Good evening, let's stand together
and sing hymn number 168. 168 Lord, I hear of showers of blessings,
Thou art scattering, full and free. Showers of thirsty land
refreshing, Let some drops now fall on me. Even me, even me
Let Thy blessing fall on me Ask me not, O tender Savior Let me
love and cling to Thee I am longing for thy favor, whilst they're
calling, O call me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, O mighty spirit,
Thou canst make the blind to see. Witness, sir, of Jesus'
Spirit, speak the word of power to me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless
Blood of Christ so rich and free Grace of God so strong and boundless,
Magnified in all in me, Even me, even me. Let Thy blessing fall on me. Pass me not Thy lost one bringing,
Find my heart, O Lord, to Thee. While the streams of life are
springing, Blessing others, don't bless me. Even me, even me, Let
thy blessings fall on me. Be seated. We'll sing Hymn number
225. 225. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
come unto me and rest. Lay down with weary one, lay
down. Thy head upon Thy breast. I came to Jesus as I was weary
and worn and sad. I found in Him a resting place,
and He has made me glad. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Behold, I freely give the living water. Thirsty one, stood down
and drink and live. I came to Jesus and I drank of
that life-giving stream. My thirst was quenched, my soul
revived, and now I live in Thee. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
I am this dark world's God. Look unto me, Thy mourn shall
rise. and all thy day be bright. I looked to Jesus and I found
in him my star, my sun. And in that light of life I'll
walk till traveling days are done. Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter
8. I'm going to deal, Lord willing,
with the verses 5 through 11, but I'll read from verse 1 to
11. Go over a little bit of what
we said. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the spirit. For the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. 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, sacrifice for sin,
an offering for sin, judged sin in the flesh, condemned it, that
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who
walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. 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. For to
be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against
God. It is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. If so be the Spirit of God dwell
in you, Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of his. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. 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. Our blessed, blessed Master,
our great, glorious God and Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. It's to
you we look for your glorious appearing. And oh, when you take
this old body, change it like unto your glorious body. Make
it like unto what you are now, even in glory. And oh Lord, we
thank you for allowing us the privilege to be here tonight.
Thank you for all what a blessed privilege it is to read your
word. And Lord, I pray that you'd be
pleased to give me understanding that the understanding and wisdom
that I may have in the scriptures, if you give it to me, Lord, I'd
be able to teach it to others, give some sense to these words,
some sense and understanding to what you have to say. And
Lord, we pray that you'd continue to bless this body of believers,
And Lord, protect your dear people wherever they may be. We ask
for our preacher brethren tonight who stand to preach. We ask for
your great and abundant mercy to be on them. And Lord, those
who are weak in body, those who providentially hinder tonight,
we ask for your great, great grace to be upon them. And Lord
Jesus, we pray that you forgive us of everything that's unlike
you, everything that dishonors you in any way. And Lord, help
us to live to your glory, live to the love and compassion and
kindness toward others, and let us do it for Christ's sake. Enable
me to speak. Save our lost loved ones. Oh,
God, please be merciful to our children, our grandchildren. Oh, Lord, we know that you're
the only one that can do anything for them. So we look to you. Continue to call them out before
you. Please, O Lord, meet with us
tonight. Please, O God, come, be in our presence, come among
us, and do it for Christ's sake. Amen. Hymn number 337. 337. Teach me thy way, O Lord, teach
me thy way by guiding grace. For by faith blessed by sight,
lead me with heavenly light, teach me thy way. When I am sad at heart, teach
me thy way. Rejoice, depart, reach me thy
way. In times of dire distress, in
failure or success, teach me thy way. When doubts and fears arise,
teach me thy way. When storms o'erspread the skies,
teach me thy way. In uncertain cloud and rain,
through sorrow, toll, and pain, make thou teach me thy way. Long as my life shall last, teach
me thy way. Grace is time until the journey's
done, until the crown is worn. Teach me. Let me mention that Cody and
Rachel's little boy, Isaac, he had a seizure last Thursday
night. And they carried him to the emergency
room. And they went on vacation. And
they had to leave their vacation. He had two seizures while they
were in Florida. And he's just a baby. So please
remember the emergency. I would just, I can't imagine.
You know, any of your children. But boy, when they're just a
baby and they're having seizures. So they came home early. And
they're supposed to do an EKG on his little brain today. And
I hope they don't find anything serious. And I hope, by God's
grace, he outgrows it. I hope he outgrows it. And that'd
make your hands full, wouldn't it? It'd be hard to not have
that on your mind all the time. It really would. Well, here in Romans 8, he's
talking about people who walk not after the flesh but after
the Spirit. And that's why he says, there's
therefore in verse 1, there's no condemnation and no judgment
to them who are in Christ Jesus. And here he makes a distinction.
FOR WHO WOULD WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, BUT AFTER THE SPIRIT?
THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST DO WALK, DON'T WALK AS FLESH, BUT AS THE
SPIRIT. AND THE REASON BEING, BECAUSE THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN
CHRIST HATH MADE US FREE FROM THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH. AND THERE WASN'T A THING IN THE
WORLD WRONG WITH THE LAW. THE PROBLEM WAS US. WE WAS TOO
WEAK. OUR FLESH IS WEAK. WE CAN'T KEEP
THE LAW. IT'S A SPIRITUAL LAW. WE'RE CARNAL.
So God, how He dealt with our sin, how He brought us out from
condemnation, and how He justified us is by sending His Son as a
sacrifice for sin, and doing that He judged sin in the flesh
and condemned it once and for all, judged it once and for all.
And here's the consequences of Him doing that. Now you think
about this, that the righteousness of the law God s Righteous. You know, the Gospel reveals
the Righteousness of God. That s what the Gospel does,
God being Righteous in His nature, being Righteous in His character,
demanding Righteousness from His subjects. And so here s the
thing that the Righteousness of the Law, that Law that demands
Righteousness and perfection, He gives it to us! That Law is
fulfilled in us! Next time somebody brings up
the law, what do I do about it? I'm righteous by the law, I have
all the righteousness of the law fulfilled in me, like I did
it myself, like everything in the law I did, I kept it. Now
watch what he says. Fulfilled in us, and listen,
here he goes again, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the spirit. And oh, I tell you what, and
Paul, what the Apostle's doing here is he's dealing with sanctification. He's dealing with our sanctification,
our holiness. And you know, whenever a person's
sanctified, it changes his entire life. I mean, it changes, it
involves everything about his life. It changes a believer's
life. It involves his sanctification,
involves the whole person. And unless a man is justified,
and He showed us that we were justified by faith, Christ was
delivered for our offenses, but raised for our justification.
We're justified, cleared of all guilt, cleared of all wrong,
cleared of all shame, cleared of all sin. Who is He that condemneth? It's God that justified us. Unless
a man be justified, he cannot possibly ever be holy. He cannot
be sanctified. And He's going to show us that
if a man's not holy, he cannot have possibly been justified,
and that's the thing about it. Justification and sanctification
go together. Wherever you find one, you find
the other. They go together. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God, neither fornicate, or
idolatrous, or effeminate, or abuse themselves with mankind,
as such were some of you? But now ye are justified and
sanctified by the Spirit of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."
So justification, sanctification, and good will is like repentance
and faith. You can't have faith without repentance. You can't
have repentance without faith. You can't be justified without
being sanctified. And if God justifies you, He
sanctifies you, He sets you apart and makes you to be His. And
we're going to show the difference between these people. Oh my! And where there's one, there's
the other. And here's the thing what Christ accomplished for
us on the cross, our justification. works in us what Christ did for
us, He sets us apart. Now, it shows us two classes
of men down through these verses of Scripture, and we're going
to start in verse 5. He said that, you know, in verse
4, that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who
walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For they that
are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they
that are after the Spirit do things of the Spirit. Two kinds
of people here, people after the flesh, people after the spirit.
And when he's talking about the flesh here, he's talking about
the old man, the unregenerated man, the man who has no spiritual
life in him, the man who is natural. The flesh is that old unregenerate
nature by which the unconverted men now live in this world. And
I tell you, living after the flesh, it just means a life lived
apart from God. That's all it means, a life lived
apart from God. Now, there's lots of people that
walk after the flesh, and they re not mean, they re not cruel,
they re not use filthy and foul language, and then there s people
who, you know, whether it s religious faith, the Pharisees, you know
what that means? Separated ones, you know, and
so it can mean And then there's people that lead a very, very
profane life and use awful language and talk about awful things.
And when it talks about the flesh, that old natural man, in whatever
form it takes, whether it's religious flesh, you know, As folks, I see folks all the
time, and God helpin' me, I've done made up my mind, I'm gonna
ask them some questions about it. They all wear these, they
wear these T-shirts about Jesus. I seen one the other day said,
Jesus loves pickleball. And you know, when you see things
like that, they think they're doin', that's the flesh. That's
the flesh, it's religious flesh. It wants people to know that
they are Christian by what they wear, but that's still the flesh. And well, he's an educated man,
it's STILL the flesh. If he's a cultured man and he
loves to go to art shows and ballets and all kinds of stuff,
I tell you, it does not make any difference. They're openly,
whether they're openly vile or educated or cultured, don't make
any difference. Our Lord said it like this, when
Nicodemus said, How can a man be born again when he's old?
Our Lord said, That that's born of the flesh is flesh. Nicodemus,
when you came out of your mother's womb, you was a NATURAL man.
And that which is born of the Spirit is a SPIRITUAL man. And
that's why He said, A man must be born again. And I'll tell
you, beloved, oh, Paul told the Galatians, he said, oh, you foolish,
foolish Galatians, having begun in the Spirit. You started out
in the Spirit. You started out by the Spirit
of God. You was regenerated by the Spirit
of God. Now you're gonna go back and
be made perfect by the flesh? By going back to law? And oh,
I tell you, unconverted people, people after the flesh, and that
word mind means, it means the object, object of your mind. What's set before your mind,
the interest of your mind. Unconverted people are concerned,
that's what it says, who mind the flesh. Taken up, anxious
over things of the flesh. Taken up with this world and
the things that's in this world. THE THINGS OF THE FLESH. YOU
KNOW, THE SCRIPTURES, OUR LORD SAID, ALL THEIR WORKS THEY DO
FOR TO BE SEEN OF MEN. HE SAYS, YOU KNOW, HE SAID, MEN
THAT SEEK TO HONOR FROM ONE ANOTHER, THAT'S AWFUL. AND I TELL YOU,
YOU KNOW, AND HERE'S THE SAD THING ABOUT IT, WE GOT CHILDREN.
THEY DON'T CUSS, THEY DON'T ACT FOOLISH, THEY DON'T ACT But the
world, the world's what they live for, for things, for prestige,
for status, for acceptance of their peers, for acceptance of
what they've accomplished in this world, their successes in
this world. Oh, my. Their health, their happiness. Oh, I get so sick of hearing
people, are you happy? I want you to be happy. Listen,
there's a lot of days I'm not happy, and you ain't either.
But now, where's the difference between happiness and joy? Happiness
is fleeting. It depends on something happening
in your circumstances. But joy is something only God
can give you. I mean, oh my, health, happiness,
and the honor of this flesh is their main motive. That's what
they want, their main motive. And oh my, many, many They want
God, oh, they'd love to have God, but they want Him on their
terms, on their terms, and you can't get Him on your terms.
Then look what it says there again in verse five. They that
are after the flesh mind the things, but they that are after
the Spirit. Now, every time you see the Spirit
here, it's capitalized, unless it's talking about our Spirit.
They that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit, they
mind the things of the Spirit. Now, I'll tell you, how can you
tell? Well, if you're of the Spirit, you know how you know
you've been born again. You have a birth. You've been
born from above. That's how we become spiritual
people. That's how we get in the Spirit. Oh my, we have a
new life. We have a new power. We have a new nature. We have
a new life. Our Lord said in John 6, 63,
You've heard this quoted many times. He says, the flesh, the
flesh, the old nature profits nothing, nothing that this body
can possibly do, nothing that this flesh can do can possibly
please God. They that are in the flesh. He said, profits absolutely profits
you nothing. But he says, they, The words
that I speak unto you, the words that I speak unto you, they're
spirit, that's the first thing, they're spiritual, they're spiritual
words. And not only that, but they're life words. They give
life, they give life. And oh my, those in Christ, and
I'll tell you what, how you getting spiritual? By a new birth, born
again, by a new power. That's why we become spiritual.
And those in Christ are concerned for spiritual things. We're concerned
after spiritual matters. You know what? Our minds are
set on, our hearts set on, our thoughts are, the objects of
our thoughts and our mind. WE'RE OCCUPIED WITH OUR RELATIONSHIP
WITH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. I'M INTERESTED IN MY RELATIONSHIP
WITH CHRIST. YOU KNOW WHAT? PAUL SAID IF A
MAN COULD GLORY AFTER THE FLESH, HE SAID I COULD GLORY MORE THAN
ANYBODY ELSE. I WAS A PHARISEE OF PHARISEES,
A HEBREW OF HEBREWS, BUT HE SAYS BUT EVERYTHING THAT WAS GAINED
TO ME AFTER MY FLESH, AFTER MY OWN NATURE, YOU KNOW WHAT HE
SAID? I COUNT IT BUT DONE. I want to win Christ. I want
to know Christ. I want to be found in Christ.
And that's exactly the way. That's our thoughts and our lives
are taken up with our spiritual life, with the things of relationship
with our master, relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the most important relationship we have in this world. Every
other relationship is temporary. But the only spiritual relationship
we have that matters more than anything in this life is our
relationship with our mother. We mind the things of the Spirit.
We want the things of the Spirit of God. We want the things of
the knowledge of Christ. And oh my, you know what, we're
concerned about those in Christ. We're concerned about growing
in grace. About the time we think we've grown a little bit and
learned a little bit, we'll finally get up one day and read the Bible
and say, boy, I don't know nothing. I don't know anything. You think,
boy, I've arrived, and the next thing you know, you say, boy,
I just don't know nothing. I don't know anything. And oh
my, and we're interested, and a spiritual person's in Christ,
they're interested in their, they mind the things of their
relationship with other people. We're interested in our relationship
with other people. I'm interested, you know, I'm
not interested in the world, I'm interested in you, and my
relationship with you, and you with me, and with one another. Oh my, those that are after the
Spirit, they live and feed upon Christ. He's our bread. He's our water. He's the sun. He is the one that rose with
healing in His wings. Oh my. And I'll tell you, we're
looking for the day when we'll inherit eternal glory. And let
me say this. The Bible does not tell me How I'm to treat you never addresses
how people are to treat you, but how you are to treat other
people. It tells us how to treat other
people. Huh? Never addresses people how to
treat you, but it tells you how to treat people. And oh, my. And it goes back down here now,
and so we're talking about two different types of people. They
that are after the flesh, the natural man, and the spiritual
man. And then he goes to say in verse
six, you know, they that mind the
things of the flesh are the spirit. Now let me, before I move on,
let me say this. You know, a man necessarily lives
according TO HIS NATURE. A MAN LIVES ACCORDING TO HIS
NATURE. IF HE'S A NATURAL MAN, HE'S GONNA LIVE ACCORDING TO
HIS NATURE. HE'S GONNA LIVE ACCORDING TO
THE COURSE OF THIS WORLD, HUH? HE IS, HIS WHOLE BENT OF HIS
NATURE, THE WHOLE BENT OF HIS TREND, THE WHOLE TENDENCY OF
HIS NATURE WILL BE TOWARD THAT THAT HE LOVES. IF HE LOVES THE
WORLD, THAT'S WHERE HIS WILL IS, THAT'S WHERE HIS NATURE IS,
THAT'S WHERE HIS TENDENCIES But if a man is spiritual, then his
life, his being, his tendency, his life, his nature is tended
toward the things that he loves. And what is the things that we
love? The gospel, Christ, one another, the scriptures. Those
things, they're not natural. They're just the opposite of
that. Oh my. So, okay, here we go. The life
within us, let me tell you, the life within us, the life that
God put within us is natural or spiritual. The life that's
within us will manifest what kind of character we have. HOW
WE CONDUCT OURSELVES IN THIS WORLD AND THE FRUIT WE BRING
ALWAYS ACCORDING TO ITS KIND. GOD SAID EVER SEED AFTER ITS
KIND. IF YOU'RE SPIRITUAL, YOU'RE GONNA
HAVE SPIRITUAL FRUIT. YOU'RE GONNA HAVE A SPIRITUAL
CHARACTER. YOU'RE GONNA ACT ACCORDING TO A BELIEVER. IF YOU'RE NATURAL,
YOU'RE GONNA ACT ACCORDING TO A NATURAL MAN. AND YOU'RE GONNA
BRING FORTH THE FRUIT OF A NATURAL MAN. AND THEN LOOK AT TWO RESULTS
THAT HAPPENS HERE NOW. VERSE 6 THROUGH 8. He said, for
to be carnally minded, carnal mind, it means the minding of
the flesh, that's all it means. To be carnally minded is death,
death, death. And this is what's so sad, we
love our sons and daughters and grandkids, but listen, oh, mind
in the flesh, when you have the object of your understanding,
the object of your mind, is the flesh, to be carnally minded,
ends up in death. And the scriptures tells us we
was born in death, dead in sins, and then we have a spiritual
death, and I tell you what, and dead in sins now, and it results
in an eternal death and a separation from God Almighty. That's what
to be carnally minded is. That's what to be naturally minded
is. It ends in death, And death ends in separation from God Almighty. And that's unthinkable, to be
separated from God. The kingdom of this world is
dead. It's dead. It's dead. You know, people say
all the time, boys, the Lord's gotta come back soon. This world,
never seen the world in such shape it is yet. Well, that's
what Paul said on his day. And that's what we're saying
now, but I mean look at what goes on in the world. I mean,
you know, the kingdom of this world is DEAD! Paul said the
evil kingdom of this world. You know, it's dead, it's already
condemned. God's already judged the world.
This world is under the judgment of God. It's under the judgment
of God. There's people that honestly
think that they're gonna be saved by their flesh, by things that
they do. But look what he goes on to say
now in verse eight. Or excuse me, verse seven, excuse
me. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God. That word enmity means hostile,
hostile against God. Scott and Henry and them used
to say all the time, they God-haters. And that word HOSTILE, that's
exactly what it means, hostile toward God. Now, they're not
hostile toward THEIR God. If their God's nothing but a
God of LOVE, and not a JUST God, that He would not punish anybody
for their sin, and that He's gonna give everybody what they
WANT when it comes down to it. But when you present God as He
is, sovereign, immutable, righteous, just, holy, condemnation. You know, the whole world lies
in condemnation. That's when you find out how
hostile a man is. Tell him that his flesh does
not profit God ANYTHING. Tell him that his works are unacceptable. That word, please, in God means
acceptable of God. And I tell you, the carnal mind
is HOSTILE against God. I remember when my mind was hostile
against Him. I remember it very, very well.
It's a wonder He didn't kill me graveyard dead when I had
such hostility toward Him. But oh my! And I tell you, it's
enmity. It's hostile against God. And it's not subject. It cannot
be brought under subjection. to God or His law, it can never
be done that way. Indeed, it can never ever be
done that way. Oh my. And so he says, then,
so then, cause you're hostile against God. You're not subject
to what God has to say, His word, His law, and you cannot be subject
to it. So then they that are in the
flesh, those that are in their own nature, those, the natural
man, cannot possibly ever be accepted of God, can never be
accepted of God. Look over in 1 Corinthians. Look
over in 1 Corinthians 2 with me. I want you to see something
over here. I want you to see something. Here's
the difference. Here's the thing. You know, every
one of us, every one of us tried to be accepted of God by the
deeds of the flesh one or another time in our lives. We've all
done it. Unless you just heard the gospel
all your life, and thank God that you did. But look what it
says in verse 11. For what man know the things
of a man save the spirit of man which is in him. Now what does
anybody, you know, you're the only one, I'm the only one who
knows what's going on inside me. Man knows man. And I know man. And I know man,
I understand, I'm a man, so I understand how men think, I understand how
they understand, I understand how they react to things. Even
so, now listen to that, even so, The things of God knoweth
no man, nobody. Man can know himself, man can
know one another, but even so the things of God knoweth no
man but the Spirit of God. How in the world is a man going
to know anything? By the Spirit of God. Now, look what he says
now. Now, we have received NOT the
Spirit of the world. But oh, we've received the Spirit
which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God. There's two different people
right there, two different people. And oh my, so we go back over
here, and they that it says there in verse eight, Romans 8.8, then they that are in the flesh
cannot please God, can't do it. The natural mind can't be mended. It can't be modified. It can't
be instructed. It can only be destroyed. Look
in Isaiah 55. Look in Isaiah with me in 55.
Isaiah 55. I want you to see a couple things
over here, what God says. Isaiah 55 and verse seven. You know, I tell you, people
try to, you can't prove the flesh. You just can't do it. You can't
mend it. You can't mend it. You know,
that's why our Lord said, you don't put new cloth on old garments. You don't put new wine in old
bottles. And oh my, look what our Lord said here. Verse seven,
Isaiah 55. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly
multiply, he will abundantly multiply to pardon. And look
what he says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are my ways your ways, saith the Lord. You know, and that's
the difference, you know, you're either spiritual or fleshly.
Now look what it says here now, back up here in verse six. To be carnally minded is death,
spiritual death, sin because of death, because of sins, carnally
minded. But look what he says, but to
be spiritually minded, spiritually minded is life and peace. See
the difference? One's death, One gives life. One's going to die, it's spiritual
death, separated from God, but the other fellow, he's got life. And not only does he have life,
but he has peace. Those who are spiritually minded,
we have life. Why wouldn't we have life? We're
joined to Christ. Christ Himself is our life. Oh,
my! You know, we HAVE to live because
Christ is our life! We have to live, we're united
to Christ! Oh, my! He's a LIVING LORD! And
the Kingdom we're in are a KINGDOM! We're in a KINGDOM of life! God
lives! His Kingdom lives! And you know,
our possessions, the things, think about this, the spiritual
things we have, life, joy, peace, FAITH, FORGIVENESS, RIGHTEOUSNESS, RICHES
OF GRACE, RICHES OF CHRIST, ALL THESE THINGS, THEY'RE SPIRITUAL
POSSESSIONS, AND YOU KNOW HOW LONG WE'LL HAVE THOSE SPIRITUAL
POSSESSIONS? THEY HAVE TO LIVE TOO, BECAUSE
THEY'RE FROM CHRIST, WE GET THEM FROM CHRIST. HIS PEOPLE LIVE,
GOD'S NOT A GOD OF THE DEAD BUT THE LIVING. And then, oh, we
live, we have life, we have life. And then it says we have peace,
peace. Where'd we get peace? Because
we got life. Christ made peace for us. He's
the prince of peace. He accomplished peace for us
by his Christ. He himself is our peace. I know
I'm happy. Look in Romans 14.7, 14.17, I'm
sorry. Look in Romans 14, 17, talking
about righteousness, life, and peace, being spiritually minded.
Two different type of people here. Look what he says in Romans
14, 17. For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink, not what we eat or what we drink. But listen
to this, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. That's what we have. Oh, my. Well, then, oh, look
what it says down here in verse nine. This is wonderful. If I could just make it. Understand,
but you're not in, he said, but you know, the flesh cannot please
God. It's impossible for him to please God, to be accepted
of God. So, but ye are not in the flesh. God's people are not in the flesh,
but you're in the spirit. See how that's capitalized? We're
in the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God dwell in you.
Now how in the world are we going to know if the Spirit of God
dwells in us or not? Look down in verse 16 here of
Romans 8. The Spirit itself bears witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. The Spirit of
God teaches us and shows us that we're God's children, bears witness
to it. And oh my, we're not in the flesh.
Christ is not in the flesh. Christ is not in the world. Christ
is not under sin. Christ is not subject to the
law of God. And Christ is not in the flesh.
And we're not in the flesh, but we're in the spirit. In the spirit. Now I know you don't feel like
that, but I tell you what, if so be the spirit of God dwell
in you. There's a difference. You know,
how do we become a spiritual person? How are we in the spirit?
because we're not governed by the flesh, but by the Spirit
of God. Now listen here, oh, the Spirit
of God dwell in you. Now you know we're not in the
flesh. This doesn't mean that we're not men and women. It doesn't teach us that we have
no passions, no appetites, no desires, or that our old nature
is eradicated. But it does mean that we have
a new nature. We have the Spirit of Christ. Christ in you, the hope of glory,
indwelt by the Spirit of God. And the Spirit of God is the
dominant influence in our lives. That's what governs us more than
anything else. To be in the Spirit is to be
ruled over, influenced, and controlled by the Spirit. And look what
he says here. Now, if any man, I don't care
who he is, have not the Spirit of Christ, the nature of Christ,
that new nature, that new birth, if he has not the Spirit of Christ,
he absolutely does not belong to Christ. He's not in Christ,
he don't know Christ. If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, did God say in here, he does not belong to Christ? The scriptures tells us, you
know, The foundation of God stand assured, the Lord knows them
that are His. He knows them that are His. And
the Spirit lets us know that we're one of His. And oh my,
look in verse 10 then. And if Christ be in you, the
body's dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of
righteousness. And what he's telling us here
that this body is gonna die. That's why he's gonna die. The
body is dead, it's gonna die. It's gonna die. And it's gonna
die because of sin. But only the body's gonna die.
Because of our union with the Lord Jesus Christ, our spirit
will live. It'll live eternally. Oh my,
because we have no sin. And because we're righteous,
only righteous people get to go to Christ and get to spend
eternity with Christ. Oh, the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. We have a righteousness, and
the Spirit gives us righteousness, and when we face God, right now
we're righteous. When this body dies, we'll still
be righteous. Our nature will be righteous,
our spirit will be righteous, and our new nature, when we go
to glory, it'll be a righteous nature, no more than it is right
now. And oh, and look what happens at the end. But if the Spirit,
verse 11, but if the Spirit of Him, the Spirit of God Almighty,
the Spirit of God raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, if
that Spirit that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, listen
to this, He that raised up Christ from the dead, When you die,
and you die, like you said, just you know, the body's dead, it's
not gonna live. And then he says, shall also
quicken, give life to your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwells
in you. Our Lord was raised for our justification,
and we're gonna be quickened and raised from the dead the
same way. Look with me in 1 Corinthians
15, I'm done. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 42. You know, He was raised for our
justification and He also will quicken us, give us life from
the dead. He quickened us from our spiritual
death. We're quickened with Christ.
He gave us the Spirit of God. He raised us from our spiritual
death. And when this body dies, He's
going to raise us from our death, that spirit that dwells in us.
And look what he said, we won t always live in this old corruptible
body. He said in verse 42 here of 1
Corinthians 15, So also is the resurrection of the dead. It
s sown in corruption, raised in incorruption, sown in dishonor. Oh, this old body, what a mess
it is. Sown in dishonor, raised in glory. Sown in weakness, raised in power. Sown in natural body, but it's
gonna be raised to spiritual body. There's a natural body,
that's what we have now. And then there's a spiritual
body. And you know how that's gonna happen? As Christ was raised
from the dead, when we go, he gonna do the same thing for us.
As he quickened us from our spiritual death, he gonna quicken us from
this body. Oh, what a blessed hope we have.
What a blessed, blessed hope we have. Our Father, our gracious God
in heaven, how blessed, how righteous, how glorious you are. Lord, I
thank you that you make the distinction between your children and the
children of this world. Lord, I know we still have this
flesh in us. We still have so much to contend
with, but yet this flesh is not our master. This flesh is not
our Lord. This flesh doesn't control us.
This flesh is not what we want to live by. We don't want to
live according to the course of this world. We want to live
by the Spirit of God. We want to live in that new nature. We want to live by that new birth.
We want to live by the spirit of Christ in us. We want to live
a life spiritual. We want to grow in grace. We
want to learn of Christ. We want to learn of his word. We want to learn of his spirit.
We want to have right relationships with our brothers and sisters
in this world. We want to have right relationships
with our families. But oh Lord, that can only be
done by them being saved by the grace of God. Thank you for saving
us. Thank you for giving us the spirit
of God. Thank you for giving us the new birth. Thank you. And that's why we come with nothing
to offer, absolutely nothing, not a, even our prayers have
to be washed in the blood of Christ. My preaching has to be
washed in the blood of Christ. My thoughts have to be washed
in the blood of Christ. And oh Lord, I thank you that
you made us righteous, and that you fulfilled the righteous,
the laws fulfilled in us, and that's why we don't walk after
the flesh, but after the spirit. God bless these things to our
minds, bless them to our understanding, and forgive us of everything
dislike you, and unlike you, especially unlike you. Teach
us, oh Lord, teach us. We sang that hymn tonight, teach
us thy way, oh Lord, teach us thy way. Take us and teach us. And do it for Christ's sake.
Amen. Amen. There is a name I love
to hear. I love to sing His praise. It sounds like music in my ear. The sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus because
he first loved me. John Chapman preached a message
over in Kingsport in our meeting over there where he asked the
question, lovest thou me more than these? But you get an opportunity
to listen to that. It's really, really good. And
Todd brought one on the things God cannot do. God cannot do. I'll tell you one thing he cannot
do. He cannot deny himself. And if we're in him, he can't
deny us. He'd have to deny himself to
deny us. Ain't that wonderful? Yeah. All
right. See you Sunday, God willing. Remember Cody and his family,
that little baby.