All right, well, good evening,
everybody. Let's go to Romans chapter eight,
verses 12 through 17. And we'll read, as a matter of
fact, why don't I read all of chapter eight of Romans as we
get started. Chapter eight, starting in verse
one. This will give us a summation and a close to this particular
section here. There is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of
life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and
death. For God has done what the law,
weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin
in the flesh. in order that the righteous requirement
of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according
to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who live
according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh,
but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds
on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh
is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
For the mind that is set on this flesh is hostile to God, for
it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who
are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God
dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the
Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you,
although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised
Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Jesus Christ
from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through
His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors,
not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live
according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you
put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all
who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you
did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we
cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness
with our spirit that we are children of God and of children, then
heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. provided we
suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with
him. Let's pray, guys. We thank you,
Lord, for the word that you've taught us, Lord, for the scripture
that you've given us for the truth that is in Christ alone. Lord, I pray that as we start
our service this evening, Lord, that those who are coming will
come and be blessed Lord, that those who are not able to be
with us father would know that we are with them in spirit. Lord,
we thank you for loving us. We thank you, God, that our Children
can hear the truth of scripture and grow and be saved. Lord,
we thank you that the many who are your sheep in the world can
hear the gospel and you will bring them to yourself without
fail. No one for whom Christ died will
be lost, and we pray these things in his name. Amen. No, good to
see you. All right, so Romans 8, we're
gonna be dealing with verses 12 through 17. So turn in your
Bibles if you have not done so already, and here we go. Paul
says, so then. Abby, pay close attention. All
you kids, pay close attention. So then, brothers, we are debtors
not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. So here, it shows
us that we are no longer considered living in the flesh. For God
has given us His Spirit, securing life in our souls. And as we
deal with this, as we learn what this is trying to teach us, a
lot of times it makes us think, what do we owe our flesh? Well,
that's not the point there. The point of being a debtor to
the flesh is that we give time to it, is that we're longing
for it, is that we're setting a place for it to be alive. And
as we've seen already, we are promised a future glorification
for God has given us his spirit. And in doing so, he secured in
our souls life, life. It is life that we have in the
spirit of God. And as we've seen here, we owe
nothing to the flesh. Romans 8 verses 12 through 17,
brother. Nothing to the flesh. All of
our aliveness before God is due to the Spirit. All of our aliveness
is due to the Spirit. And so, in this, we are alive
in Him, and He is alive in us. We, therefore, are spiritually
alive, even though, as we've already learned through the latter
weeks, that our flesh is spiritually dead, our flesh is dead, we are
alive. We are alive because the Spirit
is in us. Before we were born again by
the Spirit, we then were what? Debtors to the flesh. We were
debtors to the flesh. That means that we love the flesh,
we live for the flesh, we desired the flesh, we did all the things
that the flesh would do, and the lusts of the flesh and the
efforts unto eternal life were ours to work for. But they all
led to one thing. What was that? Death. Living
by the flesh is death. So then verse 12 is where we
start is where we've started tonight. We are no longer debtors
to the flesh to live according to the flesh, but we are debtors
to God who has given us life in Christ. We're no longer sold
out to the flesh. We're no longer striving to the
flesh. But in order that because we
are in Christ, we live in order that God would be honored, that
God would be glorified. And that is definitely taking
place and that we believe by faith alone in Christ and we
honor the Lord through faith. And so because of that, we live,
as we've looked at last week, according to the spirit. What
God has done in us and what Christ has done for us is that we are
alive and we live according to the spirit. And in this truth,
our life then is found in the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit
of Christ is our life. We are redeemed. We are holy. Romans 8, 12 through 17. We are
holy. We are set apart. We are righteous
in Christ. And because of this, we now are
set apart from the bondage of the law and set apart to life. We are in Christ. So instead
of being debtors to the flesh, We are debtors to God. You see,
when the Bible teaches us about the new life and the old life,
about being lost and about being born again, it always compares
that which we were a slave to sin. Now we are a slave to righteousness. We were debtors to the flesh.
Now we're a debtor to God. And so there is no neutrality
when it comes to eternal life. There is no self-interest when
it comes to eternal life. It is all for the glory of God
in all that we do. And either we are lost without
hope or we are found with hope because of what God has done
and he sought us and he found us and he caused us to live. So in this idea of being indebted
to God, I want us to take the word for just a second and I
want us to realize that it's not necessarily meaning that
we owe God something. Though we do, what do we owe
God? Everything. We owe God our life, we owe God
our eternal life, we owe God our service, all sorts of things. But if you and I, as some of
us are, indebted in life, like with a mortgage, it's funny that
the entomology of that word has something to do with death. And
if we are indebted in our mortgage, then if we can't pay our mortgage,
we have what? We have fear. We're worried,
oh, how are we going to pay the mortgage? The bank can close
or foreclose on the deed and seize the property, sell it,
and keep the money and the profit, no matter what, if we don't pay
the debt. Well, we shouldn't look at our
indebtedness to God in that way, for the debt that we had to God
in justice has already been paid through the blood and the body
of Jesus Christ. The righteous requirements of
the law God has dealt with sin in the flesh because Christ has
indeed satisfied His judgment against us. So we're debtors
to God, not that we're indebted and therefore fearful that we
can't pay God back, for if we were able to pay God in the first
place, Christ would not have died. But we can't pay God. But we're indebted to Him out
of love, out of honor, because of His mercy toward us. So our
living nature in the Spirit truly wants to love and to honor the
Lord with every breath. But our flesh, what did Paul
say in the prior teaching? Our flesh is always being tempted. There's always a lust coming
up. There's always something taking place, and it's right
there crouching by the door. Every time we step foot outside,
in a proverbial sense, we see that sin and temptation is there.
So the flesh in its promises, what does it promise? The flesh
promises joy, the flesh promises life, the flesh promises hope
and happiness, but it yields only misery and death. The flesh only then, even as
a believer, when we try to set a place for it, it only leaves
us guilty and condemned in our own minds. And that's why Paul
has so passionately expressed himself in this way that there
is no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus. So,
verse 12, so then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh
to live according to the flesh. For if, verse 13, if you live
according to the flesh, you will die. Now, that's a common sense
thing for us who understand the gospel. for the wages of sin,
chapter 6, verse 23, is what? Death. But the free gift of God
is eternal life in Christ Jesus. So we who are in the flesh and
living according to the flesh, when we were, we were dead in
our trespasses. We were dead in our sins. I have
to be careful because sometimes when I say we, as I'm always
used to teaching in the plural and speaking in the plural because
that's what pastors do, we're sort of hearing things that aren't
necessarily ours. But we as believers are not what? Unregenerate. We are not living
according to the flesh. We are not going to die. It is
impossible for us to die because Christ has died in our stay.
Now I'm not talking about physical death because of course our bodies
are passing away just as this world is. Paul explains that
starting in verse 18 as he discusses creation and everything related
to it. So if we live according to the
flesh, you will die. And living according to the flesh,
then, what does it mean? What does it really mean to live
according to the flesh in the context here? Well, in comparison,
living according to the Spirit is to live in the promises of
the Spirit, to live in the power of the Spirit, to live in the
working of God, the Holy Spirit, who regenerates us that we might
believe in the work of God the Son as God the Father is satisfied
in the propitiation that Christ is and became for us. So, to
live according to the flesh, then, in this context, is this. Ruby understands this very clearly.
Living according to the flesh is living without faith in Christ.
Living without faith in Christ. And thus, because those who do
not have faith in Christ have no other option, they must live
in agreement with their flesh in two ways. They either obey
the lusts of their flesh, or they obey the self-righteous
desires of their flesh, thus trying to create a righteousness
of their own. And either way, it is without
Christ. And without Christ, it is without
life. And without life, there is no hope except for judgment.
And therefore, there is condemnation for those who are not in Christ
Jesus. The antithesis is clear, seeking salvation in one's own
way and one's own flesh is the mind of the flesh. And Paul has
already said to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to
set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. Now, this was
brought to me. about six or seven days, it might
have been last Wednesday or Thursday, someone asked me, well isn't
that us? Isn't that us putting our mind
on the spiritual things? Aren't we supposed to actually
be the one who sets our mind on the spirit so that we might
have life and peace? Isn't this a work whereby we
have the effort to, well of course it's a work that we have the
effort to put our mind on the spirit. But there is no opportunity
for us to put our mind on the spirit if the spirit has not
given us life to begin with. If we've not been born again,
we never recognize the reality of the work of God and redemption,
so we don't have a spiritual discernment. We don't have a
spiritual sense in which we are able to say, oh, we trust in
Christ. We've looked holistically throughout
the New Testament over the last few years to realize that the
teaching of the scripture shows us that we are indeed called
to do things in the context of our Christian faith. But none
of these things are effectual unto salvation. None of these
things work in regard to our justification, but it is God,
the Holy Spirit, who gives us faith, grants us repentance,
and establishes in us all the necessary things that are present
for those who are the believing ones. So then, what does it teach
us now? By the Spirit, we put to death
the deeds of the body, and we live. Now, this is not a concoction. I'll tell you this in verse 13
there. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But
if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will
live. Now, we've already said that the one who is in the flesh
is an enemy with God. We are not enemies with God. So this is not talking about
Christians who are doing fleshly things. Wipe that from your mind
because Paul is not trying to say there's some believers over
here who are going to die in their sins. No, a believer cannot
die in their sin because they trust that Christ has satisfied
the righteous justice of God and He is indeed their righteousness. So this is a comparison of the
old man and the new man continuing the way Paul has been doing over
the last few weeks in our study. But if by the Spirit you put
to death the deeds of the body, you will live. See, some people,
as they see this conditional statement, say, oh, you'll have
eternal life if you put to death the sins of the flesh. Well,
that sort of says that, doesn't it? But what it needs to say
and what we need to understand is in context. A proper hermeneutic
teaches us to read in context. That's why as we started out
tonight, and also to allow for everybody to get in and get settled,
I read the entire eighth chapter in that sense, or that portion
of chapter eight, so that we would have a context in our understanding
of what Paul has been teaching. So here, we need to understand
that putting to death the deeds of the body is not something
that we have to do after we have been saved in order to remain
saved. Putting to death the deeds of
the body in the physical sense, like running against the grain
of the flesh and running away from sin. A lot of people say
we've got to put away all this sin. That's inclusive of this
post-regeneration, but it's not the context herein. Paul is saying
that the corrupt nature, that is the flesh, produces the works
of the flesh. It produces the lusts of the
flesh, the things that we desire that are contrary to the law
of God. the things that we desire that are contrary to the glory
of God, the things that we want and desire that are just evil,
and it also produces a self-righteousness. And this is where a lot of people
are. This is where the Israelites were in the day of Jesus. This
is where the Roman Catholics have always been. This is where
people, even in today, in the evangelical cults, we see that
people continually try to exercise their flesh to such a degree
that they are in their own eyes self-righteous and worthy in
the flesh of being called a child of God. It's interesting that
Paul establishes that in some way of teaching, establishes
the teaching of being adopted as we'll look at in just a moment.
So what does it really mean? Well, we've understood the corrupt
nature produces the works of the flesh in lust and in self-righteousness. But in contrast, the spirit,
which is the new mind, which is the regenerated man, woman,
child, puts to death these things. So what's that look like? What's
it look like? We who are born again, when we see sin knocking
at our door, there's one thing that's always true for all of
us. And that is what? We recognize that lust or that
act of self-righteousness or that small little voice inside
of our head that thinks this is really going to make God happy
with me. We recognize that as preposterous and we recognize
our lusts as sins, exactly what they are. The spirit and the
new mind that we've been given puts to death these things, even
if for a time And they often seem to rise up and live again,
but they're not alive. The lusts of the flesh and the
believer are not alive because we can put them down, because
Christ has died and we no longer are living, but Christ lives
within us. Sin and the flesh no longer consumes
us, and we are no longer indebted to answer to the flesh, and we're
no longer at a privilege to enjoy it in deceit. Because, see, that's
what the flesh really does for an unbeliever. The flesh puts
an unbeliever in two different modes, two different categories,
the ones that we've been talking about over the last few months,
the category of just lucidiousness and wickedness, the lust of the
flesh, and the category of self-righteousness and religiosity, if that's such
a way to use that term. If we look at these things in
this way, we know that an unregenerate person, the flesh, offers some
type of satisfaction. Some people get satisfaction
of enjoying life in a sinful way. Some people find satisfaction
in running after the sins of the body and the sins of the
mind and the sins of the world. Some people love to hurt people.
Some people get really excited to rob banks and to steal. Some people are power hungry.
Some people love this stuff. But for the believer, we may
see that rising, we may see that working, but we don't want that
ultimately because the Spirit of God within us, the new mind
goes, no. And even if we find ourselves in a season where we
really just run full charge into a particular temptation, We are
always not far behind us is the Holy Spirit of God teaching us
and guiding us out of that, whereby then we take it and we put it
to death by saying, no, this day, this day, this moment, this
thing does not offer me the life. of joy, but Christ is my sufficient
joy. The Spirit of God does this work
in us. And it's different for everyone,
as we'll see. But here we see that this flesh
then also of the unregenerate person can walk in a manner that
seemingly Christian. An idea of morality, an idea
of practicing so-called, quote, ministry. So we can find that
there are many opportunities for us in this life to witness
false converts, people who are very close to us, people who
are very involved with us, but yet they are not trusting in
Christ, but they are so very much secure in who they are in
life and what their flesh has become. And I know I seem to
overemphasize these two categories, but it is the point of Paul's
teaching from chapter 6 through chapter 8. And I think it's good
for us, as Paul is redundant, for us to be reminded of these
things in that sense. So this new mind, though we are
free, though we have the desires of the Lord, we still have a
flesh that also wars against it. Wars against it. And we then,
by faith, are putting to death the deeds of the body, not the
act of mortification itself, but by faith as the standard
in this sense, by faith as the standard of hope versus what? The standard of mortification. What is mortification? Putting
to death sins. Here's a temptation. Nope, I'm
not going to do that. No, I'm not going to think that
way. I'm not going to think that what I'm doing is proof of my
salvation. I'm not going to fall into that lust over here. I don't
want to be this hateful person. I don't want to be this self-righteous
person. We have the ability to see, recognize, and then by the
Spirit put these things to death in that way. But this is not
the standard of assurance. The assurance that we have is
not because we do these things, or because we are grown in the
sinlessness or the sinlessness of these issues, but our assurance
is in the perfect work of Christ, in the satisfaction of God's
justice, and in the seal of the Holy Spirit, whereby we confess
what? That Christ is our hope. We have
faith in the work of Christ alone, and that it is God who gives
life. It is not us. The faith that
we've been given in the work of Christ and the Spirit is the
work of God. Then, by faith, we mortify the
deeds of the flesh in both senses. Not becoming more righteous,
but because we are righteous. So we put to death the flesh
as God gives us the grace and the mercy and the power and the
feeling to do so. When then will we be perfected?
Paul's already dealt with that. At the resurrection. By the power
of the Holy Spirit, we will be perfected at the resurrection.
The glorification of our mortal bodies is the promise and the
hope of the believer in salvation. We will not see death, we will
not see judgment, we will not see the second death, and our
bodies will be made to match our new spiritual nature. I like
to say it that this is faith vivified and flesh mortified. And it's not my terms, it's just
the way I like to couple them. So faith alone is putting to
death the deeds of the body. As we see sin in our lives, we
trust more and more and more in the work of Christ, and the
Holy Spirit in that work then does what? Begins to take away
some of the draw of the flesh. And then the minute we go and
try to do things on our own, the worse it gets, the harder
it becomes, the more faithless we seem and feel in our own minds. And so we're not becoming more
righteous, as I've said, but because we are righteous, we
are truly living out our faith. And then we are truly putting
life in us because God has put life in us. I made the comment
last week that there are a lot of times that people put in a
lot of theological study. They'll study Raymond, they'll
study this person, they'll study that person, and they will know
a lot of data related to systematic theology, but they don't read
the Bible enough to give any insight whatsoever to what the
scripture teaches about these things. Thus, they only can regurgitate
theological terms, but not contextual things related to those theologies. I also made comment this week
in that whatever I put in my mind, I remember learning programming
back in, what, the early 80s when they first started teaching
us basic. And there was a term called gigo, garbage in, garbage
out. If we write some bad code, we
can expect the outcome of that code to be rotten. It's not going
to work. And that term still today, some
30 plus years later, is is a valid term that programmers use constantly. Well, in a theological sense,
in a spiritual sense, when we fill our minds with the world,
when we fill our time with fleshly things, after a while that's
all we end up seeing in our lives, isn't it? If all we do is labor
in our flesh, and labor for our lusts, and we never put in the
spiritual things, we're not in the assembly, we're not reading
the Bible, We're not in the practice and the discipline of prayer
because it's easy to fall into that rut. Many people in our
world today would say, well, that's an unbeliever. Or like
they used to love to say back in the 70s and 80s, oh, you're
backslidden. You need to rededicate your life.
You don't need to dedicate anything to anyone, for your life is hidden
with Christ. It is His already. And I know
this may be a semantical argument, but in reality, we are living
out our faith And then in part of that, we give life to faith.
And then in the other part of that, and in congruence with
that, we are putting to death the flesh. But who is really
at work in these things? See, our faith is up and down,
as is the death of our flesh, or the deeds of our flesh. And
I believe Paul is showing us, not just here but in the future
in Romans, that these things correspond or correlate to one
another. One who is strong in the faith,
one who is disciplined in the matters of faith, one who is
really seated in a spiritual sense in the Word of God, Fuller
of the Spirit, because see Paul says in Ephesians 3, what does
he say? I pray that you may be filled with all the fullness
of God. So there is an indwelling and a working of the Spirit of
God. There is an ebbing and flowing, there is good times and bad times
when it comes to our faith. So when we're strong in the faith,
we can overcome the nature of the flesh easier. Likewise, when
we're weak in the faith, we can be overcome by the lust of the
flesh. So where is our hope in all of
these yo-yo moments of life? It is in Christ and it is in
Christ alone. We have to depend upon Christ
even in the measure of our faith this day. If all we have is the
faith of a mustard seed, if it's all in Christ and alone in Christ,
it is all we need because Christ is all we need. But when our
flesh rises up and we begin to depend upon its outcome, its
working, we are not trusting in Christ at that moment. It
doesn't mean that we're not believing, it's just in that instance. Let
me give an example. When tragedy comes, what is the
first thing we do? We worry. We fear. We belabor
ourselves to wonder how we're going to overcome these things,
but ultimately through the power of the Spirit, through the hearing
of the Word, through the fellowship of the saints, we're encouraged,
we're rebuked, we're taught, and then what happens is we come
to a place where all of a sudden, What? We resolve this must be
in the hand of God. I can trust in the Lord for these
things. Nothing I can do. The same thing
is true with the small calamities of faith, the crises of faith,
the fleshliness that seems to overcome us, the temptations
that we seem to never be able to overcome. The Lord will bring
us to the place where we will see we have overcome them. And
when we're strong or when we are weak, it depends upon the
faithfulness of Christ. He is our sanctification. Christ
is our righteousness. And every believer under the
sun right now who's living and breathing in this world, every
regenerate saint, are what? At different stages of maturity.
Every believer is at a different stage of strength. And these
things ebb and flow. I've often had people say, I
wish I could have your faith. And the only thing I could think
of when I hear those things is, I wish I could have your faith. Because
if we're honest with ourselves, we're never strong enough. We're
never good enough. We're never polished enough.
We're never mature enough. We're never sanctified enough
in our own measuring. That's why it all depends upon
faith alone in the faithfulness of Christ. This is the measure
of faith that the Scripture talks about. All believers who are
at different stages of maturity, all who have different levels
and strengths of faith, and all who are growing at different
rates and at different times, and some of us, God bless us,
we seem to be digressing at certain times. Let me give you some thoughts
contextually, just as a parting shot of this thought. Help me
in my unbelief, we see the man ask Jesus. I do believe, but
then he says in the very same breath, help me in my unbelief. As Jesus tells us to pray, lead
us not into temptation. Do we pray that God would not
lead us into temptation? Or do we settle our feet on the
floor and say, okay, I'm not going to sin against God today,
and then five minutes later we've blessed out our neighbor in our
own hearts? Friends, we must understand that these things
will always be present in the life of the body of Christ. We,
by faith, trust in the Lord to work these things out as he wills,
as we pray, as we live by faith alone. Lord, guide me. Lord,
fill me with your spirit. Lord, teach me. Lord, help me. Lord, lead me away from this.
Help me not to be angry. Help me to walk in a manner worthy.
Give me a heart for you. Don't you pray these things?
I pray that you do. I pray that you teenagers pray
these things. I pray that you children pray these things. Because
it's easy to get inundated with the mundane aspects of life,
to put aside the spiritual things when life just gets to be too
much. And friends, it is a war that
is going on that is spiritual. Ephesians chapter 6 tells us
very clearly that this is not a battle against flesh and blood,
but against the principalities and the powers of the darkness
and the evil ones and all of these different things that war
against us. And James tells us that we are
tempted by the very things that our flesh desires. So it's almost
like a lose, lose, lose. But Christ is victorious. The
faith that we have in God, in Christ, in the Gospel, is our
hope. We know that Christ has satisfied
it, and Christ has won the war, and we are just suffering as
He has suffered. What does this mean? This is
what it means, the very next phrase that Paul uses, what verse
is that? Is that verse 14 maybe? He says, this is for all who
are led by the Spirit are sons of God. This is what it means
to be led by the Spirit, through the Spirit. We have faith in
the perfection of Christ's work of redemption. It is the Spirit
that testifies to us that Christ has perfected us, and it is by
the Spirit that we hold fast in professing faith in these
works. It is by the Spirit that we grow
in our faith. It is by the Spirit that we mature
in our understanding of the Gospel. It is by the Spirit that we become
stronger and have a greater resolve in times of trouble and temptation.
It is by the Spirit that we are able to stand under the weakness
of our flesh. And in this same Spirit, and
by this same Spirit, we can put to death the deeds of the flesh,
both the deeds of lusts and the deeds of self-righteousness,
and the deeds of doubt and despair, and strive to please the Lord,
to walk in a manner worthy of the calling. What is the calling?
What is the calling? You are my children. You are
my righteousness. You are new. So we then by the
Spirit know this and we can. in this world and in this life,
continue by faith to testify that we are indeed the children
of God. This is true living out the Christian
faith. The Spirit is life, and in Him
alone do we have life. And then He has given us faith,
and He's caused us to be made alive in Christ. He's imputed
the righteousness of Christ to us. He's given us a new nature
that is alive. and the Spirit through whom we
have overcome the body of death in Christ Jesus, not just by
faith and redemption, but by faith in the life of Christ,
in the work of Christ, in the work of God the Spirit. In this
new man, we have a new mind. We have been given a new truth.
And in this, we affix our hope to Christ. And in this, we hope
we are alive and we know that we are alive. And we are alive
today, beloved, not just tomorrow. We don't live in a hope that
maybe one day we will be alive. We're alive today. And this is
the work of the Holy Spirit in us. When we are trusting in Christ,
we are truly living in Christ. So in this living, we are able
to be truly alive. And this is possible only through
the what? Through the blood of Christ,
where God has torn away the wall of hostility, where God has made
us clean, made us righteous, forgiven of us, forgiven us of
our sins. So as we see the scripture talk
about Christ through the blood and the water, We see this symbolically
as Christ has forgiven us through the redemption or the shedding
of blood, the redemption of sin that comes through the shedding
of blood, and also through the water, the picture of righteousness.
So we're forgiven and we're righteous in Christ Jesus. This new life
is spiritual life, and one day it will also be physical life
in Christ. This is the Lord's working. In the measure of faith and growth,
we will, as I've said, ebb and flow in the conditions of this
new life that God has perfected spiritually. And then in the
flesh, we will work out by faith that we trust not in ourselves
or in the product of the Lord working in our flesh, but we
trust wholly and fully that Christ is our hope. We do not desire
with this new life, this walking in the Spirit, putting to death
the deeds of the body, living as those who are redeemed. We do not desire to walk in darkness. Now, sometimes people hear me
say that. I mean, John says that very thing. But a lot of times people say,
well, what are you saying? If I have a desire to sin, then
I'm not in Christ? No, that's not what the Scripture's teaching.
But there is a difference in our desire to walk by faith. Our desire to walk in Christ
and our desire to just live for the flesh. And that is what is
really beginning to start take shape in Paul's teaching here.
We don't desire to walk in darkness for the very reason that we have
been transferred to the kingdom of light. We are righteous. But even though our flesh fights,
we can stand in that righteousness because it is Christ who is our
hope. And even when our flesh fails, we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So we are able then
to put to death the deeds of the flesh by the spirit of life
through faith. And we're inclined, listen to
this, we're inclined to walk in obedience. We're inclined
to walk in a manner worthy. We're inclined by the cause of
our love for God and our love for the gospel to put down the
flesh as often as we're able, and we're only able by the Spirit. We're only able by the Spirit.
See, our minds, because we are alive, grasps this reality. Our mind grasps this reality.
We can see it. We can understand it. We can
hold fast to it. We can believe in this truth
because we have been made spiritually alive. We have been awakened. We have been given eyes to see.
We are spiritually discerned because the Spirit of life is
within us. You see the difference in a religious person and one
who's born again? They may very well look identical, but one
trusts by the Spirit and lives by the Spirit, and the other
lives by the flesh. and thus by the law, and thus
cannot please God. Four, verse 14, all who are led
by the Spirit of God are sons of God. I've said this a couple
of times in the last few Wednesdays. How is it that we know? How is
it that we know that we are indeed in Christ? It's because we have
the spirit. It's because we have faith. The
spirit gives us the ability to understand and to receive and
to believe in the finished work of Christ. The spirit leads us
by listen to these words. There may not be. I may have
to bring them more precise in the weeks to come, but the spirit
helps or the spirit causes us to believe and the spirit bends
and leads and transforms our will to be congruent with the
actuality of our new life in the Spirit. The Spirit is the
guide of our lives. The Spirit is the teacher. The
Spirit is the one who shows us the way, which is Christ. The
Spirit in all aspects and all seasons is constantly working.
It is the Spirit who draws us forcefully and powerfully to
the Lord Jesus. It is the Spirit who has granted
us faith. in Christ. It is the Spirit of
God who exposes us to the truth of Christ and the gospel. The
Spirit, the Spirit that is God's Spirit always is effectual to
keep His people in faith. But there is another spirit that
Paul has talked about, and it is not the spirit of God. It
is the spirit of the flesh. It is the spirit of the law of
sin and death. It is sin. And friends, the spirit
of the flesh, and I say that in the quotes, the spirit of
the flesh, what, grants us, not grants us, but causes us to want
to walk away from these spiritual matters. Even when the Spirit
of God draws us away and helps us mortify the flesh, it is never
unto perfection. Let me say that again. Even when
the Spirit of God fights for us and draws us out of the fleshliness
and helps us mortify the flesh, it is never unto perfection.
It is also never unto any permanent end. Now I want you to hear that. You guys in the back, I want
you to hear this. The Spirit of God, even in His work, never
draws us to a permanent perfection in this life. That means there's
never a time that we will be free forever of ever lying. There's never a time that we
will always and forever be free in this flesh of lusts. It doesn't
give us the license and the warrant to just sin away. Chapter 6 has
already dealt with that. But we need to understand this
so that we can recognize that it is only by the Spirit that
we're able to put to death the flesh in the moments that we
are, and not trust. Because what happens to the unregenerate
person who puts to death the flesh? Think about that for a
second. What happens to the unregenerate person who's not born of the
Spirit, who in the flesh puts to death the deeds of the flesh,
in the actual sinfulness? They're trusting in the deeds
of the flesh to put away the sinfulness of the flesh. Thus
they are still bound to the law and guilty of breaking it. For
all who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God. The antithesis
is those who are not are led by the flesh and they are not
the sons of God. The Spirit leads. and guides,
as I've already said, and draws us to a place of having the ability
to mortify the flesh. But the flesh continually contends
against the Spirit and vice versa. This is a mystery of God who
works and wills for His good pleasure. Some people say, wow,
I'm surely a child of God because of my obedience. And to that
I say, anathema. And some people say, well, I'm
surely now ready to sin because of Christ's grace. And to that,
Paul says, anathema. And some people say, well, I
believe that God calls me to sin because it's all His work.
So if I sin, He didn't stop me. To which we say, absurd. But
when we are able to lay down sin in those moments, we know
who are born of the Spirit and who live by the Spirit, that
at that moment, it is only because of God the Spirit that we did
not sin. And at that moment, the only hope we have is in Christ
who never sinned, not in the moment that we haven't sinned.
This is where the error of this progression of righteousness
comes from. This Romanistic, Judaistic work
salvation, this fundamental perfectionism that nobody admits to, but everybody
presses toward. No one should ever say, I'm a
child because of my obedience. No one should ever say, I'm ready
to sin because of Christ's grace. We are in the battle against
these things, and by the Spirit, we yield by faith to the Spirit.
because of the measure of grace that we have been given. And
because of that, we can call God our father. That's where
Paul goes with it. Only believers are led by the
spirit. The spirit does not lead unbelievers anywhere. He doesn't
lead them to anything, because when the Holy Spirit moves in
an unbeliever, he regenerates them to be a believer. and we
are the sons of God. And I'll close with this, and
we won't get through all of the 15, 16, 17 tonight, but in 15,
Paul says, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall
back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption
as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. See, we are led by the
Spirit, we have the spirit of adoption, we have the witness
of the Holy Spirit that we are indeed adopted, and we then share
in the suffering of Christ to the promise of glory. How do
we know we have these things? Because the Spirit of God has
made us alive and we believe. So what does this mean for us?
It means several things, many things. But in the time we have,
let me share some of them in quickness and then next week
we'll go into them in more depth. First, it shows us and gives
us the knowledge and the assurance that we are free from death that
comes from the law. We have a spirit of life, not
a spirit of slavery. Look at verse 15. For you did
not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you
have received the spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by whom
we cry, Abba, Father, Daddy, Papa. So, we have a spirit of
adoption. Because the spirit of slavery,
the spirit of fear is to be outside the knowledge of God's divine
work of redemption. That means it's outside faith
in Christ Jesus. Because Christ Jesus and faith
and believing in Christ is that Christ is all of our righteousness,
all of our sanctification, all of our wisdom. He is the only
way to God. And we're free from unbelief. We're free from the law and the
curse and the death that comes from even striving to try to
be right with God, much less complete spiritual debauchery. We are also free knowing that
Jesus is our hope and righteousness, not our own works. and that we
deserve death by the works of the law, but by the gift of God
we have received His salvation. The third thing that we see and
that we can know because of what the Spirit has done is that we
recognize that unbelievers are in bondage because of the law.
They see it and they break it. And some of them see it and they
strive to enter into life through it and they die. Both of these
attributes of unregenerate people lead to what? They both lead
to slavery, and they both yield fear. For the wicked person,
it leads to fear of punishment, fear of death, fear of being
caught. They hide from God. They say
He doesn't exist, even though it is clear and plain that He
does. For the religious unbeliever, it leads to fear of condemnation. It leads to this attitude of
servile horror. And that's something that we
are now free of. You are not receiving the spirit of slavery.
You have not to fall back into fear. But you are children. You
are sons. You've been adopted. He's your
daddy. So we're free of the fear of
servitude. And servitude must be alien to
the child of God in his mind. What is it called? sycophantic. Those who want to just work and
work and work and please and please and please so that they
may gain honor and gain favor and do something in some way
is not the work of the Spirit of God. Many people who are often
labeled legalist work in this way. Now, I'm not saying that
we should not have a healthy fear of God. a passion for His
glory, a trembling at the knowledge of our sin, but it's not the
same as fearing to please Him for His favor in order to escape
punishment. John says it, that perfect love
casts out fear. Fear has to do with punishment,
but the work of God through the Holy Spirit allows us to stand
certain and not be sold out to what? The spirit of slavery.
The spirit of slavery causes people to work harder that they
might prove themselves worthy, to work harder that they might
prove the work of God. It should be mortified, just
like lying. A servile fear of God should
be mortified, lest it become an undue burden unto legalism. The final thing we'll say tonight
before we close is that we are adopted. We are safe. And we
are saved. This is God working outside of
us. The adoption that God has done, what he's done to call
us his own children, has nothing to do with us whatsoever. As
a matter of fact, it fights against the very nature of us that God
could call us sinners, his own children. How does that happen?
Because we are adopted. Because we are, what, birthed
in Christ Jesus. There's only two ways in which
one can can become a child, and that is they can be born or that
they can be adopted. And God has done both, not because
of works. God has adopted us because of
Christ. God has made us righteous because of Christ. God has made
us new because of the spirit, because he is faithful. He is
the one who does it. We who were once dead are alive. We who were once lost are found. We are alive. We are found. We
are safe. We are redeemed and we belong
to God. How do we know? Because we are
alive unto Christ. We can see Christ, we can hold
fast to Christ, we can believe only in Christ, we can recognize
our flesh when it rises up against that, we can recognize self-righteousness
in our own lives because God has made us alive with his spirit
in Christ. And the 16 there, the spirit
bears witness that we are the children of God. Let's pray. We love you, Father. We thank
you for adopting us, for bringing us into right relationship with
you, for saving us out of destruction, out of darkness, out of blindness,
out of hopelessness. Lord, you have done all the work
of redemption. You have concluded it. You have
finished it. You have secured it. We are secure
in Christ. Lord, this teaching, this truth,
flies in the face of the logic of our natural state, flies in
the face of even our flesh in our regenerate state. It's hard
for us to rest, certainly and surely, in the finished work
of Christ. But Lord, because we've been made alive, we go
back to Christ no matter how long we've run away. We come
to the cross of Christ knowing that it is His work, His body,
His blood, His obedience. All of these things that Christ
is and has done, Lord, is our hope. Father, our sin is always
before us. Lord, we do hurt and and long
for the things sometimes that tempt us. Father, we're weak
and often we make excuses, but we praise you, Lord, for your
mercy. And we thank you, God, that it
is not up to us to secure our hope, but that Christ has secured
it for us. And it's in his name we pray.
Amen.