 Good morning everybody. Let's take a moment just to pray and then we will get started. May I request somebody to please pray with a glass and we will get started. Somebody could pray. Shall I pray first? Yes, go ahead. Thank you Jesus. Father God we come to your awesome presence this morning. Thank you Lord that your mercies are new every morning. Thank you Lord that you have good plans and purposes for us father and as you're leading us to walk in those plans and purposes father whatever we are learning from your powerful word your timeless truth father lead us into that father lead us to walk in holiness in the purposes that you have and let them be fulfilled in the name of Jesus father bless everyone everyone who is your father let your powerful spirit lead us father and lead us into parts of righteousness for your name's sake father thank you and we give you glory honor and praise for who you are father we give you all the thanks that you are with us father day after day and that you're leading us father by the power of your holy spirit once again we give you glory honor and praise and ask you to fill us with your wisdom so that we are able to understand what we are receiving father and be able to walk in it and be built up in Christ likeness in days to come to glorify you in every way and walk father that we choose father let all things be done in your name father continue to lead us bless pastor bless all the students and Lord let your powerful presence be with us as we are learning we give you glory honor and praise and ask this prayer in the precious and matchless name of Jesus our Lord and Savior amen amen amen amen thank you and good morning welcome everybody to this course on holiness bc 2009 today we are going to get into our third section of this course so in the first section we focused on the theme of holiness the holiness of God maybe try to in some way to whatever extent we could get an understanding or a comprehension of the holiness of God that attribute of who he is and how that undergirds every other aspect of his nature we also saw that God desires that holiness to be reproduced in us so that we can be a holy people are set apart for him and even in this life as we live in a you know in a in a world that's filled with sin and wickedness and ungodliness yet God wants us to be holy and we said that he enables us to be holy so it's not just he gives us a call and says try and figure it out yourself but he calls us to be holy and then he enables us to be holy in section two a short section that we did are we focused on our repentance recovery and restoration saying that one of the things that we need to keep in our lives on an ongoing basis is repentance that means if if i'm out of alignment with God his ways and his thoughts if i'm out of alignment i need to repent i need to change my thinking and my acting my behavior so that's repentance so that that we could stay in line with the nature the character the purpose and the will of God and repentance brings us into this recovery and restoration and we also said that sometimes this whole repentance is a small thing you know we we go off track a little bit let me just get back in line very easily in some cases it can be a long wandering that people just wander away from the course that God has for their lives and then that could be pretty serious and then there is a long journey of recovery and restoration but it is possible and we need to make it so that we get back into line with God's will now we're going to go into the third section which is the practical side of how to live a holy life one of the things that and i have mentioned this before but what are the things that really sparked this course and you know kind of motivated putting this course together was in a in a in a leaders conference we were doing a leaders conference part of that and then i did a session on i forget the exact topic of that session it had to do something with overcoming and so on i forget the exact title but so after i did this session we had question answers a time for question answer this was leaders people who are pastoring churches and those who are working with the pastors and in leading the congregation or serving the congregation and one of them asked the question you know how do i'm facing temptation how do i overcome temptation so i was actually shocked because you know these are leaders who are leading the congregations these are not new believers who are learning how to overcome temptation but these are pastors and leaders who are taking care of their churches but this was a very basic question you know and that's when i felt suddenly i thought oh we better make sure that the leaders we are training know how to overcome that know how to live a holy life and know how to overcome temptation it's very you know it's very basic thing we must all know you know how what god has given to us in his word uh to overcome temptation to overcome uh the flesh the world and the devil it's something that we should we should know it's like um you know a warfare tactic a warfare you know you should know how to engage you know in in warring against overcoming or fighting against the flesh the world and the devil and it should be very clear and we should because it's a lifelong thing right throughout our journey as Christians as believers we are going to fight against the flesh the world and the devil and these are the three things that actually pull us and keep us away from living in holiness the way god wants us to live right so oh it should be something you know well established in our hearts and minds that hey i know i know how i'm supposed to overcome the flesh the world and the devil i know the strategies i know the equipment the the equipping that god has given to me as a believer i know what i must use the weapons of my warfare and i know how to keep uh the flesh the world and the devil in subjection so that we can walk in holiness now of course we must practice this right if we fail to practice it then that's where we deviate we go away from the way god wants us to work and then we have to repent and get back in line and continue our journey so anyway so that you know in that conference as there was you know having this interaction with the leaders that's kind of what sparked this whole thing and so we put this course together and wanted to make sure that part of the course we spent talking about how to overcome now some of the things that they're going to go through in this section overcoming the flesh the world the devil uh i would say everything in this section is basic meaning it's not something you've not heard before it's probably something you have heard before but i wanted to be very i wanted to become very clear in our hearts and minds and i wanted to be so established so that we can live by it practice it and live victoriously consistently uh not up and down up and down up and down now but consistently you're walking victorious you're overcoming the flesh the world the devil right so that's the objective of the section because this is key if we do this we will walk in holiness the way god wants us to walk all right so it's basic but it's very very uh important so let's get into that i've um shared the pdf um okay um on the coursework section and i'm gonna share the screen all right so we're coming living victorious over the flesh the world the devil um well so what we're gonna do let's just back up here so talk about the fact that we can god has called us to an overcoming life and uh two important things is we must understand the cross and understand that identity now both these things you have looked at in depth in different courses so we're just making mention of it here we must know how to use the word uh to dominate so the two weapons two main things the word of god and walking in the spirit so these two things must be very clear how do you use the word of god and how to walk in the spirit so that we can overcome the flesh the world the devil right so then we go into the specific areas the three areas so that we understand you know how does the flesh that means the desires the wrong desires in our body how they work on us trying to pull us down how would the work world that means the influences around us or work at us to pull us down and then of course you know what are the strategies the devil uses to pull us down now these are things you're familiar with but it's good to be you know to go through it to be very clear ultimately our goal is to live the overcoming life so that we can you know walk in holiness as we journey through life it's not easy we are living in a world where sin is so prevalent and which is taken for granted but as believers or living the overcoming life is is what we are called to and what we are striving for so let's get into this the overcoming life we must all of us must understand be very clear in our hearts and minds that god has already designed us to be the overcomers therefore living the overcoming life is a possibility and that's our mindset you know we must not have the mindset that oh man I am a sinner I am going to keep sinning and thank god you know Jesus paid for all my sins and of course his blood will cleanse me and we must not have that kind of a mindset the mindset is God has called me to be an overcomer I am going to overcome every evil every sin every wickedness in this world but if I do fall if I do make a mistake and thank god the price has already been paid the blood will cleanse me and the Lord will put me back on my feet to live this overcoming life right so it's a different mindset now this is based on scripture verse on five one and four says that whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God so you are born of God God gave birth to you you have the life in the nature of God and what about those of us who are born of God verse four says or whatever or whoever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith so surely the bible says everyone who is born of God is an overcomer you overcome the world now when you look at the usage of the word world by john in his episodes or in the gospel and in the episodes john the world reprises he's referring to the whole system of evil and rebellion in which we are so you know you remember the gospel of john he would say you know john 17 they are in the world but they're not of the world i'm sending them into the world but you protect them right so what is the world it's this this this environment around us which is actually evil and in rebellion against god john also writes in his episode you know the same chapter chapter five later on i think it was 18 or 19 he says the whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one so that's the world that he's referring to this this whole system of evil wickedness sin corruption moral decay that we are living in we are living in that but we are overcomers you know we are not going to be influenced by the world we're not going to be dominated by the world we're overcomers and of course he tells us very clearly this is how we have the victory it's through our faith in god right so and this is true for every child every child of god right it's not just for for those who are you know in full time in history it's not every child of god you can be a professional you can be anything you know what your vocation is in life but every child of god can defeat the world and our faith is what gives us the victory right so that must be very clear you know we start from that i am an overcomer i can overcome so if there is any besetting sin if there is any sinful habit and any sinful pattern that's taken a hold of us in our lives if suddenly we are faced with evil influences around us our postures i am born of god i'm an overcomer i'm going to gain victory over this i'm going to conquer this i'm going to have mastery over this because that's who i am i'm born of god now our salvation includes abundant life right so jesus said i've come that you may have life now that word life is he is using a very special body using the word zoe which is a word that is used very exclusively to reference the god kind of life you know so jesus is saying i've come to give you life the god kind of life the zoe life it's the very life that god has in himself so we all have the natural physical life which is by us we have a way of life which is a different greek word anastrophe but then then when the bible talks about eternal life it uses this unique word zoe just referring to the life that god has in himself that's the life he's given to us right and john in the episode first on 511 and 12 he says god has given to us this eternal life so usually the word zoe is prefixed with this usually it's prefixed with this eternal life not always but this zoe is in christ and he who has the sun has this zoe we have the life of god so if we have the life of god then this life is going to drive darkness out of us right so john again back in his the gospel he says in him was life the life this zoe was the light of men that means better but this zoe entered in or whomever the zoe went into it filled that person with light it's the light of men so he explains what does that mean it means the light shines in darkness light dispels this primes out this darkness and the darkness cannot withstand it so if you and i have received this abundant life it's like the light of god has flooded our being and the life of god so influences us so works in us zoe life of god works in us to dispel darkness out of us and the darkness cannot do anything about it it cannot overcome it it cannot withstand it so our salvation includes abundant life zoe the life of god and the life of god fills us so influences us to dispel darkness out of us right and it touches every part of our being spirit soul and body for example the apostle paul said that the zoe life of god was manifest or made visible in his body people could see that his body was touched by the life of god the zoe life of god now we are we're speaking right now in this in this section on dealing with sin so definitely the zoe life of god will dispel sin and its hold its grip and its influence over us anything that has to do with darkness sin of course is darkness so this life shines in darkness and dispels it out of our lives so what we're doing in this simple chapter is we're establishing the fact that every believer every child of god has the capacity to live with torus over sin first god has said we are overcomers next we see that we have the life of god and which drives darkness out of us so if we have the eternal life we don't have to sit around and bondage to sin because sin is of darkness and our salvation includes a life of victory here and now in this present life now many times we talk about victory as something in the sweet by and by you know okay when i get to heaven everything will be fine i will have complete victory uh all of that and yeah of course when we get to heaven when we leave this world there are no more battles to fight if it's in and no more struggle with satan and no more struggle with the worldly influences no more struggle with that own flesh of course true and so in one sense yeah we are free from the battles of life victory but we must also understand that there is victory given to us in the midst of battles in the midst of warfare in the midst of wickedness and sin that's in this world in this life so our salvation includes that for example we see in Romans 5 17 that we who have received abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness we will reign in life through Jesus Christ we will reign to reign means to rule in life so you talk about this life in life because right now we have received abundance of grace God's grace received the gift of righteousness and we will reign in this life through Jesus Christ that means i will have mastery dominion over everything that i face in this life it it doesn't it doesn't mean that i will not face things difficulties in this life we will face it we will face sin and we will face sickness and we will face all the things that are around us because we are in this world but we can reign over them through Jesus Christ we can overcome them we can rule over them so to speak and in every situation God leads us in triumph in Christ so that must be of a mindset look i know there are battles i know there are challenges there are temptations etc but God leads us in triumph and therefore victory over sin and victory over temptation is part of the salvation God has given to us and lastly in this chapter we say look Jesus is our model Jesus is our model maybe we are going to imitate him we're going to try to be more and more like him and Jesus walked in absolute mastery over the flesh the world and the devil Jesus walked in absolute mastery over the flesh the world the devil now somebody will say immediately but that was the Son of God that was God who became man obviously sin cannot touch him but we must not forget that Jesus was truly God but he was fully human he was fully human he became man meaning he took on human form body like you and me and the bible tells us very clearly he was tempted in all points he faced the pressures of sin the temptations he faced so he didn't walk on earth as just deity where he couldn't feel the the wickedness around no he walked on the earth in humanity so that he felt temptation in all points and yet he was without sin he was without sin satan came to him on many occasions now we we know you know the the the three temptations at the very beginning of his ministry that is recorded for us that doesn't mean satan never tempted him before that or after that he was tempted in all points we did so those are three recorded temptations in the wilderness but surely he was tempted before that he was tempted after that but every time satan came whichever point he was attacking Jesus could say this that the devil has no nothing in me there's nothing in me John 14 30 and I said look the rule of the world is coming but he has nothing in me I mean there's not even a small foothold he is gained in me he has nothing in me and Jesus is of a model as sons and daughters of God so he became the Son of God the eternal became the Son of God walked in humanity to show us not only to make us sons and daughters of God which he did but he also showed us how we can live as sons and daughters of God now I realized that for some of us this may be a stretch you say what do you mean you're making us equal with Jesus I'm not making us equal with Jesus he's always God but what I'm saying is he modeled in his humanity the life that sons and daughters of God are called to live I'm talking about his humanity I'm talking about the life he lived in in his humanity and saying that that's the model he gave for us as sons and daughters of God to live that life and the Bible makes it very clear first John chapter 2 verse 6 says he who says he abides in him that is if you're in Christ he says you're to walk as he walked walk just as he walked so the Bible is saying it the Bible says if you're in Christ you're a believer you're in Christ you're living in Christ well then the Bible says you've got to walk as he walked what does that mean every aspect of his life his humanity including overcoming sin overcoming things in this world walk as he walked he's our model he's our standard and that's how we must perceive ourselves walking so we need a change of mindset and so saying oh I'm such a filthy sinner I'm going to be a sinner all my life oh God I'm a wiggly worm you know stop talking like that and wake up to what God has made you to be and what God has called you to be he's called you and me to walk as Jesus walked and if he called us to do that then it's a possibility not something we cannot attain to otherwise you know it would be really use the word foolishness it would be foolishness to say that we're called to do that but because we're called to walk as he walked that is a possibility and we should keep our hearts and minds okay I'm going to walk like that and John says you know of course in first John chapter 4 the focus the main main the main focus is on walking in love but as he's talking about love and the love of God and walking the love of God he says you know the love of God is perfected among us I mean we are people who live by the love of God and we walk in the love of God and that's the thing that really dominates us and therefore we have boldness in the day of judgment that means we are not afraid of judgment day now we have people who walk in love we have people who experience the love of God we know that God is love and that we are walking in love and so you know we're not even afraid we're not afraid of the day of judgment and then in that context all about he's saying all that he also says this he says because as he is so are we in this world it's a very small statement it's very but it's very profound it's very deep what is he saying you know we're walking in love we've experienced God's love we love him because he first loved us and therefore we love the brethren and love is perfected among us and therefore you know we're not afraid of judgment day because as he is so are we in this world and if you look at various other versions of the English Bible and how they render it of that little phrase there it's like this you know our life in this world is the same as Christ or the English revised version sorry the easy to read version the easy to read version says in this world we are like Jesus the message Bible says our standing in this world is identical with Christ the passion translation says all that Jesus now is so are we in this world all that he is we are in this world you know think about that that's that's that's big a life in this world is the same as Christ that means we are living in this world the way Jesus would walk through it so would Jesus be walking through this world as a poor sinner as somebody who's dominated by all the things in this world would he do that no he would walk saying the prince of the rule of this world i mean satan comes but he has no place in me you know he would walk in that place as as a conqueror as a victor somebody's you know he said i have overcome this world and we are in this world as he is he's a world overcomer we are world overcomers that's how we walk right so all this translates to reality as we do this through faith that means we got to put our faith to work in overcoming the world in as much as we put our faith to work you know for other things right so put our faith to work to live victoriously over the flesh the world and the devil put our faith to work you and i can live a victorious overcoming life in christ and that's the point of this first introduction chapter we can't live that should be our mindset i can overcome you know uh when you think of it what i believe what a believer struggles with okay there could be some obvious sins or there could be other things like you know having a bad temper and uh you know just uh or or you know speaking on truths speaking falsehood or being covetous about money or covetous about uh fame and power and position you know these may not these may not seem bad like you know committing adultery or murder or whatever but these are still sins of the heart you know there they may not be sins of commission in the sense of doing something but it's the attitudes that are wrong hard attitudes that are wrong still so whatever it is whether it's the sins of our heart of our attitudes or the sins that are expressed behavior we can live victorious overcoming lives it's possible our life in this world is to be the same as christ so that's our goal to discover from the word of god what has god given to us to live like this because if he called us to live like this he would also have equipped us to do that and we will need to find out what is he keeping his given to us in his word and then let's learn to use it so that we overcome the flesh the world and the devil i want to pause here for a couple of minutes and see if there are any questions and we will take this up okay um i see a question there and either says we love him because he loved us first please explain this so we love him because he first loved us all right may i open it out to the class anybody would like to explain this anita's question is please explain we love him he loved us who wants to do it can i explain please go please go ahead dash i believe that in genesis one starting from there we were created in the image and likeness of god and god is love and if they says we he loved us what was it he said um because we love him because he first loved us yeah we love him because he first loved us god is love is the epitome of love and he wants pretty much to the best for us and he see that we were going on an ungodly part and we were a part of him so he loves us just like a parent using an example a mother has a child the child is from her so she loves that child regardless the child is bad and you have to discipline the child you love the child just the same but you the child is a part of you come from you and you continuously want that child to come to be good come and be something of the imma herself so just the same we are a part of christ christ loves us because when he looks at us says little children you know we he loves us he looks at us we are his is image bearer that's what we should be so when we're going on a dark part right that um we were sinners falling he calls us back to his love call us back to his grace and his forgiveness so everything that he does is out he corrects us out of love so everything that he does is surrounded by love so that's my explanation good thank you thank you dash anybody wants to add some more thoughts to this um we so what we're discussing is the bible says we love him because he first loved us um what does it mean you know what are your what are your thoughts on it and anybody else feel free to share please um as he chires comment even though we are sinners he loved us unconditionally there we are Romans 5 8 while we were still sinners christ died for us anybody else thank you for sharing anybody else okay all right so yeah um so what happens really is like like what has been shared um god loves us so much even though we were sinners we still loved us and then when we experience that love what happens we reciprocate that love yeah our hearts are opened to love god back but who did the loving first he loved us right when we were enemies he still loved us while he was still sinners he loved us while we were vapor he still kept loving us and then at some point we received that love i mean we experienced that love we encountered that love and that he walked a response of love from us so that's what john was saying right we love him because he first loved us so it is not you know john says not that we love god but that god loved us right and then we love him back because of the experience of his love right right so rose writes um god draws us to love him he initiates the love to be produced in us right so god does that work and that we love him in return good good any questions on this introduction chapter any thoughts any questions okay so i'm assuming all of all of you are with me so far and so what we've established in this simple chapter is we need to think of ourselves as overcomers in a world where there is darkness around us and god has given to us everything we need to live this overcoming life overcoming i'm talking about specifically we are talking about the flesh the world and the devil the three things that pull us down and keep us from holiness right now the basis so the so the basis for us and again this is familiar ground but let's just look at it go to share the pdf so there are two important things that form the basis for living an overcoming life victorious life right and this is something you have already seen in separate courses but i'm just putting it here so that there's context first is the cross of jesus christ that means what did jesus do for us on the cross right secondly our identity in christ so these are two very important things that we must be absolutely established in right because this these two the cross of jesus what jesus did for us on the cross and who we are in christ today this form the basis for every believer every child of god to live a victorious life so to live an overcoming life it's not about how much willpower you have it's not about how much self-control you have it's not about you know how godly influence you have in your life it's not about are you in a very good environment that keeps you away from sin i mean are you living in a monastery you know those kinds of things no the basis for living an overcoming life for every christian for every believer is what jesus did for us on the cross and who we are in christ today so none of us have any excuse you know we can't say well you don't know the people i have to live amongst you know such ungodly people or you know you don't know my upbringing you know i had such bad influence when i was being brought up yeah yeah so none of us can use those things as excuses i'm not saying those things are there of course we are all living in a world so that is evil but the basis for which to live an overcoming life for all of us is to say we must all depend on what jesus did for us on the cross and we must all depend on who we are in christ today right so these are two things you know we have studied in detail in other courses but i want to just you know quickly review what we mean by that so first is on the cross the power of sin was broken right so there are many things that jesus did for us on the cross you know he paid for our sin he took our sicknesses and diseases he conquered satan he removed the curse so that the blessing could come upon us he established a new covenant for us through the cross and so on you know there's many there are many many things that we could say and in all of that one very important thing that jesus did on the cross is that he broke the power of sin that means he destroyed sins control over our life you know we must receive a revelation of that that means we must understand the truth the power of sin over my life has been broken on the cross so not only did jesus pay for my sin but he broke the power of sin right so and this is well established from roman chapter six and we have studied this in the past it says here you know the old man was crucified talking about the old sinful nature uh the you know people may call it the dynamic nature or the satanic nature or whatever but this that old person inside was crucified was put to death so that the body of sin which is the power of sin might be done away with and we should no longer be slaves of sin so you you know it should be very clear in your heart you are no longer a slave of sin no longer a slave of anything you know if you say you know a bad temper addiction to this or addiction to that no no no you're not a slave to anything you're not a slave to anything you have been freed from sin you know so paul the apostle paul said look if you've we've died so you're free from sin and therefore in that same chapter he says sin will not have dominion over you so we must be absolutely convinced of the sin will not have dominion over you now here is the problem the problem is and i'm talking about even christian ministers instead of acknowledging this truth which is written in the scriptures they accommodate sin you know and i'm just making mention of this because you know we need to understand how deceptive things could be now think about rabbi zacharias right he was such a great well-known christian leader apologist and so on and he had a ministry that spanned many decades and so highly respected etc on one side he portrayed an image of absolute integrity so people you know looked at him as here's somebody who was living a life of integrity but in his private life which all of this came out afterwards was he was accusing himself in sin and from the accounts that were given from various people and then the reports that were put out by rabbi zacharias ministries themselves his persuasion of people of all the women that he sinned with his this reasoning was you know this is a reward god is giving me for the sacrifice i am making for the ministry now how deceived how deceiving that kind of thinking is now so here you have somebody who is was a christian apologist and yet so deceived so wrong in his own logic the logic was i can sin i can do something that's wrong and i can continue like this because this sin is a reward for my sacrifice for the gospel now that doesn't bear any logic but that's what his argument was i mean in private in in the sin that he continued for such a long time now i'm mentioning the name and i'm speaking about this person as an example not because i want to put him down but i'm just saying look this is a reality this is what's happened in the christian world so even though there is bible truth that we know about the devil is so deceptive to try and convince us that tolerating sin is okay but you and i must come to this place for say sin will not be tolerated because sin will not have dominion over me sin will not have dominion over now we may make mistakes but you got to get up and keep going okay i'm going to pause here because time is up um we'll continue this on coming monday uh but you're with me so far okay let's uh take a moment to pray and we will dismiss and i don't want to hold up because you do have to go for your next class uh could somebody please um just pray with us and then we will dismiss please could somebody pray with us can i pray yeah go ahead bye our father now go i want to thank you i want to bless your name i want to give you all the glory i want to give you all the honor i want to give you all the adoration for the privilege you got to behold the wonders of your glory father we thank you because we have not come here to complain about many problems and we have not come here a lot to show our self approved we have not come here to prove that we are holy but we have come here to recognize you know your love you know for us the grace of God that you bestowed upon our lives that we are so glad and we rejoice in it father we thank you oh god for your son jesus and we thank you because you loved us even before you know we love you father we thank you that the grace that you have given on to us so god we're not elude us we pray love that though the words that we've heard today will go we are binding us that the devil will not see any room to deceive us of who we are in christ we thank you for your holiness we thank you for your love and we pray for that you will continually remind us of who we are continually remind us that we are set free and we're not held bound you know by anything but rather you know we we make mistakes and we we come to know that you loved us we pray father that the words of god that we've heard this morning this evening this afternoon we're not drunk for it but father oh god almighty will be oh god the word that will be a fruit in our lives let's set be your holy net we thank you oh god for your servant whom you've used to share this world of knowledge water wisdom water of understanding and we pray for that he shall not cease to continually share this world to all nations and tribes in Jesus much less than my pray amen amen amen thank you everybody thank you harrison and thank you each one for joining the class have a good break and enjoy the rest of your day see you again soon by now god bless thank you pastor thank you god bless thank you pastor amen thank you god bless thank you pastor