Breaking The Law Of Sin and Death
Breaking The Law Of Sin And Death
Romans 8:1 (Text)
How many of you are ready to live in the high life? How many are tired of living in the low life?
"I am tired of living in the low life, I am ready to live in the high life" Ready to live higher than what I have ever lived before in Jesus Name ‑ that is our prayer for you today.
Teaching you how to get out of low life living and get up in high life living!
Verse 1‑2
Key here is are you in Christ Jesus? If your in Christ Jesus, born again living for Jesus condemnation is not for you, you should have it broken off your life no matter what is going on.
Spirit of Life is where we live in the high life, The law of sin and death ‑ is where we live in the low life. What is in that low life? Poverty is there, sickness and disease is there, crisis and turmoil is there, anxiety and fear, confusion all those sorts fellowship there, it is called low life. (Low living, low standards of living).
Now just because you want to come out of that and live higher in life does not mean you get too: Just because you want to have more money does not mean you get it! Just because you want to have better health does not always mean you get it. Just because you want everything to go your way does mean it always does. But if you and I can find the ladder to climb out of low life living and come up here and live on the higher plan that God has for us: that old hymn ‑ Lord lift me up let me stand, by faith on heaven's stable land".
I am not looking for promotion and attention and a big name, I am just looking to be closer to Him. Get out of some of this stuff down here that bugs me and affects me. You and I have to admit that almost everything around us all day long brings you back down to the blunt reality that you live on the earth. And if you let it you will start acting talking and feeling like an earthling. But we are not earthlings but we have been redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb. Old thing passed away, behold all things have become new and it says we are new creatures, brand new creatures in Christ. [ref. 2 Cor. 5:17]We are not suppose to be living down here, were suppose to be living up here in the realm of the spirit!
Now let me make my self clear ‑ we are not talking about being a fat‑cat, made in the shade:
I am not talking about just having more natural things, more goodies. I am talking about being spiritual, having revelation knowledge, inspired, walking with God, hand in hand you and I in the Master hand. Talking about living in a place where not everything bugs you, not everything effects you and your not offended all the time. Even if something does happen around you and its painful and hurtful, it does not drag you out, it does not ruin your day or your life. You don't ignore it, but life is filled with a lot of things that you and I don't like. But that they don't get inside of us and eat us up is important. But it will if your down here living low.
Just let one thing happen in life ‑ if your living in that low life you will take the blame for it:
It is amazing, people getting divorces, you don't know why it happened so don't get judgmental and critical in the Body of Christ ‑ some things we just need to mind our own business. You don't know what people go through ‑ but there has to be pain that things are not working out for them. So if your not careful you will take condemnation for that, its my fault, if I would have done this or would have done that.
Just loose a family member ‑ loose a loved one, and pretty soon here comes the condemnation trying to sneak up on you, if I would have done this or said that and on and on. I have a word for you read verse 1.
No condemnation does not mean its not real hurt and real pain when things happen: It just means your not condemned for it. Glory to God there is a place to find more of God's grace. We have a law working in us and its not the suppose to be the law of sin and death.
There is a law connected to sin ‑ there is a law connected to death. Just law there is a law of gravity connected to height or when you get elevation off this earth. You climb up on something and jump off, the law of gravity will kick in automatically you can't stop it. You can put on some man made thing to combat the law of gravity so you come down slower, but you are coming down one way or other. You may buffer the fall, but you are falling. Because that is a law!
There is a law to sin ‑ you think sin, talk sin, and practice sin, and you don't have any choice but to face the blunt attachments that come with sin. Sure God can forgive you if you confess sin, but sin can and will leave scars.
There is a law connected to the spirit of death ‑ you flirt with things that bring death, and it can kill you marriage, kill your health, kill your attitude, kill your countenance and its amazing what you can kill all day long, just by the law that is attached to the spirit of death and you get messing around over in that sin realm and that law works just as sure as gravity work.
The beauty for Christians is that there is also a law that is connected to the spirit of life that is Christ Jesus
It is an automatic law if you just get in the realm of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the law attached to the spirit of life that is found in Christ Jesus it breaks all the laws connected to sin and death automatically.
This is not magic or open says me thing, not a chant or code of conduct, its coming out of low life living and living up here. Living in high places, praying and fasting and studying the Word, worshiping God, fellowshipping with the right people, and you purpose to climb up and live in this realm with God, though your still on the earth, your not down here wallowing around on your belly.
The devil is suppose to be on his belly, not you and I.
$Verse 3‑4
Now notice this is the 2nd time the Holy Spirit has used the phrase "walk not after the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (we need to see that.) So there is a difference in walking after the flesh and walking after the Holy Spirit.
$Verse 5 (now He will compare the 2 kinds of people)
Mind ‑ means to pay attention too, mediate on and in, think upon. So pastor how do I know if I am living after the flesh or after the Spirit? Its an easy test you can give it to your self: What are you thinking about, mediating in, and reasoning over? Where does you mind go? Do you have faith or do you have fear? Do you pray or do you worry? Do you study the Bible or do you go for something else to give you counsel? See this is an easy test you can give yourself to see if your going after the way of the flesh or whether were going after the way of the Holy Spirit.
Now you say why is that so important for us Christians?
$Verse 6
Now if my mind stays on natural and carnal things what does it bring me? It brings me death. But if my mind is spiritual and thinking on things of God and about the things of God, what does it give me? Life and peace.
Can anyone who is reading this or listening to this message think if anything better than life and peace
What is better than life ‑ life in your body, in your marriage and home, life in your mind, finances, what's better than peace? Having turmoil inside of you. Your nights are not sleepless living in fear and torment. What is better than peace? Peace among you and people and even you enemies? Tell me what is better than peace and life? (I can't think of anything can you?)
Peace and Life ‑ everybody wants it, but not everybody has it. Many people live in turmoil all the time. Always has an argument going with someone all the time. Has a debate all the time going, always somebody mad at them. It is almost like they live that way on purpose. But its not suppose to be that way.
Well what do I do about it? Well I just read out of the Bible what to do about it. If your mind, the way you think, what your thinking about all the time is chasing after natural principles and natural fleshly things, you will never experience much life and peace. But if your mind is always thinking after and upon and studying and finding out what the Word means, what does God have to say about this, that tends to life and peace.
You want life and peace ‑ you have to do what the Bible says. You have to become spiritually minded. If you don't want life and peace, then don't do anything. Because your mind automatically runs to what it wants and what it fears. You don't have to help your mind be fleshly. Your mind will automatically bring up to your attention everything it wants, everything it fears.
Let me tell you something else about the mind ‑ it is enmity against God which means ‑ if it is allowed to run it natural course everything it thinks of will be against God. That is why if you just let your mind go and do what ever you feel like, say what you feel like, give people a piece of your mind, it is breeding death into your life and sin. That is why you just keep staying down here in the low life.
Listen you can go to church and be down in the low life: you can read your Bible and be sometimes down in the low life, you can be a tither and still be down in the low life. Because doing some of those acts does not promote you up where you can live in a higher spiritual realm with Jesus. Having the law of life in Christ Jesus is what will bring you and me out low life living and bring us to fellowship all the time. I am talking about where things don't affect us the way they use to.
$Verse 7‑8
Who cannot please God:
Does it say sinners, does it say those women, does it say those children, those men, those Christians? No there is not distinction whether is male or female, young or old, Christian or sinner. It is anybody who wants to please God must come out of low life living. Because if your not and stay down here where the earthlings dwell, in there thinking, you are not going to please God.
Cannot ‑ what does that mean to you?
$Verse 9‑11
How does it work? (By His Spirit that DWELLS in you.) See the whole key to coming out of low life living and coming up to a higher plain of life already lives on the inside of you if your born again. It is not the work of man, it is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the design dedicated work of the Holy Spirit who lives in us, we are the temple's of the Holy Ghost, and that Spirit does live in us. And if we would turn that Holy Spirit loose, on the inside of us He would reconstruct our feelings, we rejuvenate, redefine, rebuild our emotions, the way we think, what we want. Why? He lives on the inside of us and that is the work that He does!
Galatians 5: List the works of the flesh:
Galatians 5:19‑21
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, [20] idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, [21] envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
See all this can and will happen to anyone who does not live after the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. And we live in the low life, after the law of sin and death. Read them they are all listed in there.
But the opposite of living in the flesh produces the Fruit of the Spirit (and it list 9 of them.)
Galatians 5:22‑23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness, self‑control.
These are the fruit that comes forth from the inside of you when you let the Holy Spirit do His work in you.
When you let the Holy Spirit do His work in you then the 9 fruit of the Spirit is what shows up in you. Hate turns to love, jealousy turns to I am glad you got blessed. Bad attitudes turn into good attitudes. Bad turns into good in our life. When you let the Holy Spirit do the work that He is called to do on the inside of you it makes you a better person all the way round.
Now here is another point we should pick out of this: (from Romans 8:11)
Make your body alive ‑ He will liven up your body. The best way to loose weight is to turn you body over to the Holy Spirit. Not only will He heat up your metabolism, He will convict you everytime you put something up to your mouth that is not suppose to go in there!
Life will come to you body ‑ the best way to get healed, the best way to try to get rid of this junk that tries to come into our bodies and break down our immune system, the best way to do it is pray over that food, don't just shove it in, sanctify it according to the Verse in Timothy ‑ by the word of God and prayer and cast that stuff away from your food! If you eat in His Name you will be a lot healthier! It really is that simple, its you and me that makes it complicated. We are the ones that don't listen to the Holy Spirit saying don't stick that stuff in your mouth.
2 laws:
#1. Law ‑ sin and death = steals your peace, steals your life right out of your body. Look at someone your age that has served the devil, the world, put drugs in, put alcohol in (your age). Stand along side of each other and look in the mirror, and look what is in there face compared to yours. Even naturally they look a whole lot older than you.
The average Christian age for age looks more wholesome, clean and younger if they are living for Christ.
Than the average person, whether backslidden Christian or sinner that is not living for Christ. You can see the different in there spirit, but also there skin, there wrinkles, the way they look, their countenance its amazing factor. You may not recognize it as a teenager, but wait till you 40, 45, 55, and then stand by somebody you age and notice the mark difference. As a matter fact, I saw a man who was 50 years old and he looked 80! Because he lived all this life as a sinner in the law of sin and death.
See there is always 2 ways to go ‑ blessing or cursing, life or death.
The law of sin and death or the law of the Spirit of life #2. You can go to sickness, disease, despair and poverty, or you can go to health, life, have it spring up in you. It is totally your choice! Something in life we get to choose! It is totally my choice.
Ask yourself do you really enjoy low life living? Gossiping, tale bearing, putting others down, jealous ever time some one gets something, gets blessed and you get a knot in your throat, because they got blessed and you can't figure out why you didn't. Wanting what they got, lusting after there blessings.
Can't break out of the few bucks you earn every week and get a few more and get ahead somehow!
I mean do it without cheating or stealing, I don't want to live there and I don't think you do either. So lets get out of that law.
If you don't want to break your legs when you jump off the roof, then lets don't try to beat the law of gravity, lets respect the law of gravity and use to our benefit or lets just not use it at all.
So if we want out of low life living and break the law of sin and death ‑ (by the way you inherited when you were born, because you were born a human, or earthling)
1.You have to deny sin. You can't beat sin. You can't beat death. You can't call yourself a Christian and live like the world lives. You can't have one foot in the church and one foot in the world. You can't say amen, pastor, then go flirt with stuff you flirt with tomorrow. 2.You cannot be one of those who crucify Jesus again and again for your sin. (May I remind you that those who willfully sin, there is no more sacrifice for there sins for the crucify Christ afresh. We are suppose to be Christians, were not looking for ways to sin and get by with it, were suppose to be looking for to get out of sin. We are looking to break this law ‑ if you live thinking earthling, then the law of sin and death hovers over you like umbrella in the rain.
Everytime the blessings of God fall like rain, it hits that umbrella and rolls off and falls on gets on someone else. All the blessing fall around you, but you partake in hardly none of that.
But if you can get out from under the law of sin and death umbrella and get under the law of the life that is in Christ Jesus, it gets in your body, in your mind, in your mouth, in your marriage, in your home, in your money, in your kids, it constantly consumes you like wildfire. The zeal of God is an all consuming fire that gets in our soul!
$Verse 12‑16
Right here we can know whether we are a child of God or not. 2 ways you can know.
#1. Whether or not we are being led by the Holy Spirit. #2. The Holy Spirit will bears witness with our spirit. (Not our emotions, not goose bumps on our body, not our mind).
I know that I am a child of God because my life proves that I am led by the Holy Spirit, and that Holy Spirit that lives on the inside of me is constantly telling me I am a child of God. A joint heir of Jesus, redeemed of the Lamb, constantly the Holy Spirit is saying "Yes you areYand No don't do that" Constantly speaking never ceasing.
This is why I am so convinced and adamant that we who are spirit filled, baptized in the Holy Ghost, ought to be the strongest and sincere Christians on the face of the earth. (didn't say we were, just said we ought to be). Why we have both the born again experience and the indwelling or immersed experience of being baptized in the Holy Spirit. Therefore you should be much more aware of the Spirit dwelling in your than someone who is not filled with the Holy Ghost. Your discernment should be much more keen. You now have all 9 gifts of the Spirit that can flow through you at any time. You now have the fruit of the Holy Spirit more promenate in your life.
Now all Christians have a trickling of these, but Spirit filled Christians should have so much of this that is causes us to live so much higher spiritually, so much better spiritually, so much more keen spiritually.
The fire in our furnaces are stoked 10 times over a Christian that has a baptism in the Holy Ghost!
We have demoted ourselves, defeated ourselves, made mockery of ourselves as spirit filled Christians, by coming down here, when God wants us to live up here (in the high life).
God says you can do all things in Christ ‑ and you say no I can'tY
God says I will supply all of your need ‑ and you say well you haven't yetY
God says your healed by my stripes ‑ and you say well you haven't healed me yetY
You will go spend $500 on doctors and medicine and I am not against medicine or doctors, so do what you have to get well, because we want you to live so we can preach to you again!
God says those who keep there minds stayed on me, I will give them perfect peace‑ but you say what am I going to do?
I need help, I need counsel, my marriage is falling apart, so I better go find someone whose marriage fell apart so I can go and ask them what they did? (that is living in low life.)
We disagree with something in the church, and instead of submitting that disagreement to the Lord, and pray it through, instead we go in the nursery and gossip while I am out here preaching. You don't even have enough respect to be quiet in His house. I am not chewing you out, and most don't do that, but there are those who constantly take a knife and cut your throat. Take there gun and shoot you!
No you will wind up shooting your own self in the foot! God wants us to be revelated, strong, living in that high life. Spiritual, holy, upright, but its you and me that chooses down here in this low life, worry, mistakes, frustration, fear, gossip, and owe our soul to the company store.
God wants us to live up there with Him, and then we choose to go back and live down here ‑ just like we never met Jesus! (I am not going to do it any more).
5 Things to do to come out of the Low Life Living:
#1. Condemnation is not of God. Conviction is.
(difference is condemnation makes you feel dirty and guilty about what you did, but it won't release you from it ‑ conviction make you feel dirty and guilty about what you did wrong, but it will lead you to the scripture and Holy Spirit so you can get delivered from it so you don't have to feel that way again.) Condemnation will keep pressing you down until you quit or give up. But the anointing on God's conviction will cause you to want to make it right and never do it again.
#2. Pay attention to and mediate in the things of the Spirit of God. Every chance you get, think about God or something about God's word. Be thankful and grateful, force your mind to think right! Not what your mind wants to think a free from all. Command your mind to think on the things of God.
#3. Life and peace come to you from being spiritually minded.
#4. Even your mortal body can receive life from the Holy Spirit.
#5. God treats you like His Children when you are led by His Spirit.
But if your not led by the spirit, then the law of sin and death begins to work even in you Christian all over again. Some crazy thing will happen, and you will wonder why it happen.
I feel bad for those who don't know what we taught today or even last Thursday. I feel even worse for those who were here and did not listen and go right on out and fellowship with the law of sin and death. They bring disaster to there souls.
Ref. Scriptures:
1 Cor. 2:12
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
Acts 1:8
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
Acts 2:4
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
2 Cor. 6:16
And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people."
God lives in me, how about you? God talks to His people today? He talks to those who don't know Him through my lips and others who do know Him. Do you know Him today? You can know Him!