Scripture: Topics: Romans Bible Study
This is a Bible study. The book of Romans 8:1-14. You're at The Door. And I am Michael Pearl. Tonight is going to be the third time through Romans 8:1-14. We're going to be studying the word of God. The King James Bible in English.
"For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he come in his own glory, and his fathers and of the holy angels." Luke 9:26
Now, if you're ashamed of the words that are found in the words of God, then he's going to be ashamed of you. I believe every word in the book. And so I teach it. Not as one who corrects the book, but one who believes it like it's written.
We're going to re review just a little bit. Romans five announces that by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. That is when Adam sin, the whole human race was, did not sin, but was made sin just as later, Jesus was made to be sin.
As in Adam, all died and all are made sinners, because we were in the loins of Adam. So just as a magistrate would commit a crime in England 300 years ago and be shipped off to Australia, his children being born in exile, suffering the consequences, their father's misdeed. So when Adam sinned and separate himself from God and from the tree of life, all of his children are born separate from God without the tree of life, with the death sentence on them, and with the passions that Adam was given when God created him, and with that inclination to obey those passions. So all of our lives result in sin as, a result of Adam's choice.
So physical death was inherited from Adam, but so was separation from God. So that's the natural matrix. That's what we're all born into. That's the seed, the womb from which you and I operate. And to the results of it is that we all walk in sin in disfavor with God.
So, we are in Jesus Christ, being baptized into his body, been made to partake of him just as we were once partakers of Adam. So he is the new Adam, the last Adam, and he is the second man. So we have resurrection from the dead in him. And we have the gift of righteousness. That cures the problem of death. We inherited Adam, and it cures the deficiency of righteousness that we have as a result of breaking the law of God. So that's the Christ matrix. This is the new matrix that we've been placed into by faith, that is Jesus Christ becomes all and in all, the head, the captain of our salvation, the first born from the dead.
Now then Roman six, announces the believer's baptism into Christ. For all you of church of Christ, this is not water. We went through that when we were in Romans chapter six, you can go back and look at that. This is baptism into Christ body, which is done by the Holy Spirit.
“For by one spirit, are we all baptized into one body.” 1 Corinthians 12:13
So when Jesus died, we died. When he was buried, we were buried. And when he was raised, we were raised as well.
“If we've been planted together in likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.” Romans 6:5
And not only that, but he's “raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:6
In God's matrix, this is already true. In other words, this is an accomplished fact done by Jesus, 2000 years ago. You see Christ did something for us when he died, but he also did something to us when we died with him, buried and raised again. And then he makes “us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:6
So right now you think I'm standing here, but I'm actually seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, according to God's reckoning.
Now God tells me to reckon myself to be crucified, buried, raised again, and ascended into the heavenlys.
He tells me to reckon myself, Romans chapter six, three times, to be free from sin. That's God's reality. That I am, and all believers, are free from all sin all of the time. That's the gospel, that's the full gospel.
So we have the fallen Adam matrix, the old matrix, where you're in the flesh. And we have the resurrected Christ, new matrix, where we are in the spirit. Now you were, in God's reckoning, totally in the flesh, you are now totally in the spirit.
Now Romans 7 asserts the ineffectualness of the law over the flesh. That is the law cannot accomplish what it demands of us.
So we have, look at the green letters, the law of marriage binds the woman to the man. The law of marriage in Roman 7:1-3 represents the law of God. And the woman represents the believer, the potential bride of Christ. And the man represents the flesh to which we're bound in Adam that causes us to sin.“We are delivered from the law, That being dead, wherein we were held," Romans 7:6 which according to Romans chapter six, was the flesh that was crucified with Christ.
We read in Romans chapter seven about the law, and James also speaks of it, "For whose service you'll keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of all." James 2:10
Picture the law as a chain that suspends you over a dark dangerous chasm. If that chain has a hundred links, how many links must break for you to plunge? Just one. If you tell one lie, you're a liar. And if you're a liar you've broken in the commandments, and you've separated yourself from God.
Romans 8:3 "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh." The law was never meant to heal any more than an x-ray is meant to heal. It reveals the tumor, it reveals the disease, but it doesn't heal. The law is there telling the truth about what is inside of us. But it cannot change us.
The law was, "A yolk, which neither our fathers, nor we were able to bear." James says in Acts15:10. A yolk, like you put an oxen in to pull a load.
So the old matrix going through Romans chapter seven is a review, says that I'm in the flesh and cannot please God, in the flesh is not a statement of how I walk, it's a statement of where I reside. Romans chapter seven tells me that I have ineffectual will. I do what I hate, what I don't want to do, what I detest, what my conscience says I shouldn't. I'm carnal. Power of sin dwells within, in Romans chapter seven. Sin is in my members and brings me into the captivity, the law of sin, which is in my members. I live in a body of death, and I serve the law of sin in my members. And he says, "Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Romans 7:24
So the flesh lust against the spirit, that's the natural order for the flesh to lust 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. You see this flesh in spirit, lusting is not the Holy Spirit, it's your human spirit. And it's true of all people that the flesh and spirit lust, because I've seen many moral righteous atheist and godless people who struggled with issues in their life like smoking, or drinking, or fornication. And I've seen many of them overcome those things because their conscience told them they shouldn't do it. They were pricked in their conscience. So their spirit fought against their flesh. And in many cases, their spirit wins.
An unsaved, unregenerate, godless man, quite often, in fact, I would say this in most cases, all people's spirit wins most times. Because if you took all the evil and dirty thoughts that people think and look at what they don't do, you know that it may be for a wrong motive, but the spirit unctioned by moral conscience and the will, is activated to stand against things that people lust about and would like to do. When a person denies the second piece of chocolate cake, his spirit is overcoming his flesh. When a man lust after a woman, but doesn't do anything about it. His spirit is overcoming his flesh. So that's a natural phenomenon.
Galatians 5:19-21 "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies. Envyings, murders, drunkenness revellings, and such like of which I've told you before, also told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such, there is no law."
That is there's no law that ever mandated those things or could produce them. The law tells you not to commit adultery, but it can't tell you how to love and have joy and peace. That's something that the spirit guides us to, and our conscience dictates.
Okay, we come to Romans eight. The Romans eight, the theme of it is the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, as opposed to the law of sin and death.
Romans 8:1, again, for the third time. "There's therefore now no condemnation to them which you're in Christ Jesus, who walked not after the flesh, but after the spirit."
Last week we talked about that because all your commentators, going to say all of them, all the 40 I've got, there may be some somewhere that don't do that. But all the 40 commentators I've got on the book of Romans say that is incorrect. They say the reason it's incorrect is because there's no such thing as a Christian coming under condemnation. They say that would indicate that we are all Arminians instead of Calvinist. In other words, that we believe we can lose our salvation if we don't walk after the spirit. And so they reject that passage as being legitimate and they take it out of your Bibles. It just doesn't appear in most of your modern Bibles.
But the passage clearly states there's a condition that must be met for avoiding condemnation. No wonder there's no fear of God anymore.
Last week we saw this in Newell's Romans commentary, let's look at the underlying part
"Makes our safety depends upon our walk and not upon the spirit of God."
That's the reason he rejected it. So the concept of a believer coming under condemnation is considered false doctrine.
So can a believer come under condemnation? That would be the question. Or what happens if a spiritual man walks after the flesh? Does he not come under condemnation? Now he cannot be in the flesh. He cannot be after the flesh if he's born again. He is in the spirit and he is after the spirit, but being in the spirit and after the spirit does not say anything about the way you walk.
So walking after the flesh or walking after the spirit is your actions on a moment by moment basis, not a statement about who you are, a statement about what you do. So what happens if a spiritual man, and by the way, all believers are spiritual men. There are no unspiritual men, you're spiritual men because the Holy Spirit now dwells within. He's going to say later in Romans eight, "If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he's none of his." Romans 8:9 So what happens if a spiritual man walks out to the flesh?
Now this is Romans eight, the same chapter in down to verse 12. We'll look at it again in a moment, but look at it now. Romans 8:12 "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh." Now who's he talking to in this passege? Notice I got it underlying for you, starts with a B. What is it? Brethren. "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to liver after the flesh. Far if ye," and that's plural in the King James Bible, he's given you the Greek word, there's plural. "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die."
So if they're going to take it out of Romans 8:1, they need to take it out right there too, don't they? 13 verses down. Why? Because that says, brethren, if you walk after the flesh, you'll die.
So there's a threat. That a condition you must meet as a Christian if you're going to keep living, you've got to walk after the spirit, not after the flesh. A guy said to me the other day, "Well, how was it I was able to get away with walking after the flesh for five years?" And I said, "Well, did you repent? Come back?" He said, "Yeah. I did." I said, "Well, I guess God knew. And he's patient. Otherwise, he'd have killed you."
Romans 8:6 "To be carnally minded is death. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace."
Now, 1 John 5:16-17, "If a man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that he should pray for it. All unrighteousness a sin: And there is a sin, not unto death.” He's discussing there the fact that God kills Christians, sometimes, who sin. There's some sins different from other sins, that'll get you dead quicker. And so is that condemnation for a believer? I would say so.
1 Corinthians 5:4 "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you're gathered together in my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ," he tells the church at Corinth, "To deliver such a one," that was one of their Christian members of their church. "To deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh."
This guy was fornicating with his stepmother. And Paul wrote and told them to turn him over to Satan, so Satan would destroy his flesh, kill him. In other words, the church had a casting in ceremony instead of a casting out ceremony. And they committed this guy's soul to the devil, stop praying for him and said, "You can have him kill him as you please." And they dismissed him from the congregation. Why? Because he was fornicating. But he repented later. And Paul wrote back said, "Now you can forgive him. He repented."
But he said, Going to deliver him unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, “that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." In other words, he'd come under condemnation and die, but he'd be saved. So is that condemnation or not? It looks like it is.
Now James five talks about this. The things I'm teaching out of Romans are throughout the whole New Testament. You could teach the book of Ephesians and half of Romans is in Ephesians, and Philippians is in Galatians. It's all through the Paul's epistles and James and John.
James 5:14-16"Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with all the name of the Lord. And the prayer faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."
The insinuation is that if the sickness is a result of him sinning, then “confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that ye may be healed.” That if the Christian will confess his faults, and someone effectually prays for him, then he'll be healed. That is saying that there are many Christians that are sick because they sinned and condemnation from God has come up on them and they're in danger of being killed by God or the devil and going to heaven.
Now ask Ananias and Sapphira, if you can come under condemnation.They lied to the Holy Ghost and bam. They hit the deck. They had a revival meeting, carried their bodies out and buried them. Everybody else began to fear God and decided they wouldn't lie to the Holy Ghost. Now God always, at the beginning of any dispensation, does something dramatic like that that he doesn't do later on at the same rate. Although I have seen... I'm going to stop and tell your story. This is true. My wife can verify it.
When we first got married, we lived in a little parsonage there. And I met this guy that had just gotten saved. Very fervent. And he is up from Missouri. And he just loved the Lord. Been saved about a week or two weeks, something like that. And so we took him in, got him a place to stay in my wife's father's basement, had a little apartment there. And he was down looking for a job. He got him a job, and he is working. And he got down on the floor there in my apartment, just dropped to his knees and started praying out loud. And he said, "God, before I go back on you, before I go back into sin, kill me." And he came back the next day. He said, "My wife's trying to get me back up in Missouri. She's a honky-tonker. We were both honky-tonkers." He said, "I trusted God. And I've given all that up, but she wants me back. And I told her, I came to know Christ." And she said, "If I'd come back, she'd changed that." And so he said, "I want you to pray that God will save her." Well, we prayed for her. And if I remember the story correctly, she came down, witnessed to her. She rejected Christ went back up there.
So another week or so pass. And again, every time we'd meet him, he'd pray. "God killed me before I go back into sin." And so about three or four weeks later, cop knocked on the door by five in the afternoon said, "You know so and so?" I said, "Yeah," and said, "Well, his body ended up right behind your house right here. He was crossing a railroad track about a half mile down the train hit his car and drug it up and then dropped the body right back there." It probably wasn't over 200 feet where my house was. And said, we want to notify as closest kin and who it is. And we told him.
So we went up there to the funeral, and they all thought he died a sinner. And so they knew I was from down there and they invited me to speak after the preacher did. And the preacher gave the most mournful, sad message. Beating around the bush that fixing to bury a lost man who went to hell. She hadn't told them. I figured she'd tell them. She a little honky-tonker was there. And so I got up and told him how he got born again and what he prayed. And man, that place broke out and had a revival. I mean, they got happy. Got the laughing. Jumping around. Mama was glad to hear that. I can tell you what. Aunt was glad to hear it. And a whole bunch of praying folks.
So I went up to her afterwards and I said, I don't remember exactly what I said to her, but I said, "You're going to get saved now?" And she said, "No." She said, "You know what? The night before he got killed, he told me he's going to come back and I'd have got him back in sin." And I said, "You're going to repent now?" "No." So he wouldn't have won her. She went ahead and lived her life and went to hell, I guess. But God does kill Christians sometimes. And I could tell you about some died in the last two years, but you wouldn't believe it. All right.
1 Corinthians 11 , "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthy," he says to the church in Corinth. "Eateth and drinketh damnation to himself," he's talking about taking the Lords table in an improper fashion. And he said the Christians were drinking damnation. Is that something like condemnation? "To himself, not discerning Lord's body. For this cause, many are weak and sickly among you." Many of the Christians were weak, weak in body. "Sickly among you, and many sleep." That's dead Christians, by the way. "For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged." That looks like condemnation to me. "When we are judged, we're chastened of the Lord." That means like being sick and dead, "that we should not be condemned with the world." That means they went to heaven.
So is there condemnation for believer? Absolutely. Does that condemnation mean you'll go to hell? No, it does not. Wonder why these guys don't study their Bible that write these commentaries. I don't believe they believe what's in them. "But when we're a judge, we're chastened to the Lord, we should not be condemned with the world." So these dead Christians went to heaven.
Now in Romans chapter five, six, seven, and the beginning of eight, we read about a natural man who has this human spirit. He's in the flesh. And he walks after the flesh. That's who he is. That's way we're born. Then the spiritual man has a human spirit, but he also has the spirit of God, and the two spirits have become one. He is said to be in the spirit. And he walks after the spirit and there is no condemnation, but if he walks after the flesh, he shall die. That's Bible truth.
“Flesh” appears 17 times in Romans 8:1-14. Every reference is a declaration of its utter defeat. Overcome. Spirit appears 14 times in these 14 verses. And every reference is a declaration of complete victory over the flesh.
Romans seven is the favorite passage of many Christians because they all live as victims of sin, reckoning themselves to have a sinful nature, and to be unable to overcome sin. When the next door passage, Roman chapter eight clearly says, that flesh so defeated in Roman chapter seven, there's complete and total victory over it by the spirit of God in Romans 8:1-14.
So Romans 8:1-14 proclaims what the law could not do through the flesh, Christ does through the spirit. The law bid me walk, but gave me no feet. The gospel bid me fly and then gave me wings.
So Romans chapter eight, we're going to read through the first 14 verses here.
Notice we've marked flesh in spirit, those 14 and 17 times that it appears. "There's therefore now no condemnation to them which 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 me free from the law of sin and death." Now, the word law is used of half a dozen different times here in Romans different ways. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, there is no written law, like Moses' commandments. He's speaking of that rule of action whereby the spirit of Christ lives in us and motivates us. Again, the law of sin and death is not something written down, it's simply the law that if you sin, you will die.
"Made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God's sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh.” Now that this word flesh all through this chapter is the Greek word, excuse me for referencing it, but it's the Greek word “sarx”. And it's the same Greek word, no different endings, same Greek word all the way through. And so it says that flesh is the problem flesh is what was overcoming us. And he says, "Christ came in the likeness of sinful “sarx” flesh."
So what did Christ come in the likeness of? Was it a sinful nature? As the New International Version translates that word sarx”, right here in Romans chapter seven, several times. Why translated sinful nature there and not translated here? Because they're bogus.
"Condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walked not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Notice again, that conditional thing, the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us. Now we're not obeying the law. We're living in the spirit. But in living in the spirit and walking after the spirit, not after the law. Nonetheless, the righteousness that law represents is lived by us. So that righteousness the law propagated, is fulfilled in those who walk, not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Now, I'll save that for later. A lot of things I'd like to say, I'll save them for later.
"For to be carnally minded is death. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Notice the conditional again. "Because the carnal mind is enmity," as in an enemy. "Against God, for it's not subject to the law of God." The carnal mine is not subject to the law of God. "Neither indeed can be." You can't condition it. You can't put it through religion. You can't discipline it. It is contrary to the law of God and cannot be otherwise.
"So then they that are in the flesh." Notice the phrase in, not after, not walking after. But, "In the flesh cannot please God. But ye are..." Ye is plural again. "Ye are not," by the way, in The king James Bible, when you got a Y, that's plural. And when you've got a T, like thee, or thou, that's singular. That's the way they express the Greek, which no other English translation does.
"But you're not into flesh, but in the spirit." You are in the spirit. "If so, be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin." Why? Because it was put to death on the cross, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. God put the spirit to death, and then he made my spirit life because of Christ's righteousness.
"But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies." Now that's the synonym for flesh. "Quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwells in you. Therefore, brethren." Now, who's he talking to? Christians, right? Brethren. "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh."
Now the indication here, if it were impossible for a Christian to live after the flesh, he would not instruct us not to. If it were an impossibility for a Christian to walk after the flesh, he would not instruct us not to, nor would he say there was condemnation that would cause us to die and go to heaven. If it were not possible for us to do that. So he says, "Therefore, brethren, we debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." And the word mortify appears twice in the New Testament. And many of your modern translations translate it, put to death. Again, morticians don't put anything to death, but they do handle dead bodies. And so we are to mortify, not the flesh, not to the old man, where to mortify in both usages, the deeds of the body. You see the body is still capable of deeds, be they good or bad. And you and I are still called upon, that's our action, through this gospel of sanctification, we're called upon to mortify the deeds of the body, "to render inoperative" is the way the Greek authors give the definition of the word here in this context, "to render inoperative." So we are to render inoperative the works of the flesh. What would that be?
That would be stuff you put in your mouth. That'd be what you do for pleasure. That'd be like anger. All of these things. "For if we live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through the spirit do modify the deeds body, ye shall live. for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."
Every Christian is led by the spirit of God. Now some Christians, walking after the flesh are still led by the spirit of God. The spirit of God's knocking around, dealing with them. Chastening them. And in some cases, leading them to death. But he's leading him. Once you come to Christ and you get in him, he's going to stay with you and work on you, and you are going to be led by the spirit of God.
Now what does it mean to be led by the spirit of God? The natural man can walk after his own spirit and it's normal to try to do so. As we talked about a moment ago. The natural man can walk after his spirit. Musicians, artists, poets, they're expressing something from their spirit that's lofty. Men try to live by what they call their better angels. That's their way of stating what they think of as the good part that's inside of us. The part that's not so bad. But that's a man walking after his spirit. But the natural man tends to allow the flesh to take the lead most of the time. Excuse me. Most of the time, the natural man is going to walk after his fleshy body.
Now usually, natural men do it measured like. In other words, they try not to do the worst thing you could be done. They steal just little things, but they don't go Rob a bank. They lust, but maybe not commit a adultery. If they do commit a adultery is cause they're in love. They don't just do it to different person every night.
And so the natural man will try to regulate his sins so he doesn't feel too badly about the way he's living, but he's walking after the flesh and struggling with that spirit. "For what I would, that do I not, or what I hate, that do I. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh," Romans 7, "Dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not." That's the man controlled by his flesh crying out.
So the spiritual man has a assist from the presence of the spirit of God, and is capable of an uninterrupted walk after the spirit. Notice that. The spiritual man is capable of an uninterrupted walk after the spirit. And that is the normal Christian life. Not the average, but the normal. That's the norm. That's the standard. That's the pattern. That's the acceptable.
So the natural man, again, we've seen this illustration several times, but I'm redundant for reasons. I'll get through sometimes somebody ask me a question, I just covered that. So I'm covered it again every night, all right? The body of flesh, the natural man, inside the body of flesh, the inner man is soul, which is mind, will and emotions. Now the outer man, the way the Bible uses it is that body of flesh, and the inner man is the soul man. Now you know what a lot of people don't realize is that the soul itself is not that divine. A dog has a soul, has a mind, has a will and has emotions. I mean, even a cat has a mind, a will and emotions. A good bit lower than a dogs, but they've got it. And cows, and pigs, and grasshoppers, all have mind, will and emotions. Ever seen a grasshopper cry? I picked them up and they got green tears. And so everything has a soul and you and I have a mammal soul.
Now our intellect is higher, but the stuff that dolphins do is incredible. And even elephants in their memory. And gorillas and chimpanzees. The intellectual capacity to make tools even and use them is extraordinary. They have a mind, They have emotions and they have a will, but what makes us unique as human beings is the spirit that dwells in us. That spirit is the breath of God himself. So that's what gives quality and character to that mind, will, and emotions. You might look at this way. The mind will, and emotions are sort of amoral. They're just facilities of this functioning spirit.
Now the spiritual man then has the spirit of God dwelling in his spirit. But the human spirit is still there. It's like when a man and a woman get married, that doesn't necessarily mean, because most people haven't read Deb's book, that they're going to be happy ever after. They may be married and one flesh, and sleeping in separate beds. They may be one flesh and fussing and fighting all the time. The idea is to grow, to become one, and function is one. And so the spirit of God can come into your spirit, seeking to dominate in the relationship in love. And you can resist that spirit and have sort of a relationship to God like some of you got to your spouses, with a struggle going on all the time.
And so the body, of flesh, is dead. According to God's reckoning in his matrix. and we're alive under God, and the new man is what we now are. So when a Christian sins, it's the new man sinning. When a Christian sins, it's the spiritual man sinning. So here we have the Christian with his spirit and God's spirit, and the new man encompasses body, soul and spirit. But the tension remains between the flesh and the spirit. But the human spirit is now enabled by the Holy Spirit. And we are now free to do as we please.
In Romans chapter six, the latter part, he told us that as you once yielded your members servants of unrighteousness to sin, now yield your member servants to God under holiness.
So at one point he said, "you were free from righteousness. What fruit had you in those things were of you're now ashamed?" So now we are free from sin and free to do as we please. So what is the real issue now? The issue is what do you please?
Galatians 5:24 “And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.” Notice the exhortation? If you're born again, living in the spirit is what you are, walking in the spirit is what you're told to do. Walking in the spirit puts us in touch with our crucifixion of the flesh, our resurrection, our ascension, our new man.
So again, we have the fallen Adam old matrix in the flesh, and the resurrected Christ, new matrix in the spirit. So the flesh is trying to take the lead lusting against the spirit. Remember the passage, the flesh lust against the spirit? And this and this. Did you notice it says the spirit lust against the flesh? That means that if you're born again and you're walking after the flesh, the spirit of God that's in you is lusting to take over the flesh.
So the spirit of God doesn't quietly go away when a Christian sins, he's there actively lusting to dominate that flesh trying to take the lead.
James 1:14 "But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. And when lust hath conceived," what does lust conceive with? You see lust itself is not sin. Says there in the Old Testament, he said, when you get ready to offer a sacrifice, decide what kind of meat you're lusting after and going offer that, the particular sacrifices where they could eat the flesh of it. So if they were lusting after a goat, they could offer it. If they're lusting after a cow, they could offer it. If they're lusting after some sheep. If they said, "Boy, I sure like to have me some lamb chops. I've just been thinking about lamb chop. When we offer that sacrifice, we'll offer a lamb. That way we'll have a lamb eat."
So lust itself is not a sin Jesus lusted after bread when the devil tempted him, he was a hungered. But lust, when it has conceived, lust must conceive, then it brings forth sin. "And sin when it's finished, bringeth a forth death." Now if some of the things I say shock you it's because you're not used to Bible terminology. You've given different meanings to words. And so when I use them in a biblical way, they sound shocking to you. But I'm a Bible student, a Bible teacher, not a theologian, although I've Studied a lot of theology.
So what does it mean to be led by the spirit of God? Okay. Here's the man walking along the flesh is taking a slight lead and he's tending to follow the flesh. And then the spirit of God inside speaks to him. And he says, "I shouldn't do that. I don't want to walk that way." So he begins to turn and follow the spirit that dwells within. And he's turned away from the flesh and is now walking after the spirit.
And there are times when you think, "Boy, I've got this thing licked now. I'm done. I've overcome. It's past. It'll never happen to me again." And look there. The flesh is right. There never goes away till you get a new body. It's always there lusting to take the lead. And it will take the lead very quickly in a very short period of time, if we don't keep walking after the spirit of God.
Galatians 5:16 "This I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."
Many Christians think that because the flesh still lust that they're not good Christians. The fact is, the flesh will never stop lusting. That's what it is. That's its nature. It's when you yield to it, that it becomes sin. It's when you cease to reckon that you are dead to that lust, and that you're an overcomer, that you're free from it and alive to God that it conceives with opportunity and becomes sin. And sin when it's finished, brings forth death.
So walking after the spirit, the flesh is never far behind, Galatians 5:25 “If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.” Now see walking in the spirit is something you have to decide to do and choose to do. Whereas living in the spirit happened at the new birth and that's fixed.
James 1:12, "Blessed is the man that end endureth temptation for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him." You see, that's what overcoming temptations all about, its loving God. And that's what God wants us to manifest.
How then can the flesh exist if it's been crucified and buried? People ask me. How come we battle it if it's been crucified and buried? I've told you, I'm going to do it again. Won't tell you again, all right?
The new matrix exist like two paralleled universes, okay? You science fiction buffs. Like two paralleled universes at the same time. A dark one where everything is evil and all the trees have died, and the buildings are in ruins, and ugly creatures stumbling around eating people, or a wonderful paradise world existing at the same time. And you can move from one to the other by faith. By faith, you can walk into God's matrix and live there. Or by default, you fall back into the dark world.
But you are a creature of the new world, the world of light, and love, and peace, and holiness. You're out of your element if you go into the dark world, which is no longer who you are.
So the two matrix, and I've used a little modern stuff here to point this out. Is the flesh and the spirit. And we're to reckon ourselves not to be in the flesh, but to be in the spirit and live in God's reality. This is by the way, the one point that most of your authors are missing. And it's the theme of the Bible. It is the whole of the Bible.
Abraham had God's matrix provided for him. What was it? He said, "Neither shall I name anymore be called Abram, but that name shall be called Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee." Genesis 15:5-6 Now, if you'd have walked up right after God said that and said, "Abraham, where's your children." He said, "Don't have any." If you came back five years later, "Abraham, where's your children." "I don't have any." 10, 15, 20, 25 years later, "Abraham, where's your children." "I don't have any." "Then how do you believe your father of a great nation?" "Because God told me I was, and in God's matrix, I'm the father of a great nation." That's what Abraham believed. Abraham believed God. And that's why he gives that as an illustration in Romans, he's preparing us for this.
Hebrews 11, the whole book of Hebrews chapter 11 is supporting what I have just said to you. About the world of faith, and the passage from dark to light by faith. Look Hebrews 11, "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac and he had received the promise, offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall Isaac shall thy seed be called. Accounting." That's the same word as “logizomai”, the Greek word is reckoning, imputing. "Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead from whence also he received him in a figure."
In other words, Abraham was willing to kill the one son God gave him to fulfill his promise because he knew that God had made such a firm promise that he'd become the father of great nation through this young boy. That to kill him, the only thing could happen was God would have to raise him the dead. And Abraham had gotten so far along in his faith, he believed in a resurrection at this point. I mean, right now. He was expecting to put the knife in him, see the blood run out and his son lie limp. And he is going to step back and say, "Okay, you said, I'm going to be the father of great nation from that boy. So let's raise him up." And he'd see him raise from the dead. Now folks says that's kind of a rare faith, but he was accounting that God would raise him the dead. See, that's believing God. Now in Abraham's matrix, the natural matrix never would've happened.
Romans 4:13, "For the promise that he should be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith, therefore it is a faith," a choice God made by divine design, that, "It would be by faith, that it might be by grace to the end, the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to them which are the law, but to them also which are of the faith of Abraham, who's the father of us all. As it is written, I've made the father of many nations, before whom he believed, even God, who quicken the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were." That's it.
God quickens the dead and calls those things which be not, that's human matrix, as though they were, that's God's matrix. So you can live in a life of sight and experience, and you walk in a natural life. Or you can live a life of faith, and you walk a supernatural life. Because then you're living in God's matrix and not your own human matrix.
You realize most Christian preaching, when I say most, I mean just 999 times out of a thousand, is designed to improve on the old matrix? Is designed to help you to struggle along, to do a little bit better when that old world, an old man with that old soul, and that old spirit, and that old mind, old will and old emotions. And it's a losing fight. To battle the old nature. They call it.
Romans 4:18 Abraham, "Who against hope, against hope, believed in hope." Two different realities. The one he saw, which no hope at all. And the one he believed, which is all the hope in the world. "That he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead." And that was his reality. When he was about 100 years old. "Neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief."
You see the promise of God was exactly contrary to his reality. But he didn't consider that. He was believing what God said against everything he was experiencing. Now he tried to do what the Baptist, do that wouldn't come out, right? Because the Baptist don't go out and get Hagar. But most of them don't need that. He went into Hagar to try to produce a son by the flesh, right? He was trying to do in the natural what God had promised.
"He staggered not the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God." You see faith gives glory to God, nothing else does.
So this is not some kind of a chaotic, scrambling experience God set up where one last death attempt, he's making to save a few people from a crooked world. All of this is exactly by divine design, the way God wanted, it's working out perfectly to do what he wants it to do. You say, "What is that?" He wants a circumstance in a situation where it forces the people who will to live by faith, against all the odds, all the temptation, all the world's got to offer, to walk by faith, believe God and be overcomers. So it's working. It's just a matter whether you want to be part of it or not.
Romans 4:21 "And being fully persuaded, that what he, God had promised he, God was also able to perform." So Abraham was not looking to do it with God's strength. Abraham was looking for God to do it. There's a difference.
Hebrews 11:11 Now, "Through faith also Sara herself received strength that conceived seed, was deliverer of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who promised." You see that? That's what Hebrews at 11 is about. People judging God faithful, believing the promise of God, contrary to their own experience. And getting a promise from God.
Hebrews 11:3 "Through faith we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." Do you see the principle there? That when God spoke into the darkness, there was nothing, and out of nothing came something. Latin word, [foreign language]. Out of nothing, came something. So God created out of nothing all that is. By faith, God did it. He spoke it and it happened.
It must be supernatural. It must be like Abraham, God deliberately put off Abraham and Sarah having children until Abraham got too old to produce seed himself. God made it more and more difficult until it was impossible. And when it became impossible, then Abraham's faith had real meaning, and God was glorified like no other way. And Abraham loved God, like no other way.
How can we be dead to sin yet overcome by sin? In Adam, we were slaves to sin. In Christ, we're slaves to nothing. We're now free to do as we please. But we are debtors.
Here's our responsibility. "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive under God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Reckon yourselves. Let not, notice the verbs here, reckon is something you do. Let not, that's something you do. "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield," as a third thing you are to do, which is a negative. "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield," there's the positive, "Yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteous unto God. I speak after the manner of men, because infirmity to your flesh. For as you've yielded your members servants to uncleanness, to iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness." So you're free to do as you please.
Do you please to yield to God and walk in righteousness, or do you please to walk in sin? You can do either as a Christian. "Therefore, brethren, we're debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die. But if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body you shall live, for as many as are led by the spirit of God, they're the sons of God."
So when I reckon I am dead to sin, it is still difficult to stop sinning, people say. I've had people say that to me.
Why doesn't God hear my prayer and take away the inclination to sin? Why is it so difficult when I'm in the passions, the throes of temptation. And I tried to say, "Okay, I'm dead to this. I'm dead." And I still have the passions and I still sin. What's the problem? Listen, it's futile to cry out to God for deliverance from sin. Hear what I said?
Just like it's futile for a sin to cry out to God to save him. When a sinner cries out to God for God to save him, you know what God says? "I've already done it. You got to believe." Just believe, I've already done the saving. You just need to believe. And when a Christian cries out and says, "Oh, God delivered me of sin." He says, "Hey, I've already done that. It's done. You need to believe."
He has already provided us with all things necessary to sin no more.
2 Peter 1:3 "According as his divine power has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness." That's already yours. "Through the knowledge of him that called us to glory and virtue. Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises," in the words of God, like God gave Abraham promises. "That by these promises, you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust." So you already have, in the words of God, the promises of deliverance, that God is asking you to believe it. And when you do, there's nothing but pure holiness.
In Deuteronomy 1:21, God said, "Behold, the Lord thy God has set the land before thee. Go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee. Fear not, neither be discouraged." You see God gave them the promised land, but they had something to do. They had to possess it. And the possessing was a battle. But when they obeyed God and believed God, they went up to battle and not a single one of their troops died.
You remember how God did with Gideon when they had pretty well matched armies of tens of thousands? And God said, well, there's too many here. You guys are kind of evenly matching you're rearing for a good battle, and ready to go to war, and you're going to win this thing. Go home bragging about what you did. That's just too many people here. So let's cut them down. So they cut them down. Cut them down. Cut them down. God said there's still too many. And finally, Gideon's army was cut down to 300 against tens of thousands. Now God said, now we can do something. Now we've got the odds against you. We can do something here. And God sent him out the battle, not a man was lost. The enemy's all destroyed. Now that's the way God works. He takes away what we trust in until we trust in him alone.
Amen.
Set the land before these. So God set righteousness before you, you got to possess it.
Galatians 5:16 "This I say, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust to the flesh." So here's our final set of pictures. Here we are in walking after the spirit, in the light, walking in the light. If we walk in the light as he's in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin. So there we are walking in the light. On either side is temptation and sin that one could fall into. But as long as we live by faith and walk in the light, we're okay.
Romans 13:14"Put you on the Lord Jesus Christ." And here's another verb, phrase. "Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lust thereof." Make provision? I won't go into it. I looked at the modern translations on that. They goof up. When you make provision, you know what provisions are don't you? Provisions is when you take along food and water for camping, you take along a knife and a hatchet that's your provisions.
Okay, how do you make provisions for the flesh? It's when you go out and get something, that's going to make the flesh work, going to stimulate it. You can make provisions for the flesh with your eyes and what you look at. You can make provisions for the flesh, with what your day dream. You can make provisions for the flesh by going out and putting something in your refrigerator that shouldn't be there. You provided the flesh temptation. You can make provisions for the flesh by lusting, after a woman or looking at pornography, you're making provisions for the flesh."Make no provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof."
So this man turns, and begins to lust after things that are forbidden by God.
Colossians 3:1-7 "If ye then be risen with the Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right end of God. Set your affection on things above." Set your affection. What you love. So you're down to doing what you want to do. What do you want to do? Set your affection. You decide what you want to do. "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead." He didn't say set your affection. So you will be dead. He said, set your affection because you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. "Mortify therefore your members," this is the second time, "which are upon the earth." So he says, seek things above, set your affection and modify your members. That's what we're to do. That's our duty.
Colossians 3:8-10 "But now ye also put off all these... Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds." So the old man is put off. The old man is defeated. Set aside, and we're now the new man. And you have put on the new man. Which after God's creating righteous and true holiness.
So here we are back to our graft. Here's the man who's decided to take a little stroll down temptation lane. Now he doesn't want to go very far. He doesn't want to be like those other guys. He didn't want to fall deep into sin. He didn't want to molest children or practice bestiality or do anything weird or perverted or twisted. He didn't want to get all high up on drugs. He just wants to go down and see what they're doing and take a look and gander. Kind of feel it out, see what the other side's living like. Kind of be a little bit fun just to look. So he gets a little further down, and all of a sudden he feels the grip of temptation and the difficulty of coming back the center. He feels himself sliding deeper.
So he stops and he prays. And he says, "Oh God, please deliver me from sin. God, take away this passion". Do you realize this guy's praying a futile prayer? He's already halfway down the road into deep sin. And now he's asking God to do something with half his brain while the other half's lusting.
What he wants God to do is take away the battle. Take away the contest, take away his choice even. He wants God to take away the faith part. He wants God to just make it automatic. He wants God to come down, turn his screws so he just starts singing hallelujah. And there's no desire to eat that stuff anymore. No desire to smoke that. No desire to drink that. No desire to pornography or fornicate or lie or steal, or get angry, no desire anymore. It's all gone.
And so he's praying, God. God's not answering that prayer, not paying attention to him. You're wasting your time. He's already done what's necessary, and you're making your choices. He's already told you that you're dead, buried and alive unto God.
Now at that point right there, you could cry to God and say, "God, I believe you. I believe I'm dead to this thing. It's pulling on me, but I'm dead to it. And I don't have to do it." And you can stand up and you can walk right back to center and the light, and leave the lust kneeling there and walk in righteousness and true holiness. And it works. There's the power of the spirit of God to make it happen.
But most people don't. By the time they get far enough down the road to realize that they have not been walking after the spirit, they've taken one step, two steps, three steps, four steps, five steps, not walking after the spirit, walking after the flesh, and trusting they could take a gentle stroll in the flesh back to center. And it's not working.
So see our graft? Man feels himself sliding, and off he goes in the depths of sin.
The believers only tool to stop sinning is to reckon himself to be dead and not at the point of panic, but to reckon himself to be dead so that he's living constantly in the presence of the spirit of God. Mortifying the deeds of the body all the time. Not just when they're desperate. And if you walk after the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust to the flesh. You cannot walk after the flesh and then turn around and try to bail out when things get hot. Some people do, at last minute, but you can't keep doing that. He'll get you.
So here we are at the end, 1 Corinthians 10:13 "There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man." That is every temptation. It's common. Other men had it too. "But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able. But will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it."
But folks don't presume upon God by indulging in the fantasies of the temptation, and then trying to bail out at the last minute. There hath no temptation, notice the way that's phrased, taken you, like grabbed you. Temptation takes, you grabs you, pulled you along. So when temptation actually does take you, other people have had that temptation, other people have overcome, and you can too. But you'll have to do it by reckoning yourself to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive under God.
So here's our new matrix. We're in Jesus Christ. And the old man is crucified, dead to sin, free from sin. The body of sin is destroyed.
These are all phrases taken out of Roman six, seven, and eight. We're buried, raised ascended, seated and reigning. We're alive unto God joint heirs with Christ in the spirit, spiritually minded. We have the spirit of adoption. We're going to read that in the rest of Roman's eight. We cry Abba Father, the spirit bears witness with our spirit, in the latter part of Roman's eight. And the spirit prays through us at the end of Roman's eight. So those are the things in the new matrix that enable us to walk in righteousness and holiness.
All right, next time, we're going to go through the rest of Romans chapter eight, finish it up. Probably take two times to get through the rest of Romans eight. And then we're going to go back and go back through Romans 1-5, again, to produce a better recording of it. And then we're going to start off in Romans nine, which is going to be about the Jews nine, 10, 11. How God views them and the... Be touching on the tribulation and the things that are going to happen with the Jewish people. And then we'll move into chapter 12, 13, 14, dealing with government and some practical things Paul has to say to the church. So that's all for tonight.
