(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

We're continuing the series that I've called the Rightly Dividing Series. And so we started on Sunday, the first service on Sunday, we were looking at the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Because as you pick up your Bible, that's the clearest distinction that you're just going to see straight off. There's a big distinction, a big division there between the Old Testament and the New Testament. But when it comes to reading the New Testament, now we're living in New Testament days, you know, if you're saved, you're in the Lord, you're guaranteed you're going to heaven, you have eternal life, you know, you turn off into the New Testament to see how we ought to live by, you know, New Testament ways, you know, see what the Lord has to say about, you know, the church and all these kinds of things. And one thing that you'll start to notice in the New Testament, if you're not rightly dividing is the difference between the new man and the old man. So the title for the sermon tonight is the Old and New Man, the Old and the New Man. I have preached on this quite a few times in the past. It is my favorite topic. And it's my favorite topic because so many Christians fail to grasp this truth. And because they fail to grasp this truth, they then take the Bible, they start reading the Bibles and they start getting to heresy. They start, they cannot understand the Bible because they're not realizing this dual nature that every believer has, the old man and the new man. And that's what we're looking at the Old and the New Testament, you know, I kind of explained to you how some define the difference between the old and the new. And when it comes to the old man and the new man, the Bible also has a few different phrases of how to explain the differences between these two natures. When it comes to the old man in the Bible, you'll, you know, you'll find it called the old man. And sometimes you'll also find it called the flesh, the flesh quite often in the Bible, or also, you know, the word carnal, you know, the word carnal will come up in the Bible. Again that's talking about that flesh. I mean carnal, the word carnal basically means the flesh, okay. But you'll also find in the Bible, the carnal mind, the carnal mind, carnal, the flesh, the old man, that's all speaking about the same truth. And when it comes to the new man, the Bible also uses some other words like the Spirit. That's not so confused with the Spirit of God. And here's the thing about the new man, the new man is in touch with the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit will work through that Spirit of man, that new resurrected Spirit of man to teach us many truths. The Bible also uses the term the new creature. You know, you've got a lot of guys are familiar with that term, the new creature. This is speaking of the new man, all right. So what I want to do very quickly here, guys, I'll just grab the two of you guys, going to get you guys to volunteer, Paris and Lockie, come up here quickly, Paris, you'll stand over here on my right hand side. Paris is going to represent the old man because you're a bit older and Lockie, you're going to represent right now just as a presentation of the new man, okay. And this is what it's like as a human being. There's actually three parts that make up the human being, all right. I'm basically representing the soul here, I'm the soul of man, okay. But you know, in order for the soul of man to operate in a physical world, to operate in a tangible physical world, God has created bodies for us, he's created a flesh for us, which is represented by Paris, okay. So and then we've got Lockie, and when I'm born into this world, the Bible tells us not only do we have a soul and flesh, but we also have the spirit of man, when we're born into this world, or even you know, at conception, I would say, you know, you have these three elements that make up who you are, okay. And when you're a little child, you know, you have the soul, you have the flesh, you have the spirit, but the only thing that is visible to man is the flesh, okay. The only thing that you can see is the flesh, but as human beings, aren't we more than just flesh? Aren't we just, aren't we more than bodies? Don't we have a mind? Don't we have a soul and spirit? Well, those things are not visible. Those things are not seen. And that's me there, the soul, and Lockie representing the spirit, okay. Now you guys can sit down for a minute. I'm going to get you guys to come back up later on, but I'll get you guys to sit down for me. And I just need to understand that truth, okay, that we have a physical body which allows us to interact in the physical realm, okay. And that body is born with a sin nature, a sin nature. The reason why you're tempted to sin, the reason why you're tempted to go your own way and seek, you know, you know, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life is because, you know, Paris there represents that sinful nature. And that's what's going to cause you to seek out the things that are worldly, the things that are carnal, the things that are temporary in this world, the things that do not please the Lord, all right. And, you know, the physical body there is to help you interact with the physical realm, okay. But here's the thing, here's a reality. You guys are in Romans chapter six, go to Romans chapter seven, verse nine, Romans chapter seven, verse nine, there comes a time in your life when Lockie, who represented the spirit, there comes a time in your life when that spirit dies, okay, when that spirit dies. And have a look at Romans chapter seven, verse nine, Romans chapter seven, verse nine. The Bible says, for I was alive without the law once. Of course, this is the apostle Paul, you know, writing this, he's speaking about himself, he was once alive without the law, okay, without the law. That represents a Lockie as he stood there, but then it says here, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I what? I died. Okay. So there comes a point in your life when you recognize the commandments of God, you recognize that you're a sinner in his sight, where the sin revives and you die, okay. Now this was well illustrated to us in the book of Genesis, when we were reading through Adam and Eve, and the Lord God, you know, gave the commandments to Adam and Eve to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, right. And what did they do? They disobeyed. And Jesus Christ in Genesis 2 17 says, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Okay. Now, this was a promise of God, when Adam and Eve ate of that tree, they surely died that very day. But did their physical body die? No, their physical body, you know, still operated, okay. In fact, the curse of God came upon Adam and Eve, and therefore they have that sin nature in them. And because we're descendants of Adam and Eve, we too are born into that sinful nature, okay. We can't blame Adam and Eve for their sins, no. In your own sin nature, guess what, you're going to commit your own sins. You're going to disobey God's laws, which makes you a sinner, okay. And this is what happens the day, you know, you recognize that point where you've disobeyed the law, you recognize the law of God, hey, I'm a sinner, is the day that you die, is the day that you die. Now, some people speak about, you know, the age of accountability, I know this is a topic that's come up recently on social media, I don't want to cover this in any depth today. But next week, as you know, as we use this as a building point, I do want to cover that next Wednesday as well, okay, the age of accountability, and I'll go over that later on. And but here's the truth that we saw there in Romans 7-9, that when sin revives, you die, okay. And in the representation there that we had with Paris, myself and Lockie, Lockie died, okay. And so when you get to that point, you are now spiritually dead, spiritually dead, okay. And as that physical body allowed us to interact in the physical realm, guess what, when you're spiritually dead, you cannot have a fellowship with the Lord God. You cannot interact in his kingdom, in his spiritual kingdom. You cannot hear from the Lord God, you cannot, you know, interact with the Holy Spirit of God. In fact, you can't even open up your Bible and understand what's being said there in the Word of God, because it's the Holy Spirit for your spirit that teaches you what's in the Word of God. This is why, you know, we preach things, you guys understand it, we open the Word of God, you know, sometimes you just need clarity, and it comes true, you realize this is the truth. Again, the unsaved world, they'll hear preaching, they'll open the Word of God, it'll make no sense to them until that spirit of man is made alive again, okay. So that's one thing you need to understand. Most people in this world, the sinners, the ungodly, the unsaved, are alive to an extent, they've got their soul, it's in their body, their body's alive, but their spirit is dead. Their spirit is dead. And here's what happens at the end of someone's life, that spirit is already dead, what happens? The body dies, right? The soul leaves the body. And this is where the Bible speaks about things being twice dead. You're kind of twice dead, you're spiritually dead, and you're physically dead. Now for some people, they can be twice dead even before their body drops, okay. And of course, that's the doctrine of reprobates, which we're not going to go through today. But that's the teaching of being twice dead, all right. Now please go to Psalm 62, please, go to Psalm 62, verse 1, Psalm 62, verse 1. We spoke about the flesh, we spoke about that, the body, we've spoken a little bit about the spirit there, which is unseen, okay, which is for most people, you know, unless you're a young child, for most people, that is dead until they are saved, but the soul is eternal. You know, God promises you that one day you're going to have, if you get saved, you will have that new spirit, that new revived spirit, it will come back, and one day that old body that dies, one day it's going to be resurrected as well. But you know what, God never promises a resurrected soul, okay. And this is why we often talk about the soul being saved, it's the soul that needs to be saved, and it's saved through this mechanism, when the spirit is revived, and when the body ultimately is resurrected, okay. That is the completion of the salvation that God has for us. Look at Psalm 62, verse 1, Psalm 62, verse 1. The Bible says, truly, my soul waiteth upon God, from him cometh my salvation, okay. This is why we call it soul winning. We go out there, we knock doors, we say we're going out there to win souls, okay. How do we win that soul? Well, we want that spirit that was dead, we want that spirit to come back to life, okay. And that spirit, what is again, the new man, the new man, that spirit that comes back to life. So God has given us a solution, when you're saved, you're spiritually born again, and one day there's a promise of your physical body being resurrected at the rapture. Now here's what's cool about the rapture, I often hear believers say, man, I want to be there at the rapture, I want to make it all the way, and look, you're all going to make it. You're all going to be there. You know, if God's promised you the resurrected body, you're going to be there at the rapture, don't worry about it. If you've died beforehand, hey, you get to be raptured first, okay, you're going to come back with Christ in your soul, and you know, take up that resurrected body, you'll be caught up again in the clouds with the Lord Jesus Christ, and everybody else that remained alive will then be caught up together in the clouds, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And so don't worry, you're not going to miss out on the resurrection. That's part of the promise that God has given us, all right. But please go now to John chapter three, John chapter three, and we need to go here, because the Lord Jesus Christ gives a very detailed explanation of this part, of salvation, and what it means to be born again in John chapter three, verse one. John chapter three, verse one. John chapter three, verse one. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou our teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. How is it that we can see the kingdom of God? Of course, we know this kingdom today is a spiritual kingdom. But how is it that we can see it by being born again? So how is it that we're born again? It's a question that Nicodemus asked in verse number four, Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Now here's the thing, when you were in your mother's womb, and you were born, what was born out of that womb? The flesh, right, the body, the physical body came out of that womb. And Nicodemus here is scratching his head, I don't know if he's mocking, I just don't know, maybe he's just stupid, you know, he says, what, how can we enter back into the mother's womb? How can we be born again, Jesus, right? What does Jesus say? Verse number five, Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. So it's not just seeing the kingdom of God, it's entering the kingdom of God that you're required to be born again in order to achieve that, okay, to be born again, again. What is this? You've been born once in the flesh. Now again, when you've sinned, when you're a lost person, you're spiritually dead, what needs to be born again? The flesh is already alive, so what needs to be born again? Lockie, right, Lockie, the new man, you need to be born again. Lockie, when you're on this side, that new man, that spirit, that new creature needs to be revived and born again. This is what it means to be born again, you're born once in your mother's womb, the flesh, you're born again now in the Spirit, okay, the new man. And verse number six, for that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that over there, and that which is born of the Spirit, notice the capital S there, the Holy Spirit is Spirit. So we're born by the Spirit of God, not born by your mother, not born in a fleshly way, but you're born again in the Spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. So this is the truth of God, when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, when you place your faith upon him, what happens? You are born again. And of course, in John chapter three is where we get John 3 16, the most famous verse that speaks on salvation. And this is a great truth, because now as a believer, hey, you know, I was spiritually dead, you know, I was on my way to hell, I was going to pay for my sins. But now that I recognize that Jesus Christ has paid for it all, guess what, now, Lockie, come back here. Get you back up here. Now, Lockie, who was once dead is now born again, right? I've now got that new man, I've got that spirit there, you know, and Paris before was here. Hey, now, I'm a believer, and I've got this dual nature in me. You know, there was Paris over here representing the flesh. And we've got Lockie here representing the spirit, the new man, the old man is over there, the new man is over here, the old man was born of the flesh, the new man was born of the spirit. Okay. And this is the dual nature that you need to wrap your head around, in order for you to live, you know, an effective Christian life, you need to understand this truth. You know, and here's the thing, Paris, can I get you back up here just quickly? Here's the thing, I now have a choice, you know, when I was spiritually dead, I was always over here, I was always walking after the flesh, you know, and the flesh was doing things contrary to the will of God. But now that I'm born again, now that Lockie's back here, I'm born again, I now have a choice, you know, do I live over here? Do I walk in these ways? Or do I walk over here? You know, and again, here's the thing about a believer, I could walk over here again, and guess what I'll be doing if I'm over here? I'll be back to my old ways or back to a sinful life. You know, I can do just as many sins as the unbeliever out there if I'm walking after the old man. But here's the thing, we have the choice, right? I should be over here, the new man, born of the spirit. And if I'm over here, guess what I'm doing? I'm serving the Lord God, I'm walking in the spirit, you know, I'm growing, I'm doing the things of God. When I go out there solely and reading my Bible, fellowshiping with the Lord God, you know, in prayer and in Bible reading, these kinds of things, I'm now here in the new man, but I have a choice. I have a choice. You're never like this, you never have one foot here and one foot there. It's never going to happen. You're either all the way here in the old man, or you're either all the way here in the new man. And I actually believe every time you wake up in the morning, you start here just by default. All right, and I believe you have to make a conscious decision, Lord, help me to walk after the new man this morning and bring yourself over here. I'll get you guys to sit down for now. Thanks. So, please go to 1 John 1 now, 1 John 1 verse 8, 1 John 1 verse 8, 1 John 1 verse 8. Now because we have a choice, and because I believe you're going to be naturally inclined to basically go after the flesh, because that's the way you've been for a long time, even before you're saved, and you've committed certain sins in that flesh, then we have this reality that we need to understand, even though we're born again, even though we're saved, there's going to be many times that you're going to be over here on this side. You're going to be in the old man, and when you're in the old man, guess what? You're going to be sinning against the Lord, okay? And you know, when you're tempted to sin, you really want to jump over here when you're tempted to sin. You know, theoretically, theoretically, it is possible, theoretically, to live a sinless life. If you could stay over here in the new man 100% of the time, okay, theoretically, it'd be possible, all right, but you know, the truth is, because we have this dual nature, we have this constant war in ourselves, you know, the flesh wants to do things one way, the spirit wants to do things another way, and when you're tempted to sin, you're going to have to make that conscious choice, which way am I going to go? Do I give into that sin? Do I go over here? Or do I fight it? Do I get into that new man, ask the Lord to help me to overcome that temptation? Ideally, you want to be here as much as possible. But here's the thing. More often than not, when you're a new believer, okay, when you're a new believer, you're not, you know, accustomed to walk in the ways of the Lord, you're going to be spending a lot of time over here, okay, a lot of time over here, and every now and again, as a new believer, you'll be over here. This is why you're called a babe in Christ, because you've been born again, but that born again spirit is just a little child, it's just been born, it's just a little babe, you know, you're spending a lot of time over here. And the goal is in your spiritual life and your Christian walk is to gradually, as time progresses, you know, not this sprint, you know, make sure it's a marathon, you spend more and more time here in the new man, okay. But again, you're never going to be here all the time, 100%. It's impossible while that old flesh is still alive, okay. Now 1 John chapter one, verse eight, 1 John chapter one, verse eight says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. So are we ever going to get to a point where we never sin? No. Like I said, if theoretically we could always be here, yes, we would never sin. But the truth is God realizes our downfall. God realizes we're walking in the sinful flesh, and we are going to sin. You'll never get to a point where you can truly say that you have no sin. And if you were to say that, the Bible says that you've deceived yourself, the truth is not in you, okay. And verse number nine, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him, we make God a liar, and His word is not in us. So here's what happened guys, when you're going about life and you commit sin, you've done that over here in the flesh, okay. And when you're here in the flesh, what should you do according to verse number nine? We should confess our sins. What does it say there? And He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So when we commit sin over here, we should confess those sins to the Lord, and the Lord will pick us up and bring us back over here in righteousness. That's the beautiful thing about the Christian life, you know, we can mess up, we can mess up pretty badly, but the Lord God is always there ready to forgive us our sins, as long as we're confessing them. And please, let me encourage you, make that a constant thing in your life, where you go to look, you're sinning every day, all right, you are sinning every day, you know, having my flight cancelled this morning, there's probably a few sins that went through my mind just thinking about my cancelled flight, you know. We do it all the time, we should go before the Lord and confess those things so we can be walking in the new man, in righteousness, in fellowship with the Lord God. But go to 1 John chapter 3 now, 1 John chapter 3, and this is where people really mess up the scriptures, because they forget, they're reading through the Bible and they just forget this dual nature, for whatever reason, okay, they just forget this dual nature. 1 John chapter 3, verse 9, 1 John chapter 3, verse 9, the Bible says, Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. All right, so, have you been born of God? Well, if you've been born again, if you're saved, yeah, you have been born of God. And according to 1 John chapter 3, if you've been born of God, you don't commit sin, right, you don't commit any sin. And it's going to get you guys back up here one more time, just last time, here, come over here guys, Lockie, come over here. So what's the reality of this? It says here, which one of these was born of God? Which one was born of the Spirit? Lockie, right, the new man was born of the Spirit. So when the Bible says here in 1 John 3, whosoever is born of God, are we talking about Paris here, the old man, born of God? No, that was born of mum, right, born from Adam, the sinful nature is right over here. But which was born of God? Lockie, right, the new man, born of God. And so the Bible says here, whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin. This is how you overcome sin in your life. You got to be in the new man, you got to be walking in the Spirit, okay, so you don't commit sin. And so do I believe in sinless perfection? Well, to an extent I do, all right, because yeah, even when I commit sin, and I'm over here, guess what, Lockie's over there, and he remains sinless. Every sin you commit is done in the flesh, is done in the old man, okay, and it's contained over here, but Lockie, the new man, you know, remains untainted, remains sinless. So is there such thing as sinless perfection in this life? Well, there is, because a part of you is sinless, okay, if you're saved, the born-again spirit, the new man remains sinless, even though you're committing sins over here. So yeah, but here's the thing, when you go out there and you knock doors, right, and some people believe in order for you to be saved, or when you get saved, you no longer sin. I've not really come across that many here in Australia, but I have come across that a few times in America, where people say, look, I no longer sin, okay, first of all, when you ask them what they believe the gospel is, first of all, they believe it's a workspace gospel, don't they? They believe, well, I've repented of my sin, right? And here's a sinner, so what they're saying is, I'm no longer over here, I've repented from all, I'm no longer doing those sins, right? And they say, well, because I'm no longer doing any sins, I'm now here walking in sinless perfection. But is that salvation? Is salvation reformation of the old man? Is salvation cleaning up the old man, you know, turning a new leaf, living a better life? No, salvation was being born again of the spirit over here, okay? And that's the problem, those that believe in sinless perfection for salvation, right, you know, they are talking about the old man. They're saying, look, we've informed the old man enough, we've turned from so many sins, and this is why I'm saved, because the old, no, the old man, the Bible says, flesh and blood doth not inherit the kingdom of God, all right? This flesh and blood is never going to heaven, all right? Now the resurrected body will, okay, but not the old man, it will never go to heaven, all right? So thanks guys, you can sit down, it's the last time I'll ask you guys to get up, thanks guys. All right. So we need to identify the differences, and as we read through the scriptures, we need to identify when is the Lord speaking of the old man, and when is the Lord speaking of the new man. Now, please go to 1 Corinthians 15, please, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 42, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 42. Actually, we might just skip down to verse number 52, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 52, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 52, 1 Corinthians 15 contains probably the second most famous passages on the rapture of the resurrection, okay? We know how the spirit is resurrected, born again, by salvation, by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then the Bible tells us here how that physical body is resurrected here in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 52, the Bible says, or let's drop down to verse 51, sorry, verse 51. Behold, I show you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, that means we should not pass away, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Man, what a promise. Verse 53, for this corruptible, this is another way of saying the old man, because what's corruptible? What's sinful? The old man, remember the new man is sinless, it's perfect, okay? So what's corruptible? For this corruptible, the old man must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. This is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, okay? Not only do we talk about, you know, the resurrection of Christ in this chapter, but then the promise of his resurrection. You know, and it gives me great joy to know I don't have to put up with this sinful flesh, this corruptible flesh forever. There's coming a time when God's going to give me this perfect body. Verse number 54, so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, meaning that mortal body could die, but now that new resurrected body is immortal, it can never die. Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. All right, so what I promise, what I promise, you know, if you've believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are saved, you are saved, but you've not experienced the entire salvation process just yet. You're guaranteed you have eternal life, you can never lose it, but at the day of the resurrection, now your body is being resurrected back to life, and it's an incorruptible, immortal body which reflects that of the Lord Jesus Christ. The same kind of body that the Lord Jesus Christ had at his resurrection will be a very similar or the same body that you will have at your resurrection through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. What I promise, because now the old man, hey, the old man's gone, it's in the grave, right? But that body will be changed and we'll have that new body in Christ. We have that spirit which was born of God, we have that new body in Christ Jesus through the power of his resurrection. Wow, what a promise. And now we're no longer fighting sin. We have a perfect spirit, we now have a perfect body, hey, and we can walk in righteousness all the days of our life for all eternity, fellowshiping with the Lord God forever. What a promise to have, you know, that's the truth and it gives me great hope. When I was a child, when I was small, I didn't realize, you know, I was saved, right? I wasn't taught about the resurrection, I wasn't taught about the end times. I had this concept in my head that the world will go on forever and ever just the way it is. You know, people will be born, people will die, just forever and forever and forever and then people that get saved will go to heaven. I never understood that God's going to give us a physical resurrected body once again. I thought I'd just be a spirit in heaven, but no, God's going to give us a physical body so we can interact in a physical realm. This is why the Lord God then, after we have our new bodies, he creates a new heaven and a new earth and we're going to be busy on that earth, you know, working the works of God, you know, worshiping the Lord God, and we'll be doing it in our physical, new physical resurrected bodies, serving the Lord for all eternity. All right, so what I want to cover now is how do we overcome the flesh, okay? Because as a believer, as you're going through life, you're going to have that constant battle. Do I go over here? Do I go over there? And again, you're going to be naturally inclined to be over here in the flesh. It's going to take a bit of effort in order for you to put off that old man and walk in the new man. How do we do this? How do we do this? Well, if you guys can go to Galatians chapter 5, please. Galatians chapter 5, verse 25. Galatians chapter 5, verse 25. The Bible says, if we live in the Spirit, now let's pause there for a moment. If we live in the Spirit, okay, so here we have the old man, the new man, okay, and that new man is the one that the Holy Spirit speaks through, okay, that works through us. If so, if we live in the Spirit because we're saved, we can interact in that spiritual realm, and what do we command it to do? To let us also walk in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Because here's the thing, you can be living in the Spirit, you've been born again, you've been made alive in Christ Jesus, but then you might be just there fulfilling the lust of the flesh, walking after the old man. God commands us, God expects from us that we should be striving to live godly lives. And here's the thing, when you have this new man, this new man, you know, has victory over sin, has victory over the power of sin, and it can actually put this old man in subjection. This old man can be subjected unto that new man. And so if you're walking a new man, of course you're operating in the physical realm, but the things you do in that physical body will be right, why? Not because the flesh is made right, but because you're walking after that new man, and that flesh is now subdued under the Spirit. But I want you to back up a little bit there in Galatians chapter five, and look at verse number 18. Galatians chapter five verse 18. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now on Sunday we talked about the Old Testament and the New Testament, and when the Bible speaks of the law, it is referring to the Old Testament laws, the Old Testament commands. And here's the truth, as I've just mentioned. If you are walking in the new man, you cannot break the laws of God, okay? Because what is sin? Sin according to the Bible is the transgression of the law. It's when you break the law of God, that's what sin is, okay? But the new man can never sin. So if you are walking in the new man, you have put on the new man, guess what? You cannot break the law of God, which is why it says there. Now the works, sorry, verse number 18, now if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. The law has no effect on you as a believer if you're walking in the Spirit. And I covered this a little bit on Sunday, that in fact, if you just could remain in the new man, you could remain in the Spirit, being led of the Spirit, you wouldn't even need to know what the laws of God are in the Old Testament. You'd just be walking in accordance to God's way, because you'd be walking after there the Holy Spirit and His guidance in your life, okay? And we want to talk about how do we overcome the flesh. Let's keep reading there, verse number 19. Now the works of the flesh, that old man, the flesh, what does the flesh do? The works of the flesh are manifest. Which are these? Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, heresies, all right? When we make errors in doctrine, guess who made the error? The flesh. Okay? Now here's the thing, you know, we do the best we can when we get up here and preach the Bible. Right? Are we going to make mistakes sometimes? Of course. Okay? Because we're not perfect. Okay? But here's the thing, you know, as you read through your Bible, as you prepare, you know, you should be seeking the Lord God to guide you, you should be seeking to being that new man as you're working through your sermon. So as you preach, then, you know, you'll be preaching correct doctrine. But here's the thing, if you make a mistake, you know, there was a time there in your preparation, in your learning that you were actually in the flesh, and you bought into some kind of heresy. And, you know, and unfortunately, sometimes it comes out during a sermon, okay? Things like that. So look, heresy is a work of the flesh. We can all get into heresy, you know, if we're walking in the flesh. Let's keep going. Verse number 20. Where was I reading from? Sorry, guys. Verse number 21. Envians, murders, drunkenness, rebellions, and such like, of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. I believe that. I believe that. All right? And some will say, look, this is why you have to repent of your sins. You need to repent from the drunkenness, you need to repent from the heresies, you need to repent from the strife, you need to repent from the hatred and the variants and the emulations in order for you to be saved, because the Bible says here that you will not inherit the kingdom of God. What part of you will not inherit the kingdom of God? The old man, the flesh. We already know that, okay? The flesh was never saved, okay? Only when you receive those resurrected bodies will you be able to inherit or walk into the kingdom of God in the physical body, that resurrected body, okay? If you're saved, you have the new man, and the new man is untainted from the works of the flesh. And this is why you go to heaven, not because you've been overcome, you know, you've repented from all your sins, you go into heaven because you've been born of the Spirit. You have the new man of God there. We know the old man's done for. We know this flesh is going to die and pass away. That's why we're looking forward to the resurrected body that God gives us. I'm just going to read to you from Galatians 3.10. The Bible says, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. The Bible said there, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. If you're trying to be saved by reforming that old man, which is under the law, okay, that old man is under the law, because every time it sins, the law, you know, shows that you failed. You know, the law shows that you need the Savior, or the law shows that you need to be cleansed and ask us to, you know, confess your sins and walk in righteousness, okay? There's a part of you that is always under the law. That's when you walk in the flesh and you're committing acts of sin. But there's a part of you that is not under the law, the new man, the Spirit. And so this is the thing you need to understand as you read through your New Testament, quite often you'll find things about being under the law. It's those that are trying to be saved by reforming that old man. That's not salvation. And that's why, you know, you read about not being under the law. Well, yeah, the new man, the new man's not under the law because he cannot break the law of God. It's sinless, okay? Again, how do we make sure that we walk more often here? That's what we're aiming for. That's how we grow. That's how we mature. We spend more time here. You know, when you're saved, maybe you spend, who knows, you know, you don't know much of the Bible. Maybe you're not even attending church. Maybe you're spending like 95% of your day over here in the flesh. You know, maybe 5% of your time over here, okay? But maturity, what does this mean? What does it mean to mature in the Lord, to grow in the Lord? Meaning at some point in your life, you want to get to maybe 50% over here, you know, and 50% over here. You're spending less time in the flesh and more time in the Spirit, you know? But that's not enough. That's not good enough. We've got to keep working at this, right? And then we want to get to a point where we're 40% of our time here, and 60% of our time over there. Then 20% of our time over here, and 80% of our time over here. As you're doing that, that's when you're going to start overcoming temptation. That's when you're going to start defeating sin in your life, when you spend more time over here. Okay? But here's the thing, if you just seek to be worldly and carnal, and you think, man, I've been saved for 10 years, but I'm still struggling with the same sins, why is that? It's because you're still here. You're still spending so much time here, and you think, just because you're saved, you know, you can overcome sin just by walking here. No. You've got to spend more time over here. That's how you overcome sin. Okay? The old man and the new man, you need to spend more time in the new man. Go to Romans chapter 12, please. Romans chapter 12, verse 1. Romans chapter 12, verse 1. And we'll end on this one. Romans chapter 12, verse 1. Because this is how you do it, guys. This is how you do it. Because it's easy to say, it's easy to say, well, you know, just make sure you're in church. And these are all things that are true, okay? But I want you to understand the deeper principle here. It's not just going to church, because here's the thing, you can go to church in the old man. You can turn up to church, sit down in the pews, sing songs and be in the old man. It's possible. You know, you can go out there, knock doors, right, soul winning, and be in that old man. You're not going to have much success when you're doing that. Okay? But it's possible. Because here's the thing. I don't know. You know, when I look out at you guys, I hope you guys are in the new man. I hope you guys are walking in the spirit. I hope you come to church to be encouraged and to continue in the spiritual growth. But I can't see it on the outside, right? I mean, this was the issue with the Pharisees. On the Pharisees, they looked wonderful on the outside. But inwardly, they wouldn't even save these guys, right? And they could deceive the masses, they could deceive people by being seen as religious people. And this is why it's difficult. You know, a lot of people, sometimes those that look the best on the outside, those that look the most righteous at church, could be the ones in the deepest and darkest sins, because they're just spending all their time, you know, in the flesh. Or they're not even saved and just spending time trying to reform this flesh. It's not going to happen. It's not going to work. All right? Romans chapter 12, verse one. The Bible says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies, your body, remember, your body is has that sinful nature, right? But what does he want us to do? Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy. He wants our bodies to be holy, separated from this world, holy and separated unto God, acceptable unto God. Say, how do I do that? Which is your reasonable service. You know, you overcoming sin, you know, you live in a holy and blameless life is what God says is reasonable. You know, he sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ to come and die for us. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ gave his whole life for us and took upon our curse, the curse that should have fallen upon us. He took it upon himself and paid for our sins. And God says, look, what's reasonable for you now is that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. How do I do that? I've got the sin nature. Well, the answer's there. All right, next verse, verse number two. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. It all comes to the mind. It comes to transforming, renewing your mind, okay? Because as you walk this life as a sinner, in that sin nature, committing sins, you know, seeking after the lust of the flesh and all those things, you've been corrupt in your mind. You've been brainwashing your mind. The world has been brainwashing you, okay? And here's what God says. You need to fix what's up here in your mind. You need to renew what's up here in your mind. You need to start changing, not being conformed to the world, okay? Not being that way. You say, how do I do that? You know, well, it comes down to this, guys. It comes down to what are you sowing to? Are you sowing to the flesh or are you sowing to the Spirit? Okay? What are you spending time doing? Where are you spending time? Are you spending time here or are you spending time here? Okay? And let me, it's difficult because we've got our old habits, we've got our old sins, we've got our old ways of doing things, but a lot of that feeds into the flesh. A lot of it does, okay? A lot of the vain things that you do are just carnal things that have no eternal value. You know, how do we change these things? You know, I don't know if you guys listen to worldly music. I don't know if, you know, I don't know if you put on the radio, if you've got your CDs, you know, of your old rock bands or your old pop stars or whatever. You know, if you spend time listening to those words, you spend time listening to that music and the lyrics, where do you think you're going to be? You think you're going to be over here enjoying the music or do you think you're going to be over here? You know that part when you're listening to that worldly music and it bothers you and you kind of feel guilty about listening to it? You know what part of you is feeling guilty? The new man. The new man over here is going, you know what, I don't like that, but you know the part of you that goes, man, yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, I know the words of this song. That's the flesh. That's the old man. You know? And here's what you need to do. You need to start transferring. You know, you're like, look, I need to make a conscious, I don't care about music. That's something that I've ever had to battle. But I know for some people it's really hard. It's something that they've enjoyed for a lot of their life. Maybe it brings back certain memories or whatever. It's hard for them to let go. But listen, you need to get rid of that worldly junk. All right? You say, what do I do? Well then you grab your hymn book and you start singing hymns. You know, you open up, you know, you go, there's so many resources now. We have the internet. You have so many good, I'm not talking about Hillsong. I'm not talking about Vineyard or these other organizations. There's a lot of good Christian music out there on the internet these days. Start learning the songs. And when you start singing praises, when you start singing songs that are full of doctrine, it's going to edify that new man. The new man's going to be like, yeah, I love this. But then there's going to be that other part of you that goes, man, that sucks. Can we go back to, you know, Michael Jackson or whatever, you know? Can we go back to Britney Spears or, I don't know, what people listen to, right? Bieber, Justin Bieber, I don't know, whatever people are listening to these days, right? So you replace. You replace that which was, you know, entertaining or feeding the old man. You replace it with that that, you know, feeds the new man. You say, what about my TV shows? You know, listen, get rid of your TV. If you're, you know, addicted to, you know, watching certain shows, maybe just get rid of the thing. You know, if you're addicted to playing video games, let me just get rid of the thing. I mean, look, these things can be good tools, all right? But sometimes, you know, these things, you know, just attract the old man and the old man wants to watch or do certain things that feeds that old man. What do you need to do? Well, instead of watching those old shows, maybe turn on some good preaching, you know? Go back. Maybe you missed a sermon from this church. Go back and listen to that sermon that you missed that day. You know, maybe you were too distracted. You couldn't get it or you couldn't make it that day because you were sick. Go back and listen to that sermon that you missed. You know, that's going to edify the new man. The new man's going to love hearing those kinds of, or other preachers, other pastors that are out there. Get out there and start, instead of watching those, you know, stupid world of shows that's entertaining, no, no, go over here. You know, start replacing the things that entertain the old man and things, you know, go to the things that, you know, please the new man. And when you're pleasing that new man, you're pleasing the Lord God. You're renewing your mind, okay? We've all gone through this massive brainwash in this world, okay? And sometimes we don't even realize some of the things that's in there, you know, are worldly or carnal. You know, it takes time. It takes maturity. You know, I'm not expecting you to make this massive change overnight. Sometimes people say, you know, they get saved and it's like, man, I got rid of all these things, you know? And now I'm like, oh, yeah, woo! But then like, you know, a few months later, they're back here. Why? You know, you've got to take the small steps, the gradual steps, okay? Don't rush. It's not a sprint. It's a marathon. The Christian life is a marathon. You know, the key thing is that you are, you know, you are progressively removing things that please the old man. And now you're adding things that please the new man. You're feeding your, you know, you're sowing seed to the new man and not to the old man. That's the key to spiritual growth, the renewing of your mind, changing things. And look, it's possible. And I know we get stuck in our ways. I know what it's like as I get older. I get more stuck in my ways. But it's still possible to change things about yourself. It's still possible to do away with the things that were, you know, you're addicted to in the flesh and bring it over to the new man, to the spirit, you know? The things you spend, you know, doing things in vain. You know, say, you know what, I'm going to replace that and I'm going to spend more time with my children and we're going to open the Bible up together, kids. We're going to read a chapter together. I'm going to ask you guys what you think this is about. We're going to sing a hymn. I'm going to try to give you a little spiritual lesson for five minutes as well from the Word of God. Hey, that's, and not only is it feeding the new man, but you're feeding the new man of your children. Should they be saved? Okay. And hopefully if they're not saved, it brings them to a knowledge and a requirement, hey, Dad, I need to get saved. I don't want to go to hell. They get to an age when they get older and start asking these questions, what must I do to be saved? It's the best thing. I've never gone so within, knocking on the door, and had someone come up to me, what must I do to be saved? But I've had my kids do that, all right, once they got to a knowledge of understanding the gospel, because they've sat down, not necessarily at church, but just at home, reading the Bible. Mom and Dad, what must I do to be saved? It's the most beautiful words, most beautiful question anybody could ask you, all right. So that's how we overcome the old man. Are you going to be perfect? No. Okay. We need to reach that perfection until God gives, or until either you pass away, because then that body's dead, and you're in heaven with the Lord God, or if we do make the rapture, and that old man is now replaced by the resurrected body, yeah, now you're going to be walking in perfection for all the days of your life, okay. So anyway, those are the differences between the old man and the new man. Let's pray.