Do the Will of God From the Heart - Part 1 — Phil Beach Jr.

For Your Word, thank You for Your Presence, thank You for the Holy Spirit. Thank You for Your wonderful grace this morning that is abundant in our midst. Thank You, Lord, for the testimonies and everyone's contribution, the songs.

And thank You, Lord, for the clarity of Your heart that we have been hearing this morning. And now as we go into the Word of God, this same theme and testimony will again be presented to us. I ask, Lord, that the Holy Spirit would take the Word of God and challenge our hearts this morning.

That the Word of God would be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. That the Word of God would be clear and living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. And that the Word of God will be forever settled in our hearts this morning.

And that we would hear You speak to us through the Word. And that in hearing, Lord, we would obey and our lives would be changed. We ask, Father, in Jesus' mighty name, Amen and Amen. In Hebrews chapter 5,.

Hebrews chapter 5. My easel broke this morning. So, I'm most likely not going to use the blackboard as freely as I generally like to do. So, we'll do the best that we can and believe that God will speak to us through His Word.

Today, we're going to look at a number of Scriptures. And I'm asking that we would be very, very alert to hear God's Word to our hearts this morning. Because this is a very important issue that we're going to deal with this morning.

A very important issue. Each and every one of us are deeply affected by the truth of God's Word this morning. And so may I encourage us to pay special attention today to God's Word and may it find a place in our hearts as it is so necessary.

Hebrews 5, beginning in verse 5,. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made a high priest. But He that said unto Him, You are My Son, today have I begotten You. And He said also in another place, You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death and was hurt and that He feared.

Though He were a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto them that obey Him. Called of God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing.

For when the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat.

For everyone that is using, or a better translation would be, for everyone that is continuously using, continuously using milk, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. Unskilled in the word of righteousness.

For he is a babe, nephos, which is infant, unable to discern between right and wrong. Okay? Unable to discern between right and wrong. But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even to those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

The writer of this book wanted to discuss the things that pertained to the Melchizedek ministry to the readers. The Melchizedek ministry was a story in the Old Testament, Genesis, where Abraham, after he won a great battle, he paid tithes to a man called Melchizedek.

And according to the Scripture, this Melchizedek had no beginning of days, no end of life, no mother, no father. He was like to the Son of Man. Melchizedek, listen, Melchizedek was an altogether heavenly ministry.

Melchizedek represented a ministry on earth, listen carefully, a ministry on earth that was altogether heavenly. It was on earth, but this ministry was not about earth. Melchizedek represented on earth the eternal interests of God.

Melchizedek represented in a society of fleeting pleasures, the lasting will of God. And so to reduce it down to its simplest form, Melchizedek was the heavenly representation of God's will on earth. The heavenly representation of God's will on earth.

When we study Melchizedek, we don't touch anything earthly. We don't touch anything carnal. We don't touch anything that has to do with man's fleeting desires and passions. When we touch Melchizedek in the Scripture, we touch a man representing and mediating between man and God, of God's eternal will.

In Melchizedek, we see a man in whom the will of God alone is what mattered. Now, the writer said that he had many more things to tell these readers about this Melchizedek ministry. Verse 11, "...of whom are many things to say.".

God wanted many more things to be said about this man on earth who was altogether heavenly. He had many more things to say about this man on earth whose only interest was the will of God. He had many more things to say about this man on earth who mediated, who was standing between heaven and earth and representing God's interests on earth and bringing the affairs of man to God.

This priesthood. Many more things to say. He said, but I can't. Here's what he said, "...they're hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing.". Dull of hearing. Now, I'd like you to turn, if you would please, to Proverbs 4, verse 23.

And Proverbs 4, verse 23 shows us a scripture revealing why the believers that the writer of Hebrews was writing to were dull of hearing. Proverbs 4. Actually, the entire chapter is wonderful, but we won't read it all.

Let's begin with verse 20. My son, attend to my words. Incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart, for they are life unto those that find them and health to all their flesh.

Now, verse 23. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. I would like to suggest and prove from scripture that the reason why the readers of the epistle of Hebrews were dull of hearing and that it was hard to utter a further understanding, a deeper understanding of this Melchizedek ministry was because they failed to keep their hearts, as the scripture says in verse number 23.

Now, look for a moment at this scripture, Proverbs 4, verse number 23. We're going to take it apart. And then after taking it apart, we're going to see what it means to keep one's heart. Okay? First of all, when it says, keep thy heart, the word heart is a word used hundreds of times in the Old Testament.

And it essentially means the seat of the immaterial being. The seat of the immaterial part of our being. There's the material or physical and then the immaterial. It's the seat of that part. The center of all the inner components of the immaterial being.

The center of all the immaterial components. And so everything that is made up, everything that we are made up of inwardly, in our immaterial being, at the center of that is the heart. The center. So it would be proper to say that all of the different aspects of our immaterial being.

You know the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 5, verse number 23, Paul prayed that our entire spirit, soul, and body would be preserved blameless until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so according to Paul's theology, the immaterial, that is the invisible part of our being that can't be seen with the physical senses, is made up of spirit and soul.

And so all the different aspects of spirit, which is our conscience, worship, and intuition, that's our spirit, worship, conscience, and intuition, and then the soul is made up of mind, will, and emotion.

According to the definition of heart, it's the center of all the inner components. And so our heart is the center of all these inner components. So all of these inner components are interrelated in the heart as the center of our being.

Thank you. There we go. So the heart, they're all interrelated. They all are interrelated. And the heart sort of connects them all and is the center of activity of all of these different areas of our inner being.

And so that's why the Bible says, keep your heart. Now the word keep is to guard, and it refers to people's maintaining, guarding and protecting things that were entrusted to them. The word keep essentially refers to the trust, the trust that has been given to us to keep and guard something that has been entrusted to us.

Listen brothers and sisters, more than anything else, the greatest trust that you and I have been given by God is the gift of a heart. We are very conscious in this world that we live in of our material trusts.

And some people go through great measures to guard and protect their material trust, don't they? We put locks on our doors because we don't want someone to break into our home. Some people buy cars and they're very, very, very careful to protect that car from the elements.

And they put it to bed every night in their garage. And they make sure it's clean once a week. Other people buy clothes and they have special value on clothes and they take care of those clothes. Some people have shoes and they're so careful with their shoes every time they wear them they take them off and put them back in the box and they put little foothorns inside to keep the shape.

They feel responsible for protecting and keeping the trust. But God's word is telling us this morning that we are to keep our hearts. Guard your heart. Guard your heart. Do you go day by day, night by night, week by week, month by month aware that your heart must be guarded?

Are you taking the proper measures to guard your heart? We'll show you in a little while what those measures are. They're not complicated. It's not some mystical, deep thing. Very, very simple. And we'll show you the consequences of neglecting to keep your heart.

The consequences are that of the Hebrews. We become dull of hearing and God cannot utter His heart, the depths of His heart, because we're dull of hearing. We become blind, carnal, unable to receive the depths of His heart.

So the Bible says to keep our heart. Now the scripture says, with all diligence, so not only is the heart a great trust that we've been given, a great gift, and not only are we to keep it, to guard it, but we are to do it diligently.

The word diligent comes from the condition of being guarded, alert and in complete control. The illustration is used in scripture to describe a prison guard. We are to possess diligence in guarding our heart the way a prison guard has diligence in that he is always ready, ever watching carefully.

Always ready, ever watching carefully. A prison guard. Several weeks ago, I saw a documentary on TV regarding the correction officers who work in the very dangerous, high-level risk prisons. These men and women are unbelievable people.

And they do not get exceptional salaries compared with other law enforcement positions. So it's not as if the money was their motive. These people are at perhaps greater risk than law enforcement officers who work in the cities.

And they interviewed a number of these officers, these guards, and they all agreed that in these high-risk correction facilities and prisons and penitentiaries, you can never put your guard down for a second because the prisoners are always plotting, always plotting ways to try and break out and overthrow the system.

And so they have to constantly, constantly be alert, expect the unexpected, and take precautions every day in order that they're conducting themselves in a most cautious manner. This is the idea. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.

Now this is a remarkable understanding. The issues of life. The word issues of life is a word that literally is used in the scriptures as the exits to cities. The exits to cities. Or from cities. Out of it, keep your heart, guard it with all diligence, because out of it exits what's in it.

And when that which is in the heart exits it, it comes out in what? What did we learn last week? It comes out in words. And words ultimately produce actions and deeds. Words actually define the very purpose and passion and center of our heart.

Jesus said, out of the heart, out of the heart proceeds all kinds of wicked things, if unguarded. And so, what have we learned thus far? God had a man in the Old Testament. His name was Melchizedek. He was altogether heavenly.

He was a man in whom there was no desire but to know and do the will of God. Period. End of discussion. Non-negotiable. This man, Melchizedek, pictured the coming Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. This writer of Hebrews had many more things to say about this Melchizedek, but he couldn't utter them because his hearers were dull of hearing.

They couldn't hear. They couldn't apprehend. They couldn't receive. And it was because they were babes, they were unskilled in the word of righteousness, and they were constantly drinking milk. They were failing to guard their heart.

Now, let's look and see why it is so important to guard our heart. Matthew 12, beginning in verse 46. Guard your heart. Guard your heart with all diligence. Guard your heart with all diligence because out of it flows the issues of life.

Or out of it, things exit. Guard your heart because there's places of exit from your heart. And what comes out of your heart is ultimately going to begin to affect your will. And your will will become your action and your behavior and the thing that governs the purpose of your existence.

Out of your heart, things are exiting all the time. All the time. Every day, night and day, things are exiting out of our hearts. And those who fail to guard their heart and keep their heart with diligence become governed by their will because ultimately every one of us is doing exactly what we want to do.

We're doing what we want to do. We're being governed by our will. But our will is being fed by two sources. Two sources. It's being fueled by two sources. And both of the sources are coming out of our heart.

Now, we'll stop there. We'll go back to the Scriptures. Begin to build a little bit and then we'll come back and fill this in. And hopefully, within a short time, we're going to discover what God's thought is in guarding our heart and many of us will perhaps see how we have neglected this.

We've neglected to guard our heart. But God will correct us this morning if we're willing to receive His correction in a whole new direction. And this coincides with what Colette was saying in her testimony in Matt's beautiful prayer.

What's my purpose? Why am I here? What am I doing? We're going to see that. Matthew chapter 12, beginning in verse number 46. And he yet talked to the people. Behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.

Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with you. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hands toward who?

His disciples. And said, Behold, my mother and my brethren. Verse 50. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, my mother, and my sister. Mark 3 .35. The same story.

Verse 34 of Mark 3. And he looked around on them, which sat about him, and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother and my sister and my mother.

Matthew 26. Matthew 26, beginning in verse 36. Matthew 26 .36. Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter, the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.

Then said he unto them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death. Tear ye and watch. And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying, watch this, O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. John 4 .34. John 4 .34. Jesus said to them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish it. John 5 .30. 5 .30. I can of my own self do nothing.

As I hear, I judge. And my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which is in heaven. John 6 .38. John 6 .38. For I am come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me.

Romans 12 .2. Romans 12 .2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you might prove and test and know what is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God.

So we can see by this list of Scriptures, it's not exhaustive, but it is clear by these Scriptures that Jesus Christ existed, not for Himself, but truly as the heavenly Melchizedek. He came to do the will of His Father.

He wasn't interested in any other will. He wasn't interested even in His own holy will. Father, if it's possible, I want this cup to pass from Me. That was a holy will. There was no sin in Jesus. But nevertheless, not My will, so the holy, sinless will of Jesus Christ was subject to the will of His Father in Heaven.

Nevertheless, not My will, but Thy will be done. The will of God is supreme. Our will must be aligned to God's will. Our desires must not be the source out from which we live. Because our desires are not always and quite frequently not God's will.

We live in a generation that doesn't know the Lord and for the most part, Christendom, where the frame of reference, the spring of their life, the thing that they follow to determine what they're going to do and what they're not going to do is what they feel like doing.

I don't feel like praying, so I'm not going to pray. I don't feel like giving, so I'm not going to give. I don't feel like reading my Bible, so I'm not going to do it. I'm free. This is Christian liberty.

Hogwash. Hogwash. That's not true. It's not about what I feel. It's about the will of God. It's about doing the will of God. Now, I want to bring you to another Scripture and then we're going to fill this in and then that will be our conclusion.

The purpose of this message this morning is to alert us to the dangers of aligning ourselves and actually living day by day out of the springs of our desires and not out of knowing and doing the will of God.

Sometimes today, some Christians and some Christian teachers are actually pointing the church to their desires. Just do what's in your heart. How dangerous that is. Jesus said, the heart is full of what?

Wickedness and deceit. Jeremiah said, what is the heart? Deceitful. Who can know it? And even a redeemed heart indwelt by the Holy Spirit is not a perfect heart. It's not a reliable heart. You can't trust in that heart.

God commands us to trust in Him and His Word, not in our hearts. And so, I submit from the Word of God that there's an entire generation of people, Christians and non-Christians, who are growing in their desire to be in touch with their heart, with their desires.

And they're equating that with the will of God. And that becomes the spring out from which they act, they move, they plan, they behave. That becomes the governing factor that determines their prayer life, their spiritual disciplines.

It's what I feel and what I don't feel. And I submit that that is leading us down a road of destruction. And it's not scriptural. It's not scriptural. Philippians 2, verse number 12. This follows the great unveiling of how Jesus Christ emptied Himself from divine privilege and prerogative and became a man.

Then He went lower. He went lower and became a servant. Then He went lower and humbled Himself and became obedient to the death of the cross. And because of that, God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name.

That literally means gave Him a name that is the highest name. And now watch what it says here. Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence also, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God that is working in you. Now He's writing this to Christians. And it's God who is working in us. If the Holy Spirit lives in us, if we belong to Christ, then the Spirit of God is in us.

And if the Spirit of God is in us, then He is working, energizing, moving in us to accomplish two things. He is working in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And so the Holy Spirit's purpose in this context is to work in us the will to do what is pleasing in God's eyes or the will of God.

The Holy Spirit's job, the Holy Spirit's mission is to enlighten and energize and enable the believer to know and do the will of God. So one of the signs, one of the chief signs of having the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Holy Spirit continuously is an insatiable desire to know the will of God and to do it.

What is God's will? Consequently, when there is a preoccupation with my desires, what I want to do, what I don't want to do, it is evidence that we have become dull of hearing, that we have become as the readers of the letter to the Hebrews, that we've lost touch with the heartbeat and passion of God for His people, which is that they might know and do the will of God.

So, the heart, the center of all the activity of the inner life, keep it, guard it, because out of it flows that which will ultimately affect the will, which will ultimately determine our behavior and our purpose and our actions.

So, on the one side, the Holy Spirit dwells in us. The Holy Spirit. He is working in us, according to Philippians 2, verses what? 12 and 13? 12 and 13, He is working in us, He is working in us the desire and the capacity and the strength to know the will of God and to do the will of God.

So, the Holy Spirit in us is working toward that. Number two, not only is the Holy Spirit doing that, but also we find in Colossians, let's turn to it, Colossians chapter 3, verse 16, 3 .16, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Okay, now in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 3, 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 14, but continue thou, 2 Timothy 3, verse 14, continue in the things which you have learned, that's the Word of God, they learned the Word of God, and has been assured of, knowing of them thou hast learned them, and from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

Watch this, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in what? In righteousness. Now what were the Hebrew Christians failing to do because they were babes?

What does it say? Hebrews chapter 5, verse 13, for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in what? Huh? The Word of Righteousness. They're unskillful in the Word of Righteousness. And so that means that even though the Holy Spirit may dwell in their heart, what is not dwelling in their heart?

The Word of Righteousness. The Word of God, which is profitable and useful for doctrine, instruction, reproof, correction. Verse 17, that the man of God may be perfect, completely qualified, and prepared.

Remember what it's all about. It's all about what? The will of God. It's all about the will of God. How are we going to know the will of God? How are we going to know what God's will is? How are we going to live for the will of God?

How are we going to live? How is our life going to exist for the will of God? How are we going to will the will of God and do the will of God? Through the Holy Spirit's power working within us. Philippians chapter 2, verse number 12 and 13, and by the Word of God richly dwelling in us, which is the Word of Righteousness, which is what enables the heart to know what God's will is.

It enables the heart to know what God's will is. So, here we have the Holy Spirit and the will of God, the Word of God, which is the Word of Righteousness. Now, when the Word of God and the Holy Spirit are in our heart, then it is exiting.

It's coming out of our hearts and it is coming out and it's coming into the stream of our will. And therefore, our will, our action, our behavior and our purpose is connected to doing and knowing the will of God.

That's what we have decided we're going to do. It has nothing to do with what we feel, what our desires might be today and what our desires might not be tomorrow. Just take, for example, the marriage vow.

What is the marriage vow? For good, for bad, health, sickness, wealth, poverty, till death do us part. Does it say? Unless, of course, you wake up one morning and don't feel like being married anymore.

Is it about feelings, Norman? Is commitment to one another about feelings? It's not. And the reason why there's such a disastrous divorce rate in the country today is because of... Why? Feelings. I don't feel, I don't feel, I don't feel.

Brothers and sisters, forget about your feelings. Forget about them. Don't worry about them. Don't place so much value on them. Place value on knowing the will of God as revealed in the Word of God. Listen, don't make the will of God some mystical thing.

You know where the will of God is? It's in the Word of God. It's in the Word of God. It's there, right there in the Word of God. I was recently reading online the writings of the early church fathers.

The early church fathers. Clement is probably the earliest church father writing that we have. Then we have hundreds of others. But he was alive right during the times of Paul and John. Clement. And do you know that his epistles are amazing?

His epistles are nothing but, excuse the phrase, regurgitating the scriptures. He quotes Paul. He quotes Peter. He quotes John. He quotes them. And he said that the practice of the early church back in the days when the apostles died, right around 100 A .D., they gathered together, generally in homes.

They sang songs about Jesus Christ and they gathered together all the reliable sources that were available at that time from the writings of the apostles and they read them and studied them so they knew the will of God.

And they did the will of God. That was what church life was all about. They sang, they worshipped, and then they read the word of God to know what God's will was. So that they were careful to stay in the will of God.

Had nothing to do with people gathering together and saying, I feel, I feel, I feel. It was the word of God quickened and energized by the spirit of God bringing their hearts to see Jesus, the Son of God, the heavenly Melchizedek, the one who was wanting to produce in them the same kind of ministry.

A heavenly priest. Doesn't the Bible say that we're a royal priesthood? Sure it does. That's what the writer of Hebrews was really wanting to do. He was wanting to show them that they were to be a heavenly priesthood like Christ who was the forerunner and the high priest.

That is, we were to be a heavenly priesthood like Melchizedek. But in order for that to happen, the readers had to have their hearts guarded so that it was the word of God and the spirit of God that was moving their heart and their will to do the will of God.

As opposed to what else comes out of the heart. Right. Mark chapter 7. Fornication, evil thinking, evil desires, ego, pride. Greed, love of money, our own natural impulses, our own natural desires, the works of the flesh, the desires of the flesh.

This whole thing about what's in your heart? This whole thing about focus on your desires frightens me because I can't find it in the Scripture. I can't find it. And an entire generation of Christians are enamored with their heart and their desires.

But you study the life of Jesus and it wasn't about his desires though as holy as they were. It was about a man that was devoted to know and do the will of God. And God is declaring to us this morning, beloved, that if we are to grow and to mature and to come to adulthood and to be able to be a body in whom Christ can truly be seen, we have to make a transition from living our life out of the springs of our own human desires, whatever they might be, and come to the place where our heart is growing in its capacity to house the word of God, the word of righteousness, and to be open to the Holy Spirit's power so that out of our heart is flowing that desire to do the will of God, to know the will of God, and then our will will be strengthened and energized to do that.

And what comes out here? The desires of the flesh. Though they're there, they won't enter into the stream of the will. See, when the desires of our flesh enter into the stream of our will, then our will carries out these desires.

Then we are doing not what the will of God is and the Holy Spirit is working in us to do, but we're doing what our own heart tells us to do. There is a way that seems right unto man, but the end thereof is what?

Death and destruction. Romans, in closing, beginning in verse number one, Romans 8. For there is now no judgment, no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

There it is, right there. We are either walking, that's why it says guard your heart, for out of it flow what? Flesh? Desires? Out from one part? And there they are, and if we're not guarding and we're not careful, they're going to work their way into the stream of our will.

They're going to work their way into the stream of our will, and the will is what governs the person. I'm governed by my will. I want a cup of coffee? I go get it. My will carries out my desires. So, if the will is devoted to the desires of the flesh, trouble comes.

But if the will is devoted to the desires of the Spirit, and the Word of God, which reveals to us the Word of God, that person will live a blessed life, and attain to God's goal for their life. So let's read this as we close.

There is no condemnation who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

For they that are after the flesh put their mind... Listen. They that are after the flesh set their will and their mind on the things of the flesh. There you go. Guard the issues of your heart. Because out of that, out of that, is an exit point.

And if you are, if your mind, if your mind, part of your mind, is on the desires within you that are fleshly, carnal, worldly, lazy, gluttonous, tend to materialism, and the list goes on and on and on, then what your mind, your will then, will carry out gluttony.

Your will will carry out materialism, and that's what you're going to do. That's going to be the law that you live by. But thanks be unto God that in Christ Jesus, and by the indwelling power of the Spirit of God, we've been set free from the law of sin and death.

We've been set free from being slaves to these desires. But they that are after the Spirit, verse 5, put their mind and will on the desires of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death. This is death right here, brothers and sisters.

Following these things that exit the heart and letting your will be devoted to carrying out their desires, that's going to lead you to spiritual death. Corruption. It will not lead you to life. It will lead you to death.

But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is at enmity to God, and it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you. And if Christ is in you, verse 10, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

And if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken or make alive your mortal bodies. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the Spirit to live after the flesh.

We are debtors. What's a debtor? Someone who owes someone something. We are debtors, not to the flesh, but to the Spirit. In other words, you don't owe you don't owe any kind of allegiance to the desires of the flesh that are in you.

You don't owe anything to them because in God's view, they've been put to death. Now, they're in you. They're not going to just disappear. They're there. But you don't owe an allegiance to them because you are married now to Christ.

So what do you do with all those desires in you? First of all, the only way to understand the things that are working in you that are of God and that are not is get into the Word of God. The Word of God sorts it all out for us and gives us the ability to distinguish between what's of Him and what's not of Him.

There is spiritual decline today because people don't know the Word of God. They don't love the Word of God. We need to be students of the Word of God. And now here we are. We're closing. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, verse 12, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

For if you live after the flesh, you shall what? You shall die. Simple. You'll die. Premature death. Paul said the Corinthians were sick, weak, and some of them were dying before their time. Why? Living after the flesh.

But if you live... But watch this. But if through the Spirit you mortify... What does mortify mean? Put to death the deeds of the body. You shall live. For as many as are led of the Spirit are sons of God.

Mature sons of God. And it's those who God has promised to reign with Him in the age to come. And so, brothers and sisters, this is just touching the surface on this amazing topic in the Word of God, but I'm trusting that through this little exhortation and teaching this morning, we are going to reconsider what's motivating us.