Transplant? Maybe. That's the end. What's her name? Jeanette. Jeanette, my gosh. Don't do that. Ranga. Jeanette Ranga. R-O-N-G-A. Is she still in there? She's going to spend a week in Texas. Have you ever heard of that place? That's where she's going? All right, then, be sure to remember those folks in your prayers.

Let's begin our worship service with a small hymn number 266, Fade, Fade, Earthly Joy. Jesus is mine. Jesus is mine. Jesus is mine. Jesus is mine. Jesus is mine. Jesus is mine born Jesus is mine.

Welcome. After scripture reading and prayer we'll sing hymn number 209. I have your Bible term in Romans chapter 8. Only two verses in scripture. Verses 12 and 13. And therefore, brethren, we are not debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if we live after the flesh, we shall die. But if ye through the Spirit demortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.

Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for mercy and grace. for the shed blood of Jesus Christ for that perfect death that satisfied your laws, demands, and quenched your thirst. We thank you for forgiveness of sin, knowing what we are, the thoughts that often possess our minds, the weakness and frailty of our faith. We are ever thankful of Jesus Christ by his shed blood, has made it so that you have forgiven us of all sin. And you're just to do so because of the debt he paid for us.

Father, we pray for those who are sick, these who've been added to the prayer list. Ask Lord you to be with them, the grandfamilies lost and the loved one. For this lady who has leukemia, for Carolyn's daughter and the others who requested prayer, Lord, we ask your help. and your strength for it. I know it's every case. We, as we grow older, forget so many things. We even know there's a possibility, as we live long enough, whether we forget you. But our salvation is never in condition upon our remembrance. It's always conditioned upon yours. You have said unto us, even as you said unto the people on the cross, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. And we are who are in Christ even now, according to your word, sit in heavenly places in Christ. And we are ever thankful. Because you do not change, we are not concerned. We praise you for who you are. You're God and there is none else, none beside thee, none like unto thee. You declare the end from the beginning. Things that are not yet done, you shall bring to pass. Bring some things out of nothing. You purpose it, it shall stand, you speak it, it shall come to pass. We bow to your great sovereignty, knowing full well that this thing called human history The events that occur every day, the circumstances that we find ourselves in, every one of them, from beginning to end, works for our good and for your glory. Help us to bow to your wisdom. We pray in Jesus Christ's name, amen.

And number 209, grace greater than all our I see. As we're born of faith within. Praise, praise God's grace! grace grace grace Grace, grace, that is greater than all our sins! Dark is the stain that we cannot hide! What can avail to wash it away? so you may be today. Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that correlates within. Grace, grace, God's grace, you. How majestic, Lord and Savior, is this Thy right hand, having accomplished salvation, having purged our sins. We are thankful that you have given him to your children freely. And with him, you've freely given them everything. We know that everything this side tradition is by grace and mercy for your children. And we are thankful that that reflected our giving, we pray in Christ's name.

the the you I just want to be somebody. I just want to be somebody. I was on the internet the other day and a young lady from America was talking about leaving her church and becoming a Muslim. She was wearing a hijab. The reason she gave, she said that Allah, her God, her new God, gave her something to do, works of righteousness, works of holiness, unlike the God she had heard about all her life who said, I only believe. And I thought, amen, she's got it right. Her God gives her things to do to be righteous, and as our God said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

Paul, in writing to the children of God at the Roman church addressed an issue that faces every child of God who struggles with the flesh and the spirit every day of his life. He made it clear when he was talking to them, he said, therefore, brethren, we are debtors, but not to the flesh. To live after the flesh. For if we live after the flesh, you shall die. But if through the Spirit you do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. He's not talking about spiritual life or eternal life. He's talking about the enjoyment and appreciation of our life in Jesus Christ. If we approach it according to the flesh, seeking to stop this or begin that in the flesh, the joy of our salvation will die. It will just evaporate. But if we mortify the deeds of the flesh, that is, we do what we do looking to the Lord Jesus Christ alone, then we shall have that enjoyment of the flesh or the spirit.

In these first 11 verses of chapter 8, Paul explains what it is to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. It's very simple actually. It is a realization or a reckoning on your part to believe the Word of God. The Word of God simply says in chapter 7 and verse 25, I thank God through Jesus Christ So then, with my mind, that is with my spirit, I myself serve the law of the word of God. But with the flesh, I serve the law of sin and death. That's our life. These are not two things that happen separately of each other. These things are going on in our life simultaneously all the time with our minds, our desires. What we want to do is to serve God. But the fact is, with our flesh, our old nature, we serve the law of sin and death. We serve the law of sin and death.

Though many would like the principle of walking in the spirit to mean a kind of ethereal plane, where the believer rises above the world in sin, it means simply living as a child of God in faith. That's what it means. Living in the spirit, walking in the spirit, being led by the spirit, is simply this. With my mind I serve the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin. And trust in God that your salvation was accomplished and finished by the Son of God. If you look to yourself, inwardly, or to your works outwardly, you will be miserable. You'll be miserable.

Jesus Christ finished the work of salvation in verses 1 through 4 of chapter 8. He says, therefore there is now no condemnation. Right after, he says, with my mind I serve the law, God with my flesh I serve the law, sin and death. And the next thing he said, therefore, there is therefore, based on that statement. This is what this is there for. Based on that statement, he says, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.

for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh that is to say your flesh could never keep the law you can never keep the law well that's not completely true you will keep it one time when you die God says the soul that sinned in this shall die. Death entered this world by sin. By sin. So death passed upon all men for all have sinned. For in whom all have sinned in Adam.

For the law could not, what the law could not do, that it was weak through the flesh of God, because it could not be accomplished, keeping the law, honoring the law, honoring justice could not be accomplished by us. God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, did away with sin in the flesh. Why? That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

It is a life where the believer does not mind the things of the flesh, but he minds the things of the Spirit. It does not apply to the flesh or the law for righteousness, because Christ has fulfilled the law by dying under its condemnation. And it's been made to be the believer's righteousness. His only righteousness. In this life, the believer owes nothing to the flesh. That's what it says. And nothing to the law. Nothing. Nothing. There is no circumstance No condition upon which the believer may apply to the flesh or the law for anything that is of any spiritual or eternal value.

So much time is spent here by the spirit because though we are not in the flesh, we are spiritually alive. According to verse 9, we are, you're not in the flesh, you're in the spirit. We can do nothing in which the flesh is not involved. That's what Paul said in chapter 7 and verse 21. I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God, after the inward man, with my mind I serve the law of God. But I see another law in my members, a warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

And since this is so, our life must be to walk by faith. It must be to walk by faith because experience teaches us that we cannot walk at all without sin. So we must walk by faith. We must look to Christ. We cannot look to ourselves. All that is not of faith, scripture says, is sin. All that is not of faith is sin. This is a glorious aspect of our salvation wrought fully by our great Lord. Faith does not look to circumstance. Faith cares not for mitigation. Faith looks to Christ and believes in spite of the experience. Faith reckons the old man to be dead. And that has to be a constant thing. Constant thing.

Because he don't feel bad. If the flesh is still alive for a while, it will die. Thank God it will die. And that's what we'll leave behind when we go to blow our flesh. We're thankful for that. Our sinful nature will be left behind. Right now. Because we know our sin and our flesh creeps up into everything we do. We have to say in our hearts and our minds, I reckon the old man to be dead. I reckon he is. I reckon he is. In verse 12, Paul makes a plain and powerful declaration based on the truth that our salvation is by Christ alone and our flesh is in no way involved. He declares that the believer therefore is not a debtor to the flesh to live after the flesh. If the believer gives into the flesh, it can never be because he owes it to the flesh or is obligated to the flesh in any way indebted to follow the dictates of the flesh.

Back in chapter 6, Romans, verse 12. It says, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield your members as your body as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Why? For sin shall not have dominion over you, It doesn't say it's not in you. It doesn't say it won't always be contrary to your spirit. It doesn't say it'll always bother you. It doesn't say that you'll always with your flesh serve the law of sin and death. But it has no right to rule over you. For sin shall not have dominion over you. Why? Because you're not under the law. If you were under the law, sin would have dominion over you. That's what it says. If you're not under the law, you are under grace. You are under grace.

We yield our members unto righteousness by looking to God. For it says yield yourself to God. Yield yourself to God. To get into the flesh is never spiritual no matter what moral value might be attached to it. You may say well I've been drunk all my life and I'm going to stop drinking. You may attach a moral value to it and there may be a moral value to it but it's not a spiritual thing. There's something you quit doing. You quit doing.

You quit doing. If the flesh has power over us, it is because we have attributed power to it that it does not rightly possess. Sin and the flesh reign in our state of spiritual death, but it reigns no more in all of our spiritual life. It doesn't reign anymore. In chapter 5, verse 21, it says this, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ. Where sin hath abounded, we just sang it, grace greater than all our sin, where sin hath abounded, grace hath abounded more. Grace overrides, if you will, our sin. We are not indebted to the flesh to live after the flesh. Our life is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the life and the spirit of life in Jesus Christ, as it says in verse 2 of chapter 8.

Verse 13 is not a statement that a believer can lose his salvation or die spiritually when he says this. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die. He's talking to those who have eternal life. Read the first seven chapters and up through here, and read the rest of Romans, you'll find that those who trust the Lord Jesus Christ have eternal life. For if you live out of the flesh, you'll survive, but if through the Spirit you demortify, that is, crucify, that is, kill or subdue the deeds of the flesh of the body, ye shall live. This life he's talking about is not eternal life. You will not die spiritually. Paul is speaking to those who are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. First of all, he's talking to those who are in the Spirit. He's already said that about them. This statement must be viewed in light of the rest of the verse. He is not addressing those who mind the things of the flesh, who are carnally minded, and therefore are iniquity against God. That's what it says in the 7th and 8th verses of the 8th chapter, that to be carnally minded is death. The carnal mind is enmity against God, is not subject to the law of God, neither did can be.

He's not talking to those. He's describing what the carnal mind is, he's describing what the flesh is, but he's speaking to those who, according to verse 9, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. In the spirit.

Just as sin always ends in death. According to James 1, when sin is conceived, it brings forth death. It does. Don't say when you're tempted, you're tempted to God, because you aren't tempted to God. That's what James says in James chapter 1. He says, but every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed. For when the lust is conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it's finished, bringeth

You know, sin always brings forth death. You die a little. Something died. Something dies and that's what he's talking about here. The death here in the text refers to dying to being able to reckon the old man to be dead. Dying to the joy and peace of believing. Because you can't both be in the flesh and the spirit at the same time. Do it one over leaking into the other. These are separate things in our being.

We die with the comfort and enjoyment of salvation and the death of our testimony. And we are kept and sustained by grace alone. That's what we believe, don't we? It's grace that keeps us. It's God that keeps us. It's the mercy of God that keeps us. We don't believe we keep ourselves. We're kept by the power of God according to Scripture.

But then when we go to the flesh to do something, and we call it some kind of spiritual thing, we lose that sense, that beauty of our salvation. Our behavior reflects upon what we say we believe.

I had a call from a fellow the other day. He talked for a long, very long time. I think I said four things during an hour-long conversation because he was really talking fast. And I ended the conversation this way. He was talking about the troubles and sorrows in his life and all these things like this, and I said, listen to me. I said, do you believe that God is sovereign? He said, oh, absolutely. I said, well, do you believe that he has vacated his throne during your times of troubles? No. I said, then these troubles are what's supposed to be going on. The troubles and the tribulations of the child of God are appointed by our sovereign to bring us to the feet of Christ and they will ultimately and finally work for our good and for God's glory always and ever no matter the pain, no matter the anguish.

We've had a lot in our lives. Sarah had leukemia, the bad kind. She was a believer. I was amazed at her testimony. I worked, I cried, I wept. My daughter says, I'm afraid she might not live. But that was for my good, for your good, for your good, for God's glory. Don't ask me how cuz I don't know. I didn't like it when it was going on. It was so because God's Word said it. Do you believe that God is sovereign?

The remainder of this verse better explains the meaning of ye shall die. If ye through the Spirit, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. You shall live, you shall live, cannot refer to eternal life or spiritual life because he's speaking to those who already have it. If you mortify the deeds of the body through the spirit, you already evidently have eternal spiritual life. The tense voice and mood of the verb live means to enjoy your life. To enjoy your life. Appreciate your life. Take part in your life. This enjoyment is yours. If you, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, the declaration is one of opposition. You cannot enjoy your life, the benefits of your salvation, if you live after the flesh. In fact, if you do not mortify the flesh, you will not enjoy what is yours in Jesus Christ. Doesn't mean you don't have it. Doesn't mean you're not a child of God. It means you don't enjoy it anymore. It's a mortifying disease of the flesh. It has nothing to do with the enjoyment of the flesh or the body. It's the enjoyment of spiritual things. It has to do with the spirit.

This is impossible for religion to wrap their mind around. Religion spouts old songs like, well, you must put feet to your prayer. That's a lie. My feet don't have nothing to do with what happens when I pray. In fact, my prayers don't change God. Now God has fixed it in the wonder of His providence that somehow the prayers of His people accomplish the things He's purposed. I have a part in that, I don't understand that, don't begin to understand that. But nothing changes God. He's immutable. I am the Lord, I change not. Thank His holy name. Because He finishes that sermon, He says, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. If I change, you'd all go to hell. God changed you to all better health. The reason you don't change is because He's chosen you in Jesus Christ for the world again. May Christ be your surety. Predestinate you to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself. Send His Son down here to pay your sin debt and having accomplished our salvation, perfected us in Jesus Christ, to the point where you'll remember my sins no more. And that will never change! Ever! Aren't you glad? Isn't that a thing to be thankful for?

Someone in religion should tell Paul, you ought to add feet to your prayers. You ought to pray through. You ought to get prayed up. I hear things like that on TV all the time. Get prayed up. Stay prayed up. They ought to tell that to Paul. Paul, you ought to stay prayed up. Paul says, for that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that I do not. And what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which would not, I consent that the law is good, that the law is not the problem. So then it is no more I that do it but the sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing, for the will is present with me. But how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that's what I do. Now if I do that, I would not, it doesn't matter what I do, but sin that dwelleth in me, I find therein a law, a principle of life in me, a continual presence in my being, that when I would do good, evil is present with me.

Well, Paul, just put feet to your prayer. Don't think so. That won't work too good, will it? Just pray, Paul, help yourself. And the Spirit will give you strength to overcome your problem. It's not through the flesh that the deeds of the flesh are mortified. Not through the flesh that the body of this death is delivered. It is through the Spirit that the deeds of this body are mortified. This is not referring to reformation, changing your life, stopping this or beginning that. It's talking about minding the things of the Spirit. And that is accomplished one singular way, through the Spirit. And if through the Spirit, it is by faith. How do we overcome the world? John said, in our faith. 1 John chapter 5 verse 4. As strange and wonderful as it seems, we overcome the world by believing. So maybe that Muslim girl was right. Her God gives her a whole lot of stuff she can do so she'll think she's righteous. Our God said, believe. Is it that plain? It's that plain. Is it that simple? No, it's impossible. Try to believe. You can't believe unless God gives you faith.

I remember a girl told me one time after I preached on that, she came up here and pointed at the flowers. She said, I can believe those flowers are God. She told me that. I said, well, go ahead. You can't believe unless God gives you faith. But if He gives you faith, that's all you can do. And you just keep on doing it. Faith looks to and sees Christ and only Christ. That thing needs to be fed and attended to in order to survive.

Look over Colossians 3. You know the story of the two wolves. Inside us, the old legend. They're fighting with each other all the time. Which one wins is the one you feed. That's the one that wins the fight. Well, that's kind of what this is saying, Colossians chapter 3. The first five verses teach us what Paul has talked about in chapter 8 of Romans. If, and the word is chi, which means since, you be risen with Christ. So we're talking about those that are in Christ. Colossians chapter 3. If you be risen with Christ, when did you rise with Christ? When He rose. Out of the grave, for our justification. Seek these, those things which are above. Where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Seek those things above. What is that? With my mind I serve the law of God. With my mind. Set your affection, your love, your interest on things above. Not on things of the earth.

Now here's the way he uses these two things. Above what Christ is in the earth. For you're dead. You are dead. What does that mean? You're dead to the law. You're dead to the natural man, the carnal mind. You're dead to it, reckoning the old man to be dead. You're dead, and your life, your spiritual life, your true life, is healed with Christ in God. That tells me a whole lot. If I apply to the flesh, I'm going to the graveyard, digging up my old man and say, help me out of here. Help me out of here. If my life is here in Christ, I won't be able to find my Christian life here. Because I can't even define it to myself. What can I do? Believe.

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then we shall appear with all sorts of healing and glory. Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth for an occasion of cleanliness Cupid's sense, covetousness, which is idolatry, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. He's not talking to the children of disobedience, he's talking to those who are risen in Christ. In which you also walked in the sign of faith. So one time you as a child of disobedience, and you lived in them, but now you put off those things. You put them off. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communications. I will not lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, reckoning him to be dead, and have put on the new man.

Note how the difference between flesh and spirit is described. Above, that's the spirit. Below, things on the earth, members, flesh, body, that's the deeds of the flesh. How are the members on earth mortified? Certainly not by attending to them. By attending to them. They are on the earth and our affections are to be elsewhere. The deeds of the flesh are mortified by setting their affection on things above and not on things of the earth. Without the benefit of attention, the flesh is mortified because it's starved for affection and for no other reason. Not by beating it down, not by human efforts, but by setting your affection on things above and not on things of the earth.

Told the story many times of old Marvin Stomacher's daddy, who owned a great fish market down in Louisiana. Great big fish restaurant, and it served hundreds of people every night. One night, he was walking around with his customers at one of his, one of the families had a little child in them. in a wheelchair, high-chair. And the baby had a hold of something. I don't know what he had a hold of. What? A chicken leg. He was eating a chicken leg and didn't want to let go. It's time to go. And then we're trying to get the baby to get the chicken leg. The baby was screaming. Wouldn't let go of that chicken leg. Marvin's daddy went behind the counter and grabbed the Hershey bar. I'm going to peel that Hersey bar back and give it to that kid. I'm going to let that kid grab that Hersey bar and give him that chicken leg. That's what it is. What happened? Didn't he like that chicken leg? He wasn't paying any attention to it anymore. It didn't mean anything to him. Man, the Hersey bar. When you have the Spirit of God, you pay attention to the things. And when they do perk up, you reckon the old man to be dead. Set your affection on things above, not on things of this earth.

Being starved, its dominion is reduced, its vitality diminished. This being the case, you shall live and shall enjoy your life, and you'll have joy in your salvation. You'll always remember your salvation, because sometimes we forget our salvation. Oh, and we are. Don't we deserve him? Forget what God has done for us. Pay attention to things we don't want to pay attention to.

David had that problem. I can solve it if you want and I'll quit with it. One night David was up there on his roof. He looked out across the way and he saw this really beautiful woman. She was taking a bath on top of the roof since she probably didn't have no clothes on. They said that's how she was probably built, Nicky.

He saw her. He's the king now, if you remember. It's nice to be the king. When a king wants something, a king gets what he wants. He saw this woman, her name was Bathsheba. She was married to a fellow named Uriah, who was a soldier in David's army. And the soldiers were out fighting, and the king was standing home with Charles Mack. He says, how come the king was home and wasn't leaving his army, but he was back home with the rest of his fights. He was laying off what he was supposed to do.

He saw this gal, and he said, I've got to have her. And so he took her. Took her. Got her pregnant. Got her pregnant. Well, you know, that's going to hurt my reputation if they find out I got this married woman pregnant. So what I'll do, I'll call Uriah back from the battlefield. And I'll have him go home to get time with his wife. And we'll blame the pregnancy on the third union.

But Uriah was an honorable man. He was a soldier. He was about fighting for his king. David brought him back. He didn't even go in the house. He slept on the porch. Finally, Levy gave up on that idea and said, you lie back to the battle. But there is a law that if a husband dies and a wife can be married. So David told Joe Abbey, he sent a note to him, he says, put your eye right out in front of where all the arrows are flying. And killed her. And he did.

Uriah was killed, the word got back to David, and David says, well, war's tough. Say, how can a man be that callous? He was a man. So he married Bathsheba, brought forth a son that died, and another son named Solomon.

And David regretted that when he finally come to his senses, and he wrote this song concerning that. He said in verse 7, purge me with hyssop. Hyssop was a little weed that grew out of a rock. Tough little weed, you couldn't hardly break it. They used it to dip it in blood and sprinkle it on things. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, you wash me, and I shall be white as the snow. Make me to hear the joy of gladness. that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not my spirit. Restore unto me the joy of my salvation. unto me the joy of my soul, and I'm holy by thy free spirit.

With my mind, I serve the law of God. With my flesh, I serve the law of sin and death. And that's what it is, the law of the spirit.

Father, bless us to understand great Christ.