The Spirit Empowers Us for Victory

Romans 8:12‑13

Only God has the capability to fill our life with song. Only He is the one who can save us and redeem us. And as a result of that, we are in tremendous debt to Him. And that is exactly what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:12 and 13.

Let me read those two verses and then we'll look at them, talk about them; see if we can't apply them to our hearts. Romans 8, verse 12:

"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do kill the deeds of the body, ye shall live."

Two very, very important verses. And I trust the Spirit of God to be our teacher, tonight.

To begin with, let me say that I want you to know that the things that I teach and the things that I preach in the Word of God are very personal things to me. This is not an exercise in theatrics. This is the commitment of my own heart. I take the Word of God very seriously. And I believe that before I can ever be so bold as to apply it to your 1 if e, I have to apply it to my own 1 if e. And so, I find myself in the text of every sermon of every lesson and no different here.

This is not just a message to you; it is a message to me. And it is a very important reminder that I am in no debt at all to the flesh. For that's a part of the life of deadness that I no longer am engaged in, thanks to Jesus Christ. And so, I owe the flesh nothing. But I am in debt, and that's implied here, I am in debt to God with a tremendous debt. And that's really what I want us to understand tonight.

This week as I was thinking about my own responsibility to be the kind of man God would have me to be, whether or not I was the pastor of a church or not, I was drawn to read a book which has a way of confronting my soul and it's an old book, in fact it was written in 1656. 1 have a current edition, I want you to know. It's been republished many, many times. The title of it is The Reformed Pastor and it was written by a pastor by the name of Richard Baxter. And he says this, on one page, and he speaks to those who are pastors.

     "Take heed to yourselves lest you live in those sins which you preach against in others and lest you be guilty of that which you daily condemn. Will you make it your work to magnify God and when you have done dishonor Him as much as others? Will you proclaim Christ's governing power and yet condemn it and rebel yourselves? Will you preach His laws and willfully break them? If sin be evil, why do you live in it? If it be not, why do you dissuade men from it? If it be dangerous, how dare you venture on it. If it be not, why do you tell men so? If God's threatenings be true, why do you not fear them? If they be false why do you need righteously troubled men ... why do you righteously trouble men with them and put them into such fright without a cause? Do you know the judgment of God that they who commit such things are worthy of death? And yet, will you do them?

"Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself. Thou that makest thy boast of thy law through breaking the law, dishonorest thou God. What, shall the same tongue speak evil that speaks against evil? Shall those lips censor and slander and backbite your neighbor that cry down these and the like things in others? Take heed to yourselves lest you cry down sin and yet do not overcome it, lest while you seek to bring it down in others you bow to it and become its slave yourselves. 0 brethren, it is easier to chide at sin than to overcome it," end quote.

I find that a very important warning in my own life. And Baxter went on to say, "Many a tailor goes in rags that makes costly clothes for others. And many a cook scarcely licks his fingers when he hath dressed for others the most costly meal."

And so, I want to say at the very beginning that what I say tonight is not only to you, it is to me as well. And has been as I've prepared to share with you.

Now the responsibility that we're confronting in Romans 8:12 and 13 as we go through this marvelous chapter, is the responsibility to kill sin in our lives. The word "mortify" means kill. And the text is basically saying, since we have no obligation to the fleshy, we better be about killing sin in our bodies. We need to be putting it to death.

Now just to set you in mind as to what Paul's purpose is in this great chapter, remember that it began with a wonderful announcement in verse 1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus." That is the best news we ever received. We will never be condemned. We will never be punished for our sin. That is the sweetest sound of any word that could ever have fallen from the lips of God. It is a pardon to a condemned criminal who sits on death row. For we were condemned to an eternal punishment in hell. We sat on death row waiting God's execution. We were indeed guilty and the Savior delivered a pardon and said there will be no condemnation, for I have already died in the behalf of this criminal. What joyous news, incredible news.

And if that news doesn't thrill your soul, then you're cold and you've lost the warm and thankful heart of praise. You see, the promise of no condemnation is the last in a string of pearls, the pearls that are the result of justification. As Paul outlined the doctrine of salvation, or justification by grace through faith in chapter 4, he then moved from there into the wonderful pearls of blessing that come as a result of that justification: peace, grace, hope, love, life, holiness, freedom, fruit, spiritual service and glory of all glories‑‑no condemnation. No condemnation, no judgment will ever come upon us who are in Jesus Christ.

     And that is so incomprehensible and so marvelous a truth that the Apostle Paul does not just leave us with that truth, but he marches us through the eighth chapter of Romans which tells us why that truth is indeed a truth. And he tells us it is because of the great and wonderful work of the Holy Spirit. And so, we call chapter 8, "Life in the Spirit." The marvelous reality of no condemnation is not only due to the work of Christ, it is due to the work of the Holy Spirit in applying to us the work of Christ. Christ does the work and the Spirit applies it to us.

And so, as we're moving through the chapter, we're noting seven aspects of the Spirit's work in our behalf that demonstrates to us that we will never be condemned for sin. Great, great chapter. Let me remind you of the ones we've already discussed.

First of all, we noted in verses 2 and 3 that the Spirit frees us from sin and death. The Spirit frees us from sin and death. That's why we have no condemnation. We're free from the power of sin. We're free from the penalty of sin which is death.

The second thing we saw about the Spirit's ministry is He enables us to fulfill God's law. Verse 4, we are not under condemnation because rather than violating God's law, by the power of the Spirit in Christ we fulfill God's law. And so, we become pleasing to God. And that again, the wonderful work of the Spirit. For it says in verse 4, this is true of those who walk after the Spirit.

Thirdly, we saw that the Spirit ministers to us by changing our nature. We are not under condemnation because we have been made new creations. And we looked at that, didn't we, in verses 5 through 11. We saw that the Spirit of God changes our inside. We are a new creation. And someday He will change our outside, says verse 11.

So, it is because the Spirit frees us from the law of sin and death, because the Spirit enables us to keep God's righteous law and because the Spirit transforms our nature that we no longer are under condemnation. And so, we bless the Spirit for the marvelous work which He does in our lives.

Now for our study tonight, we come to the fourth of those seven elements. The Spirit empowers us for victory over the flesh. The Spirit empowers us for victory over the flesh. And this point is somewhat similar to the second point in verse 4, but focuses not so much on what the Holy Spirit does as on what we do as we allow the Holy Spirit to accomplish His work in us. So the focus of verses 12 and 13 is not on His accomplishment as much as it's on our obligation. That's why it says "we are debtors," "we must kill the flesh." And of course, it implies and even says through the power of the Spirit, but nonetheless, we must be involved.

So, these two verses then become a demonstration to us of the call of God upon us to practically get about the business of killing sin in our lives. And we must be about this business. It is a very practical exhortation. It is God commanding us to do something which we are able to do. God never asks us to do what we can't do, that would be futile. And when He asks us to kill sin, He says in verse 13 through the Spirit. And we remember that every Christian possesses the Spirit because that's what we learned in verse 9, didn't we? "Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." So those that are His have the Spirit and because we have the Spirit, we have the capacity to kill sin in our lives.

Now as we look at this whole matter of dealing with sin, of overcoming the flesh, I want to give you several points. Point number one is the power of victory ... the power of victory. And this is very practical. And very clearly it says in verse 13 that the power of victory is through the Spirit. You might want to underline that in your Bible. That's the power. If we're going to know victory over the flesh, if we're going to know the killing of sin in our lives, it's going to be in the power of the Holy Spirit.

It's so wonderful, you know, to be aware of the fact as Christians that we possess the Spirit of God. Because if we did not have supernatural power, if we were not transformed and changed so that the Spirit of God dwelt within us, we would never be able to overcome the flesh. We would never be able to kill sin.

It's a very simple reason for that, flesh can't overcome flesh. Flesh can't gain the victory over flesh. Sin can't gain the victory over sin. Humanness cannot defeat humanness. And so, we needed a transformation and that's what verses 5 to 11 told us. Once we have been transformed so that the life within us is now the life of God in the presence of His indwelling Spirit, we now have the power in the Spirit to overcome the flesh. Humanness can't overcome humanness. We learned that back in chapter 7. Didn't we? Verse 18, Paul says, "I know that in me," that is in my flesh, "dwells no good thing. For to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not."

In other words, when I look into myself, I find no resource for doing good. I find no ability to overcome sin. I find no capacity to gain the victory over the flesh. And he reiterates that again and again and again in that seventh chapter.

In the eighth chapter, same thing in verse 5: "They that are after the flesh, do mind the things of the flesh." Verse 7, "The carnal mind, or fleshly mind, is at enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be and they that are in the flesh can't please God." So, the flesh can't please God. The flesh can't obey God's law. The flesh can't overcome the flesh. It cannot bring about a victory over sin.

     So, what we're saying then is that apart from the power of the Spirit of God in the life of an individual, there is a hopelessly debilitating corruption that controls everything. And there is no capacity within the human ... within the flesh, within the unregenerate man to deal with sin. But$, when the Spirit comes in, all of that changes. And by the presence of the Spirit of God in a life, there comes the capacity to overcome the flesh. We walk in the Spirit according to His power. And we overcome the flesh.

Now, just to make a little mental note somewhere along in there ... your theological file, the Spirit is almost synonymous with power. And I think the most graphic illustration of that is found in Acts 1:8, and you just need to listen to it cause you're familiar with it. Jesus said this, "But ye shall receive...what?... power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you." In other words, there's almost an equation there ... power‑‑the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit‑‑power. Power? what kind of power? Power for what? Power to overcome the flesh. Power to overcome the disabilities of being human. Power to gain victory over the bodily desires and objectives. That's the kind of power.

It's interesting to note as you move further along in the book of Acts, that you see this again and again. Wherever the Holy Spirit is there's power. For example, in Acts chapter 6, you know, when they were going to choose out men who could server who were men of high reputation spiritually, the text said they were to look for men full of faith and the Holy Spirit. And then when they found one of those men, they said he was full of faith and power. So you look for someone full of faith and the Holy Spirit and you'll get someone full of faith and power because having the Holy Spirit is equal to having the power of God.

When the Holy Spirit was moving and working in marvelous ways in the eighth chapter of Acts, Simon Magus came along and what he saw was power and he wanted to buy that power...power being synonymous with the ministry of the Spirit of God. Power to speak the message of God and power to overcome the flesh.

In Acts 10:38, just one other note on this, it says that God anointed Jesu