Okay, let's start with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for another day in your plan and your grace to us, Father, and we just ask that you would speak to us through your word and that we would be listening in a way that pleases you, as only you would know, and that our application would bring forth fruit in the days ahead, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. We're in Jude, of course, and we've been looking at the false prophets and the people that would cause divisions is the last thing that we looked at. We even did a study of godly divisions looking back at Levi. In the same verse, which is the 19th verse, we read this. These are the ones who cause divisions. Now the next description of them is worldly-minded. devoid of the spirit. I'm sure if you have, and I know we have different translations, that that's going to come across as a number of different things as it does in the dictionary. In my margin it says what is closer than worldly is merely natural. It's the word sukhikas, which has to do with the sukhe, which is a soul. And really, it's just saying soulish. And it says as much positively as it does negatively, because when you know the rest of scripture, soulish isn't enough. Everybody's born with a soul, okay? And that soul's operating. And all it's saying is, this is another way of saying the natural man, the man who has not been born again, but is in Adam, and notice the very next words, devoid of the spirit. So, of course, we know that by that, that we're, dealing with unbelievers, as we've known all along, since the Holy Spirit is not indwelling them. And so, I'll just read you some of the definitions or words about this sukikaze. Belonging to the suki, or the soul, and then it explains, as the lower part of the immaterial in man. It's not the high part, but it's the low part In man, it's and you'll see this natural physical Describes the man and Adam and what pertains to him and it and we'll see in Corinthians that it's set in contrast to the pneumatic us which is the spiritual man, so you got the soulish man and And you've got the spiritual man, okay? The spiritual man has been given the Holy Spirit, and along with the Holy Spirit, at the new birth, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. He's been given the new man or the new Spirit, okay? And then has the Holy Spirit to enable him to carry out the things of the Word of God. But going on with sukhikas or solish, it's the natural or animal, which is sometimes you'll find beastly. It's just this lower. And this has a lot to do, and some of you will know this when we get into this. The next passage we look at is one we looked at this morning, and it has to do with the natural man. Let me read some more here. We're going to read a passage in James, and it talks about wisdom there that is this soulish wisdom, and it's described this way, springing from the corrupt desires and affections. Okay. In other words, it's coming out of, you know, it's just a natural man, just what we were as unsaved people, and we still have the potential and know that we do walk according to the flesh. When we've lost our tempers and we're reviling someone or whatever it is that we're doing that we know is contrary, I love that passage that we'll look at because I can remember as a young man always asking this question, am I walking in the spirit or am I walking in the flesh? You probably still have that question, you know, what am I doing? Well, the Galatians passage that we'll look at, which you're all familiar with, says this is really clear. This is not rocket science. If you're doing this, then you're clearly walking in the spirit. If you're doing this, you're clearly walking according to the flesh. And it's a great reminder, a great wake-up call. Look where I am right now. And all of us have been in that situation where we know we're about to go there. Or we're already there and we don't hold it back, you know what I mean? We just go ahead with what it is and then are very quickly ashamed and saddened by what we said, did, whatever was thought. Okay. also used to refer in man naturally as such as brute beasts, which is interesting. Animals, you know, you think about it, animals without, and really, as I look at it, I think scripture says we're worse than animals in the flesh. Because animals aren't under a law that they're disobeying and in rebellion. Animals just being animals. But man in his rebellion against God has an understanding and he knows the law and gives hearty approval to those who do so. Remember in the last bit there of Romans 1. Okay, so let's go to 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14. We touched on this this morning in the earlier session. Same word, psychikos, but a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. I'm in verse 14, 1 Corinthians 2.14. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. It's helpful to know that. We get so frustrated with people and the Word says they don't do it. There are some people who even want to, and this isn't right, we'd like to give them a shortcut. And what I mean by that is we just want to tell them what they ought to be doing or not doing, and they're not even saved. You know, we're not even going through salvation and, you know, we're just saying, you know, you're an alcoholic, you're drinking yourself to death, you got to stop. Okay? And and yet the scripture says natural man does not accept the things of The spirit of God, okay, so that wasn't a great illustration because the world can tell you to stop drinking and so forth but It goes on it says for their foolishness to him Okay, it just doesn't Their foolishness, okay And then these words, this is what we were emphasizing this morning, and he cannot understand them. So he can't even grasp, he can't even get into and grab a hold of with an understanding what you're saying, if it's the things of the Spirit of God. And this morning we're looking at this awesome gift that God has given to every believer understanding. You know, I just think of every day as a believer, you and I wake up with understanding that the people around us have nothing of. You think about how much of your thinking is changed by, colored by, moved by understanding God's Word. It's huge. The more you grow in Christ, the more it is, the bigger it is, the bigger it is. And then here's where I go with that. And then you think of, what do the people have that don't have this huge understanding that the believer has? What are they living on? My dad used to love to talk about that and say, I don't know how they do it. You know, my dad's thing was, I don't know why more people aren't killing themselves. I don't know why. I just don't know what would keep them from doing it. They have no understanding. They don't know about this. So it goes on and says, and he cannot understand them, verse 14, because they are spiritually appraised. And that's the thing. Until a person has the Spirit of God and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. In other words, that new man that we read about. Until he has that, he doesn't have the facility, the ability, the indwelling spirit to be able to understand the word of God. Okay. All right. And then it says, I love this. But he who is spiritual appraises all things. In other words, God has given us the ability to really understand all things. In other words, the things of God, the things that are important that we may not understand and be able to write a paper on nuclear propulsion or something. But we have the understanding from God's word of those crucial issues in life, okay? and often we end up having them. And the world can see that and sometimes God uses that to bring them to us because they realize this person has an understanding of what's absolutely foundational and fundamental and what life is all about. You know, I've mentioned it a number of times, but the young man down in California dying of AIDS, homosexual, becomes terrified of dying because he knows he's been wrong. And so he goes to his homosexual buddies and he says, what should I do? I'm terrified of dying. And they said, you need to go down the road to this church. And it was John MacArthur's church. I just blows me away that that they even knew that that they said that to him that and he went down there and he talked in his testimony about how frustrated he was because he kept waiting for MacArthur to say what he needed to hear and it was he was teaching on a psalm and he just you know he didn't see it but then he kept coming back and he heard the gospel and he He put his faith in Christ and MacArthur did his funeral when he died of AIDS. But the thing that struck me was that he knew where he stood and he was terrified to be where he was and he went to these people and they were able to say, Go down here. This just blows me away. Talk about hard to wrap your mind around. Okay. In verse 16, for who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him? And then there's this question. Nobody can have the mind of the Lord unless God gives it to them. And then it goes on and says, we have the mind of Christ. God's provision is that he's given us the Holy Spirit and the Word of God so that we can think in accordance with Jesus Christ, which is just a phenomenal, phenomenal thing. Okay. Now, Let's go over to another use of this word, James 3. And in James 3, notice what this word is classified with when we get into this passage. Let's come down to verse 13. It says, who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom." Okay? In other words, again, you can't look into my heart, I can't look into your heart. And what do we have to go on? We have to go on, how are we living our lives? Is Jesus Christ being lived out in our lives? Is there some fruit that is evident? So he says, who among you is wise in understanding? And I think of it as a classroom. Everybody's hand goes up. I'm wise and understanding. Yeah, me too. We're all wise. And then the professor says, well, live it. I don't care about whether you think you are. Is there evidence that you're there? And then it goes on, and here's the contrast. But if you have bitter jealousy, here's the other side, And you just think about how terrible these things are. Bitter jealousy. So here's a person, and just because of the abilities God gave them, the place in life God gave them, you're bitter with jealousy. And yet, that's of the flesh. Do you know what I mean? That's common. And yet, you just think about it a little bit, it is so wrong. What right do I have to be bitter and jealous of somebody else's, whatever it is, prosperity, success, popularity, really something to think about. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, Do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. In other words, these are not the things of God. Then it says, this wisdom, the wisdom that you really are applying, that you raised your hand maybe to say, I'm wise. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above. Now, notice the description. But it's earthy. It's of the earth. It's natural. That's our word, sukhikas. soulish, and then demonic. Notice the alliance here between these things. Earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there is disorder and every evil thing. But in contrast, the wisdom from above, think of the difference here. is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable. You know, I often think how important just being reasonable is. You know what I mean? And we're so prone not to be. You know, I mean we get on, this is my side of the argument and I'm going to win this argument and I don't care what attack, you know, versus right now, can you be reasoned with? In other words, if someone comes up with something that is truth and reasonable, will it settle you down to where you'll listen and say, you know what? You're right. Oh, how we hate to do that in the flesh. We don't do it in the flesh, you know. But I love that, reasonable. Because, and scripture warns about, there are some people who are irreconcilable, which is another way of saying you could not, by anything you say or do, you cannot bring them into a peace relationship with yourself. I think that's why Romans says, if it is possible, be at peace with all men, recognizing there are some men that you cannot be at peace with. You can't. And I think there's a lot of liberal thinking today that just doesn't understand this. Just because you want to be at peace with this person, and he wants to kill you, all the stuff we've got going on today, what can you say to that person to settle them down? They come into your place of business with a rifle, firing, you tell me the words. You know what I mean? It's impossible to be at peace with them. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, of course another one, full of mercy, mercy. Even though maybe I'm in a position where I could really bring punishment down on you, that's not my desire to do that, you know, merciful. Okay. Full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, solid because it's in accordance with what? The truth. Okay. You think about how... One of the things that's so helpful in our court system, any court system, is that The truth doesn't waver, and yet lies do. That's one of the things we're looking for all the time. In the cross-examination, we already think that you lied. And so we present it a little different way, and you waver. It happens all the time. People go back, and they change their story from the first story. Now we've got a second story. And now we go at it again, and we've got a third story. And there's this wavering that has to go on when there's lying. But with the truth, it's unwavering. This is exactly what happened, how it happened, when it happened. You know, there's no change. I love that about the truth. Unwavering, without hypocrisy, and then it says, and the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace. Now, what's our desire to lead people to Christ? The seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. A troublemaker doesn't really, even a troublemaker Christian is not going to be very productive in giving the gospel. Do you know what I mean? If everywhere I go, I'm a troublemaker, you know, and then I say, by the way, you need to believe on Jesus Christ. Everybody knows, you know. And all, well maybe we haven't all, but sometimes you know people and they haven't grown up enough and they're not under the control of the Holy Spirit and you just hope they won't be talking about the Lord at all. Do you know what I mean? Because when they do, it actually ends up being used of Satan because then Satan goes, yeah, look at that, you know, that guy down there. Okay. All right. Now over to Galatians chapter nine. I'm sorry, Galatians chapter five, verse 19. Again, very familiar passage. And this is the statement I said earlier. I just love the statement. Now, you know that question, am I walking according to the flesh or according to the spirit? Now the deeds of the flesh are evident. Okay. Which are immorality, If I'm involved in immorality, whether it's actual in my mind, I know that that's not of the Holy Spirit, that's of the flesh. Impurity, sensuality, idolatry, all these things are strongly, undeniably associated with the flesh. Idolatry, sorcery, calling on spirits, demons, do your bidding. Enmities, that's just hatreds. You know, just, I don't like you. You know, I just don't like you. And I asked this question, certainly of myself, does a believer have a right to do that? You know, think of, you know, do we see each person as one who could come to faith in Christ? I like to do that when I see somebody that just, you know, drives me crazy because of the position they have, whatever it is that, you know. And then I think to myself, can I see that guy as my brother of Christ? You know, and would I choose that? You know what I mean? If it were up to me, would I choose that that person to be saved? I don't care who it is. I don't care if it's a guy that stops dead in his tracks mowing down people in a church. Could he be saved? You know, could. You know, what would that be like? All right. Enmities, in verse 20, strife. You know, if everywhere I go there's trouble, strife. And I'm the common denominator. You know what I mean? It was peaceful when I went in and it wasn't when I left. You know, what? Strife, jealousy, there it is again. Here's one, outbursts of anger, you know, just temper issues. What a, I just think of the incredible value of a godly mom and dad nipping that one in the bud. You know what I mean? Where, I have, boy I had it. you know, but from the get-go, it was just not allowed. I mean, it was one of those things I just, I always tell the story of watching that little boy go through a temper tantrum, first temper tantrum I ever saw, and I'm a little kid standing there with my mom and dad, and my first thought was something along these lines, that kid's gonna die. I mean, I just couldn't get away. His life's over. I mean, it's not going to be pretty what's going to happen to that kid. And then just being amazed as seeing a mom who didn't know how to deal with it. You know what I mean? She's picking him up, dragging him around. He's still ranting and raving and carrying on. And I think about what a blessing when a mom and dad consistently say, that's not going to happen in our house. You are not going to do that ever. We will stamp that right out. And then the blessing that that is, it always makes me think of Dave Brown, missionary and now a state trooper back in Maryland. He came out and lived with us for a little bit and he worked for Fallon. And he had a guy that professed faith in Christ that he was working with. And this guy was working on his temper. And, you know, things happen, logging all the time. And, you know, Dave got hit in the head with a choker, cut his... You know, Dave's just like, nothing happened. And this guy says to him, How do you do it? You know, what? And I thought Dave's answer was so good. He says, you gotta understand, I grew up in such a Christian home, and my dad did not even raise his voice with my mom. You know, he said, that's what I grew up with. And Dave is basically saying, I don't even, because the way I was trained, I don't even go there. go there. And I think about what a blessing that is. Painful when we got to deal with it with the kids, you know what I mean? But the fruit that comes out of that is just wonderful, wonderful. Okay. Outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousings, No, just the way of the world. Things like these of which I forewarn you, and it makes it clear this isn't the whole list, just as I have forewarned you that those who practice, this is their natural habit of life, those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Does that mean that we never fall into these? We would look around. Is there a believer who having been saved never did one of those things on here. I say no way, no way. So it's not talking about have you ever done this, have you ever gotten angry when you shouldn't have, you know, so forth. It's talking about that this is not the way you desire your life to be by the grace of God, and you are disturbed when you enter into these things, and you confess them as sin, and you look for God to do just the opposite, which we now come to in verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit, can you, I love the way the word of God has these, so to speak, side by side. You know what I mean? Because the contrast is so staggering. So it starts off with the fruit of the spirit is love, joy. You know, I think about how so many of these things have to come out of, so many of the things of the flesh have to come out of a miserable life. Do you know what I mean? A bitter life, someone who is so unhappy, and so disconnected that they want to see everybody else brought down. I don't want to see anybody smiling. I don't want to see anybody happy. I don't want to see anybody relaxed. I think about, and then the believer comes along, and this is how he's described. Love, in other words, the believer that's producing the fruits of the Spirit as the Holy Spirit is controlling him, love, joy, You think about, what does joy do in your life? You know what I mean? What does that underwriting, overriding peace and joy do for you? Huge. It's just huge. And if that were taken away from you, you think about how sad, how devastating. What would I do without that? that confidence that I have in the Lord and the peace that comes from it and the joy that comes from it and that understanding of even though I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, I know that my Lord knows what's going to happen. It's going to be the right thing for me. And even if I don't, you know, it will be OK. What a grand, grand thing that is. Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness. The flesh is not gentle. Self-control, huge one. And against such things there is no law. Now notice verse 24. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. This is an interesting thing, isn't it? Because it immediately, that verse, immediately raises huge questions. because it sounds like, okay, we just covered what the deeds of the flesh are, okay, and now you think of the finality of crucifixion, and the object being crucified is the flesh. So if the flesh is dead, then Why did I have an outburst of anger today? And why did I fill in the blank? It's a huge question here. And so, let's look at that. In contrast, it says, and this is a very helpful next verse, if we live by the Spirit, and that's that first class condition, since we live by the Spirit, in other words, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit, okay, If we live by the Spirit, and we do, let us also walk by the Spirit. So now all of a sudden it's telling us, you might not, isn't it? I mean, what's the sense? Why would God ever say, since you were born of the Spirit, you need to walk in the Spirit, if it was impossible for us to do otherwise? Do you get what I'm saying? In other words, if it was everybody's life from the time you were born again on, you every day, every moment of every day, walked in the Spirit, then God wouldn't have to say this. He wouldn't have to say, you need to walk by the Spirit. Okay, so what is this crucifying of our flesh? All right, and for that we need to go back to where you would know we would go, Romans chapter 6. And I wrote down here in my notes, the crucifixion of our flesh was accomplished by Jesus Christ on the cross. The reality of it, the foundation of it, the whole work of it has already been done. The problem that I have and the problem that you have is this, that I don't always count that to be true. Somehow in the work of Christ on the cross God sees me as being on the cross with him and my flesh Which was had broken the law the soul that sinneth it must die. And so here's my flesh and it's crucified with Christ Okay, and God wants me to believe that to be true and therefore change my behavior on the basis of that fact Okay, so Romans chapter 6 verse 1 asks this question, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? You know, when you think about it, that's one of those ones that you could argue that way. You know what I mean? You could say, except for Paul's, may it never be, if you didn't know the next verse, you could say, well, isn't that, that's really something. Think about this. Every time I sin, I'm covered by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and God's glorified by grace, and so grace increases, and this is a good thing. See? And you could go there. Except that God says, No, no, no, no. May it never be. And now he gives the foundation of why we can't go there. And this is what he says. May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? You know, I like to think about this. How did Paul ever learn these things? I mean, Romans 6 and 7 and 8 are so phenomenal and so deep and so not in the Old Testament. You know what I mean? And so not in the Gospels. Okay, in other words, we can see how it comes out of the Gospel, but we would never see it in the front end in the Gospel. And I think about the Lord Jesus Christ saying, and the things in which I shall appear to him you know, rode to Damascus, and then he sends Ananias, and Ananias is worried, and the Lord's explaining to Ananias, he says, and I'm gonna be, and you find in Paul's writings, and this is from the Lord. What do you mean by that? That the Lord appeared to him, and direct, I mean, I can't see any other way than gave him direct Bible classes on these things. And so he becomes the resource about some of these things that we don't find so much in the other writers. Okay. Okay. So he says, how shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, in other words, this is the baptism of the Holy Spirit where the Holy Spirit takes you the moment you put your faith in Christ and places you in Christ, having taken you out of Adam. OK, so then the destiny of the Lord Jesus Christ is yours and no longer are you identified with Adam and his and the fall and so forth. OK. So he says, or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore, in other words, baptism is, remember, that's that whole concept of identification, okay? You know, the Roman who just gets through boot camp, takes his new spear. puts it in a bowl of blood and says, I baptize you, says this to a spear, I baptize you. He's saying, this spear is a killing spear. And I've dipped it in blood. I have what? I've identified my spear with blood. Now, use that. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, placed in Him, identified with Him, have been, what, identified in His death? Do you see that? Okay, I've identified with Him, not only in His life, but also in His death. Okay, therefore, it goes on, it takes it to these lengths. Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death. in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. What's the old life? outbursts of anger, you know, all of that, all the flesh things, okay? Scripture's calling on us to walk in newness of life. And then it goes on and says this, for if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, and that's again that first class condition in the Greek for the word if, it's true, for since we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, here's the great verse, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. The power of slavery, of sin. Didn't we sing Rock of Ages this morning? Let the water and the blood from the from his wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure Cleanse me from its guilt many believers know about that and power How is the power of sin the power of sin? That's Romans 6 it no longer has a the jurisdiction over us that it had. Now, you can always give it that jurisdiction. By that I mean you can say, I yield even though I don't have to. And that's really what the issue is. but it no longer has, as you understand the scripture in Romans, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. So that's my previous place as an unbeliever. I could never do what was right, which means I lived constantly under the sin nature and I could not get out from under it except in Christ. And then that power was broken by that I was identified with him on the cross. It says here that our body of sin might be done away with and that's ultimately where God is going to take us. Is it not? Okay, we're gonna leave this body and We're gonna get a new body in its place and this body of sin as Paul's gonna go on and say a little bit later here Who shall wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Okay, so goes on and he says that we should no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. Okay, that was broken through that death. Now if we have died with Christ, and that's again first class, we have first class condition, we believe that we shall also live with him knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead is never to die again. Death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. What's the implication? The death that you died, you died to sin once for all because you died with Christ on the cross. Okay? Then it goes on and says this. Here's the application. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. The more I think about that verse, the more it intrigues me and fascinates me and is exciting because it's constantly calling on me to believe God as over against what the flesh is yelling in my ear, so to speak. Because the flesh is saying, I am not dead at all. I am not dead. I don't know where you got that. You know, I am absolutely still in control. Okay. And, you know, I've said this so many times, but in the same way that we believe that our sins were dealt with through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were imputed to him and he died for them in the same way, I believe, absolutely. See, I don't have as much trouble believing that. Do you know what I mean? I believe that Christ died on the cross for my sins according to the scriptures, but then God says, oh, I probably shouldn't say that. Another thing that happened there is that you, your sin nature, was crucified with Christ. I want you to believe that, too, because it's true. But there's a lot in me that says, I just have trouble believing that. And I love the phrasing here. Even so, consider. Take my word as over against your own experience and live out what I tell you. And I want you to live like you're dead to sin, because something was affected on the cross that my body of sin might be done away with. And it was wonderful. And I look at it also, I know this is a difficult subject, when just before Christ went to the cross, he says, now the ruler of this world is judged. Satan's still around. So I look at it the same way. And you know, there's that counterpart in Exodus, in the Passover, where you have just a few windows of opening about this subject. And God says, and he brought judgments on the gods of Egypt also. In the Passover, something else happened. I've always wondered, what were those judgments? that were brought against the gods. Those had to be the demons. Those had to be the emissaries of Satan. And there was judgments brought against them. You know, were they incarcerated? Were they, you know, I don't know. But something happened. And then we come to the cross itself, which the Passover looks forward to. And we also have this counterpart, this other thing that's going on, that it was also the judgment of Satan. And yet, That sentence hasn't been executed in its fullness yet. Revelation chapter 20, he hasn't been cast into the abyss for a thousand years, released for a short time, and then thrown into the lake of fire. That hasn't happened yet. but the foundation for it was the judgment that took place on the cross when Jesus Christ died on the cross. Those are heavy things, but they're wonderful things. Now, let's go one more place, and that's Galatians chapter two. I'm gonna start in verse 19. Paul makes this amazing statement, and it's right in keeping with what we're talking about. He says, for through the law, I died to the law. When a person is executed, capital punishment, it's because they broke a law. Because there was a law, if you do this, you will die. And they did it, and then they died. So Paul says, through the law, I died to the law, why would I ever be called up to die in Christ. It's because the law demanded my death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. So the law says, Linton Whittles, you have to die. And so, and then it was revealed to Paul that I died in Christ when he was on the cross. Okay. So Paul says through the law, the law demanded my death. I died to the law in Christ and he's going to explain it. I had to die, that why? That I might live to God. Because before I died to the law, I certainly wasn't living to God. I don't need any more of that old life. Now, next verse, grand statement. Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ, Romans 6. And then he takes it here. He says, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. and the life that I now live in the flesh, in this body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered himself up for me. I have been crucified with Christ, and there's a new me. Who is that new me? He says, in the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God. And we'd have to say, what was the life before that? It was according to Paul's old sin nature. It was the base. It was the soulish thing. It was the flesh. It was nothing of God. Okay. And then that great verse just means so much. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. So much happened on the cross that the law could never do one little speck of It couldn't do it. And so we have been made new creatures in Christ, raised up, and God says, I want you to, in your spirit, recognize these things as true. Consider yourself dead to sin, but alive to God. It's really an act of obedience, is it not? You know what I mean? It's trust and obey. I trust that it's true, and so I obey. And I don't have to, you know, I think sometimes we fool ourselves by saying, well, I don't really understand that, so I don't know how I can do that. And yet most of our lives in the physical realm, we're dealing with stuff we don't understand and we're fine doing it. Do you know what I mean? How many people understand every aspect of the car they drive? They don't. How many people understand every aspect of the computer they use? Or a whole bunch of things. We don't understand that, but we're comfortable doing it. And the word of God tells us some things that we don't really We can't fully, you know, if somebody said, explain this fully to me, I'd have to say, you know, I can't. I can maybe get to second base or first base or, you know, but I can't take it. I can't probably answer the questions you're going to ask me because I already know what those questions are because they're my questions, you know. But that doesn't nullify that God's told me to do this. You know, I understand that verse that we just read earlier, even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin. That's not too hard to understand. The mechanics of how I get there, you know what I mean? But I understand when the Lord says directly to me in that verse, consider yourself, on the basis of what I just told you, consider yourself to be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. That's not that hard. And that's the obedience part. Father, how we thank you for your word and the wonderful complexity of what you accomplished on the cross. And these things that we've tried to deal with this evening, Father, make them very real to us and give us a heart of obedience, Father, we ask, that we might consider ourselves dead to sin but alive to God, alive to you. We thank you for it. In Jesus' name, amen.