Good morning to you, Saints. What a wonderful joy it is for us to be together. There would be no other place that I would desire to be on the Lord's day than to be in the company of God's people. Amen. What a privilege it is that I trust that we would never take for granted that God gathers his people together. out of the redemption of his son, he shed blood that he would make us one, that we could come together and hear his word, preach to us and talk to us, and we can respond to him by singing. And what a glorious singing we've already experienced this morning, amen. Well, it's time for us to turn to God's word. So I invite all of you, if you have a Bible, to turn in your Bible and join me in Romans chapter eight, Romans chapter eight. I want to read in our hearing this morning the text that will be set before us in verses 12 to 14. And when you get there, just give me a hearty amen. This is God's word to us this morning. Let us hear him. Paul writes, so then brethren, We are under obligation, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." Let us pray. Father, we bless you for the privileged opportunity to worship you. And we come now and ask that you would gird up the loins of our minds and grant us the grace to think your thoughts after you. Bless us, Lord, by speaking to us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. For the story is told of an old black Baptist itinerant preacher who did a series of revival tent meetings in the deep south. If you know anything about those meetings, they were not necessarily characterized by the most sound theology. The people would come out expecting to experience all kind of supernatural occurrences and the speaking of strange tongues and this black Baptist preacher started his ministry and and sent out some flyers and invited people in. And they all came out expecting to see so-called healings and hear strange tongues and experience miracles. But this preacher's meeting was different. And as he stood up at the pulpit, this is what he said. I know y'all didn't come looking for some extraordinary signs. But I'm here to tell you all I'm going to do today is tell you how the Holy Ghost teaches you how to live like Jesus. Say that again. I know y'all didn't come looking for a whole lot of extraordinary things today, but I'm going to tell you, all I'm going to do is tell you how the Holy Ghost teaches you how to live like Jesus. Now, his grammar and his diction May not been all that great, but his theology was rock solid. He had it square in his mind that the primary ministry of the Holy Spirit is not to give God's people spiritual goosebumps, to give us ecstatic experiences, but to teach us and to help us live like Jesus. And as we come to our text this morning, as we come to the glory of the Holy Spirit and the doctrine of sanctification, that's what this not-so-old black preacher is here to tell you, is that the Holy Spirit comes to his people, is given to his people to help us to live like Jesus. And that's what the Apostle Paul is on about here in this text. We heard the review of Romans from our dear brother, and I just want to tease that out just a little bit. I agree totally with Pastor Tom on how to think about the book and so forth. The first seven chapters of the book of Romans, Paul has been laboring under the theme of the gospel of God. I agree that that's the theme of the book which is listed for us in Romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 7 where Paul says, you know it well for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe to the Jew first and also to the Greek for in it The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it stands written, the just shall live by faith. And so from that point on in chapter 1, verses 18, all the way to chapter 3, verse 21, what Paul does is he tells us why we need the righteousness of God. In other words, in and of ourselves, whether religious or unreligious, whether Jew or Greek, all of us fall short of the glory of God. We are justly condemned under the thrice holy God because of our sins. And there is no amount of good works that we could ever do that would change that. All of us, all of us, the entire world, because of our corrupt nature, our fallenness in Adam, deserve the just condemnation of God. But gloriously, in chapter 3, verse 21, Paul turns the table and he shows us the redemption that is secured for us in and through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ is set forth as the propitiation for our sins. He took on himself the wrath of God that was due each one of us because of our sins. Hallelujah, what a Savior. And Paul articulates that and then begins to unfold for the rest of chapter 3 into chapter 4 and into chapter 5 the doctrine of justification by faith alone. That God justifies the ungodly by imputing to the repentant sinner's account the righteousness of Jesus Christ. How amazing is that? That God in Christ both met and satisfied his own standard of righteousness and offers it to the repentant sinner by faith and faith alone, apart from any works of the law. Praise God. And as Paul continues to write, he then moves into chapter 6, and chapter 7, and chapter 8, and begins to unfold the outworking of justification under the doctrine of sanctification. That is to say that we are not only justified by faith alone, but we are also sanctified by faith alone. God begins the process to make us more in thought, word, and in deed like Jesus Christ by providing for us the Holy Spirit. And what a wonderful, wonderful climax that we have as we come then to chapter 8. And what we see in chapter 8 as a summary in some senses of all that the Apostle Paul has been on about is in verse 1. Look there in your Bibles if they're still open. Look at verse 1 as Paul says there, Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now, I don't know about you, but that's the most wonderful, definitive declaration that I can imagine. That's the banner under which all true believers live under. Therefore, there is now, right now, currently, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And if there was ever a time when the people of God say amen, it would be now. I am not into, loved ones, Christian T-shirts, but if I were into Christian T-shirts, that would be the T-shirt that I would have, with over the front and over the back. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for me. God is not gonna ever punish me for any sins that I've done, because he's already punished his own son on my behalf. I am now free from the justice and the wrath of God, and now in Christ, I am his own beloved son. Hallelujah. What a Savior. And Paul is laboring then through the rest of chapter 8 just to articulate the summary of all that he has said. And let me just give you a way to think about chapter 8. And Pastor Tom did so in a wonderful way. And my outline is not too dissimilar from him. But it would be helpful for you guys just to keep this in mind as we look at our passage. And so I have five S's for you. This might be just helpful as you think through chapter 8. The first S is salvation, and that's verses 1-3, salvation, where Paul rehearses the salvation that we have in Christ Jesus. And then the second S is sanctification, verses 4-14. And then sonship that our brother Conrad would pick up a little later today in verses 15 and 17. And then suffering, verses 18 to verse 25. And then finally, the security in verses 26 through 39. That's the way. And all of that, brothers and sisters, all of that is ours. in Christ and because of the gospel. We have salvation. We will be sanctified. We are the sons and daughters of God. And in fact, we suffer, but we don't have to fret in our suffering because God will keep us secure. Another way to think about it is this way, and Pastor Tom talked about this, what makes this chapter so glorious is that we have in the bookends, in chapter eight, verse one, we have, therefore there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. And at the end of the chapter, you see in verse 30 now, and we would, nothing could ever happen to us that will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. No condemnation, no separation. And in between that is where we live. How glorious is this gospel. That's why it is the power of God unto salvation. Because God has done all things to bring us unto himself in and through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. How could it be that a sinner like me could stand before a holy God completely set free because of Christ? But I'm not only set free, brothers and sisters, from the condemnation that was mine because of my sins, but I'm set free from sin itself. I'm set free from sin itself. In our sins, we were slaves to it while we walked in the flesh. And what Paul is doing as he unfolds chapter 8 is now telling us that we are also set free from that sin. That's what sanctification is all about. Sanctification is the reality that we have been set apart from sin, set apart from everything that is defiling, and set unto God to be made pure and holy like Him. And so as we come to our text, I want us to see under this sanctification four headings, or if you want to title it this way or think about it this way, four aspects of our sanctification to help us glory in the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we're going to look at the aim of our salvation. If you're taking notes, you can write this down. The aim of our sanctification, the identity of our sanctification, the obligation of our sanctification, and the power of our sanctification. Now, let me hasten to say this because this is important as we think about the glory of the Holy Spirit. As you read through chapter 8, you will note that it is all about the Holy Spirit. that prior to chapter eight, Paul has talked about the Spirit maybe three times. Sometimes it's the Spirit, and we can't really tell whether it's the Holy Spirit or the human spirit, but he's only mentioned the Holy Spirit three times. Prior to chapter eight, he mentions the Holy Spirit nine times, but in chapter eight, the Holy Spirit is mentioned 20 plus times, which leads us to understand, then, that it is the Holy Spirit's chapter, that all that we just talked about, salvation, and sanctification and sonship and suffering and security does not happen apart from the Holy Spirit. And we'll see that as we work our way through this text. He is the common denominator of all that is ours in and through Christ Jesus. So first of all, Let's look together at the aim of our sanctification, the aim of our sanctification. Now, what I want to do here, and children, don't try this at home, what I want to do is step out of the immediate context and go into the broader context. I recognize that this point isn't flooring from the text, but I think the point is helpful for us because I want to just show you that sanctification is just not this cold, stale, doctrine that's detached from the heart of the Apostle Paul. I want you to understand when Paul writes about sanctification, he's writing out of a pastor's heart. He's writing out of a heart that's filled with worship so that you would understand that as you go through the process of sanctification, it is an act or actions of worship to God. So join me in chapter 15 for a brief moment. see what the aim of our sanctification is or the trajectory of our sanctification, where our sanctification is going. And Paul writes in chapter 15, in verse 15, listen to his words here, he says, but I have written very boldly to you on some points So as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given to me from God. Listen to this. This is how Paul views himself and his ministry of the gospel and sanctification. He says, this grace was given to me from God to be a minister of the gospel, a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest, the gospel of God. so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, listen to this, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. I want you just to hear his heart. Paul is saying this, he's adopting the language from the Old Testament cultic worship. He says, I'm seeing myself as a priest who has been entrusted with the gospel of God, the gospel which is the power of God unto salvation, and I'm called to minister this gospel to the Gentiles and my aim in ministering this gospel to the Gentiles is that they might be saved and that they might be sanctified and one day I might present them as an acceptable offering to God. Do you see? He isn't just talking about sanctification detached from life and detached from worship of God He believes with every fiber of his being that his ministry lies at the heart of calling out of people through the gospel seeing that people saved and then sanctified by the Holy Spirit and made an acceptable sacrifice to God My point brothers and sisters in pointing us here is for you to know that that's where you are headed all of us, each one of us who have truly been born again. Our sanctification is leading us somewhere. It is an act of worship to God. There will be a day that will come when all of God's true born-again children will be raised up to Him and He will receive us as an offering pleasing in His sight, an offering bringing Him delight and joy because we have been sanctified. And the text says, Paul says, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit is going to accomplish our sanctification. And I know sometimes it doesn't necessarily seem like that in the daily grind of the sanctification. But that's the trajectory that all of us who have trusted in Christ is headed in. We will be offered to God and he will receive us as a pleasing aroma to himself because of the work of the Holy Spirit. And let the church say, amen. We can be confident. that this gospel that is the power of God and this spirit that has been given to us will, in fact, accomplish its goal in bringing a people called out from the world, made in thought, word, and deed, like Jesus Christ, we will make it to glory and be presented to God and He will accept us. How glorious that as a motivation as we think about who we are and what the Spirit does in our lives. Small wonder then that Paul says in Romans chapter 12, keeping the theme of worship, I urge you brethren by the mercies of God and the mercies of God is everything that he said after chapter 3 verse 21 up to the end of chapter 8. I beseech you by those mercies to present your bodies a living and holy and acceptable to God sacrifice which is your spiritual service of worship. That as we present ourselves to God in thought, word, and in deed, in our full bodies and our souls to God, it is our reasonable act of worship. So I want you to think about, then, sanctification as an act of worship. It's our response to the gospel, and it's our worship to God out of gratitude for the gospel. And the Holy Spirit produces this in our lives. So let's go back to our text, brothers and sisters. Romans chapter 8 as we reflect and see more specifically just what the call is in this sanctification that the Holy Spirit will produce in our lives. So that leads us, brothers and sisters, from the aim of our sanctification to what next I'm calling the identity of our sanctification. I'm going to work backwards into the text. I hope that's okay because I think what Paul says in verse 14 is undergirding everything that he says in verse 12 and 13 and the point here in verse 14 let me read it for you where Paul says for all who are being led by the Spirit of God these are the sons of God that's attached to the verses you know this because of the four it's explanatory but it's also the basis for what he says in verses 12 through 13 let me explain it this way If you don't know who you are, you won't understand how you're supposed to live. I'll say it again. If you don't know who you are, you won't understand how you're supposed to live. My daddy, and some of you guys can relate to this, used to say to me all the time, boy, when you leave this house, never forget who you are. And I knew exactly what he meant by that. He meant that this, I am his son. And so when I go out there into the world, don't lose your mind because you represent me. You know who you are and that helps you live the way that you're supposed to live. And what Paul is saying here in verse 14 is simply this, that we are the sons of God led by the spirit of God. Therefore, our lives should match that reality. Paul's whole point here, and it's a thread that runs through the tapestry of this section, is that we are a part of the family of God, and the family of God lives holy lives. Let me help you see just this idea of how we are part of the same family. In verse 13, we're back in Romans 8, in verse 13, Or in verse 12, you see the word brethren, we'll come back to that. Brethren, we're brothers and sisters. In verse 14, as I mentioned, we're called sons of God, that includes daughters. In verse 15, you will see it there, we've received the spirit of adoption and God is now our father. In verse 16, we're called children of God. In verse 17, we're called heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. In verse 19, we're called sons of God again. In verse 21, we're called children of God. Do you guys get the point? Paul is hammering home that sanctification is family business, do you see? That all of us who are true believers, all of us who are brothers and sisters because of our union and communion with Christ are being sanctified. That's who we are. Therefore, this is how we are supposed to live. And this is so helpful as we'll look in a minute to our obligation to put the death, the deeds of the body. We have to realize that killing the flesh is evidence of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Being a son and daughter of God and sanctification, those are tied together. It's the root from which sanctification flows, your identity. Don't ever forget that. You have been saved. and you have been called into a living relationship with God, and you are now a son and or a daughter of God, and your Father has given to you His Spirit so that you might live like Him. What an amazing privilege for us, brothers and sisters. Notice back at verse 14 when Paul says, for all who are being led by the Spirit, these are sons of God. The little phrase that these are literally means these and only these are the sons of God. And this is something that we just really need to latch on to, because sometimes people get the wrong idea of sanctification. Sometimes people, even unconscious to themselves, can think that their sanctification leads to their sonship. In other words, they're viewing their sonship predicated upon their sanctification. That's the wrong way to think about it. Don't do it that way. It's not, okay, I'm being sanctified, therefore I'm becoming a son. You are a son, therefore you are being sanctified, do you see? So you stay away from this works righteousness mentality and realizing that now I'm already in Christ, a son of God, therefore I'm not thinking about my, if I can put it this way, my sanctification as the ground of my justification and my regeneration. But it's flowing out from that. And so that sets me free not to be so concerned. Am I saved? Am I not saved? Am I saved? Am I not saved? You guys heard if you were here in our Q&A and Pastor Kerry had asked Pastor Conrad to review a statement that he made to us brothers as We were together in the pre-conference and one of the things that he said is that a young man came up to him confessing just a struggle of sin. He was bowing with sin and he was doubting his salvation and Pastor Conrad had to put his hand over his mouth because they had a big smile on his face. Why was he smiling? He was smiling because what this young man didn't understand is that the struggle itself was proof that he's already a son of the living God. Do you see? And so we don't get discouraged in the struggle, but the struggle is evident of our identity in Christ, because when we weren't in Christ, there was no struggle. We freely just did what our flesh compelled us to do. There was no struggle. Yeah, every now and again, because of the consequences of our sin, we maybe tried to do some self-reformation, but we delighted in our sin and in our rebellion against God. But when God saved us and we became a child of the living God, the struggle then began. And as we are being led by the Spirit of God, what that simply means there, brothers and sisters, he's not so much talking there about being led by the Spirit of God in terms of, the providence of God, and what school to go to, or who to marry, or what house to buy. That's not what he's talking about. I'm not suggesting that the Holy Spirit isn't involved in that. But when Paul says, for all those who are being led by the Spirit of God, it's led in the moral will of God is what he's referring to there. It's how the Spirit of God, if I could put it this way, to use an analogy, grabs us by the hand and leads us through the sinful dangers of this world. No, there's some jealousy. Don't go there. Go this way. No, there's some anger. Don't go that way. Go this way. He is leading us in the moral will of God as we follow Him. That's how the Holy Spirit leads us as His children. Some of you fathers understand that you are leading Maybe through just a mall or a crowd of people you grab your child's hand and you lead and you tell your child Hold on to daddy's hand follow me now every now and again. They want to just do what? Let go But it won't be long after they bump their head, they will come back and grab your hand. That's how we are. The Holy Spirit leads us. Every now and again we let go, but he is in fact leading us as his sons and daughters. So the aim of our sanctification, the identity of our sanctification, now let's focus in on the obligation of our sanctification. So we come then back to the text, moving back up into verse 12, where what Paul is doing is he's drawing a conclusion. He's drawing an inference from what he's just said in verses 1 through 11, particularly verses 11, where he's emphasizing that we have the Spirit of God. Look there, your Bibles are still open. Paul says in verse 11, but if the Spirit of Him who dwells in you you guys see it there if the spirit of him who raised jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised jesus christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you the spirit of god dwells in us and so paul says so then brethren we are under obligation. Do you see it there? We have an obligation, brothers and sisters. We have a duty to respond to all that God has done for us in Christ Jesus and to respond to the reality that the Spirit of God is in us. We have a solemn responsibility when it comes to our sanctification. There's an old adage that says it this way, with great privilege comes great responsibility. and we have been given great privilege all the way through as we rehearse some of it in chapters three all the way to chapter seven the privileges of the gospel and now our responsibility is to respond and i love this if you look again at verse 12 where paul says so then brethren we i love that paul includes himself doesn't he aren't you glad when you find little places there where it's the we and not just the you Because Paul is saying that I'm one of you, brothers and sisters, that all of us, all of us who call upon the name of the Lord have this responsibility. We are bound by duty. And this is our duty when we speak of the sanctification. And let me just pause for a moment to mention this. Now, we need to understand the difference of regeneration and sanctification in this sense, that regeneration is monergistic. I know you guys have been taught that word, monergistic, in this sense. We heard about this from Brother Conrad in John chapter 3, that the Spirit of God does all the work in regeneration. We add nothing to that. We don't cooperate with that any more than a baby cooperates with being born. You guys understand? If I put it this way, the mom does all the works and let the mothers in the room say, right. You see, I said mom and father, you get no credit for being in a room holding her hand. She does all the work. The baby does no work. It's the same in the spiritual realm with regeneration. The Spirit of God does all of the work of bringing us from death to life. But in sanctification, that's what's called synergistic. that the Spirit of God works and we cooperate with the power of the Spirit of God in sanctification. So sanctification, brothers and sisters, is not just simply let go and let God. Paul is calling us into a definitive and continual action of an obligation that we have to participate with what the Spirit of God is doing in our lives to set us apart from sin to make us pure and to make us holy. Each and every one of you, if you call yourself a Christian, have this responsibility. It is yours when it comes to being made holy. We see that here in the text. Now notice, as Paul speaks of the obligation, you would think Paul would say something like this, so then brethren, we are under obligation to follow the Holy Spirit, but that's not what he says. He speaks in the negative. Look at your Bibles and see it there. Paul says, so then, brethren, we are under obligation. Notice how he says it, the negative, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. So he takes up, if we can put it this way, the negative side of sanctification, which we'll see in a minute, in terms of putting to death the deeds of the body. In other words, he is saying this, as a result of now our union and communion with Christ, being set free from not only the penalty of sin, but being set free from the power of sin, being in Christ now, we are no longer obligated to follow the dictates of the flesh. We once were, brothers and sisters, as I said before, we were enslaved to the flesh. And let me just describe this. The flesh is just that fallen part of humanness. The flesh is mankind in rebellion against God. All of the inclinations and the desires that are contrary to the will and the way and the word of God. That's what the flesh is. And even though we are not in the flesh anymore, the flesh is still in us. Or maybe I can think about it this way. You can think about it this way. Although sin no longer reigns in us, sin remains in us. And that flesh that we are now set free from is still there, but we no longer have to obey it. That's his idea. Our obligation is no longer to it. Our obligation is to the Spirit. And here's the thought, brothers and sisters. Think about it this way. What has the flesh done for you lately? We don't owe it anything. When you were in the flesh, you were at war with God. We were rebellious toward his law. Our minds were captivated by everything that displeased God. We were living as dead men walking, headed for eternal destruction. That's what the flesh got us. It got us into trouble. It led us into anger. It led us into pornography. It led us into jealousy. It led us into broken relationships. It led us into further sin. And all we were filled with was guilt and shame. So why would we ever want to give to it anything? You are not obliged to follow it at all. The flesh can do nothing but lead individuals to death. So don't follow the flesh at all. Don't give yourself to the flesh to obey its wishes and give into its influences. As believers, we owe it nothing. That pattern of our old sinful life is now gone. We're set free from it. And Paul says, as he thinks about sanctification, that we are under obligation not to live in the pattern of the flesh. And so the question then is this, okay, Paul, thank you for that. So I'll just ignore the flesh, and of course it will just go away. No, it won't go away. Sin is still there in the flesh, and the base of its operation is our body. It doesn't go away. Paul knew that. So what Paul says under this obligation then is this, no, don't obey the flesh, but you can't ignore the flesh. But now you have to take war against the flesh, do you see? Look back at your Bible there in verse 13. And Paul says that if we are living according to the flesh, you must die. That's the inevitable outcome of those who are characterized by the flesh. Now, he's not talking about real believers. He's talking about those who are living according to the flesh. He just said that we don't live according to the flesh. If you go back and rehearse what he says in chapter eight, that is not our pattern of life. We live according to the spirit. And so why would we ever want to follow the flesh? Because we know how that ends. That ends not just in physical death, that ends in eternal death. So don't follow it. Rather, kill it. That's the language. It's the language of mortification. It's a violent word, brothers and sisters, there in your text, where Paul says, for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit, and we'll come to the Spirit in a moment, you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. That's our obligation, to put to death the deeds of the body. This idea of putting to death, as I said, is a language of warfare. The Westminster Confession categorized it like this, that as believers, we are in a continual and irreconcilable war. this calling to put to death the deeds of the flesh or to mortify the deeds of the flesh. Sinclair Ferguson commenting on this says this, the mindset we need to have is that we must be willing to break the neck of sin or to stab it through the heart or to pull out the weeds it sows knowing that what you will really feel when you do it is like feeling like you have died. You guys get the idea. It's a violent idea, a mindset that we take, that we attach to the struggle and fight against sin. Do you think that way when it comes to the remaining sin in your life? Or are you passive? There's no sense of passivity in this text at all, is there? It's an angry, violent attack against the deeds of the flesh. There is a story. It is really interesting, and you guys may have seen it. The movie is called 127. How many of you guys know about that movie? And if you don't know about it, then this illustration falls totally flat. I'll tell you about it. So it's a true story of a man by the name of Aaron Ralston. And as I mentioned, and you probably remember, he was hiking in the Utah mountains. And he slipped, and he fell, and he got his arm lodged under a giant boulder. Some of you guys are shaking your head, and you remember that. It's a true story. And he could not get his arm out of the boulder. And he stayed there almost about five hours, and he began to run out of water, and he started hallucinating everything. And then nobody was out in the middle of the desert, and nobody could hear him. And he began just to cry out in the crowd, and nobody could hear him. And so what he'd end up doing is he took a pocket knife. And I know this is not very good. But he did two things. We normally hear that he severed his arm off, and he did do that. But before he severed his arm off, he actually broke his own arm. He broke his own arm, and then he cut his own arm off. He climbed out of the canyon with one arm and walked about two or three miles until he saw someone that rescued him. True story. That's the violence. that Paul is talking about, that we have to have when it comes to our sin. It's the violence that Jesus, even before Paul wrote these words, mentioned. Let's look at it for a quick moment in Matthew's gospel, Matthew chapter 5. Here's Jesus' teaching on the real import of the law. Matthew chapter 5. Back up to verse 28 or verse 27, you have heard it was said you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If, listen to this, if your right eye makes you stumble, if your right eye makes you sin, tear it out and throw it from you. For it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for the whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you sin, cut it off and throw it from you, for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. Do you guys get the idea? That's from the lips of Jesus himself. Now he is not literally saying, please kids, I don't want to scare you guys if you guys go home. Mommy and Daddy, that preacher was spooky. He scared us. He's telling us to cut our arms off and pluck out our eyes. It's not literal. It's metaphorical of our disposition and our mindset and our responsibility to how we are to relate to the sins in our lives. We have to hate them that much. We have to be ruthless with our sins like that. Now, when Paul mentions deeds of the body, the question is, what is he talking about? What deeds of the body? Let me just survey them for a minute or two so we can get an idea of the sins that still remain within us, the potential that are there for these sins to drag us out and to behave in ways that aren't consistent with our identity in Christ. In Colossians 3, you don't have to turn to these texts, you can just mark them down and read them later. In Colossians 3, verse 5, Paul writes there, therefore, consider the members of your earthly body dead. A better translation there is, therefore, I think the King James maybe translated this way, therefore, mortify the members of your earthly body to immorality. Here they are, immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry." And then he drops down and in verse 80 says more, put them all aside. Anger, wrath, slander, abusive speech, do not lie to one another. Do you guys get the idea? All of that, parts of deeds of the body. Paul mentions again another list in Galatians chapter 5. These are the deeds that we have to put to death. He says this in Galatians 5.19, now the deeds of the flesh are evident which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. All, brothers and sisters, that is contrary to the holiness of God. we need to be putting them to death in our lives. And the good news, brothers and sisters, is that we don't have a dull pocket knife to put those things to death, but we have the sword of the Spirit. And that leads us then to our final aspect of sanctification, which is the power of our sanctification. Look back in Romans 8 again. of our sanctification. Paul isn't calling us to do this in our own strength. He says, therefore, if you are living according to the flesh, verse 13, you must die. But if, here it is, by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. This is the glory of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been given to us to cooperate us and to empower us to actually put to death the deeds of the flesh. He is with us. He is empowering us every day to say yes to righteousness and no to sin. He is leading us into the way of holiness and away from the ways of the world. And His power is available to us every moment so we have no excuse. If I had to put it this way, brothers and sisters, we can be as holy as we want to be. I'll say it one more time. We can be as holy as we want to be. The problem is sometimes is that the flesh convinces us that we just want to get right close up to the edge. But the power of the Spirit enables us to get as far away from sin as possible. One of the brothers of our church has a saying when he's talking about sanctification. He says, sometimes Christians are like an astronaut that asks the question, how low can I fly and still be considered an astronaut? You see, the Spirit of God is within us to have us flying low. You guys get the idea. but to totally wage war against the flesh. You guys know Zechariah 4, verse 6. Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. We don't have to fight this fight by our own strength, our own power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. Philippians 2 says this, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is a God who is at work in you both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. God's Spirit, brothers and sisters, gives us the ability to resist sin and to mortify sin. Now, let me just speak for a moment how we do it. Because that's the question, at least in my mind. How do we do it? And we've already been told how to do it. I've already suggested it. that the Spirit of God, in chapter 6 of Ephesians, as we think about the armor of God, it says that the Spirit of God, in verse 17, and take up the helmet of salvation, which is the sword of the Spirit, which is, you say it, the Word of God. If, in fact, the Spirit of God dwells within us, and He does, and he is the power to put the death, the deeds of the body. He has a sword, and if in fact that sword is the word of God, you kill sin in your life by the word. Do you guys see it? It's the Word of God, brothers and sisters. We have everything here in the Word of God to wage war on the deeds of the body and come out of that war victorious. Which means a few things, doesn't it? It means this, that you gotta have the Word of God in your soul, brothers and sisters. You gotta feed your mind the Word of God. You gotta know the Word of God so that when the temptations come, you can fight the battle. I love when Dr. John Piper was the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, and they had this kind of system in terms of them corporately fighting sin, and they had what was called fighter verses. Some of you guys have heard of that, fighter verses. And fighter verses was specific verses in the Bible, promises of God that you would memorize so that when the temptation come, you can bring that text back to mind and kill that sin. Kill that sin. the promise that I am complete in Christ. So when I think that I need something outside of Christ to make me happy, particularly a sin that I love, that when that temptation comes, I can lean on that promise and kill that sin. And see, brothers and sisters, you won't be able to be victorious in this battle and wield the sword of the Spirit if you don't know the word. And so very practically speaking, let me just ask you this question. How's your Bible intake? What's your Bible intake? What's your regular daily reading pattern? Maybe do this, and you have to work this out for yourself. How much do you read the Bible versus how much television you watch? Like, so in our congregation, when I say something like that, somebody will say, ouch. He done gone from preaching to meddling. And you have to figure that out, right? But if you're feeding your mind, right, worldly things and not feeding your mind the Bible, there's no small wonder then when the temptations come, you don't have the strength of the Spirit of God to resist it and to kill it. So you got to be reading the Word of God. You've got to be meditating on the Word of God, not just reading the Word of God, but spending time digesting it and allowing it to become a part of your soul, memorizing it, chewing on it, letting it ruminate in your mind and making its way to its heart so that you're living it out day by day by day. How's your prayer life? Prayer is a part of that. We heard that earlier, right, from Pastor Tom. How's your prayer life? We know that the Spirit of God helps us to pray, but we're also called to pray ourselves. A prayerless Christian is a weak Christian. You know, we take the Word of God, and we pray it back to God, and he reinforces it to us with the Word of God open, and we're strengthened, and we're strengthened, and we're strengthened, and we can wield the sword of the Spirit. This was mentioned yesterday in our Q&A, another practical way to fight and put to death the deeds of the flesh that Paul mentions in Romans chapter 13, to make no provision for the flesh. Make no provision for the flesh. Here's where we just have to be really honest. You have to be honest with yourselves. You have to just assess yourself and know what your weaknesses are. Just don't kid yourself. Don't kid yourselves. Brothers, if I could meddle a little bit more. Don't kid yourself into thinking that you're stronger than you are. And you know who I'm talking to. If you're not strong enough to resist the temptation on your computer, don't have your computer in your room and close the door. Put it in the living room in front of all of the rest of the family. Don't make any provision for the flesh. Be ruthless with yourself. Even if people think it's strange, he's odd, I'd rather be considered odd and walk in holiness than to try to fit in with everybody and give in to the promptings of the flesh. So practically speaking, just take some time and just assess yourself. Where are you in terms of holiness? What are your weaknesses? What are your temptations? And stay as far away from those things as possible. And then thirdly, and you're here, so this goes without saying, are you availing yourself to the public means of grace? Are you availing yourself to the public means of grace? The private means of grace are great. I just mentioned those. Prayer time, meditation, your own private word of God. But I just believe that there is a greater source of power and strength that God gives to his people when we gather together. Whenever God's people get together, brothers and sisters, you ought to want to be there at all times because God has promised to meet His people when they gather together. When the Word of God is preached, when the Word of God is read, when the Word of God is sung, when the Word of God is prayed. God moves. The Spirit of God is here. Christ is here while we are gathered together. And He means to strengthen us and to make us holy. Sanctification, like I put it there, is a corporate entity. It happens in the context of us gathering together. And brothers and sisters, the Spirit of God is with you. As we draw our time to a close, the Spirit of God is with you. to make you more like Jesus Christ in thought, word, and in deed. So don't forget where we're headed. We're headed as a sanctified people to be offered to God as an act of worship, and He will receive us. Don't forget who you are. You are, if you have given your life, if you have repented of your sins, and you have fled to Jesus Christ as a refuge, if you have put your faith and your hope and your trust completely in his work, in his cross work, in his death, burial, and resurrection, and surrendered your life to him, you are a child of the living God. And you are now called to and helped by the Spirit of God to live a life that is pleasing to your Heavenly Father. It's your obligation, brothers and sisters, to put to death the deeds of the flesh. And the Spirit has been given to you to accomplish that purpose. And let the church say, Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you, Lord. We bless you. for the provision of the spirit. God, we want to be faithful in our duty to respond to his power, that he would make us in thought, word, and deed a holy people. So grant us that grace, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.