Systematic Theology (part 41)

Heavenly Father, we pray this morning that You would bear us along by the

Holy Spirit who has inspired the book. We pray that You would reveal Yourself to us.

We pray that You would reveal to us more about who we are because we are in Christ.

We pray that You would encourage us with Your Word, convict us with Your Word, challenge us with Your Word, whatever.

We pray that the Holy Spirit would do His ministry in our hearts this morning even as we speak of the

Lord Jesus. It is in His name we pray that He may be glorified, that the church may be edified.

Amen. Okay. I ran across an interest that we have been,

I think we have three weeks including this week together still. So, as they say in Kentucky, the

Lord willing, and if the creek don't rise, or in New England, if the snow don't bury us, all right, we will have three more consecutive weeks together talking about progressive sanctification.

And it comes out of that question, okay, now I have believed, and we would say theologically, now

I am justified, now what? How do I proceed? I ran across an interesting illustration by S.

Lewis Johnson, and he said there are three kinds of dogs of sanctification.

He didn't put it exactly this way. Dr. Johnson is cooler than I am.

All right. But he said there is the one dog, you see people out walking their dogs, and there is the one dog that goes along, and he is always on the leash, always on the leash.

And if he would like to go, I have a dog similar to this, by the way, and if he wants to go somewhere, then he really can't go, because you got to keep him on the leash, and the dog always needs to be reminded of the leash.

And Dr. Johnson says this is the believer that is trying to be spiritual by keeping the law.

There is always the leash, and the dog is always pulling against the leash. Now, we have a little terrier, so you get it, you understand what that deal is about.

I think she would probably walk along with us and all that stuff, unless she saw a squirrel or a rabbit or the neighbor's chicken or whatever, and then

I am not sure what would happen at that point. So here is the dog that is always on the leash, the believer under law, and I will read to you again these things quickly by Dr.

Hart from Moody Bible Institute. Here are seven qualities, he says, of the believer under the law, trying to be sanctified by being on the leash, always having the law in mind, a greater stress on the outward expressions of what happens, the outward expressions of faith than on inner character, a focus on the negatives, the don't commands are very big, rather than the positives, let's do this, let's do that, let's love one another, let's build each other up, and so on.

A distinction between various kinds of sins, you know, there are big ones and little ones and in -between ones and all of that.

All of which, the little ones, the big ones, and the in -between ones are worthy of our death and an eternity in hell.

A conscious or unconscious neglect of the ministry of the Holy Spirit for daily Christian living.

Now, that's what we're going to talk about this morning. The sanctification carried on by the power of the

Holy Spirit, a spirit of exclusiveness and superiority, a self -righteousness, we are the guys that are on the leash, we always color inside the lines, we always are in the right place, and so on.

And we want the rest of you to know that. And that's probably what gave the spirit of factions that Paul talked about to the

Corinthians. I am of Apollos. Well, I am of Paul. Well, we are of Christ, you know, that thing.

A focus on steps or formulas for Christian living and spiritual victory, three steps to this, eight steps to that, 39 things you better do, and all of that sort of thing.

Whatever spiritual victory might look like. A greater stress on separation from sinners than on a compassion to reach them.

And well, you know about that. Christians that separate themselves from others because these guys, you know, they do things we don't do.

That's being on the leash and trying to be sanctified by keeping the law.

The I try harder program, I have called it. Then there's another dog that comes along.

Here's the guy walking his dog on the leash, the dog that is always in the right place and all of that. And another dog comes along and there's not a master, there's not a leash, there's not anything.

And this dog is just running, running wherever he wants. And he's thinking that this dog on the leash, boy, he ought to be like me.

Just do whatever you want, whenever you want. That would be until he runs out in the street and here comes a truck.

Okay? And then that dog that seems to be only under his own control.

That dog has a big problem and ends up under the truck.

And so Dr. Johnson says then there is the third option. And I happen to know about a guy and his dog like this from driving the school bus.

There's a street I go up in Paxton and there's always a guy there walking his golden retriever.

The golden retriever doesn't have a leash or anything else on him. I think that's against the law. But anyway, and so I waved to the guy and all of that and I stopped and talked to him a couple of times.

And this one day I drove up this street and here came the guy. So I stopped the bus and I opened my window and I said, okay, where's the dog?

And he said, oh, he's... And then just then the dog came running to the guy. And the deal is the dog that is always conscious of his master, not conscious of the rules, but conscious of his master, that dog, he may run around.

He may be over there in the woods. He may be over here. He may be there. But he always comes back to the master.

Okay? And so he has that freedom, but the freedom is always within the bounds of what his master does.

And Dr. Johnson says, that is the Christian who is being sanctified by the action of the indwelling

Holy Spirit. Well, we started out talking about confession and how we're going to proceed.

And so that doesn't mean you just do whatever you want. Okay? There are some things to do.

And the principal thing that I've been emphasizing here is that we are rehearsing the great truths of the faith, what the

New Testament calls confession of those things. That has brought us to Romans chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8.

And so I'm at chapter 8 this morning, but I'm going to go to Galatians in a minute.

And we'll talk about that. Then I'm going to start reading in verse 5. In verses 1 through 4,

Paul has established why we have freedom in Christ. No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

All the righteous requirements of the law met in Christ and imputed to us for Christ's sake, that Father always sees us through Christ.

All of that he has talked about in chapter 8, verses 1 through 4.

Now we get to verse 5. And I'll read from there down to 17.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the

Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind... Get this mindset thing.

We've talked about that. For to set the mind on the flesh is death. People outside of Christ have their minds set on the flesh.

We'll talk about flesh and what that's all about in a moment. But to set the mind on the

Spirit is life and peace. Believers set their minds on the Spirit. Set their minds by the

Spirit. And that is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.

It does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. This is a description of unbelieving people.

It is hostile to the law. Cannot submit to the law. And cannot.

Is not able to do that. This is why when people are saved the Holy Spirit has to move in and grant them...

I know the discussion here, okay? And grant them life that they believe.

All of that happens very simultaneously most of the time, I think. But that's why it has to happen.

Because the mind set on the flesh cannot submit to God's law. Those who are in the flesh cannot please

God. Now, back in chapter 7, you'll recall, 100 years ago when we were together before the big snow storms and all that stuff, you'll recall back in chapter 7 where Paul is describing his struggle with the flesh that he says,

I am of flesh. There's a big difference between I am of flesh and those that are in the flesh cannot please

God. Believers are in Christ. And that means that we are...

I think the word subsumed would be good. If you don't know that, you look it up later, okay? We are involved.

We are totally in Christ. Well, you can't be in Christ and in the flesh at the same time.

Now, you can be of flesh and in Christ, and that's how all of us are.

We are of flesh, but we are in Christ. His experience in heaven's estimation has become our experience.

His sinless life has become our sinless life. His death has become our death.

His burial, His resurrection, all of that heaven sees as ours now. You, however...

He's talking to the Roman believers. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. You believers are not in the flesh but in the

Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, we've talked about ifs. There's the iffy if.

There's the I think this is probably going to happen if, and then there's the if that says this just is how it is, okay?

And that's the if here. Now, translators would say, don't translate that since. There's a reason for that, but I'm going to do it since they're not here, okay?

So I'm going to say it this way. Since in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.

So he makes that assumption about those Roman believers. Anyone who does not have the

Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. If we are in Christ, the

Spirit is in us. We're going to talk about that. But since Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the

Spirit is life because of righteousness. And you remember last time we were together we corrected the

ESV, okay? It's not the capital S Spirit is life because of righteousness because the discussion is about the believer, his dead body.

We're all going to die, okay, physically if the Lord doesn't come. But his living spirit, which has been given life by the imputed, counted, credited righteousness of Christ.

And I told you that Dr. Johnson and I agree on that, which validates what a great expositor he is.

Okay. Since the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, got it?

That's that if again. Since the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised

Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his

Spirit who dwells in you. It's been repeated several times now, the

Spirit dwells in you. And I like to put it this way. I don't like to say

I am indwelt by the Holy Spirit because of our culture. Our culture is very, you know what

I mean? Okay. I like to say that we believers are indwelt by God, the

Holy Spirit. And by Christ, it's Christ in you, the hope of glory.

It's not just by something that sweeps over the population and makes them kind of spiritual and it can be taken that way by people in our culture.

So I would say that he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through God, the

Holy Spirit, his Spirit who dwells in you. Verse 12, So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. We're going to have to look at that. But since by the

Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Now, if you're sitting there this morning and you're thinking to yourself, as I think to myself from time to time,

I have put to death the deeds of the body. Now, that's a present tense verb.

We've done the little Greek lesson here, right? The present tense verb, okay, which means you are putting to death the deeds of the body.

That's happening to you. And there are times for all of us where we go, that's happening to me?

It doesn't seem like that's happening to me because I get caught in all kinds of things. And that puts us back at Romans chapter 7,

Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our

Lord. I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh

I serve the law of sin. That's where we all are. And that will not change until we are in the presence of the

Lord. When we see Him, John says, we shall be as He is. That will not change until we get those resurrection bodies, until the resurrection of all believers.

At that point, we will no longer be in conflict. But until that point, we are always in conflict between our flesh and the

Spirit who is moving us always toward God. But here's the thing to note. The thing to note is that God the

Spirit who indwells us is always moving us toward God. Whether I feel like it, whether it seems like it, whether my circumstances say that, these are assertions of how it is.

Since by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Believer, says Paul to the Romans. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

I think part of the problem that exists with assertions like this is that people say, well, how do I know I'm led by the

Spirit of God? Okay? I think part of it is the atmosphere in which we find ourselves, which includes our

Arminian brethren and our Charismatic brethren who say, if you're really led by the

Spirit of God, it will not just be off you go to work and here you go and that's that.

There's no leading of the Spirit in that. The only way you could tell if you're really led by the Spirit of God is if God speaks to you.

You know, there's a whole movement now of prophets and apostles growing up, calling themselves evangelicals, and they have a word from God for you.

I've been in a service or two like that myself, and I always say to those friends that come, and I believe they're believers.

I think they're not adequately taught the Scriptures, but I think they're believers. They say,

I have a word for you. Oh, this lady has the gift of prophecy. Okay. Just a minute.

Let me get my pen. I want to write this down in the back of my Bible. This comes from the Lord, right? Yeah, well, let me write it down.

I'll write it down right after the book of Revelation. Well, now, wait a minute. It's not.

Oh, I see. This is a second -class revelation from the Lord, something that I don't really need to pay attention to like I need to pay attention to the rest of the book.

And so we live in that kind of atmosphere where it's kind of pushed on us that if you're really led of the

Lord, the experience is going to be unusual. Now, watch this. And the experience will be an experience that you define as being led of the

Lord. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says God, the Holy Spirit, indwells every believer.

The Bible says that every believer indwelled by God, the Holy Spirit, is led by the

Spirit of God. That is a signal that we are sons of God. We'll come back and talk about, well, how can

I know if I'm led by the Spirit of God? Well, here's one way you can know. I am led by the

Spirit of God because I'm a believer. God, the Holy Spirit, indwells every believer.

I am led by the Spirit of God. This I know, for the

Bible tells me so. All right? Not my experience, not my definition, the

Bible tells me so. You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.

It's a fearful thing if you are wondering all the time whether you're being led by the Spirit of God. And this gives rise to this whole thing about, well, there's the carnal

Christians and then there's the other spiritual Christians. The carnal Christians need to sit up here in the first three rows.

And the spiritual Christians can sit further toward the back because they're doing okay, you know.

It's a fearful thing to always be wondering as you measure yourself by yourself.

You remember Paul said to the Corinthians, it's unwise to measure yourselves by yourselves.

We measure ourselves by the Scriptures. Regardless of what our experience may be from moment to moment, you have received the

Spirit, the Holy Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry,

Abba, Father. And that's a whole discussion in itself. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children or since children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

I've got a thing here. I scribbled down some notes in handwriting. Okay, suffer with Him.

What does that mean? Okay, are we suffering with Him? Compared to a lot of brothers and sisters this morning in the world, this is pretty cushy here at Bethlehem Bible Church.

But you know what? You are suffering with Him. This I know for the

Bible tells me so. You say, well, how am I suffering with Him? Well, if we get there, we'll talk about that.

All right. I happen to be over at Galatians chapter 5. I was particularly interested at the time in verse 24.

It says, Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

That's parallel to what we read here in Romans chapter 8. You are putting to death the deeds of the body you will live.

But the grammar is a little different, and I want to talk about that today. But I want to go back to verse 16 of Galatians chapter 5.

As I was reading this passage, these ten verses, I kept thinking to myself, man, oh man, you can just hear the echoes of Romans 6, 7, and 8 in this thing.

No, no, no, no. It's quite the other way around. Galatians was written before Romans.

When I get over to Romans 6, 7, and 8, I hear, I see the expansion of what

Paul has said here to the Galatians. Now remember, the Galatians were those people, those believers in that church that were attempting to be sanctified, attempting to look like Christ, attempting to be like Christ by their own effort.

You know, if you want to be really spiritual, you've got to keep the dietary laws, you've got to be circumcised, you've got to this, that, and the other thing.

If you want to be really spiritual, if you want to sit up here in the first three rows, well then forget all of that.

Now these people were Gentiles, these Galatians. All right? And so,

Paul blurts out to them quite tellingly, oh foolish

Galatians, who has bewitched you? Having begun by the... That's back at chapter 3, you don't have to turn there.

Having begun by the Spirit, are you now going to continue in the flesh?

Are you now going to continue by your own self -effort to look like Jesus? And the answer to that is no.

You're not going to do that. Well, when we get over to chapter 5, I read this. But I say, walk by the

Spirit. That's a present tense verb and it's an imperative. That means do this.

Walk by the Spirit. Okay. God the Holy Spirit dwells in me.

So Paul said, and he dwelled in these Galatians. And before he ever got to the

Romans, Paul was saying to them, you walk along, you conduct your life by the

Spirit. As opposed to, oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Are you going to continue in the flesh?

No, walk by the Spirit. And you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Now we get to the verb tense that we have trouble with in English. Aorist.

It's an aorist. It is a summary. Okay. But more than that, the mood of this verb is subjunctive.

That means you probably will not gratify the desires of the flesh. This is not a statement of, it is guaranteed that you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

And Paul is going to amplify this in Romans chapter 7. There is going to be the struggle between the flesh and the

Spirit. And Paul says, if you walk by the Spirit, Galatians, you likely are not going to gratify the desires of the flesh.

And I guess implied in there is a, but you might, because you're in a struggle.

There is the conflict that goes on and on and on. For the desires of the flesh are against the

Spirit. He's going to say that to the Romans. And the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.

For these are opposed to each other. To keep you from doing the things you want.

Translates the ESV. Literally, it is to keep you from doing the things.

And in the text, it's if you might wish to do. You say, well, that doesn't even sound good in English when you put it that way.

No, it doesn't. That's why the ESV translators didn't do that. But, it draws attention to the little if.

If you might wish to do. And that if is a little different if.

That if is the possibly, the iffy if, the maybe. Okay? The flesh and the

Spirit are against each other to keep you from doing the things that you possibly might wish to do.

Alright? But, if, and now it changes. Actually, the words actually change.

Most of the time, in this if thing, it's the context that governs. But here the words, the little particles actually change.

Okay? And this is the factual if. But since, and I translate since because those translators are not here.

Alright? But since you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Now Paul said that back in Romans chapter 8. And in chapter 7, the beginning of chapter 7.

You're not under the law. Why? Because you are led by the Spirit. Since you are led by the

Spirit, you're not under the law. Then he talks about the works of the flesh. The works of the flesh are evident.

They're obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

And we look at that list, and we go, well, you know, you can pick out. Now here we get like the dog on the leash.

Now, some of these are really biggies. And I'm not, I don't get involved in that. But then there's some others that, you know, fits of anger, envy, yeah.

Some of the, oh yeah, that's me. Okay, that's my flesh. Those are the works of the flesh.

And that flesh is always pulling us away, moving us from our desire.

Now watch that desire. It is asserted in the Scriptures that we desire to walk with Christ, to be like Christ, to look like Christ.

But always there is this flesh pulling the other way. And we often are overtaken by it in our behavior.

Nevertheless, we are in Christ, His sinless life, His death,

His burial, His resurrection. That's how heaven sees us. That's why to the Ephesians, you are seated in the heavenlies.

So, Christians, don't be looking up, be looking down. All right. But the fruit of the

Spirit, what comes out of the Spirit, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control.

Against such things, there is no law. You're not under the law. And the Spirit is going to produce those things.

Now, not all at the same time, not all at the same rate in every believer.

But those things will come out of us because we are indwelt by God, the

Holy Spirit, who produces in us His fruit. His fruit, not our fruit.

And then He gets to this. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

And I say, I have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires?

The Galatians had crucified the flesh with its passions and desires? No, they hadn't.

No, they hadn't because they were attempting to live in the flesh. That's what Paul's writing the whole letter about.

Okay. But here he just makes this statement. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Now, let me go at this tense of this have crucified.

We translate that as a past tense in English. Why? Because it's one of those aorists.

All right. So let's suppose that it were a present tense, a present tense verb.

But it's not. Okay. If it were a present tense verb, we would be thinking like this.

If we were the people that got this letter, we would be thinking, you are crucifying always, you are crucifying always as a continuing process, something that goes on.

We don't know the beginning and we don't know the end, but it's always going on, crucifying the flesh.

There is a little saying that runs around evangelicalism that I think is suspect, and it is this.

In order to walk with the Lord, in order to look like Jesus, in order to grow in Christ, you must drop dead daily.

I don't think that's what that says. Drop dead daily means I am always re -crucifying the flesh.

That's how I try to start out in the morning. That's how I try to keep it up in the day. It's always a process that goes on.

And you know what happens to processes that I'm responsible for, don't you? Big trouble.

Big trouble. All right. Let's suppose that it were a perfect verb, not an aorist.

Okay. That would mean that the results, that this is something that was done in the past, and the results carry on right into the future.

Okay. There are present results. Well, the present results ought to be, if that is complete in the past, if the flesh is crucified and it is done in the past and the results carry on into the future, that would mean that I no longer have the struggle with sin.

But I do have the struggle with sin. For an imperfect verb, that just means someplace back down the road, going on all the time, there was the crucifixion of my flesh.

If it was a future thing, it would mean my flesh isn't crucified. It's going to happen maybe sometime in the future, but it's a happen maybe, and it hasn't been done.

No, it's an aorist. Now, an aorist, that aorist verb, it can be a summary.

This happened. Okay. We drove to church. All right. Notice I can't say that in English.

I can't say that in English without looking at it as a past. We drove to church. And you guys all think, oh, they drove to church, and that was before 9 o 'clock when

Sunday school started, so that was in the past. Okay. No, it's not anything. Just we drove to church.

All right. The other thing that some have said, don't want to press this too far, is that when it's an aorist, sometimes it means there's a once, one shot, one time deal that happened when it happened.

So if we ask ourselves, well, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, if that's an aorist and it is a one, and if it were a one -time deal, when did that happen?

All right. And it's an active voice. That means you did it.

And I want to just suggest this to you. If we turn back to Romans chapter 6, where the amplification of this passage in Galatians, which is part of that amplifications,

I read this down at verse 6, don't I? We know that our old man, our old self,

ESV says, our old man was crucified with him in order that the body of sin, the same body of sin that Paul blurts out in Romans chapter 7, who will deliver me from this body of sin, okay, in order that the body of sin might be,

I'm going to use the NIV translation here, rendered powerless. So here's what we have, folks, when we talk about our flesh.

What we have is crucified flesh. We all have it. It is crucified. 6 .6

of Romans, well, let's go back to 6 .3, do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death?

In other words, we were crucified with Christ. You can go over to Colossians, I am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live. I am crucified with Christ. I who? I, old man, am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I, I who? I, the new creation in Christ, live. And the life

I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. And for those of you that say, you just said in the flesh, okay, now

I get it, but it's a context thing. And the life I live, being of the flesh, all right,

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. So what's the deal with this crucified flesh?

Well, here's the deal. I may have mentioned this kind of as a bank shot in one of these other sessions that we did, being just past 30.

And somebody, somebody wrote to me, Facebook has, has misrepresented your age by 20 years.

I thought, that's great. I think that's probably right. Okay. But just in case that's not right, you've got to remember, it's hard for old guys to remember what they said last time.

All right. What's the deal with this crucified flesh?

When Jesus was crucified, they came along to break the legs of all of those who were being crucified so that they could all be down from the cross because it was the day of preparation.

When they came to Jesus, what did they find? They found that He was already dead. But either side of Him were two revolutionaries who had been cursing and swearing, get us down off the cross if you can, and so on.

And they were more typical of those who are crucified. People that were crucified could hang on for a week or more, still alive, still nailed to the cross.

Okay. Now that's these two guys on either side of Jesus. One of them, right up until they broke his legs, which would lower him so that he suffocated, all right, until they broke his legs, he was cursing and swearing and challenging

Jesus to get us off of this cross. If you really are who you say you are, you get yourself and get us off of these crosses.

All right. Finally, the guy on the other side, he came to his senses, and what did he say?

Remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus' response, this day you'll be with me in paradise.

Okay. But we still have this other guy over here, nailed to the cross.

Now when Paul writes to the Galatians and to the Romans, you have crucified flesh.

We all have crucified flesh. The problem with crucified flesh is that it keeps wiggling.

It's not dead. It keeps screaming to be gratified.

It keeps screaming passionately to be gratified, and we are dealing with that all the time.

But when I came to Christ, and when I trusted Christ to be Savior, and we do that, you say, wait a minute now, we have to do the whole discussion about what precedes faith, all of that.

No, I'm not talking about that, because you do respond. When the Holy Spirit regenerates you, and you place your faith in Christ, you do receive

Christ. But as many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, who were born not of the flesh, but of God.

Okay. So there is a response there. And when we came to Christ, however you parse it out, we can all do that later in the seminary, however you parse it out, when you came to Christ, the old man was crucified, because we were crucified with Christ.

So Paul writes to the Galatians, you have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

But it still wiggles. It still screams out for gratification.

But it is, in the words of the NIV translation, it is rendered powerless.

Why? It is rendered powerless, because it is nailed to a cross.

Now that gives us some thought about the words of Jesus, who says, take up your cross and follow

Me. Now a lot of times people think, oh yes, take up your cross, that's my brother -in -law.

Yeah, my brother -in -law, he's my cross to bear. Or I'm not getting into the, well, my mother -in -law is home with the

Lord, and she was a great lady, so I'm not going there. Alright. Or it's my boss, he's my cross to bear.

Or it's the guy at work that always, I'll use a farm analogy here, he's always falling into the manure pile, but he keeps coming out smelling like a rose.

Okay. And that's my cross to bear, because that never happens to me. Okay. I don't think that's where it's going.

You take up your cross and follow Me. I think we're talking about being crucified with Christ.

I think we're talking about an old man that is crucified. I think we're talking about flesh that is crucified.

There is a cross in the Christian life, and it's not your brother -in -law. It is that cross where you were crucified with Christ, and where the old man was crucified to be rendered powerless.

So then he ends up with this by saying, if, that's a since, we live by the

Spirit. You say, are you ever going to talk about confession again? Yes, I am. Today I live by the

Spirit. Okay. That's a confession of fact. Since we live by the

Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited. Oh, I've been circumcised.

Oh, I keep the dietary laws. Oh, I get to sit in the back because I'm a spiritual superman.

Oh, you carnal people, you sit up here in the first three rows. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another.

Is there ever anything more provoking than that kind of thing? I mean, you think back to the story of Joseph.

Joseph comes down to breakfast. Here are the brothers all sitting. Hey, guys, I had a dream last night. Oh, yeah?

And my dream was that you guys all bowed down to me. Oh, good.

That makes breakfast a happy time. Okay. Can't wait for another one of those.

How about you just stop dreaming at night and let us alone? And then he comes again, doesn't he?

And he said, well, there were the stars. You guys bowed down to me.

Well, you know how that ended, don't you? They wanted to kill him. Paul says, for walking by the

Spirit, we live by the Spirit. Let's keep in step with the Spirit. Let's not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Okay? Envying one another is the 10th commandment. Okay? Isn't it?

Do not covet what others have or what others are.

But we won't do that. You know why we won't do that? Because we live by the

Spirit. We are living by the Spirit. So I don't feel like I'm living by the

Spirit. I'm here to plead with you to forget how you feel and to get our noses in the book and measure what we are by what the book has to say about us.

And you know what it says? It says we live by the Spirit. It says we have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Okay? And I think we need to rehearse. I have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

When did that happen? When I was crucified with Christ. The body of sin was crucified and rendered powerless.

Paul is going to go on there. He says in Romans 8, so we're not debtors to the flesh.

We don't have to do that. You say, well, but I want to do that. That's that crucified flesh wiggling over here on the cross.

But you don't have to do that. It is rendered powerless. Sometimes I do.

Okay. But you are still seated in the heavenlies. You are still crucified with Christ.

You are still buried with Christ. You are still going to be risen with Christ in a resurrection like His.

That's where we need to move. That's what we need to be moving off of. Not how we feel.

Not how we're doing. This sitting in the corner and contemplating our navel spiritually is no good.

We need to be contemplating the Word which talks about who He is and who we are in Him.

Let's pray. Thank You, Father, for Your Word. Thank You that it declares to us who

You are, what You have done in Jesus for us. We pray that we would come to love that.

We pray that we would come to love it as we rehearse it, as it becomes our confession of our daily lives, regardless of how we feel, regardless of what others are doing, regardless of what's happening around us, we nevertheless are in Jesus.

And God the Holy Spirit dwells in us. God the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are

His child. And so we pray that we would go away this morning rejoicing in that, but not just rejoicing in it because we've heard it again, rejoicing in it all week because we are confessing it, we are rehearsing it again for ourselves.