Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us today. And it's my prayer that God will
bless you through the study of his word as I preach from the
Bible. And today I'll be preaching from
Romans chapter eight. If you'd like to turn and follow
along in your Bibles, Romans chapter eight. And I'll be preaching
on this subject, the spiritual and the carnal mind. The spiritual and the carnal
mind. Now Paul had just finished describing
his own struggle with sin as a believer. Sinner saved by grace. And that's the struggle that
every true believer goes through. It's called the warfare of the
flesh and the spirit. And he stated that the only true
remedy that we have for this struggle is to see the victory
that God's people have in Christ. Now it is a present victory in
this. Look at Romans chapter eight
and verse one. He says, there is therefore now,
right now, not future, but right now, no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus. You see that? That's a present
victory. I'm struggling with sin every day. The warfare of
the Spirit against the flesh, the flesh against the Spirit.
But in Christ, because of His obedience unto death as my surety,
as my substitute, as my Redeemer, because of His bloodshed, His
righteousness that's charged to me, I cannot be condemned. That's what he's saying. You
can't be condemned if you're in Christ. And how do I know
if I'm in Christ? Well, are you a believer? A believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I always caution people this
way, a believer in Christ as he is identified and distinguished
in the Bible, not as you think him to be. He is God in human
flesh, God-man, Emmanuel, God with us. and he accomplished
redemption for his people. There'll be none in hell for
whom Christ died. All for whom he died shall live.
Why? Because his righteousness demands
life. He died for my sins imputed to
him. His righteousness is imputed
to me. So if I'm in Christ, I cannot be condemned. And then later
on, he shows there's no separation. Even though I'm struggling with
sin, sin cannot separate me from God. He says in Romans 8.35,
who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And then he lists
these things, tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or pair, or sword. And he goes on. I cannot
be condemned because God cannot and will not charge me with sin. Look at Romans chapter eight
and verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. What
does that mean, if God's justified me? That means I'm forgiven.
That means that I cannot be charged with my sin. They cannot be held
against me. They cannot condemn me. That
means I'm righteous in God's sight. Now, how did God do that? Well, he had to do it on a just
ground. He couldn't just arbitrarily just look at me and say, I just
decided to forgive you today. No, he had to do it on a just
ground. Well, what was the just ground?
Well, look at verse 34. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. Now that tells us several things.
Number one, the just ground upon which God justifies me, the just
ground upon which he forgives me, declares me righteous, and
will not condemn me, will not charge me with sin, is the death
of Christ. Christ died as my surety, as
my substitute, as my redeemer. And that also shows that all
for whom Christ died cannot be condemned. They cannot perish.
They cannot be separated. And then it also shows that all
for whom God justified, for whom Christ died, He stands as their
mediator, their intercessor. That's what He said here. He's
at the right hand of God making intercession. So they cannot
be condemned. The hope in this struggle for
sin is a present reality, no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus. And then he says in Romans 8,
1, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Now, what
does it mean to walk after the flesh and to walk after the spirit? Well, let's read on. In other
words, the evidence of being in this uncondemned state in
Christ is that I walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh.
And that's the Holy Spirit there. He says in verse 2, now listen
to this, he says, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Now
what is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus? It's
the gospel of how God saves sinners by His grace through the blood
and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not salvation
conditioned on you and me. Not on our works, not on our
decisions, not on anything. It's all conditioned on Christ.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. Yes, we must believe. Yes, we
must receive Him, but that's not the condition we must muster
up within ourselves in order to attain and maintain salvation.
No, that's the fruit of what Christ did and the evidence that
He did it for us. He fulfilled all conditions. Listen, even the faith that I
have to believe is a gift from God because of the death of Christ. It's the product of His righteousness. And the Bible says that, Ephesians
2a, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast. So the law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus is the gospel, and it has made me free from
the law of sin and death. In other words, it's brought
me out from under the view that I used to have of attaining or
maintaining salvation by what I do or what I decide, which
left me in sin and death. Verse three says, for what the
law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. Now,
what is it the law cannot do? The law cannot make you righteous
by your works. He cannot justify you by your
works. The law cannot give you a new
heart, cannot give you life. All the law can do for a sinner
based on that sinner's works is condemn that sinner. So for
what the law could not do in that it was weak through the
flesh, now the problem wasn't with the law, it was with us.
God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and
for sin or as a sacrifice for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.
So what the law could not do for us because of our own sinfulness,
God sent his son to do for his people. And he sent him not in
sinful flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh. He had a human
body, yet he was without sin. And as a sacrifice for sin, what
Christ is, he condemned sin. He put an end to sin. He finished
transgression. He took away my sins. And he
did that, verse four, that the righteousness of the law might
be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the
spirit. Now the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us, what
does that mean? Well I believe it mainly refers
to this, when a sinner by the power of the Holy Spirit is brought
in the new birth to see that Christ fulfilled all righteousness
on his behalf. We look to him by faith for all
righteousness. That gives you a clue here of
what it means to walk after the spirit and not after the flesh. Well, let's read on, verse five.
Now he starts talking about the mind. He says in verse five,
for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. But they that are after the spirit,
they mind the things of the spirit. Verse six, for to be carnally
minded is death. but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Now, what is the spiritual mind
and the carnal mind that he's talking about? Well, the problem
with many people when they see terms like that, when they think
of carnal, the word carnal, what does the word carnal mean? The
word carnal is fleshly. It has to do with what man, is
capable of in his natural state, fleshly state. Now, so you see
the carnal mind, the spiritual mind, and usually when people
think of a carnal mind, they think of somebody who in their
view, in the human point of view, is immoral. For example, such
as sexual sins. You know, we talk about carnal
knowledge. That kind of thing. They think
about the sins of immorality, such as robbery, murder, things
like that. Carnality. That's what they see. But he says here, to be carnally
minded is death. So does that limit it to just
the openly immoral and profane people of the world that men
naturally judge to be carnal? Well, obviously not. For example,
it says to be carnally minded is death, all right? But to be spiritually minded
is life in peace. Well, who is going to die? Now, we're all going to die physically. We know that. We see that down
in Romans 8, 10. The body is dead because of sin.
The spirit is life because of righteousness. But the death
that he's talking about here is the wages of sin. The wages
of sin is death. And we know that death has many
facets. We could talk about spiritual
death. For example, he says to be spiritually minded is life
and peace. Do you know that by nature, None
of us are spiritually minded according to the Bible. Now let
me show you that over in 1 Corinthians 2. It says in verse 14, look at
this. He says in 1 Corinthians 2 verse
14, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. where they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. The natural man. What is the natural man? Well,
that's all of us as we are naturally, physically born in sin. Now that's who he's talking about. You know, the Bible teaches that
we fell in Adam into sin and death, And as a result of that,
we are born in sin. We are born spiritually dead. And if we're going to believe
the gospel, if we're going to come to Christ, we have to be
born again from above. Remember, Christ told Nicodemus
that. Except you be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of
heaven. You don't have spiritual eyes. Remember Christ told his
disciples, he said, blessed are your eyes for they see, your
ears for they hear. You've got spiritual eyes and
ears. So we're all naturally born spiritually dead. And he
says, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. But in verse 15 of 1 Corinthians two, he says, but he that is
spiritual, Judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no
man, for who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct
him, but we have the mind of Christ. So to be carnally minded is to
be naturally minded, not spiritually minded, and you need to think
about it this way. A person who is spiritual is
not somebody who reads their horoscope every day. That's foolishness. It's not somebody who thinks
they have dreams and visions. That's foolishness. A spiritually
minded person is a believer who's been convicted of sin. He knows,
he or she knows the reality of their sin and their depravity
and they know that there's no hope of salvation. There's no
hope of attaining righteousness. Based on anything they do or
decide, it's all in Christ, based upon what Christ accomplished
in His obedience unto death. That's a spiritually minded person.
And the spiritually minded person lives and breathes by the word
of God. A carnally minded person is one
who is ignorant of or not submitted to Christ. They may be religious. When you think of someone who's
carnally minded, don't just think of the drunk laying on the corner
or the drug pusher or the prostitute selling her wares. No, it's an
unbeliever. Now go back to Romans eight. He says in verse five, for they
that are of the flesh, after the flesh, do mind the things
of the flesh. That can be false religion, false
refuges. People trying to get to heaven
by their works, by their efforts. There's an old country song said,
where I come from, we're working hard to get to heaven. Well,
my friend, working hard will not get you to heaven. Only Christ,
by the grace of God, can get a sinner saved and in heaven. If you're in false religion, which is religion without Christ,
religion without truth, religion without grace, trying to establish
a righteousness of your own, trying to work your way into
God's favor, trying to earn your rewards, that's what it is, then
you're minding the things of the flesh. Just like the unbelieving
Jews. You remember Paul the Apostle
describing himself in Philippians chapter 3 as one who was a Hebrew
of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees, as touching the law of Pharisee,
circumcised the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin, went above
and beyond the call of duty. You remember the Pharisee standing
outside the in Luke chapter 18 who said, I thank God that I'm
not like other men. I fast twice in the week. I give
tithes of all that I have. I'm not like that old publican
who lies and cheats and steals. Those men were minding the things
of the flesh. And then Paul said, but God changed
me. He stopped me on the Damascus
road and He showed me the glory of Christ. He showed me my sinfulness,
the sinfulness of my best efforts to attain and maintain salvation,
to be righteous. And He showed me that Christ
alone, His blood and His righteousness is my only hope. And then Paul
was made a spiritual man. Then he became spiritually minded.
They that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit,
the things of Christ, the things of the Word of God. Verse six
again, to be carnally minded is death. My friend, the best
of the best of the best in this world without Christ is death. I don't care what they say. You
know, there are some churches that call themselves Christian
who say there are many ways to God. Well, let me tell you something.
Any way but Christ is death. It's what the Bible says. Christ
said, I'm the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Peter preached, he said, there's
none other name given among men whereby we must be saved. Paul
said it, there's one God and one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus, the God-man. Christ is the only way. And to be any other way is to
be carnally minded and is death, but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Verse seven. of Romans 8, because
the carnal mind is enmity against God. The carnal mind is an enemy
of God. They might think they're the
friend of God. You know, the Jews, the unbelieving Jews, imagined
that they were friends of God, like Abraham. But they were enemies. Christ called them poisonous
snakes, the Pharisees. He said that you encompass sea
and land trying to gain Gentile converts to Judaism, and when
you get them, you make them twofold more the child of hell than you
are. Why did he say stuff like that? Because he is the only
way. and to be carnally minded is
death. The carnal mind is enmity against God. If you come to God
seeking salvation, seeking to be justified, seeking to be accepted,
seeking to be heard, seeking to be saved, without Christ,
you know what you are? You're an enemy of God. God said,
this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye him.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God. What does that
mean? That means without looking to Christ and resting in Christ,
you can't please God. That's why he told those false
professors in Matthew 7, 21 through 23, he said, depart from me,
you that work iniquity. I never knew you. They were preaching,
casting out demons, doing wonderful works, but it was all without
Christ. You see, they weren't pleading
Christ as their righteousness. They were pleading their works.
I've often said it this way, I've preached this gospel for
over 30 years now, but all my preaching put together does not
make me righteous in God's sight. Christ does. Christ is my only
righteousness. He's the Lord my righteousness.
So he says in verse seven, the carnal mind is enmity against
God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can
be. You know what it is to be subject to the law of God? It's
to plead Christ as your law keeper. You're trying to keep the law
is not being subject to the law because you're actually breaking
the law because you don't measure up to the standard of righteousness
of the law that can only be found in Christ. Verse eight, so then
they that are in the flesh cannot please God. It's impossible. Without Christ, nothing pleases
God. But now look here in verse nine.
He's talking to believers here now. He says, but you're not
in the flesh, you're in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he's none of his. Now, over in Romans seven, Paul
talked about the flesh being in Him. That's the remaining
presence and influence and contamination of sin. And that's the case with
every true believer. But even though the flesh is
in me, I'm not in the flesh. Now what does that mean? That's
not double talk. It means this. that God has given,
I'm born again, I've been chosen of God, justified by God, and
redeemed by the blood, and I've been regenerated by the Spirit,
He's given me a new heart, a new mind, a new spirit, new life,
and that is the tenor of my life. Even though I struggle with the
flesh, I'm not in the flesh, I'm not in unbelief. I have moments
of unbelief, but I have to fight them. The spirit will not let
me go. Christ will not let me go. So
I don't live in a state of darkness. That's to live in the flesh.
That's what he's talking about. He's talking here about the difference
between believers and unbelievers, not a struggle within a believer
like Paul was talking about in Romans 7. And so he says, here's
the proof of verse 10. And if Christ be in you, that
is by his spirit and by his word, The body is dead because of sin,
but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Christ's righteousness
imputed. But if the spirit of him, verse
11, that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal
bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you, will be raised again
in eternity in glory. And so, brethren, verse 12, We
are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For
if you live after the flesh, that is in unbelief, you shall
die. But if you through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. How do you mortify
the deeds of the body? You count them as dead. Dead
works. Count them but dumb that you
may win Christ and be found in him, not having your own righteousness
which is of the law. but that which is through the
faith of Christ. And so he says in verse 14, for as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now, how
do you know if you're led by the Spirit of God and therefore
that you're a child of God? Well, who is your hope of salvation? Who is your hope and your standing
of being justified before God? Upon whom is all of your salvation
or any of your salvation conditioned? And who fulfills those conditions?
My friend, if it's anyone or anything but Christ crucified
and risen from the dead, Christ and Him alone, then you're not
a child. You give no evidence of being
a child of God at all. And so he says in verse 15, for
you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. That's
legal fear, bondage, trying to work your way to God, but you've
received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba, Father. That word Abba is a word that
indicates a special, close relation, not an irreverent one now. but
a special close relationship with the Father that can only
come for a sinner by God's grace through Christ based on His blood
and righteousness. And it's there, verse 16, that
the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. looking to Christ, see verse
17, and if children then heirs, we get an inheritance, heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified together. Now that suffering
has to do with the suffering that comes over the gospel. Christ
suffered as a substitute, as a surety, as a redeemer, to save
His people from their sins. He died to make the payment. Our suffering is an evidence
of our identification with Him, of our love for Him, of our belief
in our rest and our trust in Him. Paul said that the reason
that he suffered for the gospel was because of the gospel, the
message, and for the elect's sake, he said that. He said,
that's the reason I'm going out and preaching. This is the reason,
I heard a man say one time, he said, well, if I believed in
election, I wouldn't evangelize. Well, Paul said in 1 Timothy,
that's the only reason he did evangelize. 1 and 2 Timothy,
both, is because of the elect. God has a people out there, and
he's gonna call them into the kingdom. We preach to everybody,
and we tell everybody, come to Christ. and God's children will. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.