"THE
FLESH"
Romans
6:6-22
(part 2)
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
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."
You're 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 flesh used the body for idolatry, verse 20, 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 it 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 it brings me to my next point.
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 "choser". You learn how to use your "choser." 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 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.
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 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 chose your own master?
You can chose 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 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 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?
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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