The Enemy Within

Romans chapter 7, and we're going to begin reading at verse 14 and read through verse 25.! Two times, I believe, in this passage, the Greek word sarx appears.

! Sarx is literally translated flesh. Then I.V. has translated it sinful nature. And Pastor John has asked me to read it as flesh. So that's what I'll be doing.

Romans chapter 7, verse 14. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.

As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my flesh.

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do. No, the evil I do.

The evil I do not want to do. This I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work. When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being, I delight in God's law.

But I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So then, I myself, in my mind, am a slave to God's law, but in the flesh, a slave to the law of sin.

Benedict Arnold was a general during the American Revolutionary War. Originally, he fought on the side of the American colonies, and he enjoyed many successes as he did so.

But then his inward loyalties shifted, though outwardly it was undetected for some time. When George Washington gave him command of the fort at West Point, he secretly planned to surrender it to the British forces.

He immediately went to work weakening its defenses. He sent troops elsewhere, moving supplies as well, away from West Point.

He was an enemy within the American army. Undetected, he provided secret intelligence to the British about American troops, supply routes, and battle plans.

And so he was able to do much harm to the colonial cause because of his position within, on the inside, making it easier for the British to win battles and to weaken the American cause.

Now, he could have done much more damage if his traitorous activities had not been discovered. But he still remains on the pages of our history books as an important lesson to us that, in many ways, an enemy on the inside is far more dangerous than the enemy outside.

His position within creates a huge advantage from which he works. Now, we're studying the threefold enemy of the Christian, the world, the flesh, and the devil.

And we began with the oldest of enemies, that supernatural enemy, the devil, or Satan, as he's called in the Bible. And if Satan and his fellow fallen angels were all that we had to fight against, that would be reason enough to keep us watchful and prayerful every day of our lives.

It would be reason enough for us to be laying up scriptures by heart, memorizing them, so that we had the wherewithal to push back when Satan's temptations came to us.

Because as a hungry lion, he is ever stalking us, seeking for an opportunity to devour us. But Satan is not all that is against us.

We have an enemy within, within the very citadel of our hearts. And he's working inside then, inside the mind, inside the affections and desires, and inside the will.

He works from within, seeking to weaken our defenses, making it easier for the temptations of Satan to succeed against us.

Indeed, for every temptation the devil brings against us, he finds a willing accomplice in our own hearts.

A traitor within that's willing to sell out, to sell our eternal souls for a bowl of soup, for the gratification of some sinful desire.

It's the flesh. It's enemy number two, as we're studying it. It's the reality that there is a part of you, dear Christian, that wants what Satan wants.

A Benedict Arnold within, willing to hand you over to the enemy. Now, the Bible uses this word that Pastor Jason mentioned, sarx, many times in the scripture, hundreds of times.

Sometimes, well, the New International Version often translates the Greek word sinful nature, and I'm going to be referring to it with a more literal translation of the flesh.

Now, sometimes the word simply refers to the physical body or the skin, with no negative connotation whatsoever. It's just talking about the flesh, your skin. Other times it refers to human beings.

We do not battle with flesh and blood, with mere human beings. Again, in these contexts, there's no negative connotation to the word.

But other times it refers to the enemy within, the spiritual enemy. A living, powerful principle of sin that's found within us and that entices us to sin.

So that Paul can speak of the sins of the flesh. And John speaks of the lusts of the flesh. And Peter speaks of your fleshly, sinful desires which war against your soul.

This is the enemy within that we're dealing with this morning then. The flesh. Now, five points. And the first one is that the flesh reigns in the unbeliever.

By which I mean it dominates him. It controls her. It is their master so that when it calls, they obey. In Romans 8 and verse 5, if you turn to that passage, it's just over a page from the scripture portion read for you.

You'll notice that Paul speaks about those who live according to the flesh. These are the unregenerate, the unbelievers. They live according to the dictates and desires of their flesh.

For their minds, we're told, are set on what the flesh desires. Their minds are absorbed with, they're preoccupied with one thing.

What does the flesh want? Now, dear believers, we were no different before God saved us. Paul says in Ephesians 2, 3, All of us, speaking to the church, all of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.

Our goal, 24-7, was to gratify the cravings, the desires, the thoughts of our flesh. And that's what we live for. It defined us.

It ruled us. The flesh reigned over us. But then a miracle of miracles happened to us. It was not something we did.

It was something that God did to us. God saved us. God saved us. And He saved us by sending His Son to be condemned in our place on the cross.

To be damned for our sins. And He saved us by sending His own Holy Spirit to now live in us. To make us new creatures. To enable us to live a new life.

Different from the old life. So that we find in chapter 8 and verse 4 that we no longer live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

No longer according to the dictates and desires of the flesh, but now according to the dictates and desires of the Spirit. And chapter 8, verse 5, we now have our minds set, not on the flesh, but on the Spirit.

And what the Spirit desires. And verse 9, we are controlled now, not by the flesh, but by the Spirit. If so be, the Spirit of God dwells in you.

And if the Spirit of God does not dwell in you, you do not belong to Jesus Christ. So if you're a Christian, this is true of you. You do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, with your mind set on what the Spirit desires, and so you're controlled by the Spirit of God that lives in you.

Therefore, chapter 6 and verse 14 says, sin shall not be your master. It's not a command, it's a statement of fact. In Christ, sin is no longer your master.

You now, by grace, have a new master, even God's Spirit within. Well, you might think then, if these verses are true, that now the battle's over.

And of course, if you thought that, you would be quickly awakened from your mistake. No, the battle is just beginning. When we are saved, the battle has just begun.

Because now, for the first time, you have both the Holy Spirit and the flesh living in you. Before you were Christian, you just had the flesh.

There was no battle. It rained. And so you followed it, and you were controlled by it. But now, as a Christian, you have God's Spirit within, and they are contrary to each other, and pulling you in opposite directions.

And that's why you find that to live the Christian life is a war. And there's a struggle within. And what we're finding in Paul's testimony in Romans 7 is that's the normal Christian life.

It was the life that the apostle Paul lived. He lived a life of struggle, of fight against the flesh. So, the first point is the flesh reigns in the unbeliever.

But believer, though the flesh no longer reigns in you, it does still remain in you. It is still there to be dealt with.

And that is the cause of this everyday battle in your life. It's to believers that Peter writes, saying, Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly desires which war against your souls.

You, Christian, find the flesh warring against you. So, the flesh no longer reigns in you but it does remain and wars against you.

It was converted Paul. It was saved Paul who gives this testimony in Romans 7 and in verses 17 and 20 speaks of the flesh as sin living where?

In me. In me. And so, the theologians call it indwelling sin because it lives in me. And because it still lives in me as a Christian, that means it goes wherever I go.

So, I meet this enemy whenever I go to work or go to school and when I come home and when I talk to my wife and my children or to your parents or to your neighbor.

When you spend your money and when you watch TV or when you're on the internet or on the phone, you meet this enemy. when you go to church, when I go to pray, when I go to preach, when I go to sing, when I eat, when I lie down to sleep.

It's like my skin or like my shadow. Wherever I go, whatever I do, it's right there with me. It never takes a vacation. It never calls a truce.

It's always living in me. It's the flesh, that enemy within. And from within, it has that advantageous position to work its evil.

It is that traitor within. Now, the third point that we need to see from Scripture is that your flesh is what makes temptation so powerful. If you'd hold your place here and turn back to James 1, it's your flesh that makes temptations so powerful.

In James 1, 13, we notice that this enemy is within.

It is our own evil desire. And James says, when tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But, verse 14, each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.

Now, you remember that Jesus called his disciples to be fishers of men. But in another way, we must understand that the devil is a fisher of men.

And I wonder if you found him fishing in your pond lately. Have you found his line cast in your lake, your heart?

How does his temptation succeed with you? Well, any fisherman knows that you've got to put the right bait on the hook for the fish that you want to catch.

And if you're fishing for bluegill and you put an old shoe on your hook and you drag that in front of him, he's just going to sit there and watch it go by. But if you put a worm and thread it on your hook and dangle that before him, he'll swallow it whole and the hook will stick in his gullet.

Why? Because you found bait that his fishy appetite wanted. And that's how the devil goes fishing in your heart.

He finds bait in your own evil desires to snag you with, to cause you to bite his hook. And so when he's looking for temptation, he really doesn't have to go far at all, does he?

Because we've got these evil desires within. So why is it that some of you may be swimming toward those pornographic sites? Why are you standing there and just watching the temptation, the bait go by?

Because there's something on the inside that wants what is being offered. You see, the temptation outside finds power with you because of your own evil desire inside.

Or why is your gullet hooked with discontentment or anger or malice? Well, it's because something was dangled in front of you that your flesh wanted but you didn't get.

And so James says in chapter 4, verse 1, what causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but you don't get it.

And so you kill and covet and quarrel and fight. You see, James says, each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he's dragged away and enticed.

Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death. That's what it's always seeking.

It says it's just a little thing but it's heading for death. Well, the enemy within wars against us.

It fights from within. And the Lord Jesus wants us to be clear on where these evils come from. You remember in Mark 7 where he said, from within. Where do these evils come from?

From within. Out of men's hearts come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, anger, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.

All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean. There's our enemy. These evil desires of the flesh within.

For every temptation of the devil there's an amen in our flesh. there's a response that provides reasons and desires to make the temptation attractive.

So we've got to come to terms with it, Christian, that there is still a part of you that wants what Satan wants. There's still a part of you that likes what Satan suggests in those temptations and that part of you is called your flesh.

Your flesh with its sinful thoughts and desires and it pollutes everything you do so that you're not able to do the good that you want to do as well as you want to do it.

It's the reason we find this struggle in Romans 7 and find it in our own hearts as well. So, it's our flesh that gives power to temptations.

Fourthly, your flesh is a living and active force of sin. It's a living and active force of sin. In Romans 7, Paul calls it a law of sin at work in the members of my body.

He says in verse 21, so I find this law at work that when I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.

So, do you see this law of sin, this flesh within, it's not inactive. It's at work. Several times we're told that. It's a living and active law that is ever exerting its power.

It's like the law of gravity. That kind of law. A powerful force that is always active, always working even when you're not aware of it.

I mean, you can go through much of your day and never realize that there is a force being exerted upon you called gravity. A law that is at work until you step off the top step of the ladder and suddenly you realize you're not walking like they do on the spaceships, but you're down on the ground at once and you say, wow, there's a law at work and I wasn't even aware of it.

That's the law of gravity ever pulling you down. Well, that's what the flesh is on the inside of a Christian. It's ever pulling us down.

have you noticed it's easier to go downstairs than it is upstairs? That's because of the law of gravity and that's why it's easier to tear people down than to build people up.

The same reason because there's this law of gravity, this down drag of the flesh in the heart of the believer at work in our members.

It's the gravity of depravity ever exerting itself, working in the members of my body, in my mind, in my desires, in my will, in my mouth, my ears, my eyes, my hands, my feet, and it's always pulling me towards sin and away from God.

Down, down, down. And that's why it's easier to watch TV for two hours than it is to pray for ten minutes.

Thomas Shepard was the founding president of Harvard and also a godly minister of the gospel, but he confessed that there are some days I'd rather die than pray.

And I know you as a Christian have felt that same downward pull. Oh, you're fine. You're bright eyed and bushy tailed as you're watching the ball game two, three hours and then you set yourself to go pray for ten minutes.

And your flesh is pulling and giving you a thousand other things to do rather than to pray.

And so Paul says, I find this law at work that when I want to do good, evil is right there present with me. When I want to pray, I suddenly find all these other things, anything but prayer.

And if you do start to pray, it pulls your mind in a dozen different directions or else you're suddenly so sleepy that you can't pray. You see, the flesh is allergic to God.

It's ever pulling us away from God. Or maybe you just considered and thought, you know, I ought to give a couple hours of my week to serving someone in need.

And you no sooner start thinking about that than you start to think of all the things you need to do at your house. So in the end, you just don't have time.

I mean, who's got time to serve another? When I would do good, evil is present with me. Or you think about giving some extra money to someone who needs it worse than you or some gospel kingdom endeavor.

And then you start to think about all those things that you want but think you need. I find this law in my members that when I would do good, evil is right there with me.

You know, every step heavenward is resisted by this gravity of the flesh. We need to be aware of that.

We need to spot it in our lives. We need to say, oh, now I know why I have this reluctance to pray. Why I am so slow to give up myself to others.

The flesh is pulling down. It is ever at work. And then fifthly, you see, your flesh is completely anti-God.

You play that game where someone says one word and you say the first word, or the opposite. You know, we play the opposite. White, black. Good, evil.

Flesh, anti-God. The flesh is against God. It's the opposite of God.

The flesh thinks anti-God thoughts. It has anti-God desires. It has anti-God will. Chapter 8 and verse 7 of Romans, back in Romans, 8 and verse 7 says that the sinful mind, the fleshly mind is the literal translation.

The fleshly mind is enmity against God. It's hostility against God. It's saying that the fleshly mind hates God. Your flesh hates God.

You say, I didn't think I hated God. Well, by grace, if he's made you a lover of God, that's different. But if you just have the flesh controlling you, the Bible says that the fleshly mind hates God.

And here's how you judge your heart toward God. What do you do with his law? Romans 8 7 says you show your hatred toward God, your hostility toward God, by not submitting to his law, not putting yourself under.

God's flesh, Christian, your flesh doesn't love God any more than the day that you were saved. It still hates God. And it still hates to submit to God's commandments.

commandments. It's anti-God. So if God is for it, the flesh is against it. And if God is against it, the flesh is for it.

And so if God's law says thou shalt not, the flesh says, but I want to, and I will. And if God's law says thou shalt, the flesh says, I don't want to, and I won't.

the flesh never improves in the Christian's heart. It remains what it always was, that anti-God principle.

And Reformed Baptist flesh is not one whit holier than any other kind of flesh. We need to be careful lest we think less of this enemy within.

Like the devil, the flesh is pure evil. Notice what verse 18 says in Romans 7, I know that in my flesh dwells no good thing.

Nothing good in my flesh. So that's why when you would do good, you find evil is right there present with you because the flesh opposes and resists everything that pleases God.

Notice that in your life. It is the enemy within. Amen. Now when the apostle Paul found the flesh at work in his members like this, resisting every effort he made to do what was good, no wonder he cried, what a wretched man I am.

Who will deliver me from the body of this death? And his answer? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now we've looked at our second enemy of the flesh. Dear brothers and sisters, here's good news for the battle against the flesh. If you think Jesus Christ would just leave his people at the mercy of this enemy within, you don't know him very well.

You see, he loves his own with an everlasting love. He died for them. He rose for them. He ever lives for them. And he gives them everything that they will need in order to reach heaven at last.

He gives them everything that they need to live a life of godliness here and now, even with the flesh dwelling within. We need to savor that this morning.

By his death, our Savior Jesus broke the reigning power of sin that once controlled us. And then the Lord Jesus sent his Holy Spirit to occupy our hearts and to help us in this battle against the flesh.

He loves us. He says, here, you're going to need the Spirit of God. You're going to need the third member of the Trinity living within you for this battle.

What a gift. God the Spirit living in you, making your home his base of operations. Is that where the battle rages?

That's where he plants his base right there. Isn't that good? That he would come and live there to help you fight so that right there, alongside of your enemy within, you have a supernatural friend and helper within.

The Holy Spirit, who more than answers the threat and the power of your flesh, whose grace is greater than your flesh, an ever present helper to strengthen you in the fight.

And so he's come and he's the great sanctifier. He's here to sanctify us, to make us holy, to counter the down drag of the flesh by lifting us toward God.

And so the Holy Spirit's work within your heart is to make much of Christ. He says, when he will come, he will glorify me. That's his work, to show you the wonders of Jesus Christ, the beauties of Christ, to fan your love for Christ into a flame.

And so he reads with you the Holy Scriptures and reveals your risen Lord. He says, look here in the Scriptures at how much he loves you. Look how much he loved you at Bethlehem's manger, that he would leave heaven and come into this world for you.

Look how much he loves you in the wilderness temptation, that he will not give in to any hunger for food after fasting for 40 days and nights just in order to save you.

Look at his love for you here at Golgotha as he sweats drops of blood for you in Gethsemane, and then on at Golgotha on the cross as he's pouring out his life's blood for you, receiving the punishment of God's wrath.

The Holy Spirit says, look and read and see his love. See his love in going into the cold tomb of death for you. See his love for you in rising again.

See his love for you seated at the Father's right hand as he ever lives for you. And the Holy Spirit is working in you to fan your love for Jesus Christ, and you understand what he's up to.

You know that the greater your love for Jesus, the harder it is to sin against him. And that's what he's doing in you.

Fortifying our minds with his truth, strengthening our spiritual desires, making us to delight in God's law, invigorating our will with a stubborn determination to abstain from fleshly desires that war against our souls.

teaching us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to keep on saying no to the voice of our flesh, making us willing in the day of his power, working in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Yes, this is the Spirit's task. He comes into our very hearts to do it. Margaret Clarkson writes, he, the mighty God, indwells us, his to strengthen, help, empower, his to overcome the tempter, ours to call, endangers our.

In his strength we dare to battle all the raging hosts of sin, and by him alone we conquer, foes without and foes within.

do we appreciate the privilege of having the Holy Spirit living inside of us? How would you like to live, children, in the same house with somebody who hated your guts?

hearts? Oh, you mean every day you wake up to the same person that hates you? Yeah. All day long he's there with you.

You never get away from him. what condescension that the Holy Spirit of God lives within you together with your nasty flesh that hates God.

Have you thought of what he has to put up within there, Christian? The Holy Spirit of God has to put up with your fleshly anti-God thoughts and anti-God desires, anti-God decisions.

And so it's in light of such mercies that Paul says we have an obligation. Verse 12 of Romans 8. We have an obligation. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, a debt, but it's not to the flesh to live according to it.

What's the flesh ever done for you? It separates you from God. It leads you to death. Verse 13 says, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

And ultimately that is the second death of eternal separation from God in hell. You see, this war with the flesh is for keeps.

The life of pleasing the flesh leads to hell. How could he say it any more bluntly? It is never safe to yield to the flesh.

And so our obligation is not to the flesh, he says. You don't owe it anything. Rather, our obligation is to the spirit. It's implied. Our obligation is to the spirit to live according to his dictates and desires.

Since the Holy Spirit has come in and made our hearts his home, we have an obligation to clean house. Wouldn't you do that if you had some great person coming to stay at your house and not just for a weekend, but to live there forever?

You'd get real busy cleaning, wouldn't you? And we have God the Spirit who's come to make our hearts his home. We have an obligation then to clean house, to get rid of all that is not holy, to get rid of all that is offensive to him, all that grieves him.

And so we owe it to our heavenly guests to be killing all our sins. And this is also to your advantage, dear believer, because it's the only way to live. Verse 13 ends, but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

You see, if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you'll live. There simply is no eternal life apart from killing sins.

Sin within is like a deadly cancer within. If you don't kill it, it will kill you. And that's why John Owen, writing on this passage, says, be killing sin, Christian, or it will be killing you.

The sins of the flesh will cry for mercy, but don't spare them. They won't spare you. And every time that we yield to the flesh, it gains power, it gains strength.

So the Christian must wage continual warfare against the flesh. Brothers and sisters, keep stabbing. Keep stabbing. You must fight to live.

You must kill to live. It's not battle games. It's all out war with life and death, heaven and hell in the balance. Notice it says you must put sin to death.

But in doing so, you're not alone. If you, by the Spirit, by the Spirit, you put to death the misdeeds of the body. That's why he's inside of you, to help you to kill those sins.

then make use of the Holy Spirit in your fight against the flesh. You've got to hate sin in order to kill it.

Do you know that the Holy Spirit hates sin? As much as he loves righteousness, he hates sin. And he will teach you to hate it. Come to him and ask him, Holy Spirit, help me to hate my sin.

Teach me to kill my sin. That's why he's there. There is some sin-killing work to be done every day in the Christian's life.

So look for the Holy Spirit to empower you and then kill off everything that grieves him. You know how he kills sin? He uses the means of grace.

Pastor Jason mentioned it in his Sunday school class. The Holy Spirit uses the word, uses worship, uses fellowship, uses prayer, uses baptism, the Lord's Supper.

He uses those means to kill sin. And so if we are serious about putting our sins to death through the Spirit, we must use the means of grace as well.

One other thing and we're done. Romans 13 and verse 14. Paul gives us another insight into how to fight this enemy within.

Romans 13 and verse 14. He's just been saying let us behave decently as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy, rather.

And then he gives two things. There's both something to do and something not to do. Rather, here's something to do. Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Put on the Lord Jesus that you are joined to by faith. Put him on. Look to him. Look at him and follow his example. Where do I find him?

You find him in the scriptures. He's here. Read of him and then imitate him. Listen to his commands and then follow him.

Put on the Lord Jesus. Do what pleases him. Find out what pleases the Lord and then do it. And then there's something not to do.

Do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. I think the King James Version says make no provision for the flesh. To gratify its desires.

We're talking about this enemy of the flesh. How do we fight against it? Well, don't make any provision for it. A commentator put it in these words.

Don't buy groceries for the flesh. What happens to you if you don't buy groceries? You start to starve. You weaken and you die.

Don't buy groceries for the flesh. Don't make any provision for the flesh. Starve the flesh. That's what it's saying. Starve it. Don't throw a morsel to it.

Don't give it anything. Not even a bone to nourish it. So think of that the next time you click your mouse or your remote or the key on your phone.

Is this making provision for my flesh? Is there stuff here that my flesh will feed on and be strengthened by in pulling me down and away from God rather than lifting me up toward him?

The next time you feel the urge to speak that unkind word and to give someone a piece of your mind, ask, am I now buying groceries to the flesh to feed its hatred and malice and ill will?

Am I doing anything that makes it easier to sin? That is how I want to starve the flesh. Notice he says, don't even think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

Don't even think about it. So what are you thinking about about an hour after lunch and you're daydreaming? What is it that you daydream about? When you lie there on your bed at night, what is it that you think about?

Do you realize that sinful thoughts feed the flesh? Yes, they come from the flesh, but as we give them consideration, the flesh is strengthened and finds ascendancy in the battle.

Oh, make no provision, starve the flesh. Watch and pray against your flesh this week. The Holy Spirit is willing to help you.

If you're lost, you don't have the Holy Spirit living in you. One thing lives within you and it's your flesh, your own sinful desires and will and thoughts and there's none to counter it.

And that's why we said that that means then that you're controlled by the flesh and the flesh is leading to death. Come to Jesus Christ. Turn from your sin.

Turn from your way. That's at the essence of sin. I want life my way. Will you this morning repent of that and say I am done with my way. I am coming to you Lord Jesus.

I have no way to come to God except through you the crucified eternal son of God. I trust in what you did for sinners on the cross. I trust in what you did in obeying the father's law perfectly.

Save me. Forgive me. And help me to walk your way. And you know what he'll do? He'll forgive you all your sins and remember them no more.

And he will give you the Holy Spirit so that you will have him inside of you to help you fight against this second of enemies, the flesh within.

Let's pray. you see our hearts, oh father, you see our sadness that we would live according to the flesh.

Forgive us, wash us and cleanse us in that fountain of Jesus' blood. We rejoice love of through the Lord Jesus' death on the cross, he won for us this gift of the Holy Spirit living within us.

And we are sad, Holy Spirit, that we have grieved you. Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees. Would you come and make us steadfast, Holy Spirit?

Would you come and show us the love of Jesus for our souls that will make sin distasteful to us, that will make the very suggestions of our flesh, things that we hate because of what we see it cost our Savior.

So, glorify yourself in us and bring some sinner that has never tasted of how good and gracious the Lord is. Bring them to the end in themselves and to taste and see how gracious you are.

Send us on our way rejoicing, and depending and fighting dependent upon the Spirit to help us this week in putting to death our sins. So, enable us after the dust has cleared to still be found standing, standing in Christ.

We pray in his name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.