The challenge for us believers is that we are painfully aware of what we are as wretched sinners. We are painfully aware of what we are in the sin that David committed. And the thing that is difficult and the thing that I think helps us to understand it is that we have one consciousness and we have these two natures. coming out of one consciousness, just like you have hot and cold water coming out of one tap.

So the scriptures speak of this new man, this inner man, this inward man, the hidden man of the heart, the new creature, the new creation. And we read in the scriptures of the old man, the flesh, the carnal mind, the sin that dwells within me, the wretched man that I am. Not that I was, but that I am. And then Paul calls it the body of this death.

One of the wonderful things about this glorious truth in the scriptures, it allows us to have an explanation for why We born again children of God have sin that we are so fundamentally and so clearly aware of. Have you cried out like Rachel, like Rebecca, sorry, Isaac's wife, Rebecca. When life came into Rebecca's womb and those two men fought in her womb, Rebecca said, That's what a Roman seven sinner is. Someone who asks that question, why am I thus?

Some years ago, I had a work up and there was a car, a ute from down the road in our driveway down here where you've all driven in this morning. And the fellow had a party up along somewhere up further up the road and he was very, very badly drunk. And so he swerved off the road up at the top of Milbank Road. and sort of half crashed his car and then he managed to get it going and he drove down the road a bit more and he got off the road again and crashed it again and finally someone called the police and he had to have his car parked in our driveway here and he next morning I saw him out there and he said I just can't Nice stuff.

The child of God knows what it is to live in this body of flesh. The child of God knows that there is in his heart, there is a desire, a strong desire to love God and to bear fruit unto God. And he struggles with the fact that he's a Roman seven sinner. And religion is telling you again and again and again, that you have to get this man, this fleshly man better. And I'm not excusing sin. This is not an excuse for sin. It's an explanation of the struggle and the reality of the life of every child of God.

Religion is continually saying that, listen to what they say. This is what some of the confessions say. This personal work of sanctification, this growing in holiness, as they call it, is indeed carried further Sin's mastery is completely broken, they say. Evil desires are increasingly weakened, moving towards a fullness of holiness in the fear of God. There is a doctrine that's very common, isn't it? And it's called progressive sanctification, that you, by your efforts, can make yourself more and more holy. into heaven because that work is done. That is not how the child of God lived in this world.

Paul was a wretched man. He was the chief of sinners. There are these two separate men and they live in this one being. And I want us to see that this is what the scriptures teach. And I want us to see, I want us to be comforted by the fact that...

What's this? Millie? Millie, what's your problem? She's probably okay. It's like that. There is in the heart of all of God's people, there is flesh and there is spirit. And the proposition I want to lay before you, and I just think it's the reality of what the scriptures That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and it'll never get any better. There'll be external sins that we will have taken out of our lives, and it's a wonderful thing that they are, but anyone who is actually honest about what's going on in their hearts will realise that they can get rid of external sins, but the internal ones are there if we are honest with ourselves.

The flesh, what is that which is born of flesh is flesh, and it never gets any better. And that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit, and it will ever continue the same. It is Christ, nothing less than Christ in you, the hope of glory. So I wanted to look at the reality of it according to the scriptures. It is just the truth of the scriptures.

In every soul, there is a war in two natures. And if there aren't two natures, there is no war. In the Song of Solomon, he says, what will you look, what will you see when you look into the sugar mine? What will God see when he looks into the heart of his bride? He says in chapter 6 verse 13, he says, the company of two armies. And it's a really lovely picture in the original because it means that there is this sort of warring dance between the two of them. There is this warring dance between flesh and spirit.

The flesh, as we read in Galatians chapter 5, the flesh lusts against the spirit. And there's a battle going on in the heart of all God's people. There is this war. We have a love for God and we have a lust for envy. We have a love for the praise of God and we have an equal love for the praise of men. We have unbelief and we have that belief that cries out to God, I believe, Lord, I believe.

what they've done for God. The child of God has nothing to boast in. All of his boast is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the scriptures talk about us groaning

So as I said, all false religion operates as if there's only one nature. There's just one being and all it needs to do is to be polished and put right and made religious and join a club of some sort. The children of God live in the very presence of God Almighty and they know what it is to be in His presence and they know how amazing His grace is, having been in His presence. This is a great truth.

Like all of the truths of God, God gets glory. He gets glory, all of the glory in salvation. What glorifies God the most comforts his people the best. This is a truth from God's Word. We've read about it in Romans 7 and Galatians chapter 5. We'll read about it in many, many other places of the Bible. But what it does, what this inner battle does, it causes and just be amazed and thankful for the glory of the grace of God in his unchangeable, infinite, eternal love, his covenant faithfulness.

It causes us to give thanks and praise to the glory of God the Son in His redeeming love, in His glorious substitutionary work as our Saviour, that God Almighty right now sees in heaven His dear and precious Son, perfect and holy and unblameable, obeyed the law of God and he sees in his son every member of his body all the time and the Lord Jesus Christ's glorious work is to present his blood holy and spotless and unblameable and unapprovable in the sight of God and he does it as our sacrifice and he does it as our substitute and he does it as our saviour and he does it in such a way

If I can make myself more holy, at the point I make myself more holy, I have less need of a savior. That's why this battle is there. And the Holy Spirit, the praise to the glory of the work of the grace of the Holy Spirit in his sanctifying work, in his regenerating work, in him implanting Christ in you, the hope of glory. At stake are so many fundamental issues in the scriptures.

The fall of man. If you did wrong on the fall, you're wrong on it all. If people misunderstand what happened in the garden, they misunderstand the rest of the scriptures. They have no idea. The Bible teaches that when Adam and all of his people fell, they were totally depraved. Every aspect of his character, every aspect of his nature is fallen. completely, his understanding, his infections, his will, he's completely unable to do anything to save himself. As the Lord said in John's Gospel, no man can come to me unless the Father which has sent me draw him.

If there's a denial of the fall and a denial of the two natures in a believer, it means that religion says that grace takes the old man and does something with it and makes it better. But the Lord says flesh gives birth to flesh and can never rise above that and the spirit gives birth to spirit and can never fall below that. There is not one example in all of the scriptures of someone progressively being sanctified. Not one, despite what religion says.

Moses at the end of his life, what's he saying? Thanks be to God. Underneath are everlasting arms. David died saying that all of my salvation and all of my hope is in an eternal covenant that the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father and the Holy Spirit made before the foundation of the world, that's all his salvation, not anything he'd done. David's sin is extraordinary, but his sin at the end of his life is almost as appalling as his sin with Bathsheba.

We are living in this world, like David said, crying out to God, create in me a clean heart. You've created it before, create it again, renew it, It is absolutely essential to understand what happens when people are born again. A new heart will I give you, says God Almighty. He doesn't say he's gonna take the old heart and improve it.

But Ezekiel's valleys of dry bones in Ezekiel chapter 37, they didn't need improving. They didn't need acting upon their free will. They didn't need to make the first step and make a decision. They needed life. They were dead. They needed life. And that's what happens in the new birth. There is a life. That's what we read in Ephesians chapter three. The fullness of God dwells in us. A new heart I give you.

In sanctification, salvation is not the reformation of our lives. Salvation is the creation of a new life in us. People change their lives and it's wonderful that people do change their lives and many religious people change much about their lives and from an earthly perspective there's so many improvements. Paul improved when Paul met the Lord on the road to Damascus. in Judaism, he was progressively improving, he was gaining more and more knowledge, he was gaining more and more obedience, more and more holiness, all of a sudden he met the Lord Jesus Christ and the whole lot is thrown out into the rubbish bin of where it belongs.

If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. That's 2 Corinthians 5.17. I love what Ephesians 4.24 says, it says, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Is that me? Or is that Christ in me? It's Christ in us. It's Christ in us. We are, as Ephesians 2.10 says, we are his workmanship, his masterpieces, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ordained beforehand that we should walk in them.

of God, a being, a life, Christ in you that was not there before. And this earthly abode, this heavenly abode lives in this body of flesh. It is the temple of the Holy Spirit, so we need to be careful and be mindful of it.

Let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and read these. We know these verses well, but they are just so significant here. He says in verse three, but if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that lost, in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine upon them.

For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts. give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure. What's the treasure? Christ in you is the treasure. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. Why? God and not of us isn't that wonderful God listen to six again and leave out the bit that can be put in parentheses really for God has shined in our hearts to give But it's in an earthen vessel.

There is the most glorious being in all of this world, and it's in an earthen vessel. It's in an earthen vessel. And the earthen vessel, when there is the new creation in it, only then does the earthen vessel see what the earthen vessel is.

Until that time, you were like Paul. He was alive once without the law. He was alive in religion and doing well in religion. I find this truth just so refreshing and so comforting and so real to my experience.

This truth, this truth from the scriptures, allows us to be honest. Religion is lying to people all the time. It's lying about the character of man. It's lying about sanctification. It's lying about justification. It's lying about the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But God's children can be honest. God says his children are not going to lie. We can be honest with God first and foremost. I can come to God as a mercy beggar again and again. I can't come to God on the basis of achieving anything in myself. I can't come to God saying, I've done this and I haven't done that. I can't come to God like the Pharisee at the temple, boasting about what he's done and what he hasn't done.

nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling, naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace.

God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. He resists the religiously proud humble us and the only way he humbles us and the way he always humbles us is by revealing himself and when he's revealed himself to us we see what we are.

I can be honest with God knowing this truth and I can be honest with myself that I have no self-righteousness with which I need to defend myself. People are wanting to defend their righteousness all the time All of my righteousness is in heaven. I trust yours is as well. All of it is sitting on a throne in heaven right now. Accepted. I'm accepted in the beloved. I'm not accepted because of what I've done. I'm not accepted because of my preaching, my praying, my good works and my bad works. I'm accepted in the beloved. And that's what the new creation does in the hearts of God's people. We can't look to religious activities. We have to look to God alone.

And that's why the new, in Rebecca's case, if we went back there, the old man will serve the new man. The old man continually humbles us and causes us to cling But the Lord says we're unprofitable servants in Luke 17. If you've done all that you're supposed to have done, you're an unprofitable servant. Useless. Good for nothing. But God uses those he humbles.

And I can be honest with God, knowing this truth. I can be honest with myself. And I can be honest with my brothers and sisters in Christ. Be kind, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Why would anyone want to present themselves above another believer in sanctification? Why would they want to think that they have climbed some steps to God? If they saw what they really are, if they went to the temple and said, Lord have mercy upon me, I'm a sinner, I'm the sinner, they're not going to look down on other people. They're going to take the place alongside their broken hearted brothers and sisters.

we bear one another burdens so the real me and that's what Paul is praying in Ephesians chapter 1 chapter 3 the real me is the new man in me the real me is the Lord Jesus Christ the real me lived 2,000 years ago on this earth before men and before the Lord The real me was crucified with Christ. The real me is the new man. They're not the old man who sins. The old man who's been put to death. That's why we love quoting Ephesians, I mean, Galatians 2.20. I am crucified with Christ. Through the law, I am dead to the law that I might live under God. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith. of the Son of God. I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, His faithfulness alone, not my faith, His faithfulness, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The reality of the sin that lives in us causes us to be humbled, and the humbled are teachable. The humbled are childlike. The humbled are dependent. The humbled are thankful. This truth brings us to be so thankful to our God. It causes us to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says he will lead his people with weeping and supplications and it's only the old man that causes the new man to weep and plead with God. And the new man rejoices in the fact that grace reigns always. This truth causes us to look to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and esteem Him and what He did on Calvary's tree more and more highly. If people think that they can perform one act of holiness, one act of goodness that makes them acceptable before God, at that point they don't need to cross as the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul said, when I want to do good, sin The sin was put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

This picture, this is pictured in the parables that the Lord spoke. The parables, he's talking about the new wine must be put in the new bottles and both are preserved. The new wine of God's graces is put into the new heart, the pure heart. He says, blessed are the pure in heart. He puts his new wine into that heart. The new heart alone sees and owns the sins of the old. In the parable of the soils, you might remember that some fell on paths and some fell on stony places, and some heard the word of God and they with joy received it, and then after a while, it all faded away. We've seen that so, so many times. And what's his diagnosis? There was no God. It's not seen by other people and it's not seen by us so often. The root is the new man, the new heart, the new creation. And John says that new creation cannot sin. It is Christ in you. He cannot sin.

Those apostles on the night, the one night when the Lord Jesus Christ asked anything of his apostles, and I fell asleep and he came back and I fell asleep and he came back and I fell asleep. What did he say? He said the spirit is willing and the flesh is weak. The spirit is willing and the flesh is weak.

The new man The new creation sees the old man and sees him as a sinner. The new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. The new man believes God, believes all of what God is and all of what God says about himself. The new man believes that salvation by works and by law obedience is impossible. The new man cannot believe that salvation is some cooperative activity in which God begins a work and then man adds his capstone to the work and worth. to finish God's work.

The new man sees the emptiness and deceitfulness of man's religion. Paul had a new man and all of a sudden the Pharisees who were his close friends, he saw them as children of the devil and he saw all of their religion as nothing but blasphemous and captivating people.

The new heart believes the new covenant is all of His salvation, that all of our salvation is not conditioned on my obedience, my doing this and my not doing that. God now looks to His Son, and everything He requires of me, He sees in His Son, and He's satisfied.

Amen. May the Lord bless His word to our hearts. Thank you, Lord. Let's have a break. There's some fruit and other bits and pieces.