could pick up a travel brochure and say, oh, there's America. it right. I could read it all about America but that brochure will not take me to America. It simply will not do it. I could make myself a paper airplane from that brochure and sit on that brochure but it ain't going to lift off the airport. It's not going to do that. And that's what people do. They take the Ten Commandments or they take the Bible and I say that reverently. They take the Bible without the power of the Holy Spirit. And I say well that's what the Bible says. And they try to live the Bible in the power of their flesh Jackal but Mr. Hyde still kicks up. So the Bible says if you want to live in freedom from the flesh law won't do it, law will not cut it and that's what I find in Northern Ireland is very prolific. Christians will live under laws, they love laws, they love rules, they love being told what to do and they wonder why they're living in defeat because law can't do it. The solution to it And I love this solution is Romans 6. Romans 6 is the revelation of it. I'm just going to have it here in front of me. This is a promise of Scripture. And it says in Romans 6, 14, For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace. So I say to Christians, Do you think Romans 6, 14 is true or false? And of course they're all nice wee Christians, say, oh no, the Bible's true, the Bible's true. But verse 14 contradicts your experience. It says, sin shall not have dominion over you. But they say, oh but Stephen, it does have dominion over me, I cannot pick up my phone, I cannot put on the internet and with it watch and stuff, and I cannot be in the same room as that girl without wanting to punch her face in. Sin has dominion over me, so that verse is wrong, right? I then like to turn them up to, you know, a wee bit earlier in Romans 6 and it says about Jesus, it says knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead dies no more, death no longer has dominion over him. So this is what I said in Ram. Tell me this, is verse 9 correct? Is it true or false? And say, well yeah, death has no dominion over Jesus. Yeah, that's right, Jesus is alive, he doesn't have to fear being put to death, you know, he's in heaven right now. But this is what you understand what Paul's saying. He says you need to know this, it's not do something, it's just get it in your head. Death has no dominion over Jesus, sin has no dominion over Jesus as followers. And somebody says, you're having a laugh. You're really pulling our leg. How is that possible that sin would not have dominion over a Christian? I mean, I'm struggling with this stuff. I'm going to all these meetings and praying and reading and doing all this sort of stuff. And this is what I love then so much about Romans 6. Romans 6 tells me there is nothing that I can do to defeat the flesh. Zilch, nada, duck egg, nothing at all. In fact everything I do to fight the flesh is counterproductive. It's counterproductive, it doesn't actually help the flesh, it doesn't actually help me beat the flesh, it actually helps the flesh and I get beaten up. The answer is this and it's Romans 6. It's very interesting actually if you read the book of Romans for yourself, the first time you're actually given a commandment is in the middle of chapter 6. everything up to that point is knowing stuff in your head. In fact, I think Romans 6 verse 11 is the first commandment of Romans and it just says, reckon yourselves to be dead in deep sin. The first thing you do have to do to overcome the flesh is in your head, is to get a grasp of how the world really works. And this is what the Bible explains to us in Romans 6 verse 6, knowing this, so again it's a knowing thing, that our old man was crucified with him, was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. The way I like to phrase it is that 2000 years ago I died, 2000 years ago I died. And so he says well you weren't alive you know 200 years ago, let alone 2000 years ago. But the Bible says that whenever Jesus went to the cross he became sin. that means for the young guy struggling with pornography, Jesus became the very embodiment of lust. He never compromised his own holiness, never compromised his innocence, but he became sin. And what happens when Jesus dies on the cross? Sin dies at the cross. The wee girl is struggling with, oh I always fight with my mom, I always fight with my best friend. Jesus became the sin of argument and dispute and... combativeness, Jesus became that sin and now combativeness and arguments and all that sort that has died. So you speak to the Christian say what are you struggling with? I struggle with anger. What are you struggling with? I struggle with covetousness. What are you struggling with? I struggle with pride. Oh, I struggle with, you know, inferiority. I struggle with X, so many sins, right? That sin died 2000 years ago. And you're saying to the Christian, you have already won. And you have to sort of put the cart in front of the horse almost in your thinking to say wait a minute, I cannot actually bring anything to this rodeo, I can't actually bring anything to this battle, it's already been fought and won. So it's like if you came to a battlefield a couple of hundred years ago and you're riding on your horse big and strong, you're going to fight the enemy and you arrive there and it's just a pile of bodies and big white flags everywhere and it says I'm going to fight though, you're not going to actually change anything, the battle's won. So that sinful nature is dead. And I reckon that to be dead. Another way to phrase that I find is helpful to people is Stephen is, let me see, he's proud, he's covetous, he can be lustful, he can be angry, he can be jealous, he can be vengeful, he can be cynical, he can be unbelieving. That is Stephen Bartlett. Afraid to break it to you, that's who I am. But 2000 years ago, Stephen Bartley died. He died and his funeral took place 2000 years ago. But then Jesus Christ rose again and there's a new Stephen Bartley. And he's ditto to Jesus. He's ditto to Jesus. And it's not that I have to, all right, OK, manage my behavior and try to do things harder and better and all that. But I actually realize this thing's a done deal. And as the Bible says practically, put off the old man. put on the new man. You know that imagery by the way, forgive me I'm talking probably too long but the imagery of that in the ancient world was Romans sometimes would take a criminal and they wouldn't crucify him to a cross sometimes. What they would do is crucify him to a dead body. So it would be hand to hand, you know, but this corpse is hanging over this criminal. And they would basically let the guy go mad. He's struggling and he's fighting against this dead, putrefying body that's, you know, all the corruption is falling over him. But the more the guy would fail and try to shake off this dead guy, the worse it would get. He would go more mad, he would go more crazy. And the more and more he'd fight, he was actually animating the body. So this dead body was actually moving because this living guy was given it its power. And there's so many Christians and that's what they're doing. And you have to tap them on the shoulder and say, do you realize he's dead? The old criminal is dead. The guy who broke all the laws is dead. Jesus has forgiven you he's taken off the old man throw it off throw it off he's dead Jesus killed him so throw off for me throw off Stephen Bartlett so in times I struggle with unbelief I struggled with unbelief I struggled with pride at the best times and I have to remind myself that's dead I throw it off therefore I am free. Not because I did something extra holy, because I fasted or prayed or read my Bible extra hard or went to 50 meetings in a week, but because Jesus Christ actually did it for me. So he didn't just die for the forgiveness of my sins, he died that I would forsake it and have victory over it. He's actually thought it through. Wow, so the flesh has been defeated and the verse he brought, I actually never... thought about that way before even heard of it, that the power of sin is the law. And it's not that the law is bad, but rather it's where the context which the law finds itself, that context being our sin and the law proves our sin. It shows us that we can't keep the law. And so we're under the dominion of sin, but yet we're no longer under the dominion of sin because we now live in the grace. And that grace is... Jesus who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. Double imputation, our sin was imputed on him and his righteousness was imputed on us. And so now I live out that grace. I live out that victory. I live out the fact that I have died to self with Jesus all those years ago and that I have risen with him. And so now All I have to do is live out that grace, live out that victory, live out that beautiful grace that Jesus did it, not me, and I never could. And there is this, there is a wrestling that takes place there. It's almost like that's too good to be true. And I think there's, again, it's, it's sin, the very thing that we... we've been saved from, that it's like, no, like there's gotta be a little bit of me in here. Like I've gotta have some responsibility for the victory. It's like, no, like in and of yourself, you only bring defeat. But with Jesus, He brought the victory. And it is by His grace that now all you have to do when you wake up with the breath that He gives you is live out that victory and tell people about that victory. It's the same victory that they can have. Yeah, no, there's a couple of wee things that I just thought was interesting when you were saying that. It is all of Jesus, right? I have met Christians who do want credit for their holiness, right? They do want credit for it. And so you'll hear it in their testament, oh, I once struggled with this, but then I fasted and prayed and then I got the victory, right? And I'm not denying you could fast and pray and God gives you grace. Absolutely. It's the grace of God. But there's this sense of, oh, I overcame, I was drunkard, you know, I overcame this. but what you do there is somebody says you put to death one type of your flesh and encourage the cleaner side of it. So that's what people do. So a lot of religious Christians are like that. They've crucified their what they deem as their sinful nature. But all they've done is resurrect a monster. They've created something. Yes, but again, using literary imagery, they've created Frankenstein's monster. You know, look at it. It's alive. It's alive. I've got the victory. That's a total mess. And it's religious and stuffy and proud and nasty and, you know, put it once. But that's the nature of that. Living practically this out, because this might sound like theory to some people, but the practicalities of it is what you've exactly said. And just to go back to that in Romans 6 14, it says about, for sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. If you want to get victory over any besetting sin, you have to stop living by rules and living by performance. You really have to stop that because the more you live by rules and performance, you're going to empower the sin nature like the criminal you're shaking about and the guy on your backs, you know, who's alive, he's alive, he's behind me, you know, I can feel him right here right now. But if you just sort of say, stop moving, stop, you'll be all right. You actually stop it being animated. But what does it mean to actually live under grace? I mean, what does that look like? The way I think of it is grace is God's gift of power to do the impossible. It's God's gift of power to do the impossible. So it is impossible for me to get victory over unbelief. It is impossible for me to get victory over jealousy. It is impossible for the young guy comes to me, says I'm hooked to pornography, I can't get these thoughts out of my head. It's impossible for him to get free. The young girl, he's always fighting with her mom and her best friend. It's impossible for her, right? But God gives us the gift of power to do the impossible. And what that looks for me in my experience is God and saying look God I am struggling with temptations, I'm struggling with behaviour that I just know is not what your word teaches, would you give me grace to overcome here? And God releases that grace into my life and as the Bible says sin has no dominion, no dominion, absolutely no dominion, in fact in Greek it says absolutely no dominion because I'm living under this grace. And the grace of God is to realize that he loves me, he's kind to me, and he's willing to give me that gift of power to do the impossible so that I can sometimes face, let's say, my experience, unbelief and say, no, God's gift of power gives me the ability to live over coming this and I can actually do what God has asked me to do by his grace. Sometimes I use this illustration of him preaching. But let's say you and I are. in a wee skyscraper in a business, and we're the receptionist. And there we are running the wee reception for you, and headquarters is above us. And this big nine foot guy comes in and he slams the table and he says, I demand to take full control of this business, and I'm gonna rule everything. I'm going. And we just say, go ahead. Right? That's what the flesh is. Flesh comes in big and strong, nine foot tall, and we just feel like a little minnow behind the desk, and it's thumping and pounding. And it's saying, I'm gonna take over, I'm gonna take over, and you're gonna do this. And so let's say the young guy, the flesh comes in, slams the desk, you're gonna watch pornography tonight. Young girl punches the, you know, flesh punches, pounds the desk, and says, you're gonna fight me your moment tonight. I know I can't fight it. Oh no, I'm just gonna, all right, I'll do what you say. I'll tie myself up and I'll be in the back room till you're finished, you know. But this is what God has done. God has a security guard and the security guard is called Grace. He's about 12 foot tall and he's all muscle. And whenever flesh pounds at the table and says I ain't gonna demand that you do this and this is a hostile takeover, all you have to do is press the button and says excuse me Grace could you... And Grace puts this guy in the headlock and starts to beat the lining out of him and kicks him out on his rear. That's what the grace of God looks like practically. And so if I'm sitting on the wee foyer and they're... pounding on the table, Flesh says, I'm taking over. I just say, Grace, could you come? And Grace comes and says, I will escort the gentleman out of the foyer and you're living in the victory. Well, that's fantastic analogy. And for all the people, I can hear them in the car or watching this, listening to this, and they're like, just apply it. Apply it to me personally, right? You haven't done it enough. It's like, okay, I will be representative of the listener or the watcher. So today is Wednesday and I am presently as we speak living out the victory. I really am. I'm living out the victory over sin. I'm living out the grace and that is all to the glory of God. It is by His grace that I'm able to do this. And I'm driving in and I'm going into work and as I'm going into work, all of a sudden I'm faced with the world and I see a girl walking by. Yeah. Okay. So there's the world. the temptation that comes while I'm living out the victory, temptation comes and my flesh, it starts to, it comes in nine foot tall and it's like, okay. begin to lust, right? The thoughts start to stir up. Okay, like that's what's happening. It's like, oh my goodness, this is happening. Like I want to gratify these desires by lusting. And the kingdom of darkness is all about, you know, allowing what is already there, which is important, to flourish. It's just, you know, lighting the fire that's already there, just adding gasoline to it. What next in that in that moment and that is principle of every temptation that can come yeah You can apply that to any temptation that you will face today as you're living out the victory when that temptation comes and What I say do and think to live out that victory to live out that grace to call in grace to get To get flesh to get that desire. Yeah out of there. Yeah I think there's a number of things that you can do practically. One is to get your mind into the right frame of mind. Say, wait a minute, this lust is a dead lust. It gives the impression it's alive, but... It's dead. Now that's one side of it. When you ask God's grace to come and just say, Lord give me the grace here to not submit to temptation, to overcome, He is faithful to His word and He will fulfill that. Okay, so He will fight for us. Does it always mean that it's necessarily easy? Is it going to be easy to avert your eyes? Is it going to be easy to deal with your thoughts? Is it going to be easy to deal with your emotions? Is it going to be easy to deal with any sin for that matter? Not necessarily. in the foyer, the wee receptionist there, the guy shouting and roaring, is it a pleasant experience? No. I mean they would go home to this, I had an awful time at work, this guy came in and he was shouting and roaring at me. But then it was so great, Grace came along and he beat the line. And that's what it's like. Yes, the grace of God comes to deal with those things. The security guard is there because he's security. He's going to deal with the rough and heavy stuff. We may not like this experience of, oh, I have to deal with this thing, it's awful. But grace comes and deals with it. So yeah, if you're in that situation, you're just saying, Lord, I'm just taking a wee minute here, just to, I really want to invite you here to help me. I really want to invite you to help me here. Would you just release grace into my life to overcome this? And you find that works, it really is really powerful. Thank you. On the flip side, if you make mistakes and if you fall to the temptation, the Bible says the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son cleanses from all sin. You repent instantly, ask for forgiveness. You don't put yourself in the sin bin for three days going back into performance living. So I can't read my Bible, can't pray, can't evangelize, can't go to prayer meetings. Why? Oh, because I failed three days ago. Get out of the sin bin, ask the blood of Jesus to cleanse you and to pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The other thing is sometimes you find in temptation who's doing the tempting and that's Satan obviously as well and the Bible says submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will flee. So sometimes it's not just your flee, sometimes this is the thing, your flesh rises up right, the flesh is dealt with by grace. But sometimes it's Satan at work and Satan is at work and you do what God has said, submit to God's will, say no I'm not going to go down that path, I'm submitting to God, I'm resisting this power and I'm saying clear off. and the Bible says he flees from you and so it takes a wee bit of time to discern what you're working with if it's the flesh just ask for grace if it is the enemy and that's normally because it's more persistent you submit to God resist the devil and say clear off in the name of Jesus and you find it just lifts it really is an unusual experience but it lifts it really does. So when dead desires come take the way of escape that is always given by God. And the only way you can take that way of escape is by reliance on the Holy Spirit, dependence on Him and living out that grace. And it will become easier to do that the more that you're in the practices of Jesus, the more that you're in Shabbat and scripture and solitude and praying, the more that you're listening to His voice and resist the enemy, submit to the Lord. In the moment, remember, given the analogy, I'm in the car. I've done all of those things and that is temptation, the dead flesh defeated once more, the victory lived out once more and that's it. That one moment and I think we have to make sure that we're dealing with the moments and not a whole past because that's not great if you're fighting 30 years of pornography as opposed to one moment of pornography. Yeah, yeah. And I mean... that's what we have to reckon. Sometimes this is a problem in Northern Ireland Christians I find. We believe that evil is more powerful than God, whether it's sin, whether it's demons, whether whatever it is, that's bigger than God is. And we just say, wait a minute here. The Bible says the grace of God has appeared to all men, teaching us to deny ungodly laws to live soberly, righteously in this present evil world. That's what the grace of God does. It comes along and it teaches us now. And teaching is a gradual experience, but you need to become more familiarised with grace. and don'ts rules and breaking rules. The grace of God is so foreign, whereas the grace of God is that God loves you enough to give you the gift of power to do the impossible. And I said, yeah, it's impossible for me to resist temptation. Like Oscar Wilde said, I can resist everything but temptation. But God's grace can do the impossible. The same grace that raised Jesus from the dead, the same grace that... causes the sick to be healed is the same grace that stops me from losing my temper. It's the same grace that stops me from acting on my impulses to do what I think is best, but actually it's just downright sinful. But it's the grace of God we need to become more familiar with. And that requires just trust and faith. That's the key thing. So the person who's driving in their car saying, oh boy, I'm getting really struggling today, don't revert to performance, revert to faith. Trust in the grace of God and just say, Lord, power, just receive the gift of power. And even if it's like a visual thing where you're just saying, if there's a box from heaven called breakthrough, I receive it in that way. And he gives that grace freely to us all. Yeah. Thanks for listening everyone. And we'll see you on the next one.