The scripture says in Galatians 5, this I say to you, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Never before have we seen Christians struggling with the lusts of the flesh. Being in the ministry, we know. You know, people are struggling with stuff, like you can't believe it, you know? And I don't know why it is, the church is much weaker than it was, say, 25 years ago, you know? There's a sin in the camp like you can't actually imagine. And never before are we working so much with church people that we can't work with the outside people anymore. It's like a hospital, you know, people are coming into them. And we are helping Christians of 10 years, 20 years in the faith. It's crazy. The world's gone crazy. And I'm telling you, I mean, a friend, John Leach, and I got called a couple of years back to a woman who was, her husband was an elder in the local church. She said there's something wrong with him. And when we sat down and we grilled him, we found out this oak's like picking off the harlots off the street here in Lincoln, Brooklyn. I mean, I kid you not, this educated guy, he's an elder in the church, and she just knew something was wrong, you know? And I'm like, we're like, John and I, like, jaws dropping, you know? You're an elder of God, you know? What are you doing, you know? But this is, it's like constant. Christians are not overcoming the lusts of the flesh. Porn, I think I saw a statistic not long ago where 60% of ministers that they'd interviewed have struggling with porn. You know, and I'm like, wow, what happened to overcoming, you know? Anyway, so the scripture says, walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. God's word cannot be broken. So do we even know how to walk in the spirit? You understand what I'm saying? Are we being taught that in our churches? And I think we need to look at that. For the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other. So you cannot do the things that you would. So it's the lust against the spirit, big S spirit speaking about the Holy Spirit, and the spirit against the spirit. So there's this constant war inside of us, you know what I mean? Which is a good sign that you're actually saved. Because if you weren't saved, there wouldn't be a war within you. If you're fighting and you're convicted about what you're doing, it means that the Spirit of the Lord is still working with you, you know what I mean? Still straining with you, still trying to fight and help you win this war, you know what I mean? Because that's God's will for us. But if you be led of the spirit, you're not under the law. All right, now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. So this is the works of the flesh. So anybody that reads this list and is doing these things, your flesh is stronger than the spirit, or your spirit, small s, your spiritual man, your body, soul, and spirit. And then if you are walking in these things, it means that you are not doing well. OK, and that the flesh is much stronger than the spirit. And you've got to be very careful about that because you can be totally overwhelmed. You know what I mean? And I'm won over by the flesh. And it's not demons. I mean, you know, we talk to so many Christians and they want deliverance. Can we come for deliverance? And it's not deliverance they need. They need to overcome the works of the flesh. You're dealing with flesh, not with demons. Demons can use things of the flesh, but they cannot, all the sin always starts in you, not with the demon. So I saw this one minister give this example. He said, Adultery, for instance, the guy sitting in church and the woman sitting across there and they start to look at each other, you know, no demons involved. Then lust grows between the two. You start meeting no demons involved. But the demons see it. They're watching the church, too. They're seeing you two look at each other like that and carrying on, you know. And what they then do once you start making contact is they enter and join and make it worse. they actually join the situation. So like anger, another example, two guys come out of a church service and the one guy scraped the other guy's car by mistake or whatever and caused a big gash on his car now. And these two come out, they're angry with each other, they start now shouting at each other, no demons involved. We're gonna learn these are works of the flesh. And they start shouting, they even get into a fight outside the church hall. No demons involved. But during the fight, the enemy enters into one of them and he picks up a spade lying there and he hits the other with the spade, kills him. Now demons got the ball. You see, so we can never, like a cricketer who kept blaming the devil made me do it. You know, he betrayed our country. You know, the devil made me do it. No, the devil didn't make you do it. You chose to do it. And the devil helped you later on. to get more and more into a trap. But we've got to learn that sin starts with us, you know? And so we look at the list of it, you know? Adultery, sleeping around somebody else. It's works of the flesh, sleeping fornication, sleeping around outside of marriage, work of the flesh. Uncleanness, which is porn and stuff like that. The devil's not making you do it. You are doing it. It's work of the flesh. The good thing that if we know what the problem is, we can fix it. Do you understand what I'm saying? If we're constantly going to the minister and saying, please can, and we have this a lot, please, can you pray for me? I'm struggling with this and I'm struggling with that. And they're expecting a deliverance and to be easily cast off so that they don't have to have that attraction anymore. It's a work of the flesh. You've got to deal with it as a work of the flesh. If you don't deal with it as a work of the flesh, you're not going to get victory. Because the devil's not even in you. He's like, you can cast him out till you bleed the face. There's no one there. It's just you. Okay, so uncleanness, lascivious, it's an intense sexual desire. These are works of the flesh. It starts in your own heart, in your own body, in your own mind. Idolatry is a work of the flesh. I had to deal with this one Christian in a complex that I led to the Lord millions of years back. In fact, she did have demons then, delivered, came out of it. I find her now all these years, she's got things of Buddha in her house. I like where to go to do some work. I'm like, what are you doing? Have you lost your mind? No, no, God allows me to have these, you know, and we had words and suffice to say, we don't talk anymore. But, you know, I mean, idolatry is a work of the flesh. Whatever you is more important to you than God. Even your family is idolatry. If your job is more important, if your money is more important to you, if your child is more important than Jesus Christ, you have an idol in your life. and you have made that person an idol in your life. So idols aren't always old, wicked things. It's what's most important in your life. That's an idolatry, you know, as a Christian. Witchcraft, next one, is a work of the flesh. It starts in the flesh, and then demons get involved. You know, I've had to deal with this a lot in the ministry, you know. There are two types of witches in a church. Ones that know they are, and ones that don't know they are. I've had to deal with that just recently, not in this congregation, but in a previous one, with a witch who doesn't know she's a witch, but using all the techniques of witchcraft in our church. manipulation, domination, trying to make people believe in prophecies, in dreams, and telling people she's got dreams and talking nonsense. You know what I mean? And that's witchcraft. There are witches in the church. You know what I mean? And the witches aren't always females. You can have male witches too. But witchcraft is not a work of demons first. It's a work of the flesh. It starts in your own heart. And I think a lot of people don't realize that, you know? That trying to dominate people, trying to get people to do things according to your will or the way you see things is witchcraft. You're guilty of witchcraft in the church before the Lord, you know? Hatred is a work of the flesh, starts in our own hearts, burns in our own hearts, and then devils will add to that. Okay, variance, what's the, who's got another translation there? I used to remember what it was, it's like arguments, emulations is strong forms of jealousy. Charles Finney said, if you harbor that spirit of jealousy, Because there is a devil, it's even a green devil, we know it in the deliverance ministries, of envy. Phineas said, God will never forgive you if you harbor that spirit. Okay, emulations, wrath, extreme forms of anger. It's a work of the flesh. I see it all the time in the Christian faith. You know, a leader that I had in the one church, He couldn't control himself, you know? He's talking to me on the phone while he's driving. He's telling me he's got this problem. Somebody cuts him off. He's flicking him out, Bru, over the phone. I'm like, what the heck, Bru? You know, so while he's talking to me, he's looking me up in this card in the phone. It's like I'm crazy, you know. You've got to overcome these things. Wrath is a strong form of anger. It's not just getting a little bit cheesed with somebody, you know what I mean? It's a strong form of anger. strife, causing trouble, seditions, you know what I mean? Trying to bring others down around you. Heresies, false doctrine. They're not demonic. They are works of your flesh. They start in your own mind, false doctrines. And what we notice nowadays is that many Christians have another Jesus. You know, not the Jesus of the Bible. So when you try and talk to them and say, but the Jesus I believe in wouldn't do that or say that. Now they've made an idol because they've made a new Jesus. You understand what I'm saying? You can't say that. We obey the law as a God's word, as it is blatantly and without any question. We don't try and, you know, change it. That's a heresy. It's a false doctrine. envies, envies other people. Murders is a work of the flesh. It starts in your flesh. You know, we're telling you about that story now about the guy, they start the fight, they get into a fight, and in the fight, the devil climbs into the one and kills the other guy. Do you know how many, I was in prison with a lot of murderers. Ask them what happened. Almost all of them said, I don't know. I just got so mad. I came in there, I saw my wife with another man, and I just lost it. And then can't even remember what he did. See, the devil then got involved. But murder starts in our own heart. And I want to tell you, if you hate your brother, if you hate somebody, you are, the Bible says in 1 John, you are a murderer in God's eyes. You're guilty of murder. Because when we hate somebody in the spiritual realm, the guy can be in Australia or whatever. The hatred crosses. There's no time and space in the spiritual realm. Our hatred crosses those waters and binds that person. And that person can often die of cancer because of your hatred. You killed him. But you, too, will die of cancer. I want to tell you, you, too, will die like that. You know, so murders in the scriptures is also hating your brother. It doesn't say you like a murderer in John. One John, it says you are a murderer in God's eyes. You're going to kill that person. So they're having a deliverance session one day, this pastor and his wife, this woman, she was full of ho-ho's. And the first thing a deliverance minister's gonna ask you is this, have you forgiven everybody? Okay, let's go through, let's talk your life through. There it is, I can't forgive my brother. He did something, telling me this woman, it's true story. This woman tells it, I can't forgive my brother. He really hurt me. We haven't spoken together for years. He's in Australia, I'm here, but I absolutely cannot forgive what he did to me. I don't know, I can't remember what it was. So in the end, the pastor could not get her to release that. So he drew a line in the floor and he said to her, okay, I want you to jump over that line. As a sign of you forgiving your brother. Well, she went and listened. In the end, she badly wanted to serve the Lord, she jumped over the line. You know, and she said, I forgive him. She prayed. You don't always feel the forgiveness, but you've got to take a decision to forgive that person. The feeling will come later. So she wrestled through with it. She phones the church the next morning. She says, you won't know what happened this morning, early this morning, I got a call. She says, you won't believe it was my brother. What did he phone? He phoned and he said, sis, can we not just bury the hatchet? Didn't know anything about it. She set him free. You bind people. You know, Christians are powerful. We have the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead in us. You do that to somebody, you release power. You understand what I'm saying? You just shake your fist like that. And in the spiritual realm, you shook a fist. That taxi driver, in your rage, you released power against that guy. You actually hit him. And he drives around the corner, around the corner, has a head-on crash, kills himself and all the people that are inside. You killed him. You know? And we've got to be very careful about these things. You know what I mean? That your anger and rage, when, if you're a born-again Christian, you have authority in the kingdom of Christ and you unleash anger and rage against somebody, you can actually make them sick. And cancer, disease, come in them like that. That's why we have to have self-control. As men of God and women of God, we've got to have control. If you don't have control, you will harm people all around you. There's one psychopath in prison that was timing me for a long time. He'd done 15 years in the psychopath section, was released, killed people, came back again the rest of his life. And he was in my bungalow. And he didn't like me because I was a Christian. He hated me. And it was a long time he was timing me. I could see it, you know? Anyway, we were playing a soccer game, you know? And inside we had the half little small fields inside the wagon wheel, you know? And we used to play soccer there. And I was marking him, you know? And his name was Donald Ryan. And I kept blocking him, blocking him. He couldn't get through me. And he got, you know, he got clever with me. And so he came again. I took his feet out from under him and he fell. in front of all his gangster friends. So up he stood, and he's a good boxer. And there we fought, toe to toe. I got my nose broken. The whole top of my nose went into my eye over here. It's a good fighter, you know? Anyway, at the end of it, I had to go to the doctor. They pushed it straight and said, okay, there you go, now back again. And within a week or so, the Lord struck the duck. He lost the use of half his body. Why? We don't just hit people physically. We hit them in the spirit too. Do you understand the responsibility we carry? He lost his complete vegetable from this side on. The whole prison came running to me. Wherever they saw me, they said, hey, did you see what happened to Donald Ryan? Because that was public on the field. You know, they said, did you see what happened to Donald Ryan? Did you see what happened to him? They knew the Lord had struck him. But it wasn't just the Lord that struck him. I hit him. You see, and we don't just hit physically because we have a powerful anointing and a power of God within us. If we can pray that people can get devils cast out of them, which we do, we can cast out devils. If we can pray for the sick and they get healed, we have that power and authority upon our lives. You cannot misuse it. You cannot read that. You have to learn self-control. You have to learn the fruit of the spirit, or else we will utterly devastate people around us. Shout at your wife. Me too. I could see, you know, and God had to deal with me this, because I get angry, then I tune her, you know, and then she's like sick for three days. We carry God's authorities, pips on our shoulders. But we're very careful how we exercise that authority. You know, you need to think before you get angry at people, especially lesser Christians. You don't just shout at them, you actually damage them. And so we've got to understand that, you know, we can't do, we've got to grow up in the Lord, you know. So envies, murders is a work of the flesh. It's not a work of demons. Drunkenness is a work of the flesh. Can't say the devil made me do it. Revelings partings, that's the translation of revelings, going to parties, enjoying parties is a work of the flesh. So why does he give us this list? Because the Christians can actually stop blaming the devil for things that they're doing. And fix the things that we are doing in the flesh, because the things of the flesh you have to fix according to the flesh. There are ways of fixing things according to the flesh, and there are ways of fixing things according to the demonic. if it's a demonic thing in your life, okay? So that helps us, that list, you know, on how to overcome this. And he says, revelings and such luck. Now listen very carefully to this. Listen to this, because we never read this in the church, do we? Okay, everything's in such luck. Of the witch I tell you before, as I've told you in times past, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. You're not going to heaven with your porn. You're not going to heaven with your rock. You're not going to heaven with any of these things that we're doing here. You're not going. Paul says it. I warn you. You shall not inherit the kingdom of God. You're not going to. You're not going with that because when we die, However you die, that's how you are in the next role. You understand that? There's no change. So if you die committing adultery, you haven't been forgiven, you haven't asked, it's a death penalty sin. There's death penalty sins and sins that don't have death penalties. Okay? That's a death penalty sin. You are not going to heaven. You just go straight down into the pits. Paul said, no drunkard, fornicator, adulterer shall enter the kingdom. And I want to tell you something. So we need to be careful that we fix these things while we can. A drunken guy, if he dies in an accident drunk, on the other side he's drunk, but not nice drunk. He's still drunk, he will die. If you're a Christian and you're drunk and you die, you're going to the pit. You can't, no drunkard shall enter in the kingdom of God. You don't get suddenly forgiven and you arrive in heaven, cooling off on the streets, they're walking, hey Owens, I made it, where's the bar? I need a liquor dog. You're not going. And I don't know why we don't read this stuff anymore in our scriptures. But if we as Christians don't deal with these things in our life, we're not going to make it. We're supposed to die as overcomers. All the promises of God are to overcome us. Paul says, I've kept the faith. I'm ready to be offered now. He's done this time. We've got to go out in victory. And we can't walk around with these things in our life. You know, and so I've told you before, as I've told you in times past, in other books of the scriptures, Paul has warned us, okay, that they which do adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lascivious adultery, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, strife, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, endings, murders, drunkenness, and partings. If you're doing those poor things, you're not going into the kingdom of God. And I tell you, you know, we need to wake up first. We have to change our lives. So, verse 22 says, but, how do we know if somebody's a Christian? Because I want to tell you, I've dealt with men in cloth for three or four years now. And I was just saying to my brother, half of them, I doubt their salvation. Why? Why can I say that? Because the Bible tells us, the fruit of the Spirit. So the fruit, big S, not small s, our human spirit, the fruit of God's spirit in a Christian's life is this. Love. God's love. You manifest God's love, and it's visible for all to see, okay? Joy. I've had to deal with some of these guys, they're the most miserable sods I've ever seen in my life. I actually want to kick him between the pockets. And nobody wants to be like them. Sucking lemons. I am so sinful, man, you know. I'm a terrible person. But the Bible says we're born again, we're a new creation. Old things have passed, old things have become new. But I'm most terrible than that. They carry on like this. So joy is an absolute of Christian. I don't see joy in many Christians, I'm telling you that. I see most miserable lemon suckers in the faith. So the fruit of the spirit, are you a Christian? Can we just stand back and we watch you? Have you got love? In other words, you love people around you, lay down your lives for them. Have you got joy, peace? You're calm. You don't freak out every two seconds. Long suffering. That means you put up with other people's rubbish for a long time before you actually get cross. You're suffering, but you're suffering long. You understand what I'm saying? You're not just getting annoyed at the people. Gentleness. There's a gentleness about you. Goodness. You don't do evil stuff. You know what I mean? You have faith. You believe God for things. Not every minute we're coming with a stretcher, barriers to the Christians. Put them on the stretcher, run them to the hospital now. Oh, my life's falling apart. Fruit of the Spirit is faith. We actually believe. How are you doing, brother? No, it's not going well, but I'm trusting God. That's what we should be saying. Can you pray for me? You know, that's how we should talk. You know? Meekness, meekness is not weakness, because Jesus was weak, and he took a whip to the ribbon, those money changers, and drew them out, you know? Meekness is the opposite of pride. You know, that we don't think we're something when we're not. Temperance, that we have got control over our food passions, over all the different things in our life that there's control, we temperance. You know about it, when you send the Christians to the food table and they're just like, like Pac-Man. That's not temperance. It's just one, is to call him in prison. He's a one, one. That's how they used to talk, you know, cause a grubby, we call him a grubby. Science says that as a grubby, he's a one, one, and then they carry on. He goes and eats everything that's left over, you know? He goes and eats, you know what I mean? Like man, that's not right there. Temperance, meekness, temperance, and against such, there's no law. So the snapshot of a Christian is that, you know what I mean, that you're actually not the most miserable sod we've ever met in our life. You're telling others about Christ and they like look at you and think we don't actually want to be like you. You know, you're just a miserable sod, you know? And so that's what the scripture says. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with their affections and lusts. In other words, if you are Christians, you have no known sin controlling your life. Nothing. If I had to ask you now what controls your life, you'd say nothing. Not porn, not swearing, not talking nonsense, not doing all of these sins that we're talking about. Anger, unforgiveness, things like that. It should have no power over you as a Christian. That doesn't mean we don't sin. We get up every morning and you don't plan to sin that day because there is no sin that's got power over you. You commit your day to the Lord, but then as you go down, maybe you get into a barney with somebody. But you never planned that. That's not willful sin. That just happens now, it went down. That can happen to any of us. We have to make it right. and repent of it, and then it's fine with God. That's not willful sin. God is against willful sin. When you're getting up in the morning, you know you shouldn't be doing something, and you're still gonna go and do it. You're in grave danger in Hebrews 10. For if we sin willfully after we receive knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fear for looking for judgment. You know, so willful sin, we must get out of our lives. Like some Christians you meet, you know, and they're talking to them on the Monday, and they can't wait for Friday because they're going out drooling with the oaks. That's, you know you're gonna sin Friday, you're planning it, and you know, you're pretending God doesn't know. You know, I'm coming to the Bible study, I'll see you there, I'm coming to the whatever meetings, I'll see you there, but in his heart, he can't wait to go out with his friends. That's wolfism. That's dangerous. One, I remember seeing the story of this one gunman. He was with Raynald Bonkey, you know, he was at, Raynald Bonkey was preaching in Africa somewhere, and this white oak came running up the aisle during the service, crying and crying, and he fell down at Raynald Bonkey in the front there, and cried and cried, and they wanted to help him, he said, no, no, leave them, and he carried on with his message, and afterwards he went down there and he said to the guy, you know, what's the problem, you know? He said, I was a Christian my whole life, you know, and I just, there was this old bar I used to go to. And I, every day I'd drive past it or whatever, and I didn't, I wouldn't, I didn't, I refused to go in there again. But one day I just felt like I really wanted to go. And he said, I said to the Lord, just, just this once, man, I want to go. And he said he went inside, and he said when he came outside, God wasn't there anymore. And he said, he told Rainer Bunke, I've been searching for God for seven years. I've lost God. Seven years he'd been trying to get back. You know, we've got to be careful. I had a guy inside prison who's Johnny Pugh. Johnny Pugh was probably the best fighter in prison. He was a hands-to-hand combat like no one. Everybody was frightened of him. But originally he got prisoned for 15 years murder. He murdered somebody. Then he found Christ in that sentence. He became a Christian. And a very good evangelist, a great evangelist actually. Then he got released and he went on the evangelism, he's telling me the story, he went on the evangelism trail for two years. I mean, it's like a preacher. You know, and he worked on the evangelism circuit, and then he said, Anthony, I made a mistake. I married an unsaved girl, which is against scripture. He said, I married an unsaved girl. And he said, you know, she kept on trying to get me to go to these jewels, and I kept saying no, I kept saying no, I kept saying that until one day. He said, okay, I'll come with you to the disco. And he said, I never came back. And he said, one day when I was walking out of this place, he stopped his evangelist, he won countless souls to Christ. He said, when I was walking across the street, I heard a voice from heaven say to me, Johnny Pugh, I will judge you with everything that you have judged others with. The same judgment that you have warned others, I'm going to judge you with. He's back in prison now for the rest of his life. You know what I mean? And, you know, he said to me, he just lost it all. You know, he couldn't repent anymore. Hebrews six, from verse two. It's impossible for those who have done those five things to be able to repent if they fall away. You know, he used to come into our meetings, he'd say, hey, Anthony, can I just preach a bit German? Well, no one's going to argue with Johnny P, but anyway. So, no, but I liked him, you know, he was a nice guy, if he weren't on the wrong side of it. And then I'd say, sure, he preached at every Oak City that gives their life to Christ. But he himself was lost. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. You just got the same gift till the day you die. You know, and so, you know, we've got to take these things seriously. They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with their affections and lusts. So how do we know a Christian? He's got love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, okay? He's got those. He may not be perfect in all those areas, but he's going to have that, okay? And if he's a Christian, he's crucified the flesh with the affections and the lusts. He's no more bound to porn, adultery, fornication, drunkenness, smoking, all those things are gone. Gambling, you're free. That's how we know a Christian. Older Christian, I'm talking about a brand new Christian, I'm talking about older Christians. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Let us not be disserious of vainglory, provoking one another and ending one another. It ends off there. But how long have I been going now? 45 minutes. Okay, so there's the test for us as Christians, you know what I mean? I don't know why people have got one foot in the kingdom and one foot in the world. You are the most miserable human being on the earth. You're trying to obey God, but you want the things of the world. You're going to the pits anyway. Take your foot out the kingdom of God and go get drunk and fornicate and adulterate until you're blue in the face. You're going to the pits anyway. But don't pretend you're a Christian and do this in two kingdoms. You're not saved. You're not going to heaven. Why are you doing it? You know how many people I've had to tell that? You're always here with your nonsense. Then go, go back to the world because you're not saved. What are you doing? You're hoping somehow that God's going to forgive you for these things that you are not stopping. Go back to the world, go get drunk, go jaw. Maybe you live a couple of years, be the fraughtest human being on earth and then go to the pit for the rest of your life. Then you lived. Do that rather. But don't sit with one foot in the kingdom and one in the world. You're lost anyway. It's madness. It's either all or nothing with God. And it's a good thing to give all to God, I think. So that's the teachings on works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. And notice it doesn't say fruits of the spirit. It's one fruit. All of those things must be in your life. You can't say, well, the guy's got, the Buddhist has got some temperance, you know, and he's got, you know, he's got a long suffering. Now you must have faith as well in Christ. You know, you must have all of those things in some form in his life. You understand what I'm saying? You can't just say, well, I have some of those. No, then you're not Christ. All right, so that's the challenge to us today, and may the Lord give us the ability and mercy to be able to overcome these things, you know, and to be the Christians he's called us to be. And we should call out one another, you know, and say to one another, you're not doing well, but I can see you backsliding. and help others to stay on this track. Amen.