All right, I'd like for you to
turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. The title of
the message is Things of the Spirit. Things of the Spirit. Now in this passage, Romans chapter
eight, I began last week at verse one talking about the ground
of salvation. The ground of salvation is totally,
completely, and exclusively the work of Christ for his people
on the cross. It's what he did. He died to
put away our sins. He died to establish a righteousness
that would enable God to be a just God and a savior. God could be
true to himself and still save sinners in mercy and grace. That's
an important, vital concept, truth, that most people don't
even consider today. When most people consider mercy,
they just Think of a God who feels sorry for a bunch of people
who made a few mistakes. But that's not the Bible. That's
not the issue of salvation. The issue of salvation is stated
in the oldest book in the Bible in the form of a question that's
asked several times. And that is this, how can a man,
a sinful man, speaking of mankind born in Adam, How can a man be
just with God, be justified? How can God look upon a sinner
and declare that sinner not guilty and still be telling the truth,
still be true to His justice? Well, that's answered all through
the Scriptures, and the answer is simply by the sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ who died in the place of His people. God
was just. to punish Christ for the sins
of His elect people, His chosen people, His sheep, His church,
charged to Christ, for He was made sin. Christ was made sin. And that's what this is talking
about in the first few verses of Romans 8. It's kind of summarizing
what Paul had written all the way up to this point. Look at
verse 1. Let's just read through these.
I won't preach on these this morning. I want to get to the
things of the Spirit here. But he says, there's therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, not condemned,
not guilty, justified before God, righteous in Christ. That's
an amazing thing. That's amazing grace. And then
he describes them, he says, who walk not after the flesh but
after the spirit. And that's what we're gonna look
at this morning. He says in verse two, for the law of the spirit
of life in Christ Jesus. Now the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus is the gospel. The good news of how God saves
sinners by grace in Christ. And he hath made me free from
the law of sin and death. The law of sin and death is the
law as it condemns us in Adam. And we cannot get out of that
situation by our works. That's what the scripture says.
For by grace are you saved through faith. And that's not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should. You
can try to be the best that you can be in every aspect of life,
and you still cannot free yourself from the law of sin and death.
That's why salvation is by grace. That's why Christ had to come.
He was the father, God sent him in the fullness of the time,
sent his son to be made of woman, made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law, to do what they could not do.
Look at it, he says in verse three, he says, for what the
law could not do. Now the law could not justify
a sinner based on that sinner's works. That's what the law cannot
do. The law cannot wash away your sins. Cannot make you innocent. The law can show you what sin
is. The law can show you what righteousness is, but it cannot
wash away sin and it cannot make you righteous. Why is that? Because
it was weak through the flesh. And that's a way of saying our
sinfulness. In other words, we're the problem.
The problem's not with the law. It's not God's fault. The problem's
right here. Sooner you see that, the better
off you'll be. The problem's not everybody else. It's me.
Your problem is you. And so he says, now for that
reason, God's sending his own son in the likeness of sinful
flesh. In other words, Christ, when
you looked at his human body, he was nothing as impressive. He didn't have a glow about him.
He couldn't pick him out in a crowd. I mean, it just wasn't that way.
But he was not sinful. He was made of the seed of David,
according to the flesh, without sin. He was tempted and tested,
like as we are, yet without sin. He got hungry, just like you
get hungry. He got sorrowful. Those are the infirmities, weaknesses
of the flesh. And we all have those, but the
difference between his humanity and our humanity is we're sinful,
and he wasn't. and isn't. But it was the likeness
of sinful flesh, and for sin, or as a sin-bearer, or a sin-offering,
as a substitute for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. By his offering
of himself upon the cross, he actually put sin to death. That's what that's saying. You
can't do that. I can't do that. If it were left
to me and you, sin would put us to death. That's what James
said. Sin, when it finishes, brings forth death. We don't
have that power to put sin to death, but Christ did. Now he
did that, verse four. Now here's where we're going
today. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
We don't walk after the flesh, but we walk after the spirit.
Now when he talks about the things of the spirit, walking after
the spirit, what he's talking about is the fruit of salvation. Christ's work on the cross is
the ground of salvation. A sinner who's been born again
by the Spirit, given life, and who walks after the Spirit is
the result. He's the fruit of Christ's work
on the cross. The results. And we don't want
to confuse those. How is the righteousness of the
law fulfilled in me or in you? It's when we see that Christ
fulfilled that law. When the Holy Spirit gives us
spiritual life, we're born again, and we see and believe and know
and trust and rest in the fact that Christ and Him alone fulfilled
all the law's requirements for me. He satisfied the law's justice
against me so that I can stand before God in Christ and say,
there's therefore now no condemnation for me. I'm a sinner. But I cannot
be condemned. God does not impute, charge,
account my sin to me. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity," David said. He charged him to
Christ. Christ became fully responsible
for all my sins. And the Holy Spirit in the new
birth brings me and giving me spiritual life, imparting knowledge,
life, faith, all the gifts and graces of the Spirit. And He
indwells His people. That's what He's going to talk
about. And the main way that we know that is He shows us the
glory of Christ in our salvation. That He is my righteousness before
God. Not me, not myself, but He is. And so, that's what it means
to have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us. But
we walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Now, look
back over there at John chapter 3 that Brother Joe read. Now
this is what he's talking about. Christ died on the cross in order
that his people may live. And that's the power of his resurrection. In fact, Ephesians chapter 1
says the same power that raised him from the dead out of the
grave is the same power that resurrects his people from the
dead spiritually in the new birth. And the reason that we who know
Christ now, not all without exception, but we who believe in Him and
trust in Him, the reason that we walk after the Spirit and
not after the flesh is because Christ died, was buried, and
rose again the third day. Now, he's talking to a man here
named Nicodemus. And I want you to keep this in
mind because when we go back to Romans 8, this is gonna be
so important for us to understand. If we're going, you know, last
week I was talking about we have to learn to think scripturally.
You know, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 that we who are saved,
we have the mind of Christ. We have his mind in the word
here. This is the mind of God right
here from Genesis to Revelation. But we also, by the spirit of
God, we learn to think like him through his word. And so, when
we see terms like flesh, what do you think of? Well, if we
have the mind of Christ, what do we think of? That's what I
want you to understand this morning. Now, who's he talking to? He's
talking to a man who is religious here named Nicodemus. It says
here, there was a man of the Pharisees. Now, I know we have
bad connotations in our minds from the Pharisees. A lot of
times it comes from movies and things like that, but a lot of
it comes from Scripture and rightly so. I mean, you read the book
of Matthew, I believe in chapter 22 and 23, chapter 22 and 23,
I mean, the Lord, you know, He didn't have anything good to
say about the Pharisees, but you need to understand how the
people, how the population looked at the Pharisees. These were
the most respected teachers of the scripture of their day. These
were the men who went above and beyond the call of duty and religion. These were the men who people
wanted to follow. These were the sincere, dedicated
religionists. That's who the Pharisees were
in the eyes of the general population then. And Nicodemus was one of
them. It says, he was a ruler of the
Jews. That means he had lifted, he had gone high in the ranks.
He was one of the Sanhedrin. He was one who sat in judgment
in the courts, in the religious court, in the civil court under
the law. And he came by night, it says
in verse two, he came to Jesus by night and said unto him, rabbi.
He reckoned, that word rabbi is a title. It would be like
they would say doctor so and so in theology. And that's what that was. It
was like a master, a master in the scriptures. This is a person
who he recognized knew the scriptures. And he says, Rabbi, we know thou
art a teacher come from God. You couldn't deny that. Think
about this. The Jesus of Nazareth, the things
he did, the things that he taught, They couldn't deny that he was
a teacher sent from God. And he says, for no man can do
these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Now listen
to what the Lord tells Nicodemus. He says in verse three, Jesus
answered and said to him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except
a man be born again, literally born from above. Now what does
that tell you? It tells you right now he's not
talking about a regular birth. He's not talking about the birth
of a baby. Here, physical birth. He's talking
about a spiritual birth. Born again, born from above,
born of God. And except a man be born again,
he says he cannot see the kingdom of God. That word see there means
not just to glance at it or to see it with the visible eye,
it means to understand it and to know it and to believe. It's
the eye of faith. In other words, you can't have
the eye of faith until you're born again. Now that puts to death
this notion that people have today is that, well, you make
your decision for Christ and you believe, and then as a result,
you're born again. No, sir. Not according to Scripture.
And I'll show you another one on that one, too, just a moment.
But listen to what he says. Well, Nicodemus didn't understand
that. He didn't understand these things and this thing of the
new birth. And he says in verse 4, Nicodemus
saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he
enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born again?
Nicodemus knew that you couldn't enter into your mother's womb.
He's showing his ignorance, obviously. I don't know if he's making a
play on words here or what, but that's ridiculous. I think what he's doing here
is he's actually telling the Lord here, he says, you're speaking
ridiculously. Well, look at the answer, verse
5, Jesus answered, Verily, verily, that means truly, truly, I say
unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit. Now,
some people believe that the word water there refers back
to the physical birth, and what Christ is doing here, he's saying,
well, no, you've got to be born physically, but you also have
to be born spiritually. Born physically is to be born
in sin. Other commentators say that the
word water is used in its emblematic way, its symbolic way, to mean
the Word of God. And we know from the Scripture
that in order to be born from above, you have to be under the
Word of God. It's the Word of life. James
said that. In James chapter 1, I believe
it's verse 18, you can check me on that, but he said, we're
begotten again by the Word of truth. In other words, the means
and the instruments by which the new birth is brought about
is in the power of the Holy Spirit through the preached word, the
gospel. So either way. But here's the point. Here's
the simple point. He says you've got to be born
of the Spirit. Watering of the Spirit. He cannot
enter into the kingdom of God. This is the way a sinner comes
into the kingdom of God. Being born of the Spirit. The
Holy Spirit gives a sinner life, a dead sinner. We're born dead
in trespasses and sins. That's the ruination of the fall
of Adam. But the Holy Spirit comes forth
from the Father and the Son and gives life from Christ to a dead
sinner. And that's the way he enters
into the kingdom of God. That's the way he becomes a citizen
of the kingdom, a member of the family. a son of God, a child
of God. Now why is that? Why does that
have to happen, this new birth, this born from above? Well, he
says it in verse 6, because that which is born of the flesh is
flesh. Now there's that term flesh.
Remember what Paul wrote over in Romans 8? He said, those who
are in Christ Jesus, and that means united to Him. That means
you're one with Christ. He says those who are in Christ
Jesus don't walk after the flesh, they walk after the Spirit. But
in order to walk after the Spirit, you've got to be born of the
Spirit. You've got to be born from above. That's what he's
teaching here. And the reason is because flesh cannot produce
anything but flesh. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. Now what he's saying here is this. You can, listen,
you can be born into a family of believers, a mama and daddy
who are believers. You could be born of them, but
that doesn't make you a believer. You understand what I'm saying?
You could, the Jews said, we're born of Abraham, we're Abraham's
seed. That doesn't make you a child
of God. You can be a physical descendant of Abraham, and that
means nothing as far as salvation is concerned. That which is born
of the flesh is flesh. The flesh can only produce flesh. But he says, he says, and that
which is born of the spirit, the Holy Spirit, is spirit. That's regeneration. We have
spirits. We're born with spirit, but it's
dead. Until the Holy Spirit regenerates us and gives us spiritual life. Now, how do you define that?
Well, first of all, he said in verse 7, he says, Marvel not
that I said unto thee, you must be born again. Don't be amazed
at that. That shouldn't amaze any of us
because the natural man will not receive the things of the
Spirit of God. Neither can he know them. They're spiritually
discerning. He doesn't have spiritual eyes and spiritual ears. Just
like a baby that's born physically, it's given physical eyes and
physical ears to see physical things. Well, you've got to be
born again spiritually to be given spiritual ears and spiritual
eyes to hear and see spiritual things. Those things, they don't
mean anything to you. Really, they don't. Until you're
born again. So don't be amazed, he says.
Well now, how do you define that? How do you theologize that? How
do you doctrinalize? I don't know. I don't know. People
try to do that. You know, and they'll go into
these things about body, soul, and spirit, and this and that
and the other, and this nature and that nature. Listen, listen
to what he says here in verse 8. Now here's how you know if
you have spiritual life. He says, the wind bloweth where
it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst
not tell whence it cometh, where the source of it is. We know
a little more about meteorology and weather than they did back
then, but still, How do you know the wind's blowing? You feel
it, don't you? You see the leaves blowing. We saw a tree blow down
yesterday and our power was off all day. We knew the wind was
blowing. Went off at 7.15, didn't come on until 9.15 last night.
You believe that? But that wind was blowing. And you see the effects of it.
And that's what he's saying here, the wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound there, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. What's he saying about it? He
says you know it by the evidences. And what's the main evidence?
Well, they believe in Christ. They rest in Christ for all salvation,
for all righteousness, for all eternal life, for all glory.
They're not trying to be saved by their works, Nicodemus. That's what you're trying to
do. And that means you haven't seen or entered the kingdom of
heaven. Look at verse 13 of John 3. He says, And no man hath ascended
up to heaven, but he that cometh down from heaven, even the Son
of man which is in heaven. You know what he's saying there?
He's saying, oh man, you cannot work your way up to heaven. No
man has gotten to heaven except by him who came down from heaven. And who is he? The Lord Jesus
Christ. The only way to heaven is the
Lord Jesus Christ. The only way to righteousness
is the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way to forgiveness is
the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't work your way there.
You can build a tower, you're not gonna make it. You can live
a devout life, as most people would say. You can't make it
there. No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down
from. The only one who ascended up
to heaven by his works and efforts and obedience and death and sufferings
and death is the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're gonna get there,
it'll have to be by him. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. You want
resurrection from the dead? Then you have to trust in and
believe and rest in the only one who arose from the dead,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so then he goes to the source
of all this. Now what's the ground of all
this? Now Paul did it the other way. He started out with the
ground. Christ on the cross, that's the ground. Walking after
the spirit, there's the fruit. The Christ, when he's talking
to Nicodemus, he started with Nicodemus where he was at. He
says, you've got to be born again. Now here's how you're born again.
Look at verse 14, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That's
on the cross. That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have eternal life. The eternal life is not
in our believing, it's in Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection.
You see that? He says, for God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son. That world, there's not
everybody without exception either. Who is it? That whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now go
back to John 1. Turn back just a few pages. Let
me show you what I was talking about earlier. Walking after
the flesh. The things of the Spirit. It says, In verse 11, that he, that is Christ, John
1 11, Christ came unto his own, and his own received him not.
They didn't receive him. But to as many as received him,
to them gave he power. Now that word power there is
not ability. That word power there is a right.
And he says, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,
literally to be called the sons of God. In other words, if you've
received Christ, that means to believe on him and rest in him
for all salvation, righteousness, eternal life, and glory, you
have the right to be called a son of God, a child of God. Remember
a few weeks back we studied in 1 John chapter 3 about that,
in this the children of God are manifested, in this the children
of the devil. Those who do with righteousness
are children of God, those who commit a sin, talking about faith
in Christ. Well, he says you have the right,
and he says, even to them that believe on his name. His name
there is that which identifies and distinguishes him as the
one and only Savior and Lord. Not just a label. But now look
at verse 13. Now who's going to do that? Well,
those who are better than the ones who didn't receive him.
No. Who's going to do that? Those which were born not of
blood, that's not of natural birth. That's what that's talking
about. Nor of the will of the flesh. It's not of the free will
of men. They don't have a free will.
Your will's in bondage to sin. Nor the will of man. It's not
by the will of other men. but which were born of God."
Now there's the key. You've got to be born of God.
Now look back at Romans chapter 8 now. That's the things of the
Spirit. So now when you look at this
passage, it says in verse 4, Christ did all the work that
He came to do to put away the sins of His sheep. He called
them His sheep. And remember who he said are
his sheep in John chapter 10. They are those who hear his voice.
How can you hear if you don't have ears to hear? Somebody's
got to give you ears to hear. And hearing his voice is not
just some dream, it's hearing his word. It's hearing the gospel. Alright? He calls his sheep by
the gospel. And all that's based upon what
he said in John chapter 10 verse 11, the good shepherd gives his
life for the sheep. Life comes from Christ. It's
applied by the Holy Spirit. But Christ is our life. We read
that in Colossians 3 when we opened the service today. Christ
who is our life. He is my life. He is the life,
the only life. Alright, so he did all that,
that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us,
that's the work of the Spirit, to show us God's law satisfied,
righteousness established by Christ. And who walk not after
the flesh but after the Spirit. Now he starts talking about those
who walk after the flesh. Verse five, he says, for they
that are after the flesh, that means they live a life according
to the flesh, that's what that means. It's not just a one time
thing or a momentary thing, that is their life. All right? And it says they do mind the
things of the flesh, they set their heart, their mind, their
goals on the things of the flesh. But they that are after the spirit,
now I believe that's the Holy Spirit there. who applies life
to his people from Christ, they mind the things of the Spirit. Their mind and their heart is
on the things as they are guided and motivated and energized and
taught by the Spirit of God. All right? So there's your distinction
there. One is a natural man. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. The other
is a spiritual man. He'd been born again by the Spirit,
which evidences that he's chosen of God, redeemed by the blood
of Christ, justified by the righteousness of Christ, imputed, regenerated,
and called up by the Spirit. And then he begins to describe
this, all right? Now, here's what I want you to
see, and make sure you understand this before you read these verses.
When you think of the term flesh, what do you think of? Well, you
think of the human body, all right? And that sometimes is
meant by the term flesh in scripture, but not here. This is not talking
about the human body. Now, later on it talks about
it. I'll show you that in a moment. But this human body, this is
the flesh, all right? This is the flesh. And there's,
listen, Christ had a human body. He had a humanity. As I quoted
from Romans chapter one, it says, he was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh. Hebrews chapter 2 talks about
He, as the children, His children, God's children, are partakers
of flesh and blood. He, Christ Himself, took part
of the sin. He had to become flesh and blood
without sin. You see, God cannot die, but
this person who is God did die, and He had to have a human body.
He said, a body hast thou prepared me. And that body. When we take the Lord's Supper,
we take the unleavened bread which represents His body which
was broken for us. So He had a fleshly body. He
had arms and legs, all like what we have. But what He didn't have
that we all have is sin. Sin. That's what flesh means
here. It's sin. Now, sin is not a substance. I can't pick up sin from here
and lay it over here. In fact, that's where a lot of
people, I think, they get confused because sometimes the Bible will
use symbolic language about sin, and sometimes preachers will
do that too. I heard a fellow the other day talking about how
Christ was made a mass of corruption. Well, corruption is not a mass
of anything. It's not a mass. It's not something
I can pick up here and move over here. It's not a liquid. It's
not a gas. It's not, what's the other one?
Solid. That's not what sin is. It's
not something that's shot into you or taken out of you. You
know, one old preacher wrote a whole book on the blood. He
said it comes through the blood physically. Now it doesn't. Paul
called it a law in Romans 7, and really, I don't want to confuse
you, but you really can't... Sin, listen, when you talk about
corruption, you can talk about how these human bodies, when
we die, or even before we die, we get old, and you see the corruption
of the body. But that's not sin, that's the
result of sin, that's death. That's what that is, that's the
result of sin. But sin itself, what is sin?
Well, the Bible says sin is missing the mark. For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. That's literally missing
the mark, that's what that means. What is the mark? Perfection,
holiness, righteousness. We miss it every time. We can
try for it, we can strive for it, we can cry for it, but we're
gonna miss it. There's only one person who ever hit that mark
and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin has to do with evil motives,
evil desires. And we'll use these human bodies
to fulfill those evil desires and to go on those evil motives
and goals and all that. Therefore, sometimes the human
body is equated with sin in that sense. Because we use these as
vehicles for sin. But now we can use them as vehicles
of obedience. I mean, I can use my hands to
choke somebody to death, or I can use my hands to pick up a Bible
and read it and glean from the Word of God. But I still miss
the mark. Either way, I'm still a sinner.
That's what sin is. It's missing the mark. It's rebellion
against God. That's what sin is. And that's
what he's talking about. They do mind, they're after the
flesh. Look at verse 6, here's what
he says. For to be carnally minded, that word carnal is the same
thing as flesh. To be fleshly minded is death. But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Now what is it to be fleshly
minded, what is it to be spiritually minded? Well now think about
this. Normally when we think of someone who is fleshly minded,
we might think of someone who is just an abject, perverted
rebel. Immoral as they can be. Lawbreakers. The kind of people
we want our sheriff to put in jail and keep there. That's normally
what we think of, isn't that right? When we think of flesh.
Someone who is fleshly minded. Sometimes we think of somebody
who's just materialistic. Get all you can get as quick
as you can get it. Like the fella there in Luke
chapter 12, you know, he got so much stuff he had to build
bigger barns because he didn't have enough places to store his
stuff, so he had to keep going, keep going. Eat, drink, and be
merry. Tomorrow you die. And those do equate with fleshliness,
the fleshly minded. But when you think of Flesch
here, the way he's talking here, think this way too. Think about Nicodemus, that religious
man who was doing his best to keep the law, who was trying
to be moral and kind and charitable. Think about Saul of Tarsus. That's
a good example right there. Read about him in Philippians
chapter 3, what he said of himself as a man who was minding the
things of the flesh. What did he say? He said, I was
a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees, circumcised the
eighth day, as touching the law of Pharisee of the tribe of Benjamin.
I was doing my best to keep the law. That's to be carnally minded
if you're doing that to be saved. Look over at Romans chapter 7.
Just back one page in verse 5. Now listen to this. Paul writes here in Romans 7
verse 5, for when we were in the flesh, now to be in the flesh
is to be unregenerate, not born again, an unbeliever. He says
the motions of sins, that word motions is passions. Passionate
for sin. which were by the law. How were
the passions of sins by the law? Well, he says, did work in our
members to bring forth fruit unto death. Now that plays out
in a person's life in one of two ways. This passions of sin,
the fleshly mind and in the flesh, one of two ways. It'll either
play out in an abject rebellion against the things of God and
the things of society and the things of morality, an absolute
criminal. or it'll play out in self-righteous
works legalistic religion. Both are passions of sins. Saul
of Tarsus was not on his way on the road to Damascus trying
to rob a bank. He wasn't going to a wild drunken
party. He was doing what he thought
was the work of God. in stamping out what he thought
was heresy. He was in the flesh. He was carnally
minded. Look at it. For to be carnally
minded is death. My friend, that does describe
those who have no interest at all in the things of God, in
the things of morality, in the things of responsibility, but
it also includes the most religious-minded people who are trying to work
their way into God's favor. That's carnal-mindedness. Salvation
by works. Look over at Romans chapter 9
and verse 31. He says in verse 31, but Israel,
which followed after the law of righteousness, they were trying
to make themselves righteous by their law-keeping, hath not
attained to the law of righteousness, wherefore or why? Because they
sought it not by faith. To seek it by faith is to seek
it and find it in Christ. But they sought it, as it were,
by the works of the law, and they stumbled at the stumbling
stone. As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone
and rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him." That stumbling
stone is a him, it's a person, it's Christ. Shall not be ashamed. Look back at Romans 8, verse
6. To be carnally minded is death.
My friend, if you seek salvation by your works, that's carnally
minded. That's death. Certainly we would
say anyone who's out here trying to break the law and trying to
just live materialistically, who has no thoughts towards God,
no thoughts towards the gospel, no thoughts, no desire for this,
certainly we'd say they're carnal in mind, but this includes any
person who's seeking salvation apart from Christ and His blood
and righteousness. But now to be spiritually minded
is life in peace. To be spiritually minded is to
be motivated, energized, filled with the Holy Spirit who has
given us spiritual life indicated by the fact that we look to Christ,
we serve Christ, we follow Him, we rest in Him for all salvation. He is our life and He's the one
who made peace by the blood of His cross. Verse seven, because
the carnal mind is enmity against God. That word enmity means opposition.
It's an enemy. Any sinner who's seeking salvation
apart from Christ, apart from the grace of God in Christ, is
an enemy of God. Do you realize that? Now they
may outwardly appear righteous unto men. They may be dedicated,
sincere. They may have gone through all
the motions, the rites of passages, such as, you know, they walked
an aisle, shook the preacher's hand, got baptized, joined the
church, wear Sunday school, they may be standing behind a pulpit
somewhere preaching a false gospel. But, he says, they're enmity
against God, because anyone who comes to God apart from Christ,
the mercy seat, without the righteousness of Christ, is an enemy in God's
mind. and is not subject to the law
of God. They may be trying to keep the law, but they're not
subject to the law, they're not submitted to the law, because
you're not submitted to the law of God until you come clean with
God by the power of the Spirit, saying, God, I'm a sinner. I
have no hope of salvation, of righteousness, of forgiveness,
but in Christ. To be submitted to the law of
God is to be submitted to Christ, who kept that law, the only one
who ever did, and fulfilled it. Neither indeed can be. You can't
be. Listen, you can try to keep the Ten Commandments till you're
blue in the face, but until you come to a realization that that
law condemns you based upon your best efforts to keep it and your
only hope of salvation is in and by the Lord Jesus Christ,
you're not subject to the law of God and you cannot be. Verse
8, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. What's
it take to please God? Hebrews chapter 11 tells us,
without faith it's impossible to please God. The Lord God spoke
from heaven at the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ, and what
did He say? He said, this is my beloved Son
in whom I am want, well, please, hear ye Him. You can't please
God outside of Christ. You see what I'm saying? But
he says in verse nine, he's talking to believers here, he says, but
you're not in the flesh. Now you're still sinners now,
but you're in the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God
dwell in you. That's the Holy Spirit who indwells
the people of God continually. Now if any man have not the spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. If you don't have the spirit
of God indwelling you as evidence by looking to Christ and resting
in him, You're none of His. Verse 10, and if Christ be in
you, the body is dead because of sin. Now that's this physical
body. It's dead because of sin. It's dying. But listen, the Spirit
is life. The Holy Spirit is life and gives
life because of what? Because of righteousness. Now
where are you going to find righteousness? Not but one place. Romans 10
4, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. You want to know if you're born
again? You want to know if the Holy Spirit indwells you? Think
about it. Verse 11, look, 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 quicken your mortal bodies
by his spirit that dwelleth in you. That's the resurrection
from the dead. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors,
not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. We don't owe anything
to ourselves or to the flesh or to our works and our efforts
as far as salvation. We don't owe anything to the
flesh. He says in verse 13, for if you live after the flesh,
you'll die, whether you're religious or irreligious. But if you, through
the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body,
the best you can do, put them to death, they cannot save me,
they cannot make me righteous, they cannot cleanse me from sin.
Where do I put them? On the cross of Calvary. Mortify
the deeds of the body. My best deeds cannot save me.
They're nothing but dung, Paul said in Philippians chapter 3,
when you compare them with what Christ accomplished on Calvary.
And then he says, you live, you shall live. For as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. How do you
know if you're led by the Spirit of God? I'll tell you exactly
how. He'll lead you to Christ and nowhere else. No one else. He won't lead you to look to
yourself or to look to the preacher or to look to your denomination
or to look to your accomplishments or your experiences. He'll lead
you to Christ. And he won't lead you anywhere
else. If you're led by the Spirit, that's where you'll find it.
It's like the old boy said, when you're convicted of sin, where
are you going to find relief and peace and safety and salvation? If you find it anywhere but Christ
and Him crucified and risen again, you can mark it down. It's not
the Spirit leading you. It's the flesh. But if you're
led to rest in Christ alone for all salvation, for all righteousness,
for all life and forgiveness, that's the Spirit of God.