GRACE UNVEILED, #33, “The Holy Spirit Leads You Out of the Dominion of Sin” Jim Hammond
Recap
Pastor Jim preached a message subtitled, “The Holy Spirit Leads You Out of the Dominion of Sin.” This is his 33rd message in his teaching series on the book of Romans called “Unveiled Grace.” The message was based on Romans 8:13, “For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.” (Amp.) This verse tells us that through the Holy Spirit, we have the power to put to death the evil deeds of the body.
Dive Deeper
We left off of our series on Romans at Romans 8:13: “For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.” (Amp.)
There are those that assume the words “dictates of the flesh” refers to sexual sin. It simply means our “self-effort.”
This verse is telling us that through the Holy Spirit, we have the power to put to death the evil deeds of the body.
It says the Holy Spirit can give you power to “habitually…” Habitually means again and again and again overcome a habit of deadening (or you could say, “depriving”) the sin that’s prompted by your body.
Pastor Jim says, “This is saying that through the work of the Holy Spirit, by the Holy Spirit, in the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Spirit that power will increase.”
The scripture we just read is an answer to both a statement and a question back in chapter seven, just a few verses ago.
A few weeks ago, we studied Romans 7:23–24 where Paul was speaking of a present-tense situation in his life when he said: “But I discern in my bodily members [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh] a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh].”
This man who wrote 25% of the New Testament said, “O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death?”
This is just a reminder of the scriptures that we’ve touched on. We’re talking about sanctification. Sanctification is not something that happens automatically when we are born again. It is a process.
Pastor Jim gave an example of four different people who were completely delivered from various habits, like coke or alcohol when they became born again. When they got saved, all temptation and desire for their habits disappeared. Three of those people after going 20 or 25 years of not using…used! It cost two of them their lives. There was one addicted person who when he became born again was completely and immediately delivered. Since that time, he has never gone back. Sanctification is a process.
Let’s look at Romans 6:5–6, “For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be [one with Him in sharing] His resurrection [by a new life lived for God]. 6 We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.”
These verses tell us that our old, unrenewed self was nailed to the cross. God views you as if you were the one that had hung on the cross.
Through the process of sanctification, it’s a work that the Holy Spirit does in you. We are one with Him because we believe He died and rose again. You share, or take part, in His death in God’s eyes. He says, “We shall also be one with Him sharing His resurrection.” The King James Bible says, “We shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.”
Verse six is talking about sin being deprived of its power. But you have to be very aware that you are one with Him. This is what it means to be “in Christ.” God views you as if you hung on the tree with Him. He views you as if you were buried with Him. And He views you as if you were resurrected with Him.
This is called the “Great Exchange.” The Exchanged Life is operating through the born again spirit man. His spirit man became sin for us. Every sin that we might commit—past, present, and future.
He became our sin in His spirit on the cross. And through the recreation of our spirit man, when we ask Him to be our Lord and Savior, there is an exchange where He took all the bad! He became all the bad! The Bible says He became our sin. And He died for it. And He died with it. And He took it with Him to hell!
I want to go back to Romans 8:13: “For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.” (Amp.)
What verse 13 is saying is that if you keep on living after your own self-effort, day in and day out, you’re going to keep on dying after the flesh, day in and day out.
The King James reads, “If you through the spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body.” That word “deed” in the Greek means “a deeply ingrained habit.” This is talking about all habits, not just the “biggies.”
Being a liar is a sin. What about sugar habit? Gossip can be a habit.
Verse 13 is saying you have power that comes from the Holy Spirit to do something about your habits. It’s telling you to “mortify the deeply ingrained habits of your body.” This requires “volition” on your part. This is telling us to exercise, or put into action, volition in regard to the ingrained deeds of your flesh.
Pastor Jim said, “I’m telling you, you have the power through the Gospel” to deal with every evil habit.
Read About It
Romans 8:13, “If you live according to the dictates of the flesh, you will surely die.” Dictates of the flesh. Flesh means self-effort. Flesh does not mean some kind of sexual sin. It means self-effort. “For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.” (Amp.)
Romans 7:23–24, “But I discern in my bodily members [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh] a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh]. O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death?”
Romans 6:5–6, For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be [one with Him in sharing] His resurrection [by a new life lived for God]. 6 We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.
Romans 8:14, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.”
Discussion Questions
What does the phrase “dictates of the flesh” mean?
Romans 8:13 is the answer to the Apostle Paul’s problem that he talked about in chapter seven. What was Paul’s problem?
What does it mean to say, “sanctification is a process?”