Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, the message today is a continuation of what I began
two weeks ago. I have two messages, and this
will be the third, part three, on walking after the Spirit,
talking about the Holy Spirit. And my plan is to preach two
more messages on this subject today. I'll be looking at Romans
chapter 8, if you'd like to follow along in your Bibles. But when
I started this series, I used basically these two passages,
Galatians chapter 5, and I want to read that to you right now,
part of it. and then Romans chapter 8, which
I really got into in part 2. So if you would like to keep
up with these messages and studying the scriptures, get part 1 and
part 2. Today will be part 3. And Lord
willing, next week will be part 4 of Walking After the Spirit,
talking about believers, sinners saved by grace, walking after,
following, being motivated and inspired by the Holy Spirit,
God the Holy Spirit, who is the third person of the Holy Trinity. And I'm not gonna go into that
today because that's several messages in and of itself, how
we don't believe in three gods. True Christians, we don't believe
in three gods, we believe in one God. who subsist in three
distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And that certainly is a mind-boggling truth that we cannot explain.
And I've always said this, you cannot illustrate it. Preachers
try to illustrate the Trinity, but there is no earthly illustration
that sufficiently explains the Holy Trinity. This is something
in the nature of God. The great, as he told Moses in
Exodus 3, the great I am, who always existed, who was, who
is, who always will be, who never changes. There are things about
God that our limited, our finite minds just cannot conceive. And that's the way it ought to
be because God is God and we are creatures. So understand
that. Well today we're talking about
walking after the Spirit and it is the work of the Holy Spirit
in the salvation of sinners to apply sovereignly and invincibly
the benefits and the blessings that the Lord Jesus Christ earned
for His people by His death on the cross. God the Father represents
the sovereign authority of the Godhead. And He is the source
and originator of salvation. We come to the Father through
the Son. And the Son, Jesus Christ, the
eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, is the
mediator. He's the surety. I say this all the time, the
surety, the substitute, the redeemer of his people. And he is the
one by which God connects with his people through the work the
merits of his obedience unto death as our surety, substitute
and redeemer in order to go to God. See we're sinners and we
fell in Adam. The scripture teaches this now.
I know people deny this but the scripture teaches this. We fell
in Adam and we're born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. We have physical life. We have
minds and affections and wills. We are a soul, living souls.
But spiritually speaking, as far as the things of God, the
things that glorify Him, the things that identify Him, the
things that bring people to Him and commune with Him, those things
we're spiritually dead to. That's why we need salvation.
And in order for us to be saved, righteousness has to be established.
God is a just God and a Savior. When God saves in mercy and love
and grace, which He does, the Bible says He delights to show
mercy. The Bible says God is love, that
God is gracious. But His grace and mercy and love
must be grounded upon a just ground, a just foundation, a
righteous foundation. God must be a just God and a
Savior. He must be just when He justifies. You understand that? God's love
cannot be given arbitrarily. God's love is based upon what
Christ accomplished on the cross. And that's why in passages like
1 John 4, 10, it says, here in His love, not that we love God,
but that He loved us and gave His Son to be the propitiation,
the sin-bearing sacrifice that brings satisfaction to the debt
of sin, the law, a propitiation for our sin. You see, people
need to understand this. Outside of Christ, There is no
love from God, there's only hatred, and that's His just wrath against
sin. God's wrath is upon all sinners
to whom sin is imputed. And so my only hope as a sinner
is to have my sins not charged or imputed to me, but charged
and imputed to someone whom God has anointed and appointed and
sent to die for my sins, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
So I must have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law and justice. Well, Christ is that righteousness.
Romans 10, 4 says, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Now that's the justification
of God's people. What is it to be justified? It's
to be forgiven of all my sins on the ground of the blood of
Christ. Do you understand that? You see,
the forgiveness of sins is a gracious, merciful, loving act of God towards
His chosen people. Not everybody without exception
now, but towards His people. And who are His people? They
are those whom the Holy Spirit brings to believe in Christ.
So the forgiveness of sins is a loving, gracious, merciful
act of God, but it's based upon justice satisfied in the death
of Christ as my surety, as my substitute, as my redeemer. Do you understand that? That's
the gospel. The righteousness of God that's
revealed in the gospel. is the merits of Christ's obedience
and death for His people. And it's imputed, it's charged,
it's accounted by God to His people based upon their sins,
our sins, being charged to Christ. And that's how He died. To be
justified is to be declared righteous in God's sight. And that is a
beautiful, loving, gracious, merciful act of God based upon
justice satisfied at the cross by the Lord Jesus Christ. He
paid my debt in full, and I stand before God in His righteousness.
Now, we'll see this in just a moment in Romans 8, 10, when the apostle
Paul, writing by the inspiration of the Spirit, he makes this
statement. He said, the body is dead because
of sin. That is, this human body. And
we see that we grow old and we die, we get sick, some die young,
some die old. And that's the consequence of
sin. But if we're in Christ, by God's grace, mercy and love,
and based upon what Christ accomplished at Calvary, even though the body
is dead because of sin, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, now that's what
we're gonna talk about, is life. Eternal life, spiritual life,
because of righteousness, because of justice satisfied, because
of what Christ did on the cross. And that brings me to what the
Spirit does. The Holy Spirit is sent forth
from the Father and the Son to apply the spiritual life from
Christ, the resurrection life of Christ, to each and every
one of God's people in the new birth. And it's a literal resurrection
from the dead. Because as we're born dead in
trespasses and sins, the Spirit is sent forth from Christ to
quicken us, to give us life. You must be born again or you
cannot see the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. You must
be born again or you cannot enter the kingdom of God. By nature,
as we are naturally born in sin, we don't have spiritual eyes
to see the glory of God in Christ, to see even our sinfulness and
depravity, how much we need salvation by grace, and how we have nothing
to recommend ourselves unto God in ourselves. Salvation cannot
be our works. Because our works are not good
enough. We need a righteousness we can't
produce. And the Holy Spirit brings us
to see that under the preaching of the gospel in the new birth. And He gives us life. He gives
us eyes to see that. The glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And He gives us the desire to
come to Christ. We don't even have the desire
to come to Christ. These people who are telling
you that the new birth comes about based upon or because of
your decision, they're lying to you. The Bible doesn't teach
that. Listen, unless you're born again from above, given life,
you won't decide for Christ. You won't make the right decision.
The natural man, 1 Corinthians 2.14, receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. No man can
come to me, Christ said in John 6.44, unless the Father which
has sent me draw him. So understand that. Now, when
the Holy Spirit comes, and gives life, we walk after the Spirit. That's what we're talking about.
And let me just start, we're gonna go to Romans 8 and then
Lord willing I'll finish that up next week. But look at Galatians
5 to start with, where the apostle writes this in Galatians 5, 16.
This I say then, walk in the Spirit or walk after the Spirit.
It's the same thing. Walking in the Spirit and walking
after the Spirit is the same thing. He says, walk in the Spirit
and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Verse 17,
for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, the Spirit against
the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the other, so that
you cannot do the things that you would. Now that's the spiritual
warfare within, the Holy Spirit within each and every sinner
saved by grace. each and every believer. There
within him is a warfare. And the spirit fights against
the flesh. Now I dealt with the term flesh
in detail in the last two messages, but the flesh is our sinfulness. That's what he's talking about
there. The flesh is a metaphor actually for our sinfulness,
sinful desires, sinful motives, sinful goals, sinful thoughts,
all of that. And sin works through this human
body, so it's called the flesh. It's not saying that the matter
of flesh, just this body in itself, is sinful. Christ had a human
body. He is God in human flesh. God manifests in the flesh. Yet
He is without sin. You understand that. So it's
not that just my hand is a sinful hand. The flesh is the thoughts
and the attitudes and the motives and the goals of sin. I can use
my hand to commit sin or I can use it to do something else.
But flesh here represents the fallen sinful human nature. that pervades and controls every
son and daughter of Adam. And then when the Holy Spirit
comes in through the new birth and indwells us, there is spiritual
life there, but that flesh is not dead. Now that flesh cannot
condemn us, sin cannot condemn us, but it is still there, it's
still active, and it still is contrary to the Spirit, Whatever
the Spirit draws us to do through the Word of God, the flesh is
opposed to it. And it's a warfare, and listen,
it's a warfare that goes on every day of every believer's life
until we leave this body of death, as Paul said in Romans 7, and
go to be with the Lord. Then we'll be free of the flesh.
Then we'll be sinlessly perfect in ourselves. then we'll be righteous
in ourselves. But until that time, the only
righteousness we have is the imputed righteousness of Christ.
No righteousness in ourselves. Well, if you'll look over in
Romans eight. Now I think I got up to around
verses five and six and seven. And we were talking about, look
at verse five of Romans eight. Now he'd already said in verse
one, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit." So we're talking about walking after the Spirit. And
there's no condemnation. That's what that meant over here
in Galatians 5 and verse 18. But if you be led of the Spirit,
you're not under the law. What does that mean? That means
you're not condemned. You're justified. If you're a
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're a justified sinner. You're
forgiven of all your sins, And you are righteous in God's sight,
not by your works, not by your efforts, but totally exclusively
by the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ as your
surety, your substitute, and your redeemer. You have his righteousness
imputed to you. Romans 4, 6, Paul was dealing
with a passage in the Psalms that David wrote. And he said
that David was describing in Romans 4, 6, he said David was
describing there in Psalm 32, the blessedness of the man to
whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. And so you understand
that, that's what it is to be righteous in God's sight. So
when he says there's no condemnation, that's how a true believer begins
the life of walking after the Spirit. I'm not condemned. I cannot be condemned. Think
about that. Now, this is a big part, a major
part of walking after the Spirit. It is realizing that because
of what Christ did on the cross in my place, again, as my surety,
my substitute, and my redeemer, that I cannot be condemned for
my sins. God cannot charge my sins to
me. Now look over in Romans chapter
eight, since we're there, in verse 33. Cross the page there. And he says this, he says, who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Now who's he
talking about here? He's not talking about everybody
without exception. He's talking about God's elect.
Now, you may look at me and you say, well, preacher, what if
I'm not one of the elect? Well, what if you are? How are
you gonna know the difference? Well, here's the point. Do you
believe what God says in his word concerning salvation, the
gospel, who you are, your sinfulness, your depravity, your spiritual
death and trespasses and sin? Do you believe what God says
in the gospel concerning who Christ is, God manifest in the
flesh, the one who by his one sacrifice for sins put the sins
of his sheep, his people, God's elect, totally away so that they
cannot be charged to them. Do you believe that you have
no righteousness before God except the righteousness of Christ freely
imputed, charged, accounted to you by God? and which God has
given you the faith to receive Him, to believe in Him. That's
the elect of God. They believe. Now, do you have
a desire to believe? Are you seeking the Lord in the
Word? This is what this is all about. So look at it again, Romans
8, 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. It's God who forgave my sins.
There are people that I know who may or may not be friends
of mine. They think I've done them wrong
and they won't forgive me. They accuse me all the time,
but God doesn't. And how do I know that? Because
I'm led of the Spirit, walking of the Spirit by the Word of
God, who tells me that if I rest in Christ for all my salvation,
looking unto Him, the author and finisher of our faith, God
does not charge me with sin. He justified me. He's forgiven
my sins, past sins, present sins, future sins, all sin. They cannot
be charged to me. You know why? Because God charged
them to Christ. He charged the debt, the demerit
of my sins to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's what it means
when I say that Christ is my surety. He stood in my place
as my substitute because He was my surety, the surety of the
covenant. That means all of the conditions
of my salvation were placed upon Christ who came into this world
and assumed human nature without sin, God manifest in the flesh,
died on that cross to pay for my sins. And he paid it in full. Hebrews 10 and verse 14 says,
by one offering, he hath perfected, completed, finished forever. He hath, by one offering, he
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, those whom God
set apart, his elect. So he says, if God, he says here,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. Verse 34 says, who is he that
condemneth? Now look at this. Who is He that
condemned? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. So walking after the Spirit,
the most fundamental foundational truth of that, that we rest in
and live by, is this. There is therefore now no condemnation. because of what Christ did. But
if you look over here, he says in verse five of Romans eight,
for they that are after the flesh, now a person can walk after the
flesh. Now here he's not talking about a believer who falls into
some particular sin. Those who walk after the flesh
here are those who are spiritually dead and they are controlled
by the fleshly appetites. And so he says, look at it, verse
five, for they that are after the flesh do mind the things
of the flesh. Now, what are the things of the
flesh? Now, you can easily see how acts of human immorality,
acts of perversion, could be classified as works of the flesh. And the apostle over in Galatians
chapter five, he listed some of that. But also, I want you
to see another thing. walking after the flesh can be
a religious person, one who is moral in the eyes of people,
human morality, one who is sincere, one who is seeking to be saved,
but saved by their works. My friend, that is just as much
walking after the flesh as a person who is just throwing caution
to the wind and breaks every law that God and man has put
in place. If you're a religious person
going to a church, but you're trying to be saved based upon
your works, conditioned on you, you're walking after the flesh.
You're minding the things of the flesh, because that's a sinful
thing in the eyes of God. It does not glorify Him. God
is glorified in salvation by grace for his people. It denies
Christ, it exalts yourself. It makes you to be the difference
between saved and lost and not God. And so he says in verse
five, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the
Spirit. Now those who walk after the Spirit are those who are
born again by the Holy Spirit, who walk by faith in Christ,
realizing and knowing and being assured they're not condemned,
and following Christ, seeking to be like Christ, not in order
to be saved, but because they already are. In verse six, he
says, for to be carnally minded, that's fleshly minded, that's
death. I don't care how you appear to
me, and I don't care how sincere you are. You may have stopped,
you may have turned away from a life of immorality and become
religious, but without Christ. without the gospel, without faith
in Christ and repentance of dead works, works aimed at salvation. My friend, you're walking after
the flesh, but those who are walking after the Spirit, they
mind the things of the Spirit, who leads us to Christ, who brings
us to the Word of God. And to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded, controlled by the Spirit,
walk by the Spirit, that's life and peace. Now what that means
is this, if you're controlled by the Holy Spirit, walking after,
that's an evidence that you have spiritual life and that you're
at peace with God. There's a passage over in Galatians
6 and verse 14 that I love where Paul writes, God forbid that
I should glory, boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.
If we're walking after the Spirit, our whole motto is this, God
forbid that I should boast, have confidence, be secure, except
by one ground, the cross of Christ. What Christ did on the cross
as my surety, my substitute, my redeemer. And so that's life. And so he says in verse seven,
because the carnal mind is enmity against God, the fleshly mind
is an enemy of God. You take the best of sinners,
the best of people that ever lived on this earth, who are
doing their best to keep the law in order to be saved, in
order to be righteous, in order to be made right with God, they
are actually enemies of God. because God will not receive
that. It does not glorify Him. The only ones who are friends
of God are those who are in Christ, washed in His blood, clothed
in His righteousness, walking by faith in Christ, pleading
the blood of Christ, pleading the righteousness of Christ,
coming to God as sinners, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Knowing that if God were to judge
us in any way at any time based upon our best efforts to keep
the law, we'd be condemned. But in Christ who kept the law
in my place, who satisfied justice in my place, I'm not condemned. And that's what it means, the
carnal mind, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. To be subject to the law of God
is to believe in, rest in, and bow to Christ as the end, the
finishing of the law for righteousness. That's to everyone that believeth.
Everyone who walks by the Spirit, walks in the Spirit, walks after
the Spirit. They look to Christ. They rest
in Him. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.