to Romans chapter 8. Charles Spurgeon spoke against
a certain vain thought in his day that's common in our day. Someone said to him, I've gotten
out of the 7th of Romans into the 8th. Spurgeon's answer is our answer.
He said, nonsense, there's no getting out of one into the other,
for they are one. Having created a new holy man
in Paul, giving him a new spirit, the spirit of God made him hear
the law so that he knew that in his flesh dwelt nothing good. He said, I am carnal, sold under
sin. That's one of the ways he consented
unto the law, that it was good and delighted in the law. It
showed him that he was the sinner. He was the sinner in his nature.
And when his sin nature brought him into captivity, it was the
Spirit of God that made him cry out to God. He cried out to his
Father. And the Father, through Christ
the Lord, delivered him. And this went on and on and on. Let's review a little bit. We
saw this Thursday night, but let's just start in verse 21.
He said, I found in a law that when I would do good, evil is
present with me. When I would do good, when I
do, God moves me to do good, evil is present with me. It's
in my nature. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. That's the man of God's creating
within. the spiritual. But I see another
law in my members. This is our carnal, corrupt,
sin nature that's yet with us. And it wars against the law of
my mind. It wars against the new holy
man and brings me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members. By this captivity and this continual
deliverance from it, the Spirit makes us know two things. The
first thing is this. Verse 24, O wretched man that
I am. The Lord never lets you stop
knowing that, O wretched man that I am. The second thing we
learn is this, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Who is the redeemer? Who is the sanctifier? Who is
the salvation of his people? God through Jesus Christ, our
Lord. So then with the mind, with this
new man, I myself serve the law of God. I delight that it tells
me I'm the sinner. I delight that it shows me Christ
is my righteousness. I delight in it every way, Paul
said. Would keep it fully, perfectly
if I was able to. But with the flesh, with the
sin nature, the law of sin, That's all I serve in my flesh, is sin. There is therefore, there is therefore, because of
this warfare that's going on, because of God making us to know
it, and to know Christ, and to know that He's the salvation
and the deliverer, there's therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. The whole subject of Romans 8
is that mortification is not by your flesh. It has no part
in it. It's not by your strength. You
don't have any. It's not of you. It is not of
you. It's through the Spirit. making
us mind the things of the spirit, beholding Christ our high priest
who continues to deliver us. To walk after the flesh takes
many forms. Those that are walking after
the flesh, it takes many forms. Some are very, they're irreligious,
but they're very moral. They make good neighbors. Maybe they had, you know, some
religious training in their early days, or maybe it's just they
just grew up with some good parents or something. But they're moral,
and they're very good neighbors. I had a man that was a very benevolent,
kind, good man as far as men goes, and he told me flat out,
do not ever speak to me about Christ and the gospel. I hate
it. He walked after the flesh. Another
form this takes is you have folks who hate religion, who are just
absolutely immoral and run into every kind of sin and hate Christ
and love sin and live for sin and for pleasure and that's it. But the most subtle form of this
and the most dangerous form of this is a person who's religious and who manages to put away some
sin, and who thinks they are holy
by what they've done, and they're saving themselves by their strength. So they mind the things of the
flesh all the time. They go to this book looking
for what to do and what not to do. It's all they look for. And
they really think they're doing a pretty good job of it. Now,
those that walk after the Spirit, here's the problem. We have every
bit of that that we just talked about in our sin nature. Your
sin nature is a harlot, and your sin nature is a Pharisee of the
first rank. But we have the Spirit, so there's
a warfare. There's a warfare. Sometimes
we're brought into captivity, sometimes we sin grievously in
thought, sometimes in deed. Sometimes we can go a long time
in that captivity. But there is an inward struggle
and a constant struggle because you have the Spirit of God who
hates, makes your inner man hate sin and love Christ and delight
in His law and not want to sin at all. And it is just a warfare,
a warfare. But the Spirit of God is going
to keep us minding the things of the Spirit because He has
set us free. The Gospel is written on the
new heart and He'll keep setting us free. He said, for the law,
verse 2, here's why there's no condemnation. Here's how we walk
after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and
death. Now if you're free, Christ made
you free, you are free indeed. You are free indeed. But anybody
that imagines they get out of Romans 7 into Romans 8, They
get past Romans 7 and they get past this warfare and they manage
to do pretty good on their own. They ain't even begun in the
Spirit. The only reason a man don't have this battle or this
warfare is he don't have a new nature to contend with him. The
warfare is ongoing and it's the Spirit of God who quickens through
the good news of the Gospel of Christ that keeps us being able
to mortify the deeds of our flesh. The Holy Spirit, first of all,
sets our new mind on Christ. This is how this is done. The
gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And this is how this
is done. He sets our mind on Christ in
the inner man through the gospel. He says, verse 1, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. You just
behold Paul being brought out of that captivity by the Spirit
of God, and beholding the Lord Jesus Christ, and beholding how
Christ was all His salvation, and the Spirit making Him know
in His heart, there is therefore now no condemnation. There is no condemnation. It
doesn't say there is no accusation against Him. But the accusation will not stand
before God, because it is God who justified His people. It
doesn't say there's no chastening. It says there's no condemnation. When we're in the conflict and
we're overtaken in captivity, He'll chasten us. He'll chasten
us, but He'll draw us to Christ to confess our sins, and He promises
if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How
is God just to do so? How's He just to forgive us if
we've sinned? Because Christ is our advocate
with the Father, and He has settled the matter. Verse 3, For what
the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit. The law could not do anything
to justify nor sanctify us. It could not do it. It couldn't
free us from our guilt. It could not free us from the
power of our sin. The law gave us no promise of
pardon and it gave us no promise of grace or power of grace, neither
one. Those who walk after the flesh
attempt, and this is the worst form of this, and this is what
Paul is addressing here because he dealt with this through Romans
7. This was the dominion he was
under. He said, I was alive without the law once. Well, the law only
has dominion over a man as long as he lives. He thought he was
alive by his works. It took the law coming and convincing
him he didn't have any righteousness of his own. And then he died.
And then he died. And so, and he stopped minding
the things of the flesh and he started walking after the Spirit. Now, you got A lot of flesh in
you, and you've got this warfare, and you're going to sin, and
you're going to have all the problems that the man that has
no spirit is going to have. But you have the Spirit of God
making you fight while it's going on. But those who walk after the
flesh are attempting to use the law for all those things. They're
attempting to use the law to make them righteous. They're
attempting to use the law to sanctify themselves. But the sinful nature
makes it absolutely impossible. Even though sanctified by the
Spirit fall into captivity, that's what Paul had talked about, and
the captivity we often fall into is the same as that. We start
thinking we're able to. We start thinking more highly
of ourselves than we are, that we have some strength. That's
even more dangerous than when you fall into some other sin. So we come into captivity, and
the Spirit has to lead us again to behold the Lord Jesus. In
the inner man, He renews this good news to you. He keeps renewing
this good news. God sent His own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin. He made His soul an offering
for sin, and He condemned sin in the flesh. He came in the
flesh like unto His brethren, and He condemned sin. Just think
of that. He condemned sin. Sin can't condemn
you now because He condemned sin. Verily He took not on Him the
nature of angels, He took on Him the seed of Abraham. He came
just like His people without sin. Wherefore in all things
it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren. that he, first
of all, might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of his people. That's
what he accomplished at Calvary when he said it's finished and
he arose. He reconciled his people to himself. But here's the other reason he
came in this flesh and did this. For in that he himself has suffered
being tempted, he's able to succor them that are tempted. So he's
the high priest who's redeemed you. And so when you come into
the captivity and you can't free yourself from it, you can strive
all you want, but you can't. You can't. Your old man's either
saying, this sin isn't that bad. Or your old man is saying, you
can do this. You can fight this. You can overcome
this. Or your old man is saying, you
did a pretty good job at that. Look at you. And all of that
sin and captivity. And it takes Christ, our high
priest, who has been through it, who knows what it is like
and did it without sin. And He sends forth the Spirit
into your heart. And the Spirit comes into your
heart and makes you cry, Abba, Father, I can't do this. I need
mercy. I need grace to help in time
of need. I can't do this. And He turns you to Christ and
shows you there's no condemnation. Your sins are forgiven. And by
that, He strengthens you in your inner man to put it off, whatever
it was. He condemns sin in the flesh.
He put the sin of His people away forever. He blotted out
our sin with His precious blood. It's gone, believer. Christ made
it so the law cannot condemn us. The devil can't charge us. Nobody can charge you because
God won't charge you. They can charge you, but He won't
charge you. It won't stick. He did it that
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. The righteousness
of the law is not fulfilled by us. That's one of those ways
we come into captivity. And if we don't have the Spirit
and we're minding the things of the flesh, we think we are
fulfilling the law. But it's by the Spirit giving
us faith to behold the Lord Jesus Christ and cast all our care
on Him that His righteousness is imputed to us. And God declares
to us, you've been made the righteousness of God in Him. and by Him. You know, inside the ark was
the law. The ark is a little ark that was in the Holy of Holies. There's a picture of Christ.
And in that ark was the law. Christ said, when He came forth,
thy laws were in my heart. He came to fulfill it for His
people. And the law was in that ark. And there was a mercy seat
on top of that ark. And that mercy seat was the exact
dimensions of that ark. It covered that law completely. That mercy seat covered that
law completely. And the blood was sprinkled on
that mercy seat. Christ is that mercy seat. By
His blood, obedience unto death, His righteousness has exactly
fulfilled the law for His people. And when you come to God asking
mercy, because you are the sinner, deserving nothing from God will
meet you right there and give you mercy and He's just to do
it because of Christ's righteousness. That's how the righteousness
of the law is fulfilled in us by Christ. The Spirit of Christ,
and that's what it means when the Scripture says He's the propitiation
for our sin. He's the mercy seat. The Spirit
of Christ enters into us and He creates this new holy heart
and it's by this gospel that He plants to seed, that it is
to seed, that He makes us have life. And by that, He sanctified
our new man from our old man. Now, they're in this same body,
this one person. You're the old man and the new
man who were born of God. But He separated them. One's
light, one's darkness. And they're separated. And He's
not going to let them. Now, they're the same person. If we sin, we did it. If we thought
it, we did it. If we did it, we did it. But
anything that we do godly is of God, and he gets all the glory
for that. We're not given the ability to
fulfill the righteousness of the law by our obedience. Now,
our new man, our holy will that we have given us by God is we
would like to, Wouldn't you love to be able to do everything God
commands you without sin? One of these days you will. You
won't even need a law. It's just going to be who you're
going to be. You'll be perfect. And in our
new man, that's the will we have. That's the will every child of
God has. Here's the problem. We have a carnal, sinful nature
in us that hates everything about God. He don't want to have a thing
to do with God and love sin. So we can't ourselves ever fulfill
it. Paul said, when I would do good,
evil is present with me. But writing this law of Christ
on our new heart, writing this law of faith and love on our
new heart, and by Him continually renewing the gospel in our heart,
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free
from the law of sin and death. He keeps you being delivered
by this good news. So then, secondly, he's going
to keep us walking after the Spirit, minding the things of
the Spirit. Verse 5 says, for they that are
after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are
after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Now, as I said
to you, every sinner who hates Christ, who hates his people,
who lives for sin and carnal pleasure and worldly gain, it's
just minding the things of the flesh. That's what every child
of God is when we come into this world born of Adam. We don't
mind anything but the flesh. It could take a real moral form,
it could take a religious form, whatever, but we don't mind anything
but the flesh. But in the context, Paul is warning
us that we can't mortify our flesh by our flesh. He's telling
us about this warfare that he started talking about in chapter
7 and about the dominion sin had over him when he was thinking
that he was doing it himself. And when he was in that state
where he was unregenerate and he thought he was blameless before
the law, that's everything I read in Philippians 2 where he looked
to the fact who his family was and who his tribe was and his
education what all he'd done in religion, he's blameless,
and all he just, everything, his salvation and confidence
was back there. All of it was. And God made him
let all that go and made his salvation to be Christ who he
started pressing toward. Forgetting those things that
are behind, every day, and pressing toward Christ. You and me got
something we can leave behind every day. The sin of today,
and press toward Christ. And that's what God kept him
doing. But the will-worshipper who doesn't have the Spirit and
doesn't have this warfare going on within him, the will-worshipper
is minding the things of the flesh. They're minding their
works, they're minding their walk, they're trying to mortify
and sanctify themselves by their deeds. It's all they preach and
it's all they look for in the Scriptures constantly. It's what the Pharisees did and
it's who the Lord was speaking to when he said, Your mind and
the things of the flesh, he said, you look to the scriptures, you
search them and in them you think you have life. And there they
testify me and you will not come to me that you might have life.
You won't come and trust me to save you. God's saints still
have that sin nature, brethren. We still have it. He is alive
and well. He has not been refined and he's
not getting better. Here's the problem that somehow
You know, as you get older, your flesh is dying. It's getting
weaker. And you're not going to do some
of the outward sins you did when you were 20, 30 years old. I mean, everybody's going to
do that. It doesn't mean you're holy. It doesn't mean you're
getting better. But for God's child, as that
happens, and you don't do some of the outward sins you used
to do, God keeps you seeing the sin you are in your nature. And
you can't ever start getting confidence in yourself. Your
confidence has got to be Christ and He's going to keep it there.
He's going to keep it there. That's what this warfare is all
about. Christ, and we can suffer this. We can start leaning to
our carnal reasoning, our carnal understanding, and try to do
things by our will and our work. Peter did this. You remember
when the Lord said, I must go, and I must suffer, and I must
be killed, and I must be buried, and I must rise again. Peter
rebuked him. Peter said, we're not going to
let that happen. We'll stop that. I got a sword. We can fight this
battle, and we can stop that from happening. Leaning to his
own understanding, minding the things of the flesh, and here's
what the Lord said to him. He rebuked him, and he said,
get behind me, Satan. Thou savourest not the things
of God, but the things that be of men." Now listen to what he
said next. Peter's mind was on the things
of the flesh. He was trying to save Christ's
life and trying to save his own life by his will and his wisdom
and his works. That's what he was going to do.
And Christ said, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself. Men will say, well, that means
you need to deny this sin and that sin. Well, do that. But
it means more than that. It means you're going to have
to deny you lock, stock, and barrel. You can't have no part
in it. That's what it means. Take up the cross. It's going
to be painful. And follow me, because here's
why. The Lord said, whosoever will
save his life. If you're contributing to this
thing of salvation and trying to save your life, you're going
to lose it. If you got one part of it yourself, you're going
to lose it. But whoso shall lose his life, that's what he means
by deny yourself. Whosoever renounces self entirely
and says, Christ is my all, I got to be saved by him only, you'll
have life. Back there in Philippians 3,
the reason I pointed that out to you is Paul is showing the
difference between those who mixed law and grace, and you
who are actually walking after the Spirit. Those that mix law
and grace are minding the things of the Spirit. They are the concision.
Paul said we're the circumcision, we worship God in the Spirit,
rejoice in Christ, and have no confidence in the flesh. But
when they were minding the things of the flesh, they were religious
as could be. But here was the problem. They
weren't worshiping God in Spirit, they didn't have the Spirit.
They didn't rejoice in Christ Jesus alone, and they had every
bit of confidence in their own flesh. They were trying to save
their own life. But Paul was made to let all
that go, that he said in verse 8, that I might win Christ. He's
speaking here of running a race. He's speaking of pressing toward
the mark and running. And here was the prize, this
is what he wanted. I want to be, verse 9, I want
to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is
of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith. And then he goes down there and
he says, now I don't count myself apprehended yet, He said, but forgetting those
things that are behind, I reach forth unto those things which
are before. And look what he said now. He's
talking about pressing toward the mark for the prize, the high
calling of God. He said, therefore, as many as
be perfect, many who've been born of the Spirit, you've been
made holy in heart. He says, be thus minded. Be thus
minded. And if anything, you be otherwise
minded. Here's where we have a big problem
now. Somebody else is not exactly minded like we are, and they
haven't arrived to the place we think we've arrived. Well,
we need to fix that." No, we don't. He said, gotta reveal
it to them. You commit your brethren to him.
Look at this now. Nevertheless, whereto we've already
attained, let us walk by the same rule. This rule of being
made a new creation and knowing that Spirit's keeping us and
Christ is our salvation and we're pressing toward Him. Walk by
that same rule. Let us mind the same thing. Forget the things that are behind.
Go forward to Christ. Brethren, be followers together
of me and mark them which walk so you have us for an example.
And it comes back to the warning here. Many walk of whom I've
told you often and now tell you weep unto the enemies of the
cross of Christ." He's talking about the concision, who had
the confidence partly in something they're doing. Their end's destruction,
their God's their belly, their glory's their shame, they mind
earthly things. Our citizenship's in heaven.
We're looking to Christ, the Savior, the Lord Jesus above.
He'll change our vile body one day. He'll give us a brand new
glorified body one day. And right now, He's able to subdue
this sin nature in us. But He's the only one that's
able to do it. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, chapter
4, verse 1, stand fast in the Lord. Stand
fast in the Lord. Go back now to Romans 8. To try
to find life by the things of the flesh is death. He said,
verse 6, to be carnally minded is death. Verse 7, because the
carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. The natural man receives
not the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to
him. He can't know them. They're spiritually discerned.
To lean to the understanding of the carnal mind, that's to
hate God and think His way of doing things isn't good enough.
We got to add our reason to it and do it, lean to our understanding,
do it our way. That's the opposite of faith.
Faith says, I don't know half of what God's doing. I just trust
him. I don't have to understand it.
If I did, I'd be God. He wouldn't be God. You don't
want a God you can comprehend. I don't want one that's so big
I just can... So all I can do is just contain
what little bit He gives me. Verse 8, He said, So then they
that are in the flesh can't please God. Without faith it's impossible
to please God. Unless we are solely trusting
Christ to save us, we can't please God. Whatsoever is not of faith
is sin. It don't matter how pretty it
is, how good it is, how many praise you for it. If it is not
done in faith in that new man, looking to Christ only, it's
nothing but sin. Paul said, I was touching the
law, I was blameless. But everything he did was sin.
Idolatry. It was all rank idolatry. It
was fornication, it was covetousness, it was wrath against God, and
anger against God, and speaking filthy communication against
God, and lying on God. Every bit of it was. As he went
forth declaring his false gospel and making men two-fold more
the child of hell when he converted them. How are you going to be
saved from that? That same sin nature is in us
right now, brethren, that believe. How are we going to be saved
from that? Here's the good news, verse 9. You're not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. If so, be the Spirit of God dwell
in you. Now that doesn't mean you don't have flesh in you.
You do. You still got an old man, but
you're not in the flesh. This is what we saw on Thursday
night. God's not regarding your old man of flesh because he died
in Christ on Calvary's cross. You're in the Spirit. Your new
man is spiritual. You're in the Spirit if the Spirit
of God dwells in you. Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. He's just walking after
the flesh, minding the things of the flesh. But now watch this. And if Christ be in you, the
body's dead because of sin. But the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. Sin equals death. Righteousness
equals life. If you have spiritual life, it's
because of Christ's righteousness, because He made you righteous.
But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead
dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall
also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in
you. And He's going to do it through the preaching of the
gospel of Christ The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus
made me free from the law of sin and death, and he keeps doing
it. When he created that new man in you, he gave you the mind
of Christ. Now we receive not the spirit
of the world, but the spirit which is of God that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God, and he set
our mind on Christ. And it's the Holy Spirit that
keeps delivering us through this same good news, and so verse
6 says to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Christ is
our life and he's our peace and we have life and peace in him
with God and in our heart. So here's the application. Verse
12. Therefore brethren, we're debtors
not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if you live after
the flesh, you shall die. But if you through the spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. Please, please
get what he's saying. Please get what he's saying. You don't owe this flesh anything.
It has never given you anything and will never give you anything.
And if you try to live after it, you will die. You will die. Paul thought he was living when
he was living after his flesh. He was trying to mine the things
of the flesh, touch not, taste not, trying to keep the law,
trying to come to God by his words. He thought he had life
and he didn't. And if he had stayed in that state when he
met God, God would have said, depart from me, I never knew
you. What made the difference? God
did. God came into his heart and God
created a new man and God turned him from him. He made him hear
the law and made him consent to the law that I am the sinner,
carnal soul under sin and he never let him forget it. And
he kept him looking to Christ and he kept him following after
Christ. Paul had problems, he had sins, he didn't walk perfectly.
But God kept doing His work in him and turning him and making
him look to Christ. The point of this is this, brethren,
it's only through the Spirit. That's the point of the whole
passage. I'm going to show you that. It's only through the Spirit
that you mortify the deeds of the body that you shall live.
If you try to do it yourself, you are a spotted leopard trying
to clean your own spots, and it can't be done. You are a dirty
mop trying to clean a dirty floor and it just ends up twice dirty.
But when the Spirit does it, He will help you mortify the
flesh. Listen, a mighty fortress is
our God, a bulwark never failing, our helper, He amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing, mortal ills prevailing, He's the helper,
for still our ancient foe does seek to work us woe. His craft
and power are great, and their arm would cruel hate. On earth
is not his equal. Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing. We're not the right man on our
side. We're going to strive, but it's
going to be by the Spirit. Because we got the right man
on our side, the man of God's own choosing. Just ask who that
may be. Christ Jesus, it is he. Lord
Sabaoth his name, and from age to age it is the same. He must
win the battle. He's won the war. He's the captain
of our salvation. Your warfare is accomplished.
But when you come into the battle today, he must win it. And He must show you He want
it, so He keeps you trusting Him only. Otherwise, you're going
to start minding the things of the flesh and thinking, I'm doing
a pretty good job at this, and die. We must continue minding
the things of the spirit, running the race, looking to Christ alone.
So many in religion, brethren, they begin, profess to begin
in the spirit. And in just a little while, they
turn back to trying to be sanctified by minding the things of the
flesh. Go back to Colossians 2.8. I
want to show you this real quick. I might not really have time,
but I'll quickly try to show you this. Colossians 2.8. This is what
Paul dealt with everywhere he went. He said Verse 8, he said,
Beware lest any spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after
the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, after
minding the things of the flesh. Listen, we're thankful for what
preachers say and men of the past have said, but we don't
make that the touchstone. That's a precept of a man. We
go by what Christ has said. You know, men may say something
that's held some weight, but it's what Christ has said. That's
what we're going by. Look here. And He said, you're
complete in Him. He told us to continue steadfast
in Him. These men are doing this, they're
not after Christ. They're not walking after the
Spirit, after Christ. Wherefore, verse 20, if you're
dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though
your life's in this world, are you subject to ordinances? Touch
not, taste not, handle not. They're all gonna perish with
the use and after the commandment and doctrine of men, which things
have indeed a show of wisdom and will worship. That's what
it is. false humility, neglecting the
body, mortifying the body with afflicting things and, you know. But it's not any honor to God,
all of it satisfying the flesh. Here's how it's mortified. If
you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above
where Christ sits on the right hand of God, set your affection
on things above, not on things of the earth, for you are dead
and your life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ who is
our life shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory.
Mortified therefore, and that word therefore could be translated
thereby. Because this is how it's done.
When you're in that captivity, Christ turns you, the Spirit
turns you to Christ above. And the Spirit gives you the
ability Mortify your members which bone the earth now look
watch this right here everything he's talking about right here
Yeah, don't do any of these things outwardly But everything he's
talking about out here is spiritually what Paul was doing by trying
to come to God by the works of the law every bit of it Fornication
uncleanness in order to affection he had his affection on the things
of the flesh what he was doing rather than what Christ had done
It was he said it was evil concupiscence covetousness trying to steal
God's glory, and everything he just listed there is idolatry. And then everything else he goes
on to say there, the spirit is the one that's going to make
you mortify the flesh. And when he does it, he will do it in
such a way that you will know God did it, and you'll give him
all the glory. Because you couldn't do it before.
You could not make it happen. Paul said to the Galatians, Are
we so foolish having begun in the Spirit? We're going to be
made perfect now by the flesh. It's the Spirit that's going
to make you prevail. Walk in the Spirit. Look to the
Spirit. Put your mind on Christ and follow
after the Spirit. He's the one that's going to
make us prevail. And we'll fail in that, and He'll still have
to make you prevail in that. All right, go back now to verse
14. I'm going to finish this. Hold with me now. I promise you.
Give me three minutes. Here's how he's going to do it.
Verse 14. As many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. You not receive the Spirit
of bondage again, the fear you see, receive the Spirit of adoption
whereby we cry, Abba, Father. He's going to turn you to cry
out for grace to help in time of need from Abba, Father. That's
in the Greek and the Hebrew. So either way, whoever you are,
Jew or Gentile, there's a place for you there to call out for
the Father. That's how He's going to do it. That's why He gave
you open access to the throne of grace, to come to find mercy
and grace to help Tom and Eve. What if I'm in captivity and
I don't feel like I'm a child of God? Verse 16, the spirit
itself bears witness with our spirit. We're the children of
God. That's how he quickens you. Well, what if I'm so captive
I can't pray and I just, all I can do is just groan. Verse
26, likewise the spirit helps our infirmities. We know not
what we should pray for as well. The spirit's gonna make intercession
for us with groanings that can't be uttered. And he that searches
the heart knows what's the mind of the spirit. He makes intercession
for the saints according to the will of God. That tells you right
there, brethren, it's the spirit doing this in you. It's the Spirit's
glory. It's God's glory. And by this
He makes you know everything He's been working for you. It's
all for your good. He gave you the love in your
heart. He called you. And it's all according to His
purpose. Even the bad, the good, and the
ugly. Every bit of it. And here's where He brings you
in to end. Verse 31. What shall we say to these things?
If God's for us, who can be against us? He spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. It's
who's he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, that's
risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who makes
sinner's possession for us. He's on the mountain right here.
When you get to this point, you're on the mountain for a little
while. You're in the clouds for a little while, because he's
worked all this for you, and he brought you right here to
where you know, he's my salvation. You'll be back in the valley
a little bit. You'll be crying out again a little bit. But he'll
do this again. Who are going to separate us
from the love of Christ? Nothing. We're killed. We're
sheep. But look at verse 37. Here's what the whole point is.
We are more than conquerors through him that loved us. All right. I'm done. Amen. I agree.