OK. Jean, come preach to us. Good evening to all. As your pastor said, it's six years since we were here, just over six years, and it's been too much, too long a time, really. Not our will, not our desire, but we'd be apart for so long. But we've had quite a eventful time with COVID and so on. I don't know it was lived here, but with us, suddenly we were unable to move. We could leave our house for an hour a day, and we had to fill in the paper and mark the time and people were patrolling the streets and uh... we couldn't go over a kilometer in radius and that's very very small couldn't even go to the center of the village where we live but that was also a time of opportunity because suddenly we couldn't meet we're not within that kilometer so we realized that there was a the live facility on Facebook, you can record live. And so I went in the loft and dug out the old webcam given to our son when he was 18. He's in his 40s now. And next Sunday, I was sitting at the table and had a congregation of one embodied, but we I can't sing for the life of me, so we kept the hymns for another time, but just tried to have a time of worship with prayer and Bible reading and commenting and the message. And so we continued to meet. But I'm talking about opportunity because in West Africa, for instance, they had the lockdown as well, which was quite strict. And obviously if you're caught in the streets when you can't be, that's a source of income for the police. So it was quite strict. So people connected to us and suddenly we were speaking to a large crowd out of a little church of five people then, maybe seven we would say. So this was a great opportunity. The Lord kept his word going, and ever since we've been continuing to have our service broadcast live. You can hook up to it if you like, but you won't understand a thing. But it's good to be here, and thank you also for your support in prayer and financial support for the work of preaching the gospel lands were far away from us in Africa and other places. We have in particular the radio broadcast radio programs we have going out every week from various places and the books and I've been to Africa twice this year and to different parts and we can see increasingly They were being digested in the lives of individuals and in the lives of churches as well. The first time I went there was, well, regularly, it was 27 years ago. And I said to them, when 27 years ago I was visiting preaching centers, well, now I'm visiting churches, people who apply the Word of God, not just listen. And this is always a danger, isn't it? continue to pray and that the word will have its impact. Pray for, in particular, for replacement. I'm blessed in the sense that I have less and less gray hair falling fairly quickly. But still, the question of replacement is becoming important. And also for my colleagues over there. It's in the hands of the Lord, because we don't see anybody come. But do pray for that, in particular, that the word of God will continue to be preached. He has promised it will do so. So therefore, we need to pray for that. Anyway, we're around the word this evening. And I'd like to invite you to come with me to the gospel according to John, Chapter 14, and we'll read a few verses towards the end of the chapter. I think we'll start reading at verse 22. Yeah, difficult to know where to butt in, but verse 22, John, 14, 22, Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him. And we will come to him and make are home with Him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words, and the word which you hear is not Mine, but My Father's, who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard me say to you I am going away and coming back to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, I am going to the Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world His coming and He has nothing in me. And this is the Word of God. I'd like to concentrate on verse 27. My peace I live with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. And when Jesus says these words, pronounces these words, he's been with his disciples for three years, around three years. And he has spent the time basically teaching them, teaching them about himself, about his work. And they do not understand it yet, but he's training them, preparing them for the work he's going to send them to do, which is to be, with the prophets of old, a foundation for the church. And they will have to line themselves up with himself, who is the stone, the, what do you call it, cornerstone, stone of the angle, really. That means all the angles go in certain places and the apostles will follow that line and The whole church is built on that line as well, into a living temple. They don't know it. They have an inkling that something's cooking. He's told them very clearly that he's going to suffer, and he's going to be rejected, and he's going to die. But the word tells us very clearly, they did not understand. They know something's going to happen. And in a sense, it's the last supper, And you know, when you're in a situation like this, fear gets hold of your heart. You don't want to, but it does. And you know, if we belong to the Lord, we are very much in the same way. We don't know what the day will bring. We don't dwell on that necessarily, maybe more at times, but there may be, especially today with what we hear and all these news, you hear what happens the other side of the world before it happens virtually. This is subject for fear, fear. And so it is good to have the Lord here say, I'll give you my peace. He's talking about peace and it is amazing when you think of it. We tend to read this and it's a Bible, it's paper. I'm not talking about it in a derogatory way but there's a tendency in all of us to read the Bible, and yes, we know these things, we've read them before, and therefore it does us good, we believe these things, but still, it doesn't have a real kick in our everyday life, unless we wake up and attend to that. If there is a time When Christ could have said, well, I'm going to think about myself, because in less than 24 hours, I will have faced the wrath of my father. I will have faced the enemy of souls, and so on. And it would have undergone such terrible agony. Now I want to think about myself. I want to have a time just for myself. That was a time. That was the time. But no, what does he do? He spends time with his disciples. And he longs, he has longed to spend that evening with his disciples. And he opens his heart. There is an author of old who has written on this passage, these few verses, these few chapters, 13 to 17, and he called this, he's entitled this book, The Most Holy Place, The Holy of Holies. And it is, isn't it? Now we can go into it, because the veil is open, but this is where Christ opens his heart. And his heart, the heart of his heart is what? Is the accomplishment of the promise of the Father. the Father's promise that what man has undone, he will do, and he will bring peace for his people. There will be a people come into his presence in peace, reconciled, and that will be through Christ. And Christ is very conscious that he is on earth for that mission, for that mission. He longs until it's done. I have a baptism that I have to be baptized with, And I long until it's done. This was it, he said. And the way he does it, he loves his people. He loves his people. He's loved them all along, but there, he loves them. And when he could think of himself, just of himself, he says, no, I will give you my peace. And let not your heart be troubled. Let not your heart be troubled. Why spend some time on such a verse? Well, there are many reasons, of course, you will know. But just because it's full of wonderful truths. As I was reading it, I thought, well, why didn't I think of this and that? And well, we would be here for a long time, might be longer. than you think, but still, yeah, it's wonderful. And these truths are really at the heart of the gospel, the very heart of the gospel, the good news of the fact that there is salvation in Christ alone. Now, we say these words, don't we? But if we take the alone out of this, there's no salvation, my friends. I often think of salvation in Christ alone as these balloons you have when you have birthday parties. Well, yeah, we had one anniversary party recently and they gave us balloons, these balloons. But when the kids have, you have a balloon. And as soon as you take the alone away, it's like if you bring a prick, a pin. There's no more salvation, it's finished. So that is really the heart of it. Good news of salvation in Christ alone. And another reason to look at this verse is that it is impossible not to note that in the church there is very little peace. Very little peace. We talk of peace, but very little peace. Very little peace between churches, very little peace between Christians? An often very little peace. Inside, inside. Oh yes, we come out to the meetings and we've got a good frontage. But inside, inside. And when the Lord gives peace, it's a wonderful blessing. It's like if he wraps us up with the blanket of the gospel. You don't feel other things. And so the place where peace should reign is often the place where peace is absent. As I'm traveling, and even this very trip, I've preached in places which are from different Denominations. Oh, this is awful word. But it's a human word. As you know, you talk with people, and if you talk about denominational distinctives, there's everything that can, that will separate us, disunite us. But you spend time talking with one person, another, and you talk about the Lord, and they talk about the Lord, and you realize, he's uniting us. He's done something so that now we do things which the flesh cannot do. And if the flesh cannot do it and we do them, that means the spirit is there. You see? And if the spirit is in somebody who is very different in his ritual, in his liturgy and so on, if the spirit is working in that person, it's because Christ has welcomed that person into his family. Who am I? to reject that person. Now, we may still have differences, we may still talk about these things, we may even argue hotly about this, but we have got to recognize the Lord has done something. And conversely, sometimes you speak with people who've been in the same groups as you've been, and you say, well, we're not talking the same, we're not on the same planet. Maybe not the same galaxy. because the Lord has not done a work. And the work it does brings peace. And we've got to work at that peace. Because that peace is in Him and now we've got to walk in His steps. We've got to come to the Word and say, what did my Lord do? What does that mean for me? Now I'm not talking about earning our salvation or earning a better status in salvation? No, no, no, no. That's impossible. God the Father doesn't look at you and me. He looks at His Son. And if you're in Him, He sees you. This is it. And this is very important to keep in mind, that yes, He has accomplished peace. Now He's on the verge of the cross. And when He's on the cross, when He dies on the cross, There's a way open to the presence of God where the mercy seat, the place of peace is. But still, we're in our flesh. And so we've got to work at it. We've got to put the flesh to death. So Christ here speaks of peace, his peace. And he's a prince of peace, remember. He's the one who has peace at his hand. The question we can ask ourselves is what sort of peace is Jesus speaking? This is a real question and I think you will agree with me when I say that our world in general speaks a lot about peace and knows very little peace. in this very day, this very time we live, it's so obvious, so obvious. Some treaties are kind of hammered together, signed and so on, but it's more a sort of pause in hostilities. There is still the old lack of confidence and we check and These treaties are so many pages deep. Why? Because we don't trust. So it's not real peace. And it's at every level. You start with the family, you start with the couple, you start with the neighbor, the neighborhood, the person, and then nations, and so on. And peace is not there. And in the world, peace, which is promised on every hand, is really an illusion because the source even of the life in this world is hatred against God. Man is against God by nature. The nature we bring into the world hates God. It's not just being indifferent. No. Because God wants to be number one and man wants to be number one. But what is more bothersome and tragic is to see that often the situation is not different at all in the church, in the church. And it may sound like a caricature, but some churches are split over the color of the carpet. And you say, hang on. Really, is that serious? Well, no, it's not serious, but it's a reality. But there again, you will say, well, yeah, a lot of churches, quote unquote, are not churches. They're not set on the true base. I agree with that. And if these people lack peace, I can understand. Where I cannot understand that is that when people are more rooted on the truth, as it is in Jesus, very often the flesh rules. And this is not right. This is not right. And if others can be taken into that terrible situation, my friends, any one of us can as well. We're not above this danger. This is why, what sort of peace is Christ talking about? And he's not talking about a peace which is just between men, a sort of managing, a sort of pause in hostilities. He's not the one who will say, it doesn't matter in the end. You know, just time goes. You have the little child, he knows he's done something stupid and he knows he's going to pay for it. I'm probably talking about previous generations. So, he hides and there comes several hours and when a certain number of hours have passed by, he thinks, well, it's pretty safe now because, you know, time has got a healing factor. the offense will not be an offense anymore. Well, that may work in the family, but it doesn't work with God, because He's holy, He's pure. And therefore, the peace which Christ has accomplished on the cross is a peace which doesn't do away with the problem of sin, in the sense that it doesn't count, just brush it under the carpet and you So lift the carpet, it's still there. No, he's dealt with it. He's put sin to death through Christ. Christ was made sin. Him was perfect, pure, so sensitive that he must have suffered so many hells during these 33 years on earth just sensing these things which are normal to us. you know, when people hurt us. But there are times when they hurt us, and it does really hurt us, you know. It's kind of, ah, it's not nice, but that's it. But for somebody who is pure like Christ, it must have been like, you know, terrible, terrible. And then he comes, and he puts an end to sin. This is a peace we're talking about. This is a peace we're talking about. So much so that now the way into the presence of God is open. But not just that, not just that. When that veil was torn, God could come to the sinner. God is free to come out from this unapproachable presence. And this is why you can give the spirit once Christ has come back to heaven and presented the blood, which speaks much better things than any other blood. It's not the sacrifices now, it's the sacrifice. And he presents it, and then they send the Holy Spirit, of whom the Lord has spoken here. This is the sort of peace which the Christian possesses. The one who is in Christ, however feeble, however weak, however young he may be, The babe of one day has the same life as the one who is fully mature. Every Christian, every person in Christ possesses that peace. And therefore, therefore should live out that peace. Live out that peace. This is the peace which Christ is talking about, about it. It's not the peace of the world. You know, in the world, we give things, hoping that there will be a return. You know, you give your efforts, your work, all your energy, and you expect a salary. And even the work functions on that. It gives, but it's not giving. It's lending for a return. We often, well, we invite our neighbors and say, oh, come for, a little time visiting, we say come for a drink, but maybe that's not the place to say this here, but come and we'll just visit and we spend a good evening, it's wonderful, and as they go, most times they will say, oh, you know, you need to come to us, we need to have you. Because they can't leave the things just like this. They've got to repay. The peace of Christ is not like this. He gives His peace, and tell me, tell me, what kind of return does He get from His people? Oh, He may have all the praises of the church triumphant, as they used to say, in heaven, yes. But here, what kind of return does He have? and yet he's given us his peace. I mean, these disciples, they've been there three years, just over three years with him, day in, day out, 24-7, we may say, more or less, and they haven't understood a thing. I find great encouragement there, I must admit. And yet, his heart goes to them. He'll get up from the table, or whatever, situation he was in and just starts to wash their feet. And he goes to the cross for them, for you and me, who are in Christ. This is not the peace of the world. This is why he says, I give you my peace, my peace. He speaks of the ministry of the Holy Spirit coming and I give you my peace. What is this peace? He will be with you and show you. And now you read the Word of God and you understand things as you've understood them for a long time maybe and so on, but suddenly the Spirit just switches on the light. And say, I've never seen that before. And it's not that it is something, a new information. That is good. But it's that suddenly what you've read all these times comes with power. Come with power. And now you can apply that power to your life. And you can have peace. You can give peace. Like he does give his peace. So this is a sort of peace. Christ is talking about. But one of the ingredients in that piece, as far as it is to live it out for ourselves, is putting to death sin. Putting to death sin. He has put sin to death. He went up to the cross, went through the garden, in order that sin may be totally broken. Totally broken. How seldom we get the full impact of that. The sin which has so much power with us, and now I'm talking about the effects of sin in the believer. Sin which has so much power over us is a broken foe. It's defeated. It's not going to stand up again. Even the devil It's a defeated foe. Now, you say, well, it doesn't look like it, does it? Well, if you go to Revelation 12, you understand why. There, we read that the devil has got a rage against the church, because it's a church of Christ. Church of the Living God. Why does he have this sort of rage? He pursued the church in the desert. You know all the symbolism there. Why? Why? And the Word tells us, because he knows that his time is short. We need to integrate that. He has put sin to death. And the sin which is controlling us is a broken form. Because we belong to a rebellious race, and there's still enough of the flesh in us. Man, the most experienced among us, if we can speak in that way, I don't agree with that, but you understand, there's still so much of the flesh And therefore, we know that there's condemnation there. The things we do, the things we think, the way we react and so on, so much of the flesh. And we know that this doesn't please God. And any human being knows deep down, doesn't want to admit that, but knows deep down that there is a day coming and that it's not a good news. It's not a good news. And often the believer is tied in a silly way by this fear. Say, shall I make it to the end? Shall I be accepted in the end? Well, my friend, you feel you're mediocre, you feel you're a loser, you feel that really, frankly, I can't understand it. You're far from the truth. You've not seen sin as it is really in your life. We fear because we look at what we can do or can't do. Oh, I've messed it up today and so on. No, this is not the way to look. He has broken the back of sin. Sin is conquered. And therefore the victory is there. I remember once We had a Bible study, and we had a visitor, which was great, great circumstance. And you tend to hope that they're going to come again. And at the time of prayer, this person who seemed to be a Christian, or talked like a Christian, and was sharing the subjects of prayer said, well, we need to pray that we will have the victory in our lives. I was so glad, because at that moment, everybody from the congregation, from our church, looked at each other and said, why should we pray that? Victories won already! Already! We need to come to the Word and understand how we can follow the Lord, how we can walk in His steps, you see. And this is why in the world there is no peace. It's not because there are some political motivations and this and that or whatever. No! Because man is at war against God, there cannot be no peace until there is peace with the one with whom he is at peace. And Christ, as I say, didn't kind of ignore the problem of sin, but he went right to the cross. Cursed is the one who is on the tree. And he went to the tree, despising the shame. But what sort of peace does he give? First, his peace with God. He is at peace with God. He is a man. He was a man. He is a man. And at this very moment, he is beginning a meal with his disciples, going to eat with his disciples. He is a man, but he is not a rebel. He is not rebellious against God. The state of affair which sets us at war against God, our flesh, our rebellious spirit, our sin, has nothing to do with him. He is not a sinner. There's no way. It is impossible. This state doesn't touch him at all. He doesn't have any sin. And not only is he at peace with his father, but he's marvelously united. There's a wonderful union between the father and him, and the Holy Spirit, of course. But you see, God cannot accept somebody who is less than perfect. And yet, he's totally united. And this union This wonderful union fills his heart. He's not just content to do the will of his father, which is so hard for most of us, all of us. No, he's not content with wanting to do it. No, he rejoices in doing it. He says, my food is to do the will of the one who sent me. You know, when you go for a meal, you enjoy the food. Well, he enjoyed the will of his father, which was for him to go to the cross. Enjoyed it. His peace with God. And therefore he's unique. There's no other man like him, ever. And the peace which he gives is a true peace. Peace with God. But also, he's on a mission of peace. When he is with his disciples, he's on a mission of peace. Jesus is not just somebody who happened to come. He suddenly is here, like you and I. Often I said, well, you know, I was born in the wrong family because I didn't want to do all the things I wanted to do. But I would say, I arrived too late to complain. Well, Christ was planned. You know, he didn't come just like this. No, he came with a mission. When he was born in Bethlehem, he was sent. Christ, the Messiah, he came with a mission. He had an order from his father and he had to follow it. He is the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, the one who was sent to bring peace, to make peace. And as Paul says, God sends him in order to reconcile all things with himself. Colossians chapter one. Christ is preeminent in creation, preeminent in redemption, preeminent with the father. The father cannot reconcile himself with sinners apart from Christ. This is why he sends his son to die on the cross. Christ comes to establish peace. But on the contrary, to the peace of the world, he actually comes face to face with sin and deals with sin, as I mentioned. And then there is peace with God, his mission of peace, but also his war against the enemy. His war against the enemy, that's part of the peace. That's part of the piece. And just after this wonderful time in the upper chamber with his disciples, with his friends, and it all speaks of intimacy. They're just there, you know, like a family, and they are really, around the table. around the table, just after that, and being so close to his father, you read chapter 17 of John, and this is a son speaking to his father, isn't it? He feels him. After this, there he comes in the garden, in the garden, and the whole weight of this situation comes on him, crushes him, to the point that he's actually, human frame says, Could it pass away from me? I can't take it. But He's not just man. He's the Son of God and He says, not my will. How many times, my friends, my will is more important than yours? So often, here, not my will, your will be done. And the will of the Father for Him was not something to be desired, in a sense. He's facing the hostility of men. He's facing the hostility of the evil one who is actually pushing these men to cry against him. His own people did not receive him. It's terrible when you're not, it's terrible when your family turns away from you, isn't it? That's what happened to Christ. That's what happened to Christ. Faced with all this hostility and then being nailed to the cross. Terrible sufferings. And also to be forsaken of His Father. Now, I say, yeah, this is terrible. No, it's not terrible. It is terrible because Throughout eternity, the son and the father have never been separated, never ever. And yet here, why have you forsaken me? Why have you forsaken me? Because he is sin. in the eyes of the Father at that very moment. And the whole wrath of God has got to come. He's got to tread that press of the wrath of God alone. And he's crushed. In the Old Testament, when they couldn't afford to bring a bull or whatever, they brought the birds. Do you remember? And the priest would crush the birds. The temple was not a nice place to be. with all the smells, but this is what happens to Christ. But in doing so, he puts death to death. And he has actually broken this power of death, which keeps all of mankind in the shackle of fear, because there is a day coming. Don't try to prove to anybody in the streets or in your neighborhood that there is a day coming. People know it. But they repress that truth. But they know it. They know it. It was very interesting. Years ago, there was one of the ferry between England and France overturned and there were a lot of casualties and so on, but there were a lot of stories as well. And there was a story of this little girl who, they were actually rescued, her parents and her, very young. And she said, but mommy, why? I've not done anything wrong. Why should I die now? I've not done anything wrong. You understand what was behind? Is that actually there is something to pay if you do something wrong. Now, she might have had to learn what is wrong, but you see what, and it's in everybody's mind. Repressing this truth, but it's there, like the existence of God. Everybody knows that. But Christ, Christ has come and has waged war against the enemy of our souls. the one who's been keeping us in the prison of fear, Christ has defeated him. And you know, it's only foolishness on our part, and really foolishness, that makes us listen to the voice of that enemy. He says, oh, you look at yourself. You call yourself a Christian? I say, no, I can't. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Why? Because Christ is not just a kind of religious figure, a sort of superhero, no. He's a saviour of sinners. And the day you cease to be a sinner, he can't be your saviour anymore. I speak in a silly way, but you understand what I mean? And we are silly to listen to that voice. So Christ, he gives this peace, which is a peace with God, and the result of his mission of peace, the fact that he has won the war against the enemy of our souls. But then there's also more there. There's the advent of a new life. There's the advent of a new life, because Christ died, and in him, the rebellion has received its wages. wages of sin is death. And in Christ, that death is accomplished. For him, by him rather, the enemy has been destroyed. But isn't it just a hopeful thought we have? Well, we hope, we think he's done that, How can I know that what is done is really something which is efficient, something which actually brings what it promises to bring? How? Just to give you an illustration, I like illustrations, that may be ministry in Africa, but one year I came here in the U.S. and I came across an organization which was proposing rental cars at half the price. And I thought, shall I, shan't I? Well, the others were out of my range. So I went through that, and I can tell you, right at the time I was at the counter, I thought I'd been conned. And the person at the counter said, no, yeah, right, fine. Actually gave me an upgrade free, and, you know, how do I know? How do I know that This is really something which is work. His work is accomplished. Yeah, if I say, peace, peace, there's still this niggling feeling. Is there really peace? And often we look at ourselves with that, and this is terrible. But then the third day comes, third morning, the morning on the third day comes, and they go to the tomb, and it's open, and it's empty. It's empty in a way that it's not some burglars gone and taken the... No, it was done in such a way that this is exactly the promise. He has risen, he has risen. Christ, the tomb is empty, Christ has won. The victory is his. But what I want to really underline here is that rising from the dead, Christ has now in himself a new life, a life which is beyond death. And remember, he's a man, he's a man. A life which is different, beyond death, cannot be touched anymore by death. And everything which characterized the former life, like our life, human life, the rebellion against God, the hostility, the fear, the wrath, all this died with Him, and this life is of a different kind. It's not an improved model car. It's totally different, totally different. And in the resurrection of Christ, All these things of the old life have gone, have gone. And if we live bothered and heavy with these things every day, it's only because we're still in this body of death, this body of flesh. And this is why the word constantly calls us to fight against this, to put the body of death to death. And this is why the Apostle Paul can write in Romans, having been justified by faith in Christ, we have peace with God. Now, maybe we're too familiar with these words, but in the world there's nobody who can say that, nobody. and can truly say that. Nobody can have truly peace with God. Why? Not justified. Still carrying the sin. And if at this very moment we are really believers, if we are really risen with Christ into a newness of life by His grace, then we have peace with God. Now maybe Maybe you don't have peace with yourself, but God is at peace in Christ. This is something which should make us jump with joy and rejoice, and maybe we're a bit too decent for that. Every reason for fear, fear because of God, fear because of anything, all this has disappeared. In Christ, God is now a friend. He's now a father. We're in his family. And all his love, all the love of God come towards us. And there is reason to rejoice. And the Apostle Paul in the verses which continue after, when he says there is no condemnation, he shows that we are privileged people. because God can dwell with his people. He couldn't before. He was behind that veil, symbolically. Symbolically. When we see this, what God has done in Christ, we can wonder, how come we don't experience more of this peace? You may say, oh, no, no, I'm at peace with God. Fine, fine. Are you really? And if you are really, in your experience, then you're probably the exception of Prusi, the rule. There's very little peace because we look too much to ourselves. You fall. You fall into something, whatever. You know that sin that so easily beset us. You fall into it. And suddenly you wake up. Now what is the first reaction? I must. I must. But I am the problem. How can I solve the problem? No. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. Have pity on me. Have pity on me. And by your spirit, just bring me to the word put light into this world, this word and then I shall be strong. I shall be strong. Oh yes, I am a sinner. I don't even know how much I am a sinner because my eyes are not perfect. He knows and it's all gone. But there is one thing I want to bring before I stop. I told you I was... anyway. Now, we are in a fight to death. We're in a fight to death. If the true believer is risen with Christ to a newness of life, is at peace with God, God is at peace with him, still, you and I, we're in this body. We're in this body. And we are called continually to put that flesh to death. And you know, it's not a sort of theater demonstration, you know, sort of comedy. We're not fighting with wooden or plastic swords. No, there's going to be real blows. There's going to be blood spilled. But we need to put that flesh to death. So how do we do that? Oh, I must do this, I must do that. Yeah, I've got to be careful. And even, oh, I will read 10 chapters of the Bible every morning. That's the best way to fall asleep again, isn't it? No, no, I've got to come to this word which tells me how to live the life of Christ, which is a new life, a life which is beyond the flesh. And the Spirit gives light to this word and gives us power to walk in the ways, in the steps of Christ. But this is a fight to the death. That is one of the adversaries is gonna die, has to die. Christ has died, but now death has got to die in me. But it is also a fight to the death in the sense that this will not end before death. If you think once you've arrived, then you've not even started. The crash will come very quickly. No, we will never be free from that. Never. You see these old soldiers, you know, when they're full of scars and so on, but if you live, with them for a little time, you find they're still on their guard. Still on their guard. And the believer still has to be on his guard, her guard. The enemy is full of rage. He knows his time is short. And he cannot, he cannot, he cannot, sort of, Turn the real believer away from the way which goes to everlasting bliss. He knows that, but he's going to make the way real hard, real hard. And we need to have faith. We do it with faith, but also with confidence, with hope. Why? Christ has gone before. Christ has gone, and he has not stopped short of the cross. He went to the time when he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. And then, and only then, the veil was torn in two, only then. And it's only then that we'll go whatever way, if the Lord tarries or what. We will, at that time, my friends, we will be free from sin. Can you imagine that? Can you? Because if you can, come to see me after, I need to learn. I can't. Have you ever lived one day without sin? If you have, that was an illusion. No. But that day, there will be no more sin, nothing. Can you imagine that? The one who has this hope in him, in himself, purifies himself as he is pure. May the Lord bless his word, but also receive all the glory from our hearts. Amen.