"THE
FLESH"
Romans
6:6-22
(part 1)
Romans
6:6-22, "For we know that our old self [King James: "old man"]
was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done
away with [margin: be rendered powerless, inoperative], that we should no longer be slaves
to sin-because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead,
he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but
the life he lives, he lives to God.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ
Jesus. Therefore do
not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its
evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin,
as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves
to God, as those who have been brought from death to life;
and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of
righteousness. For
sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law,
but under grace.
What then? Shall we sin because
we are not under law but under grace? By no means! [btw, "Sin
is the transgression of the law" 1 John 3:4]
Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone
to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you
obey-whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death,
or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to
be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching
to which you were entrusted.
You have been set free from sin and have become slaves
to righteousness.
I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves.
Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in
slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so
now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from
the control of righteousness.
What benefit did you reap at that time from the things
you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin
and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads
to holiness, and the result it eternal life." Then let's
not leave out verse 23, which
concludes the thought. "For the wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
"Open
your Bibles to Romans chapter 6, let's open our Bibles to
Romans 6, and I'd like us to just review the first point,
what we looked at last week. This week, I'll just tell you what we're going
to study today, we're going to study the flesh-and what the
Bible is talking about when it talks about the flesh, and
the war that the flesh has going on in each one of us.
But before we look at that I really want to nail down
the point that I made last week, and reiterate it, and hopefully
re-enforce it in your heart. In verse 2, the Bible says that we have died
to sin. Verse 2 says
"we have died to sin." Death
means separation, and that's the basic bottom-line meaning
of death. [I always
thought it meant a cessation of life. Oh well.] The
word death doesn't mean non-existence, it means separation. When you die, in the physical sense, your soul
and spirit [one and the same thing, according to some] are
separated from your body.
And you go, if you're a Christian, to be with the Lord.
[The Bible is very fuzzy
on that subject. Solomon
in Ecclesiastes wrote that the human spirit in all humans-the
"good, the bad and the ugly"-that die goes to heaven, and
that the dead know nothing, i.e. the human thought process
ceases within the human spirit, including all memory.
Solomon also goes on to say that the spirit that is
in animal brains goes back to the ground, making a distinction
between human spirit and animal spirit. Other passages in the New Testament which are
in parables, and allegorical at best, indicate the spirit
in man, the human spirit, is conscious after death.
This places these beliefs in the purely secondary realm
of Bible doctrinal teaching due to the fact that there is
apparent disagreement between them.] The Bible talks about physical death, and that
is the separation of the soul and spirit from the body. The Bible also talks about spiritual death. And that is separation of your soul and spirit
from God, forever. And
so, people can be spiritually dead, that is, separated from
God, and even be living and breathing and their hearts pumping
their blood through their bodies. And yet your body could die and be turning to
dust and you could be very much alive with God [again, this
is one interpretation of a bunch of Scriptures that differ
from each other on this subject-whether the spirit's of believers
are conscious or unconscious in heaven.
The Ecclesiastes interpretation coupled to 1st
Corinthians 15 would be interpreted as those that die
in the Lord rest in their graves (their bodies decay), their
human spirits, unconscious at death go to heaven, awaiting
the resurrection to immortality, and when these spirit's are
united with a new spirit body, made immortal, looking just
like the individuals when they were alive, but shining like
the stars and now immortal. One instant the person was dead, the next conscious
moment the person is being resurrected into an immortal body
and is conscious again, never being aware of the passage of
time from his or her death to that of their resurrection to
immortality. I bring
this other interpretation out simply because it is another
way to interpret passages that cover this subject, yet conflict
with each other. The
final outcome-whether our spirits upon our deaths are conscious
with God in heaven, or unconscious with God in heaven-is exactly
the same at the point of our resurrection at Jesus Christ's
2nd coming, talked of in 1 Corinthians 15:49-56. So this is a totally secondary doctrine, since
passages covering the subject conflict with each other and
it involves mere spiritual nano-seconds of our existence when
compared to living on into eternity.
I don't take sides in this debate, I merely make observations
for the sake of the entire body of Christ that dwells online,
knowing some believe one way, and others believe another way.
And when it's unimportant, I point it out, as editor
of this site. This
site is all about unity in the core gospel of Christ, and
freedom of belief for the many diverse secondary doctrines
of the Bible. 99 percent of what's being taught in this section
covering Romans 6 through 8 is primary gospel of salvation,
gospel of Christ information, essential for one's salvation. Personally, I'm just as curious as the next
guy about what really happens to my human spirit when I die. I'm not worried about the being saved part,
but I'm not going to be dogmatic on the subject when the Bible
isn't dogmatic about it.]
So, it's
sort of a strange contradiction.
The Bible teaches us that we have died, been separated
from sin. Specifically, verse 6 says our own sinful self,
"knowing this" verse 6, "that our old self" or "the old man"
as one version says, or if you got that new feminist version
"the old woman" (just teasing) "was crucified with him."
That's your old nature.
A nature is what makes you what you are.
A nature makes you do certain things, produce certain
things, act a certain way. An apple tree isn't a pear tree because it's
a different nature. A
dog isn't a sheep because there's a different nature.
You can train a dog do funny sheep things, but you
know when he gets a chance he's going to just go back to his
old dog-ish ways. Jesus
Christ came, he broke sins power in your life. And I'm talking to Christians this morning.
If you don't consider yourself a born-again Christian
just listen along, because you're going to see why it's
so important to be a Christian.
Christianity is talking about a change of nature. The Bible says if anybody comes into Christ,
that person becomes a new "species" of human being. That's what 2nd Corinthians 5:17
says, a brand new species, you are different, it's a differentiation
on the inside. There
is a new command center. The
old command center of the old nature is dead, it died when
you accepted Christ. And you don't have an old nature anymore.
But you say, 'But I'm still struggling with old things
Mark!' I'm going to
get to that today. But
it's not a nature that's making you do those things.
You have a new nature in Christ.
Colossians chapter 1, verse 13 says "For he delivered
you out of the kingdom of darkness"-the domain of darkness-"and
transferred into the kingdom of his beloved Son."
We've been delivered from the domain of darkness.
We are no longer-in fact, we shouldn't be calling ourselves
sinners anymore. We
should call ourselves what the Bible calls us, and that is
saints.
That's what the Bible calls Christians, saints. So you can greet each other either 'brother'
so and so, 'sister' so and so, or 'saint Mark, come here.' But actually the Bible calls Christians saints,
not because they never sin, but because they don't have a
sin nature anymore. They
are saints, they are holy ones, and Christ is in us.
Jesus Christ indwells us, and you've been set free
from your old sinful nature. Regardless of what the psychologists say, I
don't care what the self-help groups say, you have been set
free in Christ. This
means more to me than anybody else's books.
This means more to me than anybody else's theories.
[Pastor Mark must be holding up his Bible.]
I base my life on "Thus says the Word, thus says the
Lord." And you need to get your life in line with the
Word. It is a square
by which you build your spiritual house.
The square [as in T-square] of the Word of God is going
to go to line.you don't bend the square to make a crooked
wall match it, you change the wall to match the square.
Right [all you builders]? For some of us our thinking is off, and we need
to get it aligned to the Word of God.
He has set us free from sin, we died to sin. Verse
7 says, "for he who has died is"-read it with me-"freed
from sin." And you
look again at verse 18, read it
with me, "and having been freed from
sin, you became slaves of righteousness."
And finally the first part of verse 22, "But now having been freed from sin." We have been freed from sin. It's not "Oh God, free me from sin!" You have been freed from sin, you little turkey!
[laughter] Read the Word! 'Well then why does sin still bug me!?' 'Why am I still tempted?' 'Why do I still want to do some things that
I know I shouldn't be doing?
Why!? Why!? Why!?'
Well, before we talk about it, I just want you to understand,
you have a new Master, you've been freed from the old 'master',
the slavemaster of sin. Remember,
you have gone through a spiritual emancipation proclamation
much like the Blacks in the Confederate States experienced
during the Civil War [I would say, after the Civil War, to
be more accurate]. They were declared free, now they needed to
act like free men, and they.it was a little more complicated
for them, they had to try to make their way to free land [which
most of them couldn't till after the end of the war].
But you don't have the old master whipping you, saying
'Now boy, jump boy! Jump boy!' You don't have to jump for him anymore, because
he's not your master, you don't live in his land anymore,
there's a fence between you, barbed wire, electrified.
[I would say that there's a sea between you and your
old master, the Red Sea.]
And you're freed from sin, you don't have to do those
things anymore. You
don't have a nature in you to sin anymore, a nature that controls
you anymore. It's like
we said last week, it's like having a new boss.
We don't work for "S.I.N. Incorporated" anymore.
OK? But the old boss calls you up at 2a.m. in the
morning, and you're so used to him calling you up at all hours
of the night telling you 'All right, now, we need you to come
to the office right now. We need you to do this, we need you to do that!'
And you're so used to doing it, that you hop out of
bed, get your pants halfway up, you know, and then you realize
'Wait a minute. I quit
that job. I'm out of that, I don't work for them anymore.
What I'm I doing? I've got a new job with normal human hours.
What am I doing? Oh, I'm so used to living the old way.' You have a new boss. You don't have to do what the old boss tells
you anymore. Doesn't
that make sense? How
many of you have changed jobs in the last year?
Raise your hands. Look at this.
A lot of job changes.
Now if the old boss calls you and told you to go and
do something for him, like he used to do, what would you say
to him? 'Get lost!'
(Someone said, 'Can I have my old job back.'
[laughter]-No.) We have a new nature. We've gone from being dogs to being God's sheep.
No matter how much you try to fix up the dog and paint
its toenails and fluff its fur, and put bows in its ears,
the dog's still going to go out and do doggy things, isn't
he. He's a dog, and that's all he's going to want.
He's not going to want to eat sheep food.
Sheep food is grass. Dogs only eat grass when they're sick. Right? It's
just like the unbeliever, the only time they run to the Word
is when they're sick-'Oh, I'm dying, read a Bible, quick,
read the 23rd Psalm to me, would you?
I'm sick.' You see, when dogs are sick, they desire grass.
The minute they get well, they don't want it anymore.
But you see, a sheep loves sheep things.
I mean, if you'd tell the dog 'How about walking among
green pastures, and walking beside still waters?
How about following the shepherd?'
A dog would go 'How boring.
No way!' But a sheep, man, that sounds like fun stuff
to a sheep, 'Yeah, green pastures, yum!'
'Still waters, yeah!'
'I don't like those raging rivers.'
'Following the shepherd, that's not bahhh'd.' [laughter]
So sheep love that.
I've often wondered how a caterpillar, how it feels
to go from being a caterpillar to a butterfly?
I wonder what kind of things the caterpillar goes through
on the inside. I mean,
when I was a kid we had a lot of Monarch butterflies in southern
Oregon, it's just really neat to live in a place where there
are things like that, and your children can see.
And I remember watching the little striped caterpillars
as they were munching on milkweed, and I decided one day I
would try some of that milkweed they were munching on.
'Yuck! Ooh, it's bitter!' 'Ooh, it's so bitter, and you can't.' I spit trying to get the taste out of my mouth.
It's sort of like eating dandelions, if you know what
a dandelion is. A dandelion
in Arizona is like a precious flower, but [laughter] in green
places it's a weed. But
it's got a white milky kind of sap in it, you know, and it's
just as bitter as it can be. And
yet that's what the caterpillar, crawling, he munches on the
bitterness of life. But
then the day comes when he dies to that old self, he dies,
and he hangs himself, literally, doesn't he.
And he gets into that cocoon, and in the chrysalis
change a whole new creation is made, and out comes, you know,
after a period of time, you know what happens, a butterfly
emerges. Now what if
the butterfly came out and he still was thinking like a caterpillar? It just hit me funny thinking about that.
And you see this butterfly crawling on his little butterfly
knees, he's crawling. And he's coming up to a milkweed plant, and
he doesn't even have a mouth to eat that stuff anymore, and
he's trying to gnaw on a milkweed plant.
And along comes another butterfly and he says 'Hey,
Bud' whatever you call
a butterfly, Bud, the butterfly, 'Hey, what are you doing?'
'Well, I'm trying to eat.' 'Why? You're
a butterfly now. You've
got wings. What are
you doing crawling? How
embarrassing to see a butterfly crawl.
Stand up and fly.' 'I don't feel like I have wings. I feel the same.' 'You're not the same, though! A change has taken place.' 'But I don't feel different. In fact, I sort have got a craving for milkweed.'
'Yeah, but you're a butterfly.
Hey I'm sipping nectar, that's what we're supposed
to be eating. What
are you doing, you nut!' And
you give him a kick in the butterfly butt, behind, or whatever
a butterfly has [laughter], and you tell him to get moving,
man, start flying. And, ah, maybe that's the reason why Romans
6, 7 and 8 are written, to give us a little kick in our little
butterfly behinds, and tell us to get flying-get going.
Because you're not who you used to be before Christ. OK, that was review. Now new territory.
Sin does
not reign over us-it's not our master, it's not our boss! We're not caterpillars, we're new creations,
we have a new master. We're
free from the old, it can't tell us what to do anymore.
Even though sin does not reign over us, it does remain
in us. Verse 6, "Knowing this,
that our old self"-the old nature-"was crucified with him that
our body of sin"-now that's something different from the old nature-the
"body of sin," as some translations say, "the body the sin indwells"-the body that sin lives in, that's
this body that we live in-"knowing
that our body of sin might be done away with [margin: rendered powerless]." Though
I am a new creation, though I don't have a sinful nature anymore,
I still have sin living in me.
That's why, it explains why even though I'm free and
I have a new nature, I still struggle with sin, I still struggle
with feelings of sometimes wanting to do things that I don't
really want to do. But
I do them sometimes. Even
after the new birth, even after we've been given a new nature,
sin remains in our bodies. These bodies aren't born-again. And the bodies don't get to go to heaven.
They have to be changed, they have to be transformed
[in the resurrection to immortality] before they can get to
heaven. So if you leave
before the Lord comes, you leave the body, because it can't
go to heaven the way it is, it hasn't been born again.
And if the Lord does return while you're alive, you're
body is changed instantly-1st Corinthians 15 says-in
a moment and a twinkling of an eye-because sin inhabits this
body, it can't go to heaven the way it is.
Look at verse 6, it talks about the body
of sin,
the body that sin inhabits.
Verse 12 tells us that sin wants to reign in our mortal
bodies. Well this of course leads to Civil War. You knew that there was something going on inside
you. Yes! It's civil war. Look at Romans chapter 7. Verse
20, the
last part says, ".sin dwells in me." See that? Chapter 7:20, the last part ".sin dwells in me."
Look at verse
21, "I find there the principle that evil is present"-where?-"in
me." Look at verse 23, it says, "I see a different law in
the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind." Now let's go up to the top, verse 14. Sin indwells our bodies, but it's not a sin nature. We're going to see that Paul
calls it "the flesh." Doesn't
have the power of a nature.
Verse 14, "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of
flesh, sold into bondage of sin.
For that which I am doing I do not understand, for
I am not practicing what I want to do, but I'm doing the very
thing I hate."
Now, some
of you thought you weren't Christians because you have said
that very thing. "I'm
doing the very thing I hate!"
And Satan's right there to say "Yeah, some Christian
you are! What makes
you think you're a Christian?
Why you're not doing what you want to do, and you said
you're doing the thing you don't want to do.
You're not a Christian!
Get out of here!" No, that is evidence that you are a Christian.
One of the greatest evidences of being a Christian
with a new
nature is that's there's now something to fight the body of sin, fight the flesh
now. The flesh, see,
when you had a sin nature, the flesh and the sin nature were
just right together, de-dum, de-dum, de-dum, you know.
There was perfect contentment, perfect harmony, perfect
accord-Oh, it's wonderful!-Oh they had a wonderful relationship
together. But now,
you've got a new nature. The
new nature does not sin, 1st John tells us. And so the flesh now is finding itself living
with a Roomy it doesn't like.
OK? And there's a fight that goes on. And you don't do the things you want to do sometimes.
Let's read on. Let's read on, this is very important. "I'm doing the thing I hate." Verse
16, "For if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree
with the law, the will of God, confessing that it is good.
So now"-read it-"no longer am I the one doing it, BUT SIN WHICH INDWELLS ME"-Hallelujah! Do you
understand? This is
what I've been telling you!
He's saying, 'Look, the real me isn't wanting to sin!
The real I doesn't want to sin.
I agree with God's law!
I agree with God's will!' (I'm sorry, I'm excited. I get loud.
Sound like a Baptist preacher.
Brother. No,
they're OK.) But it's not me doing it. He says, 'Look' in verse 18 and 17, 'So no longer
am I, the real new born-again me, the new creature me, I'm
not the one doing it.' What's
doing it? 'Sin which indwells me is doing it.' Verses
17-18 of Romans 7 (NIV), "As it is, it is no longer I myself
who do it, but it is sin living in me.
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my
flesh (margin). For I have the desire to do what is good, but
I cannot carry it out." Verse
20, "Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer
I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it." Do you see guys? You
wouldn't believe me when I said you don't have an old nature
anymore, because you were still feeling this type of war. You said, 'Oh Mark, I'm not so sure.' You just weren't waiting long enough to hear.
The Bible is telling you, 'OK, let's say you've got
an alcohol problem, and you're a Christian now. You have a new nature. You're not enslaved to that anymore. But your flesh wants it. But you can say as a Christian "I am not the
one doing this. It's
the flesh." I don't have a nature problem, no my nature
agrees with the will of God.
I've got a flesh problem.
I've got a body of sin to deal with, and now in the
next few weeks we're going to talk about how to deal with
this body of sin that we've got.
Hey, you deal with the nature by accepting Christ. Amen? You
get a new nature by accepting Christ and the old nature dies. You get a nature that wants to do the will of
God and Christ dwells in you.
But, now after you're a Christian you still have this
body of sin and you're going to have it until the day you
die and go to be with the Lord, here either by the Lord's
return or by death, you're going to fight the flesh.
There's
something inside each of us that responds to sin. Now the sin can't control you through the command
center anymore, Christ has taken over the command center. OK? So,
sin thinks 'Aah, I've got to get control again, Aaagh, I've
got to get control.' And
so sin uses the body to try to get control.
Now the body doesn't have the power of a nature.
You see a body doesn't make you what you are.
You're nature is what makes you what you are. Your body tries to get the power of a nature.
Now inside of us, each one of us, there's something
in us that responds to sin. [Personally, considering Satan's evil broadcast
onto the "wavelength" of the "spirit of man", I believe this
evil broadcast is the sin that enters our "body", it is the
"body of sin". It enters into our minds through our human spirit,
but finds Christ already dwelling there via the Holy Spirit
that now indwells us-thus the conflict.
Our human spirit has now combined with the Spirit of
Christ, the Holy Spirit. So the sinful broadcast pulls on our flesh,
but we have the nature of Christ in us.
Look at Romans 8:16, "The Spirit himself testifies
with our spirit that we are God's children."]
We think, 'What is the matter with me?'
'Why do I respond like that?'
And you know, the flesh.
I look at it, like, inside of me there is this guitar
with 12 strings, OK. And
there's this guitar inside of me, and these instruments are
very interesting, they're, the music they produce is produced
by vibrations of the sound waves.
And even as I'm talking into this [he's talking into
the opening of a guitar] the strings are responding to, it's
called, sympathetic vibrations. They're responding to my voice. They're responding. OK? And
if Tim were to go blow his trumpet and blow a G, you would
feel the strings vibrate, they pick up on that sound.
Now my head doesn't vibrate.
But there is in me something, this is the flesh, the
Bible calls this the flesh.
[What he is talking about is that we are in tune with
this world. There are
a few explanations of how that happens.
I personally prefer the idea that Satan has filled
this earth with his evil broadcast of wrath, wrong sexual
desires, sinful nature-all described in Galatians 5:19-21.
The "wave-length" Satan puts his broadcast on is that
of the human spirit, the spirit in man talked of by Paul in
Romans 8 and 1 Corinthians 2. This "law of sin" is really broadcast into us
by Satan. Our sin nature
has been shut off by accepting Jesus, Yeshua into our lives.
But it does not turn off Satan's broadcast into our
human spirit. This would explain the war going on inside of
us, Satan, the world and our flesh, all warring against our
new godly nature in Christ.
This explanation in no way goes against what Pastor
Mark is saying.] The
Bible calls this the flesh.
Look at Romans 7, verse 18, "For I know that nothing
good dwells in me, that is"-where-"in my flesh.
For the wishing is present in me, but the doing of
the good is not. For the good that I wish to do I don't do, but
I practice the very evil that I do not wish." I mean, this is a born-again person. "But if I am doing the very thing that I don't
wish"-he's got a new nature, he doesn't want to do those things
anymore-"I am no longer the one doing it, but"-who is doing
it?-"sin which indwells me."
Verse 21, "I find then the principle that evil is present
in me, the one who wishes to do the good." In other words, I've got a new nature. Verse
22, "For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner
man of my new nature, but I see a different law in the members
of my body, the flesh, waging war against the law of my mind,
my new nature, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin
which is in my members"-that's the flesh. This is incredible, guys! If you get a grip on this it will change your
life. What he's saying
is, there is the flesh, you are born again, but the flesh
was left. OK? And
sin works through the flesh.
And there will be, even in a Christian-even as I'm
talking I feel these strings vibrating, obviously you can't
feel them vibrate, but I can feel the strings vibrate.
Sometimes when they forget to turn the snare off on
the drums, and they start playing music, the snare starts
snaring. [The human
spirit gives the human brain its intellectual and computing
power. It is directly connected to "the flesh" in the
sense that our flesh is controlled directly by the brain. The actual flesh in a body is nothing, unless
it is controlled by the human brain.
The human brain is given its vast intellectual and
computing power by the invisible human spirit that resides
in each of us. Satan
can broadcast into that human spirit, thus our "flesh" comes
under his broadcast influence, just like sound waves are influencing
those guitar strings. Just
like radio waves influence a radio receiver.
Again, this explanation does not disagree with what
Pastor Mark is saying.] Why does the snare do that? Well, it's vibrating sympathetically. OK? And
so what happens is, temptation comes [who is the great tempter?]
and it vibrates your strings.
OK? It comes by, and you sympathetically, you hear
the sound, and you begin to vibrate with it. And you wonder, 'Man, what's the matter with
me? I thought I was
a Christian. And here I am vibrating to sin. I'm responding to sinful temptation. How could I have a thought like that and still
be a Christian? Because
you still have the flesh.
[Here's a Bible example of God placing a thought within
the mind of king Cyrus. God was moving Cyrus to do this by placing a
thought directly into his mind via his human spirit. Read 2 Chronicles 36:22, ".the Lord moved the
heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout
his realm." Also the
same description is repeated in Ezra 1:1.
Cyrus obviously did not have the Holy Spirit indwelling
in him, he was a pagan king, so God had to communicate to
him through his human spirit.
The human spirit can also receive signals from Satan's
evil broadcast. The
world vibrates sympathetically to his evil broadcast which
is described in Galatians 5:19-21.
That's how evil thoughts come into our minds, sometimes
without us understanding where they have come from, cf. Revelation
12:9] Every Christian
has the flesh to deal with.
You see a pretty girl, and you're strings start to
vibrate "Oh", you know.
Vibration is one thing, you know.
Getting down and really fueling the thought onward,
that's a another thing all together. You know, temptation may come and vibrate your
strings, and then you can say "No!".
Like once in a while you'll hear the music, and then
you can say 'No.' Like
once in a while you'll hear the musicians, they'll goof up,
you know, and what do they do?-they go "Oh!" and stop.
Usually Tim does it during prayer.
But they stop it immediately.
And so when temptation comes and your strings vibrate,
"No! I'm in control.
I don't have to play the whole song-'I' am nothin'
but a sinnner, sinnin' all day.'" That's not who you are anymore. You're a new creation in Christ. But you do have the flesh in you. And it will vibrate sympathetically to sin,
temptation comes and the flesh will go 'Oooh,' vibrate, vibrate
'Yes, yes, yes, yes', you know.
'No, no, I'm not gonna sin.
I'm choosing not to do that.' If you do the same thing with a piano, it won't
work with these electronic keyboards, but a real piano, if
you take any musical instrument like a trumpet and you lift
the lid of the piano and you blow, play a strong C or B, you
blow that note into that piano, the strings will re-vibrate
the same sound back sympathetically. Now, were they played? No. See,
that's what bugs us as Christians.
We think 'I didn't play the note, so why is it there? Why is the sound there? I must not even be saved.' No. Your
flesh, you didn't play the note.
That's right. But
your flesh is in sympathy with sin.
And so when the right vibration comes, your flesh will
sympathetically vibrate with it until you say "NO!", you say
"No." See, Christ died,
not just to give us a new nature, but to give us victory over
the flesh as well. He
condemned sin in the flesh, we're told.
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