Enslaved to the Desires of The Flesh (Part 4) - Tim Conway

Okay, brethren, we find ourselves

in Ephesians 2 once again.

This is part four of a five part series

on these first three
verses of Ephesians 2.

We can read those together.

I've called this series:

"How Dead is Dead?

The Five-fold Fallenness of Man."

Today's part four.

Today, we're going to focus on the flesh.

We've looked at man dead in sin,

dead with regards to the world,

dead with regards to the devil.

Today, dead with regards to the flesh.

Next week, Lord willing,

the wrath of God.

Our deadness to God.

Ephesians 2:1,

"And you were dead..."

You were.

Only if you're a Christian, you were.

If you're not a Christian, you are.

Let me just tell you up front here,

nobody needs to embellish how bad man is.

All we need to know

is the reality of the situation,

and it's bad.

"You were dead in the trespasses and sins

in which you once walked,

following the course of this world,

following the prince
of the power of the air,

the spirit that is now at work

in the sons of disobedience,

among whom we all once lived,

in the passions of our flesh

carrying out the desires of the body

and the mind,

and were by nature children of wrath

like the rest of mankind."

So there you have it.

Three verses that spell out

this five-fold fallenness of man.

Last week, when I got done preaching,

one of our younger theologians came up

after I was done and asked me

why I hadn't included any application.

I preached about the prince
of the power of the air.

This young man wanted to know

how do I apply that to my life.

And brethren, what I told him,

is that sometimes when we're confronted

by the Word of God,

I told him it's enough if at times

we're just simply left worshiping.

Brethren, that is not a bad
application of Scripture.

If we simply are confronted by it

and we come away seeing God as big

and ourselves as incredibly small.

That is profitable.

That is good.

Look, I recognize that in these verses

that we're dealing with -

following the course of this world -

you know, we could just get consumed

with the world,

and how do we overcome the world,

and how do we not love the world,

and you know what?

Scripture deals with those
things in other places.

But what I want to do is
what Paul wants to do.

And right now, Paul is not telling
us how to overcome the world.

Right now, Paul is not telling us
how to overcome the devil.

He's not telling us how
to overcome the flesh.

You know what he's doing right now?

He is concerned that we have

some recognition of the exceedingly

immeasurable greatness of God's power

toward us who believe.

He wants us to measure it.

And by measuring it, what he wants to do

is he wants to take us down

into the depths of the pit
from which we came

over against the exaltation
to which we've been saved.

And it's in that contrast;

it's in that difference

that he wants us to step back

and just be amazed and be in awe

at the power of God.

And brethren, if we look at these things -

the wretchedness, the
brokenness of mankind

and we're left saying, "Wow!"

You know, that's enough?

Do you know if you're left coming away

from the Word of God

and you fall down on your face,

don't we get the sense that

that's exactly why God does
everything that He does?

Because in the end,

it's not so much just about
the application to our lives

in the sense that, you know,

I have to walk out this door

and now I have a list of things to do.

Brethren, what God really wants us to do

is walk out this door,

and fall down on our faces and say,

"Wow! Thank You, Lord!

Thank You! Thank You!"

You know what He wants us to do in this?

He wants us to recognize

what sort of people we were

that He rescued us from His wrath.

That's what it is.

The end in view is worship.

The end in view is awe.

Brethren, we need to be gripped.

We need to be changed and amazed

that God would actually unleash

His great might on such people as we were.

That's the issue.

So, today, part four.

Turn our attention towards the flesh.

Brethren, what we have is man

like an animal, but worse.

Because we have a mind.

Look at it.

Right at the end of v. 2,

"the sons of disobedience."

The devil was at work in
these sons of disobedience -

look what it says -

"among whom we all..."

All of us.

Among them we lived.

In other words, we were one of them.

All of us.

This is a summation, a summary statement

of all mankind in their natural condition.

We lived among these sons of disobedience

"in the passions of our flesh,

carrying out the desires of the body

and the mind."

Now, just get a feel for this.

The New King James:

"We all once conducted ourselves

in the lusts..." the lusts.

Lust. What a word.

Just let that roll of your tongue.

Lust.

That produces imagery in our minds.

"...The lusts of our flesh."

Or the New American Standard,

"We too all (all!) formerly..."

We - Christians. This was us too.

"We all formerly lived in
the lusts of our flesh."

King James Version:

"We all had our conversation..."

That doesn't mean just what we speak.

That's the full-orbed life of the man.

"We all had our conversation in times past

in the lusts of our flesh."

So, here we have it.

Man - dead in sin is very much alive

to the lusts of the flesh.

Man, like an animal, like I said,

he's an animal: base.

Animal: lust.

But worse, because what
he breaks this out into

as he seeks to go deeper,

as he seeks to break this thing out

into some subcategories,

he goes to the mind.

You see, we have a mind

unlike the animals,

but even that mind is just an expression

of the lusting, the cravings of the flesh.

Pollution. That's what
we're talking about.

We're talking about the dirtiness

and the filthiness of man.

He's one big bag of lusts.

This is man like an animal, lusting.

Lusting.

Brethren, like a dog driven to its vomit.

You say, oh, that's about people

who once made a profession

or maybe even were teachers
and they came back.

Yes, but you think about that.

For Scripture to liken a man like that

to a dog that returns to its vomit,

you know what that implies?

He was once at the vomit,
left it, and came back.

Man at his vomit is a picture -

or dogs at its vomit.

You know how many times

Scripture likens sinners to animals?

We're likened to pigs

and we're likened to dogs.

And you think about a dog

licking up its vomit.

You say, that's gross!

That's us.

That's mankind.

That's ugly.

This is the ugliness of mankind.

This is the dirt, the filth, the muck.

You think about a pig.

Listen, my uncle raised pigs.

You ought to see a pig and hear a pig

and watch them eat

and watch what they swim in.

You may have some refined idea.

You know, you walk out of here

after it's been raining,

your foot steps in grass

and it's a little muddy.

You ought to see it firsthand.

You get an idea of what God sees

when He sees man in all the lusts.

Just like a pig greedy to
plunge into the slime.

Brethren, what I'm saying here is, again,

this isn't embellishing on
the badness of man.

This is the picture.

So often Scripture is likening us

to some sort of animal.

Believer, this was you.

Unbeliever, this is you.

All of us - we lived in lusts.

Somebody says,

"I'm not a murderer."

"I'm not part of the drug cartel."

"I'm not like these
homeless drunks out here."

"I'm not like that."

"I'm not like the woman
that prostitutes her body

so that she can
satisfy her drug addiction."

"I'm not like that."

"I wasn't born on the
wrong side of the tracks."

"I'm not like those sinners."

"I wear a white shirt when I go to work."

You know what Paul does?

He puts out his finger,

and he places it on our lips.

Shhh...

Stop.

Just stop.

This is you.

Or this is what you were.

He closes our mouth here.

All of us.

"Among whom we all once lived."

Shhh...

Stop the boasting in what you were,

because this is you.

This is me.

Lusts of the flesh.

It's an ugly picture, I know.

Paul means it to be.

This is man as he is.

His base, polluted, vulgar, offensive,

lusting self.

But brethren, this is where we ought to

go out and just fall down before the Lord.

The absolutely astounding thing

is that God would ever ever ever

want something to do with us.

Thank You, Lord.

The flesh.

Look at it.

"The passions (or the lusts)

of our flesh."

The flesh.

We've got to be confronted by this term.

The flesh.

Because it's used in Scripture.

It's used quite often.

Paul especially uses this terminology.

Perhaps you're not aware.

We have friends in different places

that have been involved

in various degree of debate

over the meaning of this word.

There is a debate among men who we know

concerning what does it actually mean?

And what are the consequences
of what it means?

And what should we expect from Christians

because of what it means?

We have to ask the question:
What is Paul referring to?

And the first thing we need to recognize

is much like we looked at when
we dealt with the world,

so it is with the flesh,

that it's a word that carries

different shades of meaning.

So we need to recognize that right away

that when you come across the word flesh

in your Bibles, it's not
just enough to say

it means the same thing all the time,

so it must mean that right there.

We actually have to examine the context

to really figure out

what in the world we're dealing with.

I'll just tell you this right off,

in the ESV, you don't see it,

but if you've got another
translation in your hands,

you may well see that the term "flesh"

is actually used here twice.

The ESV says "flesh" the first time,

"body" the second time.

But in the original, same word.

Same word.

What's he doing?

Is he just redundantly repeating himself?

He talks about the passions
or the lusts of the flesh,

and then he talks about the passions

or the lusts of the flesh again.

No, he's actually giving us an overall,

and then he's subdividing it

into two categories.

He's not just redundantly
repeating the same thing.

And the reason it's not the same thing

is because he's actually using flesh

with two different meanings here.

And you have to recognize from
the context what's going on.

But just very quickly,

I want to run through
some shades of meaning

that you find in the term "flesh"

when you find it in Scripture.

For instance, it can just simply mean

"human nature."

In other words, Paul is using it

in a very negative way,

when he talks about
the lusts of the flesh.

That obviously is the ugliness of mankind.

However, we have the word used this way:

"the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us."

Or, "tabernacled among us."

Christ became flesh.

That obviously carries no negative

overtones or undertones.

Not at all.

What does that mean?

He became a man.

It has to do with our human nature.

"In the days of His flesh,

Jesus offered up prayers and supplications

with loud cries and tears."

So, just like the world can,

flesh can carry meaning

that is no way negative.

Or how about this?

It can mean our common ancestry

or our bloodlines.

For instance,

the New King James Version,

Romans 11:14,

Paul is speaking about
provoking to jealousy

those who are "my flesh."

And I refer to the New King James

because it actually translates it "flesh."

He wants to provoke to jealousy

those who are my flesh

and save some of them.

Well, the ESV says, "fellow Jews."

The New American Standard
says "fellow countrymen."

You see, what he's talking about there.

Flesh are those that he's related to.

My own flesh and blood, we might say.

It has to do also with
just this earthly life.

Single people,

Paul would say to you -

again, I'm going to read from
the New King James

because it's actually not

trying to translate this

away from the original meaning.

Paul says, look, if you marry,

you have not sinned.

And if a virgin marries,
she has not sinned,

nevertheless, such will
have trouble in the flesh.

The NAS translates that: "this life."

Single people, you really
badly want to get married.

Paul says I'll spare you.

You'll be spared problems.

I know he says that - I've tried both.

I prefer the married life
a whole lot better.

I commend that.

But anyways, you see,

that's getting away from the flesh.

The flesh.

This life.

Or how about sometimes it
just means all mankind.

It means human beings in general.

Luke 3:6, "All flesh shall see

the salvation of God."

That's just all humanity.

Or John 17:2 where Jesus is speaking

of His Father having given Him

authority over all flesh.

The New American Standard
says "over all mankind."

"...To give eternal life to all
whom He has given Him."

Sometimes flesh means the
soft part of our body.

For instance, Luke 24:39.

Jesus says, remember - they're blown away.

Here's the risen Christ.

He just kind of appeared in the room.

You can imagine they're a bit amazed.

They're not certain what they're seeing,

and He wants to assure them,

"I'm here. I'm here as a man.

I'm here in flesh and blood."

And He says this to them,

"See My hands and My
feet that it is I Myself.

Touch Me and see, for
a spirit does not have

flesh and bones as
you see that I have."

See, flesh is over against the bones.

The flesh is that which covers the bones.

It's the soft part of us.

It's the stuff our bones are covered with.

And I often think,

Brother Charles Leiter,

he often refers to the fact

that the Romanian
translation of the Scripture

literally translates this "meat."

In our Bibles, it's "flesh."

In the Romanian Bible,
every place you see "flesh"

it says, "meat."

"The lusts of the meat."

What a word.

Sometimes, this idea of flesh,

it's the whole body.

"For we who live are always
being given over to death

for Jesus' sake, so that
the life of Jesus also

may be manifested in our mortal flesh."

Just our mortal bodies.

It's interchangeable with that.

But brethren, the most sinister,

the most dark -

that way that it is used

when it's just the base ugliness of man.

If you search it out in all of its uses,

you know what you so often see?

It is that which pertains to our humanity

which is contrary to the Spirit of God.

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh.

That which is born
of the Spirit is spirit."

It is that which is separated from,

contradictory to.

You've got flesh. You've got spirit.

Oh, that separation - that distinction,

yes, right there is made
by our Lord Jesus Himself,

but so often it's Paul

who sets that on the table for us.

"For to set the mind
on the flesh is death,

but to set the mind on the Spirit

is life and peace."

Or this, "the desires of the flesh."

They are against the Spirit.

And the desires of the Spirit

are against the flesh.

Flesh is used in this fashion to express

that which is in complete antithesis

to the Spirit of God.

It is opposed.

The flesh is all that man is.

It's his man-ness.

It is his humanness

apart from the work of
the Holy Spirit in him.

Just think about these words

that Paul spoke to the Corinthians.

You know them. Remember,

they're acting carnal.

Even there - carnal.

Some of the translations use carnality

in 1 Corinthians 3.

Carnal.

Remember the Romanian translation: meat.

What is the Spanish word for meat.

Carne.

Carnal.

It's the meat.

It's the lusts of the meat.

It's the lusts of the man-ness of man -

the humanness.

Listen to this.

1 Corinthians 3:3,

"You are still..." and he's
speaking to Christians here.

You don't want this said of
you if you're a Christian.

"You are still of the flesh."

You are still of the meat.

You're carnal. You're carne.

"For while there is jealousy
and strife among you,

are you not of the flesh

and behaving only in a human way?"

Or, your translation says,

"behaving like mere men?"

You say, well, that
doesn't sound that bad.

Just to behave like a mere man?

That doesn't sound so bad.

Don't you hear what Paul is saying?

All men are sons of disobedience

and we all lived - or still live -

among the sons of disobedience

carrying out the lusts

of our mere man-ness.

That's the issue.

You say that doesn't sound that bad

to merely be a man,

but to merely be a man

means everything rotten about man

who is without God;

who is separated.

Mere man-ness - don't you recognize?

Mere man-ness is ugly.

It is depraved.

He looks at these Corinthians.

They were whoring after prostitutes still.

1 Corinthians 6

He has to talk to them about drunkenness.

The rich are getting together

and despising the poor,

and they're glutting themselves

and getting drunk.

They're taking each other to court.

They're full of envy.

They're full of jealousy.

They are pitting one another
against each other in disunity

and exalting man.

That's mere man-ness. It's ugly.

It's horrible.

Now these different shades of meaning

are important,

because just look at the text.

"The sons of disobedience,

among whom we all once lived..."

First, "in the lusts of our flesh,

carrying out the desires

of the flesh (or body) and the mind."

The word flesh shows up here twice.

It carries two different meanings.

I mean, this is clear

to the translators of the ESV.

That's why they translate
it two different ways.

First, flesh, then body.

The first use of flesh -
it's this broad concept

which contains - notice -

it's the broad concept.

It contains both the desires of the flesh

or the desires of the body

and of the mind.

And you see, the
ESV translators are right.

Body - because what?

It's that part of our humanness

over against the mind.

You have it used flesh
in this broad ugly way,

and then it's used of the body.

When it's used of the body,

it doesn't necessarily need to carry

any negative connotation,

just like "mind" by itself

doesn't carry any negative connotation.

But because these are outworkings

of the lusts of the flesh,

it's all negative here.

And what Paul does is he narrows in

on these two particular ways

in which these lusts of the flesh

manifest themselves.

The desires of the body,

the desires of the mind.

So let's look at these two things.

First, think about the body.

The desires of the body.

You know, what's interesting here

is we first have the term passion

or lust - isn't that a desire?

Yeah, that's a desire.

And then he uses the term

that's translated "desire" again.

It almost can sound like
he's being redundant here.

The second word that he uses

is the idea of the will.

It's determination.

You need to think about this.

As lost people, our bodies -

they are determined.

They are willed.

There is something at work

that is driving - driving.

It's the will.

Paul is hitting on what slaves we were

to our bodies as they willed

to have done to them certain things.

There was the determination.

This is sin.

We see this concept over in Romans 6.

Sin that seeks to reign in the mortal body

and to have us obey the
passions of the body.

Sin is at work. It's pressing us.

The will of the body.

The determination of the body to gratify.

There's an urge. There's a driving.

There's a lusting to gratify its passions

in a way that opposes God.

That's the issue.

That's how sin seeks to reign.

Look, we have to recognize,

the appetites of the body

were created by God.

And it was good.

He created us to hunger.

That's good.

He created us with these appetites.

Thirst.

You know, He designed pleasure.

Do you know He designed the nerves

that release that into our brains

which get processed and produce

feelings that are good and pleasurable.

He did that.

(incomplete thought)

Some of my children, you know,

you try to scratch their backs
when they were younger,

and it just tickled them,

and they couldn't stand it.

To me, it's wonderful.

You massage my wife's
feet, she just melts.

You touch mine and it's
like, ugh, I can't stand that.

But God created in His kindness,

He created our ability to have

somebody scratch our back,

and it's like, ah, that feels so good.

Isn't that kind of Him?

He didn't have to do that.

Kind of Him.

Have you ever taken a big scoop

of carrot cake or cheesecake,

and it's like, that's wonderful!

He's created that.

I mean, men and women

look forward to their honeymoon.

Why? They are going to experience

such things as - I mean,

they're a picture of our
relationship with Christ.

Just absolutely good.

Very good.

That's how He created us.

And so, we don't want
to despise these things,

but listen.

He created these appetites for us

to be in control of,

not for them to control us.

And He created these
appetites to serve Him.

He created these appetites
to be for His glory.

Not for His glory to be
dragged through the muck.

That's the issue.

What happens is sin seeks to reign -

reign!

It seeks to commandeer these appetites

and use them against God.

That's what happens.

This is the ugly part.

And these passions, these appetites,

they're in the grip of sin.

And what happens?

They scream at us to be satisfied,

and they're relentless in their demands.

And they don't care what God has said

or what has commanded.

Just do it because
it's going to feel good!

Do it! Do it!

And they drive us! Do it!

Oh, God will understand.

God will understand. You hear that.

"I'm going to leave my wife

because I don't love her anymore."

Why? "I think God just
wants me to be happy."

No, designed us to glorify Him.

And He gave us these
appetites to glorify Him.

And we're just driven.

We'll go from one woman to the next

or one man to the next.

You just see this works out

in such a hideous, ugly way

when you get the drug addict

who they've just got
to have their next fix.

And you say, oh, I'm not like that.

Yes, you are.

Even if it hasn't manifested
itself like that.

You are.

Our will held captive.

We love to think, oh, we're free.

We're free.

The guy dragging on his cigarette -

"I could give it up anytime I want.

I just don't want."

That's exactly right.

You could if you wanted.

But you see, your body
screams for nicotine.

And you know what?

When these lusts scream at us,

we don't have the power to resist.

One lust may trump another.

I've seen plenty of sinners

get rid of one for another.

But you don't have power over them.

One stronger than the one you're presently

if you're lost, controls your life.

A stronger one may come along

and boot that one out.

Kind of like the stronger demon

comes along and boots out the lesser one.

That may be true.

You've heard of the bondage of the will -

here we are.

We are given to the will of the body.

That's what he's talking about here.

God gave us appetites
to be subordinate to us.

He wants us to keep them under control,

but they dominate.

They dominate.

What happens is we
buckle to their authority.

God is to be on the throne.

But what happens?

Sin takes the place on the throne,

and our passions take
a place on the throne.

We get down and we bow before them.

And we bow, and we bow.

You find people out here,

they eat when they're not hungry.

There's enough fat on their bodies.

They don't need to eat.

And they eat.

Undoubtedly throughout this city,

people will drink today
who are not thirsty.

And they will drink to get drunk.

And they will bow down to that.

Drug use. Prescription pain killers.

People just bowing down, bowing down,

bowing down.

And then there's sex.

Sex is a god in this country.

And how many people bowing down -

sex-crazed, pornographic society.

And brethren, the thing is,

we're not talking just
about the society out there.

Paul is saying this - Christian -

this was you.

Unbeliever, this is you.

This is man in his ugliness.

We all know about these things.

We all know about the relentless demands

of our bodies and how we serve them.

Now, let's go to the
other subcategory here.

Look at the text.

It's not just carrying out the desires

of the body... "and the mind."

Paul doesn't stop. There's more.

And see, both of these things

are subgroups of the overriding lusts -

lusts of the flesh.

There is this other subdivision,

this other component.

What? The mind.

Think about the filth of the mind.

The thoughts of fallen man.

I know there may be those who imagine,

look, I'm not some great sinner

like you're describing.

I never got drunk in my life.

Never fornicated with my neighbor.

I've not done drugs in my life.

Well, it's true, you may not have.

We may think ourselves
not like the gluttons,

not like the drunks,
not like the drug addicts,

but you know what Paul says?

He said you just wait a second.

Again, before there's any boasting,

shhh...

Hear what God says about your condition.

There's the mind.

What are we talking about here?

That part of the flesh

that has to do with the thoughts,

the thinking, the intellect,

the affections.

This is just as much an expression

of the carnal lusting of our flesh

as is sexual immorality,

gluttony, sloth.

What are these desires of the mind

or the will of the mind that is

such an expression of the flesh?

We're talking about anything

you live for and dwell on in your thoughts

apart from God.

We're talking about godless thoughts.

We're talking about the
things that you're after.

And see, this is the thing,

what God has designed us for is Him.

God has designed us to worship Him.

God has designed our minds
to be used for His glory.

And when your mind is after

other things than Him,

and not after them for His glory,

but after them because that's
what you've got to have,

and you've got to have them at any price,

and that's what you're driven.

And it's lust, and it's driving.

And there you go.

You're plowing deeper and
deeper into this thing.

And you're dwelling on these things.

And you're filling your mind full of them.

What you have to understand

is God looks at that and He says,

that is like a dog running to the vomit.

That is that disgusting.

That's what that's like.

It is unclean.

It is dirty.

It is the pollution of man.

It's in the mind.

When we think about the dog

going to its vomit,

it isn't just like the man -

you know, the man,
you try to clean him up.

He's been a drug addict.
He goes to drug rehab.

He comes back out again,
and he runs back to it.

Brethren, don't you recognize

what we're talking about here?

We're talking about people
who in their mind

are full of jealousy.

You can't escape that.

We're talking about minds full of hatred.

Bitterness, malice, envy, jealousy.

Jesus hits on it.

It's not the guy that
sleeps with prostitutes

and you try to clean him up

and he keeps going back.

It's the man who sits at his office

and lusts after the secretary.

Day after day.

And his mind is filled

with the pornographic thoughts.

It's everything you go after
in your mind apart from God.

It may be learning.

It may be having books, having classes,

being in the university,

just lusting after more knowledge;

lusting to learn;

lusting after degrees.

It can be very white collar.

It can be very clean.

It can look really neat.

You're not visiting the brothels.

You're not over in India

dealing and plying with
the sex trade over there.

No, but you're in the college classroom

and you're doing the same thing

in your dirty, filthy mind.

And you're full of hatred towards others

because you're a god in your own mind

and other people challenge that

and you're jealous because you want

what other people have.

And you're envious.

Brethren, this is mankind.

And we know the filth of it.

We know the dirt of it.

This is where Paul is saying,

do you not recognize the power of God

that takes you up out of this?

There may be those here

that have never gotten drunk.

I know it. Never been high on cocaine.

Never had sex outside of marriage.

Never... never, but you just simply

can't escape jealousy.

Because it's right there.

You want what they have.

Covet. Covet.

You need wealth.

You need popularity.

You need a car like the neighbors.

You need your children
to succeed like theirs.

You need this.

And we're just driven all our lives.

Brethren, is that not how it
was when we were lost?

No care for God. No care for His glory.

Even religious. Religious. Do this.

Self-righteous. Earn your way.

Be something before God.

Be good enough!

You don't need that Christ.

You don't need that.

You don't need justification.

You need to be good. Work it out.

Keep the law. Keep going.

Just driving, driving.

The lusts of the flesh.

This lust of pride

to be able to stand before God

and say, "Look at me,

and look what I've done."

Rather than bowing and saying,

"Thank You, Lord. I know what I was."

Brethren, this is it. Just think.

Think. Think.

A desire to be right.

A desire to win the debate.

A desire - this desire -

lusting after social media.

Lusting after all the gossip of it.

Just wanting to hear the latest thing.

Hear the garbage. Hear the trash.

Have something to debate about out there.

You want to win.

There's just this lust after video games.

Why? It makes me feel good.

It does something in my mind.

It produces these things in my mind.

I need more. I need more.

You make your resolutions.
Anybody ever been there?

As a lost person, I made resolutions.

Okay, I'm not going to do this anymore

when I get out of high school.

And I did it and I did it worse.

Okay, I'm not going to do this
when I get out of college.

And you know what?

Shortly before God saved me,

I just came to resign myself:

I'm never giving those things up.

I didn't have the power to do it.

The first time it was really sinking in -

all our resolutions are trash.

They don't go anywhere. Why?

Because inside of us
there is this craving,

there is this driving -

that's the idea: lusting.

Lusting, lusting.

We've got to have.

See, we so often think about it

just in the category of sexual immorality.

But we're talking just our desire

in our mind to have whatever it is.

Movies coming in or TV -

just lusting after it.

I've got to know the next episode.

Just some new thing - fill my mind.

We've just got to have - always looking,

always some new thing in this world.

Never content in God.

Always needing something more.

That's why our sin just
gets worse and worse.

That's why the drug addict,

they can handle a little bit at first,

but then they've got to have
more and more.

The drunk - a little bit in the beginning.

More and more and more.

Sexual people that reach

these stages of perversion.

It doesn't start that way.

It's more and more. Why?

Just lusting, lusting, lusting!

Brethren, this is what we were.

Can you imagine God looking
at such people as us

and saying, "I think I'm
going to send My Son

to die under My wrath in their place."

Paul wants us to look at that and say,

"What have You done, Lord?"

What have You done?

In such a state of lust,

none of us can stand before God.

Can you imagine walking before

the holy, holy, holy God?

Children of wrath like
the rest of mankind.

We'll be engulfed.

We'll be consumed.

Paul seeks to put his
finger to our lips now.

I have heard sinners say,

"Well, when I stand before God,

I'm going to tell Him..."

One sight of the holy God,

you won't be saying anything.

You may cry "mercy," but it's too late.

But God has unleashed such power

through the Son of God

and His coming and His life

and His death and His exaltation

far above all rule and authority
and power and dominion.

And there is such a power here.

A power like Peter talks about.

We no longer live for the
passions of the flesh,

but for the will of God.

There is a power whereby we no longer

surrender our members

as these servants of unrighteousness.

But now, to righteousness,

the body becomes the
dwelling place of God.

The very temple of the Holy Spirit.

Brethren, there is power in regeneration.

Transforming power.

That is where the power of God unleashed.

It's in His Son.
It's in the cross.

And that's what Paul is doing here.

He's just wanting to show us

this wretchedness of man,

so that it magnifies the power

and the grace of God.

Isn't our salvation just amazing?

Amen.

Thank You, Lord.

You're dismissed.