Let's go back now to Romans chapter
8. That passage will go well with
this text as well and this message. Now you know that the chapter
divisions were put there by the translators. They were added.
Makes it easy for us to find the text we're turning to but
they're sometimes not in a good place and this is an example
of that. because Romans 6, 7, and 8 all
go together. There's no division here in the
subject that Paul is declaring. He begins in Romans 8 verse 1
and he says, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. when you see the word therefore,
Brother Henry always used to say, you want to go back and
see what it's there for. And if you go back to Romans
6, we find out there he told us that by the death and resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ, every regenerated believer became dead
to sin and alive to God. We became free from our sin,
justified from our sin, and we became free from sin's dominion
over us whenever we're born of the Spirit of Christ. It doesn't
mean we'd stop sinning, it means now we can actually believe and
rest in Him, where before we couldn't because sin had dominion
over us. Then he said in Romans 7, by the death and resurrection
of Christ, every regenerated believer is also dead to the
law that might be married to our Lord Jesus Christ so that
we now, by His grace, by Him producing fruit, can actually
bring forth real, true, living, spiritual fruit where we never
did before. So he says now, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk
not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Now we're going to
come into this phrase several more times where he says, who
walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. And my subject
today is walking after the Spirit. What is that? What is it to walk
after the Spirit? Well, immediately before our
passage, he said that in verse 22, he said, verse Romans 7,
22, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. There's
a new nature created in which God's people delight. We delight
in the law of God. He says, but I see another law
in my members, in my flesh, in my sin nature. warring against
the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law
of sin which is in my members. My sin nature brings me into
captivity, truly takes me captive so that I can't do what I want
to do in my inner man. And so he says, O wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And he says, I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. That's how I'm delivered. I'm delivered by God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. The sweetest, most comforting
thing for a believer, when we're in this warfare and our flesh
and our new man are warring against each other and our flesh takes
the new nature captive, overpowers our new man. The sweetest thing,
brethren, is as we're experiencing this conflict that's going on,
the Spirit of God quickens us in the inner man. He renews us
in the inner man. The Spirit of God does. He does
it through this Gospel. He does it through the preaching
of the Word. And He renews the inner man, renews us and reminds
us there's therefore now no condemnation in Christ Jesus. because of what
He's done for us. There's no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus. And that, brethren, is how we're
turned from focusing on our flesh to spiritual things. We're turned
from us to Christ and to rejoice in all that He's accomplished
for us and all that He is for us. And that's how our flesh
is mortified. That's how you treat your flesh
as it's dead, as if it's dead, because it is dead. But the way
you do that is by being turned by the Spirit to Christ to know
what Christ has accomplished, so that there's no condemnation. We begin to mourn over our sin,
and we begin to be sorrowful over our sin, and we're truly
mourning over it. And the Holy Spirit confesses
that there is no condemnation. And we find out it's true. Blessed
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. We begin
to hunger and thirst after righteousness. We begin to see that we're sinners
and we can't do what we would. And we see Christ is all our
righteousness. And yet, this flesh overcomes
us. Our sin nature overcomes us.
And we can't even look to Christ. much less do anything that's
righteous ourselves. And the Spirit of God comes and
quickens that inner man and fills you with this good news of what
Christ has accomplished for you and you find out it's true. Blessed
are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they
shall be filled. But this is done by the Spirit.
It's always done by the Spirit. All who are born again of the
Spirit of God are in Christ Jesus. And we walk not after the flesh,
we walk after the Spirit. This is so of everybody born
of the Spirit of God. We do not walk after the flesh,
we walk after the Spirit. By the Holy Spirit, true faith
doesn't go on defending self. and doesn't go on trying to cover
up our own personal sins and doesn't go on trying to blame
others and make excuses for ourselves. True faith doesn't run back to
the law and continue in. It may do all of those things
temporarily. But we can't continue in those
things because the Spirit of God comes and mortifies that
flesh and renews the inner man and brings us back to cast it
all on Christ. This is what He does. He makes
you cry out, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death? And then He shows you it's God,
through Christ Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, turning you
to Christ. He's the one that delivers you.
He delivered us on the cross. We're going to see this. He delivered
us when He regenerated us the first time. But this is not something
that stops being done. He continues to deliver us all
the days we walk through this earth this same way. Renewing our inward man by the
Holy Spirit through the Gospel causing us to look to Christ.
Here's what I want you to see, verse 2. He says, For the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This is the Gospel of
Christ. The law there is the Gospel of
Christ Jesus. It's brought of the Holy Spirit.
It's life in Christ Jesus. It's that incorruptible seed
wherein we have life. The gospel of Christ has made
me free from the law of sin and death. That's from the law of
commandments that I've broken and it's also made me free from
my sinful flesh. The law of sin and death is in
both of those. It's in both of those. Here's
what I want you to see. Here's the main thing. Through
the hearing of the gospel, through the hearing of Christ's faithfulness.
God the Holy Spirit gives us life in Christ. He gives us life
in Christ. Makes us to behold there's no
condemnation for them who are in Christ. He makes us free from
the law of sin and death. And this is how We're continually
delivered whenever the sin nature takes us captive. We're continually
delivered this same way. Christ has saved us, He is saving
us, and He shall save us. It's through this gospel. It's
by the Holy Spirit. It's by Him showing us we have
no condemnation. This is how He delivers us from
the law of sin and death and brings us back to rejoice in
Him and stay on Him. Now this is what I want you to
see. First we'll look at the law of sin and death, and then
secondly we'll look at the law of the spirit of life in Christ
Jesus, and then thirdly, the application. The law of sin and death is first
of all the commandment of God that I broke in Adam. The law
of sin and death is first of all the commandment I broke in
Adam. That was a law, that was a legal covenant. And I broke
that law when Adam broke that law. And so, whenever God gave
the commandments at Mount Sinai, they were a law of sin and death
to me. Because they showed my sin and
they ministered death unto me. Paul said, when the Lord made
the commandment, come alive, sin revived, and I died. That's
what it's given for, to minister death to his people. How am I
delivered from it? Verse 3. 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 a sacrifice 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. Now there was nothing wrong with
the law of God. It's holy, just, and good. There's
nothing wrong with the law of God. It's my sinful flesh that
made me incapable of fulfilling the law. We saw last week when
we looked at this, we were guilty when he gave the law. We were
already fallen in Adam. We were already guilty. He gave
it to show us our guilt. But because that's the truth
of us, because we are sinners, because we are condemned by the
law, God had already purposed from eternity. He had already
settled this matter from eternity. He already had chosen His Son
to be our Savior from eternity. So when we fell in sin and when
He gives this law to us, God had already determined beforehand
that He would send His Son. And this is how we're delivered
from that curse of the law. He sent His Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh. I think this is what I was trying
to get at when I was preaching the other day about Emmanuel,
God with us. You know, it would be a step
down for Him to be made like angels, like His elect angels. But at least they're holy and
not sinful. But He took a step down in that
He was made flesh like His people who are sinners. He came and
looked like every other sinful man that walked this earth, though
He knew no sin. You see what a step down that
was? He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. But we've seen
it over and over again. I won't have you turn there,
but Hebrews 2 tells us it was because it behooved Him in all
points to be made like unto His brethren. So He came in the likeness
of His brethren. What did He come for? He came
to make a sacrifice for sin. He came to offer His soul, an
offering on behalf of His people for sin. And the way He did that
is by bearing the sin of His people so that God's righteous
and just to hold Him accountable in place of His people. And God
poured out wrath on him in our room instead. He bore the very
curse that his people deserved. And so he made a sacrifice for
our sin. And by doing that, he condemned
our condemnation. That's the play on words that
he's given us here. He condemned sin in the flesh. He condemned the condemnation
so that we can't be condemned anymore. He did this in the flesh
and He did it that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Now
understand what that says. It says that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us, not by us. He's not saying
here, this is what some say, that He did all this so that
He regenerates you now and now you can keep the law. When He
says He writes His law in our hearts and now we obey Him and
we keep His statutes, He's talking about the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus. He's talking about the law of
love and the law of faith and the law of love. That's what He's talking about.
Faith and love. A new law. A new covenant. And that's what
we obey. We believe Christ and He makes
you to love your brethren. What He's saying right here is,
He came and laid down His life on the cross, fulfilled the law,
honored the law, so that His righteousness could be made our
righteousness through faith in Him. Through faith in Him. When we're regenerated by the
Spirit of God and He brings you to believe on Christ, revealing
to us that we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ,
there is therefore now no condemnation. The only way there can be no
condemnation is if we have fulfilled the righteousness of the law.
And brethren, in Christ we have. We have established the law fully
In Christ, that's what faith lays hold of. That's why I said
in Romans 3.31, do we then make void the law through faith? That's
what we're accused of. When we preach this message,
people say, well, you're making void the law. You're antinomian. You're against the law. No! No.
We're declaring what the Scriptures declare, that we do not make
void the law through faith, God forbid, yea, we establish the
law through faith. Believing on Christ, God declares
in our conscience, you are righteous. You are righteous because Christ
fulfilled and established the law for us. It's only through
faith that we establish it. So this is our song now, free
from the law. O happy condition, Jesus hath
bled and there is remission. Cursed by the law, ruined by
the fall, Christ hath redeemed us once for all. It's done. It's
done. Now that's how we were delivered
from the law of commandments. You know, Paul called it over
in 2 Corinthians 3, he called it administration of death because
it reveals our sin. So the law of commandments is
the law of sin and death. We've been freed from it. We've
been freed from it by Christ Jesus. Alright, now secondly,
we're delivered from the law of sin and death that's in our
members. because we're spiritually dead by nature. So we have to
be delivered from the law of sin and death that's in our members.
And that's also by the Spirit, by the Holy Spirit. In the new
birth, it's through the preaching of the Gospel. We're born of
incorruptible seed. We're born of this Word, which
is by the Gospel. Let me show you that real quick.
I want you to see 1 Peter 1. He puts both of these things
together right here. Verse 18, He spoke about us being
delivered from the law of commandments. As you know that you were not
redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your
vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who was verily foreordained before the foundation
of the world, who was manifest in these last times for you.
And now He's going to tell us how we're delivered from the
law of sin and death in our members. This is what we're about to see
in Romans 8. Who by Him, who by Christ do believe in God,
that raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory, that your
faith and hope might be in God, seeing you have purified your
souls and obeying the truth. How did we obey the truth? How
did we do this? Through the Spirit. unto unfeigned
love of the brethren." There's going to be faith and love wherever
God's created a new man. It's unfeigned love of the brethren.
See that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.
Now here's how it was accomplished. Here's the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ. Being born again. not of corruptible
seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God. There's the
incorruptible seed. The Word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. We had to be born because all
flesh is grass. Now look down at verse 25. This
Word of the Lord endureth forever and this is the Word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. This is how we're born again. The Gospel goes forth, preached,
and it's through this preached Word that the Holy Spirit plants
the incorruptible seed in our heart and gives us life. Now
that's what He's going to show us. Go back to Romans 8.2. Romans
8.2, He says, The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,
the Gospel, the incorruptible seed, has made me free from the
law of sin and death. Now we're looking at this law
of sin and death in our memory. He says in verse 5, For they
that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. Now
what does that mean? This is what 99.9% of religion
is teaching poor sinners to do this morning. They're teaching
sinners to keep your mind on your religious charade and play
all of your parts just right and keep up the charade. They're
declaring to people they want you to memorize and know your
system of doctrine. It might be TULIP. It might be
free will works religion. But you got to know your system
of doctrine. It's a system you want to memorize. You want to know it. You want
to be able to talk about grace and unconditional election and
limited atonement. You want to be able to say these
things. And then they preach the hearing of works to you,
teaching you to mind the things of the flesh. All of this is
the hearing of works. Even when they teach you the
doctrine, they're teaching you just doctrine that you need to
learn, that you need to know, that you need to be able to speak
and regurgitate. And then, but the main point
of the message is you want to have your mind on your flesh. You want to mind your morality.
You want to mind, go back to the law and mind the law, mind
the commandments and mind your flesh and mind, make sure that
you're doing what the law says do and not doing what it says
not do. You want to mind touch not, taste
not and handle not. You want to have your mind set
on these things. And if you own these things and
you have your mindset on these things, they say you'll get holier
and holier and holier until one day you're ripe for heaven. That's
minding the things of the flesh. Yes, it includes worldly cares
and all of the things that we have to take care of in this
world. It takes in all of that. The lust of the flesh, the pride
of the eyes and the pride of life, all of that's included.
It takes in men who just live for gutter sins and back alley
sins. But 99% of what Paul deals with
in all his epistles is this minding of the flesh in religious things,
in a show of religion. And that's the most damning,
most harmful thing that you and I ever encounter, is that. So, he says there, he says, they
that are after flesh, this is what they mind. This is what
they want to mind. It's the flesh. Verse 6, for
to be carnally minded is death. If you have your mind set on
these things, it's death. Why? Verse 7, because the carnal
mind is enmity against God. For it's not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. You're very familiar with 1 Corinthians
2.14. It says the natural man receives not the things of the
Spirit of God. He doesn't receive them. He doesn't
receive spiritual things. They're foolishness to him, neither
can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. The carnal
mind hates God. The carnal mind hates God. The
true God. The true God of this Bible. The
carnal mind hates that God. The carnal mind will receive
true doctrine as long as you make that knowledge of that true
doctrine to be what is doing the saving. You see what I'm
saying? He won't mind hearing limited
atonement as long as you make his knowing that doctrine to
be the cause of his salvation. You're going to have to put it
in his hands and he'll receive it. He'll receive it. but they
always take you back to that law because, and here's the thing,
that's not pleasing to God because the carnal mind's not subject
to the law of God. It can't submit to the commandments
of God, nor can it submit to the gospel of God. The carnal
mind cannot in any way submit to the law of God. So then, verse
8 says, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. If I
can't keep the commandments in perfect holiness and righteousness,
and I can't bow to Christ who fulfilled the law for His people,
I can't do either one of those things, then there's no way I
can please God. I'm going to have to either keep
the law perfectly with no sin to please God, or if I can't
do that, I'm going to have to bow to Christ and cast all my
care into His hands. And if I can't do that either,
then I can't please God. Well, that's the carnal mind.
The carnal mind can't do either one of these things. That's the
law of sin and death that's in our members by nature. That's
what we've got to be delivered from. That's in me and you and
that's what we've got to be delivered from. The worst thing in the
world is when somebody thinks they've been delivered from this
and they haven't been delivered from it. That's what Christ said.
If the light that's in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? That's the hardest person there
is that you ever see that God saves because they're twice dead. They got a false confidence and
it's not a true confidence. And they don't know Him. Only
God can convince a man, any of us, to know Him. But that's one
right there that's twice dead. Now look, through the preaching
of this Gospel of Christ, everywhere in the Scriptures it tells us
this is how it pleased God to save. He left men to themselves. He gave us plenty of proof to
show that man by his own wisdom cannot find God. He cannot come to God. And that
was wisdom of God. In His wisdom, He showed us that
the world by its wisdom cannot, by its searching and all, it
cannot find God. And so it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. This is how
the means he chose to administer the incorruptible seed. This
means right here. And he says, through the law
of the Spirit in life, through the law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus, right now, you that's been born again of the
incorruptible seed, you that's been born of the Word, of the
Holy Spirit, your mind is set on spiritual things. Verse 5,
The second part says, but they that are after the Spirit mind
the things of the Spirit. Go over there to 1 Corinthians
2. I want you to see this. 1 Corinthians 2. It says there in verse 12, Now,
we have received, not the Spirit of the world. Now let me point
out, y'all heard, I watched a message Thursday and Kevin did a good
illustration on that. If you pour water into that glass
right there, that water is receiving it. Now that glass is receiving
it. The glass didn't do a thing.
It received the water. That's what he's talking about
here. We received the Spirit. The Spirit came into us irresistibly. That's how you receive. Now we
have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit
which is of God. That little s spirit is because
he put a new spirit in you by the capital S Holy Spirit. And it's that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God, which things also
we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which
the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual."
Have you noticed that when you listen to some messages and it
sounds like they're speaking a different language, and you
listen to the message that blesses your heart, And it's all Scripture. It's comparing Scripture with
Scripture. It gets right to Christ. It's taken up with spiritual
things. The other message is minding earthly things. It's
pointing you to you. And they even use different language
the way they preach. It's a heady intellectualism
that's impressive to the flesh. Now look at this, verse 15. And
you that are spiritual, you judge all things. That means you discern
all things. Yet you yourself are discerned
of no unregenerate man. He doesn't, in that next verse
he's saying the unregenerate man does not have the mind of
the Spirit that he might be instructed by the Spirit. He doesn't have
the mind of the Spirit to be instructed by the Spirit, but
you have the mind of Christ. That's the difference. He's given
you a new mind, a new heart, a new spirit. Now, the Holy Spirit,
you may have heard the preacher speak this admonition, you may
have heard your brethren talk about this admonition, but when
the Holy Spirit has begotten you again, and He's planted this
incorruptible seed in your heart, and He speaks then, Christ speaks
this admonition, and He speaks it effectually, and He commands
you, and He says, He says, Seek those things which are above. where Christ sits at the right
hand of God. Set your affection, singular,
all your affection, singular, on the 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 appear with Him in glory. And
then the very next word says, mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth. And you know what it could say?
Mortify thereby your members which are on the earth. Because
that's how you mortify the flesh. He comes in power and He makes
you stop minding you and your flesh and your law keeping and
your religious works and all the things you're doing. That's
to live unto ourselves. He makes us stop doing that and
He makes us mind spiritual things. He makes us mind Christ and what
He's accomplished for us. That's what He does. And so Romans
8 now, back in verse 6, because of this, it says there in the
second part, to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Whereas
the carnal mind is death, to be spiritually minded is life
and peace. You own Christ your life and you're looking on Christ
your peace. And so you have life, you have
peace now. The law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death.
I have life and I have peace now. And get this good news. This is what all of this means.
Verse 9. Verse 9. But you are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. in the Holy Spirit, in God the
Holy Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of His.
But do you see this good news? When you're born of God, you
are not in the flesh. You're not in the flesh. We are
in the Spirit. We live and dwell in the Spirit
because the Spirit of God dwells in us. Now, it looks to us like
we live in the flesh. It looks to our brethren like
we live in the flesh. But before God, we're not in
the flesh. We are in the Spirit. We live
in the Spirit. What does that mean? As He is,
so are we in this world. As Christ is, that is how His
people are in this world. 1 Peter 4, I want you to see
this. 1 Peter 4, and look at verse
1. This is one of those passages
that's a little difficult to comprehend, but I think you'll
get it right here. He's saying, we're not in the
flesh, we are in the Spirit. Now watch this. Where is Christ?
How is Christ? However He is, that's how we
are right now. For as much then as Christ has suffered for us
in the flesh, verse 1, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. For he that has suffered in the
flesh hath ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the
rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the
will of God. Is that talking about Christ
or me? Yes, it's talking about Christ and His people. That means
just as Christ is no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit,
we're no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit. We're no longer
living the rest of our time in our flesh to ourselves, to the
lusts of men. We're living now unto God by
what He's done for us. We're in the Spirit living unto
Him. It's the same thing He said in Philippians 3. We are the
circumcision who worship God in the Spirit. You can't worship
God any other way. There's no other way to worship
God but in the Spirit. And we worship God in the Spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. John 4, go to John chapter 4
verse 22, verse 23. This is what Christ was talking
about right here. John 4, 23. The hour cometh He was talking to this, let's
look at this woman, verse 21, verse 20. She said, our fathers
worshiped in this mountain. You say that in Jerusalem is
a place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
believe me, the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain
nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship you know
not what. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews, but the hour cometh And now is when
the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship Him. God is a spirit and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And that's
what our text is declaring to us. Right now, because we're
born of the Spirit and the Spirit dwells in you, you're not in
the flesh anymore. Now you can actually live unto
God. Now you can actually worship God. You can receive spiritual
things and rejoice in the things God's freely given you because
you are in the Spirit. You're in the Spirit. We worship
God in the Spirit, in truth. Look at Romans 8 now and look
at verse 10. Here's something else that's
very important now. He's saying all of that to tell
us this. This is so important. Now, This is his point at the
end of verse 7. He says, when our inner man is
taken captive by our sin nature, through the gospel, through the
hearing of Christ's faithfulness, through this gospel of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit continues to free
us from the law of sin and death. Now look at verse 10. And if
Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the
Spirit's life because of righteousness. Now right now, our body, he's
talking here about our fleshly sin nature. It's still what it
was before we were born of God. It's spiritually dead, it's sin,
it's flesh, that's all it is. It hates God, that's all it is
and that's all it'll ever be. But the Spirit is in you and
there's life in you because of righteousness. Because Christ
has made you righteous That's why the Holy Spirit's come into
you. That's why you have life. And that new man is said created
in righteousness and true holiness. 1 John 3 tells us there's a new
man in us which cannot sin. It's incorruptible. It's born
of incorruptible seed. And it cannot sin. This is the
part of you that believes. This is the part of you that
loves your brethren and can't do otherwise. The problems we
have is from the flesh. taking us captive so that we
can't do what we would in that inward man. But what he's telling
us here is we never do look to ourselves or to our flesh even
when that happens. Watch. Watch this. Go back to Romans 7. Let me show
you this. Here Paul said, verse 22, I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring
against the law of my mind, bringing me in captivity to the law of
sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? Now we'll worship
of any kind, whether they claim to preach grace or not, they're
going to tell you, you've got to go back to the law, and you've
got to do some reforming, and you've got to mortify the deeds
of your flesh. You have to do that. But what
does God say? Verse 11. 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. The believer's body is
the temple of the Holy Spirit. He dwells in us. Now yes, When
Christ returns, He's going to quicken our mortal bodies and
raise us incorruptible with glorified human flesh. There's no doubt
about that. With the context here, what Paul
is saying is we're still continually delivered from our sin nature
by the Spirit quickening us in the inner man which makes Him
quicken your members So that rather than your sin nature ruling
your bodily members, your inner man rules your bodily members.
So he's saying to you there that you're not in the flesh now,
don't worry about that part. You're in the Spirit if the Spirit
of Christ dwells in you. But if the Spirit of Christ dwells
in you, that part is still dead. He's still dead. But now, remember
the Spirit's life because of righteousness. He's telling you,
you're not under the law, there's still no condemnation. But when
you see your sin nature prevail and brings you into captivity
and you have that struggle Paul's talking about in Romans 7, the
way you're going to be quickened and brought out of it. Paul said,
who's going to save me from this body of death? He said, I thank
God through Jesus Christ. And he says here, it's the Spirit
that's going to do it. The Holy Spirit's going to quicken
your mortal body. He's going to do it by renewing
that inward man so that your body will be controlled by your
new man and not your old man. That's what he's going to do.
That's what he's going to do. So here's the application now. And this is probably the most
important part. Verse 12, Therefore brethren, we are debtors not
to the flesh to live after the flesh. We saw how we were delivered
from the law of sin and death as far as the commandments go.
Christ did it by His life and His death on our behalf. We saw
how we were delivered from the law of sin and death which is
in our sin nature. It was by being born of this
gospel, this incorruptible seed by the Spirit of God. We saw
how we're going to be continually delivered from it the same way.
So he says here, we're not debtors in any way to our flesh. Our
flesh has never done anything good for us. It's only been sinful. So we don't live after the flesh.
We don't go back to the law. We don't try to mortify the deeds
of our flesh by our flesh and by the things we do. If you live
after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through the Spirit
to mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. It's through
the Spirit. It's through the Spirit. Paul
said, beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain
deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the
world, after fleshly things and not after Christ, not after spiritual
things. What things is he talking about?
He said if you're dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world,
Why as though your life is in this world are you subject to
ordinance such as touch not, taste not, handle not? Paul is
saying the fleshly things are the commandments. Touch not,
taste not, handle not. These are the things that men
are turning you back to your flesh with. He said you're dead
to the law. You're dead to it. So don't be
tricked to going back to that and living after the flesh because
if we live after the flesh we'll die. But if you're through the
Spirit, Through the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh.
What does that mean? Paul told the Galatians, if you
go this way and you keep going back to the law, you're going
to bite and devour one another and you're going to destroy one
another in the name of making each other holy. He said, but
if you walk in the Spirit, if you walk in the Spirit, you shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And that's the point of Galatians
5. Romans 7 shows us what we would do in our inner man. We
can't do it because of this sinful flesh. Galatians 5 says, but
what that flesh wants to do, it can't do because of God the
Holy Spirit dwelling in you. God the Holy Spirit will not
allow the flesh to do what it would otherwise do. It's only
the Spirit that mortifies the deeds of our flesh, not us. The Spirit has to do it. He's
going to make you look to Christ. Look to Him. How do we walk in
the Spirit? How do we, through the Spirit,
mortify the deeds of our flesh? How do we walk in the Spirit?
Remember what Paul said in Galatians 3? He said, this what I learn
of you. Did you receive the Spirit by
the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? How was the
Spirit given to you in the first place? Was it through the message
that the clergy teaches you to mine your flesh? The hearing
of your works? Or did God give you the Spirit
through hearing of Christ's faithfulness? the message of Christ in him
crucified. When it's through the message of Christ in him
crucified, that's how you walk in the Spirit. Immerse yourself
in the preaching of the gospel. Immerse yourself in studying
what you've heard. Immerse yourself in Christ the
Lord. And it's through the Spirit that
you'll be turned to Him. And your flesh, you'll see it
as it is for what it is. It's dead. It's not helpful.
And it'll be mortified. It's through this Word, it's
through this Gospel. He that ministers the Spirit
to you and works these miracles, does he do it through the hearing
of works or the hearing of the Gospel, Paul said? He does it
through the hearing of the Gospel. This is the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ, the Gospel, the incorruptible seed. Now,
so you immerse yourself in it. It's what Paul meant when he
said, brethren, whatever, what's pure, what's just, what's lovely,
what's good, think on these things. And that's what it is to walk
in the Spirit. It's to hear the Gospel preached and don't give
attention to works messages. It's to study what you've heard. It's to walk around thinking
on what you've heard. It's to not say, well I've done
that enough now, I'm going to go listen to some rap a little
while. Or I'm going to go listen to this or that. Stay on the
Gospel. Stay on the Gospel. Feed that
new man. And the Holy Spirit of God makes it effectual. He's
the one that makes it effectual. He even makes you be able to
do that. And remember this now, we're sons, we're not slaves.
Look at verse 14. As many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they're the sons of God. We have received the spirit of
bondage again to fear. He's not going to send you back
to the law with fear and you've got to try to mortify this thing.
He's given you the spirit of adoption and here's how we mortify
the flesh. We cry, Father, Father, save
me from this wretched man that I am. There it is. Save me. Well, preacher, what's He going
to do if He's going to remind you you're a child? The Spirit
bears witness with our spirit. We're children of God. Well preacher,
I can't pray. I don't feel like when I get
in this way, I can't even pray. Read on down on the page there,
verse 26. The Spirit also helps our infirmities,
for we know not to pray as we ought. But the Spirit makes intercession
for us with groanings that can't be uttered. And listen, he that
searches the hearts knows what's the minds of the Spirit, because
he makes intercession for the saints according to the will
of God. So you know what comes next? You see that He's saying,
you're not going to mortify yourself by yourself. The Spirit's going
to do it. Just like you were born again.
He's going to do it through this gospel. He's going to make you
listen to the gospel. He's going to make you go turn
to spiritual things and have your mind set on spiritual things.
He's going to bring you to cry out, Father, Father! And He's
going to bear witness in your heart. You're a child of God.
He's going to even be the one that's going to present your
feeble little attempt at prayer to the Father so the Father will
hear you. And the Father will. And you know what comes next?
Because this is also in the context. This is what He's saying. Verse
28, And so we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.
And you can read it to the end. Who can be against us? You see
what he's saying? You don't get out of Romans 7
into Romans 8. This is our life, brethren. That
war of Romans 7. But we'd never go back to the
flesh. Just like we're delivered from the law by Christ on the
cross, we're delivered from this flesh by Christ in us. And He
keeps you looking to Him. Looking to Him. Looking to Him.
It's all of Him. So, read the rest of that chapter
and I hope that's a blessing to you. All right, Brother Hart.