Everett Muniz - Be Ye Holy - Class 4 - The Things Which Defile A Man

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   The high calling of God in Christ Jesus. This is his fourth class, and the subject for this class is the things which defile a man. Our reading was taken from Romans Chapter 7, verses 14 to 25. Well. Good morning, everyone.

2. 0:39

   We’ve titled our fourth session this morning, The things Which defile a man, as our brother Ken has said. And thank you, brother Ken. This morning. In this session, we’re going to look at these two ways, the way of holiness and the way of death. And to a large extent, this is very familiar territory for most of us. But familiarity has its own challenges, doesn’t it? Then we’re going to look at this idea of the war in our members and then we’re going to take a look at the concept of the world and, and the idea of it being the Kingdom where human nature reigns.

3. 1:12

   And this has been, I know, growing up, a particularly useful and necessary emphasis for me to be reminded that the world is not something exclusively out there, that the world is is very near to us and we have to be so on guard as we think about how we interact and protect ourselves against its influences. And then we want to take a few moments towards the end and look at a couple of tactics that God has provided to resist our nature and the world.

4. 1:51

   Throughout Scripture, the way of holiness is contrasted with another way. But from God’s perspective, there are only two ways. One of them is difficult, and it has to be entered deliberately by a narrow gate, but it leads to joy and to life. The other way is easy, and it can be entered by a broad gate, but that way leads to sorrow and to destruction. As the Lord says in Matthew Chapter 7, beginning at verse 13, enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. And many there be which go in there at, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

5. 2:42

   Romans 6 builds on this idea of two ways, and to that concept it adds the notion of 2 masters. We see the two ways alluded to here in verses one to four, reading from Romans chapter 6, verses one to four. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

6. 3:09

   Let it not be. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death, That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, Even so we also should walk in newness of life. So on the one hand, we have continuing in sin, which is contrasted with walking in newness of life. And when we come down to verses 16 to 23, we find that the Master that’s associated with the way that leads to destruction is sin, and the Master associated with the way that leads to life is none other than our heavenly Father. It’s an interesting thought that the choice is ours. God leaves it to us to choose.

7. 4:06

   We think of this theme running throughout the word of God. Moses saying I put before you life and death, choose life, but it was a choice. Joshua saying choose you this day whom you will serve. Elijah saying to the people, how long halt ye between two opinions. We have a choice. God has given us the evidence and he has asked us to choose one way that leads to life and another way that leads to destruction and the choice is ours. How remarkable that it seems to be such a difficult choice to make.

8. 4:46

   When we put it in these terms, it seems simple, doesn’t it? Well goodness, it’s a choice of life or death. With the young people yesterday, there’s one in every crowd. With the young people yesterday I said, you know, you’ve got 2 choices. You can go to a nice sunny beach or you can go to an island with a volcano that’s about to explode. One of them of course picked the volcano as, as you know, one of them must.

9. 5:10

   But nevertheless, it’s a silly question isn’t it? Whenever we put it in these terms, how could we possibly make any other choice than the way of life? And yet, so often we do. So often we do. We cannot serve 2 masters. Or rather, we can try, but our God is a jealous God, and He doesn’t tolerate a divided loyalty in His children. We are born into ignorance about the way of holiness, but even when we’re blessed to understand it, we can all too readily be deceived if we rely on our natural perception. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

10. 6:06

    And so we, Nah, we were one slide behind. I apologize. So here is Proverbs chapter 14, which we just quoted. And here we are then in Daniel chapter 2 and verse 44. And we come to Daniel 2 and verse 44 really to circle back to the point that we made a moment ago, that there may be two ways, but there is only one abiding destination. The God of heaven will set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and that Kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. So there’s only one destination that abides forever. In first John chapter 2 and verse 17, we’re told that the world passes away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.

11. 7:12

    The problem with our natural perception is that it’s an extension of a part of us that is at war with God, a part of us that is fundamentally unholy. Those in pursuit of holiness have a war in our members. And we know, of course, that our Heavenly Father diagnosis our disease in Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 9. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

12. 7:46

    The heart, the human mind, Trump’s all comers for its capacity to deceive. And we are deceived. We are at risk of deception by no one so much so as ourselves. We have an infinite capacity to deceive ourselves, more so than I think any of us even fully realize, certainly more so than I realize in myself. We are constitutionally incapable of being holy without God’s intervention to show us how and His continued presence to guide and sustain our efforts. Even when we’re well schooled in the will and purpose of God, we’re not insulated from the push and the pull of our nature. David’s sin with Bathsheba stands out as as an obvious example.

13. 8:42

    And of course we know that the Lord testifies to this very thing he says in Matthew chapter 15 verses 15 to 20. Then answered Peter, and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, Are you also yet without understanding? Do you not yet understand that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast into the draw? But those things would proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart precede evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

14. 9:22

    These are the things which defile a man. But to eat with unwashing hands defileth not a man. Isn’t it the way of our nature that we become preoccupied with the thing that is not actually the problem to to wash the hands? Right? That was the simple thing to do. We get preoccupied with the thing that isn’t really the issue.

15. 9:44

    Well, certainly washing your hands is a much easier problem to solve then an incurably corrupt heart. Hopefully, we begin our journey on the way of holiness, convinced that we’re terminally ill and determined to apply the treatment that God has prescribed to manage our disease while we wait for His Son to administer the cure.

16. 10:11

    However, over time, by subtle degrees, that conviction and determination can fade. And though we may not actually say so, somewhere deep down we imagine that our progress on the way of life has lessened the severity of our disease. You know, in First Peter chapter 3, verses 18 to 22, he relates the flood of Genesis 6 to 10 to baptism.

17. 10:40

    These are two brothers, a newly newly minted, so to speak, brother and sister at at our ecclesia, the niece of brother Rodger Snyder, who brother Rodger didn’t grow up in the truth. So his niece started coming out to the seminars and she was interested in and all throughout the process, she said that her husband, he was never really interested in the church that she was a part of.

18. 11:04

    And he began coming when she was taking more focused preparation for baptism classes. And in the process, he said, well, I didn’t know that I, I thought it was just a lot of argument. I thought that there were a lot of different things you could think and they were all reasonable. I didn’t know that there was really good reasons to think one thing over another.

19. 11:27

    And so he was drawn in through the process of her baptism classes and and they were baptized together this year at our Sunday School picnic. The waters of the flood cleansed the world outside the ark of corruption. But that corruption had stowed away, hadn’t it? It was inside the ark. It was inside Noah and his family. In the same way, for all the power and importance of baptism, it doesn’t cure us from the disease that afflicts us. It certainly prefigures the cure reserved for those who have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. And faithful progress on the way of life can definitely equip us to manage our disease.

20. 12:14

    However, we know that only becoming partakers of the divine nature by the grace of God will we be able to say that we have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. In the meantime, we can’t afford to underestimate the seriousness and the danger of our disease. And so Romans chapter 14, Chapter 7, rather verses 14 to 25 aptly describes the experience of those that choose to pursue holiness as a war in our members. Paul says, For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.

21. 13:08

    Which of us doesn’t identify with this experience even in the little things of life, right. There’s dessert at the potluck. We know we’ve probably had enough to eat already, but it looks delicious. It will be delicious. There’s a part of us that says just have some. You’ll make it up during the week.

22. 13:30

    You won’t eat. You’ll, you’ll, you’ll, you’ll exercise restraint at some point, right? We, we feel this all the time. And that’s, that’s a benign case, isn’t it? So often throughout our day, we’re confronted with occasions where there’s a choice to be made. We can choose a path that honors and respects our Heavenly Father, that gives him his due, or we can choose a path that’s more comfortable.

23. 13:59

    And there’s a part of us constantly lobbying for the comfortable path. Clearly Paul felt this struggle very keenly, as do all those who pursue holiness.

24. 14:19

    Here in Romans chapter 8, we’re told that the carnal mind is to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And in Galatians chapter 5 verse 17, we’re told that the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. This inherent hatred that Paul describes of our nature for holiness is our heritage from Adam and Eve and the reason that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. As long as this hatred is inherent to our nature, we cannot in the fullest sense be the holy royal priesthood suitable for the work of filling this earth with God’s glory. But even though we can’t be free from human nature this side of the Kingdom, we can be spiritually minded. Sin need not reign in our mortal bodies as Paul commends to us in Romans chapter 6 and verse 12.

25. 15:37

    In fact, we know that we must be transformed in mind now, delighting in and serving the law of God in order to be transformed in body later. And as we said at the outset, brothers and sisters and young people, these are facts with which we’re all probably really familiar. Nevertheless, if someone with the understanding, maturity, and demonstrated commitment of Paul could say, for I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing, then how could we ever imagine ourselves less susceptible to the pull and push of our nature?

26. 16:21

    Our knowledge of the truth, for all that it equips us to recognize and respond to the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, doesn’t remove the fundamental corruption of our nature. And there’s the very real danger that we are so familiar with what the Scriptures say about that nature that it has lost some of its significance.

27. 16:46

    Maybe we no longer truly appreciate just how dangerous it really is. Maybe we don’t actually feel as if we have an enemy to holiness present with us at every moment of every day. Do we truly believe that we are under the law that Paul describes? He says, I find that a law that when we would do good, evil is present with us. Do we believe that to be true, brothers and sisters? Do we accept the reality that we’re suffering from a potentially fatal disease that can only be managed by strict attention to the prescribed regimen of treatment? Or are we in denial?

28. 17:33

    Have we convinced ourselves that we’re better and no longer in need of that treatment? This is a very common problem in, in the area of mental health, particularly in the area of mental health. But I think for, for men’s health, maybe generally that especially men tend to, well, I, I think I feel better. So I’m just going to stop taking that. Maybe it’s blood pressure medication, maybe it’s some other form of, of medication in mental health. It can be particularly damaging.

29. 18:01

    A person with a disease, a chemical imbalance that leads to something like schizophrenia, takes their medication, they feel much better. And so because they feel better, they say, well, I feel as if I’m cured. And they, they stop taking their medication and they, they suffer a terrible relapse. And this same thing can happen to us, can’t it? It reminds us in a way of the cycle of the judges, right? A steady diet of life infused with God’s will. And we begin to feel as if things are going well. And because things are going well, we can get on with what we want to do and then everything comes apart. It’s amazing that we go through this cycle. Amazing for the fact that we keep going through this cycle of our lives, that it takes us so long to learn that in fact, we must continue the regimen of treatment that our Heavenly Father has prescribed.

30. 19:03

    You know, when we think about diseases, diseases that are, are particularly scary, there are many of them, of course, but there are interesting parallels between what doctors and, and patients and those who have have struggled with it, we’ll call the big C between cancer and the disease of human nature. And of course, we know that this, this disease of cancer, I’m not a, a oncologist or anything like one, but it’s a family of ailments. But there are interesting parallels between this disease, largely in the fact that ultimately it’s, it’s kind of in a sense consumptive, right?

31. 19:44

    It it wants to grow and grow and grow until it dominates everything and in doing so often times leads to death. But there’s something interesting about this disease in relation, or a few things rather, that are interesting about this disease in relation to other diseases. Cancer cells are actually. Native cells. It’s not an external infection, it’s an internal malfunction.

32. 20:16

    Native cells that become aberrant. Which makes me think of Matthew chapter 15 and verses 15 to 20. That the things which defile a man don’t come from outside of us, they come from within. Our disease originates inside us rather than an outside infection. And though cancer is not an outside infection, it can be prompted by environmental factors, either voluntarily or involuntarily exposed environmental factors.

33. 20:49

    And this puts me in mind of First Corinthians 15 verse 33, where Paul tells the Corinthians that evil communications corrupt good manners. Another interesting connection is that cancerous cells often go undetected by the body’s immune system, in part because the cells are native. The body’s immune system is is designed to detect outside infection and so these cancer cells are native cells and they also often actively mask that they’ve gone rogue.

34. 21:26

    And this puts me in mind of what we read in Proverbs chapter 14 verses verse 12 and Proverbs 16 verse 25, that the mind of the idea that there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. The mind is the source of benign, healthy and diseased thoughts as well as being the means of distinguishing the one from the other. And so diseased thinking often goes undetected precisely because it’s familiar.

35. 21:59

    We may not be born with an effective ability to distinguish healthy thinking from disease thinking. But interestingly enough, one of the, the areas that the horizons, if you will, of Cancer Research, as I understand it. And there is a, a brother on the East Coast who, who is a radiation oncologist. And he and I have have talked about these things a little bit just to make sure that that that I’m not going too far out on a limb is that they are working to train and having some progress at training the immune system to see it, to recognize it, training the body itself to react against certain forms of, of cancerous mutation.

36. 22:41

    And this makes me think of the sentiment that’s expressed in Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 14, that we can have our senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

37. 22:56

    And lastly, this idea of of radiation treatment, you know, this is one of the treatments for cancer, which puts me in mind of somewhat of the way that light is used as a metaphor for the word of God, which is the treatment prescribed by the great physician to manage our disease. In the broadest sense, light is radiation, and so the treatment for our spiritual disease is like cancer in a sense, radiation therapy. Now, even when we are able to acknowledge how poor our spiritual perception is, most of us imagine that it stands in stark contrast to our natural perception. We think even if our spiritual perception doesn’t provide a, you know, an accurate picture of reality, surely our natural perception can be relied on to provide an accurate picture of the physical reality.

38. 23:57

    And in fact, this is promoted by popular wisdom, isn’t it? The idea that natural perception is really the only reliable measure of truth? For instance, we rely on our sight a great deal to help us perceive and to understand the world around us, and for the most part, it’s incredibly reliable, and that’s why we have aphorisms like seeing is believing. Even so, our physical senses are much less reliable than we might otherwise imagine them to be,

39. 24:35

    and a good deal more limited. For instance, there’s more light than we can see. Ultraviolet light is outside the visible spectrum of light for humans, but some insects and birds are able to see it. Infrared light is also outside the sensory perception of humans, but some snakes and insects and bats can perceive it.

40. 24:58

    In effect, these are aspects of our reality that are completely missing to us. We don’t perceive them with these natural senses, with, with we with which we invest such trust. And what’s more, it’s not nearly as difficult as you might think to confuse even a trusted sense like visual perception. So what we want to do for the next couple of moments is just illustrate this.

41. 25:27

    Just do a bit of an exercise together to illustrate how easy it really is to deceive a sense that we trust so much. And the reason that we want to do this is to emphasize that if we can deceive, this sense that we would normally consider to be so reliable if we can, if it can be deceived so easily.

42. 25:49

    And how much more easily are our senses deceived with respect to spiritual things if we are not guided and directed by the Word of God? What does your mind tell you? Or your eyes? What do your senses tell you that you’re looking at? There are cues. Our mind processes some of the things that don’t fit and we draw conclusions. But if you just stop that process for a moment, as if that were possible, but if you just try to ignore it, maybe our mind sees a river and a waterfall.

43. 26:31

    And so people standing on something, a rock or a raft or some such, that’s a chalk drawing on a flat St. But it didn’t take much to make our minds believe that it was something entirely other, right, without sort of stopping and looking at the. Oh, right. We have enough visual indicators around it that we can make sense of it pretty quickly. We can see, OK, yeah, there’s something that’s not right here. Some of the details not exactly right. But at first blush, we imagine what we see is a river. And there’s a moment of confusion, isn’t there? Another example here again, there’s a a scene of someone peering down from some scaffolding into an area where somebody seems to have fallen.

44. 27:21

    And of course, again, it’s just the sidewalk. Someone has skillfully drawn a picture on a flat surface and created the impression in our minds of depth.

45. 27:37

    And so we imagine that what we truly see is other than what’s actually there. That’s how easy it can be. Now, I’m sure if you ask the artist, he’d say, what do you mean how easy it can be? That took me forever to draw.

46. 27:53

    But for us right here, right now, that’s how easy it can be to deceive our natural perception. If it’s that easy to deceive our natural perception, which we rely on so much, how much more easily can spiritual perception be deceived? Or can our perception of spiritual things be deceived if we’re using natural means?

47. 28:19

    What? What do you see here? I can’t leave this, I can’t actually look at this very long because it starts to make me starts to make my tummy feel a little weird. I’m not sure why That’s quite apart from not feeling well earlier in the week. What do you see? Do you see horizontal lines parallel to each other or do you see lines that seem to want to almost like they’re bending? Many people see bending lines or they they see lines that don’t quite line up.

48. 28:45

    They’re not parallel to each other. Sometimes if we, if we overlay white lines that sort of expand beyond the image, it helps the mind sort of pick up on some of those additional visual cues and allows us to see that Oh yeah, OK, right. Yeah, they’re all just parallel lines. This is how easily our natural perceptions can be confused. And if we use them to perceive spiritual things, we will consistently fail to do so correctly. Which of these two blocks?

49. 29:21

    You’ll see there’s there’s an A, it’s a bit faded. There’s an A and there’s AB. Which do you think is darker? Which of the two blocks? I I won’t ask you to. Oh, why not? Who thinks A’s darker?

50. 29:39

    Yeah, I do too, actually. Who thinks B’s darker? Yeah, right. Awesome. I love an individualist that way. OK, well, of course they’re the exact same color. You knew that was coming, you know, or at least you you thought it might be. They’re the exact same shade, right? And and whereas earlier our mind was helped by external visual cues, here it’s confused.

51. 30:06

    We see shadow and we know that. We know that what we’re expected to see is this shadow. And we, we look around and we say, well, then yeah, they’re clearly that one’s meant to be darker. It’s just, you know, there’s a shadow involved and we we make sense of it in our minds.

52. 30:24

    And in fact, the reality is different than the interpretation, just as we’ve seen in the other examples. But, but we get there a slightly different way. This last one, I don’t believe it. And I’ve and I did it. I don’t know why this one just there’s two lines and for the life of me, the line on the right is longer. It just is longer, right?

53. 30:56

    I’m not sure about your perception, but my perception is that the line on the right is longer. So we take a line, right? And I promise you, I’m not doing any tricks here. I’m really not. And the, the only trick is this is this is the extent of my, my PowerPoint skills is that I can make this little red line fly across the screen and it overlays the other line exactly right. And as I, as, as I was going through the, the process of preparation, I’m like, you know, that just doesn’t satisfy me. So I felt the need to actually draw lines across the top and bottom to prove to myself, even though I had just proven to myself that in fact, those lines are exactly the same size. So the reason that we look at these things is, is not to, you know, simply for a a bit of a reprieve. The reason that we look at these things again is that this is how easily our natural perception can be confused. If we bring that perception to our efforts to progress along the way of holiness.

54. 32:07

    If we try to perceive spiritual things through natural means, we will consistently fail to do so. There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

55. 32:27

    Brothers and sisters and young people, there will never be a time this side of the Kingdom when it will be a good idea to trust our natural perception where spiritual things are concerned. The counsel of the Proverbs in Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 5 is trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.

56. 32:51

    In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and he will direct thy paths. To trust in ourselves, however much knowledge and experience we may have, is only to invite ruin. If a man like David, who surely knew better, could be overtaken in sin with Bathsheba, if Paul could say that there was a war in his members, then certainly none of us can afford to let down our guard. So now we’d like to take a moment and look at this idea of the world.

57. 33:31

    The other enemy to holiness that the Bible talks about is the world. We’re told not to love it because it’s not of the Father and therefore it will pass away. But those that do the will of God will abide forever. We’re told not even to be on friendly terms with it because to do so is to make ourselves the enemy of God.

58. 33:56

    That’s I don’t know, I, I’ve read that over and over and over again and I, I read that even today and I’m not sure that I connect as fully as I should with that idea. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. It’s a pretty strong statement that bears, you know, careful consideration, isn’t it? We know that the disciples of Christ have to live in the world, but we are not its citizens. In Jesus prayer for his disciples he acknowledges that God had separated them from the world and in doing so they had become gods.

59. 34:41

    They had become His, a possession claimed by him in the same way that a parent most of the time will claim a child. Occasionally mom or dad might say your son just did whatever your daughter, but generally we claim our children, don’t we? They are ours. And this is the work that our heavenly Father has done with us.

60. 35:08

    He has brought us into his family and made us his own. It calls to mind the language of Exodus 19 and of Leviticus 20 and verse 26 as God conveys the same ideas to to Israel. But Jesus goes on to ask God to preserve that separation by keeping them from evil and sustaining their sanctification through truth. He says, I pray for them.

61. 35:36

    I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth.

62. 35:56

    Thy word is true. So we have those that are gods who are journeying toward life, who resist sins, attempts to reign in their mortal bodies, and those who are dead in trespasses and sins, who walk according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air. The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we’re by nature the children of wrath, even as others. The picture that emerges is of two kingdoms, the Kingdom of God and sins Kingdom, where human nature reigns uncontested in men and women.

63. 36:58

    We have received an incredible calling. The disciples of Christ have been called out of death, out of sins Kingdom into life and the Kingdom of God.

64. 37:13

    But once again, there is a real danger, a real and present danger for those who have received this high calling. It’s comfortable to imagine that the world only describes things outside of ourselves and our community. The world is something out there. There’s a danger that those who have been called out of the world imagine they now live in an unassailable impervious fortress that cannot be overtaken by enemy invasion, rather than a city under constant siege where the enemy will stop at nothing to take control.

65. 37:52

    Since Kingdom is always looking to expand its borders by whatever means possible, it has an army stationed on the border, it sends in spies to foment rebellion, and it has an embassy inside every last one of Christ’s disciples. At the same time that the world tries to force regime change, it’s constantly trying to open up diplomatic relations, much in the way of countries today sending the special forces and the diplomats in. At the same time, the world believes that we should be able to cooperate to achieve mutually beneficial goals, but the reality is that no such goals exist between the citizens of God’s Kingdom and those in whom sin rules uncontested. We cannot serve 2 masters, but that’s one of many lies that our nature and the world would have us believe. Here again, the exhortation is to humility and vigilance. The world is not out there, it’s at the gates, trying to tunnel under the walls and trying to convince us that we share common cause that can be a basis for cooperation. And this will always be true until we are finally changed in nature by the grace of God, which again underscores the need for humility and vigilance.

66. 39:23

    Those who arrive at Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads have been strangers and pilgrims in the world. So with that, we would like to turn our attention to a couple of tactics that God has provided to resist our nature and the world. And to begin with, it’s important to point out that only the only reliable foundation for our efforts to resist our nature and the world is the Word of God. When our Lord was tempted in the wilderness, His resistance is characterized by this threefold refrain, is it not? It is written.

67. 40:05

    The only way that we can resist the deception of human nature and the world is by being well schooled. In the truth of God, unfortunately, where truth is concerned, we are leaky vessels. I think that’s for me why this this principle and concept of remembrance is so essential. It’s such a critical and important idea, and it’s infused throughout the pages of Scripture.

68. 40:37

    It’s easy for me to miss the profound significance of what Peter says here in Second Peter chapter 1 and verse 12. Even though he believes his audience knows the things that he’s saying and is established in the present truth, he considers it negligence. Negligence to pass up an opportunity to rehearse those truths with them.

69. 41:06

    It calls to mind the language of Deuteronomy 6, which exhorts Israel to incorporate the Word of God into every aspect of their daily lives, lest they forget the Lord.

70. 41:21

    That’s when we’re most vulnerable to human nature and the world, when we have forgotten the Lord that brought us out from the House of bondage to sin and death. Reading from Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 6:00 to 12:00. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently, and to thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

71. 41:50

    And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. And it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he swear unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give the great and goodly cities which thou buildest not, and houses full of good things which thou fillest not, and wells dig which thou digest not, vineyards and olive trees which thou plantest not, when thou should have eaten and be full.

72. 42:24

    Then beware, lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the House of bondage. So we have to constantly rehearse the truths God has revealed to remain mindful of the great and precious promises to which God has made us heirs through Jesus Christ and faith. Otherwise, if we permit ourselves to be mindful of that country from which we’ve been called out, then we will find opportunity to return. Another point that has been, I think, very helpful to Sister Amanda and I is the idea that human nature cannot be overcome in our own strength.

73. 43:12

    We cannot fight the flesh with the flesh. We can only gain victory over our nature through faith in God and active obedience to His will. That seems to be central to Paul’s message in Galatians chapters 5 and 6. If we would not fulfill the lust of the flesh, then we need to walk in the Spirit.

74. 43:34

    To truly understand the import of this exhortation, it seems helpful to look at the character of the section in which it appears. The exhortation to walk in the Spirit seems to be part of of a section of Galatians that begins in chapter 5, verse 13 and ends in chapter 6 and verse 10.

75. 43:54

    It is bracketed, if you will, framed by the principles of service generally and serving our brothers and sisters in Christ, particularly Romans chapter 12, verse 21 exhorts us to be not overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good. And it’s in a very similar context to the one we find here in Galatians chapters 5 and 6. And so a powerful tactic in our efforts to resist our nature and the world is to take advantage of the myriad of opportunities that we have to serve our Heavenly Father by serving one another.

76. 44:36

    See, our focus can’t exclusively be on rejecting evil. It has to be on embracing and doing good with the understanding that the honest pursuit of good includes the rejection of evil. We need to be about our Father’s business doing truth, because truth is a thing to be done. He that doeth truth cometh to the light.

77. 45:05

    If we walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we commit ourselves to resisting our nature and the world, there is an incredible future in store for us. We’ve touched on one vision of that future in Isaiah chapter 35, where the redeemed come to Zion on the way of holiness with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.

78. 45:34

    One of the interesting features of the way of holiness mentioned in Isaiah 35 is that no lion or any ravenous beast shall go up there on. And this puts me in mind of the fact that if we are steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, then there will come a time when we’ll no longer have to fear this ravenous, beastly nature that we bear. Though we may be stalked, as it were today along the path of holiness, by our nature, a time is coming when we can be set free once and for all.

79. 46:17

    But that’s a freedom that we have to want, brothers and sisters. We have to want to be free of our nature and to work against it today, in that day when we are finally and completely set free in that day, sorrow and sighing will flee away, and the redeemed will be filled up with the joy and the gladness of those whose liberation is finally complete. So in our session tomorrow, we’re going to take a look at the the need for balance in our approach to this challenge of progressing along the way of holiness. It is absolutely essential that we hate the flesh, but it is also essential that we learn to identify with our Heavenly Father.

80. 47:08

    He is the head of our family and we are cultivating a family resemblance, aren’t we? And so we need to learn to identify with him. We’re going to look at the ample ’cause that we have to be strong and of good courage and exhortation that we find in the Scriptures for many of those who were journeying along the way of holiness.

81. 47:32

    Be strong and of good courage. And that same sentiment is is expressed by God to you and I. We’re going to look at this idea of our Heavenly Father as both righteous judge and a loving Father. It is not as though God is one thing or the other thing, or more of one and less of the other, but that he is both of these things together.

82. 47:58

    And then finally, we’re going to look at our part in God’s work of transformation. And so with that, I will say thank you again and turn things back over to Brother Ken.