Overcoming Our Sinful Flesh through Christ Hebrews 10:19-22

1. Overcoming Our Sinful Flesh through Christ Hebrews 10:19-22

2. Which of these announcements promoted God and His kingdom? What was your flesh’s reaction to these announcements? If you are a child of God, why would you experience an inner rejection of any of these announcements?

3. “If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatever.” - G.K. Chesterton

4. “Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.” -Herman Melville

5. Hebrews 10:19-22

6. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

7. let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

8. 1. If you are a child of God, Christ has defeated the power of sin in you. Read Romans 6:1-10

9. We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4

10. Romans 6:6-7

11. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.

12. For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:10-11

13. 2. If you are a child of God, your indwelling sin rises up against anything that seeks holy authority over it. Read Romans 7:7-20

14. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” Romans 7:7

15. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. Romans 7:8

16. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. Romans 7:13

17. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. Romans 7:18

18. 3. If you are a child of God, you must learn to distinguish between the voice of your flesh and the voice of the Spirit. Romans 7:21-23

19. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

20. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

21. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

22. “Sin living in us is a law” “Gravity, for example, is a law that bends things in its direction. It perfectly conforms us to its “commands.” Gravity is not a law as an idea or an outward precept, but a force that can make objects “obey” its “will.””

23. “We find this law inside us” Like Paul, we “find” this law at work in our inner-most thoughts and desires. The flesh wants what it wants, and opposes anything that rises up against it.

24. “We find this law when we’re at our best” We don’t discern this law when we are caught up in pleasure mode, we discern it when the Spirit draws us into fellowship with God and moves us to obey His will.

25. “This law never rests” “Since grace rules the believer’s heart, he wants to do good.” The believer is drawn into fellowship with God. He has a desire to please God, and often is impressed by the Spirit how to love and serve God and to do the same to his neighbor. The law of sin opposes all of this.

26. “Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering flesh; to the last I grapple with thee; from heaven’s heart I stab at thee; for love’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.”