So we're going to look at the flesh, and again, we're going to start with this idea that human problems are caused by the influence of the world, the flesh, and the devil on the human soul and spirit. and what happens there's really only one enemy though we are at war with the world the flesh and the devil there's really only one enemy the enemy is the enemy okay and he co-ops the flesh and he co-ops the world in his rebellion against God and his kingdom and the world and the systems of man aren't innately evil But they have been corrupted. And the flesh, our physiology, is not innately evil, but they have been corrupted. And he wants to influence our souls and spirits. to get us to join him in his rebellion against God. So I want to look a little closer at this issue of the flash and look at some of the meanings of that term as used in the New Testament. And here is where I'm probably going to get myself in trouble, even though Back in my MDiv days, I did 20 hours of biblical languages, but my skills are very rusty, so I may call upon my esteemed colleagues over here to help me out, and hopefully they will be generous and gracious toward me here. But in reference to the human person, the New Testament uses the term in several ways, and I'm not going to give you all of them, but it refers to the flesh as A part of our it's our physical body or our earthly existence And and for sake of time, we're not going to look up all the passages so you can reference those on your own But it's our earthly existence the fact that we are mortal that We are earthly and fleshly, weak, and vulnerable. And so it uses it in that way. It also uses the term, in Greek it's the term sarx, to refer to the programming toward legalism or license, which is interesting. In fact, I Working on an idea, I've got at least an initial thesis for an article down the road. If any of you have ever worked with anybody or know someone who has obsessive compulsive disorder, there's some actually interesting overlap between OCD and legalism. And so scripture actually accords that Licentiousness or license and legalism are both works of the flesh. If you think about legalism, legalism is an attempt to subdue the flesh by the flesh. That's what it is. Scripture also uses the term sarx to refer to the material of the body. The Greek term for body is soma and it would seem that The that it uses that term sarx to refer to the material or the substance of the body in some passages particularly in Colossians And so as I was studying this in fact one of my struggles early on as I began my development in this direction is was trying to reconcile how do I reconcile what I know in terms of the research, in terms of the involvement of our physiology in a lot of human problems with what scripture has to say. And what I began to understand is simply that that corruption and disorder is a whole person disorder. And so everything that we do involves our physiology. And so I began to piece together that this is an aspect of our flesh. And so scripture does not exclude that. And it doesn't become an either or. Either it's a physiological problem or it's a soul spirit problem. But it's a both end. It is a whole person disorder. So we're going to look a little closer at this. And doing this study on the flesh, I ran across some great quotes. And I'm going to give you several here. But this is from the International Standard Biblical Encyclopedia. And it says, in the New Testament, flesh represents the natural, created human aspect. As such, it is not sinful, merely weak, limited, and temporal. Because of its limitation, it's liable to sin, for example, the natural and human is God, neglecting the true God, and thus can even be regarded as mankind's master, a synonym for the body and meat is another definition of that term that's used that way. But the idea that it can be regarded as mankind's master, so the flesh, particularly as we read in Galatians chapter five, the flesh can be a controlling agent. we can yield control to the flesh. So keep that in mind. Neil Anderson writes in Victory Over Darkness, the flesh may be defined as the existence apart from God, a life dominated by sin or a drive opposed to God. The flesh is self-reliant rather than God-dependent. It is self-centered rather than Christ-centered. It is a learned independence. It is one of the chief characteristics of the flesh. The flesh Particularly as we yield control to the flash will always move us in a direction In opposition to God, okay apart from God so And here's a quote by Ken Boa and his book conformed to his image, which I would highly recommend by the way and Bob was the one who introduced me to that book. It's wonderful. It's actually a It's a very deep read. There's a lot of good stuff in that book, but he writes this. He says, instead of love, the flesh produces unforgiveness, hate, rejection, and hostility. Instead of joy, the flesh produces unforgiveness, I'm sorry, produces bitterness, resentment, despair, and depression, insecurity, and worry. Instead of peace, the flesh produces fear, discord, strife, jealousy, and nervousness. Instead of patience, the flesh produces intolerance, impatience, and restlessness. Instead of kindness, the flesh produces cruelty, harshness, and aggression. Instead of goodness, the flesh produces malice, wickedness, and depravity. Instead of faithfulness, the flesh produces disloyalty, infidelity, and dishonesty. Instead of gentleness, the flesh produces stubbornness, pride, and cursing. Instead of self-control, the flesh produces rebellion, lust, and gluttony." So, pretty extensive list there. Obviously, we see that contrast between the fruit of the Spirit versus the works of the flesh in Galatians chapter 5. Marcus. In the sense of Yes. When the motive behind it is actually aimed toward a selfish end rather than a godly end. Well, isn't that, hey, aren't we supposed to win friends and manipulate people? OK. It's conformed to his image. It's in your bibliography. Yeah, there's a pretty extensive bibliography that I've given you with your handout. The Dictionary of New Testament Theology points out that in Romans chapter 8, verses 5 through 8, the flesh actually denotes a mental outlook oriented towards the self, that which pursues its own ends and self-sufficient independence of God. So again, the flesh is going to move us in a trajectory that is going to be independent and in opposition to God, okay? As well, and I thought this was a great quote. I think I have this one on here. Nope. Okay, back up. In its desires, the flesh is open to the powers and influences of this world, which themselves are not flesh and blood. That's from the Dictionary of New Testament Theology referencing particularly the passages in Ephesians. And here I like this quote. This is again from the Dictionary of New Testament Theology. And to live according to the flesh is to travel into the cul-de-sac which ends in death. Pretty powerful imagery there. And again, remember, what is it that Satan is sowing in terms of this disorder, this chaos in our lives? What's the ultimate end? Death. Death. And the author writes, to walk according to the Spirit, then, is to enter life. Enter life. And so we see a contrast of the flesh and the life of the flesh with the spirit and the life in the spirit. And here is the contrast that we see in the New Testament. The life of the flesh is temporal, and it represents that which is temporal. It is limited in terms of time, it is temporary, it is mortal, versus the life of the spirit is eternal. I tell my students, I ask the question frequently, when does eternity begin for you? And they say, when you die. And I'll say, no, you are living eternally right now. You are living eternally right now. The life of the flesh is corrupted and it leads to further corruption. versus the life of the spirit will lead to incorruption, and where corruption shall put on incorruption, the word says, and we will one day receive those glorified bodies. The life of the flesh is perishable. We all die. Paul wrote that we are perishing day by day. We are dying away slowly, the outer part of us, the fleshly part of us, the human the material existence, but the life of the Spirit is imperishable. It will not go away. It will not perish. The life of the flesh is opposed to God versus the Holy Spirit is God. The life of the flesh will produce self-effort to commend us in terms of righteousness which will produce self-righteousness, and this is particularly what Christ opposes in the Pharisees. We see this in the Gospel, and then later on in the early church dealing with the heresy of the Judaizers. And so the flesh is going to produce self-effort, whereas the Holy Spirit, in relation to the life of the Spirit, is a life of self-surrender. The flesh, ultimately, is material, whereas the Holy Spirit is immaterial. So the flesh is a material thing, and it is spoken of. In fact, in some uses of that term, it actually, again, as you saw, refers to meat that was placed on the altar. So our focus today is going to be on the flesh particularly as our physiology as corrupted by the fall and that stands in contrast to the spirit. We're going to look at this and for me this was that proverbial light bulb that went off when I began to realize that Scripture, in terms of human problems, Scripture had already included that physiological aspect of us in its understanding of human problems. And this is where I began to really put some of the pieces of the puzzle together. Now, the essence of the flesh, I think, if you boil it down, and you boil it down, you look at our material existence and what is the essence of our material existence or you might say the key of our material existence and basically that would be the brain. Now let me make a distinction here. I don't believe that the brain and the mind are the same thing. The mind is a function of the soul which is immaterial The brain is a function of our bodies, but it's the control center of our bodies, in essence. So the essence of the flesh really then becomes, and stay with me here, the organization and hardwiring of the brain circuits to meet needs and desires independent of Christ due to prior conditioning or learning. This hardwiring produces characteristic emotions, It propels characteristic behaviors and promotes patterns of thought that become automatic. Essentially, the nexus of the flesh, the apex of the flesh then, just in terms of its structures, is the organization of brain circuitry apart from the life of Christ, the life we find in Christ. This, for me, began to really put the pieces of the puzzle together. And everything that I knew based upon good, solid research then began to fall in place with what I knew biblically as well. And we're going to look at some of that today here. So let's do a little discernment first. And again, we go back to this issue of worldview. In my field, the field of psychology, and the related field of neuroscience, most of that field really presumes this naturalistic worldview, where all we are is just stuff. And so they would say that the brain produces the mind, which I disagree with. And so therefore, everything ultimately is a problem in the stuff, which I disagree with. And they would say that reality is composed of that which is material. So the assumption is that the mind or the soul is produced by the brain. In fact, several years ago, Dr. Francis Crick, any of you ever heard of Francis Crick? OK. Do you know about DNA and the double helix structure of DNA? Francis Crick won a Nobel Prize for the discovery of the double helix structure of the DNA. Hugely, hugely influential. in the field of science. And he wrote a book called, The Astonishing Hypothesis, Science Discovers the Seed of the Soul. And his basic premise is that the soul is a product of the brain. And I disagree with his basic premise. To say that science is the discovery and exploration of the natural world and to say that we can discover the seed of the soul presumes that the soul is natural to begin with. So they go wrong in their presuppositions again in their worldview. So, but this assumption that the brain produces the mind is widely held and therefore they would say that all human behavior is therefore determined. that we really don't have a will, that we don't make choices, that we just act only based upon prior conditioning, prior learning. And I disagree with that. That's behaviorism, by the way, radical behaviorism, if you're familiar with those theories. I think it's important that as believers we understand biblically the soul is immaterial, and humans are endowed with the freedom of will, we may respond in pre-programmed ways, but we don't have to. We are composed of that which is both material and immaterial, and it's important that we understand that. So, do a little discernment here before we get into this, so that we're all of the same understanding. Okay, I want to look at some of the way that the brain gets organized. Okay. Hang in with me here. And again, please feel free to ask questions for clarification. And I'll be glad to do that and field those questions. And I've been asked again to repeat the questions since we're being recorded. So if I don't do that, please remind me to do so. The circuits of the brain are organized according to the way in which they are used. We call this, the brain organizes itself in a use-dependent fashion. So as you use it, the circuits of the brain will get organized. And so if you, for example, if you take a person who is learning to play basketball, the more that they practice and rehearse that, whether it's doing a free throw or a jump shot or whatever, the more that the circuit of the brain that governs our motor movements and coordinates eye-motor coordination, the stronger and stronger those circuits will become, so that that behavior will become an automatic process you won't have to think consciously about how to do that, you will just do that in a way which then becomes automatic. And that means simply that our brain organizes itself in a use-dependent fashion. But not just that, there's a second condition that is necessary for organization of the brain. And that second condition is that we have to pay attention. Now, For me, one of the most profound discoveries of neuroscience in the last 10 years is this one. Let me say it this way to get the full implication of this. Whatever you give attention to is what will organize the circuits of your brain. Yes, sir. Yes. Yes. Whatever you give attention to is what will organize the circuits of your brain. Think about that, particularly in the context in which I work with college students. And I think about, even in my own life, the things that I gave attention to, particularly at that young age. Think about that in relation to many of the compulsive addictive behaviors, such as pornography. No. It doesn't have to be permanent. No. The question was, is that permanent? And it doesn't have to be permanent. But whatever you give attention to is what will organize the circuits of your brain. So if you are feeding yourself in the word daily, that will start to organize the circuits of your brain. If what you're feeding yourself with is a bunch of lies and is oriented toward the pleasures of this world, that will organize the circuits of your brain. Whatever you give attention to is what will organize the circuits of your brain. It means that it's going to create, your brain uses, the basic cell of the brain is a neuron. And what happens is that there are pathways that are created, that neurons communicate with each other using an electrical chemical process. And so what happens is that the more you do a certain behavior, the stronger that pathway becomes in your brain. And so that's what I mean when I say it organizes the circuits of your brain so that when you are faced with a stimulus, whatever that be. So let's take for example a man who is addicted to pornography and he's been viewing pornography. So whenever he sees an attractive woman, regardless of whether that attractive woman is on a glossy page, on a computer screen, or in real life, his brain is going to be programmed, it's going to propel him to follow a certain direction in terms of his physiological response, his emotional response, and even will encourage a particular mental response to that attractive woman. So that's what happens. That's what happens. We train our brains by what we give attention to. The gentleman says that people in prison will often believers will often memorize scripture but then As soon as they get out of prison they resort to old habits Is that what I'm understanding and how do we explain that the reality is that the old programming is still there? It's still there and They have to learn particularly to resist the old programming at the point of temptation So we're going to get to how to do that. In our brain structures, and let's look at this. And in fact, you have these pictures in your handout, so you can reference them. Our brain in its basic structures can be organized into four quadrants. You have the frontal lobes, you have the parietal lobes, the temporal lobes, and the occipital lobes. The most important part of our brain in terms of human behavior is particularly the frontal lobe. And this is where we, where the part of the brain that mediates what we call the executive functions, decision making, forethought, planning, keeping ourselves on track in relation to goals, That sort of thing it mediates that part of the brain mediates that So that's the frontal lobe and within that frontal lobe And you will see here. This is a cutaway view of the brain And if we're looking at this frontal lobe Then and you have some other structures in here, and I'll talk about those in a minute, but you have an area of that is called the prefrontal cortex area, which is right here, which is where most of that kind of stuff takes place, or at least it mediates it. Now, I want to be careful to say it doesn't cause it, it mediates it. And right in here, in fact, if you could take your finger, and this is kind of disgusting, and you could push it up past your eyeball about an inch and a half, you would hit an area of your brain that's called the right orbital prefrontal cortex. That's ROPFC for short, right orbital prefrontal cortex. That is at the top of the control hierarchy in the brain. That right orbital prefrontal cortex is the apex of the control hierarchy of the brain. And this is the area within us that mediates self-control. And the essence of self-control is the regulation and management of our emotions. That's the essence of self-control. And that area of the brain mediates that process. As children, the brain is very adaptable and adjusts very well. It's adjustable. For example, there are rare conditions of epilepsy where it's resistant to all other forms of treatment, but it is so severe as to actually threaten the life of the child. They will do what's called a hemispherectomy. Well, they will actually remove half of the outer thick gray area of the brain where to prevent, to lessen the severity of these seizures. And what happens is that the child then has to undergo some very rigorous training and working with that child But actually, the remaining half of the brain will begin to take over the functions of the missing half. That's what we call plasticity. The brain can develop new circuits. It can reorganize itself, even to that degree. Now, that's true in children. We used to think it was not so true in adults. And still in adults, I mean, if you did a hemispherectomy on an adult, they wouldn't survive. But we know that we can actually, to a lesser degree, but still pretty significant in many ways, reorganize the circuits of the brain. The circuits of our brain are not set in stone. They can be reorganized. So this is really important. As adults, plasticity, this notion that our brains can reorganize itself, it remains, but it is more limited. But it's there. That's the good news. In fact, a lot of the research that's been done in this area has practical implications for people who suffer strokes and brain injuries. And we now know how to help people to retrain their brains, to organize the brains, to help the brain reorganize itself in a different way and to restore some of the functions that have been lost. Yes, they would do it through different forms of physical therapy, as well as other types of therapy. So, yeah. Occupational therapy and those methods. So, there's another important part of the brain, and it's this limbic system, which are these structures that you see here. And the limbic system is the part of our brain that actually mediates our emotions. And it's also very involved in our attachments. And that limbic system of the brain actually shares some very significant circuits, or should, if the brain is working well, with that right orbital prefrontal cortex area that mediates self-control. So the way that our brain is supposed to function, the way it's designed to function, is that through the soul we exert self-control mediating it through that right orbital prefrontal cortex area And it inhibits, actually, activity in the limbic system and regulates this activity in the limbic system. And so I'll talk about some of the design aspects in a moment of the brain that are actually profound. and what we're beginning to discover these days. And what we'll find is that scripture was there before science ever was. But that's the way our brains are supposed to function. In fact, the way that God designed us to function is that yielding to the spirit, which leads ultimately to self-control, that last of the fruit of the spirit, that then gets mediated again through the right orbital prefrontal cortex area and it calms down that limbic system. A brain that is at peace, a brain that is working well, is a brain in which you will see some activity in the prefrontal cortex areas of the brain. and you will see these areas of the brain here, particularly the limbic system, on a scan, on a brain scan, a functional MRI scan, you would see those areas of the brain as cool. So you would see some activity in the prefrontal cortex area of the brain, but you would see, particularly the limbic system, but also other areas of the brain as cool. You wouldn't see a lot of activity in those areas of the brain. So that's how it's designed to function. That's a person who is at peace, who is calm. That's what you would see in terms of their brain scan. Yes? It's near it. It's part of the prefrontal cortex area. Let me go back here. Can't do it that way. The nucleus accumbens is right here. The nucleus, the cummins, is the thing. It's like the oil light or the gas light on your car. It says, feed me, feed me now. It directs the essence of our, particularly our compulsive behaviors, and it sort of signals us, particularly in terms of desire, is what it does. When a person has a seizure, we really don't know what causes most seizures, but what you would see in terms of a brain scan is you would see a burst of activity in one area of the brain, and then it would begin to spread to other areas of the brain. Now, it may be limited, or in severe cases, it may begin to include whole areas almost of the whole brain, and those are very severe cases. Now, there is what are called negative seizures, and my daughter had negative seizures, my youngest daughter. We don't know exactly what caused it, but what you would see instead of a burst of activity is all of a sudden, you would see a decrease of activity in the brain, and then it would spread. Thank the Lord, she grew out of it. So, that was a blessing to us. Okay, let's talk about the brain as design. Did you have a question? There's a lot of information that's coming out now because we now have the capacity to, in many ways, look inside the brain, whereas we didn't before. And now we can even look inside the brain in terms of real time. For example, if you get a regular MRI, what it will show you is it will give you a snapshot of the brain over 30 minutes. But you only get a single snapshot, and it produces a composite. Well, if a child is born with a genetic defect, will they not be able to experience joy in the same way? There are only a few conditions in which there are genetic defects of the brain. You know, if a child is born inencephalant, they're born without the upper part of the brain, and they just have the lower parts of the brain. The child is still a child. It's fully a human being, made in the image of God. But in terms of their experiences, they will not be able to obviously experience the same things that we experience in the normal brain. So, the short answer is yes, that they would not have the same level of experience. Marcus. I think there can be some joy. I think there can be some joy. And there still can be an attachment. Yeah. What do you do, ultimately? The question is, are we headed toward where we can develop drugs or other types of Biologically based therapy that will help that will produce Joy experiences and ultimately substitute that I would say it still won't achieve the same thing because it doesn't happen in the context of a love life And so it won't do exactly the same thing, but the reason let me say this What happens for example in drug addiction is that most of the drugs that operate? particularly your stimulants like crack and other drugs like that, methamphetamine. What they do is they produce a rush of dopamine. That's one of the chemicals in your brain. Dopamine is what produces that experience of pleasure and that ecstasy, that experience of joy. That's why they also call methamphetamine ecstasy as well. But it doesn't happen in the context of a love bond, so it won't produce the brain growth. And, in fact, what happens is that, ultimately, you become addicted to your own chemicals, I think is what is going to happen. You will naturally produce chemicals. In fact, people who are ultra-marathoners, ultra-runners, sometimes they can't stop. You know why? They're addicted to the chemicals in their own body. And they will actually go through withdrawal. So, yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Homosexuality? Let me do this. We may go over, okay, we've got five minutes. Can I come back to that in the afternoon session? Remind me, please. Again, looking at this, probably the more common way that the brain is disorganized or fallen is almost all disorders, almost all human problems involve circumventing that area of the brain that mediates self-control. What we tend to see is a reduction of activity in that part of the brain and increased activity, increases in activity in the other parts of the brain, particularly the limbic system of the brain. So this is the result of presenting the members of their body as instruments of unrighteousness. You train your brain to do that. And the more that you participate in unrighteousness, the more your brain is going to propel you to continue to do that. It will become an automatic behavior. So that's exactly what happens, for example, in a pornography addiction. And that's why they almost, they will say, it's like I have no control. over it and that's because the brain is saying if I'm faced with the choice and this is the weak road over here and this is the strong road because I've been down it many times, where is my brain going to propel me to go? Right down here. It's going to be the easy route. It's going to propel you down there. So and it's like Neil Anderson uses this analogy. Grandma and Grandpa back years ago, they bought that 40 acres. They built a house at the back of that 40 acres. And it was nice, hard field on that 40 acres. And so Grandpa could turn his truck and he could ride comfortably up that field right up to the house. Well, after 5, 10, 20 years of marriage, what happens to that path? It develops a rut. So grandpa can now turn his truck onto that rut, let go of the steering wheel, and it'll drive itself up to the front of the house. And now, when you're trying to create a new pathway, you're going to encounter resistance trying to get out of that rut. Particularly, you're going to encounter more resistance early on to try to create that new pathway. And that's what we try to do when we try to get people to train their members for righteousness rather than unrighteousness. So and so again through this process of potentiation and depotentiation That's sensitizing and weakening the connections in the brain this unrighteous pattern becomes hardwired into the brain not permanent But it becomes strong, okay And the uncontrolled brain again becomes selfish it becomes emotionally unstable impulsive pleasure-seeking and survival-oriented Defensive it's going to react defensively when it feels that there is a challenge or a threat Here's some interesting research. Daniel Ahman, he has broken the brain up into five different systems. And this is in his book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life. It's in your bibliography. And I took these out. These are the things that he says, this is what we would see in a person who's having trouble in this area of the brain. And he lists all of these. Compare that to this list of characteristics of the flesh. They're the same lift. They may use different words, but it's the same concept. It's the same concept. Same lift. So, we obviously have to help people to find that sense of self-control, to break free from the bondages in their lives, But we also need to, and as we do that, we will address areas of the flesh. But there are times also when we have to specifically address areas of the flesh as well. And when we come back after the break, we're going to look at how we do that. We'll look at sources of corruption and how we begin to help people to address some of those areas of the flesh. And then we'll look at a specific case of marital counseling. how I address, that's actually a composite cave, and how I would address areas of the flesh in that cave. So we're going to give this some practical application, and we'll address the issue of homophyxoraptive when we get back to you. All right? Thank you.