Person & Work of the Holy Spirit
Mike Doyle · Jul 7, 2013
Holy Spirit (2013), No. 26
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926356286898

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We are less than 13 and we're less than 13 has to do with the walk of the spirit. And I'm hopeful for those of you who are over anxious to have a copy of the questions for less important than rank. Randy gets here soon enough. You probably need to turn it up. You guys are a little bit farther away today. Yeah, but you do need to turn it up. So we had started last week with questions.

The first one was, what characterizes a Christian and distinguishes him from the world? What was the answer? The walk in the spirit. And we talked about what it meant to be after the spirit or after the flesh. Somebody want to quickly tell me what that means? If I said, boy, you are really after the flesh, what am I saying that you're walking in that path where you're trying to satisfy the desires of the flesh rather than the spirit?

Does a nonbeliever have a choice? You know, that's all I know is that's where it came from. We have some house guests and they're getting to know our dog. And guess what? He always acts like a Labrador. Figure it out. like a dog, because he's after dog, comes from dog. And those that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. So you have to be spiritually alive to even be acquainted with the things of the spirit.

So then the next question is, I wanted you to read Romans 8, 6 through 39, which we could spend an entire six months talking about just what those verses are. But what are those verses dedicated to? So dare I ask you, did you read them? Nothing, nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Okay, that's pretty good. What else? Contrasting the old nature with the new nature. There's not so much a contrast there as there is, I think, they're pretty much devoted to the walk by the power of the Spirit. That's what it looks like. That's kind of what it's all about.

And there's even some commands there, like you're to mortify the deeds of the flesh. How do you do that? Memorize the Ten Commandments, right? Put them into practice. How do you do that? How do you mortify, how do you mortify a deed, put it to death?

That's different. It didn't die, you did. That's a different thing. You mortify the beings of the flesh by acknowledging and reckoning the fact that you are dead to it. You do not have to respond. And then you change your focus, right? So, that's dead. But now I'm alive. Under God. Right. That's right. It happened. And both have to be in play.

Because I think if you kept focusing on how dead you are, then it's just more focusing on the old man. There's no life. That's a very good point, Holly. It's a dual reckoning. There's a reckoning yourself dead under sin and alive under God. All of this, because you don't die and then hang out on the yellow line until you kind of take a nap or something. You're dead and alive.

Is it okay, what I do is ask the Lord to help me master a certain thing. Isn't that okay? Alright, now let's do an example. Let's say you're in a situation where it requires you to be very patient to get through it. Do you go to the Lord and ask him for patience? That's a trick question for the rest of you. I probably would. I ask him for everything.

Now, if the facts are, the biblical facts are that you are dead to impatience and alive to Christ, would it make more sense to reckon yourself alive and that you have the very one in you who is patient? And he's not going to dole his patience out to you, he's going to manifest his life through you. You see the difference. I do see the difference in my life. It takes time. Sure it does.

So the point is, is that we do want to ask the Lord for aspects rather than just him. Because the fruit of the Spirit is singular, and all of those things are of Him, which is your life. So as you're dead unto sin and alive unto God, those characteristics, the walking in the Spirit, are manifested through you.

Not one at the expense of another. It's all of them. So you cannot ask, I need some help in this? There's nothing wrong with me. asking for help, but what kind of help are you asking for? Well, endurance, because sometimes I lose it. Again, you're the only one in the room. No, no. I'm just talking about me. Well, trying to trying to change your concept here of rather than asking for attributes of Christ, why don't you just ask for him? Yeah, but he was already in me. And when he's already in you, all of those attributes are already in you too. Because they came with him. That's who he is.

I know, but sometimes my sinful nature takes over. Really? So what's the instruction in the Word of God? If you sin, the instruction is simple. You confess your sins, right? And the Spirit of God restores you to fellowship. You move on by reckoning. And reckoning is... why don't I talk about that word for a minute. What does the word reckon mean? Count as true. Count as true.

So you get this information in Romans chapter 8 about specific things that are true of you as a believer. The kind of questions we've had so far would indicate one of two things. Either you didn't read Romans chapter 8 or you read it and thought it was talking about somebody else. It's you. It's who you are. So reckoning is accounting for who God says you already are. And that's the thing. If sin assaults you, wait a minute, I'm dead unto sin. I'm alive unto God. I don't have to fight this thing. And why do I do that and why do I know that? Because it says so in the Word. That's a much easier program than I'm going to really try hard to be patient today, because I wasn't very patient yesterday.

So the walk in the Spirit is not based on memorizing the individual characteristics of the resurrected life of Christ, and then trying to emulate them. That's legalism. That's what the law has you do. The difference is to understand what the Word of God says who you are in Christ, and say, OK, I believe you.

I reckon that to be so true of me. That's who I am. And I'm not going to be watching to see how it's going. So I can see how it would get. So for probably most of us, maybe myself, when I start sort of thinking that way, it's always like I'm not feeling Good enough or whatever. And then worrying about being prideful.

I go, you know, like, oh, I'm a Christian. So, you know, I have all this stuff. Yeah, I understand. But you know what I mean? Or when I first learned of this, I would I would think, gee, this is probably a little irreverent. But it's kind of how I looked at it was. We'll go pick on somebody who is mad at us.

You know, when sin assaulted me, I thought, well, you know, if the Lord is right about his word, then you're wasting your time picking on me. Because I'm dead to you. And I'm alive to the Lord Jesus, and that's the way that is, and I know I'm not. It's when you're upset you don't think of God. You know what I mean? When I'm really upset, then I don't have God on my brain. OK, so you're really upset.

You know, I've got your back. You're stuck. And that's where I think it's important to understand that the spirit draws us. He sees us in that state and he's interceding for us and he draws us back. You hear what you're saying? He convicts us back to relationship.

See, you don't have to be a genius to be a Christian. All you have to do is depend on what's already yours. You have the spirit of God in you. to get your focus back on Christ. That's not good. I think about that, being stuck as she knows she's stuck. And that is helpful, I think. Sure. It's interesting how much, how important the right information is and not how you feel about it, but what the Word of God tells you. So, Gordon. I think a couple of points that, you know, when all these things, two things always happen. knowing the sovereignty of God.

Whatever happens, He's allowed. And so that with your trials, blessings, even sinning, whatever, He's allowed you to whatever. And so, you know, and the sin part has already been taken care of. So you don't feed yourself up with sin. It's been taken care of. It's only the fellowship that you lose. So the sovereignty gives you to be upside down, knowing that He's allowed it.

But I think the key part is, again, She said years ago to me was, you know, reading to know him. When you know him, when you study him, that's how you are. And as you study more of who Christ is, that allows you to manifest in moment by moment. what Christ is, that's who you are. And then you can do much more of an easier manifestation because you know who Christ is. And that's the focus is on Him.

When I was a young believer, one of the guys that mentored me, he used to say that to me. He'd say, now read Romans chapter 8 and put your name in there. Because he's talking about you. He's talking about you. And I know in the back of your mind, Monique and others in the room, you've got to get your butts going. How can this possibly be true of me? Because my experience says something else. You know, my experience does not corroborate the information that is in Romans chapter eight. It shows you the failure of the church. It shows the failure of the church. And we need to realize that. We can.

You know what's great about that? God knew that you couldn't pull it off, so He pulled it off for you. And all you have to do is believe Him. I've got to say, personally though, I've had where I know it's the Holy Spirit saying, You don't have to do that anymore.

So like sometimes it can happen in a flash. And for me, something did happen in a flash. So I always get to go back to that to say, like, I have that. Don't forget that, because that shows how how it's how it's real and how it can happen in a flash if that's what God wants. But some of it's like, oh, sure, whatever.

If it all just happened once you read through and you had it so damn done, you wouldn't have to come to class. You talked about Romans 8 and how it doesn't always seem like it must be really talking about you. And I think the end of Romans chapter 8 is always the part that helps me recognize that it is actually really about me. And that's where he gives the list of all the things that will not separate us. It's like, OK. So rest in that. Don't reckon that these things are true of you. And then also just in case you feel like you screw up, here's a list of things that are pretty big.

The cool thing about Romans eight, as you as you go through it, the subtle thing that's happening under the surface that you may not even be aware of as it is happening, is that the focus is slowly but surely being taken off of you and how you're doing. and on to the Lord Jesus himself.

Because when he starts in to who shall separate me from the love of God. Who's that about? Me or the one who can separate me? And here comes this litany of the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ and how he feels about you. And you know it has a tendency if anybody comes up to you and says let me tell you how I love you. You begin to focus on them. That's what it's about. So that the focus goes off of you and on to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's kind of cool. That's really kind of cool. Okay. Question three.

How are we as believers to view our present bodies? Some of you need to go to the gym. Well, we're just kind of stewards, right? Well, there's the verses, the body, what Rideout talks about, the body is dead because of sin. What does that mean, the body is dead because of sin? It means that it's been the servant of sin and it's dead to God. God doesn't use a body that's infested with sin, or controlled by sin is a better way to say it. So you have, up until the time that you became a believer, have followed the natural appetites of your body, and your sin nature. So, now, your body, or up until that time, your body has been looked upon as a dead thing to God.

Right? Can't use it. Right? How about now? He tells us to mortify the deeds of the body. Put them to death. We talked about that. Does it, does it, maybe ask it this way. Could God, in his sovereignty, recreate you spiritually in Christ, give you a new resurrected life, and be able to manifest that life through this same old dinky body? Yeah, he could. Yeah, he could. As a matter of fact, if you study a little bit Paul's life, towards the end of his life, he says, my body is totally worn out.

Because he's got the spiritual life working through it, and your natural body isn't designed to hold up under the stresses of spiritual life. That's why you get a new one. Now, the next question is, what is the highest part of man? Spirit. So let's talk about the makeup of a man. What's he made up of? How many parts? Three parts. He's a spirit. Soul and a body. Okay? And does everybody agree that the highest part of man is the spirit? How about the non-believer? What's the highest part of the non-believer? Soul, controlled by the signature.

But now, here you are, believers that are spiritually alive, and if God decides you to be a spiritual being, why did he do it that way? You don't think about why he did it that way? So he can inhabit you? More on an intimate basis, yes. That's the connection. When he said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness, what did he mean? Did he get ten toes? He meant that you're going to be spiritually alive, so that you can deal with him who is a spirit. You can receive who he is and his love, and you can love him back.

So if you're spiritually dead, is there a possibility you could do that? None whatsoever. So the highest part of the human being is your spirit. Now, what's supposed to be the controlling aspect of the body, soul and spirit? And don't tell me body. What's supposed to control you? What part of those three is supposed to be the controlling aspect of who you are? And not your soul, right? So how you feel about it doesn't really matter, right?

Your spirit is to control your soul, and in turn controls your body. And then you can really be a true servant. So it's important that we learn as we grow the spiritual aspects of the Word of God. It teaches us who we are in Christ spiritually. Is that a part of the same nature? Or is it? What would you say the properties of the soul are?

The thinking process. The thinking process. Mental. Mental process. What else? Will. The will. And what else? Emotions. And your emotions. Pretty much. OK. Now, before you're a believer, what controls your soul? It's in nature. It's in nature. Right. Pretty reliable source. So in our soul, it's the nature. No, that's the nature of the nature that controls the soul. When the when the person becomes a believer, he changes. Now, let's say it this way.

When he becomes spiritually alive, his spirit is not a controller. So. See, a soul is never was never designed by God to act independently. I don't care what the Constitution says. It was not designed to act independently. It was always designed to be controlled by someone, preferably God. So what happens is that when you become spiritually alive, you really sort of change control mechanisms. How do you how do you think about the phrase instead of being in control, how about empowered? Because I think that when we use the word empowered, I think that describes the nature of the sport in our lives more than than it being control.

It's not. Yeah. If I had the time, I used to have a graphic that I anybody, everybody know what a bell jar is. You can go to physics class. Bell jars, I think, last part that they stuck, put the pump up to and sucked all the air out of it and created a vacuum. so that a feather would drop as fast as a penny. Well, I view the human being like it's in a bell jar, and it's in perfect harmony as long as you're spiritually alive.

But Adam comes along and sins, and that kicks on the pump. So your spirit shrinks, and the gap is filled by your soul, infected by the sin nature. So now you are a soulish being. And that controls how your body functions. You become spiritually alive again. It's like the spirit becomes alive and it begins to assert its place in the bell jar and shove the soul back down into submission where it belongs. That was a graphic that made sense to me at the time. So some people say, oh, this is such wonderful music. It's good for the soul. I say that. Nothing wrong with that. OK. There's nothing wrong with that. But I'm a believer.

I don't know. They don't have a spirit. Their spirit. They have a spirit, but it's dead to God. That's weird. That's why the soul of the young believer is always trying to reach out to a higher being because it's controlling spirit. Human beings have no idea what it means to be spiritually alive until they become spiritually alive. Your soul lives under a sin infected process of legalism and condemnation, when you become spiritually alive, you enter into a whole new operating system which is called grace, and you don't know what that's like, until it begins to be part of who you are, and you begin to learn through the word, my goodness, what God has done, doesn't leave any room for the sin nature, no kidding. The sin nature will do anything but not do anything. It wants to be relevant. So God has set up a system where the sin nature becomes totally irrelevant. That's terrific.

That's our little, that's our battle, right? To recognize that we have that spirit. Well, we think of ourselves early on in our Christian life as a saved sinner, right? Don't you think that way? And me and my soul are saved. But as you grow spiritually, you begin to think of yourself, wait a minute, I'm a son of God. I'm a member of the body of Christ. I'm not a saved sinner. I'm not a sinner. I'm positioned in Christ. He's the God of the universe, and I'm one of God's sons, and all that that means. And now the Holy Spirit's in the bell jar.

I just wanted to say it reminded me of how the humans who don't believe in the Lord define freedom. They usually try to define it on its own. Like freedom is this, this, this, this, this. But in the Bible freedom is defined only as we are either free from sin or free from the Lord. There is no independent definition of that. It corresponds to what you said about the solar. It was not designed to function on its own. So when somebody wants to make it the like, like to analyze it without connection to anything else, it doesn't make sense. No, it doesn't make sense.

OK. Moving ahead. Question five in the second period, second to last paragraph on page 42. There is a meager glimpse at the wonders of the eighth of Romans. And I said, listen, OK, I'll listen. The first one is. Meanwhile, we are led of the spirit. Two, we have the witness of the spirit. People say to me, oh, you know, my spiritual growth, I believe I'm saved. OK, Christ died for my sins. And I said, what do I believe beyond that, in this kind of a list? And he said, well, let's go through some of these. Am I let of the Spirit? Yeah. Do I have the witness of the Spirit? Yes, I do. Can I pray in the Spirit? Yes, I can.

Are we quietly waiting for the hope, the coming of the Lord, no matter what our ignorance? Yeah, sure we are. And that didn't happen because you got smart. That's the work of the spirit. No matter how ignorant you are, do we absolutely rest in the fact that God works all things together for good? Yes, we do. Yes, we do.

Can we look back into the past eternity and link our predestined confirmation to the image of his son with the actual accomplishment and glory yet to come? You may or may not understand. You notice in Romans eight, there's that paragraph that says that those he foreknew, he foreordained or predetermined that they should be conformed to the image of his son.

And I'm sure everyone in this room at some point in your life has been to a Bible study where the conversation went something like this. What's God's will for your life? You know, some guy raises his hand and gives some selfish answer. And that like God's will for your life is different than it is mine?

Is it? It's exactly the same. What is it? And oh by the way, it's a predestined thing by God beforehand that you're going to miss the bus? No you're not. No you're not. And is it something that's going on right now? Every minute? Yes it is, right now. Every single circumstance in your life, every single one of them, no matter how you view it, God uses it in this conformity process.

Why would he do that? Aren't you cool enough on your own? Why would he do it that way? Because he loves it. Not quite. Why? Who does God find all of his pleasure in? You? I don't think so. Who does he find all of his pleasure in? His son. So guess what he's doing to you? For what purpose? So he can find all of his pleasure in you. You're kind of funny. I mean, think about this. The God of the universe is conforming you and I to the image of his son, so that he could find all of his pleasure in us. How cool is that?

It's very generous. And he's just doing it. He didn't ask if it was okay. He's just doing it. And you know what's amazing in the process of sanctification is that no matter what we think about our works, they've been made righteous. through his son, so he's glorified regardless of what you do. God is glorified in your life because of Christ's work. It's just amazing. When you sit down and just spend some time, like in Romans 8, and just look what's there, it just takes the top of your head off. But also, between these, we have the love of Christ, from which nothing can separate us.

Now, I do know that in talking to believers who are struggling, it gets to this. Well, I woke up this morning, I didn't feel like God loved me because I was self-centered yesterday. Like what you could do would separate you and change the way he thinks about you. Because the way he feels and thinks about you wasn't what you did anyway. back to position positionally.

He sees us in Christ right now. It's not, you know, in the conforming and all that. That's our condition. Now, positionally, he sees us in Christ right now and treats us that way. Yeah, that's right. I mean, if you start understanding that, I mean, that that begins to impact your condition because it's not what you do, not what he sees. of God. And when he looks that he sees us in Christ. And I mean, so the condition is, you know, the conforming is coming to the position we already have. Now he sees this right now. I think that's important. He sees this right now.

Not, you know, our stars and words and sure, everything else. He sees us in Christ right now. to go through trials and stuff and like we are not, he makes us uncool. Yes. Isn't it because like the Lord had to suffer so much that like if we are to have his mind, if we didn't suffer, we wouldn't understand, like we wouldn't be able to think so much as he did. Yeah, I agree.

Yeah, he definitely proves and tries your faith so that he can prove to himself that your faith will know. He's proven it to you that what he's done and what he is telling you is in fact true. And trials and suffering are the very substance of how that works. So when you come out at the other end, He's been right all along.

But it's difficult to. I mean, if you are suffering, that's one thing. And by my age, you realize that suffering is a part of life. But like my granddaughter, who is so young, that's very hard for me to still think, well, you know, this for some purpose.

And you may not know the details, but because the Word of God says that God works all things together for good to those who are called according to his purpose. So the question is, is she called according to his purpose? The answer is yes. So then she's in the loop. Now you may not understand, you know, I'm thinking about the most immediate thing. Say you're a passenger on a Korean airline and you're in the hospital with a broken leg and you're thinking, what is this all about?

It's about Romans 8.28. That's what it's about. But we should still pray when we're in circumstances like that, that distresses. Shouldn't we still pray for his help? What do we pray? That he gives us strength to go through it or accept it?

That's a great question. Everybody hear the question? He's got a great answer. I have a great answer, but I have an answer. Wouldn't it then be to find comfort that no matter what it is, that it's always, like you said, it's always in God's plan. It's always going to work out for good. In the meantime, I'm a human and I feel these emotions and I have the empathy and compassion but it's all going to work out for good. But you do pray for healing then don't you? That may not be the plan. It may not be the plan. How do you pray that?

Okay, so I'm going to use the scripture as my answer, because I'm a cheater. But in Romans 5 at the beginning of the chapter, he says, Therefore we have been justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we exult in hope of the glory of God. And that's all happy. But then the next verse, he kicks in. And he says, and not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing, and this is the reckoning part, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance, proven character and proven character of hope. And hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit. who was given to us.

But Mike, it could also help somebody that is associated with like a grandchild or something. It could bring that person closer to God. Well, it may. How do I say this? I think the number one thing, the number one thing in trials and tribulations to recognize that this is being implemented in your life by a father who loves you. Nobody got at you without going through him. No circumstance showed up at your doorstep without going through him. He's your father and as it says in Hebrews, he chastises or child trains every son that he loves. Every one of them.

Well, I was thinking, too, about Paul. I think that's one of the reasons that the Lord exposed so much of his life to us, because he didn't pray about all the circumstances that he was in. You know, he even referred to this light affliction. And very few of us can ever hold our trials up against his.

When you read the epistles of Paul, what's the number one thing he asked God for? What's the number one thing he wants? He wants to know Christ. Then I may know him in the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death. It's interesting, too, that he doesn't want to know God's plan. He wants to know God.

Sure. That's right. And so when you get to know the Lord Jesus Christ, you begin to recognize that suffering is part of it because the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul didn't shy away from suffering and it was used specifically in Paul's case for his spiritual maturity. But here again, all men suffer, right? So we're so blessed because all of our suffering is for a purpose. If you're a non-believer, you're just suffering.

Right. Your prayers change as you grow. Did you hear that? Everybody hear that? Your prayers change as you grow. You go from praying for the broken leg to praying to know him. Yeah, that's exactly right. And you thank him. You know, whatever that circumstance. Thank you.

I'm in connection to what you said, Mike, about the children, and also to what you said about your granddaughter, that when you see somebody suffering, and you are not in the position of suffering, you are understanding that they are going through something that the Lord had for them.

I think it's like, even if they pain and ache and everything, You still, if you like them, you still want them to tell you, I love you. You know, so like to, for you, it's important the relationship between you two. And as the Lord delights in our love for Him, it's like when we suffer and we are still able to say, I love you, He delights in that. So that's the, that's the, that's, that's, like if you, if you have children, and you have to punish them, etc. etc. You still like them if they say, I love you for even punishing me or something like that.

Well, and there's something to be said for companionship in suffering. And believers are to come alongside other believers and just walk with them. You know, we all have experiences where we find ourselves in a very difficult circumstance, maybe prolonged over a long period of time, and if someone was there going through it, walking with us, Boy, what a difference it made. And two, is that person became part of your life. And that's the way the body of Christ functions. Because we know. We know what's going on. We're not walking around thinking, gee, I wonder what God's doing today.

Ultimately, whether you're praying for the broken leg or you're praying to help healing, Romans 8.26 says, in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness. We do not know, and that know is fully understanding. How to pray. So he's let's hear himself in your seats for us to be sure.

Sure. So regardless of how grand he's at. Yeah. Cool. You know, no matter no matter what you think about it, no matter how your emotions overtake you, no matter how you want to, you know, tell God he needs to maybe modify his plan a little bit. He never does. Thank him for that. He never modified it because you were really persuasive when you cried big tears.

I have changed the way I pray for her. And I just started praying, because you know, at first it was, oh, please, please. And now I just say that I know that God is working in the life of my granddaughter, Will, and in all of us, that I know he's working. Because it changes the way you approach her and when you see her. Because now you're in it with her.

I think the most important thing about prayer is that we want to pray, that we enjoy doing it, that it makes us feel better, it rewards us. It doesn't matter what you think of, it's that we are trusting and communicating. And loving. And that trusting and communicating is something he fosters.

If you're fostering as you're doing spiritual push-ups, it's something that he does. And you're believing that he's doing it. And it's becoming a reality in your life because it's a grace-based system. He doesn't sit there waiting on winning until you do those 39 spiritual push-ups you get no grace.

Question 6. What's the provision of grace in the walk of the believer? I'm going to read what Riteout said because I thought it was kind of cool because the next question kind of goes with it. From what we have been dwelling upon you will rightly conclude that the walk of the child of God should be as far as sin is concerned, one of uninterrupted progress from strength to strength. The pathway of the just is a bright light which shines more and more into perfect day. Such indeed is the provision of grace, and such in some measure is the experience of its people." Boy, is that pie in the sky, right? That's the way it's supposed to be. He has given us the provision to live like that. Next question, why is our walk not always according to the grace provided? Why not? We forget who we are in Christ.

The impartation of the new nature does not obliterate the old. Did you hear that? Read it again. The impartation of the new nature does not obliterate the old. Wow. Sounds to me like he's still got that old nature hanging around. And guess what? It's aggressively in opposition to the grace program, which you have taken.

He says, recurring to a passage we were considering under the subject of new birth, that which is born of the flesh and that which is born of the spirit, we find that the impartation of the new nature does not obliterate the old. To be sure, we are known. by our new nature. The old man is crucified but there is the presence of the flesh which is incapable of alteration. So you and I have a sin nature that even if you get to be a spiritual heavyweight, which means you know all of this position, condition, Reckoning, identification and all of that. Your sin nature wakes up one morning and says, Wayne has got to figure it out and then stop picking on him. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Why? Why won't the sin nature quit?

That's all it can do. That's all it can do. What did Jack say? He said, it's all it can do. And the Labrador. That's right. Now you're dead to him, but it doesn't mean he's dead. I mean, you're thinking to yourself, well, gee, Satan's reading the same Bible I'm reading. Why doesn't he leave me alone? He can't.

It's his nature to try to thwart what God is doing. And imagine if you're Satan, which is tough for some of you. And you're in opposition to God, what are you going to try to do? You're going to try to thwart everything he's doing, especially this thing called grace. These crazy people are actually by this grace business. I'm going to have to do something about that. It's like the atheists. They just can't leave it alone. That's right. They just can't.

Like I said before, the sin nature will do anything but not do anything. Do you get that statement? Your sin nature wants to be relevant and so it will create circumstances or try to create circumstances in your life so you can worry. So it can be relevant. See that? Guilty. Feel guilty. Or whatever. Do you ever think that the sin nature tries to turn the heat up? Like the more we try to let God Like ruler in our life, rule and reign in our life. Sometimes that's the nature just cranks up the problem. It will do anything to get you to notice. Turn it up. Turn it down. Doesn't matter. Wants you to notice. Wants you to pay attention. Wants you to respond. But you don't have to. And I like what Donna said to be a nice even sometimes like trying real hard. That's right.

Nature can't create the circumstance that can create the circumstance. That's a great question. If God controls all of the circumstances that come your way, is your sin nature immune to what God is controlling? Can it sort of create its own deal and assault you with it without God giving it? No, it can't. No, it can't.

And even the Old Testament guys like Job, you know, God said Job up. It wasn't the other way around. Why did he do that? Because he wanted to demonstrate to Job, to you and me, that when God says, I declare you righteous, you are. One of the things that is so amazing to me is when you look at the life of God.

And you see that he was shipwrecked, beaten, stoned to death. They thought he actually died. And we're part of Hitler. We're in the same body of Christ he is. And when we're having trials, you know, to think that the guy who wrote these epistles went through absolute torture a lot of the time on the earth. It gives you a different perspective. And who would think that for a nice dead guy? Really, if Jesus was just a nice dead guy, I'd keep him. It's not like he's on TV getting millions of dollars for it.

One last thing, when we talk about the distraction of the flesh, I think that 2 Corinthians 3.18's Beholding Principle is really important. You know, we keep coming back to the principle of relationship.

And the beholding in 2 Corinthians 3.18 is about beholding the Lord. And I think the illustration for me that best demonstrates that is when I was being married to Jessica and we were in the ceremony, she came up and I was staring and beholding at my wife, or shouldn't be wife, And my grandpa was doing the wedding ceremony. He kept trying to distract me so that I'd actually pay attention to the ceremony. I just wanted to behold.

And but the thing is, if we're beholding the Lord in our in our intimacy is growing like that, then the distraction of the flesh becomes apparent. We realize, whoa, that's not. Yeah, I'm not going there. That's not a behold. That's right. That's close. Father, thank you for what you've done and what you continue to do. of your dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and pray in his presence. Amen.