Sin In The Flesh

...things out, talk about the Lord. Maybe some more will come in a little later. But we make tapes of these things, and these tapes go out all around the United States. We've sent tapes to California, up in Wisconsin, and across the country. And we try to make them as clear as we know how to make them, and there are people that write and as for them, and we send them to them. They want them. They ask for them, and we behind on them now. Some has ask for them and we've not got their tapes out to them. And so while we're making them you bear with me because I don't mean to take a long time to bring out something, but I just have to clearly explain it because if I don't I get just about middle ways of it and then it's not clearly understood. And if somebody gets a tape then they don't understand. Another thing, we make tapes because a lot people after that you have gone there have been so many times, you know, they'd say, Well, the minister said such and such. But when you've got tapes and you can go back and play it back they're a little bit afraid to say the minister said such and such. Not too long ago we were up here in a meeting and we were preaching a meeting, and some Brother he came in and he__ Some tale bearer went off down the road and he passed something on, and then this Brother came up and he got all upset and he said I said such and such. And it just so happened that we made a tape that night, so the tape was played back and one of the Brethren that they had tried so desperately overthrow down in Mexico__ You know, the devil is always trying to tear up the work in Mexico, and that shows it's the devil because they want to tear up everything that's going on down there and hinder souls. But when the tape was played the Brother said, Brother Pike, said, that man just got beside himself. Said there wasn't anything said on the tape that was contrary to the right thing. Said, so see? So, actually it just back fired on him and he just got in trouble himself. And it's good to have the tape so you can go back to them. A lot of people have told us that our Brother Branham has said a lot of things, but when you go back to the tapes you find out it's altogether different from what they've said. The devil always loves to take a truth and mix what he can with it. Now, you've heard of the grapevine. You know, you say something over here and then somebody tells it their way, and down the line somebody else tells it their way and on down the line somebody else tells it their way, and by the time it gets back to you it's not even the same thing anymore. So we have to watch the Word of the Lord, and we have to say the Word of God just the way the Word of God says it. Now, I don't mean that you've got to say it in the same Words of expression. Paul he quoted things from the Old Testament and I checked up on him and he did not use the same words of expression that the prophets used, but the main thing is he used the same meaning. He got across the same thought. Now somebody, this used to bother me quite a bit. Maybe somebody would speak in tongues and maybe somebody would interpret it over here and somebody else would get an interpretation over here and they would say two different things. But I got to checking behind them and I found out they were saying the same thing but just in two different expressions. Now, like preachers. They preach the same thing if they're of God, but one tells it one way__ Have you ever read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? Mark tells this aspect of it and John he takes another aspect of it, and Luke takes another aspect of it. And God causes it to be like that so that we don't miss anything and all the fragments can be gathered up so that we get everything. And so it is. It's good for us to be able to comprehend what God is saying. Now, the Bible tells us to give the more earnest heed to the things we've heard lest at anytime we should let them slip. A lot of people just can't seem to really give earnest heed to things. They don't have much control over their spirit and their spirit wanders. You know, the Bible speaks of wandering spirits, you know, of spirits that wander through dry places seeking rest and cannot find it. And the Bible said he that hath no control over his spirit is like a city with a broken down wall. A person without any control over their spirit they walk down the street and they see a living room suit and they say, I want that. They see a house and they say, I want that. They see a car and they say, I want that. And every thing that they see their spirit wants, you know. And then finally after they get it, get head over heels in debt with it they find out it's not what they want at all. Satan keeps us buying the thing that we think we want and then when the things we really want comes along then we can't get them. So then, if you don't have control over your spirit you'll always stay head over heels in debt, and you'll always have things you don't need, because the Bible said, Know ye not that the spirit within you lusteth unto envy. In over words, it just lusts after everything that comes along. It's always wanting something, and the carnal mind is enmity with God. But the mind of the Lord speaks in this way. Said, Having food and raiment be therewith content. You never brought anything into the world, he said, it's for sure you're not going to take anything out of the world. Now, how many of you know that's for sure? That's for sure. Paul said you can rest assured; be assured of that. So, so then, we know the spirit within man it lusteth unto envy. Just always wanting something. Like I outlined in the teachings last night; that when we come to God the first thing we start saying is, God we want thing, and God give us this, and we believe we're serving God now and He'll let us have this, but eventually we learn that isn't the way to serve God. I know, when I come to the Lord I ask Him for a lot of things, and He always give them to me. But, I learned day that wasn't what I wanted. What I really wanted was God. My heart was crying out for the Lord. I wonder, Brother Bobby, is there any place to get water around here? I wonder, Ricky, would you get me a glass of water here? I'm kind of dry for some reason tonight. All right. Now then, I'd love for you to turn with me over to the book of Romans, and if the Lord will let me talk a little tonight to you, preach to you, or teach you, or whatever we can tonight, if He'll do that I'd love to say some things I feel like you might disagree with me on when you first hear it. But if you'll listen I think you'll find out that it's right. Now then, every body didn't agree with Paul when Paul was preaching. The Bible said he went about daily disputing the Scriptures. And a servant of God is always disputing the Scriptures. If he isn't disputing with a person mouth to mouth he's disputing with their thoughts, or he's disputing with their spirits, and he's always in a dispute. But it isn't wrong to dispute. Now, it's wrong to debate, but not wrong to dispute. And so it is here. There are some things that I'd love to say if the Lord will anoint mind tonight and let the mind of Christ speak through me that I believe would be beneficial to us if we could grasp it. We always love to have a bigger crowd because when you have a crowd that kind of inspires you a little bit, you know. Makes you feel like people are more interested, but really God took Philip away from a city revival and took him down to one eunuch, and so it doesn't make any difference whether it's one or ten thousand as long as we're preaching. I've preached in big buildings, and little buildings to big crowds and little crowds. I was over at Brother Tom's not too long ago in Atlanta, Georgia and I guess we must have had around a hundred and twenty-five, or a hundred and fifty, at least, right there in that church. But now we're over here and we don't have but, looks like, ten or fifteen. But see, that doesn't matter. You don't ever know who's in the crowd. There may be somebody here that will be worth ten times as much as all those people put together in the Kingdom of God. Like one day Oral Roberts was setting under somebody's ministry. They didn't know he was going to be the great Oral Roberts that he is. Billy Graham was setting under somebody's ministry. William Branham was setting under somebody's ministry one day. Paul was setting under somebody's ministry and right on down the line. But they didn't know who was setting under their ministry. So, you don't ever know when you pass through the land who you're teaching, or who you're preaching to. All right. Reading over in the book of Romans in the eighth chapter. If you've got your Bibles folks I'd love for you to read with me. You know, we're coming to a time when we really need to take hold of the Word of the Lord, need to bring our Bible and see if they're staying with the foundation. Now, we get a lot of revelations, you know, in this day, but the Bible said, Other foundations can no man lay. It didn't say you couldn't get other revelations, but said, Other foundations can no man lay except that which is laid, Christ Jesus the Word. So, said, Let every man take heed how he build there upon, for if he build hay and stubble, and houses and land, and pretty things, and money and bank accounts, and all those things. Said, The day that's coming will try his works. And if his works are not of God, said, they will all be burned. So then, be careful how you build on this foundation once you get a foundation. All right. Said in the eighth chapter here, it said, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:" Now I wonder if you'd bear with me to read a little Scripture here tonight. I think our minds need to be anchored in this, and I'm reading there from the eighth chapter. That's the main thing that we want to deal with, but I'd love to back up over here and right hurriedly like read this seventh chapter. It wouldn't take long. And the thing that I want to say is right along in there, so let's back up and read it. Will you? "Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ;" Now, how amy of you noticed here how Paul used allegories to bring out his messages? This is his formula of expression, the allegories, the types and shadows, or the natural things and he goes right into spiritual things. "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not know sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If I then do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find than a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Listen just a little more. "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his." And listen on just a little more. "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 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 mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." All right. Now, that's reading right on down through the thirteenth verse of the eighth chapter also, or the fourteenth verse that is. Now I want you to especially notice here in Paul's teachings in the eighth chapter. Now I read all of this so we could kind of understand what I was talking about tonight, and here in the eighth chapter, I want you to notice this. That in the third verse Paul points out here, he said that what the law could not do, in that the law was weak through the flesh, he said, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh condemned sin in the flesh. Now then, you know, the Bible tells us that sin and death came by one man. It came by just one man. There wasn't a lot of people that caused sin and death. But the Bible said sin and death came by one man. A lot of people feel like death came by God, and they blame God with death. But the Bible tells us that sin and death came by one man, and it came by man; it did not come by God. And not only did it come by man, but it came by one man, and that one man was Adam. And even though it come by Adam; yet Adam was not the transgressor. The Bible said the man was not found in the transgression, but the woman was found in the transgression. So then, we see__ Now a lot of people say, Brother Pike, why did God make the woman the weaker vessel to begin with that she would be found in the transgression. Well, the reason for it is because the man is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And because he is a type of the Lord Jesus, God cannot account transgression unto Him, but the woman being a type of the Church, and the Church is the one that committed the sin, then the Lord must account that unto the woman. Now the Church is the one that's in the transgression, and the Church is the one that has to be blamed for the transgression. I've gotten a lot of revelation, but there is a number of revelations that God has given my wife, and one of the revelations was that very thing that I just repeated to you there. We were talking on day and the Holy Spirit spoke to her and explained to her why it was like that. And so it is that the man being a type of the Lord Jesus he cannot be found in the transgression because he represents Christ. And Christ is not a transgressor. Now then, but the woman, being the weaker vessel, the Bible says she was found in the transgression. Now then, if sin came by one man and death came by one man, then that means that God doesn't need but one man to do away with it. If one man brought it into the world, Paul said, it not necessary then to have a lot of men to take it out of the world. It's not necessary to have a lot of people to take it out of the world, but if it came into the world by one man, then that means that one man can take it out of the world. So then, the Lord Jesus Christ being the second man Adam he robed Himself in flesh and God came down in a veil of humanity, and suffered on the cross that He might condemn sin in the flesh as one man and take away all the sin that is in the flesh. Did you know that God has completely taken away, or taken out of this world sin, and there is no more sin in the flesh. Now you might say, I don't know what you're talking about, Brother Pike. I mean that there is no human being on the face of the earth that can sin in the flesh anymore. A drunkard getting drunk cannot sin in the flesh. A harlot in her act of a prostitute cannot sin in the flesh. A robber, or a thief, or a murderer cannot sin in the flesh, because God let Jesus Christ die upon the cross to condemn sin in the flesh. Every sin that was in the flesh God done away with that sin; every bit of the sin that was in the flesh. The Bible tells us that all sin is unrighteousness, but really there is but one sin. All the other things are actually the attributes of sin. But there is but one sin, and that sin is unbelief. And when you are an unbeliever then you do everything that goes along with unbelief. Why do people murder? It's because they don't believe in God. Why do people go out and steal and cheat and lie and swindle? It's because they don't believe in God. So then, we see that there is but one sin and Eve committed that sin. That's why Adam was not found in the transgression. Eve disbelieved God's Word. When God's Word said, Eve, thou shall not partake of the forbidden fruit, then Eve disbelieved the Word of God, and Eve went right on and partook of it, and caused the whole world to be in sin. But did you know that God charges the man with what the woman does? Now I want you to listen to us tonight. Adam had to be punished for Eve's sin. And when the Bible said sin came it didn't tell us that it came by Eve, but said it come by the man Adam. Sin come by the man Adam. Though Eve caused it, yet Adam had to take credit for it. And though Adam wasn't in the transgression, yet because he was the controlling power of the many members of his own body, which was his wife, then the head, or the authority was charged against it. Now then, if I do from here over to Russia, if I go to Germany, if I go to Japan and I get over there and I start spying around and looking into things that I don't have any business looking into, you know, they don't charge that to me, but they charge that to the United States and to the President, and to the ruling powers of our nation. And they feel that the ruling powers of our nation has sent me over there to do that thing. And it's the same way with the woman. In the Old Testament the man had the power to annul anything that the wife did. If she did something the man wasn't pleased with and they were fixing to stone her to death all the man had to do was say, I annul it, make it of none effect. They had to turn the woman a loose. And no matter what she done if the husband just annulled it then__ In other words like today if you go out and you buy a new car, you come home and you say, Husband, I've bought a new car. Well, if there had been any cars back in that day all the husband would have to have done is pick up the telephone and say, It's no good; I don't accept it. And they wouldn't let you have the car. It wouldn't have made an difference if you had a lot of money, if you had a lot of land. It didn't make any difference what the woman had she was in subjection to her husband. And a lot of people say, Well, Brother Pike, that was back there in the days of Adam and Eve. That was back there under the law. But the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And if He was that way under the law then He's still that way today. A lot of people feel like because we got grace that God has changed His disposition; He's changed his way of looking of things. But, folks, because we've got grace in the world that doesn't mean that God has changed any. He is still angry with the wicked everyday. The Bible says so. And the Bible said the offering of the wicked is an abomination in the sight of God. A lot of people say, Well, God hears my prayer just like he does anybody else's. The Bible said that the prayer of the wicked is an abomination in the sight of God. The wicked can pray from now on, but their prayers are and abomination in the sight of Almighty God. It doesn't matter what they do it is still an abomination in the sight of God. God hasn't changed any at all. Why did He give grace? He gave grace so that humanity might have life. That's the only way that God could give life to the flesh was to give grace. God gave grace so He could bring to life flesh, and bring to life the carnal mind, which in return killed God. A lot of people say, Now, wait a minute. You're talking about killing God? The Bible teaches that God tasted death right there in the body of His Son. As He hung on Calvary He went through the very same thing that you are going through, or others went through that have already passed on. And God, the great Jehovah God veiled in the robe of humanity, tasted death for every man so that we wouldn't have to taste it. Now then, why did He do that? Because the Bible tells us that God subjected this outer man, which He calls the creature. He subject it to the things of this world. God did that; I didn't have anything to do with it. I didn't ask God to create me. I didn't ask God to put me in this world. Have you ever heard anybody talk like that? Somebody that don't want to serve God, just too lazy to get up and put forth a little effort to serve God. They'd rather drink and slouch around out in the world and do the things of the world. You go to talk to them about the Lord and tell them they sin and grieve the Holy Spirit, they'll say, I didn't ask to come in this world. I didn't tell God to create me. God can't blame me with all these wrongs. I can't help if I do it. Well, you know, there's more to what they say than you could ever imagine. Now I don't justify their wrongs, and neither does God, but God accepts the truth. If it's the truth God accepts it, and it is a truth. It's a Biblical truth that they did not have anything to do with themselves being subjected to vanity. The Bible said the creature was made subject to vanity by reason of Him who subjected the same in hope. He did not subject us to the things of this world without giving us a hope. But He did subject us in this world and gave us a hope of glory that we might be able to transcend the gravitational powers of evil and carnality and lust, and excel and go into the presence of Jehovah God, and live and reign, and rule with Him for ever. So then, it's easy to see here that we had to have a dispensation of grace. The creature did not have anything to do with coming into this world. He could not help it. Now God is not the kind of a God that will stand yonder in the day of judgment and let any man accuse Him. He's too wise for that. God is too great for that. He's too wise to stand there in the day of judgment and let anybody bring an accusation against Him. Nobody will be able to accuse God in the day of judgment. There won't be any accusation. When they stand there before God and they say, Well, You put me in that world. You made me subject to that vanity. You gave me the appetites of the flesh. And You caused me to be pressed with necessity. Do you know what God will tell them? God will say, I sent my Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and I condemned sin in the flesh. I tasted death. I went through the sufferings. I went to the cross to take away all of the sins of the flesh, and I am not charging you with anything that you ever done in the flesh. Amen! I don't care if they rock and roll. I don't care if they drink. I don't care if they lie. I don't care if they cheat. Every bit of it is taken away. It's under the blood. Every bit of it is gone as far as the acts of the outer man, or the creature. Somebody said, Well, that's just in the church, Brother Pike. Oh, no it isn't. The Bible said He condemned sin in the flesh. He done away with it once and for all. Now look here what Paul said. Paul is speaking, he said, In my inner man, he said, I delight after the things of God. On the inside, he said, I just have a jubilee in the Spirit of God, and I just rejoice in the things of God. I love the things of God in my inner man. I love the things of God, he said, but in the outer man, he said, there seems to be a power struggling in the fibers of my body. He said, There is a spirit of bondage that's working through the members that I don't have any control over, the creature that was made subject to vanity. He said, There is no good thing that dwelleth in my flesh. In my flesh. He said, For to will is present with me, but how to have a performance of that will, he said, I cannot find how to do it. And said, Every time that I go to do good, he said, evil is present with me. Why? Because there is a continual warfare between the inner man and the outer man. And Paul said, Though the inner man is renewed day by day as he prayed and sought after God; yet he said the outer man is perishing as I fast and deny him of the things that he wants. All right. Now listen to what he said. "But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members." Now where is sin? He says here it's in his members. "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death." Did you notice that now? He said, who shall deliver me from the body? Who shall deliver me from the body? The body is causing my trouble; the creature that's been subjected to vanity, the appetites of the body. When I'm pressed with necessity, he said, it's my body. It's my outer man. It's my flesh and blood. It's my body that's causing my soul all the trouble. He said, Now, what am I going to do, Lord? He said I feel sanctified on the inside, holy on the inside. I feel full of Your Spirit on the inside, he said, but in my members, he said, there is something that continually condemns me. There is something that continually accuses me. There is something continually tearing me down, and every time I want to do good, he said, I find within my members something warring against the law of my mind, and condemning me and tearing me down. O wretched man that I am, he said. He said, Who will deliver me. How can I be delivered? O God. What can I do? And God spoke back from heaven, and here is what he told Paul. He said, Paul, he said, I know that Satan has taken advantage of you. I know that the flesh is weak because of sin. And I know that it creates a weakness in the law when there is no weakness in the law. But because flesh is weak, he said, then we run into these obstacles. All right. Now then, the law was good. The law wasn't sinful. Now, but the law was given to bring man under condemnation. The law never was given to save anybody. A lot of people take the outlook that the law was given to save people and God just failed to be able to do it. But God never did give the law to save anybody. Four hundred and thirty years before Moses ever went up on the mountain to get the law, grace, or the Scriptures, while he was yet spiritual. The Bible said it was the Scriptures; it was God, the Word, while He was yet a Spirit, said it appeared to Abraham and said, Abraham, I will justify the heathens by faith. Four hundred and thirty years before Moses ever went up to the top of Mr. Sinai, the Scriptures, God, who is a Spirit, He appeared to Abraham and said, Abraham, I will justify the heathens by faith. And so then, the law wasn't given for salvation. The law was given to show man his condition, and to reveal sin in the flesh, and to show man that the thing that had separated him for God and from eternal life. God wanted to show him that within his flesh there dwelt no good thing. (Begin side two.)...the flesh was weak. He said one time the spirit is will, he said, but the flesh is weak. The flesh is weak because it's been made subject to vanity. Now, isn't it wonderful to know that God, Almighty God, the (?) Presence, the Omnipotent God, the Omniscience, the great Jehovah God loved us and understood enough to know what to do for us, to deliver us from the bondage of the outer man. All right. He says here, he said, I thank God. Now, notice this. That through the Lord Jesus Christ I have found liberty. In the twenty-fifth verse of the seventh chapter. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind I, myself, serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Now somebody said, Now, Brother Pike, I don't understand that. How can he serve God, and serve the devil at the same time? He isn't saying that he serves God and serves the devil at the same time. That would break the Scriptures. The Bible said the Scriptures cannot be broken. Even the Lord taught that you couldn't eat at His table and eat at the table of devils. You can't do that. James said bitter water and sweat water don't come forth from the same fountain. You can't do that. So then, what was he saying. He was saying that within the inner man I have been translated into the marvelous kingdom of my God, and I am save and at peace, and am having a continual warfare with the outer man. Now, was it really with the flesh? No. It wasn't really with the flesh. Why did God lift the penalty of death and lift the penalty of sin from the flesh? Because the flesh wasn't to blame. The creature was innocent. The Bible said the creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused the creature of God. So then, it wasn't the flesh. And it wasn't the spirit of Paul, but it was sin in the flesh. It was Satan working through the medium of the five senses of the outer man, and working through the flesh. Just like a worm that gets in a rotten piece of bread. Just like when a man dies; you put him down in the grave, and you know what happens? In a little while after he lays down there in the casket, in the coffin, worms begin to work in and out of his body. Why? It shows what happened here. When you're dead with Christ, buried with Him in baptism, then the outer man of sin is gone. He's taken away. And Paul says here. He says, Now then, he said, if I am dead to the law, transgression of the law is sin. He said, But I am dead to the law. Just like the dead men out yonder in the grave, they are dead to the law out here. They can't never transgress the law out here because they are dead to the law. And the Bible said that by the body of Jesus who tasted death for every man, who tasted sin for every man, who done away with sin and death in the flesh, by that body we are free. So then, Jesus He became me in sin and death that I might become him in life and peace. He exchanged places with me and He died out of the presence of God that I might live in the presence of God. Do you understand what we're saying? So then he tells us here. He said, I thank God that I found a means of deliverance. I thank God, he said, that I can see my way clear through all of this condemnation. You say, Brother Pike, why is this important to us? Friend, I want to tell you something. This is one of the most important chapters of the whole Bible. I searched and I looked and I ask for overseers and Bible scholars everywhere that I could find them to explain it to me, but they couldn't do it. But when God said if any man lack wisdom let him come to God who giveth to all men freely and upbraideth not. When I went to God I was made to understand. Daniel said one time, I wasn't made to understand because I'm wiser than anybody else, he said, but for the sake of the ministry, for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the soul that's looking for salvation, He makes us to understand. And so then, here He tells him, He said, Paul, He said, I have condemned sin in the flesh. I've condemned sin in the flesh. There is no more sin in the flesh. There is no more sinners on the earth. That is, sinners by flesh. Now, like I said, you might disagree with it, but I want you to listen real close. There is no more sin of the flesh. That's why we've got grace. That's what grace is. It done away with all human sin of the flesh. All of the sin of the flesh is gone. And the creature of God is good, and the creature of God is alive because of grace. It's alive. Paul said, I was alive. I was alive until the law came. He said, But when the law came it brought condemnation to me, because it showed me my wrong, and sin revived because it magnified itself by the knowledge of the law. And he said it smothered my faith out and then I died. Now, God. Let's go back to the Garden for just a few minutes. There was two trees in the Garden. One of them was the Tree of Life. One of them was the tree of death. Now, God symbolized the Tree of life, and symbolized the tree of death by two great things that he done. He symbolized the tree of death by the law that was given to Moses that was symbolic of the tree of death because it condemned man and caused man to die. God's Word in the beginning said, thou shall surely die. And so then, the law said, thou shall surely die. Why? Because you disobeyed God, because you had no faith in my Word. Thou shall surely die. Thou shall surely die. Now, God killed out the flesh. He didn't do it all at one time, but he killed out the flesh just a little bit at a time as he revealed one sin and then another sin and then another sin. Every time that one sin is revealed to you, or one sin is revealed to me, condemnation comes into our heart and we look toward heaven and we say, Lord, we are sorrow. Lord, we are sorry; we didn't mean to do that. Lord, we were overtaken in a fault. O wretched man that I am, Paul said, who will deliver me from the body of this death? I am dying. The law is killing me. So then, knowing every step that Paul took here the law was constantly pressing, continually bringing to his mind condemnation and was killing him out. Not only him but it's still the same thing today. A lot of people say, Well, Brother Pike, I'm sure glad the law is gone. I want you to know one thing. The law, the law still has dominion over every individual that is not under grace. The law will judge you in the day of judgment and you will be a transgressor of the law, judged as a sinner, and you will die because of the judgment of the law. So we see a symbol of the tree in the Garden that caused the trouble, the forbidden fruit. We see here a symbol of the tree of death. Now, why did the Lord, or why did God want to kill the flesh. Because when God gave grace in His foreknowledge so that flesh might come to life it was for the purpose of breathing the breath of life into it and creating a nature, and creating a character with characteristics that it might become a human being with power of desire and power of choice. Do you understand what I'm saying now? All right. Listen real close. Now then, notice this, that when God in the Garden, God created man, God had to die to let man live. Now, that might be hard for you to understand, but man could not live unless God first died. God had to die. So then, he robed Himself in flesh and He tasted of death for every individual. God, Himself, tasted of death. Praise the Lord! The Holy Spirit don't never lie, does it? It told me something awhile ago, and It just proved it then. Now then, God tasted death for every man. Before humanity could live then God had to die. Why? Because the carnal mind is enmity to God. For God to let humanity live then that meant that God had to deny His Ownself in the sense of existence in this life. And so then, the law came. God magnified it. After that He had given life to man He magnified the law that the law might condemn man and bring him to his death. Grace let him live, but law condemned him and made him die. Now try to understand what I'm saying tonight. Jesus Christ He came and hung on the cross of Calvary to show the end of the condemnation. It started in the days of Moses. Now, from the time of Adam until the law was given there was grace in the world. Man did not have to pay for his sins. But then when the law came in the days of Moses, from there down to the cross death had the upper hand. Death took control and God headed it all up into one body which was His Own body, and paid the penalty. Now look what He done. He kept saying for hundreds of years to the generation of mankind, He kept saying, Thou art guilty. Thou art guilty. Thou shall surely die because thou art guilty of transgressing the ordinances and the ways of the living God who created you. And then when He thoroughly, when He had thoroughly brought man under condemnation, and He knew man was guilty, and He knew man realized his guilt then He turned into the tree of life which He placed at Calvary. Now, He said when they eat of the tree of death, He said, now you have partaken of the forbidden fruits, He said, Thou shall surely die. He said, Lest you put forth your hand and partaken from the tree of life to live forever. And so then, here the law condemned them and brought them to their death, but there at Calvary God hanged the Lord Jesus' body on a tree, which was a symbol of the Tree of Life. And as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, Him being made like unto a serpent because He was made sin, the serpent being lifted up in the wilderness it said everyone that's under condemnation, everyone that's attacked by the evil spirits, everyone that's got troubles and perplexities look on Him for He tasted death for every man. He took sicknesses and sorrows and afflictions for every man. He was bruised that you might have peace. Now then, the tree of life, a symbol God used in the Garden. but here it was the Tree of life itself hanging there on the cross. Now then, notice this, that man, man, had caused God Himself to have to taste of death. I want to ask you a question. Do you actually think that God would have ever come down into this world and tasted the pangs of death if it had not been necessary? Do you think He just done it? It was absolutely essential that God tasted death. You say, But God wasn't guilty, Brother Pike. Who created man? Who put man into the earth? Who made the creature subject to vanity? Man didn't do it. God knew that He was responsible. Somebody said, But sin caused death and death came by man. That's true, but who created the evil? The Bible said God created the evil. Who created the good? The Bible said God created the good. And God has His was in the good, and God has His way in the evil, and God works all things after the council of His Own will. Somebody said, Well, I just went to town today and I bought me a dress. I bought me a suit, I bought me a home, I bought me a car. I just wanted to do that. Oh, no, you didn't want to do it, just want to do it. You did it because God following a specific pattern you had to buy that dress. You had to buy that color of dress and that kind of dress even it it was altogether what God didn't like. Everything that you do follows a pattern. Everything sparrow that falls to the ground the Heavenly Father knows it. Every hair that falls from you head has been numbered. God knows everything. He's a great and a mighty God. So then, God had to taste death that He might take sin away from the creature. Now try to listen and pay attention. You'll loose out here. When you get into deep things people just__ They can't follow you so like children the just quit. They don't try. But you've got to listen now. Now, some of you have been to school and you know how it is. As long as your in the first grade and there's just somebody drawing numbers you can get that, but when you get way up there in the eleventh, or twelfth grade and they start trying to teach about the stars and the moon, and science and something you don't know anything about, if you don't really get in there you won't be able to get it. So you've got to get in there and dig if you're ever able to get it. And if you don't get it you won't go in the rapture. You've got to have it. Now then, what was he trying to say? These things are absolutely imperative to your salvation. They are essential to your salvation. Why? Because you've got to know these things before you can ever have translating faith. You've got to know that your guilt is gone. A human being cannot accept the fact that guilt is gone unless there is some proof of it, unless there is something substantial down in his heart, and in his subconscious that he can base it on, otherwise he just can't do it. He's made like that. He's got to know the truth. The Bible said if you know the truth then it will make you free. So then, God had to taste death. Now He did not have to taste death for Himself, but to be able to create a human being that could be made in oneness with God over a period of time then God had to taste death. Now, let's say it again. God created a human being. He breathed the breath of life into it, but it was just like a little baby. It didn't know right from wrong. It didn't know where it was going; it was just like a little baby. So then, God let it live over a period of thousands of years and it developed characteristics. It developed a nature. It developed a taste of likes and dislikes. It developed a mind of it's own and God, to be able to let a carnal mind exist, for Him to even be able to do that when it's contrary to supernatural things, when it's contrary to God and all that God stands for, to be able to do that somebody had to pay the penalty for it, and since God was the one that did it God, Himself, had to pay the penalty for it. Do you understand what I'm saying? Now, to be able to breath life, or to create life, and to develop a nature that God someday could harness with His Word and change into His image and make it one with Him, then God had to die for that thing to come into existence. So then, God did die in the sense He tasted death through Jesus Christ the Lord. That's the only way God could ever taste death. Now, He tasted death, and when the law came it condemned man and brought man to his guilt after that God had developed a character in man. Then God said, Now the work is done, man is a character of his own. He's a nature of his own. He has got a life and a soul of his own. Now then, I can start bringing him into condemnation to turn him around and make him look back at the power that created him, and turn him around and make him to see that I am responsible for his lot. Even though I am also responsible for his sorrows, yet that's the only way that you can develop life. Life can't exist unless there is a contrast. For you to know what bitter is you've got to taste sweet. Or to know what sweet is you've got to taste bitter. To know what light is you've got to see darkness or you'll never know what light is. You could dwell in light and never know what light was and never appreciate light. You'd never have a mind of understanding. It takes those things to develop a mind of understanding. So then, when God had developed that through contrast then He turned the man around, and said, I am responsible for you being in this world. Man then looked at God and said, You are also responsible for all of my sorrows. You are Almighty God and You know that You did not have to let these things be in the world. So then, God just turned around and looked at man again, He said but I am going to suffer all this for you. I am going to suffer all the heartaches. I am going to suffer the pangs of death, and I am going to pay for every wrong that you ever done by coming down in the form of humanity, and summed it all up in Christ Jesus, and suffered like no man has ever suffered. And He did just that. Now then, after He did that He said to the creature, He said, Now you are free from the powers of sin. Now then death is not working in your members anymore. Now then the law has no power over you, because I took My body, a symbol of the law, it was old, I folded it up and I laid it away, and I've took you out from under the condemnation of the law. I brought it out here last night how that Jesus come down and plucked the stinger out of death. Sin is the stinger that death uses. So then He plucked the stinger out of death and death is harmless. But the only way that we can know that it is harmless is to understand the Word of God. The only way we can get over death, even though it's harmless, is by faith. Because it is only harmless to the believer. To the world it's still detrimental; it's still powerful. It's till terrorizing, because they still are guilty of the transgression of the law that brings death. They are still guilty of it because they are still under the law and judged by the law. But they that can believe they are free from sin, and they will never come into condemnation, and they will never die. And Jesus said, If thou canst believe they've passed from death unto life. Not going to, but they already have. He looked down from Heaven, He heard the groaning of the prisoners, He loosed them that were appointed unto death, He plucked the sting out of death, and He gave them eternal life. He sanctified and perfected them forever and said, My love is so great that nothing will ever separate you from me. That's what Paul is trying to express right here. And you say, Well, you went a long way around to say it. Let's just take a few more minutes here. We'll look for a place to close in just a little bit now. All right, now then. From the time the cross experience came about, from that time on faith could be utilized and man could escape the sorrows of life. He could escape the pangs of death. He doesn't have to be sick. He may stay sick all of his life but he doesn't have to be sick. He doesn't have to suffer sorrows. He doesn't have to suffer oppression. He doesn't have to die. Jesus said one time, said, Ye are gods. You know, a god can't die. Did you know a god can't die. He said, Ye are gods but ye shall die like men because of your unbelief. That's why, because you just can't grasp the fact that I've done it for you, that I've tided you over. For when we believe and the Spirit of the Lord comes down our faith becomes anointed faith and the Word is quickened within our heart, and our body is turned into spirit and we are translated, or changed, and taken away to be with Him like Enoch and Elijah was, and like Jesus was when He walked up on the mountain. Jesus discovered the formula. He discovered the great thing that God was going to do in the last day. As a man he searched and it was revealed unto him that everybody would not die. And Paul discovered it, and said everybody will not die, but some people will discover the knowledge of God and they will by-pass death. What causes death anyway? Unbelief. Unbelief keeps out the spirit of life, and when the spirit of life is out evil thoughts of corruption come in. And when corruption comes in the body decays over a period of time. But if we can lift up our faith and let the spirit of life come in, and drive the spirit of corruption out of our body it will not decay. It will not deteriorate. The worms, or the evil spirits will not devour it, but it can be changed and made to be eternal. Now then. The Bible tells us this, that Jesus was offered up to take away sin. Now get this thought tonight if we can get it. Jesus took away sin for every man. That is the only reason that man has been allowed to live on this earth. If God in His foreknowledge had not slain the Lamb from the foundation of the world man could never have survived in the presence of God. God could not have tolerated it. So then, grace has taken away all of the creatures sin, and nobody can sin anymore in the flesh. Sin in the body is gone forever for every man. But now I want you to get this thought. Sin of the soul is still in existence. The creature, or the body of mankind could not help from being subject to sin. Therefore God did not charge it against him. He done away with it. But the human soul has power of desire. It has power of choice, and it doesn't have to sin unless it wants to sin. And the Bible doesn't say the body that sins shall surely die, because He condemned sin in the flesh. But He said the soul that sinneth shall surely die. When you sin in the soul the spirit of life that went into that soul will depart from it, and that soul will die. If you want to keep that breath of life forever you better not sin the sin of the soul. Now, what can you say, Brother Pike, about the Christians? The Bible said blessed is the man unto whom God will not impute sin. But his faith, as Abraham's was imputed unto him for righteousness. Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven, whose iniquities are taken away, or covered. And he that is born of God cannot sin. He that is born of sin cannot sin. Why can't he sin? Because the Bible said the world of promise which is the seed of God, it remaineth in him and it's a constance reminder that he is alive forever more by grace, and condemnation cannot smother it out. No matter how many errors you make it still says God loves you and nothing can separate you from the love of God, and your faith keeps on living. And because you are justified by faith, and the Bible teaches that Eve died because of unbelief, but the just can live if they believe, the just shall live by faith. Live, not just for a little while, but live eternally by faith. So then the seed of God remaineth in him. He cannot sin because he is born of God. The constant reminder of love and grace unto life is always there in spite of all of his errors. So then we can see what Paul was saying. I thank God that I am deliver from the body. I see where I'm delivered from the body. I see that the body may stumble and the body may err, but as long as I don't put my will behind that thing, as long it's not my desire, as long as I'm not trying to do that thing it will never be charged against me. That's why I quoted the Scripture the other night. Having done all to stand then let grace take over and stand by grace in that which you cannot perform. Happy is he that does not condemn himself over that thing which he allows, because he has passed from death unto life and he cannot sin. He is born of God. He is sanctified once and for all by the offering up of the body of Jesus on the tree, and he is perfected forever and nothing can separate him from the love of God. He is elect according to the foreknowledge, Peter said. So then, we see, here we see this one thing that the carnal mind hath no more dominion over us. It has no more preeminence over us. We are no longer the body of sin, but we are the body of the Lord Jesus which is pure and holy, and when God sees us He sees us as the body of the Lord Jesus. But sin of the soul, which the Christian cannot sin, is still counted against them that are out yonder in the realms of evil. Out in the realms of evil their soul is sinful. And their soul__ It is their desire to do those things that they do. It is their hunger, and their thirst to do those things. They delight in those things, and they love those things, and that is sin of the soul. And get this thought, God will not charge sin of the body against any man. There is nothing that you can do in the body that will cause you to be condemned. But unbelief in the soul will cause you to be condemned and cause every act of unrighteousness to take place in the body. So then, in the day of judgment what will be the charge against all humanity? Said, If a man look on a woman to lust after her he has committed adultery with her already. Not the act because it's instigated of God. It wasn't the relation between male and female. The Bible said the bed of marriage is undefiled in all. That wasn't it. But it was an evil spirit that defiled the temple of God, and the temple of God that he defiled had to be destroyed because God could not dwell in it any more. So in the day of judgment the charge against every person will be that they have let a spirit in them that made them do the things they did out here in the outer man. And the charge against them will be sin of the soul, which is the spirit that defiles the temple. Do you understand what I'm saying? But we Christians will never sin the sin of the soul. We can't. We are saved. Now if we can grasp this one thing, that through God we are complete, through God we are perfect, through God we are sanctified, through God we are covered with the blood. We are__ In everything that we ordinarily would be lacking in we are complete in God. We have passed from death unto life and all we have to do by faith is wit the redemption of our body the same way that we wit our healing, or recognize our healing. And when God brings every individual to that state, then He's going to give a last blast on the trumpet of glory, and the dead is going to come out and all of them is going to be setting in the revelation just right and believe that they are pure and holy before God, and there is not one iota against them, that they are without spot, wrinkle, or blemish, that they are complete in Christ by His blood and His grace, and when every one of them gets in that place and that last blast of the trumpet sounds, and when the dead comes up we're going to know that the resurrection is here and our faith is going to be set on fire. And everyone of us is going to be changed in a moment in a twinkling of an eye from mortality to immortality. Do you believe I'm telling you the truth? We're delivered from the body of this death. There is no more condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus to walk, not after the carnal mind of money and houses and lands and all of these things, and love of the world. If it's in you the love of the Father is not there.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.

Holiness Unto The Lord