Let's open our Bibles again to
Romans chapter 8, the passage Brother Eric just read for us.
We began looking at these verses last week. We saw what it is
to walk in the flesh and to walk in the spirit. We're going to
continue looking at that this morning. Walking in the flesh.
What is it? Walking in the flesh and walking in the spirit. Remember,
I showed you this last week, to walk in the flesh. It's not
just walking in outward sin. It's not walking, seeking sin
or seeking opportunity, sin or even enjoying sin. To walk in
the flesh is to walk in the nature of this flesh. The religious
nature of this flesh is to try to please God by something that
we contribute. That's walking in the flesh.
You remember scripture gave us the definition of this. Abraham
and Sarah. God promised them a son. Years
passed, they had no son. Sarah said, tell you what we
need to do. God must have meant that we help him out. Here's
how we'll have a son. Abraham, you marry Hagar and
we'll have a son. That son will be my son. Well,
that's what they did. Abraham married Hagar and Hagar
bore a son, didn't she? But that's not the son God promised.
Paul told us in Galatians 4 verse 23 that Ishmael was born after
the flesh. That's what it is to be after
the flesh. It's try to help God accomplish
His purpose of redemption, His promise to His people by us doing
our part. Now, how does that apply to our
lives today? Well, trying to keep the law,
doing our part, trying to keep the law, make ourselves good,
make ourselves more savable. That's walking after the flesh.
It's trying to do our part instead of relying upon the promise of
God's grace in Christ. All religious activity that we
do, making a decision. Oh, you got to make a decision
to accept Jesus as your personal savior. Be careful now. That's
walking in the flesh. I've made a decision to let Jesus
be Lord of my life. That's walking in the flesh. God's not going to have God will
never accept anything that we've done in this flesh to please
Him, to cause Him to bless us. And let me warn us about this
too. Doing something, thinking that we can do something, something
religious. Good things, things that we ought
to do. Thinking that we can do those things to make God happy
with us, to make Him bless us. That's walking after the flesh.
You know, we ought to give an offering. Scripture said bring
an offering. Come and worship God, bring an offering. But if
we're giving an offering so God's going to bless me, if I give
an offering so I have seed money, God's going to give me more back
in return? Walking in the flesh. You know, we ought to be faithful
to attend the worship service. I mean, if it's humanly possible,
we should be here in the worship service when these doors are
open. But now if we think, oh, look how I'm faithful, I come
even on Wednesday night, you know, it's a pretty day out on
Wednesday, but I still come to, careful, that's walking in the
flesh. We ought to be faithful to the
worship service. We ought to be here to worship
the Lord. Isn't he worthy? But now if we're
doing that to think God's going to be more pleased with me than
somebody else, that's walking in the flesh and God's not going
to have it. God will only ever be satisfied
and pleased with one person, one man, Lord Jesus Christ. If he's going to be pleased with
you and me, he's going to be pleased with us in Christ and
what Christ has done. Don't walk after the flesh, after
the way of religion. This flesh thinks we ought to
go. The flesh makes us think, I could
do something to make God happy with me. Wait a minute. Do we
really think? Think what that means. We think
that we can do something to improve on Christ? Now you can't improve
on perfection in him. That's walking in the flesh.
Now the opposite of that is walking in the spirit. To walk in the
spirit is to trust Christ to be everything we need. Absolutely
everything. To walk in the spirit is to be
saved by faith alone, by faith in Christ alone, by God's grace
and mercy alone. To walk in the spirit is to look
to Christ alone. It's not Christ plus, you know,
how faithful I've been and what I've done and what I... No. It's
Christ alone. It's His doing. His obedience
to the law is my obedience. His sacrifice for sin is my sacrifice
for sin. The only hope that I could have,
my sin would be put away. His death to the law is my death
to the law. And verse 4 tells us that's why
Christ came. He came to do the work of salvation
for His people. Christ came that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit. Christ came to obey the law for
his people because they can't do it. The problem, verse three
said, the problem's not with the law, is it? No, the law's
fine. The law's perfect. It's just.
It's the law of God. It's like God himself. It's holy.
It's perfect. The problem's with us. We can't
keep it. So Christ came to obey the law
for his people as their representative. God's elect are made righteous,
they're absolutely perfectly righteous, as perfect as the
son of God himself, because of Christ's obedience to the law
for us, not anything that we do. Righteousness, salvation,
acceptance with God. It's not in our law keeping.
It's not in our morality. You ought to be a moral person,
but that's not where righteousness is found. Not in our morality.
It's not in us living honestly. It's not in us quitting, drinking,
smoking, and cussing. Not in that at all. Believers
are made righteous when Christ obeyed the law. When he obeyed
the law, we did in him. He is our righteousness. That's how the righteousness,
how Christ fulfilled righteousness for his people. It's what he
did for them as a man, as our representative. But believers
also made righteous through what Christ has accomplished in us.
Paul says that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us. But how can righteousness be
fulfilled in us? It's the new birth. In the new
birth, there's a new man, a holy man born. He's righteous. That's how it's fulfilled in
us. There's a new man that God put in us. So it's not by anything
we've done, is it? No. It's what Christ has done
for us and what He's done in us by God's grace. Now that ought
to, if you know anything about yourself, that ought to be obvious
to us. We can't be saved by anything
we do. We can't contribute to salvation by anything we do.
It's all in Christ. It's by faith in Christ. Now
I've got, that ought to be as obvious to you and me as the
nose on my face. It ought to be obvious. And I've
got three points from this text to show us that and then a very
blessed conclusion. Number one, salvation has got
to be by faith in Christ, not by anything we do. Let's look
at what we do. Verse five. 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. Now
they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.
What does that mean? Well, it means those who are
trying to please God, the way of the flesh, the religion of
the flesh, they're trying to please God and earn salvation
by the deeds of the flesh, by keeping the law or doing different
things. They're always going to fail because we can only do
fleshly things. In this body, we can only do
fleshly things. And that's always sin. Now when Paul talks here
about flesh, he doesn't mean the flesh, the meat that's on
our bones. He means the nature of flesh
that we're born with, the nature of our father Adam. That's the
only thing the flesh can produce, a more sinful flesh. And to mind,
it means to be interested in, to mind the things of the flesh,
means to mind, means to be interested in religion that appeals to the
flesh. It's religion that tells us what
fleshly things we can do to please God. The religion of the flesh, to
mind it, is to be interested in religion that tells me how
to live better. It's to be interested in religion
that tells me how to fill my bank account. I watched this
nut job creature on TV. It was just channel surfing.
It's like a train wreck. You got to just stop and rubberneck. I couldn't believe it. He said,
my, forget the word to use, my ministry, my gift, whatever,
is to tell you how to get rich. I mean, he was making no bones
about it. He never talked about forgiveness. He never talked
about righteousness. He never talked about mercy and
grace. He said, my ministry is to tell you how to get rich.
And here's how you do it. Send me a thousand dollars. You know, I have to tell you,
there's some interest there. Yeah, I'd like to know how to
have more money. I can promise you that's not it. That's the
religion of the flesh. The religion of the flesh, I
tell you what it boils down to, is to tell you how to do things
to get God to bless you. That's the religion of the flesh.
That's what It's all just trying to manipulate God to do things
for you, to give you more stuff of this life. Yeah, they tell
you how to have more friends and how to have a better marriage,
you know, but it's by influencing people to do what you want them
to do. And all that is, is an offshoot of telling you how to
influence God to get Him to do things you want Him to do. That's
the fleshly, that's what the fleshly nature is interested
in. We're not interested by nature in forgiveness, mercy, grace. No, we're interested in what
we think we want. Money, power, fame, those things. To be carnally minded. It's the
exact same thing as minding the things of the flesh. It's to
think about and desire this religion of this fleshly nature. And Paul
said, it is death. Doing these fleshly things, trying
to please God, not only does it lead to death, it is death. It's already dead. Everything
we do in these bodies is sinful. So it ought to be obvious to
us. We can't do anything in these bodies to please God, to earn
holiness from God by doing sinful things. And that's the nature
that we have. That's the only nature that we're
born with. And don't be mistaken. Just because
we're physically alive does not mean we're spiritually alive.
Just because we're physically alive does not mean we can choose
to be saved. Because we're restrained, we're
constrained by our nature. We're born with a fleshly nature,
not a spiritual nature. The only nature my father had
to pass on to me was a fleshly nature. That's the only nature,
it's a nature of dead flesh. And spiritually dead flesh cannot
perform the functions of spiritual life. It's just an exercise in
futility for me to try to talk you into doing things because
we're dead. We can't perform the functions
of spiritual life. We, by nature, cannot hear the
gospel. We can't hear it. We can't understand
it. Any more than a dead man in a
casket can understand you talking to him. He can't do it because
he can't perform the functions of life. The same thing is true
of us spiritually. That's why we pray. Eric prayed
it. Lord, don't let your people hear
the voice of the man, but you speak to us because only God
can speak and give life to where we can understand it. We can't
decide to accept Jesus. Any more than a dead man can
decide, laying in that casket, you know, I don't want to lay
here anymore, I'm going to get up and go home with my family. He can't do it. He
can't perform that function of life. Spiritually speaking, we
can't either. We cannot perform the functions
of life. Then it ought to be obvious to us, in this dead nature,
the only thing we can earn from God is damnation, because all
we can do is sin. We cannot earn life by what we
do. Life found in one place, in one
person, in the Lord Jesus Christ, through faith in Him. That's
the only way God can be pleased with us, is by faith in Christ. Hebrews 11, 6, without faith. It's impossible to please God. It's impossible. But He's pleased
with us in faith. That's what it is to walk. That's
the result of walking in the flesh. But to be spiritually
minded, that's to be interested in, to seek after things, who
Christ is, to seek after him. To be after the spirit means
to seek salvation, means to seek acceptance with God, means to
look for and seek fellowship with God through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And to be spiritually minded
is life. It is life. Are you interested? Are you interested in Christ?
Are you interested in forgiveness of sin in Him? Are you interested
in being washed in His blood? Are you interested in being clothed
in His righteousness? If you are, it's because God's
already given you life. To be spiritually minded is life. So if you're spiritually minded,
you're not interested in somebody telling you all the different
things you need to do to get God to bless you. If you're spiritually
minded, you're interested in one thing. hearing of Christ. Tell me about him one more time.
Tell me the old, old story one more time. Tell me about who
Christ is, what Christ has done, why did he do it, where he is
now. Faith clings to that message. Faith clings to the message of
done. Not do, not what I have to do.
Faith clings to the message of what Christ has already accomplished
for his people. Now, anyone who's after the flesh,
They don't have life and they cannot have peace. They can't. I mean, you think about it. If
you're interested in the religion of the flesh, it tells you all
these things you have to do. You can't have peace, can you?
When can you rest? You mothers know about that.
A mother's work's never done. You can never rest, can you?
Never any peace. There's always more to do. But
anyone who's after the spirit, Oh, they have life and they have
peace. They have peace with God. They
have peace with the conscience because Christ the Savior has
already made peace for us. How? By the blood of His cross. His blood cleanseth us from all
sin. When sin's gone, there's no more
condemnation. There's no more fear than what's
left. The only thing left is peace.
Peace with God. It ought to be obvious to us.
Salvation cannot come by our dead words. Peace can't come
by our dead words. It's only through faith in Christ. That's what those verses are
teaching. Let me add this for the believer. Most people you
read and you listen to messages, most people think about these
verses in terms of what we put our time and energy and attention
and interest in, in this life. They say a believer shouldn't
care whether or not they've got a nice house or not. They say
a believer shouldn't care whether or not they've got a good job.
They shouldn't care if they've got a nice car or nice clothes.
They shouldn't be interested in the goings on of this world,
politics and sports and whatever. You know, I beg to differ. I
really do beg to differ. As long as those things are kept
in their proper perspective. You ought to be interested in
getting a good job. You really should. Go out there
and get you an education, get whatever training it takes so
you can get a good job. Do, and when God gives you one,
when God gives you a job, you do the very best you know how
to do in that job. I mean, just work your heart
out in it. And while you're working your
job, there's nothing wrong with wanting a promotion. There's
nothing wrong with wanting a raise because you've done a good job.
I mean, you work hard at that job. You get there early. Don't
get there till I second. Get there early. And don't leave
as soon as the clock strikes whatever quitting time is. You
stay late. Make your work utterly impeccable. And when you're there, don't
look for the minimum of what you can do. Don't you hate? Can
you work with people? I always wanted the minimum.
That's not my job description. Who cares? Look for more to do.
Do more than what they pay you for. Because listen, I'm talking
to believers now. You're not serving that boss.
You're serving the master. You're serving the Savior who
suffered and bled and died to put your sin away. Do you care
what's on your job description? Work hard. Just do everything
you can do with it. And if that gives you a promotion,
a raise, so you can afford nice things, that's wonderful. That's
wonderful. But this is what we've got to
be careful of. Don't make that your be-all and end-all. Don't
do it. Don't seek a promotion. Don't stay late at work seeking
a promotion at the expense of coming to worship service. Don't
do that. Have a nice house, have a nice car, just enjoy those
things, but not at the expense of giving. No, you give your
offering, forgive to the Lord the firstfruits. The rest of
it, take care of itself. You give liberally. I have a
thankful heart because the Lord gave you the unspeakable gift
of his son. Put time and energy into these
things, into your house, into your yard, into your family,
especially your family. Take care of your family, but
seek ye first. the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these other things will be added to you. As you're taking
care of your family, as you're raising your family, let me give
you this advice from an empty nester. You think it's never
going to end. I mean, it starts out when they're
newborns. You think this kid is never going
to sleep through the night. You think this kid is never going
to be potty trained. One day they are. You think this
kid's never going to tie his shoes and know how to get dressed?
You think this kid's never going to remember to bring books home
from school so they can finish their homework? I was talking
to Marvin Stoniker the other day. He said, we raised four
children. He said, most days it was like trying to herd cats.
And we just, every day, you just keep going, doing what you can
do, you know? And one day it's done. It's going
to be over. While you're taking care of all
those things, shoes and homework and potty training and sleeping
through the night and getting them in before curfew and keeping
them safe while you're doing it, getting them an education
so they can go out and get into a good university and all the
while you're doing all that stuff. Oh, take care of the most important. You teach them by word, by example,
Seek the Lord. You bring them to the worship
service. You talk about the Lord to them. You set the example
to them to show them the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't get too carried. Enjoy the things of this life.
They're for you. All things are for your sakes,
but keep them in their proper perspective. Now, that's not
the primary application of this verse, but it's worth saying. It's worth saying. And just remember,
this is the primary application. Our dead works are not going
to profit us anything from God. If we're going to have anything
from God, it's through faith in Christ. That's walking in
the spirit. Right? Here's the second point. Salvation
has got to be by faith in Christ, not by anything that we do, because
look at what we hate for seven, because the carnal mind is enmity
against God. First, not subject to the law
of God. Neither indeed can be. Now you can try to earn God's
favor by what you do if you want to. You can try to impress God
by what you do if you want to. But let me warn you, you're going
to fail every time. Every single time you're going
to fail. You know why? Because it's your nature to hate
God and to hate God's law. You hate God's law. I do too
by nature. So no matter how much you try
to make your flesh conform to the requirements of the law,
It never will. Paul says here it's impossible. The flesh, the nature of the
flesh can never conform to the law of God because the carnal
mind, the nature of our flesh hates God. It is enmity, not
enmity against God. It is enmity. It is hatred. That goes deeper than just being
an enemy of God, doesn't it? No, it is hatred. Enemies can
be reconciled. Hatred never can be. Our fleshly
nature hates God. So that nature will never seek
to please God. Now it'll seek to manipulate
God. Like I said earlier, it'll seek to try to trick God into
giving me stuff that I want, but it can't love him. It can't
please him. Now that fleshly nature, now
it's religious. Oh, it's religious. But it hates
God. Don't confuse religion for loving
God. The nature, the religion of the fleshly nature does not
worship God, does not love God. It hates God. It's opposed to
God. That's why men change God into something that they like.
Men like a God they can control, don't they? Men like a God they
can accept any time they want. But man hates God who's sovereign.
No man hates God who rules over him. The nature of flesh hates
the true living God. You and I are in God's hands
to do with as he pleases. As he pleases and whatever he
does with us is right. We're not in his hand to do with
as we please. We can't decide to accept him
anytime we want. We're in his hand. That leaves
us begging Him to do something for us that we do not deserve.
But men hate that God. So they change Him into a God
that they like, that they made up. And all they make for themselves
is an idol. It's no better than a good luck
charm you carry around in your pocket you pull out and rub when
you want something to happen. It's like a genie in a bottle.
Men hate the true and living God. God sent His Son into this
world to die for a people that God chose to save. He didn't
send his son to die for everybody, the whole human race, to save
as many people as, you know, in their carnal mind might choose
to accept him. No, men hate that God. So they
change him into this weak savior who's not worthy of your respect,
who's not worthy of your praise. He's just a pitiful, effeminate
beggar. He's not a king on a throne.
And I tell you why they change God that way. They hate him. The nature of this flesh hates
God. Then it ought to be obvious to us in a nature that hates
God, we can never please him. Never. Not only can we not please
God, we don't have the ability. We don't want to because we hate
God. We can't please God both because
of what we do and what we hate. Verse eight. So then, They that
are in the flesh cannot please God because of what we do and
what we hate. Now, here's the third point. This is the this is the key.
Salvation must be by faith in Christ alone, without any of
our works, because of what I am, because of what I am. You know,
we do what we do. We hate what we hate. We love
what we love because of who we are. We do what we do because
our nature controls us. You know, a cow eats grass. A
cow can't help it. It's the nature of a cow. I eat
a cow because that's my nature, and I can't help it. I mean,
you just, you give me a choice of a steak and something else,
I am almost always going to choose a steak. It's my nature. This
afternoon, we're going to have chicken. We're having, Clark
and I are fixing dinner for Mother's Day. I don't know what chicken
eat, chicken feed. I don't eat that. I eat the chicken.
That's my nature. In the exact same way, I cannot
please God. I can't love Him. I cannot love
Him. I cannot believe Him. I've spent
years trying to make myself believe God. I couldn't do it because
that's my nature. The fleshly nature can't believe
God. It can't love Him. We hate what
we ate because of our nature. A dog hates a cat. We've got
two little Yorkies and these cats have taken to coming up
on our front porch and those dogs run and throw themselves
at the glass just because they despise those cats. I hate the barking. I just, oh,
it's so shrill, but it is their nature to hate a cat. It's their
nature. In the exact same way, I'm a
dog and I hate God. I hate his righteousness. I hate
his holiness. I hate his mercy. I hate his
grace. I can't help it. That's my nature. And that is
precisely why our Lord told Nicodemus, Nicodemus, you must be born again. You've got to be given a new
nature. And when we're born again, now
we believe. Now we love God. Now we beg him
for mercy. Now we love his mercy and his
grace. Now we love a sovereign, effectual
savior. That new man born of God cannot
sin. He cannot. He's a partaker of
the divine nature. He's got a nature just like the
nature of his heavenly father. I got the nature of my father,
Frank Tate, in my first birth. When I was born again, I got
a nature of my heavenly father, a nature that can't sin. That
new man, he believes Christ and he can't not believe because
that's his nature. He loves Christ and he cannot
hate him because that's his nature. Verse nine. Oh, but you're 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's none of his. Look over Galatians chapter
one. This is what is to walk in the
spirit. is to walk by faith in Christ. And you know, the only
way that we can walk in the Spirit, the only way we can be in the
Spirit is if the Spirit's in us. He's got to be in us first. And that's what the new birth
is. It's the Spirit of God dwelling in us so that there's two natures
in every believer. Galatians 1 verse 13. For you have heard of my conversation,
my conduct in time past of the Jews' religion, how that beyond
measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it and profited
in the Jews' religion above many of my equals in mine own nation,
being more exceeding zealous of the traditions of my fathers."
Now, you know Saul's history, Saul of Tarsus. He was a very
religious man, wasn't he? Oh, he knew the scriptures, he
knew the laws, he knew all those things. But he's walking in the
flesh. What? He's walking in the flesh
and fleshly religion, trying to please God by what he did.
And you notice that Paul, once he's born again, once God taught
him something, he said, what was he exceeding zealous of?
It wasn't the gospel. It wasn't mercy. It wasn't grace.
It wasn't the glory of God, was it? It wasn't even the law of
God. It was the traditions of my fathers. The fathers knew they couldn't
keep the law. So you know what they did? They changed it. They
just changed it into their own traditions. And their traditions
sounded good, sounded moral. They knew you had to be holy
and clean. Well, they couldn't. So you know what they said? This is our tradition. We're
going to wash our hands before we eat. And if we do that, we've
not defiled ourselves with the dirt of the world. Well, that
sounds real good until you realize you're made from the dirt of
the world. Those traditions sounded good,
but it's walking in the flesh. And Saul couldn't help but walk
that way, could he? Because he just had one nature. He just
had the nature of the flesh. But, oh, I love that word in
scripture, but. Verse 15, but, when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him among
the heathens. Now, when was Paul able to preach
Christ and not the traditions of his father? When was he able
to do that? It wasn't when Christ was revealed to him, was it?
It was when Christ was revealed in him. In him. Paul was able
to believe Christ. He was able to cling to Christ.
He was able to love Christ. He was able to preach Christ.
He was able to give himself over to the preaching of Christ when
he received a new nature. Christ was formed in him. And
that's what the new birth, how can Christ be formed in me? It's
in the new birth. Look over a page of Galatians
4. Verse 19. My little children of whom I
travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. That's
the new birth. Christ being formed in you. His nature being formed in you
in the new birth. Now this is so important. Look
at Galatians. I have two things to show you
how important this is. Galatians chapter one. The believer has a hope of glory. Our hope of glory, our hope of
salvation, our hope of glorification is not only Christ come in the
flesh. It's not Christ on the cross.
It's not Christ risen from the dead. All those things are utterly
necessary. But how do I know that applies
to me? How do I know he died for me? How do I know he's coming
for me? My hope of glory is Christ in me, in me. Colossians 1 verse
27. To whom God would make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. The hope of glory is
Christ in you. that He died for me. That's the
only way I know He died for me is Christ had been formed in
me. It's the only way I can believe
Him. It's the only way I can love Him. The only way we can walk in the Spirit
is for Christ to be in us. How important is that? How important
is it that you have two natures, two opposite natures in you?
How important is it? You cannot, cannot be saved without
it. Back in our text, Romans 8 verse
9. But you're not in the flesh,
but in the spirit, if so be it the spirit of Christ dwelling
in you. Now, if any man have not, if he doesn't have the spirit
of Christ, if he doesn't have these two natures in him, he
is none of his. I say, I don't have two natures
in me. I'm not going to say that I have two natures, nature of
Christ, not in me, then you're not saved. That's all there is
to it. And you're walking in the flesh. So verse 10, if Christ
is in you, if he be in you, the body's dead because of sin, but
the spirit is life because of righteousness. If Christ is in
you, you walk in the spirit, you have faith in Christ. You
know him, you love him. God saved you. What must I do
to be saved? Believe. You must believe on
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. When am I going to believe? When
I'm born again. That new man can't do anything
but believe God. And when that happens, this is
what we looked at a couple weeks ago, now the civil war is going
to start. Now that old man is going to
have somebody to fight with. The body of flesh is still going
to be dead. The nature of flesh is still going to be dead. The
nature of the flesh is still going to be interested in all
this man's religious stuff. He's not changed at all in the
new birth. But Christ dwells in you. You're righteous. You have eternal life because
you are everything that Christ the Savior is. You have union
with Him. Now does that make it obvious?
The only way we can be saved is through faith in Christ. Not
the ending of our works, it's an act of God for us and an act
of God in us, causing us to be born again. Salvation is of the
Lord. It's His doing and if you trust
Him, you believe Him, God's given you life. That's the only reason
you believe Him. That's walking in the Spirit, just looking and
resting in Christ alone. I have two blessed conclusions.
First one is this, if Christ dwells in you, You walk in the
spirit. You're trusting him. You're looking
to Christ. You have life right now. You don't have to wait for
it. You have it right now. But you're still dealing with
this flesh, aren't you? This sinful flesh. Here's my
good news. It won't always be that way.
One day God's going to perfect the work begun and he's going
to make you righteous, both body and soul. Verse 11. But if the
spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Now our
fleshly bodies are still going to have to die. Even if we're
born again, this flesh has got to die. It's full of sin. But
when this flesh dies, the spirit, the new man, he goes to be with
the Lord. Those loved ones of ours, those
that we know, we have very good hope. They believe Christ. They
love Christ. They died. We put their bodies
in the grave. They've gone to be with the Lord.
In what body? In what body are they there with
the Lord? I don't have the foggiest idea, but this is what I know. They're with the Lord. To be
absent from the body is present with the Lord. And here's what
I do know. Christ dwells in you. Your dead
body is going to rise from the grave. It's going to be resurrected
in a righteous, your righteous soul will be clothed with a righteous
body. You'll be raised for the same
reason, by the same power, Christ your Savior was raised. Why was
Christ raised from the tomb? The sin charged to him is gone.
You who believe are going to be raised from the dead the exact
same way, for the same reason. Christ put your sin away. He
gave you a holy nature. And one day he's going to clothe
that nature with the righteous body. And you'll spend eternity
with Christ in a righteous, perfect body and perfect soul. No more
of this civil war. Here's the second blessed conclusion.
If Christ dwells in you, you walk in the Spirit, you have
faith in Christ, you walk trusting Christ alone. You have freedom. Right now you have freedom. You
have to wait for it to glory. You have it right now. Verse
12. Therefore, brethren, we're debtors, not to the flesh, to
live after the flesh. And here's the good news. You
got this flesh, you got this nature of flesh, don't you? But
you're not a debtor to it. You don't owe that flesh one
blessed thing. Not one. That flesh does all
those religious desires. Don't give in to it. Don't give
into it. You don't owe that flesh. He
says, Oh, I should get to be able to do this. No, you don't.
No, don't give into it. You don't owe that flesh anything. You don't have to do anything
at once in order to be saved. Christ already accomplished that
for you. He paid the debt. So you're free. You're absolutely
utterly free. Look over one more scripture.
Galatians chapter five. You're free. Galatians 5 verse 18. But if you be led of the spirit,
you are not under the law. You're free from it. You're not
under it. You're free from it. If Christ dwells in us, we walk
in the spirit. We're free. Second Corinthians
3 17, where the spirit of the Lord is, There's liberty. If Christ dwells in you, you're
free. Now we're still debtors, aren't
we? Not debtors to that flesh, not debtors to the law, not debtors
to religious activity. We're debtors to God's grace.
Aren't we debtors to keep trusting him? Thank God he gives his people
a nature that will. So verse 13, if we live after
the flesh, we shall die. But if ye through the spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. If we try to
live, try to gain favor with God, with all this fleshly nature,
desires and religion, we're already dead. And one day we'll die eternally. But if we mortify the deeds of
the flesh, we just refuse to partake in the religion that
this flesh desires and loves. We refuse to try to earn God's
favor by what we do and just rest in Christ. We already have
life. One day, God's going to give
it to us perfectly with you. That's the difference between
walking in the flesh and walking in the Spirit. God make it so
that we walk out of this building this morning walking in the Spirit.
Let's bow and pray. Our Father, how we thank you
for your mercy and your grace and your goodness to your people.
You have provided for your people everything you require. You provided
it for us in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we beg
of thee that you would grant faith, that you'd grant life,
that we might believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Father, cause us to rest in him. Cause us to believe him
and him alone and deliver us, Father, from the cares of this
life choking out your words. Deliver us from the religious
desires of this flesh, causing us to look away from Christ,
to take away our peace and our hope in Him. Father, cause us
to rest in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us, by Your mercy and grace,
be completely taken up with the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, bless
Your Word, we pray. Bless it for Your glory. Bless
it to the hearts of Your people that we might see more of the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and love him more, believe him
more, rest in him more. It's in his precious name we
pray. Ask these great blessings.