I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to Romans chapter 8, as we have been learning about the Holy Spirit, and if you were here last week, you might have thought as we were here in the sermon that you're either in the flesh or you're in this Spirit. You might have thought, are you saying we're going to be perfect? Is that the point of this sermon? You're saying, I'm either in the flesh and sin or I'm in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, setting my mind on the Spirit? Are you saying I'm always going to do what is right in the Spirit? Well, how do we, as people who are in the Spirit deal with the ongoing reality of temptation and sin? That's exactly what our text is going to teach us. So, today's text is Romans chapter 8, verses 9 to 13. And out of respect for God's word, I would invite everyone to stand up for the public reading of Scripture. This is the Word of God. If you believe in Jesus, this is going to teach you how you can live your life this very day, this very week. And so, let's give this our full and undivided attention. Please follow along with me, as I read Romans 8:9-13.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If 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. 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, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
That's the reading of God's word, please go ahead and have your seat. And you can see that verse 9 picks up exactly where the thought left off last week. And that's really how it is going through Romans 8. I've always known Romans 8 would be an encouraging passage for us to go through. I didn't know how it was going to really teach us about the Encourager, the person of the Holy Spirit, and how it told us that he brought life in verse 2, that he set us free from sin and death, which means that we are either saved in Jesus’ name, and we have a new life in the Spirit, or we are still living our old life of sin in the flesh. So that's what we learned last week, and it picks it up right here. Look back at Romans 8:9. It says, “You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.” So, maybe you've thought, or you've heard people talk, like we go back and forth like on Monday, I was in the flesh and on Tuesday, now I'm living in the Spirit. No, it says it very clearly right there in verse 9, summarizing all that we learned in Romans 8:5-8. You are not in the flesh if the Spirit of God dwells in you. In fact, if you are walking now in the Spirit, and you're no longer in the flesh, if you do sin, as you're walking your new life out in the Spirit, we don't say that you go back, and you walk in the flesh; we're not saying you're going back all the way to your old life. No, you still have been saved by Jesus, you still have a new life. And so, no matter how much a Christian may sin, we don't want to say that they're in the flesh. No, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. And then notice it says, “if in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you.” So, we want to see for those of us who have believed in Jesus, and the Spirit of God does dwell in us, we're going to learn two things that the Spirit is doing in our life, two ways that the Spirit gives us life. But before we even get to that, I just want you to pay attention to verse 9 here, look at how it says it says, “You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of” who does it say there, everybody, the Spirit of who? So, it's the Spirit of God, but then look at the very next line. “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of” who does it say there? “Christ”. So, do you see I mean, this is a profound thought, and maybe you just know it as information in your brain, but let's really try to think about this together. The Spirit of God, the God who sits on the throne in heaven? The God who created the earth. The Almighty, All Merciful God, his Spirit is now in you. And you could say God is in me, God is with me. Or you could say, Christ is in me, or I'm in Christ. It's the Spirit of God. It's the Spirit of Christ. And that Spirit is now living in me. That's a profound thought! I am no longer just myself. I'm not alone in my own skin, I'm not just a soul in a body, along with my Spirit, God has now given me his Spirit who dwells in me.
Look at Romans 8:11. Look at how it says here, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you” … Who's the Spirit of him, who raised Jesus? That's the Spirit of God, the Father who raised up his son Jesus from the dead. “If 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.” So before we get to our two points of how the Spirit is going to give us life, if you do have one of our handouts there, there's a handout in your bulletin if you want to pull it out, if you want to write down some notes of what we're going to learn from the Scripture together.
But let's just start with a theological point here. And the theological point, according to Romans 8:9-11, it's a point of the Trinity here. You can see the Trinity through the text. Let's get that down: “See the Trinity through the text.” This is something amazing that the Scripture reveals to us that we have one God, but God is three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And so, you could say that God is in me. Well, that's true, because the Spirit of God dwells in you. You can say, Jesus is with me or in me. Well, that's true, because the Spirit of Christ is in you. Or you could just refer to him as the Holy Spirit. So this is something that may not make sense for us to logically figure out about God, but it's something that the scripture definitively reveals about God, that even in the Great Commission, when Jesus was sending his disciples out, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in name, singular, one name, and the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one name three persons. And so, when you hear somebody say, God's with me, well, that's true, because the Spirit of God dwells in you. Well, I'm in Christ. Well, that's true, because the Spirit of Christ is in you. The Holy Spirit now dwells in us. And so, we are now in this relationship with the Father, Son, and the Spirit. This is very important for us to keep in our mind, and to see all three of them as distinct persons.
Go over with me to John chapter 14 and let me just show you another verse that gives us this same idea. We've referred to John 14:15-16. And all of these sermons from Romans 8, about the Holy Spirit. Because that's really where Jesus introduces the Spirit. He calls him the Helper, the Spirit of Truth. And Jesus, he knew his disciples would be sad when he went away to go be with the Father, at his right hand in heaven. But he said, hey, it's to your advantage that I go, because the Helper, the Spirit, is going to come to you. And look what Jesus says. This verse has encouraged me so much in my life. I want to encourage you to know this verse, maybe memorize it or write it down. In John 14:23, Jesus is answering questions from his disciples. It says, Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.” Maybe you've heard Jesus say that before. “If you love me, you will keep My commandments.” He's talking to his disciples here. And he says, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
I mean, here's Jesus promising that the Father and him are going to come and make their home, in our heart, in our soul. So, they do that through the Spirit who now dwells in us. So, when I felt lonely when I maybe felt like I don't know if other people are caring for me, here I am, by myself! The reality that I am not alone because God the Father and his Son, Jesus, have made their home in me through the Spirit that now that lives in me. That has really encouraged me. I mean, this verse is saying that if you're one of the disciples of Jesus, if you've transferred your trust to believe that Jesus died on that cross to pay for your sin, and Jesus rose on the third day so you could live a new life if you really believe in Jesus. Do you know that God the Father loves you? That he has loved you and his Son, that you could not be more loved than you are right now by the Father who is in heaven. And because the Father loves you, and because Jesus loved you so much he shed his blood to die for your sin, that the father and the Son, they have come to make their home in you. What an amazing statement that Jesus makes. You feel alone, you feel it, like nobody cares about you? If you believe in Jesus, that is fundamentally not true, because the Spirit of God the Father, God, the Father is on his throne right now in heaven. Jesus is at his right hand, and they have made their home in you through the Spirit of the living God who now lives in you. And you now have a relationship with God for all of eternity.
Let's just make this very clear right now. Once God's Spirit has made his home in you, he's never going to leave you; he's never going to forsake you. If you've got the Holy Spirit in you today, you can guarantee that you will be saved for all of eternity. God's Spirit, once he comes, you're never going back to the flesh. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that? You now have a whole new life! You now have the Spirit in you. If the Spirit is in you, he's going to save you, keep you, sanctify you, and bring you all the way to the very end. In fact, there are two specific ways that the Spirit is going to give you life.
If you go back to Romans chapter 8. Let's look at these two specific ways. One is in verses 10 and 11, and then the other is in verses 12 and 13. Now, so let's start here in Romans 8:10. And we've already heard him referred to as the Spirit of Life in Romans 8:2. “The Spirit of Life has set us free in Christ Jesus from sin and death.” In Romans 8:6, it said that “the mind that is set on the Spirit is life and peace.” So the Spirit has come to give us the eternal life of God, in our own lives, this abundant life, this new life. Look at how it says here in Romans 8:10, “But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Hey, we got bad news, your body that you're living in is still going to die because of the curse of sin, but the Spirit has now made you alive because of the righteousness that you have in Christ. In fact, look at Romans 8:11, “If 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.”
Now, when it says the Spirit who dwells in you will give life to your mortal bodies, that is a future tense, will give life even when your body dies. When your body experiences mortality, your heart stops beating, you're no longer have breath, even when you are physically dead, the Spirit will give life to your physically dead body. This right here is a promise that in the future is God's Spirit in you today. Because if God’s Spirit is in you today, then guaranteed one hundred percent confidence that in the future, you will rise physically from the dead. That's what this is promising right here. Your body? Bad news: it's only a matter of time, you're going to die. In fact, really bad news. It's going to get worse from here, everybody that's there. Hey, what did you learn on Mother's Day? Well, my body's going to keep getting worse and eventually I’ll die. Yeah, that is the facts, that is the curse of sin. That is the world that we are living in. And it's only a matter of time for each and every one of us, and someday, somebody's going to give you some bad news. And they're going to actually perhaps give you a matter of time. But this is saying that even when your body experiences mortality, you now have the Spirit of life. First of all, one of the things you may have heard before is that when our body stops working, we are not our body, we are a soul who has a body. And when our body stops working, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, for those of us who have our faith in Jesus. When our body dies, we're going to be with Jesus and our soul. But there is going to come a day, a day of Christ, when Christ is unveiled in all of his glory, and those who have died in Christ will rise just like Jesus actually physically rose from the dead on the third day. The problem is just like God raised up Jesus, God's going to raise everybody who's got his Spirit. God's going to give life to your mortal body.
So, let's get this down for point number one, the first way that the Spirit gives life, number one: “Expect a physical resurrection.” Expect a physical resurrection. This is a promise that you are going to get a new body, the Spirit has given you now the life of God. And even when your body eventually dies, because of the curse of sin, the Spirit will give life to that mortal body. He will resurrect you, just like they could see Jesus walking around, and they could reach out and touch the scars in his hand, or his side. Jesus would just appear with his disciples, not coming through the door, but just appear in the room and they're like, whoa, there he is. It's Jesus resurrected; he's got a new body. In that same way, there's going to be a version 2.0. Have we read this last week in Philippians 3:20? You can write that down under point number one. And that is a passage that says Jesus will transform our lowly body, our perishable body, he will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body. So, this is a promise of the Bible. When you see Jesus, you will be made like him. Jesus is resurrected from the dead. He's got this new glorious body. Someday you will get a body of Life, a resurrected body, just like Jesus says. Is that good news for anybody right here? Anybody? Like yeah, I'd like a version 2.0 of this thing? Most definitely. Right? I mean, would it be amazing? This is a promise of Scripture. This is a guarantee that you have.
This is how we're supposed to think. Do I have the Spirit of God in me? Because if I have the Spirit of God in me today, then I will rise with Jesus on that day. It's supposed to be that sure in our mind, we're supposed to be that convinced! The level of faith we're supposed to have in our future resurrection is a hundred percent. Wouldn't it be great if people believe that so strongly that on the day, the doctor says to them, you've only got this much time left till your body stops working? Would it be great if people with a smile on their face and a song in their heart could look their doctor in the eye and say, “Oh, doctor, it's much better than that. I'm going to rise from the dead someday.” That's what we're supposed to be believing. That's what the Bible is saying. You have the eternal life of God; his Spirit is in you right now. And yeah, you still have a body of death, because of the wages of sin, because of the curse in the fall. Yes, this body will die, but the Spirit who is in you, he's going to resurrect you. And he's going to give life to your mortal body. And this is something you can be so sure of, you're looking forward to it by faith.
Go over to the book of Ephesians. It's just a few pages over to the right. Ephesians chapter 1. And it says this same promise of the Spirit here in Ephesians, chapter 1. Paul starts this letter with a long run-on sentence from verse 3, all the way to verse 14. And it's a Trinitarian sentence. He starts talking about the Father. Do you realize the Father loves you so much, he adopted you to be one of his kids? Let's praise his glorious grace. Do you realize that Jesus loves you so much, he shed his blood to redeem you from your sins? Let's praise his glorious grace. But then it gets to the third person of the Trinity. And he talks about the Spirit here in Ephesians 1:13, it's talking about Jesus. And it says, “In him” or in Christ, you also when you heard the word of truth, did you hear the gospel of your salvation, that Jesus died on the cross for your sins. He rose again, to give you a new life. When you believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. So, I mean, when you believed in Jesus, you received the Spirit, and the Spirit is God's seal on your life. It's like how a letter would have been sealed. It would have been like a mark of ownership. This is my thing. I'm putting my seal on this to let whoever's getting this know this belongs to me. God has made you his own, and the Spirit that he's put within you is the guarantee that you now have life with God. You could say, hear this word where it says there in verse 14, that the Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance, you could say that's like the deposit of our inheritance. He's the down payment of our inheritance. You're going to have eternal life with God someday. And you want to know how you can know? Because he's already given you the deposit, he's already put most of the money down right there. And he's put his Spirit within you.
And so the Spirit within us should be the confidence that we have, wow, if I have the life of God today, I'm definitely going to have life with God on that day. And when God, in all of his glory, gives all things to his Son, Jesus, the Father is going to give the inheritance to the Son. Did you know that you and I are going to share in that inheritance with Jesus? This is what Romans 8 is going to go on to teach us. We've been adopted into the family, we're all joint heirs and receiving the inheritance. And just like Jesus has his resurrection glorified body, we will all be like Jesus. Someday you will be perfect, just like Jesus is perfect. So that's what's going to happen to me, doctor. Someday. Wouldn't it be great if we really had that faith so that we could even look something like the death of our body in the face and know that we still have life through the Spirit of God. This Spirit is your guarantee of your physical resurrection. You can expect it, it is surely coming.
So, I hope that's a thought that you can really start to connect with, like, I don't connect with the flesh anymore. The flesh is who I used to be before Christ, it's when I was dead in my sins. Well, now I'm not still in those sins. Now I'm dead to those sins. Now I've got a new life with Jesus. And so, instead of my mind going back to who I used to be, I want my mind now to start going ahead to who I am going to be. And someday I'm going to have a new body where there will be no desire to sin within my body. I'll be in a perfect heavenly environment where there will be no sin around me. And I will behold the Holy One, the glory of God, who will have no sin in him, no sin around him. Someday, I will be made right perfectly, and I will experience the glory of Jesus Christ. That day is common for every single one of you who believe, and you should look forward to, you should think, wow, what a work God has done. He's put his Spirit within me, I'm not in the flesh anymore. I'm now off, I'm in the direction. I may not be there yet, but I'm now headed in the direction of perfection, and someday, I'll actually be there in my new body, receiving the inheritance with Jesus Christ, my Lord, to the praise of his glorious grace. I can't wait. That's what we should be thinking.
Now go back to Romans chapter eight, because it doesn't just tell us what God's going to do on that day. It tells us here in Romans 8:12-13, what God wants to do today. And I want you to see these verses here. There's a a lot of definition here of life and death. There's a paradox here. Look at what it says in verse 12. It says, “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.” Look at Romans 8:13. “If you live according to the flesh, you will, what does it say there everybody, you will die, notice a paradox live according to the flesh, that's leading you to death. But look at the rest of verse 13. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” You want to live in the flesh? Well, that's going to lead to death. But if you put to death the deeds of the body, that's real living in the Spirit. So, this is why we had to make it so clear last week that you're not flesh and Spirit. No, because if you're still living in the flesh, you are still on your way to death. But if you are now in the Spirit, you are on your way to Life, and by the Spirit, you can now put to death the deeds of the body, the ways that you would sin with your body, the things that you would look at, the thoughts that you would think, the things that you would do with the physical members of your body, with deeds where you used to sin. You don't have to keep doing those things anymore. You can put those things to death. You have the Spirit of God in you now and you can live a whole new way by God's power working in you. Put those old ways to death. That's what it's saying.
And so now we've gone from talking about something that's going to happen in the future that we can look forward to, to something that is present tense here. There are two present tense ideas, things that should be ongoing. They should be habitual. These are the ways that we should be living. One of them is negative. Look at Romans 8:12. And this is such an encouraging thought, such a freeing thought, I am really praying for you that you will be able to get this thought in your head here today. And if you've already known it, I'm praying that you'll be able to help somebody else learn it. And if you have never really thought this through, this could be such a game-changing day for you right here. In Romans 8:12-13, it says, “So then brothers, all my brothers and sisters in Christ, listen to this, we are debtors, not to the flesh.” You don't owe your flesh anything, is what it's saying. Hey, there's already been a down payment of your eternal life. You don't owe anything to the flesh, you are not obligated to give into your flesh. It's not like you ought to do something that your body and evil desire that rises up within you that your body wants to do, you aren't obligated to go through with that. You don't owe it to yourself or your flesh to do that, like your flesh now has no ownership over you. That's what this is saying. Like, I think a lot of people have thoughts like this, an evil thought comes into their mind, and they start thinking about something that they know is a sin. This isn't a thought of the Spirit. This isn't something that obeys Jesus, this isn't something that brings glory to God. No, this is like a disobedient, ungodly, non-Spiritual kind of a thought. So even though you're in the Spirit, you might have this evil desire rise up within you, you might be tempted now, and maybe the temptation might even come from the outside, because there are so many evil things going on in this world all around us. There's evil spirits out there trying to deceive people, trying to lure people away. So, there's going to be evil, whether it comes from without or your body, there's still a body of death, it could rise up from within. And now I'm thinking this evil thought, you know what a lot of people think when they have an evil thought in their head, well, now that I'm thinking about it, I might as well do it. Or maybe it's not a thought maybe it's a feeling, maybe it's a feeling in your body, and your body starts feeling a certain way. And then it's almost like your body is acting like it needs something, or your body wants something. There's like a desire here. And usually when you feel this way, you start getting angry. Or usually when you feel this way, you start speaking like this, or usually when you feel this way, you think you really need that thing or that person to make you stop feeling this way. And so, because your body's feeling a certain way, you feel like, well, I'm feeling this way. So, I’ve got to do it. This is saying you don't have to do anything. You're not obligated to do anything; you don't owe it to your flesh to do anything. In fact, not only do you not have to do that thing that you're feeling like doing or thinking about doing, by the Spirit, who is now in you the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, you can now put that thought or feeling, instead of going ahead and doing it, you can now put it to death. You can be done with it. You can put it away. You don't have to do it anymore; you can now go and live rather than that thing that you used to do. That's what it's teaching. That way you've been thinking that way you've been feeling well, I feel this way, so therefore I'm going to I have to, I ought to. Not true. Not true for those who believe in Jesus.
There is now a valid other option in your life, where you can put to death, the deed of the body, and you can walk in the power of the Spirit. Can I get an Amen from anybody on this? This is something that all of us should be experiencing as a present way that we ongoing live our life. Wow, I've got this thought, this thought that now has come to my attention is not consistent with my new life in the Spirit. And so rather than meditating on that thought, and getting into that thought, and seeing where that thought is going to go, I want to kill that thought, I want to seize that thought from existence. And I want to line up my thinking with the new life that I have because of Jesus Christ, and all he's done for me. And I want to get my thoughts on spiritual things, and not be thinking about this deed of the body. And so, at some point, you're going to think, well, I'm feeling this or I'm thinking this or maybe you're going to be like, well, that person they started, and they did this and so now I'm going to go do this. You don't owe it anything. You don't. You aren't obligated to do it. Some of us, the way that we think we give the old way of the flesh way too much credit and we don't believe in the real power of the new way of the Spirit. And you’ve got to start learning how to think in a new way. This is so important here that you realize I don't owe anything to the flesh. And if by the Spirit I put to death the deeds of the body, I'm really alive. And that's the way I'm now going to live my life.
Turn with me to Galatians 6, verse 8. A phrase that comes up in my house sometimes I don't know if you ever hear anybody say this in your life, or if people say this at your house. But one of the things that I've heard said in my house before is, mind over matter. Have you ever heard that one before? You’re feeling a little tired, you're feeling a little hungry. And you’ve got some homework to do, or you’ve got some chores to do. And you don't really want to do this homework, you don't really want to do these chores right now. That's not the way you're feeling. But you know, you’ve got to get this done. And so, you’ve got willpower, you're a tough person, you're mentally strong. And so, you're like, hey, mind over matter, and I'm going to do it no matter how I'm feeling. See, we got something way better than mind over matter, we’ve got Spirit over body is what the Scriptures teaching us here. I’ve got a power. That's not just me, it's the power of God in me. And that power that I have in the Spirit is way more than whatever I might be feeling in my body. And so, I can learn how to live a Spirit-over-body way of life, and I don't just have to try really hard to do it. There is actually a power within me, the power of God, the resurrection power of Jesus, now that same Spirit is in me and he will empower me, he will help me, he will make me able to walk in a spiritual way, rather than the way that my body wants to operate. And so, I can say no to my own body, and yes to the Spirit of God. Here's how it says in Galatians 6:8. It uses an agricultural analogy here. It says, “For the one who sews to his own flesh.” Let's even go back to Galatians 6:7. It says, “do not be deceived.” They don't think you can just live however you want. Do not be deceived, God is not mud. Whatever one sows, whatever you plant, whatever kind of seed you're putting in the ground, whatever one sows, that he will also reap. That's your harvest, that's what's going to grow up for the one who sews to his own flesh will reap will from the flesh, reap corruption. And you don't want to reap corruption, that's death. That's judgment, that's perishing apart from God. If you keep planting the seed of the flesh, well, you're going to reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sews to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. So, this is an idea that when I'm in that even moment, that I'm feeling like, well, maybe here's a thought of what I want to do with my body, or here's a way that I feel like, I'm feeling even in that moment. Instead of going through with the idea of going back to the flesh, I can turn my thoughts to the way of the Spirit and by the Spirit I can put to death the deeds of the body as in, they don't keep operating, they don't keep functioning, they are dead, done, finished, put away. So, this is the idea. We call it the mortification of the flesh, the putting to death of the sin in our lives, like I am actually actively killing the sin so it doesn't keep happening. I am putting it to death. This is what by the Spirit we can all experience.
So, let's get this down for point number two: “Experience a spiritual mortification.” I don't know if you've heard that word before. Number two, I want everybody here who believes in Jesus to experience spiritual mortification. So, if somebody dies, their body goes to the mortuary and the person who handles their body there is the mortician. So, mortification is putting something to death, it is killing something. And that's what our text is saying to do. By the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the body, and you will live. So, you can even in a moment of temptation, you can cut off that thought or feeling and turn to the Spirit or you can be learning how to walk in the Spirit and how to guard your heart against those temptations. And you can start reading Scripture and memorizing verses, you can start praying and asking God, lead me not into temptation. Protect me from the evil one. You can start talking with your friends. Hey, this thing is really tempting for me, will you pray for me about it? Well, you asked me how I'm doing, and you can start learning how to think in a spiritual way where you experience mortification, the putting to death of the old life of sin. That's something that you are able to do by the Spirit. And it says when you sow to the Spirit, you're going to experience real life, that kind of love, joy and peace that everybody wants is not in listening to their own body; it's putting to death the deeds of the body and walking by the Spirit. That's the kind of living you really want to experience. And so, you are now able, in Christ, to put to death the deeds of the body.
I've been thinking about it like this all week long in my head, a little phrase, you could write it down like this: “You don't owe to the flesh, but you can sow to the Spirit.” You don't owe to the flesh, but you can sow to the Spirit. And the next time you're tempted, I don't owe that flesh, anything. I'm not obligated here to do anything, just because I had that thought, just because that person treated me that way. Just because my body felt that way. I don't have to do anything like that. In fact, I can, by the Spirit, put to death that deed of the body. This is the way that we are all supposed to deal with any sin in our life. And if I do sin, I realize that doesn't line up with my new life. And I'm not okay, I'm not like, well, that's just what we all do. Well, I guess it's acceptable to say, well, I guess I have to be okay with it. Because I did it. No, it is saying, don't be okay with it. Put it to death. Don't go back to it. Don't let it come back to you. Kill it. Be done with it. That is the teaching of Scripture, that by the Spirit, you can play a role of putting off the old way you used to live and putting on the new way, because someday you will be perfect. Someday you will be resurrected, someday you will be holy as he is holy. And so today, we're going to be less like who we used to be and more like Jesus. And we're going to put to death that old way of sin.
Go to Ephesians chapter 4, It's just a couple of pages over to the right here. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30. Ephesians 4 and 5. In these chapters. It's all about how there's the old you and the new you, and because you've now learned Jesus, if you really know Jesus, well, then you're not in the flesh anymore. Now you’ve got the Spirit. So, let's put off those old ways. And let's put on the new ways. And as it's explaining, don't be doing this. Instead, you want to be doing this. This is Ephesians 4:30. It says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” So, we already turned to Ephesians, and he told us that when we believed in Jesus, we were sealed with the Spirit, the guarantee that on that day, we will rise with Christ, we will receive the inheritance with Christ, the Spirit. He sealed that. He guarantees that. Well, do you realize that if now that you've got the Spirit, if you sin, you are grieving the Spirit that now dwells in you? The Spirit now has given you the option, he's opened up to you a new way to live. But instead of walking in the new way, you've now done something inconsistent with your new life, more like your old life. And when you do that sin, it actually hurts the Holy Spirit who is within you. I don't know if you've thought about that before.
See, it's not you going back and forth between flesh and Spirit. It's you going against the Spirit that is now in you. And it says, when you do that, it grieves the Spirit. That's not being consistent with the way that you now are in Christ. You're going against the Spirit that God has put within you. Now what is an example of a way that you could grieve the Spirit? Well look at the very next verse, Ephesians 4:31. “all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be what be pulled away from you, along with all malice,” all kinds of evil, and instead you would be kind, you would be tender-hearted. So, do you see that if I allow this angry response, if I slander that other person, well, they started, they talked bad about me behind my back, maybe they even talked bad to your face. Maybe they cut you off on the freeway, maybe they were rude to you somewhere, here's somebody and they have now sinned against you and that feeling starts rising up within you, you start experiencing that, yeah, maybe you're angry because they did something wrong. But this kind of anger is going beyond that. They did something wrong. Now you're ready to do something right back to them. Now you're ready to let them know what you really think, you're ready to let them know who they really are. You're ready to give full vent to this rage that is rising up within you. If you do that you will grieve the Spirit of God. See the Spirit is able to give you a gentle answer that turns away anger; the Spirit is able to give you self-control, so that just because somebody sins against you, you don't have to sin against them. Not if you have the Spirit. You can actually control yourself, even if the other person is out of control. You can actually even in that moment, they treated me like this, and I feel this anger wanting to rise up in my thoughts, I have something I really want to say to them that I know is wrong. Even in that moment, I can put those deeds of the body to death, I don't have to act that way just because I was treated that way. I don't have to grieve the Spirit. So, anger is something that we can put to death, that deed of the body. We don't have to keep doing that. Go back to Ephesians 4:29. Look at the verse that was right before this idea of grieving the Spirit. Look what it says in verse 29, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” See, I don't want to say words that tear people down, I want to say words that build people up; I don't want to speak to other people, the way they treat me. I want to speak to other people the way God has treated me and God has given me his goodness and his grace in Jesus Christ. And so, I want to say words that extend the grace of God to other people, that lift up their souls, that build them up as a person.
And I mean, it's Mother's Day, it's 2023. Let's talk about how we talk in our families with the people that are closest to, we live in an intimate setting with, why is it and a lot of times it's with our own family, that we say these corrupting words. I mean, maybe you've had that experience as a mom even saying something to your kids. Or maybe you've been a kid saying something you shouldn't have said to your mom. And sometimes maybe when you speak with your own family, you say something and as soon as those words come out of your mouth, you know that you said them, and then they shouldn't have said it because that just hurt that person that you care about. It just tore them down. Sometimes you can see your loved ones physically, it's like your words just brought them down by what you just said. See, that grieves the Spirit when you speak in such a way, because the Spirit, he gives you words of truth to say, he gives you words of love to say when you're speaking according to the Spirit, he actually reminds you of Scripture that you can bring up, he actually helps you really hear and consider the other person and treat them as a soul, as somebody loved by God in Jesus Christ themselves. See, if you were speaking by the power of the Spirit, you wouldn't have spoken that way. But when you spoke that way, it didn't just hurt your family member, it actually grieved the Spirit of God, because I've got the Spirit, but I'm not speaking, I'm not acting in that way. I'm not putting to death the deeds of the body, and really living by the Spirit. So, it grieves the Spirit.
So, you have the Spirit and the Spirit is able to make you walk in God's ways, in the new ways of Christ and the Spirit. You by the Spirit, everybody here you as the Spirit, you are able to put to death the deeds of the body. Do you really believe that? Do you operate like that? I mean, this is what Romans 8 is forcing us to consider. What is the more powerful idea in your life? Is it your flesh? Or is it the Spirit of God? Which one at the end of the day do you really think you have to obey? Because if you're in Christ, you don't owe anything to the flesh. And by the Spirit, you can put the deeds to death. You don't have to go against the Spirit, you can line up with the Spirit and learn to think and walk in his ways. And that's what this passage here in Ephesians 4, it goes on to Ephesians 5. Skip all the way down to Ephesians 5:18, where we kind of get to the climax of this whole section where it's been like, you don't have to keep living the old way. Here's the new way you can live now. Instead, you don't have to grieve the Spirit. You can actually live by the power of the Spirit. Look what it says in Ephesians 5:18 How it draws this clear contrast. “Do not get drunk with wine. For that is debauchery.” That's a waste of time getting drunk, you're never going to find what you're looking for getting drunk. No, don't do that. That's debauchery, but instead be filled with the Spirit. And then look, the Spirit, he's going to change the way you're addressing one another. In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, he's going to get you singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. See, I think this is such a helpful way for us to think about it.
We understand what a DUI is, a DUI is when someone is driving being under the what, everybody? The influence, they're under the influence of alcohol; they've had too much to drink. And now that alcohol it's affecting the way that they think the way that they feel, the way that they talk, the way that they're acting in their body has now been altered, because they are under the influence of the alcohol. It's saying, instead of doing that, you can be filled with the Spirit, you can be under the influence of God's Spirit in your life. And the way you're talking, the way you're thinking and acting, the way you're feeling in your body is no longer just you, it's under the influence of the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God can fill you and then he changes the way you address one another. Now, all of a sudden, that psalm that you read in the morning, that psalm is setting the tone for the rest of your day, that psalm is now on your thoughts. So, something bad happens. Well, that's okay. Because guess what? This is what I know about God. Somebody does something evil to me, well, maybe I should pray for them. Maybe I should show compassion to them. How would God want me to treat this other person? See now somebody bad things are happening, but I'm over here worshiping Jesus, I'm over here, and my mind is on Christ. I'm over here, and this world can't touch me anymore. Because even if it kills me, the Spirits going to give life to my mortal body. I'm over here living in eternity; I'm no longer bound by space and time. See, that's a different way to live. That's the way that everybody here, you could be filled with the Spirit, and you could live that way. You don't have to live according to the deeds of the body under the influence of something like alcohol anymore. See, this is really good news right here.
The Spirit and there are three means now we're going to get more if you come back next week, we're going to get into how do you get led by the Spirit? What does it mean to be filled by the Spirit? How do I know I'm really doing things by the Spirit? And there's three basic means that God uses that we'll talk about here in a second, but turn with me to Colossians 3:5, let me just show you another passage that will help you see how to put off the old and how to put on the new, how to put to death. That's what it says, In Colossians 3:5, it takes this idea of spiritual mortification, you are actively putting to death those evil thoughts, those sinful desires that rise up, and your body would want to do something that it should not do, you are putting those thoughts and desires to death. This is explicitly what it says in Colossians chapter 3, verse 5, “put to death, therefore what is earthly in you,” and then it goes on to describe sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. All of that doesn't come from worshiping God, from setting your mind on God. So, you’ve got to kill it. You’ve got to put it to death. Okay, well, if I want to put it to death, then how do I get my mind in the Spirit? How do I get my mind on the things of God?
Let's just go through three of them here. One is, you get into Word. When you get the Word of Christ in you, that's how the Spirit fills you. Getting in the Scripture is what activates the power of the Spirit in your life. You get in the Psalm in the morning, you get that in your heart. What you might need is fighter versus. You got a specific temptation that keeps coming up, you got a specific thing that your body sometimes feels like it wants to do. Where does it address that thing in Scripture? What verse can I memorize? Where can I put that verse that I'll see it so the Spirit can bring it to mind. So, I can fight against that temptation. Another thing you can do to get your mind set on the Spirit is to pray. When you pray, you're talking to God, you're going to heaven and your thoughts are going before the throne. And Jesus is there interceding for you, and the Spirit even groans within you. We're going to learn in Romans that the Spirit even gives you words to say or even when you don't know what to say. The Spirit will pray for you, and he will reorient you. Your whole entire thought process is now being directed towards heaven, where someday you're going to be and you're going to be perfect there and God's there in his holiness. And now you're thinking about that. Another thing you can do that will really get you thinking spiritually is fellowship with other believers. Talk to somebody else who has the Spirit. Give them a call when you're tempted, hey, I'm thinking the wrong way. Right now, I can tell my thoughts are going back towards the old way. My thoughts are not right now, being directed by the Spirit. Can you pray for me right now? Can you really intercede on my behalf? Can you talk to me and help me get back in the right way of thinking? See, when you're really under the influence of the Spirit, through the Word through prayer, through fellowship with your brothers and sisters, see, temptations will rise up and you can put them to death.
Let's really consider this here. And we're on Mother's Day. I know this is kind of a violent sermon for Mother's Day, I guess, because we're saying let's go kill the deeds of the body. Let's go put that sin to death, everybody. Now, we're Orange County people. We aren't hunters and gatherers. All right? We aren't going out there and killing our food before we eat it. We're getting our food from Trader Joe's. You know what I'm talking about? Okay, we go to the grocery store, we don't go kill some animal so we can eat it later on. Right? So, I'm not very familiar. I'll just speak for myself. I’ll claim Orange County. I'm an Orange County person. And I'm not very familiar with putting things to death, killing things. But there was one time that I can remember in Orange County a home invasion. And this just shows you how Orange County I am. Where a lizard came into my house. All right, okay. Man, and so, when this lizard came in, and family members started screaming, I felt this way that some, I don't know how mothers feel on Mother's Day, but I know how the dads feel, how the fathers feel, how the man of the house feels when there's an enemy that's coming into his house. Anybody know what I'm talking about right now? This thing rises up. Can I get an Amen? Brothers? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I was at a wedding last week. And the groom, in his vows to his bride said that he promised to protect her from all enemies, foreign and domestic. That's what he said. And I was like, did we just declare war on all the nations of the earth? But I also knew what he meant. He was like, I'm going to protect you from evil. And that's how I was feeling that day. This was back when I was still fresh at being a husband. I was brand new at being a dad. And now this creature came into my house to mess with my family! Now, I grabbed this broom, and I came running over, and the adrenaline is pumping. And there's that lizard. I don't want to embellish it for the sake of the story. It was a pretty ordinary-sized lizard. But the thing about this lizard, maybe you've seen lizards like this before, where the tail is extraordinarily long have you seen those kind? The tail is not in proportion with the rest of the body. There's something wicked about this lizard. You know what I mean? Something snake-like, very Satanish vibe to this lizard that's freaking out my family members here. And when I came upon it, and I got this broom, it's right there on the windowsill, the window is open. This could have gone either way. But see, this is my home. That's your area out there, lizard. So, I'm just going to brush this lizard outside, we could have all been fine. But this lizard, in one of the biggest acts of disrespect of my life, this lizard leaps almost intentionally, almost as if sticking it to me, it leaps on to the floor in my house. And then another family member screamed, it might have been me this time screaming at the leaping lizard. And I'll tell you what, I had a thought in that moment. And this is not a thought that I have. I can really remember thinking before that moment. And I can't really remember another time where I thought this after that moment. But in that moment, I had the intent to kill this lizard. And I wanted to put this creature to death. And I had this broom. And I had this feeling that I was being invaded and my family was under attack or whatever I was thinking, but I picked up this broom, and I swung as hard as I could. Have you ever tried to swing at anything? I swung to kill, and the aim was actually true. And there was this horrific popping sound. And this lizard popped into two different pieces. And the body was over there, and it looked very much dead. And the unnaturally long tail was over here. And it started wiggling over here, right.
And I want to ask you a very personal and serious question. Have you ever swung that hard at sin in your entire life? I'm asking you a personal question, have you ever really tried to kill your sin? Or have you always assumed it would just be there? That lizard is just going to now live in my house? What can I do about it? It's just the way that it is. The lizard feels like being there, the lizard it's just there now, and I'll try to shoo it away when I can. But it's going to keep coming back. Or are you swinging to kill? I'm asking you about your temptations, your thoughts, the evil desires the deeds that you want to do with your body. Are you saying that by the Spirit I will put them to death? Are you really trying to kill your sin? Or have you become complacent, and okay with that sin. The Scripture is saying that in a present ongoing way, you are able by the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the body. This is the experience of the Christian person. This is something you are now able to go and do.
So, if you've got the handout, look at the back of the handout there. There are some very personal questions, questions, I want to encourage you to take very seriously, questions I want to encourage you to talk about with the brothers and sisters you have fellowship with, maybe in your fellowship group, you'll break into even smaller groups, men with men, women with women, and you can talk through these questions like number three, you can see there, “Is there a way you still think you owe something to the flesh?” Is there a way you're still being deceived? Why, I thought about it, so I guess I got to do it. Well, I feel it in my body. So, I guess that's just now what I'm going to do? Are you still feeling obligated to your own flesh? What are the deeds of the body? Is it anger for you? Is it saying rotten corrupted words for you? Is it getting drunk for you? Is it sexual immorality? What are the deeds of the body that you specifically need to put to death, that you need to kill, that you need to swing at so hard? You're ready to be done with them once and for all because you want to walk under the influence of the Spirit? And you don't want to do that anymore. And then how are you going to live by the Spirit? How are you going to get under his influence? How are you going to be led by the Spirit? How are you going to get in the Word and pray and have fellowship with others? And we'll talk more about that, if you come back next week. But I want to ask you a personal serious question. Have you ever looked at the sin in your life and have you ever swung to kill because you are able by the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the body. And you can experience this mortification of that sin, and you can experience the fullness of this new life that you have. You will live by God's Spirit that is in you. Let me pray.
Father in heaven, we have to confess to you father, there's so much confusion about this. There's so much confusion about this, the sin that we face as Christians. And there are so many people acting like they owe it to their flesh, like we have to sin, like that's just inevitable, we're going to sin. We're not perfect Father, I pray that you would open our eyes to see that someday we are going to be perfect in your presence. Someday we will rise with Jesus, every single one of us who have believed in Jesus, someday we will be made like him. And right now, we already have the guarantee, we already have the down payment, because your Spirit, the Spirit of Christ now lives in us. And by your Spirit, we are able to put to death the deeds of the body; today we can say no to that sin, no to that thought, no to that feeling. And so, help us to see it from your Word, not from what we think, not from what other people are saying. Father, will you speak to us through what you are saying. And I pray for everybody here, I pray for those who are more convinced by their own flesh than they are by your Spirit. Father, I pray that you will change their mind about that. I pray that you will open people's eyes to see I've been thinking about this the wrong way. And I've been letting that lizard live in my house for far too long. And I need to swing to kill that sin because I know that God has put his Spirit in me. And I know that because God's Spirit is in me, I will rise with Jesus Father. We confess that it's far too easy for us to be under the influence of the things of the body, or the things of this life. And then we need to get under the influence of the Spirit that leads us into the things of Christ, the things of eternity, the things where you are’ the things where there is true righteousness, and love and joy, and peace. So, Father, I pray for all my brothers and sisters here, that we won't live according to this life, that we will no longer live according to the flesh, but that we will truly be a church, a church of Jesus that lives by the Spirit, under his influence. And now we will go out of here today and walk in your ways that we’ll get in your Word, we’ll pray, we’ll have fellowship with one another and we will identify the deeds that our body wants to do that you've told us not to do. And we will put those deeds to death, that we will kill the sin in our lives because we know that someday we will rise with Christ. So let us see that, yes we may not be at perfection yet, but that is the direction we are headed today. And let us walk that way by your Spirit. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.