 The message that I'm going to title today is called the living dead, not the walking dead, not the fear of the walking dead, the living dead. If you have your Bible, we will be in Romans chapter six. And in fact, I'm just going to go ahead and read a few verses first. And then we're going to digest Romans chapter six and verse two. Actually, in verse one, he's talking about, you know, should we continue and sin so that the grace may abound? And in verse two, he says, by no means, how can we who die to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Verse four, we were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life. Verse five, for we have been unified with him in a death like this. We shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like this. We know that our old self was crucified past with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing that we might have no longer, no longer enslaved to sin. For once who had died has been freed from sin. Now, we have a problem. As a humanity, our problem is not the sins we commit. It's the sin as a principle, as a machine, as a, I would call it like a spider that keeps making spider web. Sins are the web. Sin is the spider. You don't get this sin by sinning. You get it with birth. This sin is like your last name. You didn't earn it. You didn't vote for it. It came with you at birth. And the only way it leaves you is by death. You can become an American citizen. You still I'm still subject, even though I'm in America. I'm still subject, even though I am married or you can change it by marriage once you married your last name switches. And so your nature, that nature doesn't disappear. So we have two big problems. One is we have sins. Somebody says sins. So that's the things we do, we think, attitude. And then we have a problem with a sin. Sin is that thing that makes the sins. And so in most of us, we come to Christ and Christ takes care of the sins by His blood. But then we only have another problem is because the sin continues to make sins. So we keep on coming to be cleansed. And sometimes we feel like, man, if somebody could decommission this factory inside that keeps making the sins, it would be so awesome. And so Paul even uses that. He says, this thing lives in me, dwells in me. And he says, it keeps making bad stuff. It's kind of like this. Let's say that we outlaw alcohol right now in the United States. We make a law, no alcohol in the United States. We go break every bottle of alcohol, every bottle of wine, every bottle of beer, Jack Daniels, all of this stuff. We break that, smash it and have a big party. But see, the problem is that if you have a factory that produces alcohol, still operational, then very soon we will have alcohol back on the streets. And see, most of the Christians, they broke the bottles but never decommissioned the factory. So what I want to talk to you today this morning is about what the cross does. The cross provided the blood. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from sins. But the cross of Jesus Christ removes the sin. Okay, let's talk about the blood first. Something we all know. Jesus shed His blood. The Bible says for the remission of sins, meaning to cleanse us from our sin. The blood, if you take your notes, write this down. The blood does three things. First thing is the blood. It clears our record with God. God needed the blood first to satisfy the righteous demands of His justice that we broke. Have you ever used a calculator and you were doing one of those longer formulas like 100 minus 80 plus 60, divide by three, multiply by seven? And then you got lost in one of the numbers, you mixed up with numbers and the calculator doesn't have this thing where you can go back. Because once you mess up a number on the calculator, what do you have to do? There's this thing on the calculator called clear. When you click clear, it clears everything you were doing and you have to start all over. See what happened 2000 years ago is God used the blood of His Son as the clear button for everything that you've done. So you tried one good thing, you did two bad things and then you kind of got lost in the formula and God couldn't just clear it without somebody paying for it. So the blood of Jesus Christ went and hit clear. So that's why God doesn't remember your sins anymore. Why? Because He cleared them. They're gone from the record and that's what the blood is. Somebody say, God, praise you Jesus. Come on, somebody. The second thing that the blood does because see you can have, you can get forgiveness from sin and God has peace toward you and you have peace with God but you don't have peace within you. In fact, most of us never struggled with guilt until we got saved. Because when we were lost, our conscience was so dead that what we did, we didn't feel bad about it. And now you got saved. Your conscience becomes awakened and it's so sensitive. You do something bad and it judges you. You do something bad and it condemns you. And you know God has forgiven you. It's the fact that your own conscience now woke up. When it was asleep, you're like, you know what, at least I could enjoy my sin. Now you can't enjoy your sin, praise God. And one of the reasons Christians do not enjoy sinning is because you have this thing called conscience that's been quickened and your conscience doesn't care about you. Honestly, it just says wrong, wrong, stupid, you're stupid, you're stupid. That's all your conscience does. It's a judge. It's not there to make you feel good. It's not Gary V. It's a conscience, it judges you. And the Bible says the blood not only cleared the record, the blood cleanses my conscience. That means that I can apply the blood toward not only to me. I'm not talking about forgiving yourself. I'm talking about applying his forgiveness on yourself. I'm talking about applying, shut up. But that's not the only thing the blood does. The blood not only clears my record, cleanses my conscience. Because see, when God is against you, you're in trouble. When God, you're good with God through the blood and you're not good with yourself. And then the blood helps you to be good with yourself, have peace. And there's one more person that shows up on the scene, the woman you took care of these two. And that's the devil. When God is at peace with you and you're at peace in yourself, the devil comes from the outside and starts using the memories of your past, using what you've done and says, look how messed up you are. And the blood not only clears my record, not only cleanses my conscience, it becomes something that conquers the accuser. So when the devil comes like the flood, God raises a standard against him. And that standard is the blood of the lamb. They overcame him by the blood of the lamb. That means when I have peace within me, I have peace with God. And the devil comes to disturb my conscience and he comes from the outside and says, well, look what you did. Look at how messed up you are. I would say devil, listen, get behind me, take the list of all my sins and put the blood of Jesus on it. I've been washed, I've been sanctified, I've been redeemed, somebody give God some praise right now. Hallelujah. Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to interview Brittany Della Moore. And she, I heard her testimony first in 700 Club. And then I found out that she was reading one of my books and her husband also reached out. I was on her podcast. So Brittany Della Moore was a stripper at the age of, I think 18 to pay for her college. And then one of the porn directors came and saw her and introduced her to a porn industry. They told her she's gonna make a lot of money. She went into porn industry. She won a lot of awards in the porn industry. She was part of this and part of that, over 300 films that she recorded. She eventually became even the prostitute. And to deal with all the shame, the guilt, the craziness, she actually had to take drugs. And though she made a lot of money, she had spent all that money to deal on drugs. Her grandpa invites her to church. And she is in church. She accepts Jesus Christ. And she experiences the blood that cleanses her. But see, she didn't experience the revelation of the cross. And didn't fully understand the full gospel. So she, after accepting Jesus, went back into porn industry to make more films. And then three more years, she was making porn films. And when she got saved, somebody gave her a Bible. So one of those times, three years later, after accepting Jesus Christ, is that Brittany, she goes to Las Vegas to record, to, you know, be in the film. Decides to read the Bible and decides to read the book of Revelation. Chapter two, where God rebukes the church for allowing Jezebel to rule and reign in the church that causes sexual immorality. She's reading it and she's seeing herself as that Jezebel that's causing perversion. She says, in the airplane, she says, the conviction of God hit me. And I realize, and there's a warning there that says this. He says, and I'm giving this Jezebel time to repent. If she doesn't, I'll put her on a sick bed. And she's like, God just, it's like something hit me. I got into the bathroom in the airplane. I got on my knees and I said, God, I'm so sorry. Please give me a second chance. I repent. I know I have prayed a sinner's prayer, but I didn't repent. I need to repent, forgive me. She arrives in Las Vegas, goes to all of those workers and to her boss and says, I quit and you're all going to hell if you don't get saved. She walks away from a porn industry, comes back to God, comes back to church. And somebody who's been in that kind of world, somebody who's been that messed up, you might say, how can this person, you would think this person now will be second-class Christian, but she's married to a pastor. They're both pastors now. They write books on purity. How could that happen? Because there is so much blood. It's precious blood. It's powerful blood. It's holy blood. And Jesus, once He touches your life, even if you were a prostitute, even if you were a pimp, even if you had an abortion, there is a power that cleanses you. Even if you've been addicted to drugs, even if you've been addicted to alcohol, maybe you committed adultery, maybe you practiced homosexuality or you were confused for a season not knowing your own gender and you bought it to the lie of the enemy, what the culture sells today. I can tell you something. The gospel is this. Jesus died for you. There is blood that can cleanse you. No amount of meditation, no amount of inward looking, no amount of charity can remove the weight of sin because the sin has to be dealt with the blood. The sin has to be dealt with death of a man who was pure and who was righteous and that's something that no religion can offer you. When we were in Egypt, we got a chance to get to know some good Muslims. It was funny because a lot of them smoke and I remember I was a Bukeh and one Muslim. I'm like, are you supposed to be smoking? And he's like, I'm a good Muslim with a bad habit. Then they have to pray five times a day. They're so devoted because see, Muhammad did not die for a Muslim. These five pillars that they have, they have to faithfully, they live for this, why? Because there is no blood. There's only your sweat in Islam that you have to give to God. See, Christianity is different because there is blood. Therefore, your sweat is unnecessary. Therefore, you're trying to earn your salvation is unnecessary. You're trying to do good to outdo the bad, it's not necessary. Only the blood can cleanse your conscience, clear your record and give you a weapon to fight against the voices that rise against you. Can somebody say praise the Lord? Praise the Lord. So that's the blood. But the second thing, so the blood deals with my sins. Somebody say the blood. Blood. Deals with my sins. The cross, somebody say the cross. Deals with my sin. Meaning the principle, the spider, that thing. It deals with my sin. Now, a few things I want you to write down if you're taking notes and we're gonna dive in even deeper. Fasting does not kill the flesh. It suppresses it. The cross kills the flesh. A lot of people think that if I fast, and I fasted 40 days on water and I can tell you one thing, you suppress the flesh through fasting, you don't kill it. Fasting doesn't kill the flesh. I know we like to say, oh, fasting kills the flesh, it doesn't. It suppresses it. It's not powerful enough to kill the flesh. Deliverance from sin is more biblical than victory over sin. Now, I'm gonna just kinda give you a little theological framework. When we think of sin, when I say sin, I don't mean an act. I'm talking about this power within a person that wants to do bad. That's sin. You don't get a victory over it. That means you can't become stronger than it. You only get deliverance from it. Listen to this very carefully. God does not give you power over it. God kills it. And that's the only way you're free from it. That means you will never be able to get more power over it. You don't get victory over it. You get deliverance from it. If God himself in his wisdom could not find tools to give you strength to beat that thing, why are you still trying to fight it? You can't. So if you got sick and tired and if you were exhausted for trying to beat it, I wanna tell you something. God already has saw that and he has declared that you cannot beat it. You can only kill it. Now, so we have few options. One of them is we're deliverance church. Well, I have a solution. If I get delivered, that is removed. See, deliverance from demons doesn't mean deliverance from... When he said that again, church, deliverance from demons removes a demon. It doesn't remove the sin. What removes the sin is death. How do you end Savchak? The same way. How did Savchak came into being through birth? How does it go out of circulation through death? There's only one way to remove Savchak. Now I can change the last name, but who I am, there's only one way to remove me out of circulation and that is through death, which is why many Christians secretly behind the scenes hope and wish for the day they die when all the problems with sin will be over. Or instead of looking forward to our death, we can look backwards to his. I read to you guys, it says we died with him. Talking about past tense, it's not saying you will die one day for him. The blood was in the past. You may say, how is it possible for me to die in my past? Well, think about it. How was it possible for him to shed his blood for all your sins and all of them were in the future? 2,000 years ago, you didn't exist. When he was shedding his blood, you haven't even been born and committed any sins. So the blood and the cross doesn't work in the time. It works by faith. And instead of trying to look forward to the day that I die, and I finally stop fighting pornography, I finally stop fighting this flesh. I finally stop having this man. I look forward to the day they'll bury me and it's gonna be over. Jesus says, you can do that or you can look backwards to the time that I did die. See, Jesus's death meant two things. It was substitutionary death, meaning he died for me. Somebody say, for me. Substitutionary death, he died for me. The second one is his death was inclusive. Somebody say, inclusive. I died with him. Did you catch that? So as a substitutionary death, he died for me. That's where the blood cleanses me from sin, clears the record, gives me a weapon to fight against the accuser. Jesus's death was also inclusionary, meaning I died with him, which means that the sin, the flesh is God. You might say, well, Vlad, that's cool. But I found it. It's like right there. Like this is really cool on Sunday. What do I do on Monday? I'm so glad you asked. I'm gonna share with you very practical four things that you need to do with this revelation right now to see change in your holiness. This is the biblical way of living a holy life. This is the gospel way of living a holy life. The first thing you must do to apply the cross, write this down, is know. You have to know. In Romans chapter six, it says this, verse three, do you not know? And I'm not gonna ask for raising of hands, but a lot of people in this room, you actually did not know that your old man was already dead. You may say, well, Vlad, if it really died, it wouldn't be bothering me. If you don't know, then it's like having soap. You have it, you're just not applying it. How many of you know you don't stop stinking just because you have a truckload of soap in your garage? The stench is gone when you apply that soap. When Jesus died on the cross, you can still live in guilt if you don't apply the blood. When Jesus took you in himself on the cross, you can still live with this residue of your old nature if you don't know, because the Bible says you shall know the truth. It doesn't say you shall have the truth. Meaning you can have the truth within your hands and never know it. That's why I want to encourage you to live in the book of Romans until Romans starts speaking to you. I want to encourage some of you to pause your reading plan and move into Romans from beginning to end. Read it 50 times and ask the Holy Spirit, say, Holy Spirit, reveal this to me because this is the foundation of what it means to be a Christian. This is a foundation of what Jesus did on the cross. He died for me, I died in him. I know it's simple basics, but it's the simple basics that can change your life. You have to know. If you read a little bit further in the Romans, chapter six, verse six, it says, we know. Now, most of us, we don't. But he says, we know that our old self, it didn't say it got crucified when I fasted. It says it got crucified with him. It didn't say it got crucified when I prayed. It says it got crucified with him. So not future, but in the past, we know. But honestly, can we be honest right now? Most of us don't. If you go a little bit further, it says verse nine, verse nine of chapter six, we know that Christ being raised from the dead. So Paul says, we know. We have to know. That's number one. So before you go, it's like, oh no, I know what I need to do. I need to cut this off. I need to cut this off. I need to control my mouth. I need to change my attitude. I need to speak better to my wife. I need to speak better to my kids. I really need to turn off my Instagram. I need, that's it. I'm getting rid of TikTok. Before, that's not the solution. It's not powerful enough to punch flesh in this face. It's the death. Only death, not discipline, not denial can get rid of the flesh. And you have to either wait for your death or you have to go to his death. Why don't you just go to his death? We know. Do you not know? So you have to know. Read Romans until Romans reads you. Number two, not only we have to know, we have to reckon or some of our Bible says consider. And this is the verse 11. So you also must consider yourself. Somebody say consider. So first one is what? First one is what? We have to know. What is the second one? Reckon or consider. That's an accounting term. An accounting term means, for example, let's say you have $25 in your pocket and on your spreadsheet you're putting $25. So the first one is the know, meaning I have death in Jesus. I died with Jesus. That's the knowing. That's the money in my pocket. Now I have to go to my spreadsheet and put $25 in the spreadsheet. So Paul is saying because of this fact that has happened, he says now you have to consider. Meaning you have to view yourself, think of yourself, see yourself. Not as I have flesh. I have an old man. I have the devil living inside of me called sin. I have all of that. You have to start thinking yourself. Now this is what New Age does. New Age does mental gymnastics where New Age says if I think it, I will be it. But the problem with New Age, it never leads you to new life because there is no groundwork for it. It's like me walking around and saying I am a bird. If I think I'm a bird, I'm a bird. Or if my dog walks around and says I am a monkey. No matter how many gymnastics or snacks I give to my dog, he'll never become a monkey. There's no surgery in the world that can turn him into a monkey. For you to think your way into a dead you, there is nothing in this world you can do to make that happen. No amount of meditation, no amount of drugs. So I want to tell you something. Forget about the New Age. Why? Because that stuff doesn't work. There is no blood, there is no cross, there is no death, and there is no salvation there. Jesus gives us new life. So we don't think it into being. He dies, I believe it. Now I consider. I go from a fact into a reality instead of from a thought into creating a reality that doesn't exist. Are you with me? So the second one is we consider or we reckon. There's a third step that we must do. We have to do it on Monday, actually start tonight. And this is this, is that we have to present ourselves. And that is verse 13. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for righteousness, but present yourself. Somebody shout, present. Somebody dropped it in the chat, present. Present yourself to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. So the first thing that we do when we know this truth is that we know. The second one is we reckon ourselves dead, meaning we think ourselves on that level. Not because thinking produces reality, it's because reality has to change our thinking. Fourth one, the third one is we present, meaning we take our body and we say, Lord, I offer my hands, I offer my eyes, from this day forward, they are gonna be yours. One St. Augustine was walking by and a woman that he used to sleep with was behind him. He said, hey, and she called him, hey, Augustine. And so he turned around and he says, do you remember me? And he says, he said, that man is gone. He said, that man doesn't exist anymore. And he says, the man that you're talking to remembers you. He's just not here anymore. He says, what do you want? He says, there's a new me. Remember one guy went to a ship and they were playing some bad games and everything and they're like, you wanna play games? He's like, I would love to, but I landed my hands to Jesus and he doesn't wanna play that game. So it's not about me trying, it's about me surrendering now my body to Jesus. So, but it doesn't start with surrender. Please understand, the mistake Christians make is they start with surrender. It starts with death. I know. I think that. And now I present my body. And the last one is we are led by the spirit, meaning we walk by the spirit. Write this down, we walk by the spirit. Because see, when you were in the flesh, when you came out of Adam, the flesh lived inside of you. It dwelled inside of you. If we take Book of Romans chapter seven, so chapter six talks about us dying, but in chapter seven, Paul talks about this thing. He keeps saying verse 17, but sin that dwells in me, verse 20, but the sin that dwells in me, he talks about a person who is under the race of Adam. And when you are born in Adam, meaning Adam is your great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather, you carry his nature, his name, you carry his last name, you have a sin dwelling in you. Sin is the principle that wants to do bad. But see, in chapter eight of Romans, Paul keeps talking about the spirit dwelling in the Christian. Why? Because when Jesus came on this earth, he ended Adam's race and started a brand new race. That's why we have to be born again. Because when we are born again, we're born into Christ's new humanity. I'm gonna show you this verse in first Corinthians, chapter 15. And we're gonna have it right behind me. First Corinthians, chapter 15. It says, first Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 45, it says, but it is written. The first man, Adam became a living being, but the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Somebody say Jesus is the last Adam. Meaning the Adam's factory that was producing little atoms ended with Jesus who was born out of a woman, but he was not sinful like every atom was. And Jesus threw his death, because remember, you end the flesh, you end the sin through death. Jesus ends the race of Adam. And if you go to verse 47, it says the first man was from the earth. So Adam not only started a race, he was also the first man was from the earth, from dust. The second man, meaning the second man that starts a brand new race. Adam started a race on this earth and all the people following him were sinners. Jesus ends the race of Adam being the last Adam and becomes the second man who restarts humanity on this earth. See, some of us think we need to die to go to heaven to experience transformation. You don't understand. Jesus came on this earth, set the kingdom of God on this earth, becoming the last Adam and the second man. Meaning he created a brand new race. Now, when Adam started his race, everyone born in Adam got flesh dwelling in them. When Jesus starts a new race, he ends this race, starts a new one. And instead of giving you a principle to live inside of you, he gives you a person. His name is the Holy Spirit. That's why every Christian has the spirit dwelling inside of them. You know how easy it is to sin? How easy it is? Easy, you do nothing. Do you know how easy to live holy life? It's very easy. You let the spirit do whatever he needs to do. To live a holy life is so easy if you stop trying. The gospel is this. He died for your sins. You died with him. Your sin died with him. That's where the cross came. The cross didn't just break the curse, it broke the sin. Now, you can keep on living with cheese and crackers, so you can benefit from the gospel right now. There is no power in your discipline. There is no power in your positive mentality thinking. There is no power in your yoga stretches. There is no power in your therapist who is on the sixth marriage already. There is no power in medicine to break this. Medicine can alleviate this sickness and that. It can't deal with the core machine inside of a human being. Because this machine came through birth and it only dies at death. So why not stop waiting for your death and trust in his? The blood already took care of your sins. The cross took care of your sin. But Vlad, I don't feel it. Why? Because you'll never rise or fall to the level of your feelings. You'll be always to the level of your knowledge. That's why the Bible says we know, we consider, we present and we walk. Why? Because something else dwells in me now. It wants to do good. It's not me. If you think that's new you, there is no new you. There is him who conforms, changes you into his image, likeness and you're led by the Spirit. The sons of God are led by the Spirit. You become filled by the Spirit. You live by the Holy Spirit. And your new man is not Adam, it's Christ. And Adam, I was a sinner, wanted to sin, suppressed my sin. And I came to Christ so that his blood washed me. But see, I found myself sinning again and again and again. And almost like I wanna wait until my funeral but Jesus says, did you know, when I died, not only I paid for your sins, I included you into. That's why Jesus gives the church only two ordinances. One is the communion. Why communion reminds us of the power of the blood. And the other one is baptism. It reminds us that we died with him, buried with him. Rose again, when he rose again, he didn't rise alone. That's why the Bible says, with Christ Jesus, with Christ Jesus, somebody rise to your feet, give God some praise right now. Come on, if that will be you, I will be making noise. Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for the cross. Thank you for my new birth, God. Thank you for the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Freedom in this room right now. I feel freedom in this room right now. God is setting people free right now. God is, as your mind is being renewed, that is an appreciation for the cross, appreciation for the death of Jesus, appreciation for Jesus. Not only he loved you, but he gave himself up for you. Not only he took care of your sins, he included your sin in him. And when he died, you died. That's why you get water baptized, is to identify with Jesus. You no longer identify with your last mistake. You don't identify with your divorce or your adultery. You don't identify with the homosexual tendencies that you had. You don't identify with what somebody said about you. You don't identify with your degree. You don't identify even with your gender. You don't identify with the money you have in your account. You were buried with Jesus. You died with Jesus. You rose with Jesus. You are seated in a heavenly place with Jesus. Jesus is your identity. I don't care if you're missing a limp. I don't care if you're blind in one eye. I don't care if you are an invalid. Your identity is not in your body. Your identity is in Jesus. You are part of his body. Korra ma sandeleba klebobo sandaya. Oh, God, I thank you for Jesus. God, I thank you for his death. God, I thank you for the cross. God, I thank you for redeeming me. I thank you for killing sin in me on the cross. I thank you. I don't have to battle sin by myself. I thank you for the Holy Ghost that lives inside of me. I don't have to try harder. I surrender. Hallelujah, hallelujah. That is the gospel. Hey, thanks for watching this video. If you enjoyed this content and this was a blessing to you, would you help us and hit thumbs up so that it could help more people to discover this video. It costs you nothing, but it can go a long way to help with the algorithm. As well as if you're not subscribed to our channel, hit subscribe, click on the bell so that you can be reminded each time that we upload videos. Thank you so much for being a part of this community. If you're interested in learning more about Hungry Gen, our internship, our conferences, deliverance, and so many other things, go to HungryGen.com for more information. And as always, remember, better is not good enough, the best is yet to come.