Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the significance of living by the Word of God, illustrating how the condition of our hearts directly influences our speech and actions. He explains that a good heart produces good fruit, while an evil heart produces evil, urging believers to recognize their new identity in Christ as righteous individuals. The sermon highlights the necessity of renewing our minds through Scripture to align our thoughts with God's truth, rather than being swayed by worldly influences. Beach encourages Christians to feed their spirits with the Word, which empowers them to overcome the desires of the flesh and live in accordance with their new nature. Ultimately, he calls for a transformation that reflects the righteousness of Christ in our lives.

Chapter 6, beginning in verse number 43. Luke chapter 6, beginning in verse number 43. It says, For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit, neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good. And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil. For of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. Another translation would be, For out of the overflow of the heart his mouth speaketh. So the question here this morning is this, what is in our heart? What is in our heart? In the book of James, book of James chapter 3, the Holy Spirit tells us a lot about the tongue. It tells us a lot about the things we speak, and in particular the scripture says in verse number 5 of James chapter 3, Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell. Now beloved, we have to understand that this scripture when it talks about the tongue, and James seems to imply here that the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. But I don't believe that James here is actually stating that the tongue has some kind of an inherent evil. I think James was addressing a particular situation that was present in his day. Unfortunately, at that time, the tongue was a fire, a world of iniquity, or it was being used in that capacity. The tongue, listen, the tongue does not have to be a world of iniquity. The tongue does not have to be set on fire by hell. The tongue does not have to be defiling the whole body. The tongue does not have to be an instrument to bring forth evil things. The tongue does not have to be an instrument that defiles the whole body. Verse number eight, the tongue can no maintain. It is an unruly evil and full of deadly poison. So apart from the grace of God, apart from the Lord working in our life, beloved, the tongue can be very destructive. The tongue is the instrument that the depths of the heart uses to express itself. The tongue is the instrument that the mind uses to express itself. Verse number 10, out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, either a vine, figs? So can no fountain, both yield salt water and fresh. So according to the scripture that we read in Luke, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. The tongue becomes the physical instrument that communicates the intangible things within the heart. Now Jesus taught us that the heart is full of all kinds of wickedness, adulteries and fornication and lying and murdering, etc., etc., etc. So therefore, unless you and I are plugged into a new source, it is inevitable that our tongue will become the instrument through which all of these sins within us will be revealed. But the key this morning, I believe the Holy Spirit would want us to see this morning, that as Christians, as those, according to the Bible, who have received a new heart, how many here recognize that under the new covenant, God promises to give us a new heart, that he'll take the old heart of stone away and give us a heart of flesh. The Bible also says that if we are in Christ Jesus, we are a new creation. So there is something new about every genuine born-again believer that enables him to qualify as being a good man. Out of the good treasure in his heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure in his heart bringeth forth evil things. Essentially speaking, the believer is not an unrighteous person, but a righteous person. The believer is not a sinner condemned to death, but is a righteous man that stands at peace with God based upon the blood of Jesus Christ. You see, beloved, it is so important that we are renewed in our mind so that our minds will line up with the facts of what has happened in our life. The problem in the church today, the problem in our lives today, is we are still being seduced by the Spirit that is in the world. We are still being seduced and influenced by the Spirit that is in this world, and it affects the way we think, it affects the way we act, it affects what we think upon, it affects the way we perceive one another. And the only way that our minds can be properly renewed is through the power of the Word of God working in us in order to transform us so that our minds can relate newly to the new thing that God has done through His Son in our lives. You can be revolutionized today, and your life can take on a totally different tone, a different way of movement, if in fact you would experience the renewing, transforming power of the Word of God working in you and in your mind, causing you to think differently. And I say differently, I simply mean causing you to agree with what God says as opposed to agreeing with what the world says. Recently I heard a preacher say, we are changed by the thing that we're beholding. We are changed by the thing that has got our fixation upon us. Whatever you are fixed upon, whatever your heart is looking at, whatever your mind is thinking about day and night, that is ultimately the thing that's going to affect you. That's the thing that's going to change you. And as Christians, we are called by God to so be renewed in our heart and in our mind so as to have a completely different way of thinking than the world does, and that includes the religious world. As we had read, Matthew, I'm sorry, it was Luke. I'm going to read it one more time. Luke chapter 6, verse 45, a good man out of the good treasure of his heart. Now we want to write here good, and we want to write here evil. Okay? Okay, well, we'll make it able to be seen here. A good man out of the good in his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil of his heart brings forth evil treasure. Okay, now we'll have this evil and we'll just have this black two and three. Okay, listen carefully, beloved. All right, a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bring it forth that which is good and evil man out of the evil Trevor of his heart bring it forth that which is evil for of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So according to the words of Jesus, if this is the heart of a good man, and this is the heart of an evil man, it is essentially what is in the heart in the heart, whether it be good or whether it be evil, that eventually finds its way out through the mouth. Okay, and here's the good man, and we'll make this his opening and this is the mouth. So therefore, the mouth or the tongue, which is in James chapter three, the mouth or the tongue becomes the avenue through which treasure or treasure is dispersed. The mouth becomes the avenue through which either good treasure or evil treasure comes out. Good treasure or evil treasure comes out. Now, the question this morning is this. What is an evil heart and what is a good heart? What is an evil heart and what is a good heart? I want to ask everybody an honest, sincere question this morning. I want you to answer it. What do you perceive yourself to be a good man or an evil man, a good man or an evil man? Now, see, we're inclined to what? Oh, I'm so terrible and I'm so wretched and I'm so evil and I'm so this and I'm so that. Turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter four, beginning in verse number 20, Ephesians 420. Beloved, this is so very important that we let God's word fashion our thinking, that we get revelation from God's word. It'll so affect us and so change us and so strengthen us to be able to maintain a posture of victory in the things of God in our own life. Verse number 20. Listen to this. Chapter four of Ephesians. But ye have not so learned Christ. Now, verse 20 is in reference to verses 17 through 19, which describes the way people who don't know the Lord walk. They walk in the vanity of their mind. Their understanding is darkened. They're alienated from the life of God. They are ignorant. Their hearts are blinded. They have no conscience. Okay? They have no conscience and they walk in accordance to uncleanness and they're full of greediness. Now, some of you are saying, well, that perfectly describes me, brother. We're not dealing now. Listen, we're not dealing here with our experience. We're dealing here with the facts of God's word. The greatest fall in 1997 and I'm sure it'll carry on into 1998. The greatest fall in America is we have become a we have become excuse me, we have become a feeling emotion oriented society. Everything is based on feeling. People are wrapped up in their feelings. People are wrapped up in their emotions. There is no longer an ability to maintain any kind of longevity in anything if I don't feel like doing it. Feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling. Don't think for a moment that this is not part of the seduction of Satan's plan because it is because this whole feeling mentality has come into the church and Christians live by their feelings essentially for the most part. Their lives revolve around their emotions and how they feel. And this has damaged greatly a Christian's ability to get into the word of God and live by the word of God. They don't feel like getting into the word of God. They don't feel like reading the Bible. They base the confession of their faith on how they feel. I don't feel safe today. I don't feel like God loves me. I don't feel like I'm a good person. I'm an evil, terrible, rotten, sinful person. I don't feel, I don't feel, I don't feel, feel, feel, feel, feel. Everything is based on feeling. I don't want to stay married anymore. I don't feel like being married. I don't feel like I love my wife or my husband anymore. I don't feel like I love my children. Feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling. But we have to get to the word of God. So here Paul says, don't walk like people who don't know the Lord. The emptiness of their mind, dark understanding, alienated from God, ignorance, that is the lack of knowledge. They're blinded in their heart. They have no conscience and they walk in uncleanness with greediness. But notice what the word of God says. Listen carefully. But you have not so learned Christ. If so be you have been, you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus that ye put off concerning the former way of life, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. Beloved, verse 22 is not a command to do something. It's a fact of what has already been done. Now it doesn't mean that we don't daily affirm and daily agree with God. I am crucified with Christ. I am dead to sin. I am dead to the world. I am dead to the voluptuous powers of the devil based on the fact that I am united to Christ. He is my life. He is my righteousness. I am a brand new person on the inside. When God sees me, he sees what? The righteousness of Jesus Christ. When you see you, all you see is your sin. All you see is your failures. All you see is your stumblings. You are caught in experience. But God's word says don't be caught in experience. Meditate upon the facts. And then your experience will change. It doesn't mean you deny your experience. It doesn't mean you deny the fact that from time to time you sin. It doesn't mean you deny the fact that from time to time you find yourself in a place where you are not pleasing the Lord. But you don't live in that realm. You live in the fact that God has made you righteous in Jesus Christ. Essentially speaking, Christians are by nature righteous. But no, we only see, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Well, that's true, and bless God, it'll never change. But you're not in the flesh anymore. Essentially speaking, you are no longer in the flesh. You're not under the law. You've been divorced. He that is dead is freed from the law. But see, we still don't see ourselves as dead. We see ourselves as alive under the law, under the curse. And there's our weakness. Our weakness is we've not apprehended yet the glorious truth that God has redeemed us. He has saved us. He has impregnated us with His own divine nature. You say, well, I'm sinful. I say, well, I'm righteous. I'd rather claim to be righteous in Christ than sinful in the flesh. It doesn't mean I deny when I sin. But that is an exception now. The Bible says that sin is an exception to the Christian. It's not the general rule. He that is born of God sinneth not. He does not continue in sin. Why? Because he is no longer in sin. He is righteous now. The seed of God remaineth in him. He cannot sin. That is, he cannot continue in sin because there is the principle of righteousness now working. The body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Hallelujah to God. The righteous quality that God possesses is now mine. It is in me. It's working in me. I'm redeemed. Hallelujah. When Christ touched me, I became clean. Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Hallelujah to God. He who knew no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. This is liberating revelation. So we got a good and an evil heart. Beloved, every child of God, every born-again believer, every member of the ascended Christ that is truly bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh is the good man that Jesus is speaking of that has good treasure in the heart. Now the problem is this. The problem is getting that good treasure from the heart to our mouth and out of our mouth as opposed to all the other stuff that is in the flesh that certainly is evil and corrupt and is just a waste and is perishing, the Bible says. The problem is learning to separate and distinguish. Hallelujah. Hebrews 4.12, the word of God does that. The problem is separating and distinguishing between that which is working in us that is good, that is from Christ and by Christ and that essentially is in our hearts versus that which is working in us and in our minds and in our feelings and in our emotions. That's coming from the deceitful, corrupt lusts of the flesh and that's coming from the suggestions of the wicked one and distinguish between the two and only the things that come from the good heart from Christ should come out of the mouth and the other stuff, all that evil trash in the flesh and in our mind we need to distinguish between and we need, as the Bible says, to bring down and to cast down imaginations and to bring every thought into the obedience of Christ by the power of the Spirit so that as redeemed believers we are speaking only the things that are in our heart from the word and from the movement of Christ Himself and all the other stuff we are learning to deny, we are learning to say no to, we are learning to recognize and say, oh no, I'm not going to say that, oh no, I'm not going to give in to that because that's going to sow into my children or into the atmosphere or into the hearers or whoever might hear it that which is not good. The problem is that we have failed in the battle, we just, this is the victim generation, we're just victims, we can't help ourselves baloney, we can by the power of God, we can by the power of God, we can help ourselves by the power of God. So there's the good man with the good treasure in his heart and brings forth from his mouth that which is good and then there's the evil man with the evil treasure in his heart and he brings forth that which is evil. The evil man continuously brings forth that which is evil and the good man should continuously bring forth that which is good. But James says, these things ought not to be. Out of the same mouth, what? Proceed blessing and cursing. Why did James say these things ought not to be? Because it's contradicting who we are. If an evil man is incapable of bringing forth good, then a good man should be what? Incapable of bringing forth evil. If we were at one time slaves to sin, we were free from what? Righteousness. But now we are slaves to righteousness and therefore should be free from sin. Very, very, it's very simple that Paul was teaching in Romans 6. He's not suggesting we're free from sin. If you'd like to believe, he's saying it's a fact. Ah, there you are, lost in your feelings again. It's not the way I feel, brother. What happened last night? I'm not free from sin. See, our feelings, our experience. What does the Word say? I am dead. I am resurrected with Christ. I am seated with Christ. The real me. The man that's going to be revealed when the sons of God are revealed. That's the man that God's working on. That man is without sin. Oh yes he is. Yes he is. I carry around this body of death and that body of death is certainly full of sin. And because it's part of me, then essentially speaking, though I am righteous and though I am in Christ without sin, yet as long as I'm connected to this body of death, the presence of sin still dwells with me. But hallelujah to God, the power and dominion and authority of sin has been broken through Jesus Christ. It is broken through Jesus Christ. It is not just a nice thing to say. It is a fact. It is not a thing that we hope for. It is a reality now. The fact that you are united to Jesus Christ, He is righteous and you are part of Him, now makes you free from the tyranny and dominion and power of sin in your flesh. It makes you free from it because you are not in the flesh. You're in Christ. Now if you walk after the desires of the flesh, then you're being deceived and you're going to reap the consequences of that. But when you do that, you contradict what you are. You contradict what you really are as a Christian. Verse number 22. That ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. Let me tell you something. Look here, beloved. The old man, the former conversation, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. Essentially speaking, your heart. Now when the Bible speaks about the heart, it speaks about the immaterial part of us. The very center of our being. Your heart is no longer evil. God says you are righteous. God says Christ is your life. God says you are free from sin and slaves to righteousness. God says you have become a slave to righteousness. Paul is so emphatic here, and if you follow his analogy, you realize, boy, we're not seeing this. He implied that before Christ came into our hearts, we were slaves to sin. Now, as a slave to sin, we had no choice, did we? No, we were bound. But Paul sees this transition, this incredible transplanting from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son, out of the flesh into Christ, died with Jesus, raised from the dead, sitting with Christ. Christ and me are one. My breath comes from Christ. Christ saw it so clearly. Paul saw it so clearly. He has the audacity to say, you were slaves to sin and free from righteousness, but now the same words he uses, you have become slaves to righteousness and you're free from sin. Incredible. He saw it so clearly. God wants us to see this so clearly. So when the Bible says you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, it means exactly what it says. We have put it off. That's what circumcision is. Heart circumcision. Heart circumcision. We've been circumcised not with the hands of man, but we've been circumcised through the Spirit of God. That is, hallelujah, the flesh has been rolled back and God regenerated us and took our spirit and impregnated it with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We've been circumcised. It's been rolled back, the old way of life, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be, now listen, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Why does the Holy Spirit say after He talks about the heart surgery that took place in our lives when we became Christians and that we became the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, we essentially took on in nature the goodness and the benevolence and the likeness of God? Why does He say now be renewed in the spirit of your mind? He says that because our minds must understand what has happened in our spirit so that our minds do not walk out of agreement with what God has done in our lives. Our minds will still follow the lies of the traditions we've been taught or the lies that the world is teaching us. Our minds will still be in darkness when the Lord has come and redeemed our spirit. In other words, the mind must be renewed so it agrees with the Word, it agrees with the working of God in the spirit so that the mind, which is the soul, part of the soul, can be delivered from itself, can be delivered from its own ideas and can be a servant to Christ, the Word, and the working of the Spirit of God in my spirit. My mind should be in agreement with the Word so that the working of Christ in my spirit can have full course and that my mind becomes subject to the working of God as opposed to taking an independent course. Our souls need to be saved. Our spirit has been saved. Our souls are in the process of being saved. From what? Our souls need to be saved from themselves. We need to be saved from ourselves. All the independence that the soul has, all of the desire the soul has to do its own thing, to please its own thing, to follow its own path, to seek comfort in areas other than God. The soul must learn how to be subject to the Word of God, to live by the Word of God, and to agree with what the Spirit of God is doing in our spirit. The mind, the will, and the emotions all must be broken and brought into humble dependence and submission to the Word of God. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which after God is created. Created. This is a new creation. This is not taking the old and putting on new garments. This is a new creation that God has done. This is not dressing up the sinful nature and teaching it how to say hallelujah. This is not dressing up the sinful nature and clothing it with Bible Scriptures and good works. Christianity is not taking the sinful nature and hiding its sin and hiding all of its wickedness and making believe that it has become something it's not. Flesh is flesh. Spirit is spirit. When the spirit of man is redeemed, the spirit of man becomes one with God. The spirit of man possesses in nature the righteousness of Jesus Christ and the flesh continues to be the flesh. The flesh doesn't get cleansed. The flesh doesn't become holy. The flesh is denied. We just simply deny the flesh because we have been born again. That is, we have received a brand new principle of life that is Christ. Hallelujah to God. It's Christ's life now. So now my preoccupation is Jesus and His Word and letting this Christ life and Christ nature grow in me in order to demonstrate the likeness of God in moral perfection. What about the flesh? What about it? It's a dead old corpse, Paul said, and it stinketh. And we ought not to touch the unclean thing. We ought to have nothing to do anymore with the flesh. And only the Word of God and meditating on the Scriptures and being taught by the Holy Spirit can you know when the flesh and the desires thereof are seeking to seduce you. The Word of God alone can distinguish between spirit and soul. The Word of God alone can teach you the difference between the movements in you that come from Christ and the movements in you that come from your own springs and your own resources. It's only something God can teach you as you are faithful with the light you have and long for more. Why is there so much evil in the church? Why is there so much stuff being spoken out of the mouth that is, as James said, is the stuff from hell that's defiling the whole body and that's bringing ruin to many lives. Why, beloved, why? That you put on the new man which after God is created in what? In righteousness and true holiness. There you go. In righteousness and true holiness. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Let me ask a question, all right? We have a newborn babe. What is this baby living on right now? Breast milk. Breast milk. I pray God will give you a revelation right now. Do you know that the day you believed and the Holy Spirit confirmed your call, your calling, and came to you, something brand new was born in you? Something was birthed in you? The problem in the church today is we are so busy eating the husks and the pig food that we have forgotten that there is something very precious and very holy that has been birthed in our spirit. That which God has birthed in us can't feed on anything of this world. It can't feed on anything in this world. The Christian is too busy feeding. Listen closely. Too busy feeding that which corresponds to the old. And therefore, that new precious seed of God, that new life, that new man, that newborn babe on the inside, as newborn babes crave the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. There is a life within the heart of every true believer that for the most part is being starved. Being starved. What you put in your physical body will nourish your physical body. What you put in your mind will nourish your mind. And what you feed upon in your spirit will feed your spirit. And beloved, the only nourishment that this good treasure, that this babe, that this redeemed spirit has is the good, sound Word of God, the milk, the meat, the person of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit's ministry taking the Word and taking Christ and nourishing us. So in answer to the question why is there so much evil coming out of the mouth of the Christian who essentially in heart is good, good in that the goodness of God's character is dwelling there. The righteousness of Christ is now in my spirit. I have become one with Him. Why is there so much evil coming out? The reason why is because we are not growing in our new life in Jesus Christ. We are not growing and becoming strong men, strong in spirit, strong in the power of the Lord and His might, strong in the Word of God. But we are continuing to cater to the desires of the flesh and we are continuing to feed through the things that are in this world those things in us that correspond to the desires of the world. When in fact, we need to go back to the Word of God and realize as a Christian I've been crucified to the world. As a Christian, I have died to sin. As a Christian, I am no longer to love the world. I am no longer to be nourished anymore by the things in this world and strengthen that which is evil in me. You ought not to be sitting in front of a TV watching filth. You ought not to be dabbling in the world, feeding on the things in this world that do not correspond to Christ and the things of Christ, that which is holy and pure and just and honest and worthy of praise, Paul said in Philippians 4. So for the most part, the church has failed to apprehend and understand the great transition that has occurred. We have failed to agree with God's Word and let God's Word become our confession so that our experience shortly should follow. Oh, it's true. Sometimes when a person is saved out of a world of sin, for a while, they have these habits that they've learned. And there's no doubt that they can fall prey to these habits. But, beloved, there is something working in them that is far more powerful than the habits, far more powerful than the devil, far more powerful than anything that had worked in them before that. And if they would just get into the Word of God and get properly tall and feast upon Jesus Christ, those habits would be broken. Colossians chapter 3, what does it say? If ye therefore be risen with Christ, listen closely, Colossians chapter 3, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Now see, seek, seek, that implies the heart, that implies the mind, that implies the will, that implies everything you are is now to be focused on things above. Because you are essentially heavenly now, not earthly. If you have been risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection to think with your will and your reasoning powers. See, the soul now, this is the soul. The soul must now what? Line up with the facts of God's Word. You see, the soul of man is used to thinking on what? What's the soul of man used to thinking about? What I want, myself, and the things in the world that coincide to my desires. If I have a desire to be greedy, then I go to the world and I find a way to express that greed. If I want to be inordinate in my desires, I go to the world and find a way to express that inordinate lust. If I have a lust for money, the will to be rich, that is the desire to be rich. I don't care who you are. I don't care what you say. When Christians desire wealth, they want wealth. They are out of God's will. You might become wealthy, but it cannot spring out of a desire. Because Paul said, they that will to be rich are foolish. They fall into many hurtful lusts. So here, we don't want to get off track here, but the soul, set your affections on things above. See, the soul must be saved from itself. Listen, for the most part, our minds think about what? Me, my desires, my interests. But here Paul says, the soul must learn to think and set itself on things above. Where Christ is at the right hand of the Father. Now listen, verse 3, For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. That word mortify means to put to death by starvation. Do you see? Put to death by starvation. Your members which are upon earth. Now let me tell you something. The things that that statement includes. Listen, the things which that statement includes. Your everything in you that springs out of that flesh which is by nature evil. You are to mortify. You are to die to. Why? Because that flesh which is evil, you don't know anymore. You're not a part of it. You've been severed. You've died to it. You've been divorced from it. You've been married to another, even Christ. So what I am after the flesh is no longer what I am in Christ. What I was B.C. is not what I am A.C. It's a fact. It's a fact. I am not the man I used to be. I am a member of Christ. Before, I was dead to God and alive to sin. Now I'm dead to sin and alive to God. Oh, what glorious truth. I love the word of God. I love the truth of God. You shall know the truth and the truth shall what? Set you free. So, we need to feed from the word of God, from the presence of Jesus and from the word of God in each other as we speak it to one another and thereby nourish and strengthen and cause to increase more and more that good nature, that is, that nature that comes from God, partakers of the divine nature, we need to grow in that and thereby through, listen, through that nature our whole man can be ruled. Do you know why? And I'm just going to be perfectly candid right now because this is how the Lord was to me. Apart from any kind of problem that needs divine healing, do you know why Christians are fat? Do you know why? Huh? Because they are not ruling their body. That's why. You see, my spirit, impregnated with Christ, has desires. My soul has desires and my body has desires. When I, this man right here, the righteousness of Christ, the redeemed Phil, when the redeemed Phil does not reign, does not rule his body through the energizing power of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, then my soul rules, my desires, or my fleshly desires rule, or my bodily desires rule. See, as a babe in Christ, you are very vulnerable because you're weak spiritually. And the desires of soul and the desires of flesh might still be strong. That's why it's essential as a babe in Christ that you are in the environment where other Christians are in your life. And you are being taught the Word of God and nurtured so that you are continuously feasting on the breast milk and you're growing so that eventually your spirit, you can reign and rule in your spirit because God teaches the strengthening power of Christ comes to our spirit. It comes to the spirit man. And then the spirit man rules and the soul is subject to the spirit. The body is subject to the spirit. I learn to discern and distinguish between what is happening, what is compelling me, what are these desires, where are they coming from? And when I discern that they're not coming from the Spirit of God in me, then I say, no, I am strong. The Word of God abideth in me. I am able through God to say no to the desires of my flesh, to the desires of my body. I don't have to be an adulterer now. I don't have to be a fornicator now. I don't have to indulge in inordinate desire. I don't have to. God dwells in me. The goodness of God is in me. But listen, it's not willpower, it's Christ's power, it's God strengthening my spirit to be able through the power of Christ to reign in righteousness in this life. I'm telling you, beloved, it's the thing that devil fears the most. The revelation of who the church is and what the church can become in this world through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If it's ever caught and taught and lived, one generation will turn the world upside down and will see the unveiling of the sons of God and will see the wicked principalities and powers brought down. And then, Isaiah said, then the nations will learn righteousness when Thy judgments are in the earth, O God. One generation will see it. Oh, that God would make this real to us. That God would make this real to us. It's lovely though, isn't it? Oh, the Word is so powerful. I don't know about you, but I'll be honest with you. I have just got warmed up. I tell you, I'd go another three hours. Just doing what? Just preaching the Word. Preaching the Word. It's so powerful. It's so revolutionary, isn't it? It's so mind-changing. I just love to say it. Devil, you're a liar. You're a liar. He is a liar. The Word of God is quick and powerful. Hallelujah. It's so life-changing. What's the logical... See, where are we going with this? Where are we going with this? I'll tell you where we're going. When this truth goes beyond seed form and starts growing in the life of the church, you know where we're going to end up? In Romans 8. Let's go there. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Oh, how I love thy law, O God. It is my meditation day and night. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus... Where does the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus now work? Where does it work? It works within the shrine of the believer's spirit. There is a law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that is working right in me right now. What is it? It's my union with the One who says, I am He that became dead, and behold, now I am alive forevermore. I am the resurrection and the life. My God, the same power that God used when He said, Jesus, come forth! And Jesus rose up from the dead. That's the same power that's working in the church today. Not an inferior power, not a different power, not another power, but according to the power, Paul said, that was working in Christ when God raised Him from the dead. That's the power that you and I are plugged into. Why don't we see it then? Where is it? The waters have become muddy. That's why. Remember last Sunday? Are you distracted? Oh, the devil wants to distract you from this. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free. Has loosed me. Exempted me. That word literally means to loose. Same kind of freedom that someone has from the law when they die. Same kind of freedom. This isn't theory. This is reality. Do you really believe you've died? Well, not really, brother. I'm striving toward it. No, you've got it all wrong. You're striving in order for your experience to be good, has to be based upon the fact. You can't go forward unless you understand the fact. Before you walk in righteousness, you have to understand you are seated with Christ in righteousness. Do you believe that you've been set free from the law of sin and death? Do you really believe it? For what the law could not do, that is, the law could not make a man righteous. All the law could do was make my sin really sinful. For without the law, there was no law saying thou shalt not covet. The covetousness was in me. But before the law, the sin was dead. That is, it wasn't reckoned as covetousness because nobody told me thou shalt not sin. So when God says thou shalt not covet, sin suddenly was exposed and killed me. So the law, which was intended to be good, revived sin and sin killed me and I became most miserable. The holy law of God. So Paul says, is the law bad? No, it's good. But it's sin working in me. That law could not change my heart. It could only show me what God wanted me to be. So I either deceive myself, like that man that said to Jesus, all the commandments have I kept from my youth. Jesus, oh really? Do you really think he kept all the commandments? I doubt it. Or we could have, oh my God, have mercy upon me. Have mercy, Lord. I see you are holy. I see thou shalt not covet. I am full of covetousness, Lord. Have mercy upon me. God says those that cry out for mercy, He'll save. What's He going to do? He's going to take His law and now what is He going to do with it? He's going to take it from the wall and He's going to write it where? In our hearts. So that which was external before that we could not attain to is now working internally and the writing of the law in our hearts is just a way the Holy Spirit is saying I've taken the righteousness that the law requires and have given it to you in your spirit. I have made you a partaker of the sperm of God, the seed of God. Oh, my God. Is it true, Lord? Is it true? Could it be, Lord? Yes, it's true. Alright. 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. Hallelujah to God. Who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. You see, they who are after the flesh, that is, those who are in the flesh, mind the things of the flesh. That is, their minds are upon the flesh and the desires of the flesh. But, Paul says, they that are after the spirit do things of the spirit. For to be carnally or fleshly minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind, that is, the fleshly mind, the mind that is bound to the desires of the flesh, that is bound to the impulses of the sinful flesh, is death. It's an enmity to God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But listen, but you are not in the flesh but in the spirit. Have you seen that yet? You're not in the flesh, you're in the spirit. If so be the spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man have not the spirit, he is none of his. 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 quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore we are debtors, not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if we live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through the spirit do mortify, there's that word mortify, to put to death the deeds of the flesh, you shall live. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are sons of God. You have not received the spirit of bondage to fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. If children, then heirs. Join heirs with Christ. If so be, we suffer with him. We will also be glorified with him. Here's where we're going to end up, beloved. We're going to close with this. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption. That is, the adoption meaning the formal placing, the formal placement of the sons of God. That is, they will be placed in a position where they'll bear the responsibility of being heirs and joint heirs with Christ. The placement where they'll take the kingdom and it will become the kingdom of our God and his Christ, head and body. This is where this revelation will end up if it grows in the church. If the church saw this, they would be groaning right now for life and immortality. They would be groaning to be free from mortality because they've seen that they are called to bear the image of Jesus Christ. Well, I suppose we should stop. Remember, beloved, I know it was a lot. I know we shared a lot. I know we were long, but nevertheless, get into the Word, live by the Word, meditate on these things, and let God show you the truth. And the truth will set you free. Father, take the Word, write it in our hearts, create a hunger in the depths of our spirit, and by the Word of truth, free us from all that contradicts and is in opposition to your Son, the loveliness of who he is and our being transformed into his image. Free us by truth from every lie and every form of darkness and make us sons of God without reproach or rebuke, blameless in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation in whom we shine as lights holding forth the Word of truth. Granted, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.