Overcome Human Nature Until the End

In the book of Revelation, brethren, we continuously hear about, particularly in chapter 2 and chapter 3, which is the letters to the churches, we see the centers here that are years to years, very near. And we all have years to years. So Yah is clearly talking about spiritually speaking. We can see in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, it says, let's for instance look at Revelation 2 verse 7, it says, He who has it here, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And then it follows with an amazing promise. And you see that also repeated in verse 11 and verse 17, He that has it year to year, do something, very specific, one thing which was actually mentioned in the sermon head, and then there'll be great rewards, great rewards following that. So the question we have is, are we really doing that thing, which is nothing else but overcome? Overcome, because it just says, to him who overcomes. And in fact, through every single one of these letters, it says, to him that overcomes. So we are called to overcome. Now to overcome means to conquer, to defeat, to prevail. It means to subdue, to triumph. So the question is, overcome what? Overcome what? Today, brethren, I want to focus on four pools of our human nature that we need to overcome. And I'm going to mention the four. So it actually, they stay in our minds continuously. So I'm going to mention them a number of times as I go through it. And they are, I mean, they are others, but the four that I'm focusing on is pride, jealousy, lust, and greed. Pride, jealousy, lust, and greed. Maybe if you are creative, maybe you want to create a little rhyme or a little song about pride, jealousy, lust, and greed. And then share it with me at some time in the future, because it really is like four pillars of overcoming human nature that we need to be working on. Again, it's not only once, but it is an area for us to work on.

Brethren, we live in a world, we live in a world that is full of problems. And you know, we have created these problems ourselves. You know, we've created the problems ourselves. It's our human nature, our own pride, jealousy, lust, and greed of people that have created these problems. You look, for instance, at Isaiah 8 verse 7, it says, you have planted wind. And what have we reaped? We reaped a storm. And that's what we're doing. We are planting wind. You know, pride. Pride is a lot of wind, you know. Jealousy, lust, and greed. And we're reaping problems. Not just wind, but we're reaping a tornado, spiritually speaking. So what is going on? Why is it that it is so important that we need to overcome these pools of human nature?

I always like to focus on the big picture. Just very briefly on the big picture, and I don't want to take time, but you and I know that we are a very small group of people. We are a small flock. You know, Christ said, you are a small flock.

And we know also scriptures that say, many are called, but few are chosen. In scriptures we know that parable in Matthew 22, that talks about at the end of the parable, says, many are called, but few are chosen. And quite often we refer to that.

One of the things that sometimes we forget to mention is that this parable in Matthew 22 is a parable about a wedding.

Isn't that interesting? And it says, many are called to the wedding, and they say, I don't want to go, I'm not interested in that. They don't reply to the invite and things like that.

But few are chosen to be at the wedding.

The analogy is, brethren, that many are called to be at the wedding of Christ, but few are chosen by God to be at that wedding.

We are going to be reigning with Christ, but few are chosen. So, what are we talking about here?

Well, you and I know that God has a plan to bring the whole of humanity, or as many as not rejected.

God's plan is to have all humanity as children of God in the kingdom of God.

That's the ultimate God. But in the meantime, what he's doing is he's preparing a small group of people that are going to be with Christ Christ comes to rule and indeed to start saving this world, because no politician or no nation or no group of people are going to save this mess that we eat.

Only Christ, thank God, is coming. But he is going to govern the world with, let's call it, a cabinet.

And members of the government that are going to work with him and under him, they have been selected. Specifically selected by him.

In other words, chosen. So many are called, but few are chosen to be amongst those that are going to be ruling with him because they will be chosen. Why?

Because they are not corrupt. Because they are going to rule under Christ. And they will be righteous judges.

How beautiful it will be in God's kingdom when the rulers will be righteous, where judgment and justice will be executed correctly.

In this world, who are the leaders of this world? They are elected. Yes, they are elected. They are chosen by whom? By people that go and vote and they elect them.

But in God's government, you and I will not be voting who's going to be chosen to be in the first resurrection. No.

God will select and elect, select and choose those. And those, as we know, are called chosen and faithful.

And in other words, they are chosen by God and they remain faithful till the end.

And that is how it ties in to what I'm talking about today, that we have to overcome human nature till the end.

And the four points of human nature I'm talking about are none other than pride, jealousy, lust and greed.

So that's what we have to do. And we have to prepare. We have to be prepared to rule. We have to learn to rule.

Now, many people may say, how can I prepare to rule?

You know, do I have to go to a special school or something like that? I'm just a simple plain housewife, other, or simple layman in the church. Who am I?

You know, Proverbs 16 verse 32 is a very interesting scripture. And I want you to look at it because it gives us a very, very powerful hint.

Proverbs 16 verse 32. It reads, He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And he who rules the spirit, then he who takes the city. So who takes the city is luck. And who rules the mighty?

It's people that have, there are rulers, there are governors, there are people in positions of authority. Who is better than those?

He that is slow to anger controls his emotions and rules his spirit.

In other words, overcomes his human nature of pride, jealousy, lust, and greed.

And so we have a training round. We are brethren through a training camp. We are going through a boot camp in this life. And what are we doing? We are overcoming our human nature.

And brethren, we all have human nature. We all have tendencies of pride. We all have tendencies of jealousy. We all have tendencies of lust. We all have tendencies of greed. And you know this nature, that's who we are. And that's why quite often when I counsel people for baptism, I say, you don't just need to repent of what you have done, but you need to repent of what you are.

You and I are flesh and blood with human carnal tendencies, drives, strengths built in us. A law like Paul mentioned, I've got a law in my members that wars against the law of the mind. I've got a law. It's there. And I'm focusing today on four of those points of that law, pride, jealousy, lust and greed. So I think by the end of today, you will know what I'm talking about, pride, jealousy, lust and greed. But anyway, so let's focus on these four areas of the carnal mind of the human nature. The first one that I want to start with is pride. I could also put in brackets things like vanity or putting self first. You know, that's related with pride.

I could put it like the worship of self, making a God out of me, myself and I. That's another way of putting it. In fact, that is, to me, the way I understand, the main cause of Satan's downfall.

He thought he was a great guy. I mean, after all, he had been created by God with such wisdom, with such beauty. Hey, I'm full of myself. And that's why, let's look at it in Isaiah. You know the scripture very well in Isaiah 14. Isaiah 14, starting in verse 12, it says, a number of times he says, I. Let's look at that Isaiah 14, starting in verse 12. It says, how have you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, how you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations. For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. Number two, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. Number three, I will sit on the mount of the congregation of the forest sides of the north. Number four, I will ascend above the height of the clouds. Number five, I will be like the most high.

You know, Brethren, he clearly did not have a problem of a low self-image. Really, he went a problem of pride, of thinking himself that he was such great God. And indeed, he had a lot of abilities, no questions about it.

But God has blessed us all with our own individual talents, our own abilities. But we must not allow these things to become big in our minds. We must not allow it to become vain. We must not allow to have this attitude of, hey, I deserve a bit more now. I deserve a bit more because, look at me, I'm so good.

This is followed up in Ezekiel 28. Let's just look at Ezekiel 28 verse 17. Ezekiel 28 verse 17. Your heart was lifted high. In other words, he became vain. He became proud because of your beauty, because of his wisdom, because of you who was just so smart. He says, you corrupted your wisdom. In other words, the great wisdom that God gave him, he became twisted, for the sake of your splendor. For God says, I cast you to the ground. So, Yahweh has what Satan's problem was. The problem of, let's put it in another way, a big head. He developed a big head. Armed a big shot. Everybody needs to bow down to me. You see, pride is something which is very dangerous. Look at Proverbs 16 verse 18. You know this Proverbs, once we read it, you say, oh yeah, of course. Proverbs 16 verse 18 says, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall.

Well, if you don't want to fall, if you don't want to be destroyed, we need to become humble.

You know the story of, you know, around about the start of the year. You know, it's about a month, as we heard in the announcements, five weeks. It's about a month before Passover. Right. It's a month before. You know.

Maybe you don't remember, but as soon as I mention it will trigger in your mind. That a month before Passover is what the Jews celebrate Purim, which is the story of Haman.

Remember the story of him? It's actually in Esther. So we're going to go to the book of Esther.

Esther. And we're going to look at chapter six. Esther, chapter six.

The story, basically, you know, I'm not going to go through the whole story, but you know, there was this individual, Haman, that had a problem with the big head. You know, he was proud.

And he got to a point where Mordecai was not bowing down to him because he put the sea on, says everybody must bow down to the king.

And Haman said, well, Mordecai is not doing that. And it was all part of a plot. All part of a plot. All part of a scheme.

And then, you know, there's a story. The Jews, as a nation, are going to be exterminated. And then there's a story of Queen Esther, that she goes through.

So it's a lovely story to read. And it actually is good to read that story during the Spirit because the delivery came about 30 days before Passover. So it's very a problem for this time of the year.

And you know that the story then goes that Mordecai was not bowing down to heaven. And he then became very angry.

And you read that in Esther 6. And it says, so Haman came in, and the king, because the story now progresses, and then the king realized that remember that Mordecai had done an action to protect him when there was like some rebels trying to destroy the king. And then he realized, oh, and in the meantime Haman was very cross and then built up a place to hang Mordecai and all these things. So the story is very fascinating.

Then Haman comes in, and the king had had the stream, and then he asks Haman, what shall be done for the man who the king delights to honor?

So the king was thinking, what shall I do to Mordecai? But he didn't tell Haman that it was to Mordecai. He just says, hey, what do you think shall I do to the man that the king wants to honor? And Haman thinks, well, who else could it be but me, myself and I? I'm such a great guy! I'm the king's vibrant! So therefore, oh, Yah is what it is. And what is it? He said, who would the king delight to honor more than me?

And Haman answered the king, he said, for the man who the king delights to honor, let the royal robe be brought which the king has worn. So it was dressed me with the king's clothes.

Right? Let me ride the king's horse. Like today would be that black car called the beast, whatever it's called, or the president, you know, or on Air Force One, you know, let me go on Air Force One.

On which the king has written, which has a royal crest placed on his head. So let me give myself a royal crown. So he says, great! You see, Haman wanted to kill Bortaakar. He wanted to hang him.

This was based in pride or in his own desires. But what happened? He fell down before a pride, you know, destruction follows. That's what he is. And that's what God resists. God resists the proud.

Look at James chapter four. James chapter four, verse five and six. James chapter four, verse five and six. And he has talked about where do wars come from amongst yourselves. Why? And interesting, here in James chapter four, brethren, it says, where do wars and fights come from among you? Among you. It's talking to brethren in the church. It's talking to brethren in the church. And then he goes on, you know, he goes on about what is causing this. But look a bit further in verse five and six. Do you think that the Spirit says in fine, the Spirit which dwells in us yearns jealousy? The Spirit that dwells in us yearns jealousy?

You see, Yah is the second point of human nature. The human spirit, the spirit of man in us, it's not talking about God's Holy Spirit. It's God our spirit that dwells in us, yearns jealousy. So Yah, we have pride and jealousy, which is the next point that I'm going to go through, which is, and also there's lust. You read there in verse two of James chapter four. Your lust. So Yah, we're talking about these pillars of human nature, pride, jealousy, lust, greed.

And look at what he says a little bit further in verse six. But he, that's God, gives more grace. Therefore he says God reserves the proud but gives grace to the humble. So the very first thing we're going to work on is being humble. You know very well the Beatitudes, which start in Matthew five verse three.

And the very first Beatitude in Matthew five verse three. Okay, let's go there to Matthew five verse three. So we actually wrote it correctly. Matthew five verse three. It's the very first Beatitude. It says, blessed are the poor in spirit.

It was the humble. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God. Those are the ones that can inherit God's kingdom. The poor in spirit. The humble. Christ started his preaching, in a sense, his basic principles. The sermon on the Mount is like Christ's extra clarification of God's laws and God's commandments, putting them into spiritual context. And he starts the basis for the Beatitudes, the very foundational attitude upon which all the other beautiful attitudes are built upon. The very foundational attitude is humility. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

And all the others are built on top of that. You take humility out, all the others crash. So humility is so important. It's so important. It's one major area for all of us to work on because we've got to stay humble.

We've got to stay humble. We heard of the sermonette, for instance, of how richness can be a problem. But the tendency of richness usually is that people are not humble. I'm not saying all, but, you know, we've got to be humble. We're humble. We're big. We're teachable. We're gentle. And all the other things come with it. All the other things build on top of the humility. And so that is point number one.

Let's call it all these four pillars that I'm going through. And the next one that I want to go through is jealousy. Because in a sense, it's an outgrowth of love for self, of me, myself and I, because we become jealous or envious of others. And that is a big problem when we look at why there's wars amongst you, because you're last and you ever you want things. It's for yourself. Do you remember when when Paul was preaching in different cities, he first went to the synagogues to the Jews?

Let's look at one specific example of that in Acts 13. Starting in verse 42, we see he's going to Antioch and then he's speaking to the Jews in the synagogue. So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now, interesting. It doesn't say preaching to them next Sunday. This was like some 20-odd years or more after Christ's death.

So they were keeping the Sabbath. But none of the list. That's not the issue. The point is the Gentiles said, hey, I want to hear more. So 43. So when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and the Baparossa lines followed Paul and Barnabas who were speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. In verse 44, the next Sabbath, almost the whole city, can you believe the whole was full of people? And it says, almost all city came together to hear the word of God.

I can just visualize. There is the hall, the doors are open, and people are standing outside the doors and outside everything. They all want to hear the multitude of people out there trying to hear what Paul is saying. Now, look at verse 45. Now, when the Jews saw the Mounted Jews, what was their emotional reaction? Instead of saying, what a blessing! Yes, so many people want to follow God. What was their reaction? They were filled with envy. You see this jealousy, envy. They were envious. Why? Because this guy is drawing more people than we, the Pharisees, are drawing. Wow, we're jealous. We're envious of this. And therefore, they started contradicting and blaspheming, and they start other things.

But the source, yeah, was this jealousy, this envy of the success that Paul was having all these people, and they were jealous. This how that became a source of the vision, jealousy. We see you. We're reading 1 Corinthians chapter 3, when Paul wrote to the church at Corinthians chapter 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 3.

He's saying, you people are still carnal. You members of God's church, that was Paul, writing to the Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 3, for you are still carnal. You still have a strong pull of human nature for where there are envy. You see, there was envy. There was jealousy. You see, what's the problem?

The problem is, I'm important. I should have more people coming, and I'm not having, therefore, I'm jealous, because they're following the preaching of Paul, not the preaching of the Pharisees or whatever. So it's the spirit of jealousy, of envy.

And it says, for where there is envy, there are envy, strife, and divisions. There's this envy, and there's this arguing about things. There's divisions, splits. You're carnal. You're behaving like men, unconverted people. Let's go back to James, chapter 3. James chapter 3, God's wisdom in James chapter 3. This is a very, very strong section of Scripture in James chapter 3.

Let's start reading in verse 13, who is wise and understanding among you. The rims show by good conduct that his works are done in the nikvos of wisdom. Mikvos is like an attribute that has humility in it, but it also is teachable. It's meek, it's malleable, it's vulnerable, like clay that is vulnerable, it's meek, it's teachable, it's pliable. And that obviously requires humility. But it says the works are done in the nikvos of wisdom. So there is a wisdom.

There has nikvos in it. But if you have better envy, but if you have jealousy and self-seeking, with me, myself and I, in your heart, do not boast and lie against truth. See, because that's the root, that then all other problems come from there. This wisdom is not from God, from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. Yeah, it's our human nature, carnal mind, that is holding us, and sighted is kind of stirring it up. Verse 16, for envy, when there is this jealousy, when there is this envy and self-seeking exists, what do we have? Confusion and every evil thing are there. But you see, the wisdom from above is not bad. That's why then it says why there is wars amongst you. You see, we've got to be careful that envy, that jealousy, is not good. We've got to be aware of that. Do you realize that envy is actually one of the problems that gives us conditions of being unhealthy? Well, look at Proverbs 14 verse 30. Proverbs 14 verse 30. Proverbs 14 verse 30. A sound heart is life to the body. In other words, a mind at peace, a mind which is well balanced. It's very healthy to us, but envy is rotamous to the bones. Envy, jealousy creates stress, and stress, you know, is one of the worst things that we can have. Envy is rottenness to the bones. Whatever. We need to be aware of these problems of human nature. Look at 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. We're going to start reading from verse 1. Therefore, lay aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking. We need to lay aside these attributes of human nature, one of which is envy. That's just jealousy. As newborn babies desire the pure bulk of the word that you may grow thereby. In other words, as converted Christians with God's Holy Spirit, with God's help, we need to strive in being humble and have a different mind, a different spirit, not envious. You see, God is very kind to us. God is very loving to all of us, and God wants us to become better people. Look at a bit later in verse 11. It says, Beloved, I beg you, us soul-journers and pilgrims. We are soul-journers and pilgrims in this earth abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. So now we're talking about pride, jealousy, and lust. So these three and greed. And it says, having your conduct honorable amongst the Gentiles when they speak against you as evil doers, when they may, by your good works, which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. We need to overcome these carnal desires and problems. And therefore, we get to this next one, which is lust. We need to put away lust. And what is lust? Lust is like covet. Covet is a desire of what is not lawful. It's against one of the Ten Commandments, the last one, as you know, Ashulam of covet. It's an un-lawful desire. But lust is like something more. It's a very intense desire. It's coveting with even more intense, more intensity. So look at James chapter 1 verse 12 through 15. James chapter 1 verse 12 through 15. Blessed is the man who had your temptation. You know, we tempt it. Who tempts us? It's our own human nature. Think about it. It's our own human nature. Our own human desires of pride, jealousy, lust, and greed. And these bullets, bullets, that's what it says here. If we endure temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. If we keep working against this pull, against this thing that pushes us the wrong way, we just gotta overcome it. We gotta be overcoming it. Let no one say, when he's tempted, I'm tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. So these temptations don't come from God, come from our own natural desires, human nature, carnal mind.

But when one is tempted, he is drawn away by his own desires and impressed. What are these desires? They lust. They lust. Desires are desires and he dares desire for something. It's a lust. Lust for something which is not lawful. Think about it. I like to draw the analogy of a fisherman. You know, a fisherman goes out fishing and he puts at the end of the line a bait.

A bait, and as fishermen, I'm not a fisherman. I've done a bit of fishing, but I'm not a fisherman. But I understand those that love the fishing and are very good at it. They know there are specific bites for specific fish.

So there is this bite. You put it. And what is the bite? The bite is something that makes it very desirable for that fish. It's like a pool. It's like a lust.

And so this bite at the end of the line is like a desire, a pool. And when the fish goes to it and is hooked, then the fisherman has got it. That's it. It's been hooked.

So in that analogy, in verse 14, in James, it says, when we are tempted, it's like this bite. And when we're drawn away to the bite, we're attracted to this bite.

And by our own desires, our own desire is to have that bite. We are enticed. We are drawn even further.

So how do we overcome? For one, get it out of our mind. Put our minds on something else so we're not enticed. You see? Just think about something.

And then when the desire is conceived, when that desire is conceived, that means we've taken the bite, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it's fully grown, brings forth death.

So I think there's a very nice analogy here in James 12 and 15 that the last, that this desire, intense desire is like a bait.

A bait in our human nature, which, if we allow our minds to dwell in it, it's going to cause us to surrender later.

You know, there are scriptures, in fact, last week it was cited in the sermon last week, and that's in 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2 verse 16.

1 John chapter 2 verse 16. It says, For all that is in the wall, the last of the flesh, the last of the eyes, and the pride of life.

You see, the last is actually mentioned to us, of the flesh and of the eyes. It's that desire, intense desire, that pulls and attracts us like a magnet. It just pulls us to do it. And we have to be careful and control them. Always be very sensitive that we are indeed being completely focused in the right things.

We must not have a wrong lust. We must not have any lust, because that brings problems. You see, that's why it says these are deeds of the flesh. We are to walk in the Spirit. But things of the flesh, and you know, in Galatians 5, verses 16-18, they say all these things are things of the flesh, and we have to overcome those things. We have to put them away.

Now, as an outgrowth of lust, think about it.

Is that once you have this desire for something, you're not satisfied with that. You say, oh, if only I had 100,000, but when you have 100,000, we should have 200,000. And when you have 200,000, I wish I have a million. And I need to have more. You're not satisfied. That is the degree of what we call greed. You want more. More.

So it's an intense desire for something like wealth, power, or food, but it actually now becomes greed. And that is never satisfied. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 10. Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 10. He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance will increase. You see, because you have a million dollars, you want 2 million, you have 2 million, you want 10 million, you have 10 million, you want more. And you know these, that's, it's greed. It's, you've got to be careful. Money does not bring happiness. But it's not just money. It's power. I want more power. That's what Satan wanted, more power. He wanted more power.

Or, could be, I want to be the head of this organization. I want to be the head of a church, or of the church. So there is these things that are very dangerous, which start with, as we saw, pride, jealousy, lust, and greed. Look at Proverbs chapter 1. Proverbs chapter 1 verse 15 and 16. Proverbs chapter 1 verse 15 and 16.

Let's not go that way. We're going to be overcoming. We're going to put away that. And look at verse 19. So are the ways of everyone who's greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners.

See, so it's this thing that you end up doing wrong things. Why? Because you want more. And that doesn't satisfy. That doesn't satisfy. And it could be money, it could be power, but it could be an act of being a teacher, being a minister. You've got to be careful that there's not that wrong desire in there. Look at Titus chapter 1. Titus chapter 1 verse 10 and 11. Titus chapter 1 verse 10 and 11.

For there are many insubordinate of idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households teaching things which they ought not for the sake of dishonesty. For the sake of greed. I just want more. And that can be in every field. You've got to be very careful. Look at 2 Peter. 2 Peter. Chapter 2. 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 1 through 3. 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 1 through 3. But there are also false prophets amongst the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies. In other words, it's by stealth, by secretly. It's kind of subtle. In other words, it's progressive. It's a little bit young, a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more. Destructive heresies. Even benign the Lord, who brought them, who brought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed by covetousness, by greed, by the desire to have more.

They will exploit you with deceptive words for a long time. Their judgment has not been handled, and their destruction has not slept up. So many will follow false teachings, licentious ways, desire for greed and power, and what is our job? Our job is to destroy these holes of human nature. Look at Colossians chapter 3 verse 5. Colossians chapter 3 verse 5. Therefore, put to death your members, which are on the earth, and which covers a few like poor incursion, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is in a sense greed. It's a cup of covet that's grown to greed, which is idolatry. Which is idolatry means you're putting yourself first. So we have to destroy these attitudes. Look at in Luke chapter 12 verse 15. Luke chapter 12 verse 15. He says, and he said to them, take heed and beware of covetousness. Beware of this type of greed and desire to have more, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. Look at Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. Don't be covetous. Don't be greedy. Don't want more. But be content. Because otherwise you're never satisfied. You see, we have this pool in ourselves. A pool of pride, jealousy, lust, and greed. And there's many attributes, of course, in human nature. But I'm just focusing on these four. Pride, jealousy, lust, and greed. And you know what? They will always be there. It's like a law inside us. It's a law inside us. And Paul says, I see there's a law in my members. It's our carnal nature that we have to be overcoming all the time. You know, this reminds me of a story that somebody mentioned to me. I don't know exactly all the details, but it's like somebody had a dream. And in this dream, this person had a dream and saw God telling him, push against this rock. Say, outside his house, there was this huge rock. And he says, go and push against this rock with all your might. So this man did, every day. He'd get up in the morning, push against the rock. And the whole night, pushing against the rock. And his night is exhausting, tired. Then tomorrow, back, and then pushing against the rock. You know what? It doesn't move. It doesn't move. But he's pushing against the rock. Day after day after day, weeks and months go by, pushing against the rock. And the rock doesn't move. So he's discouraged. He is full of frustration. He's anxious because there's all this rock. And he can't move it! He's depressed! Unuseless! In fact, maybe he gets angry. I'm angry because I can't move this rock!

You know, and that's where Satan can come in and says, you know, look at it. And don't kick yourself. You can't move the rock. So let it go! Don't get trying! And then fortunately, this man goes in praise. And he says, God, this is unsuccessful. The rock is not moving! He says, you know what God tells him? He says, you know what? I asked you to serve me, and you accepted that you would abide me to be my servant. And I told you to push.

And you are pushing. But I never told you to move the rock. Your task was to push. And look at it. Your muscles are strong. Your legs are strong. Your health was stronger. Your analogy, your character is stronger. But I never told you to move the rock. I told you to fight push against the rock. And God says, I'll now move the rock. You see, in this life, the analogy is that this law of the carnality, as Paul says in Romans 7, verse 21 through 25, he says, well, let's read it.

Romans 7, Romans 7, verse 21 through 25. I find in the law that evil is present within me. And this is Paul. He was an apostle for many years, decades. And he was struggling pushing this rock. But the rock would not move. He says, there's a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. I desire to do good. I desire to move this rock. But I can't. For I delight in the law of God, according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.

So he sees there's always continuously this law of pride, jealousy, lust and greed. And I have to be fighting it all the time. Oh, rich man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death with these carnal bulls. Of course, Christ. We are changed as a spirit being. We will not have a body of flesh and blood, which is carnal. So we will not have those poles. But we would have developed Godly spiritual character. We would have developed our spiritual muscles, our spiritual legs, our spiritual arms, our spiritual character.

Godly, holy, righteous character. That then when we don't have it, and then God gives us the power to rule under Christ, to rule humanity, we will not be corrupt leaders. We will be Godly leaders in the world tomorrow. So today, our job is to exercise the faith that moves mountains.

But it's God that will move that mountain. We have to exercise that faith of overcoming our trials to produce the character that God wants us to. As it says in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13, it says, the trials you have, they come unto all human beings. Yeah, maybe some of us have created ourselves more problems and more difficulties because of our own or other people around us created them.

But everybody's got problems like this to one degree or another, and we just have to keep pushing against that rock. We just have to keep pushing against that rock. And you know what? In the meantime, you are developing Godly, holy, righteous character. And then, when Christ comes, He will remove the rock and will be spirit beings and will be able to rule without any corruption. So, brethren, let's accept that there are obstacles and challenges in our life.

And you know what they are meant to? They are meant to help us to develop holy, righteous character. Let us keep our mind focused on the promises. And the promises are, let you hear, hear. Now, listen to what you are hearing.

And let's listen to the last mention that is staked this in Revelation 21. In Revelation 21, because that's what we started by, let's hear what the Woo has to do. He wears years to year, let him hear. The last time this is mentioned, it's in Revelation 21 and it's in verses 5 through 7. Then He was sat on a throne, said, Behold, I'll make all things new. In other words, He'll remove the rock. And He said to me, Right, for these things are true and faithful. In other words, it's as if it's done.

God says, You'll do it. You'll do it. It's as good as done. It hasn't happened yet, but it's done. Verse 6, and He said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and Armageddon, beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him with verse. He who overcomes shall inherit all things. We have to be overcoming and we will then inherit all things. And I'll be his God and he shall be my Son. But if we are coward, if we draw back, if we are afraid of doing it, which we don't believe that God will ultimately remove the rock, etc., then we'll be punished. But brethren, overcoming must be done. And you and I need to overcome human nature till the end. And that human nature that we need to overcome till the end includes things like pride, jealousy, lust, and greed.