to adhere to a principle to follow it's like John MacArthur said do you want to know what your profession of faith in Jesus Christ is worth zero because many will come before me on that day and say Lord Lord and I'll say depart from me I never knew you not everyone who says Lord Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven so you mean everybody who says they're a Christian and everybody who says Jesus is Lord is not entering into the kingdom no well then how do we know when someone's really entering into the kingdom
how do we know when we're entering into the kingdom he says oh it's easy the one who does the will of my father are you saying brother Paul that salvation is by works absolutely not that is blasphemy well then what are you saying I'm saying this salvation is a supernatural work of God it is by faith and faith alone but since it is a supernatural work of God in which God literally changed the nature of a man that man the expression of true salvation is going to be a new lifestyle of growing obedience and sanctification
amen that the evidence that one time long ago you repented is that you're still repenting and the evidence that one time long ago you believed unto salvation is you're still believing and the one time long ago that you turned from sin is you're still turning from sin and growing in godliness cuz he who began a good work and you will finish it amen and you say brother Paul you saying a Christian cannot stumble a Christian canot only stumble they can somewhat fall but if they are a Christian God will discipline their lives according to Hebrews
CH 12 and bring them back on the past but if there is no discipline they are not a child of God and yet we find countless individuals in our churches today who live carnal ungodly Lifestyles with absolutely no no measure of Christ discipline what shall we say then are we to continue in sin so that Grace may increase may it never be now I don't know just how strong this language is but I am told by Scholars all throughout the world it is very strong Paul is adamant he is certain he may even be a
little bit angry may it never be don't you ever say that why he says how shall we who died to sin still live in it now what's this talking about I believe that the first part of the book of Romans in chapter 6 the greater half of this is talking about a lost Doctrine I think he is speaking at least referring to backwards and forwards the doctrine of regeneration I truly do now just listen to me we're going to put on our thinking caps for a moment I want you to look at what's been done
to Evangelical Christianity in America evangelism is all about decision decision make your decision I made my decision hour of decision have you made your decision got to make your decision for Christ salvation has come down to a man in the power of his own will making a decision for Christ it's almost like salvation is a decision to jump out of the line going to hell to jump into the line going to heaven and that's it and anyone who's made that decision we tell them they've been born again but we have no concept of what the
term born again or born from above really means born again or born from above is the doctrine of regeneration what does it mean well first of all the Bible says that we're dead in our sins the word there means dead if it meant something else they have put something else doesn't mean sick in our sins troubled in our sins plighted by our sins dead in our sins regeneration is Made Alive that we were spiritually dead to God now what does that mean let me give you an example so there's a dead man on the platform
right here he's dead he's laying here he's dead not mostly dead but dead okay and I come to him being the benevolent Samaritan that I am I come to him and I say Sir hearken unto my voice not far from here is a wellestablished hospital they have those funny electric things that they can put on your chest and though it will be quite painful they can shock you back into existence now sir come with me what's wrong you want to be dead all your life come please now that's ridiculous isn't it yes well so is
our evangelism right right so is our evangelism can you imagine me and brother Randall 2,000 years ago standing in front of Lazarus tomb Lazarus come forth okay you try Lazarus come forth [Applause] you try Lazaro Bena I didn't that you know any other language what's going to happen we're going to stand there all day until we are horse going Lazarus come forth Lazarus just happens to have a problem when you're dead you can't hear anybody now but think about this Jesus comes up and goes Lazarus come forth there's still the problem Jesus spoke Whoopi he
spoke to a dead man dead men can't hear so what you need to understand is when Jesus said Lazarus come forth he also imparted into Lazarus the life to stand up in here that's right and that's what you don't recognize when a man gets out to preach the gospel he is not some little Tinker toy type of man who's learned a few slick systems who can go out and motivate and coers and manipulate people emotionally to come forward if he is a true preacher of God he is a prophet standing in a valley full of
dead bones and God looks at him and says can these bones live and he says you know lord well then son call upon the wind speak to these bones that's the problem in America today you think salvation is just some little human decision of the will the fact of the matter is it is a supernatural work of God men hate God don't you recognize that and men cannot come to God why because they hate him it's like this let me give give you an example it says in the Bible that Joseph's brothers could not speak
a kind or gentle word to him why is that did they have lips yes did they have tongues were any of them mute not that I understand why is it that his brothers could not speak a good word to him it says because they hated him so what it's saying is this have you ever seen a person you say you need to forgive this other person I can't why not I I just I just I just can't they've done me so much wrong I cannot forgive them what are they saying the the animosity the bitterness
the hatred in my heart keeps me from forgiving them that's why when we say men can't come to God we're saying they can't come to God because they won't come to God and they won't come to God because God is Holy they're Wicked and they hate what they say and Jesus said the same thing you will not come to the light because your Deeds are evil men are evil so the more they see of God and the more they see of God's law the more they will hate God and kick against his law that is
why when a preacher like me gets up to preach he knows it's absolutely hopeless no matter what I say no matter what I do I cannot coers I cannot manipulate why the spirit of almighty God must come down in that place and resurrect people that's right it is a spiritual work of God not a thing for tiny boys if I see one more Church sign that uses that Geico thing salvation is so easy a caveman can do it I don't know what I'm going to become yeah salvation's so easy a caveman can do it no
so salvation's so impossible that the Blessed tric holy Son of God had to spill his blood to make it happen and then the spirit of almighty God must come and literally resurrect a dead man and give him spiritual sights that he can see as I was sharing late earlier and this is important for you to understand Romans 12 this is important I'm going to get back to it but you have to understand this most people they they preach like this that it's like Jesus is standing behind a curtain and there's the whole Congregation of lost
people and Jesus is behind the curtain and someone says all we have to do is show them Jesus Jesus they see Jesus they're going to come to him just pull that curtain back preach to them about Jesus and they'll come that's not true why well the audience is blind so you pull the curtain back nothing that's right why they're blind and then someone says you're right brother Paul we got to preach Jesus we got to pull that curtain back so that they can see him and the spirit of God's got to come and give them
sight then they'll come to him no they won't they'll kill him why because when they open up their eyes and for the first time in their life see Jesus as the impeccably holy and righteous Son of God and they see him with that Wicked god-hating heart of theirs the more they see of him the more they'll hate him the more they see of his will the more they'll kick against it see here's one of the problems preachers aren't telling you today what is a long drawn out Doctrine throughout all of Orthodox Christianity men are Fallen
radically depraved they are born in their sin and in iniquity they are born conceived in sin they are haters of God they are truly evil and the only reason you don't make Hitler look like a choir boy is because the grace of God has restrained you so if we were to pull back the curtain and the spirit were to allow you to see then what you saw you would hate because your heart is evil so what has to happen for a man to get saved I'll tell you what has to happen a preacher preaches the
gospel of Jesus Christ and calls men to repent and believe the gospel and the spirit of God comes and what does he do he does exactly what Ezekiel says he takes out a Heart of Stone what is that Heart of Stone I don't care how big a man you get the biggest man in Texas and make a statue of him I'll punch him I'll pinch him I'll prod him I'll kick him I'll let a pigeon land on his head and he's not going to do anything why because a statue of stone no matter how big
it is is an inanimate object it cannot respond to stimuli that's the heart that a man has he cannot respond to Divine stimuli because it's dead but he says I will take out your Heart of Stone and I will give you a heart of Flesh and what is flesh flesh in this sense is not talking about something bad a heart of flesh is something that can respond to stimuli I'm going to give you a heart that can see me hear me I'm going to recreate your heart in the image of God and true righteousness and
true Holiness and I'm going to throw open your eyes and the moment I open your eyes and you see my son my beautiful precious holy son you are going to be drawn to him because that heart of yours has been changed glory and that is why he is saying here shall we sin so that Grace may increase and he says no no way why because although we were born with a sinful adamic nature that drank down sin like it was water even though we loved evil deeds and hated the light in saving us God made
us new creature salvation is not just a a thing of the human will it is a supernatural work of God just like Recreation the spirit of God hovered in the creating of the universe the spirit of God recreates a person who is genuinely born again makes them new makes them different how is it that you can be witnessing to a drunk you can be witnessing to a guy who has done everything possible who has no morality known nothing and all of a sudden when you're witnessing to him he sees Christ he's broken over his sin
he comes running to Christ and then he's absolutely just a different man did he just make a decision the spirit of God made him a new now I'll give you the best illustration I've been living in Alabama for a year so I can use this illustration let's imagine that I have a plate of that barbecue I ate today that was wonderful stuff wonderful plate of the finest food bucket of garbage and we have a we let a pig loose in the auditor I lived on a farm for many years I know exactly where that Pig's
going he's not going to eat barbecue he's going to stick his head in this bucket of vomitous Filth he's going to plunge his head in there as deep as it can go he's going to eat with all delight and he is going to shake his little tail and he's not going to worry about any of you seeing him but if in one second I have the power to change that pig into a man change his very nature he is now a new creature he isn't just a pig who decided to turn over a new Leaf
he isn't a pig who's going to finishing school he isn't a pig who's being discipled yeah he is a pig that supernaturally has been changed into something other than a pig he's been changed into a man and the moment he's changed into a man there are some things that men simply by Nature cannot eat they can't do it and so he throws his head out of that bucket the very thing he was gobbling down with delight he is now throwing it up with disgust he runs out into the field he's eating grass he's doing whatever
he can do to get this taste out of his mouth and then finally when he settles down he turns around and looks at you and he is so ashamed he can hardly bear it right I just described your conversion that's right amen you say well I never you've never been converted that's your conversion you see it wasn't just a thing of will it was a supernatural recreating work of almighty God for his own glory to show how powerful he is and that is why Paul says no the believer will never continue in sin that Grace
May abound why because he is a new creature and that's what no one seems to understand any anymore a new creature now let's go on or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death now it's debated back and forth English Scholars American Scholar this scholar that scholar what does baptism refer to I'm kind of old school I simply believe it refers to baptism the water baptism that's my opinion but it doesn't take the it doesn't take the meaning of the text away which
way you go I do not believe that they're saved when they're baptized I believe that what it's simply being demonstrated here is this is that baptism is an external sign of an inward reality now what happens do you not know that all of us who have been baptized under Christ Jesus have been baptized unto his death in baptism he taken under the water he is being buried with Christ he is taken under the he has died it's an outward symbol of something that's already happened the moment they were saved they were regenerated they were born
again by the power of God their old man died and a new man came to take his place or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized un Christ have been baptized unto his death the same way that Christ died we died and we were buried we really were when Christ regenerated our hearts when the spirit regenerated our hearts something really happened when the Bible uses terminology like New Creation new creature it's not poetry it's not just saying oh that's nice and we could say it this way in a song no
it's what really happened ontologically your very being changed you became something new that's why you know for years in my misery in my drunkenness in my self-centeredness in everything that I was and then sit there after doing terrible foolish and hurtful things to people sit on the side of my bed and go I'm never doing that again how could I have done that why would I have done that I've got to stop doing this and make vow after vow and yet my buddy's call that evening and yeah off we go again until one day so
someone shared the gospel with me and what happened it wasn't I need to try to do what's right I need to stop this I need to turn over a new Leaf it was I did that before how could I have done that why would I do something like that what What's happen to me whoa come on Paul it's time to go let's party what no let me share with you something you mark this down this happens all the time especially in the South preacher goes goes visit someone hadn't been in church for 5 years goes
visits him person sees the pastor coming he's very polite he's trained to be polite after all he's from the south opens that door come on in Pastor you want some sweet tea Pastor starts talking to him a while after he talks to him for a while he hangs his head down you're right Pastor you're right I just need to put this filthy stuff away just need to yeah I just need to stop going all these places I need to lay aside this stuff chasing this women and and these women and and you're right I just
need to get right I just need to get in church I just need to do the right thing that man is as lost as he can be because you know what he's saying he's saying you're right Pastor I need to stop doing all the wicked things I love and start doing all the righteous things I hate in order to go to heaven that's exactly what he's saying you don't see a new creature there no you see someone you see and that's one of the problems of the Christian Life most Christians think the Christian Life is
struggling to be something you're not it's not it's being what you are now a new creature yes and so he says therefore we have been buried with him through baptism unto his death so that his Christ was rais raised from the dead through the glory of the father so we too might walk in a newness of Life we've not only has the old man been done away with not only has the old man died but a new man has come to take his place that Heart of Stone is removed and a new heart of Flesh
that will respond to God has been put in its place why so that we walk in a newness of life then he goes on knowing this now let's go to verse six I can't go through knowing this that our old self was crucified with him that's not a promise that's a reality amen he's not saying if you believe it and receive it it'll be true that's kzk teaching which has so influenced so many people but what he's saying is this it's a reality if you truly are a Believer the old self was crucified with him
in order that the body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin it doesn't mean that Believers will be perfect as a matter of fact anyone who comes to you saying they're a Believer and they're perfect they're not a Believer according to First John chapter 1 because one of the greatest evidences that someone truly is a Believer is that they are sensitive to the sin in their life and it leads them to repentance and confession right but what there is a great difference between a believer struggling
and fighting against sin and growing in sanctification and a person who calls them a Believer but lives continuously in a state of slavery with no power to overcome it it's not true for he who has died is freed from sin now I want us to to go down for just a moment if you are a true if you are a Believer you are sitting there and this is so hard to communicate because everyone is just so trained to think I'm speaking I I don't know mystically or or or something that I'm not talking about realities
or truths but this is a reality if you truly are Christian your very Nature has been changed you say well brother Paul then then why do I struggle with sin it's not because there are two Natures Black Dog white dog fighting inside of you you struggle with sin because that new nature of yours is still housed in a body of unredeemed Flesh with ingrained habits of sin but think about this for a moment that Fallen flesh that body with those ingrain habits of sin realize this that is not your reality that's not who you are
it is wrong I believe for a Christian to stand up and say I'm just a filthy wretched sinner with a heart so deceitfully wicked that who can know it and I'll tell you why I had a guy say that one time over and over in his sermon and after his sermon I walked up to him and I said let me ask you a question do I understand you right you are a rotten filthy Wicked Sinner and your heart is so deceitfully wicked who can know it he said yes I said just exactly what did God
do to your heart when he regenerated it right I do not want to play Down The Struggle of sin in the believer's life or the power of the flesh but I want you to know something if you are a Believer the reality is this you are a new creature amen you need to not think okay I need to try and struggle to live like something I'm not don't do that you need to renew your mind and consider these things true and live like you are you aren't these lies any anymore you're something else amen yes
and so he goes on and he says this verse 11 even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus and why is that because you really are dead to sin and alive to Christ Jesus that's the whole purpose of the first six verses you think I'm getting excited you're right there's this teaching out there that if you just consider yourself dead to sin and alive to Christ hard enough you will actually be dead to sin and alive to Christ it's called it's a kezic teaching it it's resting in
Christ it's let go and let God none of it's true it's a reality he says in the first part of the text you are dead to sin look what he says how shall we who died to sin still live in it then he talks about being baptized unto his death and raised to newness of life and that's why he can come back and verse 11 and says even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus because you really are you are living now in a new reality in a
new realm that's why Augustine who was a very immoral man especially with the ladies after his salvation he's walking down the street and this lady of very poor reputation leans out in the balcony and says Augustine Augustine it is is I and he goes yes but it is not I that's right that's right even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust don't do it now let let me share with you something here's
this believer well I'm just a wretched old Wicked sinner my heart's deceitful I love sin I hear Believers talking about that you love sin well yeah we you know just love all right so look at the power in this first of all what does that say for the doctrine of regeneration it's not a big very big work but second of all look at this here comes sin right for him and he goes well I just might as well how can I resist it be who I am I'm still just a wretched old this and that
and well you know I still fight against this and no power to stand against it but someone who understands I believe the doctrine of regeneration and sees sin marching down the aisle towards him sees Temptation marching down the aisle stops and says no and I'll tell you why you're coming to me with deception you're trying to make me believe that if I bite into this I will EXP experience pleasure I will experience Joy but I will not experience any more pleasure or any more joy than a man sticking his head in a bucket of vomit
to slop like a pig I will not believe that I am not that any longer that's not who I am I won't enjoy it it won't bring me pleasure most people think the Christian Life is this denying yourself all these worldly pleasures so that you can get to heaven but if you're a new creature worldly pleasures are no longer a pleasure you say brother Paul can Christians be just say yes but it is a deception when a Christian stops renewing their mind in the word of God when they stop hanging around other godly people and
having iron sharpening iron and they stop thinking Godly thoughts and they begin influenced by the world they can go over there and stick their head ride in a bucket of sin and bite down and the moment they do they know they're wrong they know it's sickening now they may continue to Chomp for a while in their dullness in their Hardness of Heart in their confusion but sooner or later they're going to vomit it up why they are new creatures they're new creatures it's just like this let me set it before you a man is lost
and he he's going to work he's late it's raining outside he's got books under his arm they're all dropping out he hasn't had breakfast he's trying to get the door knob open and he's trying to rush out and the moment he gets the door partway open his wife goes honey could you take the trash out he spins around and he goes can't you say I'm late for work I got these I can't get the door open I got to get to work I got stuff to do out come every time I'm walking out of here
you tell me to take the trash out and he jumps in his car fully Justified drives to work and he's just as happy as he can be totally justified in his sin he gets converted truly converted regener ated Born Again same scenario he's got books under his arm he's late for work he didn't have breakfast he's kicking the cat all these things he's just he's messed up and he's walking out he reaches out for the door knob and his wife goes honey could you take the trash out he doesn't premeditate he doesn't think he doesn't
nothing he does this what's wrong wrong with you can't you tell I'm late for work and it's raining and then it's pouring outside and my boss is going to get me how come every time I'm going out the door late you ask me to take the trash out and you say well behold the power of God what are you talking about brother Paul I'll tell you what I'm talking about and the moment he does it it's like a knife just went through his heart on and maybe he walks out the door and it's it's like
someone it's like he engulfed down a bucket of slot and maybe in his stubbornness he turns the car on maybe he makes it to his office maybe even makes it part way through the day husbands but finally he can't stand it anymore the spirit is convicting him so heavily God is coming to him in discipline but since he is a child of God God no longer comes to him as a judge he comes to him as a father Lord but it is so heavy upon him that he has to call his wife honey forgive me
I was so wrong now why did that happen why it happened because yes the reality of him being still in this body of Fallen flesh that has ingrain habits of sin he's lived in a world of sin he's been trained in sin for years all his reactions have been trained and he spins around and he says that but the moment he does the reality that he's no longer that same old man he is a different man because he can't stomach it anymore he's changed he's no longer his own he has been recreated in the image
of God in true righteousness and true holiness and he's brought to confession why because the reality of who he is he's a different person that's right now he says even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus and what must he do we're going to talk about this tomorrow because we didn't get to it how can he do this the renewing of the mind you were born again Behind Enemy Lines your flesh screams at you that you're nothing different the world screams at you that you're nothing different you're
just some Goose goof following a ghost from Nazareth you're someone who just a religious fanatic they have no idea you have been born again by the very will and power of God you're constantly bombarded being convinced that you're not who you are and preaching is so low with regard to conversion and so many people are called Christians who live totally carnal lives that you're convinced that there's not that much power in the Christian life and it's okay to just live in sin because that's what everyone does no you need to hear from the word of
God over and over again your old man has died it has been crucified you have been risen with Christ you are a new creature and been given the holy spirit it's like that silly little story of the little eaglet that falls out of the nest and lands right in the middle of the chicken CP and all he ever sees all his life is chickens chickens are about the foolish most ugly stupid things I've ever seen I mean they don't have any arms or anything they just walk around I mean if you ever that's an elegant
chicken if you ever heard anyone say that so what does he do he walks like a chicken he acts like a chicken he eats like a chicken one day an eagle flies over and someone goes and that eaglet looks up and goes oh my that's something oh my what is that never seen anybody live like that never seen anybody walk like that fly like that how he holds his head the eagles flying looks down says what on Earth is that flies down hey what are you doing what do you mean what am I doing what
are you doing here why are you walking like [Music] that why what what are you doing what do you mean what am I doing this is what I am no it's not it's not what you are stop it do you know one of the things that I have greatly learned through some Godly men especially through Jay Adams is the need to repent of believing a lie you're not a victim when you believe a lie you're a transgressor when you believe a lie that's exactly what Adam and Eve did they believed a lie you believe this
lie what that that conversion isn't that powerful that godliness isn't possible that Walking with God is not really a reality it's just some pipe dream and God never gave you the power to do it and that eagle says come on the guy goes I can't do this yes you can finally has to literally grab the thing fly up in the air and let him go and pretty soon he says oh my this is true this is this is greater than anything anyone ever told me I never knew I Could Walk This Way I never knew
I could actually fly now for some of you you've never walked that way you've never known power over sin not because you're simply believing a lie but you're yet unconverted you have no power over sin but some of you truly converted need to begin to stand upon the truth of God's word with regard to what you are and when sin marches in the door you look at it and you say look you're a lie I have nothing to do with you and you have nothing to do with me and know it's a lie you don't
have anything to offer me and no it won't even be pleasurable for a season it won't be pleasurable at all because I've been recreated and if I do believe your lie it's going to hurt me so he said do that and what should you do he says he says verse 13 do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteous stop doing it what benefit he's going to ask you later did you get from these things absolutely nothing what you know it's it's just insane I ask you know a
guy will just save up all his well he didn't save money no one saves money anymore he'll go in debt to buy this huge car to make him happy and then I after he does it I'll say what benefit did you derive from that because it begins to be like rot no benefit what benefit does anyone ever derive by living outside of the will of God absolutely nothing and so he says stop doing it but I hear Christians go I can't help it this is who I am no it's not you Eagle it in a
chicken farm it's not it's not who you are and if it is who you are you're not a Christian if you're the type of person that says well I just love that old sin and I just love that but you know I need to do the right thing you love it no you don't some of you don't love sin and yet you say you love sin because that's the language you've been taught really he says stop it stop it it's just like John 15 what an amazing passage yeah I am the vine now you need
to try to be a branch no that's not what it says I am the vine you are the branch you are a branch so stop trying to be something else you really are a branch I live like a branch so he goes on he says just stop doing that but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead why why should we present ourselves to God as those alive from the dead because you're really alive from the dead y it's a reality it's not a wish it's not a hope it's not a promise it
is what you are you are alive from the dead by the spirit of God there's only two Realms the Christianity the New Testament just moves in two Realms that's all that's it you're either in the flesh which is death you're lost or you're in the spirit you're either in Adam or you're in Christ and it goes on and on and on and on there's only two Realms so many people are confusing these things you really are a alive from the dead so live like it don't try to be something you're not just be what you
are he says but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your your members as instruments of righteousness to God you cannot be happy in offering yourself to this world you cannot be happy in offering yourselves to unrighteousness why because you are no longer in an unrighteous creature you are recreated in the image of God in true righteousness and holiness