You know, the thing is that the flesh is the flesh is the flesh.
The flesh will never change regardless of how much you
advance in your Christian life, how much you grow spiritually.
Your flesh is still your flesh.
You're not to put your trust in the flesh.
In fact, the apostle Paul said it like this in Romans 7:18
“For I know that in my flesh, dwelleth” And the word “dwelleth” there
is in the present tense.
Even when he's already an apostle.
Even then, “in his flesh,” he says “dwelleth no good thing...”
If that is true for an apostle, one of the greatest apostles
that ever lived.
Amen.
How much more for you and I?
Amen.
We are not to trust in the flesh.
Our flesh can betray us.
Our flesh will commit the greatest sin if we allow it to.
Amen.
But God does not see you in the flesh.
When God identifies you— you have the flesh.
Both of us.
Amen.
We have the flesh!
Even though we are born again, we still have the flesh.
The flesh is part of you until we see Jesus face to face.
Amen.
And then we wouldn't have a problem with the flesh.
We'll have a glorified body.
Amen.
But until then, until we see Him face to face,
we’ll contend with the flesh.
But your flesh is not you.
God does not identify you in your flesh.
In Romans 8:9, it says how “But ye are not in the flesh,”
“but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.”
So, once you have the Holy Spirit in you,
God doesn't see you in the flesh.
In other words, He does not identify you in the flesh.
God identifies you in the Spirit.
Amen.
And in the Spirit, you are the righteousness of God in Christ.
In the Spirit, you are a brand new creation, created in
righteousness and true holiness.
Does that mean that we don't have these propensities to sin?
These wayward thoughts and sinful desires
arising and springing up in our very beings?
No, they will still be there!
But you are not to identify yourself with them.
This is not you.
Amen.
This is not you.
You are to judge your behavior by your identity,
by who you are.
Amen.
Judge your behavior by your standing.
And your standing before God, is that of being the
righteousness of God in Christ.
And never judge your standing by your behavior.
Just because your behavior, you know, it fluctuates,
it goes up and down, doesn't mean that your
standing before God goes up and down.
You know, friends, God does not see the way man sees.
Men’s vision is limited.
Men’s vision is confined to their five senses.
What they can taste, what they can feel,
what they can— that's what they see
within their human limitations.
But God goes beyond human limitations.
God sees the future and God sees into your past.
God sees beyond the vision of any created things of His!
Even the eagle can see far away, right?
Even miles away.
But for God, God can see beyond His created creatures.
Amen.
God is a God who sees as no other man sees.
And the Bible says that when God sees you,
He sees you in the Spirit.
And that's why, you know, we are not to identify ourselves
with all these sinful tendencies that rise up.
That's not you.
You've got to say: “This is not me.”
Amen.
Even when you have a bad dream at night,
a sinful dream, amen, and dark dreams and all that.
And you wake up.
Are you responsible for that dream?
Nope.
You cannot be!
You are asleep.
Okay?
You're not to identify yourself with a dream.
If you’ll learn to separate yourself from it and say: “This is not me.”
You'll go back to sleep and your sleep will be sweet.
Alright?
You've got to learn that this flesh will always be there.
And regardless of how much you confess in faith:
“I am the righteousness of God in Christ.”,
the flesh is the flesh and will always remain the flesh.
And in the flesh dwelleth no good thing.
But just because it rises up and calls for your attention,
it doesn't mean you are under its power anymore.
Amen.
You are no more under its power.
Amen.
You are a brand-new creation.
And when God looks at you, God sees you in the Spirit
and not in the flesh.
Do you remember when God told Abraham:
“Take your son”?
In Genesis 22, God says: “Take your son, your only son.”
And God was referring to Isaac.
But then, before Isaac came, Abraham had another son.
Right?
Remember that?
Ishmael was actually the first born before Isaac came.
And yet, why did God say to Abraham: “Take your son, your only son.”?
Because in God's eyes, God identifies with what is
born of the Spirit.
God does not identify with the flesh.
God does not look at the flesh.
Now, God is not pretending that the flesh doesn't exist.
Amen.
God's eyes see the greatest reality.
If I can say it, after our human infirmity.
His eyes see truth like no man can see it.
Amen.
And God sees what is eternal.
That, which is sin, physically, is temporal.
Everything you can see?
That you can see physically Is temporal.
But the Bible says what is unseen?
Angels!
Amen.
The spirit world.
Amen.
God is a spirit.
Amen.
Your human spirit is eternal!
What is unseen is eternal!
Amen.
But we live so much in the zone and in the atmosphere of
what is seen, that many a times, we identify with what is seen.
And we think that God thinks like us
and God sees like us.
No, He doesn't, friend.
God sees you in the Spirit.
And God told Abraham: “Take your son, your only son.”
because Isaac was born of the Spirit Whereas Ishmael was
born after the flesh.
And God did not acknowledge what is born after the flesh.
God acknowledged only what is born of the Spirit.
So, when God deals with you, sometimes you may find it
a little bit confusing because you may have had a bad day,
you know, and so far, it's been a bad day.
You lost your temper or, you know, you gave into some lust
or something like that.
And you feel like God is far away.
All these are feelings and there and there,
you need to acknowledge that your sins are forgiven.
Amen.
You need to know that you are still the righteousness of God in Christ.
And when God talks to you, He talks to you as if
you have not sinned.
Okay?
God talks to you like you are still the righteousness of God in Christ.
Now, you cannot think the way the Old Testament saints would think.
They lived before the cross.
They lived before the resurrection.
Alright?
We are a people that live post cross, post resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus came and changed everything!
Amen.
We are a people whose sins are all forgiven.
David describes the blessedness of the man
to whom God imputes righteousness without his works in Romans 4.
David says: “Blessed are they—" David is a prophet.
Don't forget.
He's not just a king.
He is a prophet and the Holy Spirit came on him one time
and he said this.
He saw prophetically into the future.
He saw you and me.
He saw a people that will be redeemed by the blood of Christ
and a brand new creation.
People who are a brand new creation,
a creation that never existed before.
One translation says: “A new species.”
Amen.
That's what we are.
Amen.
He saw into the future.
David saw us and he says: “How I envy them.”
So, in Romans 4, it says: “David describes the”
“blessedness of the man.”
He's describing your blessedness.
He's describing my blessedness, we, the believers.
And he's saying how wonderful it is—
these people?
How blessed are they?
Alright?
They are blessed because their sins are forgiven.
They are people whose sins are forgiven.
That's the first blessing.
Number two.
“Blessed is the man,” David says, “to whom the Lord
will not impute sin.”
Now, this second blessing is so often misunderstood.
People think that God does not impute sin to you
because you don't sin.
Now, if you think about it, it doesn't make sense.
Why would God impute sin to you, when you did not sin?
That verse only means something when you know
you have sinned, when you know
you're not perfect, and when you know
you don't have it all together.
And yet, God says: “I will not impute sin to you.”
That is a boon!
Hallelujah!
It is the greatest benefit you can have.
Amen.
Praise the Lord.
Why?
Is it because God has gone soft on His standards?
On His holy standards?
No, no, no!
A thousand times no!
It’s because at the cross, Jesus Christ–when He hung there
as our sin offering, as our substitute,
God imputed all your sins and my sins to Him.
Amen.
And the word “imputed” means— it's an accounting term.
God reckoned to His account, God set to His account,
your sins and my sins.
And then in turn, God set His righteousness,
His perfect standing with God to your account, to my account.
So, David described the blessedness, your blessedness,
of the man to whom God imputes righteousness
without works.
Hallelujah!
And friend, it is a blessed thing to know that these words:
“Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not”.
“Shall not impute sin” is a double negative,
which makes it a very strong negative, a strong denial.
No!
No way.
Never will God ever impute sin to you.
Hallelujah, amen.
Friend, the best thing we can do or the best posture
you can take towards God— and any other posture would
displease Him because without faith, it's impossible
to please God— you need to believe what God says.
Amen.
Now, will this produce a licentious lifestyle?
Will this produce a life of callousness?
A life of uncleanness?
No, no way.
Amen.
Because you know why?
When you know that God will never impute sin to you,
you are rested in His presence.
You are not afraid of Him in the wrong sense.
But you will draw near to Him.
Amen.
You will know that He's not— when you come to Him,
He's not looking at your faults.
How wonderful it is to be in the presence of someone
who will never look at your faults?
But he looks at your good points and your strong points?
Amen.
Even when you just tell the person: “Look, you know,”
"I have all these points”, the person refuses to acknowledge it.
How wonderful it is!
Maybe you have a friend like that.
Maybe it's your spouse.
Blessed is the one who is married to such a person.
Amen.
But you know what?
Even like what Solomon said in Song of Songs, you know.
“Oh, my beloved,” “there is no spot in you.”
That’s the way the Lord loves us.
That's how He sees us.
Amen.
He does not acknowledge us in the flesh.
He sees us in the Spirit.
Amen.
It's time for us to see as God sees.
Holiness is to think the way God thinks.
Holiness is to see the way God sees.
Holiness is to speak what God speaks.
Amen.
It is to line up with God.
That is Godliness.
Amen.
Hallelujah.
Thank you Jesus.
Praise the Lord.
So, in our daily life, we'll find time and time again,
this springing up of sinful desires.
We're not to acknowledge it.
We are not to say: “What happened to me is?”
“Is it because I'm so spiritually weak and all that.”
No, no.
This is the experience of even the greatest saints of God.
There never comes a time in their life where they are
without these sinful tendencies, these sinful inclinations.
All of us share that.
If a man of God is honest, alright, he would tell you that
even today he will still have that experience.
Amen.
But just having that springing up doesn't mean
you must obey it.
You must submit to it because you are not it.
You know, I may have a splinter in my finger.
Alright.
And a splinter is a piece of wood, but that doesn't make me
a plank of wood.
Amen.
But the splinter is in my skin.
And it's causing pain, it's causing discomfort,
but I am not the splinter.
I am not wood.
Amen.
Just because there's a piece of wood in my flesh.
So, the flesh is in all of us, but we are not the flesh. Amen.