And we're going to continue in
our study of Romans chapter eight this evening. Just before we
do our reading, I want to remind you of a question that was once
asked in scripture. Pontius Pilate, I believe it
was, who asked the Lord Jesus Christ, what is truth? What is truth? You know, he didn't wait for
an answer. Imagine asking the Lord Jesus Christ what truth
was and then not waiting to hear the answer that he gave. I think perhaps Pilate's question
was more rhetorical and perhaps cynical than a genuine inquiry
as to what the Lord Jesus Christ could tell him and inform him. It seems that he was responding
perhaps to the Lord's words where the Lord had said in John chapter
18 and verse 37, to this end was I born. And for this cause
came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. That was the testimony of the
Lord Jesus Christ as to why he had come into the world. There
are a number of other statements made in scripture. He came into
the world to destroy the works of the devil. But here is the
testimony of the Lord directly to Pilate as he stood in the
judgment place. pilot, a man of power, a man
of authority, a man no doubt aware of all the political ramifications,
aware of all the troubles and the foment that was around in
Jerusalem at that time, the danger that there was of this massive
group of people that had gathered for the religious festival, the
Passover and the feast, and no doubt was fully occupied by just
keeping the peace and keeping things suppressed. And here is
this man, Jesus, presented to him with the claims of the high
priests and the Pharisees that he's claiming to be a king. And
Pilate just didn't have the time to be bothered with the whole
thing. But the Lord Jesus Christ tells
us here, whether Pilate is going to pause to listen or not, that
he came into the world to tell us the truth. He came into the
world to tell us the truth. And I want us to hold that thought
this evening. I want us to hold that thought
as it were throughout the passage that we're going to read and
study together for a little while, that the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world to tell us the truth. Now, I don't know that we have ever
in this world been subject to so many lies. You can call them what you want.
Some people will say it's conspiracy theories. Other people will say
it's fake news. The rumor mill seems to just
constantly generate more and more stories. And we sometimes
wonder, how can we verify, how can we validate all this stuff
that seems to go on around about us? And I was kind of thinking
about that. You know, in days gone by, maybe
there would be a little village somewhere up on the hill or out
in the mountains somewhere, and they would get a visit from maybe
a merchant or a trader every now and again. And he would say,
I'll tell you what's happening in the town down in the valley,
or I'll tell you what's happening in some of the other communities
a number of miles away. And people would not know, there
would be a general ignorance until somebody came and told
them what it was that was happening. And in a situation like that,
you could well imagine that you were subject to the integrity
and honesty of that merchant because he could tell you, this
is the latest styles from Paris. Well, they're not, okay? They're
really from Dallas. But you couldn't know any more
than he was prepared to tell you. But nowadays we've got so
much information coming at us from every side and still we
don't know what's true and what's not. Principally because we cannot,
with any great certainty, validate the truthfulness of these statements
for ourselves. We have to be in a situation
where you say, I'm going to trust what that person says or I'm
not. Do you ever wonder why the rumour
mill was called a rumour mill? It's because it just keeps on
grinding out the stories. It just keeps on grinding them
out. ambiguities, half-truths and
downright lies. And how can you tell them apart?
Men and women are perplexed about who to believe and what to believe. That's just the reality. That's
just the way that it is. We can talk about a headline
in the newspaper and somebody will say, oh yeah, that's not
true. or the lead item on a news broadcast
and someone will say, oh yeah, but that's just a story that
somebody is telling us. Remember that the Lord describes
Satan as a liar from the beginning and the devil as the father of
lies. And so we have a choice this
evening when we come together. We have a choice as we sit in
the presence of the word of God. When we hear a statement, when
we hear a testimony from scripture, we have a choice. Who do we believe? What do we
believe? Are we going to believe the Lord
Jesus Christ who said, to this end was I born, for this cause
came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth?
Or are we going to believe Satan with his long history of deception? You know, I find it amazing that
men and women imagine that they are wise enough to work out what
is true and what is false for themselves, especially when it
comes to the things of God, when it comes to matters of faith
and religion. I will personally be amongst
the first to admit that when it comes to what's going on in
the world around about me, I am the most ignorant that you can
probably find anywhere. And that's not to say that I
don't like watching the news or I don't like listening to
current affairs. but I find myself being so conflicted
by these earthly things. I find myself listening to one
commentator and nodding my head sagely as they pontificate about
what the reasons are for such and such an event. And then the
next moment I hear somebody else saying exactly the opposite and
thinking to myself, well, you know, that's true as well. And
yet they both cannot be true. And so you're left wondering
what is true and how can you tell? So what makes me think that I
can properly evaluate or discern eternal things, heavenly things? things of God. If I can't even
tell what's happening with the things of man, how can I possibly
begin to conceive or understand the things of God? And yet everybody
believes that they're their own wisest advisor when it comes
to heavenly things. We just do. You could speak to
anybody and they'll tell you from some concoction of made
up rumour and hypotheses and what their granny used to tell
them, what they read in a book at school, what they've heard
on the science fiction programmes on the television and they've
got a hodgepodge, a mishmash of religious ideas that they're
very often quite happy to explain to you. And yet we don't even
know that the headline in the newspaper is true. How presumptuous
we are as men and women. So here's my point as far as
this introduction is concerned. And I'm only speaking for myself
personally. You decide whether this is any
use for you. But I am resolved in the midst
of all of this confusion and conflicted news and claims for
truth, I am resolved that I shall be content simply to say that
I am prepared to trust the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm prepared to
trust him. And not only am I prepared to
trust him, I'm prepared to stake the eternal wellbeing of my soul
on that decision to trust him. Because I don't have anyone better
to trust. I don't have anywhere better
to go. I can't trust the world. I can't trust my flesh. I can't trust my own intellect. I've proved it to be inadequate
in so many ways, so many times before. Who am I going to trust? I have a soul. I have an eternal
destiny. I'm going to trust the Lord Jesus
Christ and I'm going to trust him with the eternal wellbeing
of my soul because I don't have anyone better to trust than him. He said he came to tell me the
truth. I'm going to believe him. Why am I saying all this? Because
I want to frame this evening's thoughts around the context of
what's true and what's false. What the Bible says, what Christ
says, what the Holy Spirit has given us, and how we feel about
things. I actually had a little title
for this sermon, and it's this, Faith Before Feelings. Faith before feelings. I want us to remind ourselves
that distinguishing between what is
true and what is not true is not about our feelings. It's
not even about our experience. It's not even about our knowledge. Our choice is simple this evening.
Are we going to accept what God says as being the way that it
is, as being what is true, or are we going to spend our lives
like Pilate, wandering around in our ignorance, mumbling to
ourselves? What is truth? What is truth? What is truth? Let's listen to what the Apostle
Paul has to say in Romans chapter 8 and verse 5. I just want to
read a few verses to us this evening. Romans chapter 8 and verse 5. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit
the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. because the carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because
of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by his spirit that dwelleth in you. And that's all that I want
to read this evening. So may the Lord bless this reading
to us. What I'm going to suggest to
you this evening from these verses from the passage is that I want
you to think for yourself as to whether or not This is how
you feel about things. Because what the scripture tells
us is true, regardless of whether that's how you feel. What the scripture tells us is
what God says. regardless of whether that's
our perception and view of things. And it's to ask this question,
will you trust your own feelings or will you trust God's word?
Do we test our feelings by the word of God or do we test God's
word by our feelings? In verse five through nine, and
I want to take these verses together and make some comparisons in
this passage. The first point that I want to
draw your attention to is that the Apostle Paul is speaking
about what I'm going to call a governing principle. the governing
principle in a man and a woman's life. And he's talking about
this governing principle and he describes it in two different
ways. He describes it firstly like
this. There are those who are after
the flesh. Or there are those who walk after
the flesh. and there are those who are after
the Spirit. So here the apostle is drawing
this contrast, this comparison, and he is saying that there are
two different governing principles in people's lives. There are
those who are after the flesh and those who are after the Spirit. And what distinguishes between
those two different governing principles is the relationship
that the individual has with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, those
who walk after the flesh are those that are still in their
Adamic nature, still in the nature of the old man. And those who
are after the Spirit or who walk after the Spirit are those who
have a spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 1 of chapter 8, we saw
how this walking after, which is then spoken about in verse
9. So in verse 1, it says, So what
we're being told here is that those who are in Christ Jesus
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. So verse nine says, but ye are
not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so be that the spirit
of God dwell in you. So 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. Two governing
principles. One governing principle, the
Adamic nature, walking after the flesh, another governing
principle drawn from our union or our interest or our relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's think about unpacking
that a little bit, these two governing principles. And I've
just got a couple of the contrast that the apostle makes here in
these verses five to nine, which I want to draw to your attention.
First one is this. Those who walk after the flesh
are characterized, described, as carnally minded. They have carnal mindedness. Now, that's me. Carnal mindedness,
I know about that. I feel these carnal, fleshy,
sinful tendencies all the time. Even in my spiritual exercises,
I was speaking to someone recently and they were talking about praying.
And they were saying that when they pray, they can hardly keep
their mind on their prayer from the beginning of the sentence
to the end of the sentence. Or if we're reading our Bible,
we start at the beginning of the verse and by the time we've
got to the end of the verse, our mind is thinking about something
else. And we find it hard to concentrate
on what is before us. Even our spiritual exercises,
our worship of God is characterized by carnal mindedness. And we are so easily distracted. my Bible reading, my worship,
my prayers, tainted, spoiled by carnal mindedness. Yep, that's
me. No, it's not. It isn't you. It's not you. And it's not me. Regardless of whether it feels
as if it's you. It's not we're putting faith
before feelings. It's the exact opposite. You
feel those tendencies because you're spiritually minded. The carnal mind doesn't lament
its spiritual inadequacy. It indulges its carnal appetites. But the spiritual mind hates
its carnal appetites. The carnal mind is dead to spiritual
desires. but the spiritual mind is alive
to carnal temptation. The carnal is dead to the spiritual. It doesn't care anything about
the spiritual. It's ignorant of the spiritual. But the spiritual is conscious
of the carnal every day. Every hour of every day. Maybe we could say every moment. Certainly every moment that we
are trying to exercise ourselves in the worship of God because
we discover ourselves to be so readily distracted. But it's
the very consciousness about that that proves we are not carnally
minded, but we are spiritually minded. It's the very conflict
that is taking place that reveals the true nature of the man, the
true governing principle, the fact that we are united to the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first feature. The
second one is this. Paul says that the carnal has
a governing principle of enmity against God. Verse seven, the
carnal mind is enmity against God. Now enmity, we get the word
enemy from enmity. It's the same meaning, but enmity
means that we have an active opposition to something. We are
at enmity with, we are actively opposed, or we are hostile towards
something. And this is what the apostle
is saying. The carnal mind is hostile towards
God. It's not neutral. These two governing
principles, the carnal-minded and the spiritual-minded, the
carnal mind isn't neutral towards God. It's enmity towards God. It is hostile towards God. It's like those that cried. at
the time of the cross, we will not have this man to reign over
us. That was the choice. Were you
going to believe this man or were you going to reject him?
And the carnal mind says, we won't have this man to reign
over us. We insist that we are going to
look after ourselves. We insist that we are going to
act as free agents. We insist that we are going to
be free men and women. We will decide. We will decide
what we will believe. We will decide what we will do.
We will decide what is right and what is wrong. We will decide
how we're going to live our lives. We're not going to have this
man to rule over us. It's a carnal mind. It's an open
hostility to the things of God. And we see it in the world all
around about us. Away with him. We have no king
but Caesar. But that's not us. That's not
how we feel. That's not how we believe. We
desire Christ's kingship. We just lament that we're not
better servants. We seek the friendship of God. We want to have that relationship
with God, though we struggle because of the flesh to have
it. We become aware of this battle
that's going on within ourselves because of a desire that we have
to identify with God and share with God that friendship that
he speaks about, that reconciliation. We would gladly submit to his
rule. Yes, be my king. But we discover
that the flesh interposes itself so much, so frequently, so regularly,
that we have this constant struggle going on in our own hearts and
in our own minds. And I think that it's for this
reason that the Apostle Paul tells us that he would not have
us be overwhelmed or discouraged by the flesh. That's the point
of saying there's no condemnation to us. Paul tells us that we
have peace with God. We have peace with God. He has reconciled to us in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Even if that's not how you feel,
it is nevertheless the truth because that's what the Lord
Jesus Christ came to tell us. And our feelings might say something
different, but this is the truth and this is what we're called
to believe. Who are you going to trust? Yourself
or the Lord? Here's another feature of this
governing principle and the carnal nature. The carnal has a governing
principle that is incapable of pleasing God. Verse eight, so
then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. There's an emphasis there. There's an absoluteness here.
That governing principle of the carnal-minded, the carnal heart
cannot please God. It is hostile towards God and
it cannot please God. Sin has corrupted our flesh and
out of that corruption cannot flow those things which are well-pleasing
to God. Elsewhere we are told that the
flesh, or in the flesh, dwells no good thing. So that we, by
our works, by our will, by our ways, by the things that we think,
the things that we say, are incapable of pleasing God. God gets no
pleasure out of that which emanates from the carnal man. There's nothing that comes out
of us in our humanity, nothing that comes out of this flesh
can please God because it's tainted, it's tarnished, it's spoiled,
it's corrupt. But by faith, with faith, dwelling
in faith, we please God. We please Him by our worship.
We please Him by our service. We please Him and honour Him
by the things that we say and do, by what we are and who we
are, because we are indwelt with His Holy Spirit. because we have
been transformed and we have been changed and we have been
converted into that which is acceptable and well-pleasing
in his sight. And that's what it says in verse
nine. We are not in the flesh, but
in the spirit, if so be the spirit of God dwell in you. We offer spiritual worship that
is well-pleasing to God. Now, I struggle to get my head
around this. This is just the way it is. It's hard. It's hard to think
that here we are gathering together, how many of us? A dozen? A dozen of us on a Wednesday
night, a cold, dark night in the middle of November in Montana,
Great Falls, Montana, And God's pleased with us here. God's pleased
with us. Like he says to his angels, look,
there they are. Those are my people. Those are
my people. I've put my mark on them. And
I've brought one from over here and one from up there and one
from along there. And I've brought them together
tonight so that they can praise me. so that they can worship
me, so that we can commune together in fellowship, holy fellowship,
heavenly fellowship, divine fellowship, God and man together in this
little place, in this little place. And God's pleased with
us. These are Truths that are beyond
the comprehension of creatures and yet they are the testimony
of God with respect to you and me. Who are you going to believe? Your feelings? You have to hurry
up and finish your dinner so that you can get into a cold
car so that you can come down to church and you've got indigestion
when you come in and And God graces this place by
coming and meeting with us here. It's not how we feel. It's not
how we feel in our bodies, in our minds, or the weariness of
the day, the trials of our circumstances, all the uncertainties, but it's
what God says. And who are you going to believe? Indwelt by the Holy Spirit, We
offer a worship which is well-pleasing to God, well-pleasing in his
sight and glorifying to his name. Here's another feature of those
who are the Lord's, this governing principle. The carnal has a governing
principle that is estranged from God. It is separated, diverse,
incompatible, divergent from God. But the spiritual man, the spiritual
woman, the spiritual boy and girl, they are united to Christ. They are joined together with
him. The carnal is separated, but
the spiritual is united to Christ. And in a most incomprehensible
way, Look at verse one again of chapter
eight. Just take a moment and read verse one to me, into yourself. And then flick over and read
verse 10. Just read it into yourself as
well. And tell me what the difference is. You don't need to shout out.
Just think, what's the difference in those two verses? Okay, let me read them. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Verse 10
says, And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin,
but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. See the difference
there? In verse one, we are told that
we are in Christ Jesus. In verse 10 we're told that the
Lord Jesus Christ is in us. Now the carnal mind says that's
contradictory. The spiritual says it's incomprehensible. Such is the unique, wonderful
relationship transcendent in its nature of spiritual union
between the Lord Jesus Christ and his people, that we are simultaneously
in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ is in us. And it's not a contradiction.
It's the truth. It's what the Bible says. It's what the Lord Jesus Christ
has declared. Paul says, and therefore God
says, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life
because it is united to the living Christ. It has peace with God
and it is declared to be righteous and perfect and holy before him. We've kind of thought about this
carnal mindedness and these governing principles that affect and characterize
those that are carnally minded. And we've contrasted those. And
we have seen that those who walk after the spirit are characterized
by a spiritual mindedness as opposed to a carnal mindedness.
A spiritual life that dwells uneasily with carnal flesh. A peace, a friendship that exists
between God and our spirits because we have been reconciled by the
death of our substitute on our behalf on the cross, the Lord
Jesus. We have seen that we are in that
spiritual principle, that governing principle of spirituality, spiritual
mindedness, well-pleasing to God. He looks not for works,
but he looks for faith in the individual. He looks for trust. He looks for us to acknowledge
him and what he has done and commit ourselves to him. and
we are united with Christ. We in him and he in us. And it's not a contradiction,
it's just beyond our comprehension. Let's look at verse 10. It says here, and if Christ be in
you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life
because of righteousness. And again I say, this is God
who's speaking. I'm not asking you if this is
how you feel. I'm telling you that this is
what God says. I'm declaring to you as Paul
declared, that the spirit is life because of righteousness. We have a spiritual mindedness. We have a spiritual governing
principle. There is an unqualified absoluteness
about this statement. This is Paul's words to us. It's
God's revelation. We are spiritually useful. We are alive to God. We have an acceptability with
him. And you say, I don't feel it. Well, then you're putting your
feelings before your faith. when we are called to put our
faith before our feelings. It might not be how it feels,
but it's how it is. Are we going to trust our own
feelings or are we going to trust God's word? Do we test our feelings
by the word of God or do we try God's word by our feelings? The
Bible says, let God be true and every man a liar. And that goes
for us as well. Even when we don't feel it to
be so, the word of God tells us that this is how it is. The body is unprofitable. It's
a liability. It's bereft of generating anything
that is good or useful. and it takes a spiritual-mindedness
to understand that and to acknowledge and to accept it. The Spirit
is righteous, the Spirit is well-pleasing to God, the Spirit is miraculously
joined to the Lord Jesus Christ, and it takes spiritual-mindedness
to accept that that is the case. But we believe it. because that's
what the Lord Jesus Christ has said. That is what the Lord Jesus
Christ witnesses to. That is the testimony of the
Word of God and it is the testimony of the apostles who have taught
us the Word of God. So let's just wrap this up now
with a little P.S. at the end. Do you remember we
said at the beginning that the Lord Jesus Christ came into the
world to tell us the truth? He said, I've come in that we
might know the truth. You shall know the truth and
the truth shall set you free. John 18 verse 37 was the verse
we quoted. To this end was I born and for
this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto
the truth. And by that time, Pilate was
already up and heading out of the room. The greatest witness to the truth
in all of this that we have is the empty tomb of the Lord Jesus
Christ. As far as our own lives are concerned,
believers walk by faith and not by sight. We walk not because
we can emphatically, knowledgeably prove what we believe, but because
we believe it, because that's what God says and that's what
God has done. You can't be standing outside
the tomb 2,000 years ago and verifying that the Lord's body
isn't there. but we believe it because that's
what the Lord Jesus Christ said and we have chosen, we have decided
to trust in him and to trust and believe what he says. We
don't see, we don't feel, we don't know except by faith. that state that we have in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why the charismatics
are wrong. That's why those people who insist
on signs and wonders as evidences of this miraculous relationship
that they have with Christ are wrong, because they are relying
upon that which is seen and heard and viewed and witnessed. Whereas
we believe by faith, we trust the word of God. Our greatest
witness to the truth of the gospel is the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And to this, this fact of the
resurrection, the Apostle Paul appends an amazing statement. Look at verse 11. 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. This is our destiny,
to be raised from the dead by the same power that raised the
Lord Jesus Christ from the grave. What do you feel about that? This is God speaking. This is
what is going to happen. The very same power that raised
the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead is going to raise your mortal
body from the grave. and we believe it. He that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Shall we believe God or
not? Lord, I believe, help thou my
unbelief. Shall we believe even when our
feelings militate against it? Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief. Shall we trust, though Satan
rages against us, and the world and the flesh oppose us? I'm
going to answer in the words of Martha. Jesus said unto her,
I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? And Martha said, Yea, Lord, I
believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should
come into the world. we believe him too and that's
what makes the difference between those who are in Christ and those
who are not. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us. Amen.