“THE FLESH”
Romans
6:6-22
Romans 6:6-22, “Knowing this, that
our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we
should not serve sin. For he that is
dead is freed from sin. Now if we be
dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the
dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin
once: but in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members 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. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under
grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the
law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves
servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto
death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the
servants of righteousness. I speak after
the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants
to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members
servants to righteousness unto holiness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for
the end of those things is death. But now being
made free from sin, and become servants of God, ye have your fruit unto
holiness, and the end everlasting life.” [King James Version]
Romans 6:6-22, “For we know that
our old self [King James: “old man”] was crucified with him so that the body of
sin might be done away with [margin: be rendered powerless, inoperative], that we
should no longer be slaves to sin---because anyone who has died has been freed
from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with
him. For we know that since Christ was
raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over
him. The death he died, he died to sin
once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin
but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its
evil desires. Do not offer the parts of
your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to
God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of
your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you
are not under law, but under grace. What
then? Shall we sin because we are not
under law but under grace? By no means! [btw, “Sin is the transgression of the
law” 1 John 3:4] Don’t you know that
when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to
the one whom you obey---whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or
to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you
wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have
become slaves to righteousness. I put this
in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your
body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer
them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free
from the control of righteousness. What
benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin
and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the
result is eternal life.” Then let’s not leave out verse 23, which concludes the thought. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift
of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Remember,
we died to sin
“Open your
Bibles to Romans chapter 6, let’s open our Bibles to Romans 6, and I’d like us
to just review the first point, what we looked at last week. This week, I’ll just tell you what we’re
going to study today, we’re going to study the flesh---and what the Bible is
talking about when it talks about the flesh, and the war that the flesh has
going on in each one of us. But before
we look at that I really want to nail down the point that I made last week, and
reiterate it, and hopefully re-enforce it in your heart. In verse 2, the Bible says that we have died
to sin. Verse 2 says “we have died to sin.” Death means separation, and that’s the basic
bottom-line meaning of death. [I always
thought it meant a cessation of life. Oh
well.] The word death doesn’t mean
non-existence, it means separation. When
you die, in the physical sense, your soul and spirit [one and the same thing,
according to some] are separated from your body. And you go, if you’re a Christian, to be with
the Lord. [The Bible is very fuzzy on that subject. Solomon in Ecclesiastes wrote that the human spirit in all humans---the “good, the bad and the ugly”---that die goes
to heaven, and that the dead know nothing, i.e. the human thought process
ceases within the human spirit, including all memory. Solomon also goes on to say that the spirit
that is in animal brains goes back to the ground, making a distinction between
human spirit and animal spirit. Other passages
in the New Testament which are in parables, and allegorical at best, indicate
the spirit in man, the human spirit, is conscious after death. This places these beliefs in the purely
secondary realm of Bible doctrinal teaching due to the fact that there is
apparent disagreement between them.] The
Bible talks about physical death, and that is the separation of the soul and
spirit from the body. The Bible also
talks about spiritual death. And
that is separation of your soul and spirit from God, forever. And so, people can be spiritually dead, that
is, separated from God, and even be living and breathing and their hearts
pumping their blood through their bodies. And yet your body could die and be turning to dust and you could be very
much alive with God [again, this is one interpretation of a bunch of Scriptures
that differ from each other on this subject---whether the spirit’s of believers
are conscious or unconscious in heaven. The Ecclesiastes interpretation coupled to 1st Corinthians 15 would be interpreted as those
that die in the Lord rest in their graves (their bodies decay), their human
spirits, unconscious at death go to heaven, awaiting the resurrection to
immortality, and when these spirit’s are united with a new spirit body, made
immortal, looking just like the individuals when they were alive, but shining
like the stars and now immortal. One
instant the person was dead, the next conscious moment the person is being
resurrected into an immortal body and is conscious again, never being aware of
the passage of time from his or her death to that of their resurrection to
immortality. I bring this other
interpretation out simply because it is another way to interpret passages that
cover this subject, yet conflict with each other. The final outcome---whether our spirits upon
our deaths are conscious with God in heaven, or unconscious with God in
heaven---is exactly the same at the point of our resurrection at Jesus Christ’s
2nd coming, talked of in 1 Corinthians 15:49-56. So this is a totally secondary doctrine,
since passages covering the subject conflict with each other and it involves
mere spiritual nano-seconds of our existence when compared to living on into
eternity. I don’t take sides in this
debate, I merely make observations for the sake of the entire body of Christ
that dwells online, knowing some believe one way, and others believe another
way. And when it’s unimportant, I point
it out, as editor of this site. This
site is all about unity in the core gospel of Christ, and freedom of belief for
the many diverse secondary doctrines of the Bible. 99 percent of what’s being taught in this
section covering Romans 6 through 8 is primary gospel of salvation, gospel of
Christ information, essential for one’s salvation. Personally, I’m just as curious as the next
guy about what really happens to my human spirit when I die. I’m not worried about the being saved part,
but I’m not going to be dogmatic on the subject when the Bible isn’t dogmatic
about it. For more on this subject, see http://www.unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm]
Remember,
we have a new nature in Christ
Romans 6:6, “Knowing this, that
our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we
should not serve sin.” So, it’s sort of a strange contradiction. The Bible teaches us that we have died, been
separated from sin. Specifically, verse
6 says our own sinful self, “knowing this” verse 6, “that our old self” or “the old man” as one version
says, or if you got that new feminist version “the old woman” (just teasing) “was
crucified with him.” That’s your old nature. A nature
is what makes you what you are. A nature
makes you do certain things, produce certain things, act a certain way. An apple tree isn’t a pear tree because it’s
a different nature. A dog isn’t a sheep
because there’s a different nature. You
can train a dog do funny sheep things, but you know when he gets a chance he’s
going to just go back to his old dog-ish ways. Jesus Christ came, he broke sin’s power in your life. And I’m talking to Christians this
morning. If you don’t consider yourself
a born-again Christian just listen along, because you’re going to see why it’s so important to be a Christian. Christianity is talking about a change of
nature. The Bible says if anybody comes
into Christ, that person becomes a new “species” of human being. That’s what 2nd Corinthians 5:17 says, a brand new species, you are different, it’s a
differentiation on the inside. There is
a new command center. The old command
center of the old nature is dead, it died when you accepted Christ. And you don’t have an old nature anymore. But you say, ‘But
I’m still struggling with old things Mark!’ I’m going to get to that today. But it’s not a nature that’s making you do those things. You have a new nature in Christ. Colossians chapter 1, verse 13
says “For he delivered you out of the kingdom of darkness”---the domain of darkness---“and transferred us into
the kingdom of his beloved Son.” We’ve been delivered from the domain of darkness. We are no longer---in fact, we shouldn’t be
calling ourselves sinners anymore. We
should call ourselves what the Bible calls us, and that is saints. That’s what the
Bible calls Christians, saints. So you
can greet each other either ‘brother’ so and so, ‘sister’ so and so, or ‘saint
Mark, come here…’ But actually the Bible
calls Christians saints, not because they never sin, but because they don’t
have a sin nature anymore. They are
saints, they are holy ones, and Christ is in us. Jesus Christ indwells us, and you’ve been set
free from your old sinful nature. Regardless of what the psychologists say, I don’t care what the
self-help groups say, you have been set free in Christ. This means more to me than anybody else’s
books. This means more to me than
anybody else’s theories. [Pastor Mark
must be holding up his Bible.] I base my
life on “Thus says the Word, thus says the Lord.” And you need to get your life in line with
the Word. It is a square by which you
build your spiritual house. The square
[as in T-square] of the Word of God is going to go to line…you don’t bend the
square to make a crooked wall match it, you change the wall to match the
square. Right [all you builders]? For some of us our thinking is off, and we
need to get it aligned to the Word of God.
We’ve
been set free from sin---the sin nature
He has set us
free from sin, we died to sin. Verse 7
says, “for he who has died is”---read it with me---“freed
from sin.” And you look again at verse 18, read it with me, “and having been freed from sin,
you became slaves of righteousness.” And finally the first
part of verse 22, “But now having been freed from sin…” We have been
freed from sin. It’s not “Oh God, free
me from sin!” You have been freed from
sin, you little turkey! [laughter] Read the Word! ‘Well then why does sin still bug me!?’ ‘Why am I still tempted?’ ‘Why do I still want to do some things that I
know I shouldn’t be doing? Why!? Why!? Why!?’ Well, before we talk about
it, I just want you to understand, you have a new Master, you’ve been freed
from the old ‘master’, the slavemaster of sin. Remember, you have gone through a spiritual emancipation proclamation
much like the Blacks in the Confederate States experienced during the Civil War
[I would say, after the Civil War, to be more accurate]. They were declared free, now they needed to
act like free men, and they…it was a little more complicated for them, they had
to try to make their way to free land [which most of them couldn’t till after
the end of the war]. But you don’t have
the old master whipping you, saying ‘Now boy, jump boy! Jump boy!’ You don’t have to jump for him anymore,
because he’s not your master, you don’t live in his land anymore, there’s a
fence between you, barbed wire, electrified. [I would say that there’s a sea between you and your old master, the Red
Sea.] And you’re freed from sin, you
don’t have to do those things anymore. You don’t have a nature in you to sin anymore, a nature that controls
you anymore. It’s like we said last
week, it’s like having a new boss. We
don’t work for “S.I.N. Incorporated” anymore. OK? But the old boss calls you up at 2a.m. in the morning, and you’re so
used to him calling you up at all hours of the night telling you ‘All right,
now, we need you to come to the office right now. We need you to do this, we need you to do
that!’ And you’re so used to doing it,
that you hop out of bed, get your pants halfway up, you know, and then you
realize ‘Wait a minute. I quit that
job. I’m out of that, I don’t work for
them anymore. What am I doing? I’ve got a new job with normal human
hours. What am I doing? Oh, I’m so used to living the old way.’ You have a new boss. You don’t have to do what the old boss tells
you anymore. Doesn’t that make sense? How many of you have changed jobs in the last
year? Raise your hands. Look at this. A lot of job changes. Now if the
old boss calls you and told you to go and do something for him, like he used to
do, what would you say to him? ‘Get
lost!’ (Someone said, ‘Can I have my old
job back.’ [laughter]---No.) We have a new nature. We’ve gone from being dogs to being God’s
sheep. No matter how much you try to fix
up the dog and paint its toenails and fluff its fur, and put bows in its ears,
the dog’s still going to go out and do doggy things, isn’t he. He’s a dog, and that’s all he’s going to
want. He’s not going to want to eat
sheep food. Sheep food is grass. Dogs only eat grass when they’re sick. Right? It’s just like the unbeliever, the only time they run to the Word is
when they’re sick---‘Oh, I’m dying, read a Bible, quick, read the 23rd Psalm to me, would you? I’m sick.’ You see, when dogs are sick, they desire
grass. The minute they get well, they
don’t want it anymore. But you see, a sheep
loves sheep things. I mean, if you’d
tell the dog ‘How about walking among green pastures, and walking beside still
waters? How about following the
shepherd?’ A dog would go ‘How
boring. No way!’ But a sheep, man, that sounds like fun stuff
to a sheep, ‘Yeah, green pastures, yum!’ ‘Still waters, yeah!’ ‘I don’t
like those raging rivers.’ ‘Following
the shepherd, that’s not bahhh’d.’ [laughter] So sheep love that. I’ve often
wondered how a caterpillar, how it feels to go from being a caterpillar to a
butterfly? I wonder what kind of things
the caterpillar goes through on the inside. I mean, when I was a kid we had a lot of Monarch butterflies in southern
Oregon, it’s just really neat to live in a place where there are things like
that, and your children can see. And I
remember watching the little striped caterpillars as they were munching on
milkweed, and I decided one day I would try some of that milkweed they were
munching on. ‘Yuck! Ooh, it’s bitter!’ ‘Ooh, it’s so bitter, and you can’t…’ I spit trying to get the taste out of my
mouth. It’s sort of like eating
dandelions, if you know what a dandelion is. A dandelion in Arizona is like a precious flower, but [laughter] in
green places it’s a weed. But it’s got a
white milky kind of sap in it, you know, and it’s just as bitter as it can
be. And yet that’s what the caterpillar,
crawling, he munches on the bitterness of life. But then the day comes when he dies to that old self, he dies, and he
hangs himself, literally, doesn’t he. And he gets into that cocoon, and in the chrysalis change a whole new
creation is made, and out comes, you know, after a period of time, you know
what happens, a butterfly emerges. Now
what if the butterfly came out and he still was thinking like a caterpillar? It just hit me funny thinking about
that. And you see this butterfly
crawling on his little butterfly knees, he’s crawling. And he’s coming up to a milkweed plant, and
he doesn’t even have a mouth to eat that stuff anymore, and he’s trying to gnaw
on a milkweed plant. And along comes
another butterfly and he says ‘Hey, Bud’ whatever you call a butterfly, Bud, the butterfly, ‘Hey, what are you
doing?’ ‘Well, I’m trying to eat.’ ‘Why? You’re a butterfly now. You’ve
got wings. What are you doing crawling? How embarrassing to see a butterfly
crawl. Stand up and fly.’ ‘I don’t feel like I have wings. I feel the same.’ ‘You’re not the same, though! A change has taken place.’ ‘But I don’t feel different. In fact, I sort have got a craving for milkweed.’ ‘Yeah, but you’re a butterfly. Hey I’m sipping nectar, that’s what we’re
supposed to be eating. What are you
doing, you nut!’ And you give him a kick
in the butterfly butt, behind, or whatever a butterfly has [laughter], and you
tell him to get moving, man, start flying. And, ah, maybe that’s the reason why Romans 6, 7 and 8 are written, to
give us a little kick in our little butterfly behinds, and tell us to get
flying---get going. Because you’re not
who you used to be before Christ. OK, that
was review. Now new territory.
Even
though sin does not reign over us, it does remain in us, leading us into an
internal civil war
Sin does not
reign over us---it’s not our master, it’s not our boss! We’re not caterpillars, we’re new creations, we
have a new master. We’re free from the
old, it can’t tell us what to do anymore. Even though sin does not reign over us, it does remain in us. Verse 6, “Knowing this, that our old self”---the old nature---“was crucified with him that our
body of sin”---now that’s something different from
the old nature---the “body of sin,” as some
translations say, “the body the sin indwells”---the
body that sin lives in, that’s this body that we live in---“knowing
that our body of sin might be done away with [margin: rendered powerless].” Though I am a
new creation, though I don’t have a sinful nature anymore, I still have sin
living in me. That’s why, it explains
why even though I’m free and I have a new nature, I still struggle with sin, I
still struggle with feelings of sometimes wanting to do things that I don’t
really want to do. But I do them
sometimes. Even after the new birth,
even after we’ve been given a new nature, sin remains in our bodies. These bodies aren’t born-again. And the bodies don’t get to go to
heaven. They have to be changed, they
have to be transformed [in the resurrection to immortality] before they can get
to heaven. So if you leave before the
Lord comes, you leave the body, because it can’t go to heaven the way it is, it
hasn’t been born again. And if the Lord
does return while you’re alive, you’re body is changed instantly---1st Corinthians 15 says---in a moment and a twinkling of an eye---because sin
inhabits this body, it can’t go to heaven the way it is. Look at verse 6, it talks about the body of
sin, the body that sin inhabits. Verse 12 tells us that sin wants to reign in
our mortal bodies. Well this of course
leads to Civil War. You knew that there
was something going on inside you. Yes! It’s civil war. Look at Romans chapter 7, verse 20, the last part says, “…sin dwells in me.” See that? Chapter 7:20, the last part “…sin dwells in me.” Look at verse 21, “I find there the
principle that evil is present”---where?---“in me…” Look at verse 23, it says, “I see a different law in the members of my body
waging war against the law of my mind.” Now let’s go up to the top, verse 14. Sin indwells our bodies, but it’s not a sin nature. We’re going to see
that Paul calls it “the flesh.” Doesn’t have the power of a nature. Romans 7, verse 14, “For we know
that the law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage of sin. For that which I am doing I do not
understand, for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I’m doing the very
thing I hate.” Now, some of you thought you weren’t Christians because you
have said that very thing. “I’m doing
the very thing I hate!” And Satan’s
right there to say “Yeah, some Christian you are! What makes you think you’re a Christian? Why you’re not doing what you want to do, and
you said you’re doing the thing you don’t want to do. You’re not a Christian! Get out of here!” No, that is evidence that you are a Christian. One of
the greatest evidences of being a Christian with a new nature is that there’s now something to fight the body of sin,
fight the flesh now. The flesh, see,
when you had a sin nature, the flesh and the sin nature were just right
together, de-dum, de-dum, de-dum, you know. There was perfect contentment, perfect harmony, perfect accord---Oh,
it’s wonderful!---Oh they had a wonderful relationship together. But now, you’ve got a new nature. The new nature does not sin, 1st John tells us. And so the flesh now is
finding itself living with a Roomy it doesn’t like. OK? And there’s a fight that goes on. And you don’t do the things you want to do sometimes. Let’s read on. Let’s read on, this is very important. “I’m doing the thing I hate.” Romans 7,
verse 16, “For if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the
law, the will of God, confessing that it is good. So now”---read it---“no longer am I the one
doing it, BUT
SIN WHICH INDWELLS ME”---Hallelujah! Do you
understand? This is what I’ve been
telling you! He’s saying, ‘Look, the
real me isn’t wanting to sin! The real
me doesn’t want to sin. I agree with
God’s law! I agree with God’s
will!’ (I’m sorry, I’m excited. I get loud. Sound like a Baptist preacher. Brother. No, they’re OK.) But it’s not me doing it. He says, ‘Look’ in verse 18 and 17, ‘So no
longer am I, the real new born-again me, the new creature me, I’m not the one
doing it.’ What’s doing it? ‘Sin which indwells me is doing it.’ Verses 17-18 of Romans 7 (NIV),
“As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that
is, in my flesh
(margin). For I have the
desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” Verse 20, “Now if I do what I do not want to
do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Do you see guys? You
wouldn’t believe me when I said you don’t have an old nature anymore, because
you were still feeling this type of war. You said, ‘Oh Mark, I’m not so sure.’ You just weren’t waiting long enough to hear. The Bible is telling you, ‘OK, let’s say
you’ve got an alcohol problem, and you’re a Christian now. You have a new nature. You’re not enslaved to that anymore. But your flesh wants it. But you can say as a Christian “I am not the
one doing this. It’s the flesh.” I don’t have a nature problem, no my nature
agrees with the will of God. I’ve got a
flesh problem. I’ve got a body of sin to
deal with, and now in the next few weeks we’re going to talk about how to deal
with this body of sin that we’ve got. Hey, you deal with the nature by accepting Christ. Amen? You get a new nature by accepting Christ and
the old nature dies. You get a nature
that wants to do the will of God, and Christ dwells in you. But, now after you’re a Christian you still
have this body of sin and you’re going to have it until the day you die and go
to be with the Lord, here either by the Lord’s return or by death, you’re going
to fight the flesh.
Satan’s
evil broadcast into our ‘human spirit’ is at war with God’s Holy Spirit within
us
There’s
something inside each of us that responds to sin. Now the sin can’t control you
through the command center anymore, Christ has taken over the command center. OK? So, sin thinks ‘Aah, I’ve got to get control
again, Aaagh, I’ve got to get control.’ And so sin uses the body to try to get control. Now the body doesn’t have the power of a
nature. You see a body doesn’t make you
what you are. You’re nature is what
makes you what you are. Your body tries
to get the power of a nature. Now inside
of us, each one of us, there’s something in us that responds to sin. [Personally, considering Satan’s evil
broadcast onto the “wavelength” of the “spirit of man”, I believe this evil
broadcast is the sin that enters our “body”, it is the “body of sin”. It enters into our minds through our human
spirit, but finds Christ already dwelling there via the Holy Spirit that now
indwells us---thus the conflict. Our
human spirit has now combined with the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit. So the sinful broadcast pulls on our flesh,
but we have the nature of Christ in us. Look at Romans 8:16, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that
we are God’s children.”] We think, ‘What
is the matter with me?’ ‘Why do I
respond like that?’ And you know, the
flesh. I look at it, like, inside of me
there is this guitar with 12 strings, OK. And there’s this guitar inside of me, and these instruments are very
interesting, they’re, the music they produce is produced by vibrations of the
sound waves. And even as I’m talking
into this [he’s talking into the opening of a guitar] the strings are
responding to, it’s called, sympathetic vibrations. They’re responding to my voice. They’re responding. OK? And if Tim were to go blow his trumpet and blow a G, you would feel the
strings vibrate, they pick up on that sound. Now my head doesn’t vibrate. But
there is in me something, this is the flesh, the Bible calls this the
flesh. [What he is talking about is that
we are in tune with this world. There
are a few explanations of how that happens. I personally prefer the idea that Satan has filled this earth with his
evil broadcast of wrath, wrong sexual desires, sinful nature---all described in
Galatians 5:19-21. The “wave-length”
Satan puts his broadcast on is that of the human spirit, the spirit in man
talked of by Paul in Romans 8 and 1 Corinthians 2. This “law of sin” is really broadcast into us
by Satan. Our sin nature has been shut
off by accepting Jesus, Yeshua into our lives. But it does not turn off Satan’s broadcast into our human spirit. This would explain the war going on inside of
us, Satan, the world and our flesh, all warring against our new godly nature in
Christ. This explanation in no way goes
against what Pastor Mark is saying.] The
Bible calls this the flesh. Look at Romans
7, verse 18, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that
is”---where?---“in my flesh. For the
wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I wish to do I don’t do, but
I practice the very evil that I do not wish.” I mean, this is a born-again person. “But if I am doing the very thing that I
don’t wish”---he’s got a new nature, he doesn’t want
to do those things anymore---“I am no longer the one doing it, but”---who is doing it?---“sin which indwells me.” Romans 7,
verse 21, “I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who
wishes to do the good.” In other words, I’ve got a new nature. Romans 7, verse 22, “For I joyfully concur with the law of
God in the inner man of my new nature, but I see a different law in the members
of my body, the flesh, waging war against the law of my mind, my new nature,
and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members”---that’s the flesh. This is incredible, guys! If you
get a grip on this it will change your life. What he’s saying is, there is the flesh, you are born again, but the
flesh was left. OK? And sin works through the flesh. And there will be, even in a Christian---even
as I’m talking I feel these strings vibrating, obviously you can’t feel them
vibrate, but I can feel the strings vibrate. Sometimes when they forget to turn the snare off on the drums, and they
start playing music, the snare starts snaring. [Comment: The human spirit gives the human brain its intellectual and
computing power. It is directly connected
to “the flesh” in the sense that our flesh is controlled directly by the
brain. The actual flesh in a body is
nothing, unless it is controlled by the human brain. The human brain is given its vast
intellectual and computing power by the invisible human spirit that resides in
each of us. Satan can broadcast into
that human spirit, thus our “flesh” comes under his broadcast influence, just
like sound waves are influencing those guitar strings. Just like radio waves influence a radio
receiver. Again, this explanation does
not disagree with what Pastor Mark is saying.] Why does the snare do that? Well,
it’s vibrating sympathetically. OK? And so what happens is, temptation comes [who
is the great tempter?] and it vibrates your strings. OK? It
comes by, and you sympathetically, you hear the sound, and you begin to vibrate
with it. And you wonder, ‘Man, what’s
the matter with me? I thought I was a
Christian. And here I am vibrating to
sin. I’m responding to sinful
temptation. How could I have a thought
like that and still be a Christian? Because you still have the flesh. [Here’s a Bible example of God placing a thought within the mind of king
Cyrus. God was moving Cyrus to do this
by placing a thought directly into his mind via his human spirit. Read 2 Chronicles 36:22, “…the Lord moved the
heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his
realm…” Also the same description is
repeated in Ezra 1:1. Cyrus obviously
did not have the Holy Spirit indwelling in him, he was a pagan king, so God had
to communicate to him through his human spirit. The human spirit can also receive signals from Satan’s evil
broadcast. The world vibrates
sympathetically to his evil broadcast which is described in Galatians
5:19-21. That’s how evil thoughts come
into our minds, sometimes without us understanding where they have come from,
cf. Revelation 12:9] Every Christian has
the flesh to deal with. You see a pretty
girl, and your strings start to vibrate “Oh”, you know. Vibration is one thing,
you know. Getting down and really
fueling the thought onward, that’s a another thing all together. You know, temptation may come and vibrate
your strings, and then you can say “No!”. Like once in a while you’ll hear the music, and then you can say
‘No.’ Like once in a while you’ll hear
the musicians, they’ll goof up, you know, and what do they do?---they go “Oh!”
and stop. Usually Tim does it during
prayer. But they stop it immediately. And so when temptation comes and your strings
vibrate, “No! I’m in control. I don’t have to play the whole song---‘I am
nothin’ but a sinnner, sinnin’ all day.’” That’s not who you are anymore. You’re a new creation in Christ. But you do have the flesh in you. And it will vibrate sympathetically to sin, temptation comes and the
flesh will go ‘Oooh,’ vibrate, vibrate ‘Yes, yes, yes, yes’, you know. ‘No, no, I’m not gonna sin. I’m choosing not to do that.’ If you do the same thing with a piano, it
won’t work with these electronic keyboards, but a real piano, if you take any
musical instrument like a trumpet and you lift the lid of the piano and you
blow, play a strong C or B, you blow that note into that piano, the strings
will re-vibrate the same sound back sympathetically. Now, were they played? No. See, that’s what bugs us as Christians. We think ‘I didn’t play the note, so why is it there? Why is the sound there? I must not even be saved.’ No. Your flesh, you didn’t play the note. That’s right. But your flesh is
in sympathy with sin. And so when the right
vibration comes, your flesh will sympathetically vibrate with it until you say
“NO!”, you say “No.” See, Christ died,
not just to give us a new nature, but to give us victory over the flesh as
well. He condemned sin in the flesh,
we’re told.
You
flesh is never done away with, but it can be rendered inoperative
Now look at
Romans 6:6 one more time. This is a
pivotal passage in the whole understanding of the flesh, because in 6:6 he
talks about the old nature and the flesh in the same verse. And he says, “Knowing this, that our old
nature was crucified with him that our body of sin”---that’s the
flesh---“might be done away with [margin: made powerless, inoperative] that we
should no longer be slaves to sin.” “That it might be done away with” is not a good
translation. It should be translated,
and the Greek scholars all agree, it should be translated “rendered
inoperative” or “taken out of action”, “put out of action.” Your flesh is never done away with, but it
can be rendered inoperative. You can
make it so it doesn’t “play”. You
control the flesh, you can say “No” to the desires of the flesh. Now what are some of those desires of the
flesh? Let’s look at Galatians. Keep your finger here in Romans, go back to
the book of Galatians, you go to the right. Galatians chapter 5, verse 16-17, “For I say, walk by the
Spirit”---that’s walking in the new nature---“and you
will not carry out the desire of the flesh, for the flesh sets its desire
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in
opposition to one another.”---Have you ever experienced
that? All the time---“so that
you may not do the things that you please.” There is a civil war going on inside. Don’t feel like you’re a miserable Christian
because---maybe it’s dirty thoughts, you men, that you’re fighting with. ‘Well, I must not even be a Christian!’ No, your flesh, that’s what it likes. And you have to realize that because those
thoughts come into your mind, and because certain things stimulate that in your
brain, that doesn’t mean that you’re not a Christian, it means that your flesh
is there. It’s there. And certain things will set it off [he strums
the guitar], but you can say no to it. You don’t have to play the whole song. You didn’t strum it in the first place. Temptation strummed it. And you
say “No”. That’s why, it says, some
sins we must flee. And they are the
sexual sins---it says “Flee immorality, flee youthful lusts.” [Proverbs is full of these admonitions,
pointing out where the spiritual minefields are. See Proverbs 3.] Because he knows if you stay there long
enough, you’re going to play the whole song. What are some of the lusts of the flesh that the body tries to control
you with? Sin wants to control your body
through verse 19 and onward. “These
things, the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are”---top of the list are sexual sins---“immorality,
impurity and sensuality”---that takes in all you could
imagine (don’t), it takes pornography in, adultery, pre-marital sex, living
together, everything is talked about. That’s what those Greek words mean. The word used for idolatry, verse 20, is sorcery. That’s an interesting word, the word for
sorcery in the Greek is pharmekia, pharmacy, drugs. Sorcery and
drugs tie together. If you’re doing
drugs, you’re on dangerous ground, because you’re opening yourself up to
occultic practices is what that’s saying here. Just like playing with a wejee board. You’re smokin’ your dope, you’re shootin’ up, you’re hittin’ up, you’re
doing whatever you’re doing---hey, you’re inviting Satan to come and bug you
[i.e. you’re inviting demons to come into your life, and we’re talking about
those who are not born-again, indwelt with the Holy Spirit]. You’re saying, “Here I am, I would really
like to be hassled by you devil.” “Enmities,
hatreds, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger [King James: wrath]”. Man, we see that
within our homes a lot. Don’t we? You know what that is? It’s the flesh [in tune with Satan’s
wavelength, broadcast. These very
attitudes, this laundry list are broadcast attitudes directly from Satan into
the air surrounding earth. Wrath is one
of the chief attitudes of Satan. Sorcery, withcraft, desire to practice such stuff all comes from
him. Everything listed here are
attitudes broadcast by Satan to provide a downward pull into man’s society,
bringing it low.] No, buddy, it’s your
flesh. “It’s my kids!” No, it’s your flesh. “It’s my Mom and Dad!” It’s your flesh, ruling you. And it doesn’t have to rule you anymore, you
turkey. Why are you letting the flesh
rule in your puny body? You
shouldn’t. That’s the way the Living
Bible translates it, “Don’t let sin control your puny body any longer. Don’t give in to it’s sinful desires.” “Jealousy, outbursts of anger,
disputes, dissentions, factions, envyings, drunkenness,”---Oh, it’s not a disease! No, it’s a work of the flesh. That’s what drunkenness is, a work of the flesh. It’s a spiritual problem, and we have the
spiritual answer for it. Don’t we? Understanding you’re a new creation in
Christ, understanding that yes, if you’re struggling with drinking or drugging,
you need to understand that your flesh wants that and craves that. But you also know if you’re a Christian that
there’s a part of you that doesn’t want it too. [These works of the flesh, which do come from Satan, are important, and
it’s important to read these verses through completely, just to see what is
being said here. I will give the King James Version. Galatians 5:19-21, “Now the works
of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication [all sex
outside of marriage], uncleanness (license to do evil), Idolatry, witchcraft,
hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings,
murders, drunkenness, revellings, 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.”] And that brings me to my next point.
The
key to victory: Learn to use your
chooser
My next point
is: The key to having victory in your life, the first step to victory over
domination of the flesh is to learn how to use your “chooser”. You learn how to use your “chooser.” We now can make a choice. See the difference between a Christian [or
Messianic believer in Yeshua] and a non-Christian when you’re talking about
sinful problems, is a non-Christian doesn’t have any power on the inside. Because a non-Christian has an old nature
that is hand-in-hand, buddy-buddy with the flesh. OK? And so, I mean, all you can do with these programs and these seminars is
you try to make up the dead man, you try to make the corpse look good, you try
to change, you paint up the doggy, paint his toenails, put bows in his ears,
and tell him that he’s a sheep. And you
haven’t changed the nature. See, the
reason why I’m a Christian, one of the reasons why I’m a Christian is that
because I have seen the power of Jesus Christ to make people into new
people. And that’s not just talk, that’s
not rhetoric, it actually happens through the miracle of what is called the
new-birth. You could be born-again today
before you leave. I’m going to give you
that opportunity to give your life to Christ. But you know a lot of us when we came to Christ, nobody told us what
happened, it was just like “Raise your hand. Go to the prayer room.” “Raise
your hand” or “Call us up” or “Walk down the aisle” and nobody told us “Now
you’re a new creature! Your old nature
is dead! You don’t have an old nature
anymore, you have a new nature!” Nobody
told me about the flesh when I became a Christian. And I became so discouraged I just about quit
a few times, because I thought “How can I be a Christian and struggle with
this, or struggle with that?” Now I
understand I am not under those old masters anymore. I understand that I am no longer sin’s
slave. Sin is not my master. Sin tries to reign through my body, yes, but
it can’t be lord, it can’t be master, because Jesus is at the command center, I
have a new nature. Sin can never make me
it’s slave or its captive again. Paul’s
whole point is, when a Christian sins, it’s not because he is a slave of sin
and has to sin, but we sin as free men, we are sinning because we
are choosing to sin. [unless you are not a Christian, then you have no choice in choosing to
sin, it’s the only thing you can choose to do.]
You
don’t have to respond to Satan’s beeper
I want to read
to you, going back to Romans, chapter 6. I’m going to read the rest of the
chapter. Let’s read verses
12-22, and then I’ve got something that might
help illustrate this too. Romans
chapter 6, verses 12-14, you follow along in your
translation, I’m going to read it out of the Living Bible because I believe the
Living Bible here is very accurate in its translation of the passage, and it’s
very easy to understand. OK? So follow along and listen very
carefully. “Don’t let
sin control your puny body any longer. Don’t give in to it’s sinful desires, don’t let any part of your bodies
become tools of wickedness to be used for sinning. But give yourselves completely to God, every
part of you. For you are back from
death, and you want to be tools in the hands of God, to be used for his good
purposes. Sin need never again be your
master, for now you are no longer tied to the law where sin enslaves you, but
you are free under God’s favor and mercy.” Hey, can you say Amen to that? Now verse 15, “Does this mean that
we now can go ahead and sin and not worry about it? For our salvation does not depend on keeping
law, but on receiving God’s grace. Of
course not.” Verses
16-22, now he talks about your “chooser”. “Don’t you realize that you can
choose your own master? You can choose
sin, with death, or else obedience with acquittal.” [Obedience to what? “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1st John 3:4). So this
means obedience to the law, and in New Testament terms, the law of Christ,
which is basically the spiritual application of the Ten Commandments minus the
4th Commandment.] “The one to whom you offer yourself, he will take you
and be your master and you will be his slave. Thank God that though you once chose to be slaves of sin, now you have
obeyed with all your heart the teaching to which God has committed you. And now you are freed from your old master,
sin. And you have become slaves to your
new master, righteousness. I speak this
way, using the illustration of slaves and masters because it’s easy to
understand. Just as you used to be
slaves to all kinds of sin, you now must let yourselves be slaves to all that
is right and holy. In those days when
you were slaves of sin, you didn’t bother much with goodness.”---that’s an understatement for some of you---“And
what was the result? Evidently not good,
since your are ashamed now even to think about the things you used to do. For all of them end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin
and are slaves of God, and his benefits to you include holiness, and
everlasting life.” His whole point is, you guys, you’re free. You don’t have to chose sin anymore. You don’t have to obey the flesh when it says
“Respond!”. You don’t have to obey the
flesh anymore. You’ve been set
free. How many of you wear a beeper at one
time or another? Raise your hand really
high. Whoa! Look at all these important people. Ah, you have to have a portable phone to be
really important nowadays. Beepers are
signs of slavery, aren’t they. It really
is, it’s 20th century slavery. I mean, you can never get away, electronically they’ve got you. But this beeper represents the flesh. [Yes! It’s a radio receiver!] It’s as
though, when we were born again, we used to work for the old master, he gave us
this beeper, this is what we inherited when we worked for him, this beeper
right here. [In reality, we’re born with the beeper in us---it is the “human
spirit,” “the spirit of man,” or “spirit in man” as it is referred to by these
various terms in the Bible] Whenever he
wanted us, he would just beep us. Right? “Beep, beep, beep”. And what do I always do? I always look, and it’ll give me a number “please
call:xxx-xxx-xxxx”, or it will give you a command. “Get to work” or something like that. Now not all beepers beep, some of them
vibrate. Vvvvvvm. OK? So, some people don’t hear that call, they “feel” the call. OK? [laughter] So, now, let’s see how
this relates. You’re already beginning
to see how this relates. When you came
to Christ, you were taken out of the old job, the old master was blown away,
dead and gone, he’s been killed [remember the Egyptian Army died in the Red
Sea]. You don’t have to obey him
anymore. But you know what, his beeper
was left with you. The flesh, the body
of sin you still have, and there’s no way to get rid of it till we go to be
with the Lord. But when you do go to be
with the Lord…no more body that responds to sin. So here you are, you’re Joe Christian, you’re
a new believer. You’re walking along,
man, you’re free from sin. You believe
what you’ve been taught. I don’t have a
sin nature anymore. And I don’t have to
sin anymore [his beeper just went off], ‘Oh’, one day, you have this sinful
urge, you hear something that makes you desire to go back to the old, there’s
something that really responds to something that’s wrong. Now is it because you really aren’t a Christian? No. You’re really a Christian. Others
of you were walking along, and one day [his vibrating beeper just went off]
‘Oh, I have this feeling, man. Oh, I
have this urge. I’ve got to have it,
I’ve got to do it’, you know. ‘It’s
there, man, it’s really there.’ Well,
yeah it’s there. You have the flesh, I
have the flesh, and our flesh, once in a while lets us know it’s there. You walk by, guys, you see a bunch of pretty
girls [his vibrator beeper is going off] [laughter] ‘Oh…’ Girls, you’ve been daydreaming about this guy
for the last three days, you know, all day long you’re daydreaming about him
[his beeper goes off], the sinful desires go off. Well, look, there’s nothing wrong, there’s no
sin in this [vibrator-beeper goes off]. OK? Everybody’s flesh vibrates at
something. Everybody’s flesh hears the
call of sin. That’s not sin. You can’t help that. What you can help is, [beeper goes off], ‘Oh,
what’s her number, man. I’m going to
call her up.’ That’s dumb. You don’t have to respond. You’ll hear the call [beeper goes off], but
you don’t have to call the number. Or if
it says ‘Hey, boy, come over here.’ You
know, that’s the message that comes across the beeper screen. You don’t have to do that. You can chose not to do that. The feeling comes [his vibrator beeper is
going off again], ‘Ohh’, you look down and it says ‘Do it!’ Do you have to do it? Does this make you have to? No, it just stirred you all up. Just got the strings [guitar] buzzing, you’ve
got a lot going on right now, you’ve got your strings going, and you’ve got
your beeper beeping, you know, so you got a lot going on. It happens, to everybody. You’re at home, and your wife, she knows the
buttons to push, she knows what’ll push you over the edge, and your flesh says
‘Let her have it!’ [lot’s of
laughter] You don’t have to
respond. ‘Oh, but I feel it!’ Yeah, but it’s just the old commands, it’s
just the old flesh. You don’t work for
him anymore, you don’t have to do what they say anymore, turn it off! Turn it off! And that’s interesting. You know
when you’ve really seen somebody very important, and their beeper goes off, and
they look down, and say ‘It’s nothing’ and turn it off. Someone went to all that trouble to get in
touch with them and they hang this on them so they could never lose them, and
they look down at that and they say ‘Oh, I don’t have to respond to that.’ I was always very impressed. I think, Whoa, you know, ‘You’re important.’ You’re important. And when sin comes beeping, you don’t have to
go bouncing all over the walls. When sin
comes beeping, you can say ‘I don’t want to respond to this, I’m a new creature
in Christ.’ And you’re going to feel it,
guys [vibrating beeper goes off], you’re going to feel it. Being saved doesn’t take away the desires of
the flesh. The Bible says to crucify
them, crucify them [cf. Romans 8:13b]. So we all are living with this spiritual beeper on us, we’ve got the
flesh. For some of us, we’re very cool
about it, you know. Our flesh doesn’t go
“BEEP, BEEP” and everybody sees our problem. Some of us, you know, it’s that very quiet little vibration, but we’re
struggling just as much as somebody who’s got the big obvious problem. Now in the weeks to come we’re going to look
more and more into how to gain the victory over this. But today what you’ve got to know
is #1, you’ve got a new nature. Right? Say yes, so we can get off
of this. [laughter] You don’t have an old nature commanding you
anymore. Right? But you do have sin dwelling in you. Yeah? Yeah. But you don’t have to obey
that. Right? Why? Because Christ is in you. Christ
is in you. Now some of you are obeying
this beeper call just out of ignorance. You didn’t know what happened to you when you became a Christian. Some of you are obeying this out of
habit. Okay, okay, I react this
way. I see a pretty girl, “I LOOOOK”,
you know. It’s just the habit of your
flesh. And you need to slap it down, you
need to go “NO! No!”, put it down “No!”. You don’t have to play the whole song because one string vibrates. You can say no. Some of you are sinning out of
rebellion. And you’re going to have the
fruit, which is a lot of hurt and pain. But for those of you in the first two categories, hey, this is a sweet message
today. You’re free in Christ, free
indeed. You don’t have to obey the old
master anymore. So when temptation comes
and you find yourself---I don’t know where we got the idea that if we became a
new creature it meant that we would never have an old desire---new creatures
still have the old desires. But the old
desires DON’T REIGN, because they’re living with a
very raunchy roommate, the new nature does not like this. The new nature is no fun to the flesh. The new nature really cramps the flesh’s
style. And there is a battle going
on. You’re not a bad Christian because of
it. You are a Christian, and that’s the
evidence of being a Christian [or Messianic believer in Yeshua]. OK?
Closing
statement
Boy we’ve got
some good stuff coming up in Romans 6, 7 and 8, don’t miss it. If you missed the last few messages you’d
better go over and get them [i.e. the tapes from their tape library], and get
caught up, because this can change your life. Let’s stand up together. Oh,
someone’s flesh just went off, I heard a beep. Your watches are beeping. What
are they telling me? To shut up,
Mark. Well, I don’t have to obey that
anymore. [laughter] I’m under a new Master. If you would like to be a new person in
Christ, I’m not going to make a big emotional appeal, because it’s not an
emotional thing, it’s a real thing. It’s
not just emotions we’re talking about---Jesus Christ, [Yeshua haMeshiach] can
come into your life and change you radically, and give you power over your
life, change your life, change your marriage, because he changes you. He just doesn’t patch up outward problems,
he’s into making you different. And if
you want to accept Christ, if you want to make sure that when you die you’re
going to heaven, if you need what you’ve heard [or read here], then what I want
you to do, before you leave, I want you to go over here to the prayer
room. See, the sign over the door
“Prayer Room”? Just make your way over
there…[Sermon transcript of “Romans 6:6-22, THE FLESH” given by Pastor J. Mark
Martin, Calvary Community Church, P.O. Box 39607, Phoenix, Arizona 85069.]
[Should you wish to view a prayer
asking for Jesus, Yeshua to come into your life, go back to the previous few
sermons. One should be there at the end
of the transcript. editor]
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