Not Walking According To The Flesh But The Spirit

Good morning. Galatians chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Romans 8 verse 1. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That's where some verses end right there. Depends what version you have. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We don't read the part where it comes out of Romans 7, and we don't continue really to get the concept of what it's speaking about in Romans 8. The next part of my verse I have the New King James says, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Verse 4 clarifies it in most verses. It says that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Let's read those four verses in context. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And on account of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of God through the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, they set their minds on the things of the Spirit. We were talking earlier this week about the armor of God and the helmet of salvation. The helmet of salvation is how we protect our minds from meditating on things of the flesh and how we renew our minds and setting our minds on the things of the Spirit. I know a lot of Christians, they don't understand the weapons of our warfare, but they're not carnal, they are mighty in God and they're for tearing down strongholds, for casting down arguments and for every lofty thing and every lofty thought that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And it talks about bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. The battleground for our souls begins in the mind. The enemy comes and puts thoughts in our minds. And it's important for us to have our minds girded with the helmet of salvation. So when a thought comes immediately, we identify the thought is not from the Holy Spirit. It's a carnal thought, it's a thought from the enemy, it's a temptation, whatever it is, it's a suspicion against a brother, it's an opportunity, a thought to get bitter because of what someone said. And these thoughts come, they come, whether it be a lustful thought, whether it be an angry thought, a response out of anger from something that's external coming, to identify that the source of these thoughts is from the enemy. These are carnal things, these are fleshly thoughts, and these thoughts are meant for us to take hold of them and to bring them captive under the obedience of Christ. But if they get through the helmet and they get into our mind, and we begin to entertain those thoughts, then those thoughts have accomplished their purpose in beginning to destroy our souls, begin to corrupt us on the inside. You know, many of us, we have a computer and, you know, we have virus protection. And if a virus gets through, then the whole thing, you know, it'll shut your computer down, it'll freeze it, and it'll bring up all kinds of garbage and different things, and spam will get in there, even unclean things start popping up if you don't have these things in place. This is an example of what happens in the mind. And if we're not vigilant, in other words, it's a 24-7, we have to be girded. Because if Satan doesn't take a day off, neither does he sleep. So we rest. So if he can't get us in the daytime, then he'll attack us in the night. He'll try to get through and bombard our minds in the night. And so we have to even come to a place where we are vigilant, even in the night season, so that we're ready, whether day or whether night, we're girded, watchful in our prayers and mindful of the enemy's schemes. So the helmet of salvation is something that will deflect those thoughts in being ready to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. So if those thoughts come in and we begin to entertain those thoughts, pretty soon we begin to act on those thoughts. When we take action on those thoughts, now we've sinned. The temptations themselves are not sin. The thoughts that come themselves are not sin. But when we act on those thoughts, you receive those thoughts, then it gets into our heart. And this is what defiles a man or a woman or a child and makes them unclean, is when we receive things, and they come into our heart, and they become a part of us. Now, this is something that has to be repented. And this is where we lose our confidence before God. And then conviction comes. And conviction is something that happens, you may have just allowed thoughts to come in and not even being aware of what happens when certain thoughts come in. And all of a sudden, you entertain those thoughts. And all of a sudden, the enemies begins to set a trap for you. It says the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience, that we should not be partakers with them. So if Satan is able to get thoughts that we receive, we come in agreement with those thoughts. We don't resist the devil. We don't bring thoughts captive. We begin entertaining those thoughts. Now our heart has come in agreement with it. And this is how the enemy while we sleep or while we're unaware, he sows these seeds, these lies into man's hearts. It says the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in the soil. The good seed is the word of God. This is where we should be meditating day and night in the word of God, but an enemy while men slept. And it can be while you sleep at night, or it can be while you're just sitting around having some me time. And you're just doing stuff or you're at work, and you're not vigilant about all the stuff going on around. And all of a sudden, we come in agreement with uncleanness and ungodliness, and an enemy is sowing bad seed into our minds. And so all of a sudden, we begin to see a divided heart springing up. We begin to see tears, and we begin to see things growing inside of the heart. This is not God's intention for us. Yes, the good seed are the sons of the kingdom, and the bad seeds are the sons of the wicked one, and the field is the world. But we can also see it in a spiritual sense, where it can be where the word of God is pure, and active, and sharp, and is able to purify our souls through obeying that truth. But if we begin to receive carnal words, begin to receive accusations, and begin to receive lustful thoughts, and these things, we harbor them in our hearts, then all of a sudden, we have a divided heart. And then we get conviction, and if we don't yield to that conviction, and we continue to act upon this uncleanness, whatever it might be, might be bitterness, then all of a sudden, it leads to a life where there's no peace, no joy. And then it can settle in and become condemnation. You say, well, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. It's for those who don't walk according to the flesh. So they've received carnal thoughts, they've not brought them captive, they've allowed them to get into their hearts, and now they begin to exercise bitterness, or resentment, or lust, or unforgiveness, or anger, or some of the vices that manifest and pop up. And it all stems from this heart that has become corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And so we have a responsibility to walk in the Spirit. So we repent, Lord, I've been walking according to the flesh now. I got drifting into these areas that have brought me into bondage. I don't have the joy, I don't have the life. I know that life and joy is in the Son, it's in the Spirit. And so we need to renew our minds, we need to repent, and return, and begin to renew our minds. If we walk in the Spirit, it begins with having a renewed mind. You're not going to walk in the Spirit unless you are first meditating on the things of the Spirit. It says if we live in the Spirit, that's in your mind, then you'll also walk in the Spirit. If we live in the Spirit, we should also keep in step with the Spirit, so that it works its way from our minds into our members. And the opposite works also. If we have carnal-minded, it says the carnal mind is death. It cannot please God. There's nothing good that dwells in my flesh. And when I set my mind on the things of the flesh, it's earthly, it becomes sensual, and it is demonic. Now you can have people who are born again, people who love the Lord, and they have a measure of maturity about them. If they allow thoughts to come into their head, and they're not careful about bringing those thoughts, Captain, then we can begin to speak carnal things, begin to act in carnal ways. And this is the battleground that happens in the mind. And if we learn how to bring thoughts, Captain, if we learn how to identify what is from the Holy Spirit and what is from the demonic, then we are guarded on the way in which we think, and the way in which we live, and ultimately the way in which we speak. Because the Scripture says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so if our heart begins to fill up with all carnal things, and really the reason that would happen is because of what we are listening to, because of the things that we're watching, and because of the people that we're associating with. This is why the Scripture tells us, right, if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. Right? Better to enter heaven with one eye than to go to hell with two. Right? I'll go further. If your ear causes you to sin, cut it off. Better to go to heaven with one ear than to go to hell with two. Right? Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. What fellowship has righteousness, if we're the righteousness of Christ, with lawlessness? And so when, say, a fellow like Lot, who was infatuated with the worldliness of Sodom, found himself deep in the heart of Sodom, was vexed, and it says his righteous soul was vexed day and night by hearing and seeing their lawless deeds. He put himself in a position where it totally destroyed his family. By hearing and seeing their lawless deeds, it affected him in a huge, huge way. And so when we put ourselves in situations, and we think, well, you know, I'm the righteousness of Christ. I've got this. You know, we're not stronger than the Word of God. The Word of God is not here for us to analyze. The Word is for us to obey. And so for us to say, you know what, this company, yes, I want them to be saved. But what's happening is it's affecting me more than I'm affecting them. And so I think I need to heed what the Word says. You need to just keep a distance, keep a separation, come out from among them, and be separate. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to drive 500 miles to a different city. It just means that at the workplace, you're not engaging in the conversation. You're coming out from that conversation, and you're being separate. Right? You're at the house with a bunch of men, and everybody's talking about unclean things, what they're going to do on the weekend. You just step away from that conversation, and you choose not to be a part of it. This is how we come out from among them, and be separate. When you begin to do that, you'll be picked on as a Christian. You'll be persecuted. It says, yes, everyone who desires to live godly in Christ is going to suffer persecution. Doesn't matter how cool you are. Doesn't matter how much of a leader you are. The birds will come, and they'll pick at you. I see sometimes eagles or hawks flying around, and those birds are there. There might even be only one crow, and he's going around, and he's dive bombing the eagle. He's trying to pester it, and bombard it, and bring it down. There's something in the heart of that crow, and those blackbirds that hate the eagle. They hate the hawks. They don't want them to prosper. They don't want them to do well. They want to see them fall. They want to kill them. Something in them that hates them. And so, we see a picture through creation, even of what can happen on the job site, in a place where you live. Right? In an environment, even in a family environment, where family is not serious about serving the Lord. Maybe even backsliding. You'll see it among lukewarm Christians. They'll say things like, oh, you think you're holier than the rest of us, or they'll try to trap you in something, to try to humble you. And we have to be vigilant. We have to understand we don't wrestle flesh and blood. These things are coming from the enemy. These attacks are coming from the enemy. We don't look down on people because of it. We pray for them. I think of a time when the Lord Jesus himself was among the brothers, and he was trying to teach them many things. And he told them that he was going to have to go to the cross, and that he would die on the cross. And Peter, he began to rebuke the Lord Jesus. And he said, Lord Jesus, this will never happen to you, so long as I'm here. He said, you will never go to the cross. And Jesus looked at him, and he said, Peter, get thee behind me, Satan, he said to him. For you're an offense to me. For you're not mindful of the things of the Spirit, the things of God. But you're only mindful of carnal, natural things, the things of man. Some would say that Peter had a demon. I don't believe Peter had a demon. I believe he spoke from his own reason. He had a thought come into his mind. He didn't discern the way of the Spirit because he was not filled with the Holy Spirit as an ax, but the Spirit was on him for doing miracles and things. But he didn't understand the way of the cross. It didn't make any sense to him. It was foolishness to him at that point. And so he spoke from the flesh. And you can have very sincere brothers, who God will use and is using, speak carnal things to you, and speak flesh to you, that is not from God, but actually from Satan himself. Because everything that is worldly, carnal, is demonic. And so if we can identify that, then we can begin to pick out what is wisdom from God, and what is a word that comes from the flesh. This happened to me in the past week. I sought wisdom and advice on a certain matter. And so I began to reach out to different people that I thought would have certain advice. And I was getting a conflicting advice. And some advice was from the Holy Spirit, but most of it was from the flesh. And you know what? You can make a case for all kinds of wisdom according to the flesh. But yet there's this one voice. There's this voice of Micaiah. There might be 400 prophets who are prophesying something in the name of the Lord. But yet there's something in your spirit that says, there must still be a prophet who has another word. And then the word of the Lord will come. And if you love truth, then you'll receive it. But if you hate truth, then you'll speak like Ahab. And you'll say something like, I knew that this man would speak this way. And Jehoshaphat said, why do you say these things? He said, I hate this man, this prophet Micaiah, because he never tells me what I want to hear. I hate this man. And Jehoshaphat rebuked his brother-in-law Ahab. And he said, you should not say these things. But you know what? It's in the heart to hate the word of God. And if people hate the word of God, then they're going to hate you. I've quoted this scripture in times past. It says, they hate him who rebukes in the gate, who speaks with integrity. When you speak truth and integrity, they'll hate you because they hate Jesus. And they might tell you with their lips that they love Jesus, but their actions prove that they would nail him to the tree just like everyone else did on that time. They were all consenting to his death, even when Pilate was seeking to let him go because he was afraid of the dream that his wife had had. And they all shouted, his blood be upon us. How fitting is that? His blood be upon us, crucify him. But what should we do with this Barabbas? Let him go. What we see there is a picture of Jesus letting you go and letting me go. We are the Barabbas. We are men and women who rose up in rebellion in our lifetime and let others in rebellion to do all kinds of things and the things that we're now ashamed of. And we are the ones deserving of crucifixion. Yet now Jesus steps in and takes our place, dying a criminal's death so that we like Barabbas could go free. That's amazing grace. Even Barabbas didn't have a revelation of it. And many of us haven't had that revelation of what Jesus has done for us at the cross. He took our place so that we could go free. Great and awesome things have happened at the cross that we don't even understand about. We talked about that a little bit yesterday. At the cross, it says Jesus, when we read this passage in Romans 8, that he fulfilled the law in his lifetime. And on account of it, he condemned sin in the flesh so that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk according to the spirit and not after the flesh. So the mystery of the cross is that when we get baptized, as we were reading in Romans 6, if we were buried with him in baptism into death, so also we should be raised in the likeness of his resurrection. He speaks of a mystery about being born again. And he talks about I being in the Father, the Father in me, you in me, and I in you. And so if we're in Christ, and that means that when Jesus died and he died to sin once for all, if we're in Christ, then we also can reckon ourselves dead to sin. And if Christ is in us, then we're not left alone as orphans to try to white knuckle it and to be obedient to this word of God. He says he's with us and will be in us. And so we need the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit to live according to this word, because we can't keep the word of God without the Holy Spirit. It's impossible. They tried the best they could in the Old Testament to keep the word of God, and not one of them was righteous. God looks at the heart. He looks at the heart. And we're not made perfect yet. We see in part and we preach in part. But you know what, the Holy Spirit is able to finish the work that he's begun. And so if we're very careful to love the Lord in the right way, in submitting ourselves to the convictions, then you'll never experience condemnation, because you'll be in the Spirit. Condemnation can come to born again believers who began walking after the flesh. Let's read how it happens. We'll read it in James in chapter one. James in chapter one. If you allow the carnality into your mind, you don't bring those thoughts captive. You begin to walk according to the flesh. We never got to it, but it says, I'll quote it here in Romans in chapter eight, verse 12. It says this, brother, you are not in debt to the flesh. You're not debtors to the flesh to live according to the flesh. Romans chapter eight, verse 12, verse 13. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. This is the spiritual death that happens, not just a natural death, but a spiritual death that takes place if you live according to the flesh. So sometimes we set our minds on the things of the flesh. Sometimes we'll begin to do things that are carnal and fleshly. And when we do those things, we have an advocate with the Father. If we do those things, not when, but if we do those things, it says in first John one, first John two, verse one, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. We're going to repent and we're going to turn from it. But if we in rebellion, love sin more than we love the Lord, and we continue to persist in rebellion, we continue to persist in the works of the flesh. It says you will die. But brethren, if by the spirit, he's speaking to brethren, Romans eight, verse 13, if by the spirit, you put to death, the deeds of the flesh, that means you repent. And you turn from that's how you put it to death. You repent and turn from and it's the Holy Spirit that helps us. You will live. And it says, for as many as are led by the spirit of God. These are the sons of God. This is what the spirit of God is going to inside of you is going to cause you to do is going to cause you to repent of carnal things, to put them to death, and to get back on track and walk in the spirit until we become more mature and more grounded. And we walk less and less in the flesh. And we continue to abide more and more in the spirit to become rooted and grounded in Christ. It says in James in chapter one, in verse 12, blessed is the man who endures temptation. We're talking about having the helmet of salvation. The helmet of salvation is on, then temptation comes. Where does temptation come? Does it come to your hand? Does it come to your feet? Does it come to your mouth? It comes to your mind. If it can get through the mind, it can get to the heart. And so blessed is the man who endures temptation. Temptation itself is not sin. Let's see what it says. For when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life. On top of this helmet of salvation, there is a crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. So now we begin to see that loving the Lord has everything to do with enduring temptation. They're connected. If we endure temptation, it shows that we love the Lord. And that shows that he is going to grant us a crown of life. Verse 13, let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. So now we see Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus in the wilderness, we know that he's fully man. And we know that he can't deny himself. He's God in the flesh. But it says God cannot be tempted. But do we believe that Jesus was tempted in the wilderness? Was it a real temptation? Or was it just staged? It was real. Is it possible that Jesus himself could have sinned? Or was it impossible for him that he could have sinned? Why is that important? You know why it's important? Because people go like this. They say, well, of course, Jesus never sinned. He was God. We are men. We sin all the time. Jesus never sinned because he was God. God can't be tempted. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. When we read that passage in Romans 8, it says that he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. He was not sinful flesh. He was not born in Adam. He was not born in Adam. David said, in sin my mother conceived me. He was born in sin. But Jesus himself was not born in sin. Because what I believe is that he did not receive his fertilization from the Holy Spirit to Mary's natural egg. I don't believe that. Because that would give him a sin nature. And why is this doctrine important? Because if Jesus had a sin nature, then he would have been conceived in sin. He would have had sin in his nature. But it says he was not made in the likeness of sinful and in sinful flesh, but he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. So what I believe is that the Holy Spirit would overshadow you. And that holy thing that is in you, it was a holy thing. I believe Mary was just a carrier of Jesus himself. It wasn't her doing her part and the Holy Spirit doing his part, becoming this kind of a nephilim. No, I believe that the holy thing was deposited in her as a carrier. And it was holy from the beginning, never corrupted. And when we get a picture of this, we can see from Isaiah in chapter six, he talks about the spirit of the Lord is upon. Right. And what we begin to see there is that he said, a branch shall grow out of the roots of Jesse. A branch shall grow out of the roots of Jesse. When we look at a family tree and we see a family tree, we see the genealogy when we read it in Matthew and we read it in Luke, I believe it is. We can see, you know, it begins with Adam and then another place it begins with David and we come to Jesus. But a natural family tree, when you would draw with your crayons and you do a family tree, you would do all the families, the lineage, and then you would be out there on some branch way out there. But Jesus is not out there in some branch. It's a branch that grows out of the roots. He had his roots. He is of the root of David. But he doesn't, he's of the seed of David because he has his roots in David, but he himself is a separate shoot. If you've ever seen a tree and all of a sudden it starts to grow shoots out of the roots. It's not exactly that same tree, but it has its roots in the tree. And so what we see is that Jesus has his roots in David. He has his roots in Adam, but he is not of the seed of Adam. He is the last Adam. It says in Adam all die, but Jesus being the last Adam in Jesus all shall be made righteous. That's in 1 Corinthians 15. So we begin to get some light on these things. He also talks about this in John in chapter 6 when he talks about eat my flesh and drink my blood or you have no life in you. And he says the bread that I give is my flesh. So and they were saying, has he given us his flesh to eat? And they were not understanding. But he said, give us this bread. And he said your fathers ate the manna and they died in the wilderness because Moses gave them bread to eat. But he said the bread that I give is food indeed. And he said the bread that I give comes from heaven. And so when we get a revelation there we can see that the bread that he gives which came from heaven is that the flesh that he gave didn't come from Mary. It came from heaven. His humanity came also from heaven. And so we get another testimony that he was not a half from Mary and half from the Holy Spirit. He was his humanity came from heaven and his deity came from heaven. And so he was holy. But yet he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh so he could be tempted in all points it says in Hebrews 4 and 5 as we are. He was subject to temptation. And that's important because otherwise we do not have a high priest who can sympathize with us in our weaknesses. Because it says that we do have a high priest who can sympathize us in our weaknesses. So when we're tempted we can come to the throne room of grace boldly and ask Jesus to help us. Because he knows what we're going through. Because it says in the days of his flesh he cried out to his father with loud cries and tears to him who could save him from death. And he was heard because of his Godly fear. Jesus feared his father. And he knew that if he just sinned once that would separate him from his flock. You say well that happened at the cross. When he was praying here he's not praying about the cross. He's praying about the same temptations that you and I encounter. That battleground in the mind. That war that's happening in the mind. Bringing those thoughts captive. Not entertaining them. Chasing them out. Because Satan did return at an opportune time to tempt him more and more and more and more. It's just not written. And so what happened that as Jesus received the Holy Spirit and the baptism. Immediately the Holy Spirit led Jesus to the wilderness. It was not Satan that led him to the wilderness. The Holy Spirit led him to the wilderness. In the same way the children of Israel. When they came out of Egypt they were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea. It says the spirit led them into the wilderness to be tested or to be tempted. Jesus himself was led for 40 days into the wilderness to be tested to be tempted. And so when he was there Satan came to him and he began to tempt him the same way Satan tempts us. So that when each one is tempted don't say I'm tempted by God. Because God cannot be tempted by evil. And Jesus himself was God in the flesh. But he lay aside all those rights and he trusted in his father the same way we have to trust in him. And so the Satan came to him and he said turn this stone to bread. Well that wouldn't be a temptation for me. Because I can't turn stones to bread. But obviously Jesus could. Right. And he was hungry. It says he was very hungry after the 40 days of fasting. And you know Satan comes. You decide to fast from some things. Watch the attacks how they ramp up. Right. Just fast from your phone for a week. Or don't smoke for a week. And see how every little thing is going to bug you. And you're just going to get bombarded. Well you may as well start now. You're not going to go 40 years. May as well start today. But you know what we can say you know what never mind whether I can go 40 years devil. What matters is right now I'm going to choose to do the right thing. I'm going to resist you right now. And the temptation might come again in 10 minutes. And then you're going to do the exact same thing. We're not going to worry about tomorrow. It has enough worries of its own. We're not going to worry about 100 years from now or 10 years from now. We're going to bring every thought captive as it comes. There'll be sufficient grace for the temptation and for the thought. We're not going to get ahead of ourselves. We're not going to let him try to trick us into sinning. Because we're never going to make it anyway. This is the devil's trick. Try to get us doubting God. That it's impossible to go through with God. But that's a lie. There's power with God to receive grace. Jesus with loud cries and tears. Why did he cry out with loud cries and tears? It was a life and death situation. I remember days driving down the road and being bombarded with lust and having to grab myself by the hair and pull my eyes away. Because my eyes didn't want to look. But I had a Roman 7 battle. In my flesh dwells no good thing. And I would just drive and I would turn my face away. And I'd say, Lord, help me to overcome. Because the eyes are like an open grave. They never have enough. I need you to help me. Jesus help me. Tears running down my face. We want to understand that it's with travail that we're going to overcome. We're not different than Jesus. We can make excuses for it. But we want to enter into that life. And after you've suffered for a while. After you said no to the flesh. After you fought against those fights. He's going to strengthen you. He's going to perfect you. In that thing he's going to settle you. You're going to have joy and peace. You'll be more than a conqueror through Christ who gives you grace. Who gives you strength. So he says this. Let no one say when I am tempted, I am tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. So when Jesus was tempted, he was fully man. He was fully man there. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. So Jesus was experiencing certain desires. But the desires themselves are not sin. They become sin when they're acted upon. So when Satan, it says that Jesus was exceedingly hungry after 40 days. So he had a desire to eat. And Satan came and he tempted him when he had that desire in there. But he never gave into the desire. So it speaks in the passage about having crucified the flesh with its passions and with its desires. We have to take passion and desire that is ungodly and carnal. And we have to allow the to bury it with him and baptize him into his death. We have to die to what we're held by. Intense craving. And so in the same way, he told him, throw yourself down from the temple. There must have been a desire to fulfill the purpose and call of God to become King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Yet he knew that the voice, the way it was coming, it was from Satan. And his flesh was coming in agreement with it. There was a desire for people to know that he was the Christ. Just like there's a desire for people to know that you're a preacher. You're a man of God. The desire for people to know that you have a gift of the Holy Spirit, that God has a purpose and a call of God. There's a desire there. But if we go and we begin to make that happen and we become super evangelists, you know, this is not the way. God won't bless you in that. So he doesn't share his glory with anyone. But there's part of us that wants to have just 10 percent, maybe a little bit of glory, share that, become partakers of that glory. But that's not his way. And it's not God's way. And so he had to bring those thoughts captive. Because he said it is written. He said, he'll give his angels charge over you lest you dash your foot against a stone. Use scripture there. And we have to be able to rightly divide the word of truth. We have to be able to discern when Satan is using a scripture out of context, that we also understand there's another scripture that says you should not put the Lord your God to the test. And so Jesus took the right scripture. He was obedient to that scripture. And he squashed that desire. He never gave in to that desire. He overcame that temptation. And the same way he took him and showed him all the kingdoms of the earth. Obviously, there was a desire. And he said, if you'll just bow down and worship me, I'll give you all these things. And Jesus said, the scripture says you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall we serve. And then Satan left him until an appointed time. So we get an understanding how Jesus was tempted in all points as we are in the lust of the flesh. Right? Turn the stone to bread. He saw that it was good for food. Right? Just like Eve saw the lust of the eyes. He looked and showed him all the kingdoms of the earth and all the things and the boastful pride of life. Throw yourself down and let everyone see you're a big shot. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. These things are all from the world. They're carnal. And we get tempted in different ways, but it's the same tricks. It's through the lust of the flesh. It's through the lust of the eyes. And it's to the boastful pride of life. He's able to make one wise. If you eat this fruit, you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. See, Satan is very crafty. He started in the beginning. He used it with Jesus. He's using it with us. But the way to overcome is to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Now he says in verse 14, each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires. Then there's an enticement. Now, when desire has conceived, so desire itself is not sin. But when desire conceives, right, just like a man and a woman, they would have a child and they would conceive that child. But it has not been born yet. But it's conceived. That means it's alive there. Something has come alive inside. So it says when desire conceives, then it can give birth to sin. And sin, when it becomes full grown, brings forth death. So we see a process here, a process how death can be brought forth because of desire. So that's why it's important to embrace the cross, to love the cross, to become united together with Jesus in his death. So also we can be conformed to his resurrection from the dead and we'll walk in the newness of life. So how the falling away happens, the falling away from the faith. It says in the last days, some will depart from the faith, giving heed, listening to lies, doctrines of demons, right, thinking that if you don't eat certain foods, you know, you'll be more holier or we can get off course. We can start to live by rules and regulations rather than being led by the Spirit of God. And it can be even as crafty as food. So may the Lord help us in these things. So he says this, when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin. Now sin has given birth inside of us. Desire had conceived, but now it gave birth to sin. But that's not death yet. Death begins working us, but it hasn't led to a complete falling away. And so what happens is conviction comes. Desire conceives and it gives birth to sin. Now you have conviction. Man, I'm sinning here. I need to repent of this. But then you're in a valley of decision. Am I going to continue in this sin and just believe lies that I'm eternally secure, that grace might increase? May it never be. I'm going to have to deal with this sin. If I'm the righteousness of God, if I'm the holiness of God, if righteousness is my covering, if the blood of Jesus is being applied, I need to repent. So if I sin, I have an advocate now. So now I've sinned. I need to call the name of Jesus because I took some bad decisions. I let desire conceive. I fooled around with it. And now it's giving birth. It's become external. It's manifested in my members. It went from here to here to here. Okay. Has to be repented of. Has to be confessed. If I confess my sin, He is faithful and just to forgive me of my sin. You don't have to confess it to 100 people. You confess it to the Lord. You confess it to a brother or sister. He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us of this unrighteousness. We get back into the Spirit and we learn from it. But if we don't give heed to the conviction, it's a sin when it is full grown. Sin begins to grow just like a child begins to grow and comes to maturity and begins to reproduce after its own kind. In the same way, sin will come to maturity and begin to reproduce after its own kind. And you'll begin to corrupt others the way that others have corrupted us in times past. It brings forth death and you'll begin to reproduce death. Death will be working and you'll be reproducing death in others. This is a dangerous place to be. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. When it becomes full grown, it brings forth death. Why does it say do not be deceived, my beloved brethren? Should we take James and cut the book of James out of the Bible because it doesn't agree with us? Or are we going to talk it away and say this is written to the 12 tribes and it has nothing to do with us as Gentiles? If we take all the scripture as we read in Ephesians yesterday, he says that there's neither Jew nor Gentile, right? But there's one new man in Christ. So they're no longer two, but one. He speaks a mystery between Christ and the church. And he speaks also to us. We say, oh, well, we start to rightly divide the word. And we say, well, this was written to the 12 tribes of that dispensation, but it has nothing to do with the church. He's speaking to us as brethren. All scripture is given by inspiration of God by the Holy Spirit. And it is necessary for edification, for exhortation, and for comfort. And so if he says that we need to take heed to these things, lest we drift away in Hebrews, then I think it's something we need to take heed to, especially when he puts a warning here about being deceived. Because you know what? The best thing about being deceived is there's no accountability. If there's no conviction, there's no accountability. If you justify, happy is the man who doesn't condemn himself and what he approves. I know people who live in sexual sin. They have absolutely no conviction. I've met people who are homosexuals practicing, practicing homosexuals who say, I love my Lord Jesus Christ. I've met them. I've had conversations with them, and they'll call me a bigot and different things. But you know what? The Holy Spirit cannot deny himself. The Holy Spirit is holy. You can get a dread release where you no longer have the conviction of the Holy Spirit. You just become hardened. Just like I've received an appendix. I've had appendicitis. I have two incisions. And on those incisions, I have absolutely zero feeling. I'm 100%. The nerves are dead. So I can cut myself there and I will not feel it. But does it mean that I'm doing harm to myself or not? Just because I can't feel it, it doesn't make it right. And so just because your heart has become hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, your heart can become so hard that you once had conviction, but now you have no conviction anymore. And you can think back on your past and say, well, I was just immature in my faith, you know, and I had conviction then, but now I'm more mature. And now I understand that these things are lawful now. Well, some things might be lawful, but most things are not lawful. We've just justified them. We don't want to justify sin. And so we don't want to be deceived. When Jesus spoke to the disciples, he told them many, many times, see to it that you're not deceived. Why would he tell his disciples? Why would James be telling us not to be deceived if it was not possible for us to be deceived? Because it says, if possible, even the elect might be deceived. Well, it is possible because I myself have been deceived. I don't know about you, if you're always walking in the truth, but we take decisions and realize, I got tricked, Satan tricked me here. I believed a lie. So we repent of it, we turn from it, and we receive the truth. We need to receive a love of the truth so as to be saved. That's what it says in Thessalonians. It talks about those in the last times who don't receive a love of the truth. And they begin to see this Antichrist even calling fire down from heaven, right? And they say, well, this is the Holy Spirit doing these miracles. You know, fire that come from heaven and sat on the heads of these men at Pentecost was from the Holy Spirit. But then this Antichrist even causes fire to come from heaven, and these people marvel, who is like the beast? And they become deceived because they're looking at signs and wonders. They're looking at these things to say, this must be a man of God. This must be the power of the Holy Spirit. God must be with him, but there's uncleanness with him, and there's tremendous boasting with him. He has a mouth, and he has power, and he uses that mouth to make all kinds of blasphemous claims about himself. And he sits in the temple of God above all that is worship. He wants worship of self. That's what he wants, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, exalting himself as being God. Look at me. I'm a man of God. And he lays hands on the sick, and they recover. And he calls down fire from heaven, and it seems as though people are speaking in tongues. And he does miracles, and he does wonders, and he does all kinds of things. Then people say, this must be like the Christ. You know what Christian means, right? Little Christ. We are like Christ. It sounds like a blasphemy, doesn't it? Jesus said that thing, ye are gods. Ooh, let's not say those things. But if any man be in Christ, we're a new creation. We become joint heirs with Christ. We become part of the bride of Christ. So that means we exercise all the rights of Christ. We have been given all the authority under heaven and earth that has been given to Jesus. In Jesus' name, we become joint heirs with him, seated with him in heavenly places. Him and us, and us and him. And so there's a revelation of some of these things. And we need to be careful that we don't take any glory for ourselves. It doesn't matter what gift or call of God you receive. We are not to receive the glory. Jesus receives glory. The Father receives all glory. And this is where we have to be careful. We want the gifts. We want to see the power of God. But when it comes to discerning, we don't go by the amazing miracles and the signs and whether they can cast out demons and all these things. It's whether they practice lawlessness. It's whether they practice lawlessness. We need to be fruit inspectors. We need to have discernment. And we need to be able to discern our own motives and intents of our heart. We don't even always know. And so the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control, keeping no record of wrongs, delights in good, hates evil. And also some of these types of things. We need to begin to get discernment. Ask for discernment so that in this last hour, we're not deceived, thinking that we're following after Christ and we're following after false prophets. This is the last days. Many false prophets will rise up to deceive many. But if you have discernment, then you'll keep yourself from being deceived because the Lord will reveal it to you. So he says, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, comes down from the Father of with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning and of his own. And of his own, will he was he brought forth through the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creations. So we have to walk in the Spirit and lay aside all the filthiness of the flesh. This is the way to walk in a renewed mind. This is a way to walk in the abundant life. Verse 21, therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. So there's a laying aside, a bringing of captive, all filthiness and uncleanness that comes into our minds and a putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, a receiving with meekness, the word of God. When people speak the truth, receive the truth. When you read the word of God, receive the word of God with meekness and humility, not so that you can get puffed up with knowledge, but that it can be words to live by, just like eating your daily food. And he goes on from here and he says, but be doers of this word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. This is another way we can deceive ourselves, is when we hear the word and we think, oh, this applies to Buddy. Oh, I should send this word to my sister. I should send this to my brother back east. Oh, I should send this word to my cousin. No, this word is not for us to send to everybody else. It's for us first to obey, but be doers of this word and not hearers only deceiving ourselves. Many times we're very lax on the exhortations that the Holy Spirit gives us, but we're very prudent to make sure that we send the message, if the Lord gives us a word for somebody, to send that word for them to obey. But ourselves, when the Holy Spirit convicts us, we're very slow. We want to analyze it and we want to just kind of, you know, we'll admit, we'll come in a mental agreement, there's some truth there, but we don't get serious about it. We want to get serious about what the word says. This is where the fear of God comes in. If we have a true fear of God, we're going to get serious about the word, even if it's an uncomfortable word. When the Holy Spirit spoke to Abraham and he told him, I want you to take your son Isaac to a mountain that I'll show you and sacrifice him to me. He got up early the next morning. He was serious about obeying the word of God and it was not something that I'm sure was easy. We have to be serious about crucifying, not just the blessings of God, but first and foremost, the sins that so easily beset us. So that we can run the race with perseverance and running in such a way as to win the prize. Putting off the old man with his lusts. It talks about the works of the flesh are evident. We can read those from Galatians 5. But the fruit of the Spirit, we want to live in the Spirit. If we want to live in the Spirit, we have to also keep in step, we have to walk in the Spirit. May the Lord help us with these things. I'll finish here. He says this, for if anyone is a hearer only, right, and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in the mirror, where he observes himself what kind of man he is, then he goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. So we spend time with the Lord, we call ourselves Christian, right? We look in this perfect law of liberty, and we see the kind of men we are, we want to pray on the armor, and we want to do all this stuff, but it's for us to live, to walk in that Word. You know, you can pray the armor on until you're blue in the face. Unless you're prepared to bring thoughts captive and begin to walk in obedience to the conviction to the Holy Spirit, you can pray till you're blue in the face. There'll be no protection. Protection is our breastplate of righteousness. It's walking in covenant with Jesus. It's the blood of Jesus that's protecting and keeping us from evil. Putting on the helmet of salvation has everything to do with renewing your mind, spending time in the Word, walking in submission to the Word, holding up the shield of faith has everything to do with your faith in Jesus Christ and in that Word. It is written, Jesus was saying, it is written, you hold the faith, you believe the Word, and when the devil says something different, it doesn't matter what he says, let God be true in every man of life. You receive the Word, you believe the Word. It's above all else, the shield of faith. Don't doubt the Word of God. God says it, even though you don't see it in your life, so what does that mean? God is true. If you don't see it in your life, it's on you, it's not on Him. Believe the Word of God, receive the Word of God, allow it to take deep root in your heart, become rooted and established and grounded in Christ. That's what it means when you receive the Word with meekness and you allow that Word to build you a foundation, you get a solid foundation and that house, that all the doctrines begin to be built up, because if you get your doctrines wrong, when the waves come and beat on your house or the fire comes to it, it'll be destroyed and it could burn right to the ground. You got some carnal doctrines, yet somehow through it, you might just call the name of the Lord and repent and be saved. But you know what, all the work that you just sow into people and you just tell people, you're the righteousness of God, you know, Jesus loves you, you know, and people are just practicing sin straight on their way to hell and you don't speak the truth to them, you only give them part of it. You just, you say, well, I only want to give them the good news. Well, you know what the good news is? The good news is what's going to save them from destruction, that's the good news. It's good that I was afflicted, that's what the David says, before I was afflicted, I went astray. The good news is that he was afflicted. You know what the good news is? That Nathan came and said, you're the man, you took that man's wife, you put your eye on him, that's the good news. You want to know why it's the good news? If he didn't come, where would he end up? He repented because the prophet came and spoke what God told him to say and brought him the good news. The good news was to turn someone from evil, that's what love looks like. If we look at the end here, and I preached on this before in James 5 verse 19, if you see your brother sinning and one turns him from the error of his way, call it part of the 12 tribes, call it part of the Gentiles, call it the new man in Christ, but if you see your brother sinning, James 5 verse 19, and one of them wanders from the truth, now how are we going to wander from the truth? Well, that can happen real easy. We start hanging out with our old buddies, right? We start doing some of our old, go back to our old habits, start practicing some of those old sins and justifying ourselves. Our heart starts to get hard and we begin to forsake the gathering together as the manner of some and so much more as we see that day approaching, the day when we willfully sin, right? The day of the Lord when he comes as a thief in the night, right? That's why we're not to neglect the gathering together and so much more as we see the day approaching. What day? The day that we willfully sin, that says in the next verse, for if we willfully go on sinning, why else would we neglect the gathering together? We don't want to hear the word anymore. We want to do our own thing. We want to walk in pride. We want to walk in rebellion. We want to walk in sin. The day that we willfully go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, we have received the knowledge of the truth, but we decide we don't want to hear the truth. We want to do our own thing. There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. Under the new covenant, brothers, sisters, there's only one sacrifice for sins. It's the shed blood of Jesus Christ. It's not the blood of bulls and goats. After you have received the sacrifice of sins, there no longer remains a sacrifice of sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment. He goes on from there to say, under the old covenant, anyone who rejects Moses or the law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. I thought, man, that is absolutely severe. Like if they caught somebody in Israel who was sinning, then they would come on a testimony of two or three witnesses. They said this person was caught in adultery. Outside the camp they go and stoning them, they do. The ones who bring the accusation are the first to throw the stones. You say, praise God, we live in a dispensation of grace now, so God is so much easier on us. But yet that scripture says, how much worse punishment? Worse than getting stoned? What possibly could be worse punishment than getting shamed in front of all of Israel and getting stoned to death for your sin? Except that it'd be eternal separation from God. The only thing worse than natural death. How much worse punishment do you suppose he will be thought worthy who has trampled the son of God underfoot? How did he do that? He insulted the spirit of grace. He has treated the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified. Not who he might have been sanctified. He was sanctified because it's spoken to the brethren. He's insulted the spirit of grace. He's taken the grace of God in vain. He's treated it as a common thing. He's trampled the son of God underfoot. He's insulted the spirit of grace. And the Lord says, vengeance is mine, I will repay. The Lord is going to judge whose people? His people. This is written for us not to analyze. So the day that we go on sinning willfully, that's after we start neglecting the gathering together. We don't see any of the brothers anymore. We want to do our own thing. We just want to live life to the fullest. We just want to live according to the flesh. We don't want to receive any conviction. We don't care about condemnation. We keep numbing out, so we don't have to think about that anymore. And we're just going to live our best life now. The day of the Lord is coming to you, my friend. It's a day of darkness and not light. It's a day of gloominess. We can read about that thing in many different passages, especially in Thessalonians. We can read about it. He comes as a thief in the night. Oh, they say he comes so suddenly. Yeah, he's going to come suddenly when you're not watching. At an hour you're not expecting, he's going to come and cut you in two pieces. He's going to appoint you your portion with the hypocrites and the unbelievers. That's what he's going to do. And because you knew those things, you were sanctified. You knew those things. You're going to be beaten with many, many blows. But those who did things deserving of punishment will only be beaten with few if they did not know. So the more you know, the more you're accountable before God. This should put some fear in us. I said I was going to finish. I'm finished with this passage. Brethren, if any of you wanders from the truth, you start practicing sin. You start living according to the flesh. And someone comes to bring good news like Nathan did to David and preaches repentance, says you are an adultery. You're a murderer. And he repents and he says, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done wickedness in thy sight, O God. Have mercy on me, God. God is able to grant repentance. Repentance is not guaranteed. It's granted. I mean, many years I was living in sin. I thought, well, you know what, if I ever get on my deathbed, I'm hopeful I'll have like an extra two minutes and I'll just quickly say, Jesus, for your innocence. And then I'm just going to boom, live a life of debauchery. And in one second, I'm just going to be like the thief on the cross. But I knew better. I knew better. I just wanted to get out of jail free card. What a deception. God grants repentance. It says Esau sought repentance with tears and found none. It says that in Hebrews 12, Esau sought repentance with tears and found none. Repentance is granted by God. God looks at the heart. He says, look at this guy. He's doing this defiantly. This guy's doing this on purpose. He knew better. He was raised by Jacob and his mom. Look at what he's doing. He's taking ungodly wives now just to make them angry. He's doing these things. Look what he's doing. He sold his birthright. He said, what is that to me? He wanted to inherit the blessing. He was rejected, even though he sought it with tears, lots of tears, lots of crocodile tears. God don't look at the tears. There's godly sorrow and there's worldly sorrow. We want to have godly sorrow, which leads to a clearing of ourselves, not to be regretted. So if we turn a brother by preaching repentance, speaking truth unto them, loving them back into the right relationship with the Lord, let him know that he who turns a sinner, we all sin in many ways, but we don't want to sin willfully. If anyone goes on sinning willfully, you just keep sinning willfully. You know what's wrong. You do it anyways. That's what it means. Hebrews 10, 26. You know what's wrong. You do it anyways. We're not talking about intentional sin. David says, keep your servant from willful sin. Forgive me of my hidden faults. Then I shall be blamed. Being blameless for God is having received grace to cover over things that we don't know are wrong and the grace to overcome things that we do and taking those things seriously. And as we get more light, as we understand things that have been grieving the spirit, then we say, Lord, I never knew I was grieving you. Thank you for having mercy on me. That's what the blood is for, for unintentional sin. If you even look at Numbers 15, all the sins that they committed were all sacrifice for unintentional sin. But if a man sins defiantly, they're to kill him. Nothing's changed. We don't want to sin defiantly before God. We want to be sober, vigilant, because our adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. We can say he's like a roaring lion and he has no teeth. But I'm telling you, I've seen a lot of brothers feel the teeth of the roaring lion. Our protection is the shed blood of Christ. Our protection is the wall of salvation that God has put around us. You know, if we see the stone hedge broken down and the wild boar coming in and picking away at the fruit, that's not a good thing. He who turns a man who's sinning from the error of his way will save a soul from death, will save his soul from death. It's going to save his flesh from death. They're going to save his body from death. It's going to save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. This is what love looks like. This is why we preach the gospel. We want to see people turn away from sin. We want to see people repent and be reconciled to God. Even the people of God, time and time again, they walked with God, then they learned the ways of the Gentiles, then they fell into sin, and then God punished them and they received judgments. But then whenever he would send a prophet, and if the people would repent, then he would relent from doing harm, and he would begin to back them again, and he would begin to bless them again. That's what love looks like. Preaching repentance to people who have no hope, bringing the good news of Jesus. Maybe you're backslidden. Maybe you walked away from the Lord. Maybe you think there's no hope for you now. It says, seek the Lord while he may be found. If you have some conviction, call upon him while he is near. What does the scripture say? Let the wicked man forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let's begin to do righteousness, to do what is right. That's what doing righteousness is. Lord, help me to do what is right. God looks at the heart. Get the stone hedge up so the wild boar doesn't keep coming in and robbing from your family. Begin to walk in obedience to the word of God. Seek the Lord. Make the Lord a priority in the home, in your life. Call upon him while he's near. Look early and often to the Lord. Ask the Lord for help. You can't serve the Lord in money. You have to say, Lord, I don't want to love money. I want to love you in comparison. Let there be a mile between. Lord, you know what we need. You know we need resources to live. We desire good things for our children, but we're not going to love those things more than the Lord himself. We're not going to worship the creation and all the created things more than the Lord. Some of us, we rub our stuff with diapers or cars, and we have all kinds of idols, and we have to be careful because this is the way of the Gentiles. We don't want to learn the way of the Gentiles. We want to put away idols. We want to get rid of them, clear them out of our life. We want to make room for the Lord so that this house could be called a house of prayer. Begin to make it a house of prayer that this house would be a house of prayer. In Jesus' name, amen.