SPEAKER_00: Well I didn't I didn't get to hear last week's service yet, but so I don't know what y'all are in.
SPEAKER_00: But we we are gonna turn back to Romans eight this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Romans eight.
SPEAKER_00: Um if you want to be making your way there.
SPEAKER_00: We looked at the first four verses last time.
SPEAKER_00: Noting that Paul in verse one had really summed up a conclusion he had reached in earlier chapters, namely, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That is reflective of what Lou was talking about.
SPEAKER_00: It's certainly a wonderful assertion, one we can all be most grateful for.
SPEAKER_00: Paul then moved forward from this from how we are saved to describing a basic framework for how we are to live.
SPEAKER_00: In earlier chapters, and particularly in chapters 6 and 7, Paul took some time to explain the relationship between grace and sin and the law.
SPEAKER_00: And he uh did so with quite a bit of precision to help us understand how we should think about them.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we can't rehash all that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, given he he poured a lot of insight into it.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I will try to just summarize it briefly.
SPEAKER_00: We, and uh all of you are aware of this, I think, but just to try to restate what he said very succinctly.
SPEAKER_00: We are saved by grace and grace alone.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is a gift from God when we believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We can't be saved by the law.
SPEAKER_00: The law will only end up condemning us because we can't keep the law as we should.
SPEAKER_00: That's clear enough.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he does interject a bit of an idea that might come in where he says, Well, since we've been saved by grace, one might presume that sin is no longer really an issue.
SPEAKER_00: It's nothing for us to be concerned about.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, that is not correct.
SPEAKER_00: To the contrary, Jesus saved us.
SPEAKER_00: We want to follow Jesus and live like he wants us to live.
SPEAKER_00: And so he goes on that the law can help us know what sin is, but it really is powerless in helping us to not sin.
SPEAKER_00: If anything, the law stirs up passions in us because of our sinful flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And we all can relate to this.
SPEAKER_00: We're told not to do something.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that makes me more inclined to want to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And so, conceptually, that is something of a summation of the relationship between grace and sin and the law.
SPEAKER_00: We are to live holy lives through the grace given to us.
SPEAKER_00: The law can help us understand how to live, but cannot help us actually live.
SPEAKER_00: So, today, even as we have been seeing, Paul is going to explain more of the futility of trying to please God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: But then he'll also explore more of this idea that we are empowered to live in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Now, he already told us that it will be through the spirit of the life we have in Christ that has set us free from the law, and then it follows when we walk according to the spirit, we are going to be walking in a way that we would be, you know, more following Jesus as we should be.
SPEAKER_00: So let's go ahead and pray and then we'll read the today's passage.
SPEAKER_00: Father in heaven, thank you again for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Um, thank you for loving us, for seeing your son to die for us.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, we pray now, Father, as we study your word together, you would help us to understand what Paul is communicating to us, that we would each gain a better understanding of it, and that it would bring us closer to you.
SPEAKER_00: And we thank you again for your word in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: All right, Romans eight, and I'll begin in verse five, and I'm gonna read through verse thirteen.
SPEAKER_00: For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit have their minds set on things of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Now the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the spirit is life and peace.
SPEAKER_00: The mindset of the flesh is hostile toward God, because it does not submit to God's law, indeed it is unable to do so.
SPEAKER_00: Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
SPEAKER_00: You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God lives in you.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit gives life because of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his spirit who lives in you.
SPEAKER_00: So then, brothers and sisters, we're not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die.
SPEAKER_00: But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so uh really verses five through eight keeps falling, are about living according to the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: But in that uh you do see some contrast there with living in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But the main focus of living in the spirit doesn't come to us until verses nine through eleven.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then verse 12 and 13 remind us that our debt is to the spirit and not to the flesh, ultimately.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's kind of how we'll break it down, verses five to eight, focusing on living in the flesh, nine through eleven, living in the spirit, and then just a reminder that we do not have a debt to the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: As far as living in the flesh, the summary of that idea is really presented there in verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here he is not specifically speaking of a weak Christian who is sinning.
SPEAKER_00: We know this because of what he says in verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: You are not, however, in the flesh, but in the spirit, if the spirit of God lives in you.
SPEAKER_00: So, what this means is the person Paul is talking about in verses 5 through 8 is actually an unbeliever.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have the spirit, but he's hashing it out.
SPEAKER_00: And I I think if I'd have looked enough, I could have honed in more specific on the scripture, perhaps, but I think it's clear enough, this is definitely of significance to the believer because the believer doesn't want to act like or talk like an unbeliever.
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the messages Paul is communicating here.
SPEAKER_00: Since we are in Christ, we don't want to live like we are in the flesh, because those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
SPEAKER_00: So we who are in the spirit, if we're living like we're in the flesh, we're not really pleasing God either.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that doesn't mean he disowns us, but our actions would clearly not be pleasing to him.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5 really gives us a gauge for to know how we are living.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the key word there?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how, I don't know all the translations.
SPEAKER_00: It's probably similar, though, in all of them.
SPEAKER_00: The the word there is minds.
SPEAKER_00: Where is your mind?
SPEAKER_00: Where is my mind?
SPEAKER_00: We have the Holy Spirit living in us, which helps our spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We also have the flesh that we are dealing with.
SPEAKER_00: So, what Paul is telling us, the real battleground between the flesh and the spirit is in the mind.
SPEAKER_00: What are we thinking about?
SPEAKER_00: Are we thinking about things of the Holy Spirit or are we thinking about things of the flesh?
SPEAKER_00: That's actually a pretty easy test.
SPEAKER_00: In one sense, if you think about it, what is your attention mainly focused on?
SPEAKER_00: Things of the spirit or things of the flesh?
SPEAKER_00: Now, I think this would apply to our general mindset, of course, but I think as Christians we he have to be even more aware of our thought life.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, we shouldn't be constantly focused on the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, we know that, we understand that, but we also have to be cognizant of those bad bad attitudes or bad thoughts or bad focuses that can creep in seemingly unawares.
SPEAKER_00: I I thought of Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he tried to get Jesus to avoid the cross, which if you think about it from his perspective, or maybe even from our perspective, certainly not knowing what we know now didn't sound harmful at all.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus really spoke aggressively towards him.
SPEAKER_00: Peter said, Jesus, you're not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of men.
SPEAKER_00: So I think that indicates for us that it will take time.
SPEAKER_00: We need time with God in prayer, we need time with God in study, uh, just to really help to become more focused on the things of God as God would have us be.
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, as we said before, the fact that you are having struggles is indicative of any person who is born again and has spiritual life in them.
SPEAKER_00: If the Holy Spirit is living in you, it's just your values are going to be aimed more at pleasing God.
SPEAKER_00: If you weren't born again, you wouldn't likely care that much at all, or even at all.
SPEAKER_00: If you are really concerned to please God, then you will definitely care more.
SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, this doesn't mean that unbelievers are bad all the time.
SPEAKER_00: We'll come back to that in a minute or two.
SPEAKER_00: But the concern for any so-called moral code for an unbeliever primarily is a result of some practical reason for living that way, or you know, some kind of man-made definition of right and wrong.
SPEAKER_00: If you're concerned about what God wants you to do, you will have some struggle because you do have a body.
SPEAKER_00: Fleshly things are going to make their appeal to you.
SPEAKER_00: That's what temptation is.
SPEAKER_00: But your real goals, your dominant desires are going to be those that are desiring to be spiritual, where you want to please God, you want to be on good terms with God and be in connection with God.
SPEAKER_00: And that verse 6 tells us is life and peace.
SPEAKER_00: To be spiritually minded like that is life and peace.
SPEAKER_00: It's really, that's really reminding us of the results that will come with however you are living.
SPEAKER_00: If you have the general mindset of the flesh, you're just dead in one sense, not attuned to reality.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any hope at all, it's a false hope.
SPEAKER_00: But if your mindset is of the spirit, then you have true life and real peace.
SPEAKER_00: I'll note in my version, the Christian Standard Bible, CSB, verse 6 has translated the Greek word there as I can't even say the word, it's phronema or something, but it's translated it as mindset.
SPEAKER_00: Some of your translations may say mind.
SPEAKER_00: Mindset is really better because that word denotes the basic direction of a person's will.
SPEAKER_00: It's like choices you are making of where you're going to think about and that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's used only four times, and it's all in Romans 8, twice here in verse 6, once in verse 7, and then again in verse 27, although in the latter verse the CSB opted to go back to translate it as mind given the context.
SPEAKER_00: The point is the mindset you choose impacts your life.
SPEAKER_00: Some translations may render verse 6 as saying, to be carnally minded is death.
SPEAKER_00: So you may be familiar with that kind of concept, carnally minded.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's in the King James, I think.
SPEAKER_00: To have the mindset of the flesh means, of course, to be living a according to a fleshly life, we could say.
SPEAKER_00: Your spirit without God's spirit is definitely corrupted.
SPEAKER_00: Your flesh is corrupted.
SPEAKER_00: But if you are born again, you have the spirit so that you can live according to the spirit and by the spirit's life in you.
SPEAKER_00: But of course, as we keep saying, you do have to battle your flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 7 and 8.
SPEAKER_00: Explain why the mindset of the flesh brings death.
SPEAKER_00: That orientation of the will is hostile towards God.
SPEAKER_00: So much so that people of that mindset, those who are not born again, it says cannot please God.
SPEAKER_00: That's because the mindset is controlled by the flesh, or as the NIV puts it, the sinful nature, if you've got an NIV, the nature we got from Adam's sin, which we've discussed quite a bit recently.
SPEAKER_00: We are not born guilty of Adam's sin, but we are greatly affected by it.
SPEAKER_00: So much so that we're greatly inclined towards sin of our own.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul labors to highlight this contrast between being carnally minded and spiritually minded.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's what you choose to think about.
SPEAKER_00: Are your thoughts and desires and values those of the flesh or of the spirit?
SPEAKER_00: What are you aiming at?
SPEAKER_00: What are you valuing in your life?
SPEAKER_00: What direction have you pointed yourself towards?
SPEAKER_00: Of course, it's good you're here today.
SPEAKER_00: That's it's good we're here because it helps us to reorient our thinking and get our minds where it needs to be.
SPEAKER_00: But then what do we think about after we leave?
SPEAKER_00: What will we be thinking about this evening?
SPEAKER_00: What will we be thinking about tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: What are we going to spend our week focused on?
SPEAKER_00: Is it just on sometimes we think of those more carnal things is what I'm referring to, but actually I'm thinking more in terms of are we just thinking about well comfort or wealth or earthly fleshy things?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we things that are even good, of course, we can think about to the extent that we're focused on them, and then it can become really a thing focused on the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Because what did Jesus say?
SPEAKER_00: We should first be seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: We should seek to be holy, to be influencing others for godliness.
SPEAKER_00: If our thoughts are on spiritual things, that is life and peace.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, it appears those who are not living that way are not born of God because their mindset is on carnal things.
SPEAKER_00: And again, again, we get the struggles.
SPEAKER_00: There's going to be struggles.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's talked about that.
SPEAKER_00: But what he's doing now is just bringing all this more into focus.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, consider your mindset, what your mind is on.
SPEAKER_00: And again, the carnal mind is as the old King James says, in enmity.
SPEAKER_00: I have trouble saying that word.
SPEAKER_00: Enmity or hostile against God.
SPEAKER_00: If we are thinking about fleshly things primarily, we need to re-examine where our hearts are.
SPEAKER_00: And again, he's bringing in the mindset of an unbeliever, but he's comparing said unbeliever to a way a Christian can operate and saying, don't live in this way.
SPEAKER_00: It's incongruous.
SPEAKER_00: We can be Christian and living not as we should be, but he's in effect saying that's how an unbeliever lives.
SPEAKER_00: You're a believer.
SPEAKER_00: Behave like a believer.
SPEAKER_00: A believer is to live in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And I will interject here a little, a little deflection, um, detour.
SPEAKER_00: There are some Calvinists who think this passage in verses 5 through 8, and especially verse 8, is a clincher for Calvinism.
SPEAKER_00: Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
SPEAKER_00: So they say, there you go.
SPEAKER_00: There is total inability.
SPEAKER_00: Their definitive that's their definition of total depravity, and I know we've talked a lot about this, but but it is an ongoing issue in Christianity, and not and it's one that's concerning to me, so I don't want you to be unaware of it.
SPEAKER_00: The Calvinist doctrine is that you are totally depraved.
SPEAKER_00: And to be totally depraved, you are completely dead in trespasses.
SPEAKER_00: You're totally unable to do anything that pleases God.
SPEAKER_00: And as such, they take a statement like this to mean that a totally depraved person can't believe in God without God first regenerating them, else that would be pleasing God.
SPEAKER_00: If the unbeliever somehow realized they were sinful and realized they needed God, that would be pleasing God.
SPEAKER_00: It all stems again from their doctrine of election, that God elects you to believe you can't believe on your own, you can't not believe if God has elected you.
SPEAKER_00: In effect, you're a robot.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't like that terminology, but that's what they're saying, whether they like it or not.
SPEAKER_00: What Paul is really saying here, what he's clearly saying, is that those who are in the flesh can't live a life pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's under discussion.
SPEAKER_00: How can I live a life that's pleasing to God?
SPEAKER_00: And what Paul is saying is there is a power of sin in me, in my flesh, that prevents me from pleasing God.
SPEAKER_00: And as such, living in the flesh will never be the answer for how we please God.
SPEAKER_00: But this is not saying if you're not a believer, you'll never be able to do a single thing that pleases God.
SPEAKER_00: We have to take scriptures with scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And that that made me think of uh Cornelius.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he was an unregenerated man.
SPEAKER_00: The angel comes to him and tells him that his sacrifices were actually pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, he's still in that, he's in that inner period where he's still uh kind of a Jewish, although he was not Jewish, so um he he uh was still trying to believe God as best he could, as best he understood, but he was unregenerate.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 10, I want to turn over there.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 10.
SPEAKER_00: Um, beginning in verse 1, there was a man in Caesarea named Cordinius, a centurion of what was called the Italian regiment.
SPEAKER_00: He was a devout man and feared God along with his whole household.
SPEAKER_00: He did many charitable deeds for the Jewish people and always prayed to God.
SPEAKER_00: So it's almost like he was a proselyte.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say that, but almost like he's a Gentile that's come into the old covenant.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, about about three in the afternoon, he distinctly saw in a vision an angel of God who came in and said to him, Corneas, staring at him and at him, and always said, What is it, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: The angel told him, Your prayers and your acts of charity has ascended as a memorial offering before God.
SPEAKER_00: Now send men to Joppa and call for Simon, who's also named Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He's lodging with Simon the Tanner, who's by the sea.
SPEAKER_00: And so they go and get Peter, and I won't read.
SPEAKER_00: Peter has a vision, you know, and there's unclean animals, and the is it the angel of the Lord tells him to go and kill the Lord tells him, go kill an animal, go kill one of those unclean animals and eat it.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter responds exactly as I would.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not killing a pig to eat it, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want a pig to eat.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and the Lord basically says, Do it, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I told you to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And then Peter understands that it does have implications for food.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we'll not get into that, but he uh makes it clear the main focus he's getting to there is that he won't call any person unclean because Gentiles, Jews thought of Gentiles as being clean, so he's making sure that Peter understands this is all now changed.
SPEAKER_00: And so um I'll pick it back up in verse 34.
SPEAKER_00: Peter began to speak.
SPEAKER_00: Now I truly understand that God doesn't show favoritism, but in every nation, the person who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
SPEAKER_00: He sent the message to the Israelites proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus, he is Lord of all.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 44, while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came down on all those who heard the message.
SPEAKER_00: The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on these Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: So the point is here the Holy Spirit came when Peter preached.
SPEAKER_00: That's when it came.
SPEAKER_00: And so Cornelius was clearly not regenerate before he believed yet.
SPEAKER_00: He had done things that were pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_00: So when we put scripture with scripture, what we see is an unbeliever in Christ may still be a believer in God.
SPEAKER_00: And such an unbeliever can apparently, if he chooses to, do some things that are pleasing to God.
SPEAKER_00: What Paul is saying in our context is that a person who does not have the Spirit of God cannot live a life consistently pleasing to God because they don't belong to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: They don't affirm Christ as Lord of their life.
SPEAKER_00: And he's also saying that a person who does belong to Christ and is not living a life pleasing to God or acting as though, or those that are acting as though they're in the flesh when they're really in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Because the person who belongs to Christ should be walking in the spirit because they belong to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So just the point.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is not addressing the question in Romans 8 of whether an unbeliever can believe or repent.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about how to live a life.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I I did mention, and that one reason I brought this up is that some of you may recall, I did mention at the beginning of our studies that there is a passage in Romans 8 that I do think gives some proof text validity to Calvinism, but it comes later in Romans 8, and it's certainly not here.
SPEAKER_00: Again, Paul is not asking whether a non-Christian has the capacity to repent or believe or anything like that.
SPEAKER_00: What we're dealing with here is the fact that a person walking according to the flesh cannot fulfill the righteous requirements of the law because they have sin in their flesh.
SPEAKER_00: But verse 9, and here comes the contrast, the difference between the flesh and the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if the spirit of God lives in you.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have the spirit of Christ, you don't belong to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is very clear that having the Spirit of Christ is a qualification for being a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Paul said in Ephesians 1, verse 14, the Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the possession.
SPEAKER_00: So the guidance here is very black and white.
SPEAKER_00: You're a Christian if you have God's spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You're an unbeliever if you do not, and you're in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And I would say here also, this is a misnomer to suggest, as our Pentecostal charismatic friends do, that we can divide Christians between spirit-filled and non-spirit-filled.
SPEAKER_00: If a person is not filled with the Holy Spirit, they're not Christian.
SPEAKER_00: It is true the Bible speaks of the fullness of the Spirit, which does indicate you can be living closer to the Lord than at other times when you're not in the fullness of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But if you have the Spirit, you're Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Clearly, Paul says, if Christ in you, you are Christ, and I won't dwell on it, but also note here just a little side points.
SPEAKER_00: Also note that these terms are interchangeable.
SPEAKER_00: You may have picked up on that, right?
SPEAKER_00: So Spirit in you, Christ in you.
SPEAKER_00: Both of the Spirit and Christ are one, God, along with the Father.
SPEAKER_00: For the Christian, we can say Christ is in them.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit is in them.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is in them.
SPEAKER_00: Christ's Spirit is in them.
SPEAKER_00: The Father's Spirit is in them.
SPEAKER_00: All those are synonymous.
SPEAKER_00: They're not all the same.
SPEAKER_00: God is one, there is a but there is a threeness to his oneness.
SPEAKER_00: God's Spirit resides in everyone who is in him, and we should be in no doubt we have God's Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be in doubt about that.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe Jesus died for your sins?
SPEAKER_00: This indicates the spirit led you to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a desire to honor Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: That comes from the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Are you becoming more like Jesus as painfully slow as that can be sometimes?
SPEAKER_00: Well, progress, any progress, is made through the work of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Now, because the Spirit lives in you, you have a different power.
SPEAKER_00: The power of the Spirit in you, there is some question here, I would say in verse 10 as to what Paul means exactly by saying your body is dead.
SPEAKER_00: Does he mean individual body or does he is he thinking about it corporately, like Adam's body versus Christ's body?
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm really not sure.
SPEAKER_00: It's a kind of a strange thing to say the body is dead because he's been talking about, and we know your body's not dead, that's what causes you the problems, is your body's alive and well, and that's what you're struggling against.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he did, you may recall, I don't know if you remember, but we saw him use the same the dead terminology in a weird way in chapter seven, and it basically what we reckon there was that he was equating death to being as good as dead.
SPEAKER_00: So that's probably what he means here.
SPEAKER_00: In any case, verse 11 assures us that Christ will raise us from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit has already raised Jesus from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: That same spirit lives in you, so there's no doubt he is quite capable of raising us from the dead as well.
SPEAKER_00: It's so it's not only the Spirit of God helping me overcome sin in my day-to-day life, but the day is coming when I will be delivered from this body of death entirely by the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be delivered from this body of death.
SPEAKER_00: If there was, if you wanted to give an amen, that would be the time to do it.
SPEAKER_00: In Romans 7, remember, Paul had asked, who will deliver me from this body of death?
SPEAKER_00: He said, Thanks be to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now here he puts a finer point on it and gives the detail in some sense of how that actually happens.
SPEAKER_00: God's spirit, who dwells in me and you, will deliver us from this body of death by giving life to our mortal bodies in the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we know from 1 Corinthians 15, once you're raised from the dead, you no longer have a mortal body.
SPEAKER_00: At that point, you have an immortal body.
SPEAKER_00: You already have the immortal spirit of God living in you, and that spirit has conquered death, and you too will conquer death through the one who lives in you.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point.
SPEAKER_00: And so then he says, for that reason, verse 12, we are not obligated to the flesh, debtors to the flesh, as some translations will say.
SPEAKER_00: Seeing we are not obliged to live according to the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: The flesh, again, in the sense of that sinful pull, we feel brings us nothing good ultimately.
SPEAKER_00: So we have no obligation whatsoever to pamper these illegitimate desires.
SPEAKER_00: And again, Paul continues to remind us.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's like, in some sense, he's a broke record here, but living after the flesh ends in death.
SPEAKER_00: I think we need, I thought, why is he doing this so much?
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like I'm reading the same thing and he's restating it.
SPEAKER_00: And he's doing it again and again.
SPEAKER_00: I think we need this constant reminder.
SPEAKER_00: I I thought of at least three reasons.
SPEAKER_00: There's probably more, but for one, we can be deceived into thinking that the flesh really does offer us life.
SPEAKER_00: When we have a desire and we indulge it in some way, and we get a kick out of it, or even a thrill from fulfilling its lust.
SPEAKER_00: There's uh a band, uh, well, I can't remember the band's name.
SPEAKER_00: It's One Republic, maybe.
SPEAKER_00: There's the song is Counting Stars.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have probably heard it.
SPEAKER_00: It's a little older song, but there's a line in there that says, Everything that kills me makes me feel alive.
SPEAKER_00: And that can be true in a moment, even in a season, the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: The problem, of course, is tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: For Spanish speaking friends, mañana.
SPEAKER_00: See how a little lingo.
SPEAKER_00: But there will be a tomorrow with consequences sooner or later.
SPEAKER_00: For the Christian, it's normally sooner because there's this sense of guilt, regret.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's not good.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what God wants me to do.
SPEAKER_00: And then, and or in then some cases, there can be difficult issues that come as a result of indulging the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: I I mentioned what a friend, I've mentioned this before, so it may be familiar to you, and that's fine.
SPEAKER_00: It's very wise, I think.
SPEAKER_00: But he told me he'd learn to ask the question before committing impulsive sins.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I've learned to ask, what does this look like five minutes from now?
SPEAKER_00: How will I feel about this 30 minutes from now?
SPEAKER_00: Or what will be the impact tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: Those kind of things.
SPEAKER_00: Looking ahead will help you deal with facing the moment.
SPEAKER_00: That's a sense of what Paul is saying here.
SPEAKER_00: We're not obligated to the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Think about what this looks like in the future.
SPEAKER_00: Another reason I think Paul keeps telling us the same thing over again, and emphasizing the flesh ends in death.
SPEAKER_00: Another reason for that is we can think that certain sins are really no big deal.
SPEAKER_00: And when we look at scripture as a whole, anything that pulls us from God is a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: I've I've quoted screw tape letters quite a bit because it's really good.
SPEAKER_00: But and and I've told you before, I don't know if many of you read it, but C.
SPEAKER_00: S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis is writing as a demon and tempting that's tempting this individual, and he's writing to his so-called nephew, it's another demon, about how they tempt this person.
SPEAKER_00: And in one point he writes and says this, he's writing as a demon again.
SPEAKER_00: He says, It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that the cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the light and out into the nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one, the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
SPEAKER_00: Paul wants us to be careful to not let some sin spread in of us spread in us, however little we might think it is.
SPEAKER_00: It reminded me of the old, I think it's the old mountain saying, hell is paved with the road.
SPEAKER_00: Hell is paved.
SPEAKER_00: Hell is the road paved with good intentions, right?
SPEAKER_00: Y'all have heard that before, right?
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just my mom saying that.
SPEAKER_00: Good.
SPEAKER_00: Um so that's another reason I think.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, the reason that Paul continues to remind us of this admonition, if you will, uh if you live according to the flesh, you're gonna die, is that not all of our fleshly desires are bad.
SPEAKER_00: And we've talked about this, I know, as well, but I'll bring it up again because it can be subtle.
SPEAKER_00: It may not even be on Paul's mind here, but I think it probably is because of the way he words this.
SPEAKER_00: You're not obligated to the flesh according to live to its desires.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, there's a distinction there because you do have some obligation to the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: We have the desire to eat.
SPEAKER_00: That's not bad in and of itself.
SPEAKER_00: We need to eat to live.
SPEAKER_00: You hopefully have a desire to be clean, at least some of the time.
SPEAKER_00: That's good for the rest of us.
SPEAKER_00: Uh pain hurts, so we tend to want to avoid pain or whatever causes it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's definitely not all bad.
SPEAKER_00: We need to know where the pain's coming from because it's often indicating there's something we may need to avoid because it's causing the pain, and so that protects us from harm.
SPEAKER_00: And I mentioned this, even our sexual impulse is not wrong in and of itself.
SPEAKER_00: It was given to us by God to move us towards marriage.
SPEAKER_00: So the issue, in other words, is not living with the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: We got we've got no choice in that.
SPEAKER_00: It's living according to the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: We do have choice in that, and we are to control our fleshly desires, of course, with God's help.
SPEAKER_00: We have to keep them in perspective with the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the spirit simply guides us about how to navigate that.
SPEAKER_00: But in our in our weaker moments, we may simply need to go to God's word and say, What does the Bible say about this?
SPEAKER_00: I want to do this.
SPEAKER_00: It seems like the Bible is saying, don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I need to obey what the Bible says, because God, his spirit will work with mine to enable me to do the right thing, which is always the best thing, whether it may not feel like it in the moment.
SPEAKER_00: So it's good to keep in mind you don't owe anything to the flesh as far as fulfilling its illicit desires.
SPEAKER_00: When you do that, the flesh will condemn you.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't please its lusts.
SPEAKER_00: You don't do that because it always wants more than it needs, or it wants it when it's not supposed to have it, those kind of things.
SPEAKER_00: So you can just scold it.
SPEAKER_00: Bad flesh.
SPEAKER_00: You're not a debtor to your body, you don't have to obey it.
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't mention this, and so and it seems like something that might be obvious, but I guess not.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know if I should mention, but we will.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is in you.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know we know that God knows everything anyway, and so maybe that's the reason he doesn't bring any of this out, but it just the Holy Spirit's in you, so in one sense, you might say he has a front row seat, he knows everything you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Um this this person I know I know them reasonably well, or I wouldn't have said this, but I don't remember what context this was in.
SPEAKER_00: It's not been that long ago, but um anyway, they I know they profess to be Christian, and they they were upset about something.
SPEAKER_00: They got on this tirade, and it was just a string of four-letter words.
SPEAKER_00: So much so that I it just you know, if you've been around that, it's there's certain things that you can let go, and there's certain things that really kind of make your hair stand up after a while if you're a Christian, it starts getting to you, and I I just was like, What do you think God thinks about what you're saying right now?
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, it got quiet.
SPEAKER_00: So I I don't I thought in retrospect, I don't know if I should have said it or not.
SPEAKER_00: They've spoken to me since I don't think they're mad about it, but um but maybe it needed to be said, but that that's kind of the point.
SPEAKER_00: God always knows what we're doing, and so Paul doesn't bring that up specifically there, but elsewhere he says you are indebted to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Obey him instead.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 6.20 says, You were bought at a price, so glorify God with your body.
SPEAKER_00: The price was Jesus' life, so we have a great debt to him.
SPEAKER_00: And here he says we can put to death the deeds of the body by the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have the resurrected body, but I do have the resurrected life living inside my mortal body.
SPEAKER_00: As such, I do have the option of living in the spirit instead of living in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually straightforward in understanding, it's just difficult to apply.
SPEAKER_00: That's another reason I think Paul probably keeps harping on it.
SPEAKER_00: Live by the spirit, walk in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The Puritans referred to this as mortifying the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Turn away from selfish earthly urges, be disciplined with the spirit's help and power.
SPEAKER_00: When you face temptation, look to God, pray, study, meditate, listen to music, whatever you need to do with things that are edifying.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at a great, we'll conclude with a great passage that deals with this.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians, Philippians 4.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'll begin in verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice in the Lord always.
SPEAKER_00: I will say it again, rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: There's one thing you can do.
SPEAKER_00: Um, let your graciousness or gentleness be known to everyone.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is near.
SPEAKER_00: Again, remember, the Lord is nearby.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about anything, but in everything through prayer, again, praying helps us get our mindset right.
SPEAKER_00: Petition, don't worry.
SPEAKER_00: When you're worried, you're getting a bad mindset.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, Don't worry about anything, but in everything through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your request to God.
SPEAKER_00: And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, so it we may not understand it, but we'll sense it or feel it, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then notice verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable.
SPEAKER_00: If there is any moral excellence, and if there is anything praiseworthy, dwell on these things.
SPEAKER_00: Do what you have learned and received and heard from me and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, uh, verse 8 there makes clear your focus doesn't have to be just on religious things, per se, you know, just the Bible or just a sermon or even praying.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's definitely good to do that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that, you understand that, but God's given us a lot of things that are commendable.
SPEAKER_00: There are other notable considerations to get your mindset somewhere else away from sin.
SPEAKER_00: There's any number of ways to redirect your mindset.
SPEAKER_00: Read a book, take a walk.
SPEAKER_00: Dare I say watch some sports.
SPEAKER_00: Um, watch some other good TV.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, you can watch bad stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying do that.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, moderation and all things.
SPEAKER_00: We understand that, but as Paul says, what whatever is commendable.
SPEAKER_00: Um another one final screw tape quote.
SPEAKER_00: Uh this is coming from the demon, and it says, It's funny how mortals always picture us putting things in their mind.
SPEAKER_00: In reality, our best work is done by keeping things out.
SPEAKER_00: So when your what he's saying is, when your mind is wide open, that's when the bad stuff starts creeping in there.
SPEAKER_00: So we keep the good stuff in there, and the bad stuff won't have room to get in there.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I mentioned this, you all know this, but um, Scott Boone, so many years ago, Scott died many years ago, but we all remember, we knew him well.
SPEAKER_00: He would ask the question, what are you thinking?
SPEAKER_00: Just ask you out of the blue.
SPEAKER_00: You know, to the point, sometimes we'd be irritated by it.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you said nothing, he would be like, You can't be thinking nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife would probably differ on that sometimes, but um, but you can't be thinking nothing for long, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_00: So the point is fill your mind with the good things of God and the good things that God has provided, and that really does help us to walk in the spirit and fight against the illicit desires of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father in heaven, thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Um we're reading in your in your word here, really, Father, the heart of the struggle.
SPEAKER_00: And so we all love you, and I'm sure we're in varying degrees of our struggles.
SPEAKER_00: So, Father, I pray for each of us that you'll help us deal with whatever temptations we have, whether they be severe, let us not be overtaken, Father, but help us to walk in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to place our focus on you and our realization, Father.
SPEAKER_00: Let us realize it won't be long before we'll be in your presence, whether Jesus arrives or we go to you.
SPEAKER_00: So, Father, we thank you that you do give us this strength.
SPEAKER_00: We know we can do nothing without your help.
SPEAKER_00: We can't, it's not doing anything on our own, but it is looking to you, and you will provide what we need.
SPEAKER_00: So we pray that you'll help us to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to be an encouragement to those around us and a blessing to those people that we know and that we can uh that are in our realm.
SPEAKER_00: Um so we thank you, Father, for hearing our prayer and pray that you will go with us and strengthen this week.
SPEAKER_00: All of us and the ones that couldn't be with us today, and we thank you for hearing our prayer in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.