Now I'd like for you to open
your Bibles with me again to the book of Romans chapter eight.
Romans chapter eight. And this morning I'm talking
about the same thing I talked about last Sunday morning on
the issue of the death of sin. The death of sin. And my text
is basically verse 13. I've been going through this
passage but He makes this statement in Romans 8 and verse 13. He
says, for if you live after the flesh, you shall die. The flesh being sin within us. Those things which alienate us
from God, sin being the problem. He says, but if you through the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit, as we're born again by the Spirit, as
we're filled with the Spirit, As we are led, guided, motivated,
energized by the Holy Spirit. If you through the spirit do
mortify, mortify means put to death. Mortification. You've heard that term. People
talk about the mortification of sin. That's what I'm talking
about this morning. The death of sin. That's what
that means. If you through the Spirit do mortify, and he calls
them the deeds of the body. Now whenever the scripture, especially
the Apostle Paul, he was inspired by the Spirit, speaks of the
deeds of the body, he's speaking of the best that people can do.
Deeds are things that people do in order to accomplish something
with God. Try to be accepted with God.
the deeds of the flesh, the deeds of the body. Romans chapter three
in verse 20 says, by deeds of law, by men working their way,
trying to work their way into God's favor, no flesh shall be
justified in God's sight, whether Jew or Gentile. So if you through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.
Now what does that mean? And then he says in verse 14,
for as many as are led by the Spirit, They are the sons of
God, that's what I wanna, I wanna be assured from the scripture,
from God's word, that I can truly and honestly call myself a son
of God, a child of God, that's what he's talking about. A sinner
saved by the grace of God. And then he says in verse 15,
for you've not received the spirit of bondage, that's legal bondage,
again, to fear, that's legal fear, legalism, self-righteous
religion, works religion, men and women trying to establish
a righteousness of their own instead of resting in Christ
for all forgiveness, for all life, for all righteousness and
glory. You didn't receive that spirit
from God. That spirit's in man naturally. That's the way we're
born. That's what it means to be born
dead in trespasses and sins. You know, when the Bible teaches
that we're born dead in trespasses and sins, It doesn't mean that
we can't do anything. I've heard people equate that
to a dead body lying in a morgue. Well, spiritually speaking, that's
true. But we can do things, we just can't do anything to please
God. We can't do anything in accordance with God's glory.
You see, without faith, it's impossible to please God. Man
by nature can't believe and he can't repent. He doesn't want
to. That's what Christ taught in Matthew 13. They close their
ears, that's us by nature. And so, whenever we see ourselves
or others going about in religion, trying to work their way into
God's favor, that's not the spirit of God operating, that's the
spirit of man, that's the spirit of legalism, that's the spirit
of the flesh. You see, that's a person who's dead and trespasses
and sins. That's what that is. Look alive,
but they're not, spiritually. But he says in verse 15, you've
received the spirit of adoption. That's the adoption of grace.
That's election. That's what that is. God chose,
when you adopt a child, you choose them. And that's eternal election
in Christ. That's adoption in Christ. And
there's a price paid. That's the price of redemption.
That's the blood of Christ. And you might say it this way,
for that child, you provide everything they need. Christ provides everything
we need for salvation. He cleanses us in his blood. He clothes us in his righteousness
imputed. He gives us life and stirs our
hearts and our minds, our affections, our wills, you see, to rest in
him. And he says, whereby we cry,
Abba, Father. There's that intimate love relationship
between the father and his children, Abba, Father, Papa, Papa. And
so he says, the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit.
The Holy Spirit bears witness with a sinner who's been made
spiritually alive. He bears witness like in a court
of law with our inner man, the heart, that's what that is. And
he says, with our spirit, that we are the children of God. I
am a child of God. Now, everybody thinks that and
says that. I want to know for sure that
that's what I am. I don't want to just think it
and say it. That's what I want for you too. I don't want this
just to be religious language that we all say because we live
in the Bible belt. You understand that? I want to
know this from the Word of God, because the way the Spirit testifies
and witnesses, like in a court of law, He brings forth sound
evidence from the Word of God that we can believe and know.
So this is not just feelings and emotions and tingles up and
down your spine, you know. Anything can give you that. Satan
can fake that stuff, you know. I'm not saying that the truth
doesn't make us emotional and give us those good feelings in
that sense. But that's not what this is about,
you know. This is about the spirit of God
bearing witness as in a court of law. I like that. That's not
cold and indifferent doctrine. That's the Holy Spirit with the
word of life that leads us to Christ. And he says that we are
the children of God. Anybody who's honest, and when
God the Holy Spirit, when he comes and he gives us life, spiritual
life, one of the things he does is he makes us honest. That's
what the Bible means when it says there's no guile. David
wrote in Psalm 32, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth
or charges or counteth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. And he makes us honest. Honest
before God, honest before men, honest about who God is, and
honest about our sin. And if you've been convicted
of sin by the Holy Spirit, you know something about this. That
the problem that we have in everything, all the struggles that we have
inwardly, all the struggles we have outwardly, that the problem
is that disease called sin, that spiritual disease, that's what
it is. And so whether or not you're being led by, guided by,
filled with the Holy Spirit is seen a lot in how you view and
how you deal with this issue of sin. Men by nature will deal with
it in a spirit of legalism, false religion, self-righteousness.
And men by nature deal with it from the outside in. The Lord
spoke to the Pharisees of that. He says, you clean the outside
of the cup, but inwardly it's all corruption. You're like a
beautiful grave. The other day, Me and my two
older brothers, we went to a graveyard to find a grave of our grandfather
and didn't find it. But you ought to see some of
those graves, and the graves are beautiful. But now, if you'd
open up the grave and look down in the casket, it wouldn't be
so beautiful, would it? It'd be corruption. It'd be decay. And that's what the Lord was
telling the Pharisees, you know, false religion, religion, joining
a church, all of these things. They can clean up the outside
and make a person look good, look religious, look saved, as
the world might say, but they cannot take care of the problem
of sin. They cannot take care of the
problem of the heart. And so Christ, and men and women
have a tendency, natural man has a tendency to look at sin
as a thing, as a substance, as an object, and it's not. That's
what Christ was saying when he told him. He said, now look,
fellas, it's not what goes in the mouth that defiles you. It's
not what you drink, it's not what you eat, what you wear that
defiles you. Now what you eat and drink and
wear may be bad, and it may even be sinful. But that's not what
defiles the person. What defiles what comes out of
the heart? And how are you gonna take care
of that? I mean, you can go off and live in a cave and never
talk to another person, but you can't stop those evil thoughts
and evil desires and evil motives. You could encase yourself in
concrete and you'd still have them. I mean, we can't deal with
it. You can get baptized, I can't
remember which old preacher, it may have been Scott, it sounds
like a Scott Richardson quote, I don't know. But he said they
were baptized in the creek so many times that the tadpoles
knew them by their first name. Well you can do that, but that's
not gonna take care of the problem. I remember hearing Brother Mayhem
preach on it, and I'll tell you what, he really, he used to say
he was gonna shuck some corn. And he'd really get down on this
when he talked about what can put away sin? and he'd go down the list. You
remember that day. I mean, it was something, wasn't
it? What can wash away my sins? Well, this is what Paul's talking
about here when he talks about mortifying. The death of sin. Now, let me tell you something.
Here's the thing. If sin is not mortified for me,
Sin itself will mortify me. If sin is not put to death, in
my case, sin will put me to death. You know why? Because the wages
of sin is death. That's exactly what the Lord
told Cain. He said, if you do well, you'll
be accepted, but if not, sin lieth at the door. It's there.
It's not taken here. It's ever present. Let me tell
you something. Sin is around you. Sin is within you. You will
never get away from it. So this issue of the death of
sin is vital in the life of belief. So what does it mean to mortify
sin? What is the mortification of
sin? What is the death of sin? I gave you three ways, and let
me give them to you real quickly, just these things, and I wanna
show you some scripture. Think about it this way. Here's the
death of sin for a believer, for a child of God who is led
by the Holy Spirit, who has mortified the deeds of the body. Here's
three ways that you can think of the death of sin. Number one
is a past finished act. That's number one. Now when did
that take place? On the cross of Calvary by the
death of Christ. One of the first books that Brother
Mahan gave me when I first started listening to him preach was a
book entitled The Death of Death in the Death of Christ by John
Owen. A past finished act. But now
listen to me, now when I say it's a past finished act, I want
you to understand something about that. It's not something that
we look upon as being past, we don't have to talk about it,
let's forget it and move on. Not that kind. This is a past
finish act which is the very ground and foundation of our
whole salvation, eternal life and glory. This is a past finish
act that has repercussions and implications that are eternal. This past finish act was so sure
and certain that God forgave and saved and justified the Old
Testament believers before it even actually happened. This
is a past-finished act that we live upon the ground of, in the
life of, and in the light of throughout eternity. In fact,
they sing in glory of this past-finished act. Revelation 5 says, worthy
is the lamb that was slain. That's a song of the redeemed.
We sing about it this morning. My sin, oh the bliss of this
glorious thought. My sin, not in part but the whole,
is what? What did we sing? Nailed to the
cross. Now that's what I'm talking about.
We sang it, do you know what? I love good theology and songs. I told Joe, I said, he couldn't
have picked two more perfect hens for today's message. My
hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and right.
See, we live, it's a past finished act. We don't add to it. We don't
improve upon it. But we live in it. The light
of it, the glory of it, the life of it from the ground of it.
And sin is mortified on the cross. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross. My sin was taken care of on the
cross. And everything that happens as
far as my going through this thing in the life of a believer
now is the product and the result and the fruit of that past finished
act. What Christ did on the cross.
So that's the first thing. Mortified. Done deal. Accomplished. It is finished, he said. Secondly
is a present experience. Mortification of sin as a present
experience. Now how does that take place?
That's in the new birth when the Holy Spirit brings us to
faith in Christ and repentance of dead works. We put them to
death in repentance and faith. That's really what Paul's talking
about here in Romans 8, 13. Mortifying the deeds of the body.
How do you put to death the deeds of the body? You repent of them.
I used to think there was life in those deeds, what I did. Now
I know there's nothing but death. I'll show you some scripture
on that. Now, when I say a present experience, understand this present
experience has a beginning in the new birth, under the preaching
of the gospel. by which the Spirit brings you
to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works. And then the third
aspect of mortification is a future goal. A future goal. What is the desire of every child
of God? Think about it now. It's to be
like Christ. To be rid of the presence of
sin, We're free from the power of sin to condemn us. That's
the past, finished act. That's on the cross. But we're
still plagued with sin. The presence of it, the influence
of it, the contamination of it. And every honest Christian will
testify that becoming a believer does not erase inward sin. The tendency to sin, The practice
of sin, somebody said, well, if you're a believer, you're
a sinner, but you don't practice sin. Now, how you figure that
one? Now, be honest. What is sin? Missing the mark. When do you ever hit the mark?
When do I ever hit the mark? What is the mark? Perfect conformity
to Christ. In my thoughts, in my motives,
in my desires, Do you ever desire to sin? If you say no, you're
a liar. You've already sinned. You desire
to lie about it. And you'll desire to lie about
it when you go to bed tonight, when you dream, and when you
wake up in the morning. Men love to be lied to, and men
love to lie to themselves. Somebody said, well, Christian
sins, but he doesn't want to. What planet are you from? Not
the human race. We still, listen to me now, we
even still derive pleasure from sin. Doesn't the Bible say love your
enemy? Now if you love somebody, you know what that means, you
don't want any harm to come to them. You ever derive pleasure
from seeing harm come to somebody? You ever say he got what he deserved? And other things. We still struggle with sinful
habits. There are things that I'll guarantee
you in your mind, and I'm not asking for some mass confession
here tonight or today, But there are things in your mind right
now you say, Lord, why don't you take that desire, that thought
away from me? And I'll guarantee you probably
at some point in your life you even wonder if you're a believer
at all because of it. How about that one? You think
that's just common to everybody but me? Because I'm up here? You think this pulpit takes away
sin? This isn't the division between sin and holiness. You see, that's the issue. Now
let's be honest. Some of those habits and desires
are so deeply ingrained that we battle with them years after
our new birth. As I said last week, the spiritual
life, the Christian life, is not a playground. It is a battleground. You know what King David said?
You say, well, I know about King David. He committed adultery
with Bathsheba. Well, Christ said, if you look
upon a woman lust after you've committed adultery, you think you're better than
King David? He made this statement. He said, I'll be satisfied. When? When I awake with thy likeness.
I'm not there yet. Sometimes we fall into appalling,
even shameful sins, public sins, and I'm not talking about just
the ones that make the headlines now. Truth is, we sin daily, hourly. Our thoughts are not what they
ought to be in perfection. Our time is often wasted on frivolous
and worldly pursuits that take us away from the word of God
and from prayer and from worship and from fellowship. From time
to time, our hearts grow cold to even to the things of God.
Why does all that happen? Because we're not completely
conformed to the image of Christ yet. We have a goal. Now, when I say we have a goal,
I don't mean that that's something we sit down and just throw caution
to the wind and wait on. Even that goal is our present
experience because we battle. Now let me show you some things.
Turn back to Romans chapter six. Started this last week. Let's
briefly look at these things from scripture. First, the past
act, the finished act, the cross of Christ. The sin, I'm a sinner
saved by the grace of God and sin right now and will never
have any power to condemn me. Christ took my condemnation.
The Bible says in Romans 8, 1, there is therefore now no what?
Condemnation in Christ. Satan will accuse me, but what
is my defense against Satan's accusations? We plead the blood
of the Lamb. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. And that's what he's talking
about here in Romans chapter six, look at verse seven. Now,
we read this last week, I won't go through the whole thing, but
he's talking about how we are, we who are in Christ, he's our
representative, he's our substitute, he's our sin bearer and sin offering,
he's our lamb. And when he died, I died. He
died for my sins. That's what I'm saying. That
means something. He was made sin. That means he
bore my sins on the tree. My guilt became his. My curse became his. He wasn't turned into a sinner,
he just bore my sins. And he died, he shed his blood
and satisfied law and justice on my behalf. He paid my sin
debt. I don't owe a debt to God's law and justice, Christ paid
it. That's what I mean. Sin is dead, look at it in verse
seven. For he that is dead, what's he
talking about? Dead in Christ. Dead to sin in
Christ. Washed in the blood of Christ.
Clothed in his righteousness, accounted, charged, imputed to
me. That's what that means. And it
says, is freed from sin. That word free is literally the
word justified. When you're justified, that means
you're not guilty. Now, after describing all those
things about our sin inwardly, how can we say we're not guilty?
It's all based upon a past, finished act. Sin was put away. The Bible
says Christ put away our sins. on Calvary's tree. What does
that mean? It means I'm justified in him. I'm not guilty. I'm righteous
in Christ. He is the Lord, my righteousness. Based upon that past, finished
act. He made an end of sin, Daniel
prophesied. He finished the transgression.
It's finished, it's ended as far as condemnation. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who can condemn me? It's Christ
that died. You see, that's mortification
of sin. Christ put it to death on the
cross. And he says in verse eight, now look here in Romans six,
now if we be dead with Christ, you see what he's talking about?
Christ my representative, Christ my substitute, Christ my sin
bearer, Christ my sin offering, my lamb, my sacrifice. If I'm
dead with him, We believe that we shall also live with him.
His death gives me life. My life in Christ is the result
of his death, burial, and resurrection. Verse 9, knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead dieth no more. Now there's no more
death in this sense. How many times did Christ go
to the cross? One time. How many times did he die? One
time. For by one offering he hath perfected,
completed, finished, By one offering he hath perfected
them that are sanctified in him. So he said, he dieth no more.
Now we don't have to die anymore to sin in this sense. It's a
done deal. I'm telling you, when Christ
put away my sins in the sight of God, they're gone. The law
books of heaven are wiped clean in my case. There's no charge
in God's court against me. you in Christ if you're in him
and he says death hath no more dominion over him death hath
no more dominion over Christ how do you know that he arose
from the dead now he says in verse 10 for in
that he died he died unto sin once but in that he liveth he
liveth unto God his death to put away my sins to mortify my
sins result, has an effect, has a fruit that we might live under
God. Now I want you to listen to verse
11, this is important. Likewise, now you know what likewise
means don't you? Simple, means in the same way.
In the same way, you reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
In the same way, reckon. You know what reckon means? It
means impute, it's the same word, impute. So what does that mean? That means account. It means consider. Sometimes
it's translated think. You know, in Philippians chapter
four, when Paul said, think on these things, it's the same word
for impute. Think on, in other words, this is how you're to
think. Paul, by the Holy Spirit, is saying, here's how I want
you who are in Christ to think and account. Take an account.
You see, this is the mortification of sin. How? God imputed my sin
to Christ. God charged my sin to Christ.
He did away with it. He satisfied justice for it.
He brought forth righteousness. Now I am going to consider myself,
think of myself as dead in him. Based on what? Imputed righteousness. Take an account. I'm dead. And not just dead, I'm dead indeed
unto sin. That's about as far into death
as you can get. That's a real thing. This is
not just play-like. Some people call imputed sin
and imputed righteousness legal fiction. No, Paul says it's not
a legal fiction. You reckon yourselves as dead
indeed. You're really dead to sin. My
sin is really mortified on the cross. That's a reality. How real is it? That's the way
God sees it. And he doesn't deal in play-like
and legal fiction. Don't let these preachers lead
you down that road. I'm telling you. Don't let them
do it. Man, this is real. This is real
as it gets. Just because it's legal doesn't
make it unreal. And listen, he says, but alive
unto God. Now from this comes life. That's
how real it is. Spiritual life comes from this
fact. If this thing hadn't taken place
on the cross, there'd be no spiritual life. You understand that? There'd
be no mortification of sin in this way. If this thing hadn't
taken place and been finished by Christ on the cross, there'd
be no work of the Holy Spirit. There'd be no new birth. If Christ
had not died, and died unto sin once, and put away our sins,
and mortified our sins, and took the condemnation and the gift,
if that had not taken place, there'd be no heaven. There'd
be no second coming. There'd be no church. There'd
be nothing but death, death, death. That's it. So he says, likewise. Now, look
back at Romans 8. Now here's, that's the past finished
act. Now here, secondly, is the present
experience. That's what repentance is all
about. And I could go to other scriptures here. That scripture
that Brother Jim read in Colossians chapter 3, it's the reason I
had him read that. Let me just read it to you real quick. You
remember in Ephesians 3, he says, in verse 3, for if you are dead,
And your life is hid with Christ in God. That's the same thing
that Paul's talking about in Romans 6. That past, finished
act. You're dead in Christ. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. When he arose again, I arose
again. As he is, so am I in this world. He's not condemned. He
put away my sin. That's how I am. Right now, in
this world, I don't look like it to you, and you don't look
like it to me, but that's the way it is because God said it.
God declared it. I'm to reckon it this is the
way I'm to think according to the Word of God I'm not condemned
why because my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood
and righteousness and I dare not trust the sweetest frame
but wholly lean on Jesus name on Christ the solid rock I stand
all other ground is sinking sand so here brings us to the second
aspect of mortification. That's the present experience
that begins in the new birth in faith in Christ and repentance.
He says in Romans 8 and verse 13, for if you live after the
flesh, you shall die. Many ways of living after the
flesh. The main way that he's talking about has to do with
sinners trying to make themselves righteous by their works. And
I'm telling you, people by nature think that's life, but it's death.
It's death. It's death. Let me show you that.
Turn to Galatians chapter 3. In the book of Galatians, Paul
had been used of God to establish this church in the book of the
Galatian church. And after Paul had left, false
preachers had come in, and they taught people that, alright,
even though you're saved by God's grace in Christ, you have to
keep yourself saved by your works. You have to make yourself righteous
by your works. What works? Well, circumcision,
keeping days, doing certain religious ceremonies. Listen to what Paul
says in verse 1 of Galatians 3. He said, O foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you, literally who put a spell on you, that
you should not obey the truth? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ
hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you, I preached
unto you the death of sin, the establishment of righteousness,
and the death of Christ. That's what I preached, the gospel
of God's grace. How God saves sinners by grace,
through the blood and righteousness of Christ. How the God-man came
here in the fullness of the time, was made under the law, made
of a woman to redeem them that were under the law. To remove
that condemnation. That's what I preached to you,
and you claim to believe that, but now you're not obeying the
truth. He said in verse two, now listen to this, he says,
this only what I learned of you, received you the spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith. When the Holy Spirit
gave you life and you received him, Did you do it under the
preaching of a message of work salvation? Or did you do it under
the preaching of Christ and Him crucified? The grace of God in
Christ. That's what faith is. He says
in verse three, are you so foolish, having begun in the spirit that
is under the preaching of Christ? Are you now made perfect, complete,
holy, righteous, more saved by the flesh? And then the whole
book of Galatians basically is saying after that, put those
fleshly deeds on the cross, mortify them, repent of your dead works. That's death. You cannot be made
perfect by your works. You're justified by the grace
of God in Christ. You're sanctified by the grace
of God in Christ. All the holiness and righteousness
you'll ever have before a holy God is that which we have in
Christ. Look at Philippians chapter 3.
Here's another great example of the present experience of
mortification in repentance. Look at Philippians chapter 3.
Paul writes in verse 3, he says, for we are the circumcision,
that means circumcised in the heart, that means born again
by the Spirit. How do you know? We worship God in the spirit.
We worship God as God reveals himself, and we worship him from
the heart. And we rejoice, that literally
means glory, boast, have confidence in Christ Jesus, and have no
confidence in the flesh. Flesh cannot put away my sin.
Flesh cannot even make me better. He says, though I might also
have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that
he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. He said,
I've gone the extra mile here. He says, circumcised the eighth
day, that didn't put away sin. Of the stock of Israel, that
didn't put away sin. Of the tribe of Benjamin and
Hebrew of Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee went above
and beyond the call of duty, that didn't put away sin. Concerning
zeal persecuting the church. I persecuted what I saw as heresy,
but that didn't put away sin Touching the righteousness which
is in the law blameless, but that didn't put away sin now
Here's here's mortification of sin in our experience in repentance
look at verse 7 But what things were gained to me those I counted
lost for Christ Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and do count them
but dung that I may win Christ." Dung is made of dead things. Repentance of dead works. That's
mortification of sin. That's what Paul's talking about
back here in chapter 8 and verse 3, through the Spirit will lead
you to rest and rejoice in Christ and to mortify the deeds of the
body. They can't help me. They can't save me. They can't
wash me clean. They cannot make me righteous.
Only Christ can do that. And that's my present experience.
And it always will be. But now here's the third thing.
Now go back to Romans chapter 6. A future goal. The mortifications
of sin as a future goal. As I said, the Christian life
is not a playground, it's a battleground. And it's a future goal, not in
the sense that we sit down and throw caution to the wind and
wait for it to happen, but in the sense that we struggle with
it even now. And that's the presence of indwelling
sin that we have to fight every day of our lives. And our future
goal is that one day even the presence and the contamination
and the influence of sin that pervades our minds and our affections
and our will will be totally, totally eradicated, totally erased,
totally gone, and will be perfectly conformed to Christ. So what
does he say? Now look at verse 11 again of
Romans 6. He says, likewise reckon you
also yourselves to be dead, indeed undescend. but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now look at verse 12. Let not
sin therefore reign, control, dominate in your mortal body. What's the mortal body? That's
what you see before you. This old mortal body. What does
he mean, don't let sin reign? If sin's dead, how could it reign?
Well, it's dead in Christ. Likewise, account, impute, think
of yourselves. as in Christ. But in your experience
of it, sin is still an ever-present problem, right? So don't allow
sin to use your hands for sinful purposes, your eyes for sinful
purposes, your mind, your legs, your mortal body. Don't let it
control. Fight it. That's what he's saying,
that you should obey it in the lust there. Don't let that happen.
I don't have the power to do that. You don't have the, who
does? The Spirit of God, which indwells us by the Word of God. He says in verse 13, neither
yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.
Don't give way to them. He says, but yield yourselves
unto God as those that are alive from the dead. In other words,
submit to God, his revealed will, his word, not in order to gain
life, but because you already are alive in Christ as those
that are alive from the dead. and your members as instruments
of righteousness unto God. Use your eyes to read the word
of God. To look to Christ, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Not talking about
physical there. That's what he's saying. Engage yourself in this
battle of the flesh and the spirit. Look over at Galatians chapter
5. A couple weeks ago, I believe
it was Brother Joe Turner read this. Listen to what he says
here. This is a battle, and it's an
everyday battle, and it doesn't let up, folks. Now listen to
me. Somebody says, well, when do
I have any relief from this battle? I'll tell you exactly when, when
you die. That's when you will awake with
his likeness. Up until that time, every day
is a battlefield. Your mind's a battlefield. There'll
be things in yourself and from others that will vie for your
affections. Look at Galatians 5. He says
in verse 16, look at this, he says, this I say then, walk in
the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust, the unlawful
desires of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary
the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that
you would. Either way, you can't go the
full swing of the flesh in depravity, and you can't go the full swing
of the Spirit in perfect conformity to Christ. But he says in verse
18, but if you be led of the Spirit, you're not under the
law. If you're led of the Spirit, you're not condemned. There is
therefore now no condemnation, that past finished act. You've
repented of dead works, you're led by the Spirit, and where
does he lead? He leads you to Christ. And he says, now the
works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. Now, I want
you to notice in this list of the works of the flesh, he doesn't
mention the hands, or the feet, or the eyes, or the ears, or
the head, or the body. Listen to what he lists. He says,
the works of the flesh are manifest, they're these, adultery, fornication,
Uncleanness, lasciviousness, that's lewd. You know what? If
you're a lascivious person, that means you're ready to do it,
ready to sin. He says idolatry, witchcraft, hatred. Somebody
said there's no room in the heart of a Christian for hatred. You
better look up again. There's too much room. Variance,
that means rivalry. That's what variance means. Emulations,
that means jealousy. Wrath, That's anger, strife,
that's selfish ambition. Seditions, divisions, heresies,
schisms, dividing over opinions, that's what that is. Envyings,
murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like, of the which I
tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they
which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. He's
talking about unbelievers there, but that's the things that we
still have even as believers. Those who live in those things
and by those things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. There's
no battleground in them, even in their religion. But within
us, there's a battleground. Look at verse 22, but the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law.
In other words, the law won't condemn you for these things.
And they that are Christ, they that belong to Christ, have crucified
the flesh with all the affections and lusts. What does that mean?
They're already dead in Christ. They cannot condemn us. But if
we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. That's
the daily struggle. To walk in the Spirit. To fight
the sins of the flesh. He said, let us not be desirous
of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
You see what he's saying? We walk after the Spirit as we're
led to Christ and motivated and energized to fight the sins of
the flesh, to be perfectly conformed to Christ. Now, when will we
be satisfied in that area? When that sin within us is totally
mortified, put to death, that's our future goal. How are we gonna
do that? Well, Paul wrote in Romans 7,
in verse 24, he said, O wretched man that I am, Who shall deliver
me from this body of death? Will religion deliver me? No.
Will my works deliver me? No. He said, I thank my God through
Jesus Christ, my Lord. Christ will deliver us from the
body of this death. and we'll wake with his likeness.
It does not yet appear. I'll tell you how bad it is with
remaining sin and oblivion. It doesn't even yet appear what
we shall be. We can't even, it doesn't even appear, we can't
even imagine it. We don't even know what it's going to be like.
Could you know what it's going to be like to have no sinful
thoughts, no sinful desires, no struggle? I don't even know
what that's like. It doesn't yet appear. But we
know we'll be like Christ. We'll see Him as He is. All right.