Romans – The Play Part 5

How are you doing today? I’m in the Spirit.
How were you doing yesterday? I was in the Spirit.
And how are you going to do tomorrow? I’m going to be in the Spirit.

Oh, brothers, soak it up. Sisters, let it ooze in like a dry sponge just picking up water. I’m walking around inside of the very Spirit of God. In His eyes, I’m walking in Him. If I walk in here to that door, I’m enveloped in His Spirit. Lost men are not. And they cannot see. Maybe I can’t see, but I am there. I am in His Spirit. Every pore of my body is touched by His Spirit at all times. I am in His Spirit. And His Spirit dwells in me. And tell me, isn’t that nice? That’s better than nice. That’s wonderful. That’s spiritual. That’s right. Amen.

And I’m going to say one more time. This is unbelievable. This puts, I’m going to say it again, this puts a lie to so much of our present-day looking’s upon the Christian faith. Here we’ve got death and war. We’ve got life and peace. We’ve got being in Spirit. We got the Spirit in us. Where is Southern Baptist Theological Seminary? Where’s the Bible school? Where is all this grunt and groan and effort and standard and performance? Where is all the, if you please, all the objectivity – that which is an object?

Brothers and sisters, I am not reading from the Portland Press Herald.  (local newspaper)
This is not the Portland Press Herald. This is inspired Holy Writ.

Now, are you in the Spirit? Is the Spirit in you? Alright, you’re not in the flesh, period.
You’re in the Spirit, period. How do you know? Because the Spirit of God dwells in you.

If the Spirit of God does not dwell in you, you do not belong to Him. And I’m going to tell you, I’m going to speak for most of you, whether you know it or not, most of you are Christians. Which one of us isn’t, Gene?

I have no idea. I just – probably everybody in here is a believer. But in case there is one person that is not, most of you are in this room because Jesus Christ dwells in you, and because the Spirit dwells in you. Therefore, you do not walk according to the flesh, and you do belong to Him. Alright—now, where does that leave your flesh?

You know, by His Holy Spirit, Christ is inside of me. By His Holy Spirit, the Father is inside of me. And by the Father’s good graces, the Holy Spirit is inside of me. here does that leave my flesh? And where does that leave my spirit in relationship to my flesh? My spirit in relationship to my flesh—my spirit is dead in relationship to my flesh. And my flesh is dead in relationship to my spirit. But where—really, really truly—is my flesh? Well, my flesh is, first of all, what? What is my flesh? Can you give me a definition of it? Some of you should be able to give me a definition of what my flesh is. That is as good a definition as you’ll ever hear: It’s a body. It’s your body. With sin living in it.

I’m going to tell you something really wonderful. The Spirit shut the door and said, “You can’t come in.” And to some degree, the flesh shut the door and said to the Spirit, “You can’t come in.” The flesh cannot get to the Spirit—it’s now off-limits. Well, the Spirit cannot at this moment discharge the flesh, and they fight over whatever is in the middle.

But I want to just talk to you a moment. As far as you are concerned, that which is really you and which God is looking at: your flesh is dead. It does not any longer live.  I want to read this:

“Though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Because you believed, and righteousness came into you—your spirit, or His Spirit—made you alive in your spirit. Your body, the body of your flesh, is dead because of sin.

Now, we’re talking about the first – you remember I said there were four points here in the rest of this chapter. Through verse, what did I say? Verse 25? 27? The first thing is how the Spirit deals with the flesh. And we’re still dealing with that, all right?