Today, I want to speak to you on a subject that is important, I believe, to the church, and important to you as an individual. It's a subject that the Bible is quite explicit on, and yet it's one that we don't understand much about. At least we only understand it partway. And it's called the flesh. Isn't that exciting? I figured you'd really get off on that. The flesh. What is it? What does it do? Where does it come from? Why is it there?

How many of you have problems with your flesh? You can be quick to respond but slow to do. Is that you? Okay, we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about an area of the flesh that I think is extremely important for us as believers to understand. And that is not only what we think is bad, but what God thinks is bad about the flesh?

One of the problems that we have in this day and age is this misunderstanding. It's not popular to talk about the flesh. Before we understand holiness, we must understand this subject. For example, if we would eliminate the problems of the flesh out of just the ministry, not talking about the church, but out of the ministry of the gospel in our nation, we wouldn't be going through the scandals that we're going through right now.

Isn't that true? And so let's just look at this real close. This is not something just for weak Christians, as we call them. But this is something that all of us who are walking with God need to be aware of. Because you can't be too strong. You can't depend on our own reasoning. We must depend upon the Word.

Let's pray and ask God to reveal His Word to us this morning. Let's ask the Holy Spirit to come and take His Word and make it alive in us. Father, in the name of Jesus, we speak, O God, Your Word today, and we pray that You'll cause that Word to be alive in us as we have praised You and worshipped You and brought our gifts before You and rejoiced in Your presence.

As we become one in purpose in the kingdom, we ask now, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit would fall upon us in great power and might. In Revelation, that we'll understand this issue that confronts us. Not only understand, but be able to deal with it a conquering blow in the name of Jesus.

Can you say amen? Amen.

Bound up tightly in our theology and our Christian philosophy is a deep awareness of the flesh as an enemy of all that the Holy Spirit would like to do in our lives. We use the terms, the world, the flesh, and the devil. To describe the enemies in our battle for righteousness. These terms are very accurate, but they need to be understood by all of us before we can effectively stand against them and take our ground in the Spirit.

Many things that are blamed on the devil... Are only his fault indirectly. By that I mean many of us that are coming into the knowledge of spiritual discernment and beginning to detect the presence of the demonic tend to blame the devil for things that the devil can only work in us indirectly through our flesh and through the world.

For example, the devil refers to that which is directly demonic, where there is a demonic presence or hold. The world refers to the Greek word cosmos, which means the system of things as it works on earth. In other words, when God speaks about the world, He's not talking about the Catalina Mountains. He's talking about the political system, the way we think, our social activity, our relationships.

The thought patterns at the university, the media, the news media, all of those things are called the world, the glitter, the attraction of the world. It speaks of the natural life of men. If you'll remember, the world was shown to Jesus as part of His temptation. It was something that was attractive to Him as a human being. Its pull is something that each man and woman has to face, the pull of the world.

It offers each one of us a slightly different face depending upon our circumstances. But it nonetheless draws us to serve its system and follow its rewards. On the other hand, the term flesh... As it is found in the King James Version, is a term with many meanings. It can only be understood by its context in each one of the meanings.

It is to this middle term, this flesh, that I have just referred to that I want to direct our thoughts today. Because I believe that our flesh is our most constant and deceitful enemy in our walk with God. If we can only conquer the battle with our flesh in a practical victory, we will easily overcome the other two great foes that we face.

For it's through our flesh that most of our temptations come to us, isn't it? It is behind our flesh that Satan can get a foothold upon us. He comes in behind my pride. He comes in behind my arrogance. He comes in behind my stubbornness. And it's because of our flesh, then, that the world pulls so strongly upon us.

Unfortunately, few understand this phenomenon, and few modern-day teachers even deal with it in sermons or writings. There is a word that the Apostle Paul uses to express this phenomenon, and it's the Greek word sarx, S-A-R-X. You can find it in your Greek Bibles in two major fashions. One is sarx, and the other one is sarkikos, meaning carnal.

So we have that which is carnal, sarkikos, and that which is sarx, which means the flesh. Because Paul uses the term literally, and the Bible uses it in a very literal sense to mean meat and mean humankind, The new translations of the Bible are trying to find those places where it's used allegorically and come up with different words.

Rather than call it flesh or meat as the word originally is, they're calling it the sinful nature. And the NIV calls it the sinful nature. But it is not consistent in that. So we need to go through it and understand when it is speaking of flesh as sinful nature and when it isn't.

But even here, there's great confusion for many of us. Just what is the flesh or the sinful nature that the Bible talks about? Where is it? When do we get rid of it?

First, we need to establish from Scripture where those terms are used to speak of other things other than sinful nature. The term is used in a general sense to speak of the whole animal creation, man or beast.

And so when we find places like Genesis 6 where God says, I'm going to destroy King James, all flesh from off the earth. He's not talking about destroying the sinful nature. He's talking about destroying men and animals through the flood.

Secondly, it's used as flesh of a living body. For example, in 1 Corinthians 15, 39, he says all flesh is not the same. Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another, and fish another. And so he shows there is a difference in the kinds of animals that they're created, and he calls it flesh, and he's not talking about sinful nature.

In the sense of our word meat, as we use it for food, flesh is used that way. Numbers 4, 11, 4, where Israel was tired of manna and they cried out for flesh to eat. They weren't talking about eating their sinful nature. They were talking about, I want some food to eat that is meat.

And fourth is the body as distinguished from the spirit. In John 6, 52, when Jesus was talking about giving flesh, his flesh to eat, And the Pharisees responded to him, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? They couldn't understand the metaphorical speaking or the allegory that Jesus was using, but still they knew that he was talking in a very real sense of giving them something substantive to eat, and they called that flesh.

The fifth term is human nature or mankind. And this has to do with men not fallen in sin, but just what has to do with people. For example, in Genesis 2.23, the man said, after Eve was brought to him, This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.

In John 1.14, talking about Jesus coming to the Word, it says, The Word was made flesh, And dwelt among us. Now Jesus didn't come and He was not made sinful or of a sinful nature, but He put upon Himself human form and that was called flesh.

Ephesians 5.31, they echo what Genesis chapter 2 says, For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh. So in marriage there is a forming of one flesh that is a beautiful thing, humanly speaking, and it is not a sinful thing.

And sixth, there is a natural or physical origin that calls a certain kind of flesh. For example, in Isaiah, when the Lord says in Isaiah 58, Hide not thyself from thine own flesh. He's talking about us not hiding ourselves from people that are hungry and destitute, thinking they're somehow different than us because they're just like us.

They're flesh and blood just like we are. And so he called them flesh, not speaking sinfully at all.

And then finally, The seventh is human nature or that nature of man apart from divine fellowship and redemption that is therefore prone to sin and in opposition to God. Now it's this latter use that we need to separate from the rest and look very closely at because it holds keys to our walking in victory in the Lord.

Our flesh, King James Version, or our sinful nature, must be dealt with if we're going to live according to the Word. How many of you know that? Does anyone here have problems with their flesh?

Any of you ever recognize a problem in your body someplace in you? You don't know if it's your toe, your head, or your heart. But somehow you have problems even though you're walking with God.

Boy, you're with it this morning. You're going to respond to me. How many are not going to answer me no matter what I ask you?

Most of us understand the flesh through what we know to be sin. We understand things like immorality and lust of the flesh. But what we do not understand as flesh is our own goodness.

We don't see our goodness also as flesh. This is where we run into so much trouble with the flesh because usually it is strong human flesh that looks good to us, that opposes God most successfully.

If you go through your Bible and take all the times of rebellion from the wilderness to Saul, all the way through the Bible and into the New Testament, every time a rebellion or division was forceful, it happened when the flesh was strong and looked good. It just missed God is all.

And this is what we need to understand: Is not only is there evil flesh, but there's good flesh, but it's still flesh.

Hello? Okay. Let's see what the Scripture says about this flesh or sinful nature in its various faces that it gives us.

Very dwelling place of sin within mankind. Sin comes out of the flesh or out of the sinful nature. Paul separates the real I from the sinful nature within him in his argument about sin in Romans 7.

We're going to read from Romans 7, Romans 8, Galatians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter... I forgot. I'll find it. And then we're going to read a little bit from Isaiah. Romans chapter 7 verse 14 says:

Now listen to this. This is exciting. We know that the law is spiritual. Speaking of God's commandment to Israel. 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.

Anybody have that problem? How many of you really want to serve God with all your heart? How many of you pull it off?

Okay. How many of you really want to be givers? How many of you pull it off? Okay. This is what we're talking about.

I want to do things that I don't do. But what I hate, I do. Oh, I get down on myself for doing things that I hate. Any of you hate things about yourself? Any of you have that problem?

Oh, some things I can't stand about me more than other people. It's why I get so irritated when they criticize me too for the same thing.

I've heard enough. Haven't you? I'm in such condemnation about my own failures that if somebody even squeaks about them, it sounds like they're yelling at me.

It's because it's picked up and magnified by my own heart who says I hate it. What I do, I hate. Now listen to verse 16.

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. What's that? Well, what did he say?

It's no longer I myself that do it, but it is sin living in me. So now, we find that in me, something's going on that's not me.

That's encouraging. I thought it was me. Then you, can you trust the Bible to be accurate? Okay, if you can trust this to be accurate, then listen.

I find... 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 sinful nature.

How much good lives in my sinful nature? How much good lives in me? Nothing. Gusei. Nada. Let's say it. Nada. It's a good word, isn't it?

Spanish for nothing. Absolutely zero. Zilch. Nothing good dwells in me that is in my sinful nature.

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 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. Who is it that does it? Sin. Where does it live?

Oh, careful now. You can quote the Bible. It's all right. Sin lives where?

Oh, my goodness. Verse 21. So I find this law at work.

When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. Where is it? With me. King James says present. Means the same thing, doesn't it?

Where is evil? With me. It is present. God did not deliver us from the presence of sin.

And what does it do? Let's start again. Verse 22. For in my inner being I... Where is this inner being? There's two people going on here, sounds like. Sounds like there's two things going on in Paul. Do you have two things going on in you usually?

Okay. You have that inner being. That's me.

That one that wants God, that thing down there that doesn't want God, that's not me. Who is it then? It's my flesh.

For in my inner being I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work. Where is it? 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. Where is the law of sin working?

In my members. What are my members? My hands, my feet, my eyes, my ears, tongue.

All of those are members, aren't they? You look shocked. What a wretched man I am.

Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now look at this summation. So then I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature or flesh, King James Version says, a slave to the law of sin. Two things going on. Who's going to win?

Now notice with me some of Paul's conclusions. We're going to repeat a little bit, but I think I need to do this, alright? The real Paul is the one who desires righteousness and hates sin.

Let's put ourselves in it. The real me, say it with me, the real me loves righteousness and hates sin. That's the real me.

Glory to Jesus, that's the real me. I'm glad to know that, aren't you? The truth will set us free.

I'm glad to know that that other thing that messes me up all the time is not the real me. And God said that.

You know what Satan says? Oh yes, it is the real you. I wonder who's right.

Believing is to take for certain, to hold as accurate, to hold as certain. And if you can believe what God is saying, this is why I have you repeat it. I want you to believe it.

The real me loves righteousness and hates sin. Thank you, Jesus.

But there's a problem with the body, this body that I carry around. How many of you know that your body is mortal? Mortal means death, carrying, and death.

No matter how many times I lift this face, it's going to keep sagging, isn't it? No matter how many miles I run, pretty soon this body's going to say, that's it. Doesn't matter how spiritual I am, someday this body's going to turn to dust. It'll go back to dust.

This flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God. This flesh is mortal. You know, some of us ought to realize that this thing's decaying and work harder on our spirits.

That's just a little thing I thought of. There's a problem with the body. Sin is at work in our bodies. It works against the law of the mind, Paul says. It works to make him a prisoner to the law of sin. Paul calls this phenomenon, or this person, not a person, but the sinful nature.

He concludes by saying that his mind is a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature or flesh, he is a slave to sin. It's almost as if there are two people inside him, yet one is not him.

You and I need to know that even though the sinful nature tries to convince me that this is the real you and the real me, the sinner, it is not. The real me loves righteousness and wants to serve God.

Some other things the word says about the sinful nature. If you turn to Romans 8.

It tells us that we can live either according to the Spirit of God or according to the sinful nature. Or a little bit of both. Romans 8, 5. Those who live according to the sinful nature have their mind set on what that nature desires. But those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their mind set on what the Spirit desires.

So now we come down to how do we know what we're in? How do I know if I'm walking in the flesh or in the Spirit?

Now some people think I know if I'm walking in the Spirit if I look spiritually. Boy, isn't he in the spirit? Yeah. Okay, that has nothing to do with whether you walk in

Here is the cleaned-up version of the sermon transcription:

We'd just been to the meeting, and this guy preached. I took notes on him, but I couldn't figure out what he said. But I'm telling you, he yelled and screamed and got red, loosening his tie. And whatever he said, he said it with vigor.

Now, my friend was so excited about what he said, the way he said it, that she was absolutely positive he was anointed. But she couldn't tell me what he said either. Okay, are you following my point? How do we know if we live in the Spirit or in the flesh?

Well, first of all, if you're living in the Spirit, your mind will be on the things of the Spirit. If you don't live in the Spirit, your mind will be on the things of the flesh. If you have problems getting your mind on the Spirit, you're not living in the Spirit. You're living in the flesh.

I mean, why fight it? That's the proof of it. Verse 6 says, "The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace." Again, if we have no peace, it's because we have been tricked into living in the flesh or sinful nature, living according to its desires.

I can't just sit here and all of a sudden decide to have peace. I have to get in the Spirit. And then peace comes as an automatic. If I don't have peace, it shows where I'm living. I'm living according to the flesh, at least in the area where I'm at unrest.

Verse 7 through 8 say, "Because the sinful mind is hostile to God, it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so." Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. So if I am born of the Spirit but living according to that old nature, I can't please God.

Why do you think it is that the majority of Christians don't do the will of God? It's because the sinful nature can't do the will of God. It's hostile to God. It doesn't like the will of God.

Why do you think it is that great, good-looking people are opposed to God's way in the church? Because no matter how they look, no matter how charismatic they look, if they're living in the flesh, they will be hostile to God.

So if I'm not moving in the Holy Spirit, if I'm irritated about what God is bringing my way, it shows that I am rooting myself and planting myself in my lifestyle according to the flesh. If you find yourself unable to do the will of God, you're not accomplishing God's will, you can't obey the Lord in simple things, because the carnal mind is hostile and cannot submit to God.

It will not. Verse 9 through 14 continues. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature. Now, he's talking about the power of control. He doesn't say you don't have to live in it, but he says you're not controlled not by the sinful nature, but by the Spirit.

If the Spirit of God lives in you, and if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who lives in you.

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation. But it is not to the sinful nature to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. Now, if there's anything Paul is clear on, it is this. You do not have to live according to the flesh. You have no obligation to sin. You owe sin nothing. Your obligation is to God.

Remember John 8:31 through 32 says that if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples, then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Paul is trying to tell us and trying to confront the problems that most Christians have where they think they have to sin because they're weak.

That's a lie from the pit. You sin because you choose to, not because you have to. You do not have to live in the flesh. You have been delivered, not from the presence of sin, but from the power of sin.

And for you to sin, you have to give yourself to it. You have to make a choice. Now, most people don't believe that. Because they have made choices enough that they're now habits, they discern that as power. And it is not power, it's habit.

But you can break the habit by refusing. How do you do that? Well, over in Romans chapter 6, Paul tells you how to do that. Verse 12 says, "Therefore do not let sin, do not allow sin to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires."

Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. Hear this. I was talking to a fellow who was having trouble with drink, and he was saying, "I just can't stop drinking." I says, well, who bends his elbow? Who takes the thing in his hand? Whose hand is helping the drink?

Tell your hand to quit it. Don't give your hand to that jug. Oh, but I had to. No, you didn't. You told your elbow to bend and your hand to get a hold of it.

He says, instead, take these hands and offer them to God. Take these feet and offer them to God. These eyes. I'm not going to give my eyes to pornography. I'm not going to give my ear to garbage. I'm not going to give my time to the flesh.

When I do that, I am feeding the old nature and giving it strength rather than mortifying it or putting it to death. And so he says, don't offer them as instruments. My body should be an instrument of righteousness, not of sin.

Do you agree with that? That's what the Bible says. Okay, you don't have to let sin reign by giving your members to it. Notice with me the important litmus test that the Apostle Paul gave to the Galatian Christians in chapter 5, verses 13 through 26.

You, my brothers, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. You're free, but don't use it to indulge your flesh. Rather, serve one another in love.

The entire law is summed up in a single command, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Down to verse 16. So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature, they are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want. But if... You are led by the Spirit. You are not under law.

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like.

I warn you as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step or walk in the Spirit, as it says in the King James.

Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another. Now, the items listed under the acts of the sinful nature are simply the product of indulging in the flesh. They come from walking according to the flesh or indulging it.

This is the automatic reaction that comes up on us as we walk in that course. In other words, if I'm finding anger in me, does that come from a walk of the Holy Spirit? That comes from time spent in the flesh. That comes from indulging.

I'm angry. I'm indulging with my rights, aren't I? I'm impatient. I'm indulging again in my rights. I'm pushing people. But on the other hand, when there is love and gentleness and joy, where does that come from?

That comes from feeding on Jesus. And so it's not that I can make myself joyful and not make myself irritable. I can't handle it that way. I'm going after the fruit when I need to be going after the root of the problem.

If I change the taproot and change the feeding process into my life, then what comes out of my life is the fruit of what I fed on. And so the flesh is either indulged or mortified or put to death. Which are you doing?

You can tell by what's coming up. If the fruit of the Spirit is flowing in your life, then it is equally certain that that comes from walking in the Spirit.

Now, because this is a spiritual thing, and these things are so hard to explain, the word comes at it from several angles. In James chapter 3, verse 13 through 18, James reads this way. He says, "Who is wise in understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom."

But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every evil practice. What is he saying? When you become selfishly ambitious, that's the great thing to be if you're an American. Aggressive, ambitious, give me a hungry young man.

You know what the Bible says? If you've got selfish ambition in your heart, there is going to be number one, disorder. Followed by the door opening to every evil practice.

Why is it that we find spiritual leaders falling into such gross sin? It's because we become ambitious, selfishly, in the ministry. Envious, wanting, covetous.

You indulge that in your spirit and it will produce sin. The sinful nature given time and energy and sustenance will produce sin. But it's not me that does it. It's my sinful nature.

And so many Christians are hoodwinked and taken by this. James agrees with Paul in every way. He simply states that you show what kind of wisdom or choices of behaviors, what wisdom is, you walk in by the results in your life.

The fleshly motivation opens the door for the sinful nature to become dominant again. And it comes to the door of that opening into your heart, now receives not just the power of the flesh, but receives satanic influence and he heightens and he increases it.

We should never even open the door to the flesh at all. But what are some of the faces of flesh so that we can... Galatians 5 speaks of the group of immoral and violent attributes of the flesh. These are easy to see and detect.

I was under a lesson a couple of months ago from a man called Preston Gillum. He's a non-charismatic brother from Arkansas. He speaks in good Arkansas, your hill country language.

And it just reached my heart. And he talked about three kinds of flesh. I want to talk to you about those three kinds of flesh. Let's call the first one USDA good flesh. Now, by that we're talking about hamburger. Hamburger flesh. That's mixed with fat. It's poor hamburger. It's not cut sirloin.

It's just hamburger. That's some good, some bad. Most of us are like that. We can pull off some things on our own, but most, we fail a lot too. We're up and down. We do good and we do bad. So we're confused.

We don't know whether we're good or bad. But it's what we are, and most of us that eat hamburger, we eat hamburger because the Salisbury steak's cheaper than the other one, okay? So our whole idea is this USDA good flesh. Many of us know that.

We don't like that enough that we'd like to get rid of that. Then we have another kind of flesh he called chicken flesh. And there's a lot of us Christians that never amount to much in God because we're chicken.

We never prophesy because we're chicken. We never take any risk because we're chicken. We're timid. We're afraid. We're backward. We've failed enough that we don't like it. We don't like the taste of it. So we're not going to do anything.

We'll stand behind anybody that does anything. We'll even give them our money. But we're not about to do it ourselves. Now Timothy was like this. And so Paul had to talk to him about his chicken flesh.

But it was still flesh. I mean, you couldn't fault it. It wasn't greasy and awful. But it was chicken flesh. And he said, look, God hasn't given us a spirit of fear. He says, be a strong soldier. Confront elders when they sin and do it openly.

Oh, really? Me? Do that? Deal with the church. Preach. Be instant in season, out of season. Rebuke, exhort. What? Me? Oh, I'm just a little pastor. No, he says, you get a hold of it, boy. Put down that chicken flesh.

But you know the hardest flesh to get rid of? We can justify our fears and excuse them. We don't even see it as a big deal. But the hardest kind of flesh to deal with is prime USDA choice. Good flesh. Oh, I mean, I've got it together. I did it my way. I'm disciplined. I'm great.

I did it. It was guts, boy. I gutted it out and I did it. Man, we admire that. We love it. So when it's in the church, we honor it. But it's still flesh.

You know, Paul had this kind of flesh. Have you ever heard what Paul called his flesh? Philippians 3:2. Let's eavesdrop on it. I know I'm six minutes late, but I'm going to take a few more minutes.

Watch out for those dogs, he tells them, verse 2 of Philippians 3. Those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. He's talking about the Jewish people that believed in circumcision, but rather than really cut sin away from people's lives, they just hacked up people's outward body.

I have more, he says, pardon me, for it is we who are the circumcision. Who? We who worship by the Spirit of God. You're the circumcision, the true circumcision, if you worship by the Spirit, who glory in Christ Jesus and who put no confidence in the flesh.

How much confidence? No confidence. This is the issue. We don't even put confidence in prime USDA choice flesh. I mean, I could get rid of the hamburger and the chicken, but give me the steak. The best of men. I'd like to be the best of men.

What did Paul say? "Though I myself have reasons for such confidence." Oh, you want to talk about comparing flesh. Paul could lay his flesh alongside any of our flesh. And he could lay it out there and have us look at it.

Look at what he said. If anyone thinks he has reason to put confidence in flesh, I have more. I'm reading verse 5. Circumcised on the eighth day. When were you circumcised? Of the people of Israel. What is your background? Of the tribe of Benjamin. A Hebrew of the Hebrews.

In regard to the law of Pharisee. I'm religious too. As for zeal, persecuting the church. As for legalistic righteousness, faultless. I broke no laws. But it was still flesh. And it was that very flesh that caused him to persecute Jesus and the people of God.

Because he was so smart, so together, so disciplined, so educated, so rooted, so everything, that he didn't think he needed anything from God. He had it together, could make judgments on his own. He was confident in the flesh.

Paul says, but I learned something. Listen to what he learned. But whatever was to my prophet, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith, having no confidence in the flesh.

Not even good flesh is what really motivates us to walk in the Spirit. See, you'll only walk in the Spirit in the area you think you're weak in. Because most of us don't understand flesh to be flesh, even if it's prime.

Why are there so many divisions and denominations? Because we don't understand the difference between the flesh and the Spirit. And I'm praying that the Holy Spirit will deal with us.

And reveal it to us. So that the revival that God is giving us can be sustained by the Spirit of God. And that no leader, no director, no staff, no lay group of people will ever raise up their mighty heads in opposition to what the Spirit of God reveals.

And that I will not take confidence even in my good stuff because the minute I start to feed the good, sin will grow in my life. If I start taking recognition of my strengths and my abilities and my goodness, I'm going to fall into the trap I have been overcome because I begin to put confidence in that which is flesh.

And I fed the sinful nature. Brings us right back to the Old Testament. You know the scripture as well as I do. Isaiah 64:6. All our righteousness is as filthy rags. All of my good stuff. It's time we stop dealing with the bad and judging what is good.

It's time we fell on the rock and we're broken completely and not just in need of some repair. It's time we stop coming to Jesus and say, just give me a boost, Jesus, and I'll make it. It's time we came to the Lord in surrender to Him and refused to be confident in my looks or my lineage or my education or my thought processes or anything.

And said, Jesus, lead me. Jesus, teach me. And we became like little children trusting only Him and not