God will help us and we'll be able to retain the connection yeah so we were actually reflecting upon 2nd Peter 1 verses 3 to 4 when we kind of lost the connection but yeah so in 2nd Peter 1 3 to 4 we saw that God's divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life and in verse 4 we see we have been given great and precious promises why have these promises been given to us so that we may participate in the divine nature so we no longer need to participate in the in our old sinful nature we can instead choose to participate in God's divine nature and live a godly life because His divine power His resurrection power has been imparted to us you know to live in godliness so because these things have been done for us therefore Ephesians 4 24 is someone could read out Ephesians 4 24 please could you repeat the reference again please yeah yeah yeah Ephesians 4 24 Ephesians Ephesians 4 24 and that you put on a new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness yeah so because we have been given this divine power to live a godly life because now you know through the great and precious promises given to us because we are now we can participate in the divine nature because of all of these things we must now make a conscious choice on a daily basis I must choose to either you know living in my old nature you know something that I am not even I'm not even that person anymore I am now a new creation but I can still choose you know because I still have an undrenewed mind I can follow that undrenewed mind and choose to start living in that old lifestyle or you know it's like it says here in Ephesians 4 24 I can choose to put on the new self created to be like God so on a daily basis the fact is there okay the basic facts are established I can now participate in the divine nature I am a new creation I have been given great promises I have been given everything that I need to live a godly life I've been given the divine power they know God's own resurrection power to live in this new lifestyle so those are all established facts but on a basis on a daily basis I need to make a conscious choice and say okay because all of these spiritual things are now available to me I will choose today to put on the new self and and you know live in a way that pleases God so we have to consciously make that choice otherwise we'll go back to our you know undrenewed thinking we'll go back to the way we used to live earlier and that will be on your lead to only defeat so it says over here in Ephesians 4 24 that every day I will actually have to make a conscious choice all over again and say today I choose to put on the new self it's like you know it's like a robe that you're putting on so you make a make a conscious choice to either walk around you know in the way that you were earlier or put on this new robe you know you you choose to be this new self that you are now that you know that God has made you to be you choose to be like the new creation that you are supposed to be so it's a conscious choice that we make on a daily basis so point one of how to overcome the flesh is you understand the privilege that has been given to you you understand the new rights that you have as a new creation having understood your divine status you now choose to walk in that status you choose to put on what you are now rather than living as that as the person that you were earlier you choose to put on this new self and live you know in in in this new status the second practical thing that we can do to overcome the flesh is we choose to use the word you know the word of God in relation to that specific area of weakness so you know it says in Psalm 119 verse 9 it says how can a young person stay on the path of purity by living according to your word so on a daily basis we would choose to wash our mind you know of the sinful desires so we take the word of God regarding that particular area of temptation and you know wash and renew our minds in that particular area for instance if you will if you were dealing with a person who has a tendency to lie they tell lies to escape out of situations so if I am that person what would I do I would look at scriptures which talk about lying which talk about overcoming lies I would use those specific scriptures to start washing my mind in that particular area so that my mind starts thinking about lies the way God thinks about them I would start applying those you know methods of overcoming which are recommended by God so I would take the word of God and wash the wrong thoughts which are there you know regarding that particular issue and you know correct myself so this is something that we do so how do how does a person stay on the path of purity by living according to your word so you know to continue with this example of lying which has been used in your notes first of all we would have to understand what the scripture says about lying because you know the world has has its own you know perspective on lying the world considers lying as an acceptable option to get out of trouble they are the world looks at lying as an acceptable option you know when you're a good person and you're trying to live a good life no harm in telling a few lies because this world is tough and you can't always I know what the world would say is you can't hold on to ideal principles you know so they would say it's all right to compromise now that is what world says and what did Paul say about such people he said you are worldly you're thinking like mere you're thinking like mere human beings but you people are not mere human beings now you are a new creation you are you you are now meant to participate in the divine nature so you and yeah like we saw in an efficient sport you have been you know created to be like God so these are the scriptural truths about us now so we can't be like the world and say oh yeah lying is an option and it's not very bad thing we cannot adopt that attitude because now we belong to a different kingdom we are following a different you know set of principles so that is something that we would first have to establish very very clearly in our mind so we would look at scriptures which talk about that so in your notes you know we have Proverbs 6 16 to 17 if someone could read out Proverbs 6 16 to 17 please Proverbs 6 16 to 17 these six things the Lord hates yes seven are an abomination to him a proud look a lying tongue hands that shed innocent blood so here not only does it say that the Lord hates these things it says that they are an abomination in his eyes I mean that's the seriousness of it so among the things listed over here is a lying tongue so first of all we need to accept the fact that we cannot look at lying the way the world looks at it the world looks at us looks at it as this harmless thing but no in God's eyes it is an abomination you know and I we says that it is detestable to him he cannot stand it he finds it repulsive so which is why you know in Proverbs 8 7 you know the the person who is writing that proverb he says my mouth speaks what is true for my lips detest wickedness so this a person who wrote this proverb is adopting the same attitude that God has in the same way God detests lying this person is saying I too choose to detest lying so that is at the very fundamental you know root of dealing with this with this area of sin so whatever that area of you know sin and temptation that we are struggling with first of all we need to establish the fact what is God's attitude regarding this how does he see this and once I am aware of what God says about this particular you know sin and this particular temptation I choose to adopt the same attitude that he has so if he says I detest this thing then I choose to say yes I too will you know detest this thing so if we continue to maintain an attitude of love towards that particular you know temptation then it's not gonna work again and again we will fall because why we are allowing ourselves to like it like that sinful thing we are thinking of it in a favorable manner so if you're thinking of something in a favorable manner and you're not trying to change your thinking about that obviously you will fall into the into that particular temptation so are the very first step that we you know we would need to take is we make a choice and we say in the same way God you know detest this particular thing I too choose to detest this particular thing another thing what are what are the scriptures saying about this particular sin what are the consequences what are the benefits of obeying God rather than giving in to this this particular kind of temptation one verse that would you know throw light on this would be Proverbs 12 19 if someone could please read out Proverbs 12 19 Proverbs 12 19 the truthful lip shall be established forever but a lying tongue is but for a moment yeah you know so a lying tongue is but for a moment you may gain some temporary benefit from lying and it may in fact help you to you know go forward you know get promoted maybe in some way because you have lied but it's so temporal it is so temporary it does not last on the other hand what happens to the truthful lip it says the truthful lip shall be established forever so we would you know have to tell our mind educate our mind and tell it you know what if you lie you may gain but what you have gained is so temporary it is just for a moment on the other hand if you choose to stand on the truth and you know refuse to lie it says that you will be established forever so so not only are you warning your mind about the dangers you're also teaching your mind about the benefits of honoring God you know you're you're you're drawing attention to the fact of what can be gained what eternal benefits can be reaped by following what you know God is asking us to do so in this way we choose to teach ourselves what the truth is because how does a person keep himself on the path of purity by living according to the word now and I know efficient sport 24 which we read earlier in fact even that verse actually talks about you know giving up lying so if someone could read out efficient sport 24 and 25 efficient sport 24 and 25 and that you put on the new man which is created according to God in true righteousness and holiness therefore putting a real life let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor for we are members of one another in another thing that we get to know about you know this whole thing of lying it says over here you must you know put on the new self you must put off lying so you know it we can apply this to absolutely any area of sin so you know whatever that area of sin and temptation is we choose to put it off and instead in its place we choose to put on God's nature you know we choose to put on this new self that has been given to us so we take off something we put off something and we put on something else that God I know honors and one important thing that comes out over here is it says we are all members of one body so when you are lying you know to fellow believers you are in fact harming the body of Christ so it's like the hand deliberately conspiring against the foot and you know harming it it's basically you know doing harm to your own body so we all are part of the body of Christ and he has trusted us to be reliable members of his body so we cannot betray him by attacking one another we are literally attacking the very body of Christ and so you know we might never really have thought about lying lying as something that serious but over here it's talking about how lies is something that we that we that will harm the very body of Christ you know the the one who died on the cross for this body the one who has now given great promises of you know kingship and priestly status to this body we are attacking that body of Christ so so what we are basically doing is we look at the scriptures dealing with that particular area of sin and we see what the scriptures saying about this particular sin and so even as we start looking at the scriptures we start discovering a whole bunch of truths about this area you know that we are struggling with and when we start understanding these things the power of God's word begins to work in our hearts we feel convicted we start feeling this deep desire to do what God what what honors God and we also begin to realize how serious this particular sin is because still then we met we might have had a worldly understanding of that sin where the world is like it's not such a big thing it's not really bad but now when we start looking at the scriptures and start looking at the proof of what the scriptures are saying about this terrible thing it begins to dawn on us how serious it is and what are the spiritual implications of what we are indulging in so everything in our inner being starts hating this thing and we start thinking about this particular thing the way God thinks about it so at a very fundamental level our very perspective about this thing starts changing so what are we actually doing we are washing our mind with the word of God in this particular area with regard to this particular challenge and also when we are looking at scriptures regarding that particular sin now there would be there would be Bible verses that we would find which we can literally pray over ourselves and again this example is you know given in your notes so we have a couple of verses which talk about you know two prayers that can be prayed for a person who has the who is struggling with this habitual sin of lying so the first one is Psalm 19 verse 14 if someone could read out Psalm 1914 that's 19 verse 14 let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight oh Lord my strength and my redeemer so you know you would just go to the Lord and say Lord you are my strength you are my redeemer on my own I can never overcome this particular temptation so I'm coming to you my my strength and my redeemer and I'm asking you you cause the words of my mouth to be pleasing in your sight you enable me you helped me because that was what was promised to us right where it says over there in in that other passage where it says that even as we you know choose to walk according to the spirit the righteous requirements of the law will be fulfilled by us in Jesus Christ so so so so God will do this for us and so we can pray these scriptures over our lives we can claim what is being you know promised in these scriptures and say Lord you do this for me in the same way there's this other verse Psalm 141 verse 3 you know where that person is actually asking and saying Lord set a guard over my mouth keep watch over the door of my lip so you know I so carelessly and so easily lie oh Lord but then if you can you know set a guard over my mouth that each time I open my mouth to you know say something tell a false thing and try to escape immediately you who are on guard will warn me and say no no don't do that no there is a righteous way of dealing with this so don't don't give into the temptation and sin so Lord set a guard over my mouth be that one who will warn me every time I know I'm so every time I'm about about to you know commit that sin so all of these prayers we literally pray these scriptures over our mind and over our body and we choose to overcome the second example that is given in your notes is on sexual immorality so maybe we can even look at you know scriptures that deal with that you have first Corinthians chapter 6 verses 13 to 20 mentioned it's a rather lengthy passage but just to know kind of look at some things which are highlighted in this passage first Corinthians 6 13 to 20 it says the body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord and then in verse 14 it says by his power God raised the Lord from the dead and he will raise us also and then in verse 15 it says do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself maybe we could have someone just read out verses 17 to 20 first Corinthians 6 verses 17 to 20 please yeah if someone could read out first Corinthians chapter 6 verses 17 to 20 but he who joins himself to the Lord becomes spiritually one with him avoid immorality any other sin a man commits doesn't affect his body but the man who is guilty of sexual immorality sins against his own body don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you and who was given to you by God you do not belong to yourself but to God he bought you for a price so use your bodies for God's glory okay so these are very fundamental things that we first start teaching ourselves you know what does the scripture have to say regarding this particular sin so I cannot just be like the world you know which says oh this life is my life I can do with it as I wish now actually that's a falsehood they are under the impression that their life is their own life but actually the thing is they are slaves of sin sin has taken over their life so actually they're not getting to do what they wish sin tells them what to do you know they don't realize it so actually the but actually you know as far as they are concerned they they they say to themselves oh this is my life I will do as I wish but us believers we have to understand this basic fact that we were bought out of slavery to sin so Jesus Christ purchased us now he owns us now because we are his property we must live in a way that God wants and that is why it says in verse 13 it says the body however is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord he purchased it so this body of yours is for the Lord for the purposes of the Lord for whatever he wants from it it is not for you to do with as you wish okay so this is one fundamental thing that we teach ourselves and we recognize that we cannot just be like the world and say oh this is my life no it's not my life for the unbeliever it is you know his life is belongs to sin and for us believers my life belongs to Jesus so the second thing that we recognize is that verse 17 it says whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit so spiritually I am united with the Lord this is something that Jesus Christ did for me at the moment of salvation I came into union with him you know I got united with Jesus in that moment so because I'm united with him now whatever I so now because I'm united with him he uses my physical body to accomplish his purposes you know so my hands are feet are used by the Lord to do what honors him so because of my union of my spiritual union with Christ this physical body of mine is also now at his disposal so when I choose to use this physical body of mine for something immoral I'm actually you know going against this spiritual union that I have with him so I need to understand the seriousness of what I am doing something that has now been united with the Lord is being deliberately rebelliously taken and being used for other purposes no you know that's not something that I can take lightly so I choose to you know recognize this fact and the third amazing thing whether it's talked about over here you know it talks about how this body of ours will be raised up by the Lord it says in verse 14 it says by his power God raised the Lord from the dead and he will raise us also my physical body is so important to the Lord that one day you know long after it has been put in the grave and it has you know completely got mixed up with the soil and it has gone back into you know into the form of minerals and whatever God will take that that dust and he will recreate it into a resurrected body so my physical body is actually that important in God's eyes so I cannot just do with it as I wish in his eyes my physical body is that important to him because this is a vague idea that people have okay what my spirit is important my body what to say what I do with the body the body is here today gone tomorrow no it's not gone tomorrow it's going to be resurrected you know like it says in Revelation the unbelievers their bodies will be resurrected to go into eternal punishment into hell on the other hand the believers their bodies will be resurrected to enjoy the you know eternal benefits of being in God's presence so the body is that important so I cannot say oh what I do with my body is not very important no it is absolutely vital so even as we meditate on scriptures which talk about this particular area of sin we start realizing the seriousness of what is involved so in this way we start aligning our thinking with with with you know with what God has to say regarding you know that particular issue and then maybe if we could have someone read out 1st Thessalonians 4 3 to 8 1st Thessalonians 4 3 to 8 the the volume was not very clear but you know thanks a lot no problem the thing is if someone else reads it gives me a chance to kind of rest my throat otherwise it starts hurting so that's basically one of the reasons why ask someone to read so you know here in this passage something very important is being said it says in verse 8 anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit so the instructions given over here are not something to be taken lightly it says if you're going to be ignoring this instruction you're not just rejecting some humans instruction you're literally rejecting God himself who gave this instruction so what are these instructions that the instructions that he gives over here in this passage he says that it is God's will that you should be sanctified and as we are familiar the word sanctified just literally means set apart you're set apart for God so it is God's will that you should be set apart for what he wants you can't just set yourself apart for whatever you wish whatever you desire no you have been set apart for what he wants and it says that we have been you know yeah you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable so you know we have been called to a holy and honorable life and it says in verse 7 it says did not call us to be impure but to live a holy life so it was his will that we should be set apart for a holy and honorable life we were set apart to live not an impurity but in holiness and because we have been set apart like this what are we being asked to do we're being told control your body rather than allowing it to go in whichever direction it wishes to we would have to assert ourselves and control our body and say no you're gonna go in a way in the way that God wishes you to go because you have been set apart for him so we would have to consciously control our body and say no you need to go in the direction that God God wants you to go and then it also says in verse 6 it says and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister so we have to be careful because we have been set apart we can't lead someone else into temptation you know it's very easy to say oh that person may know you know they tempted me so it's actually the fault is the blame is upon them so and probably women would do you know use that excuse oh that man you know he tempted me it's I am just this you know very innocent person but he tempted me but actually what are you doing by saying yes you are leading you know that person into that temptation you know it's like you know Adam he said oh she made me eat the fruit but then you know no one was forcing him right by participating in that he encouraged what she was doing so no person you know so when you're when as in the you know in this area of sexually morality you are actually taking advantage of the other person even though you may say they know it's the other person's fault the other person's blame the fact remains that by by saying yes you are actually taking advantage of that person and you are you know encouraging them to sin so we we look at all the things which this passage is saying about this sinful act and we understand the seriousness of it and very very plainly it says in verse six it says the Lord will punish all those who commit such sins because I know the unrenewed mind will say to us oh nothing will happen I'm gonna escape from this you know nobody will even know and it's it's it's just gonna happen this one single time so no nothing bad will happen so Satan will be you know feeding all these lies into your mind but what does scripture say scripture says so plainly the Lord will punish all those who commit such sins as we told you and warned you before okay so so we choose to believe what the scriptures are saying regarding this sin and no and so we look at all the scriptures which talk about this area and we speak these scriptures over our lives and and we take those scriptures and turn them into a prayer and we pray his word to him and say Lord please make these things happen in my life Lord you help me to control my body so these are all things that we you know choose to do so the same thing you know in your notes I mean there's there's a long list of you know sins of the flesh that we can apply scripture to so it talks about anger and addictions and backbiting and jealousy and hatred and greed and so we can take so we would have to you know sit down with us with the word of God and look okay so you know if my my area is hatred where I am unable to forgive someone so I actually sit down and look at all the scriptures which talk about hatred it can be something as simple as typing the word you know into Google scriptures which talk about hatred that's it you know it'll at least give you maybe two or three websites you know which will contain a list of verses about hatred you could get started with that and meditate upon each of those verses and see what does God actually think about hatred what does God say will be the consequences of living in hatred so you start you know start aligning your mind with the way God thinks about it and then you begin to realize how hateful and dangerous and horrible hatred is and then you say no no no I want to I long to live the way God wants me to I want to live in love rather than hate so that's that desire that godly desire starts arising in your heart and then you start praying the scriptures over your verse and saying oh lord I cannot do this by myself but lord this particular scripture which has touched my heart oh lord you please help the scripture to be fulfilled in my life so even as I even as I cooperate with you um lord you enable this to happen for me so this these are all things that we do in this way we choose to use the word of God to you know overcome this specific area of you know fleshly temptation that we are facing now the third point in your in your notes on how to overcome the flesh that is basically you know walking in the spirit and crucifying the flesh now again this is something that you know we are familiar with see these are all things that we have touched upon but every time we touched upon these you know these familiar instructions we try to bring out some new new learning you know some some new aspect which we have not looked at earlier so Galatians 516 is basically what talks about you know walking in the spirit so so Galatians 516 it says so I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh um so what exactly is walking by the spirit we see that in Romans 8 13 if someone could read out Romans 8 13 8 13 for if you leave according to the place you will die but if you but if by the spirit you put to date the dates of the body you will leave I mean yes so how do we walk by the spirit um we walk by the spirit by putting to death the misdeeds of the body this is how we actually put fleshly desires to death so if you have this godly desire this godly ambition to kill all the ungodly desires in your flesh and mind how are you going to do that you're going to put to death the misdeeds of the body and it basically means three things and by the way you're doing this how by the spirit it's not something that you can do on your own this is something that the holy spirit will empower and enable you to do even as you know rely upon him even as you call out to him and ask him to help you so by the spirit you will put to death the misdeeds of the poor body and it just basically involves three things that is not explained in your notes but you know it's very helpful to know at a practical level how on earth do I put to death the misdeeds of the body these three things first you choose to judge that particular misdeed of the body and declare and say I acknowledge the fact that this is a sinful thing you know so that is where it all starts right you first begin by acknowledging the fact that the world may say that this is not not a very serious thing not a very harmful thing but you choose to look at scriptures and say oh this is what scripture is saying about this particular you know misdeed of the body this particular fleshly desire this is what scripture is saying about it and I choose to accept what scripture is saying about this particular sinful thing and declare and say yes this is a sin it's not just a compromise it's not just something that I an adjustment that I have to do to be able to survive in this world no scripture is calling this a sin and so I choose first of all to judge it and declare and say this is a sinful thing that my mind and body is asking me to do it's not a good thing it is a sinful thing the second thing you know like we saw we choose to hate it the same way the Lord hates it so rather than you know continuing continuing to allow myself to think favorable thoughts regarding that you know oh lying is so convenient you know yeah it has its own advantages and oh yeah the world is like such a tough place you can't always be upright in a world you know I mean if you were living in a heavenly system then no we can apply heavenly principles but no no we are living here in the world so I need to live in a way which you know the which which works over here in the worldly system so we can say all of these things nice things to ourselves and as we are doing that our mind starts being controlled being governed by that fleshly desire of you know using lies as an escape route so no I come against all of these thoughts and I choose to say in the same way the Lord detests this I do like it says in the Proverbs you know it says I do my lips will be detest wickedness you know so I make a conscious choice to start hating it and if I'm not feeling any hatred towards that sin I will get on on my knees and say oh Lord only you can put this divine hatred birth in me a deep divine hatred and revulsion towards this thing oh Lord help me to see it the way you see it through your godly holy eyes so we choose to judge it and acknowledge that it is a sin second we choose to hate it the same way God hates it and we do this by the power of the Holy Spirit the third thing is you know we plainly say no I refuse to practice it so you know rather than considering it rather than thinking okay how maybe to maybe to some extent maybe I can do it and maybe to some extent you know I can be godly no so we outright say no no compromise I refuse to do it so when we make that choice on a daily basis the Holy Spirit gives us the power to actually go through you know with our decision and not practice it so he helps us so we say no no way I'm going to practice it so by doing these three little you know three very very simple things by judging it hating it by just absolutely refusing to practice it by simply saying no and walking away by doing this in this manner on a daily basis we put to death the misdeeds of the body okay so another thing that we need to keep in mind is the importance of prayer I mean prayer makes a big difference okay um we don't seem to have much time um let's see what else we can deal with okay yeah there are other things that we can talk about so we will you know yeah we'll cover whatever we can today and continue next class as well so next class we will continue with this you know overcoming the flesh and of course we will also look at the other two things to the extent possible so um yeah in the time that we have left let's just very quickly look at the importance of prayer in overcoming the flesh um you know we are all very familiar with this very important scripture regarding prayer so if someone could read out matthew chapter 26 verse 41 matthew 26 41 matthew 26 41 watch and pray let you enter into temptation the spirit indeed is willing but the place is weak okay so over here why should we watch and pray so that we will not fall into temptation why should we watch and pray because the flesh is weak it it cannot handle temptation just like that on its own and its own strength it needs prayer backup to be able to overcome otherwise you will end up falling so therefore because your flesh is weak you need to watch and pray now over here in this particular verse when it's talking about the flesh it's not talking about sinful flesh it's just talking about humanness you know our human frailty our human weakness in the sense we are limited in our strength in our in our ability um we are we are not uh uh super strong like god you know our humanness has limitations we are weak in that sense so uh our humanness requires divine enabling it requires divine power to be able to do divine things so this is something that even jesus christ experienced when he became human he didn't become partially human he became hundred percent human so he continued to be hundred percent divine he never lost that but he chose to operate humble himself and operate in his hundred percent humanness he never used any of his uh divine powers no so he needed prayer as badly as anyone any any one of us so why did he spend so much time in prayer he understood the limitations of his flesh his flesh in you know in a positive sense the word over here i'm not using this word is uh as a sinful thing just humanness jesus understood that his humanness has got limitations there's some there are there are divine things which it will it will not be able to do on its own if the if the pressure gets bad enough this poor flesh this human thing will fail it'll back off it'll be unable to bear it and it'll just back off so in that vital moment you should not back off in that vital moment you should be able to go through and and succeed and gain victory it's so important so how you need to start praying beforehand and start preparing yourself in prayer so that when the time of attack comes your humanness will not be the weak point which will make you lose in that moment your humanness should not back off and say no this is not something i can bear you should be able to stand firm so for that to happen you need to equip yourself in prayer so that is why prayer is so important jesus understood this and we especially see this in the garden of gethsemane because jesus understood left to itself his humanness would not be able to go through the process when that vital moment came along you know he would just back off he knew that would happen if he just relied on his humanness so what did he do he connected to god and he also asked his disciples to do the same thing he told them you know this is dangerous you guys just sitting over here you need to start preparing yourself so in the same way i'm preparing myself i know i in prayer you also need to prepare yourself in prayer so in this entire gethsemane passage we see the importance of prayer because the flesh the humanness is it's limited it can only do human things it cannot do this divine things that are being asked of it on its own for that you need to get connected with god through prayer and even as you do that you know he strengthens us so this is such an important thing to remember you know we only have a few minutes left but there are so many important things that can be said about this because most of us don't realize it we think you know prayer it's just something that we do as it's a nice thing but it's so vital and we see that especially here in this passage not sure that we have the time to actually get into all of that so all right you know maybe we can you know start off with this point you know next class and look at the importance of prayer because what we discussed regarding this prayer is not just going to apply to overcoming the flesh it will also apply to overcoming the devil and the world okay so this is a very vital teaching that we would be requiring so we would yeah we'll continue in the next class so for now because we are out of time I know we'll close with prayer you know all of those or those of you who really helped you know in reading out the verses thank you so much because it kind of you know gives my gives me a chance to relax my throat a bit if someone else is reading out the verses so thanks a lot for that and let's you know let's quickly close with the word of prayer thank you so much a lot for all the important things that we could learn today in our session so we pray O Lord that even as we are attacked by fleshly desires in our mind and our body for different people it's different different areas of weakness that we have but Lord the scriptural instructions and principles are the same if we can just follow the methods that you are giving us if we can just follow the tactics that you have given us in overcoming these things we will be able to succeed why because we have been given great promises by you so that we can participate in your divine nature we don't need to live the way we used to be before we now have a choice so we pray O Lord that you would help us to remember these things that we have learned and you would help us to apply these things on a daily basis O Lord because we do have a longing in our hearts to honor you to really somehow try to express our gratitude for all that you have done for us so help us O Lord help us to to to walk by your power in step with your spirit follow your leading rather than listening to the cry of our flesh and unrenewed mind help us O Lord to overcome in this whole area of fleshly desires and really be conquerors who will honor you thank you Lord in Jesus name amen amen thank you so much and yeah so we will continue in the next class thank you


Hi, I'm Gene Price. Welcome to 20th century English history. When we look at England at the beginning of the 20th century, we're looking at an era named after the Queen, Victoria, and at England at the height of its empire. And so we'll start this lecture to begin the class. Let's look at early 20th century England. The first thing we need to know about Britain in the 20th century is that for many years, of course, Britain had been represented by and ruled by a monarch. And the British monarchy by the end of the 19th century, the beginning of the 20th century, was not an absolute ruler as we tend to think of kings and queens, but a representation of the nation. By the beginning of the 20th century, it was a constitutional monarch with limited powers. And at the beginning of the 20th century, the British monarch was Queen Victoria. And you've heard of the age of Victoria or the Victorian era. It's named after her. She was the longest reigning monarch up to Queen Elizabeth. She reigned for almost 60 years. And in 1919, she was born to the, as the granddaughter of King George III. And King George, as you recall from American history, was the king at the time of the American Revolution. So she, Alexandria Victoria, was his granddaughter. And when her uncle died, King William IV, he, she ascended the throne. She was also known as the widow of Windsor. And so, like in the photograph on the right, oftentimes dressed in black in mourning, when her husband, Prince Albert, died in 1861, right around the time of our American Civil War, she began a long period of mourning that lasted until her death. So she went into seclusion, wasn't often seen out in public, but they were very much in love. And so when he passed away, it affected her deeply. In 1876, the height of the British Empire, Victoria was named Empress of India by the Prime Minister at the time, Benjamin Disraeli. And he was really trying to highlight the glory of the British Empire. As we sometimes have heard, the sun never set on the British Empire. Britain was sometimes called a nation of shopkeepers. Adam Smith, in his book, The Wealth of Nations, described Great Britain as a merchant nation, a nation of shopkeepers. And sometimes that's also attributed to Napoleon, but the idea was that trade and merchants kept England going. Here from this print in 1902, it shows the Tower Bridge, Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge. These three bridges across the Thames River, the River Thames, we would say the River Thames. It's pronounced Thames, however. The bridge is opened in 1894 to promote commerce because they were tall enough, big enough, or you could raise them so that merchant vessels could sail up and down the Thames and shopkeepers could get goods and also exporters could export goods up and down the river, which does lead into the ocean. As I said earlier, there was a saying that the empire on which the sun never sets was Great Britain, the world's largest empire. And you can see from this map, everything in red in 1901 were British territories or Commonwealths, part of the Commonwealth, as it was sometimes called. Everything from Canada in North America, you even have some areas in South America and in the Caribbean, much of Africa, Southeast Asia, on to Australia and even to the Pacific. And so this saying that wherever the sun was around the world at any point in the day, the sun was shining out of British Commonwealth. So the sun never set on the British Empire at the height of the empire in 1900. And that's not to say that things were always good. Between 1815 and 1914, you had 100 years of the Pax Britannia, the peaceful empire, the imperial century. And it was free largely from war. There were some uprisings. This photograph on the right is from an exhibit or actually a piece in the British Museum, Albert and Victoria Museum. It's called Typhus Tiger. And you have this tiger that's pouncing and killing a British soldier. And the tiger was symbolic of pieces of India. And so this was kind of a rebellion against the empire. The British Navy was one of the most powerful navies in the world and it kept the peace and kept conflict down. India is sometimes called the jewel on the crown. And this is one of the reasons why Disraeli wanted to name Victoria the Empress. Great Britain had gotten control in the early 1800s. The British Raj was established by mid-century, by mid-1800s. There were some rebellions, the most famous of which was the Seapoy Rebellion. The British Crown had gained control through the agency of the East India Company. And some areas were controlled locally. But for the most part, Great Britain had control of India, which was the highlight of its empire. There were other colonial possessions sometimes called the White Dominions. And these were largely self-governed areas dominated by White settlers, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, for example. And they were important pressure valves. And by that, they were good places for Great Britain to send excess people and also prisoners. There were other colonies, some were ruled locally, but there were colonies around the world. There were some challenges by the beginning of the 20th century. One of the most important was the Second Boer War. This was in South Africa. South Africa was originally settled by the Dutch. And there were Dutch settlers who were struggling against British control. And the British and colonial armies broke the rebellion. What this did, this battle in South Africa at the end of the 19th, the beginning of the 20th century, it revealed the poor state of British recruits. And it began driving national attention to how Britons were taken care of health-wise and how they were educated. And we'll see that throughout the 20th century. There were also challenges from Japan, Germany, and the United States. There were problems over colonial territories being challenged from Japan. Germany was building up its war machine threatening Great Britain quite often. And so was the United States. And there were also challenges from other European powers in the end of these colonial periods. And there were some treaties like the Entente Cordiale in 1904 with France, where they teamed up Great Britain and France against Germany. And in 1902, this is a photograph of sometimes called the Spittlefield Nippers. These were poor, sometimes orphan children in Great Britain. The Spittlefields were in East London, a notoriously poor area. And these nippers, these young orphan kids, many times the only way they made money was selling newspapers. And here they are with newspapers showing the end of the Second Boer War in June of 1902. Politically, there were two divisions. And you can still see these divisions in Great Britain today. Conservatives versus Liberals. Now, don't get confused by American politics. The Conservatives and the Liberals in Great Britain are different from Conservatives and Liberals in the United States. And you can see here what they stood for. The Conservatives of Great Britain certainly were for patriotism. And so they were pro-empire. They didn't mind sending out the British Army to keep down, to expand and to keep the peace in the Empire. They were closely aligned with the church in England. And they were supported by a lot of rural voters who were very traditionalist. Liberals, on the other hand, was a peace party. They weren't interested in war. They were more concerned about the costs of empire. That there were a lot of economic costs to it. There was oppression of other peoples and of people at home. They were also non-conformists. And by that, that means that they didn't necessarily, members didn't like the Church of England, didn't want to join the Church of England, so they didn't conform to Anglican rules. They did, for the most part, sponsor and support the idea of Ireland home rule, allow Ireland to rule itself. And they supported temperance, the idea of not drinking in excess. So there were some divisions in the parties, and there were some divisions in the country as well, between the Liberals and the Conservatives. Those were the two largest parties, although there were other parties as well. The Labour Party, for example, originated as a committee, the LRC, and it became the Labour Party in 1906, so at the beginning of the period we're looking at. Largely made up of trade unionists. They believed in rugged individualism, that everybody had to be able to work to support themselves. Now they did believe in striking, because they did believe that through their labour they should be able to earn a living, and when they weren't given good enough wages or hours or too long, they should be able to strike in order to bring the company to the table to renegotiate the terms of the labour versus employer agreements. The Marxist Founders left the party to the party, so Marxists really weren't a part of the party, and the Labour Party oftentimes allied itself with the Liberal Party. Political issues at the turn of the century, the beginning of the 20th century, of course, were empire. The problem of empire was often closely aligned with terror reform, the idea of lower taxes. They were concerned that protectionism was being promoted except from within the empire, and what that means is they were protecting themselves against other countries, but within the empire there was oftentimes higher prices. They also were concerned about this idea of national efficiency, and national efficiency essentially meant the condition of people in Great Britain. They looked at the Bohor War, and the Bohor War, as I mentioned earlier, revealed problem with England's education and healthcare system. They looked that 50% of the recruits for the war were unfit for duty, and so this national efficiency movement were efforts to improve the British race, and so they began medical reforms, they began educational reforms, and one of the other issues that was very important at the turn of the century was the House of Lords. These were sometimes called the Peers, and what they mean by the Peers, this were the nobility, the old nobility, and the ruling class, and a lot of people were now not seeing a need for a nobility any longer. They still liked the monarch, but they weren't so keen on the peerage, the lords, in England, and so the lords were conservative on most domestic issues, which did not endure them to the average working class people, and so liberals sought to limit the ability of the lords who were oftentimes blocking legislation which would help the common people of England. Where this really came into clear focus was in the so-called People's Budget. The liberals succeeded in the elections at the turn of the century, and although the House of Lords opposed reforms, for example in education, they opposed the Licensing Act, and this allowed liquor licensing, and there were concerns about public drunkenness, and so David Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, kind of like our Secretary of the Treasury in the United States, proposed a budget in 1909, 1910, which would have increased taxes on the wealthy, insured social welfare programs, and Winston Churchill was very much behind it, but the conservative House of Lords was against it and threatened to block it, and David Lloyd George made a speech that said that a fully equipped Duke costs as much to keep as two Dreadnought ships, and they're just as great a terror and they last longer, so he was very critical of the nobility. He also said the question will be asked whether 500 men, ordinary men chosen accidentally from among the unemployed, should override the judgment, the deliberate judgment of millions of people who are engaged in the industry which makes the wealth of the country, and in the end, the people's budget, the power of the Lords was limited. They opposed the budget, and although they traditionally did not interfere in the budget brought forth by the House of Commons, when they did, it gave the Liberals the opportunity to restrict their power. There was an election called and it forced Liberals and Labor and Irish Nationalist parties to come together to oppose the Lords, and it resulted in the Parliament Bill of 1911, which did limit their power, and although it only passed by a slight majority, it still was effective, and so that's where we're going to close out this first lecture on the beginning. You see some of the problems that were happening politically, ending on the time the power of taking care of the working class, whether or not the working class who saw themselves as their ability to work gave them power and power to negotiate with their employers versus the traditional power of the nobility and the rural working class as well, and so you see these problems and these conflicts, the problems of empire, and it all comes to a head at the beginning of the 20th century.