I did choose thee. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nybert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. In 1 Corinthians 3, verse 16,
the Apostle Paul makes this statement, and it is true with regard to
every believer without exception. If you believe the gospel, this
is true with regard to you. Now listen to his words. Know
ye not that you are the temple of God. Now he's not speaking
to all men indiscriminately. He is speaking to believers.
He's speaking to the church at Corinth, to the faithful in Christ
Jesus. This is not something that any
son of Adam could claim, but listen to his words. Know ye
not that you are the temple of God? of God, and that the Spirit
of God dwelleth in you." What a staggering claim. The Spirit of God. This is said
to every believer. The Spirit of God. the third
person of the Blessed Trinity. God is one God in three distinct
persons. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit indwells
every believer. The omnipresent, omnipotent,
omniscient Spirit of the living God dwells in every believer. Now if I came up to someone on
the street and said, God dwells in me. One of two things would
be true with regard to their response. They might say, well,
didn't he have all of us? He made us all. Doesn't he dwell
in all of his creatures? Or they may say, you're crazy
and you're arrogant. And I can understand that response. Nonetheless, the Bible says that
the Spirit of the living God dwells in every believer—literally,
not figuratively, but literally. If I'm a child of God, that means
the Spirit of God actually takes residence in me. He lives in
that new heart that He has given me, not figurative language. As I'm speaking to you right
now, the Word of God tells me that the Spirit of God lives
in me. Now, I repeat what a staggering
claim. You are the temple of God, just
as the Old Testament temple was the special residence of the
omnipresent God. And He said His special presence
would always be there. And the children of Israel were
called to pray toward the temple. And he says, you, the people
of God, you are the temple of God, the dwelling place of God,
and the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, he doesn't say what
that meaning is. He simply states it as a fact.
You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you. Now in Romans chapter 8, he tells
us what that means. So if you could get a Bible and
follow along, I think it would be very helpful. We're going
to look at this first half of the chapter of Romans chapter
8, but in verse 9, he makes this statement to the Roman believers. He says, but you are not in the
flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you." Now, there we have it. Once again, he says
to every believer, the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, you're not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. If so be the spirit of God dwells
in you. Now, what is meant by this being
in the flesh or in the spirit? Is it that we fall into the flesh
sometimes and into the spirit the other time? Not at all. You're either always in the flesh
or you're always in the spirit. And Paul tells us what that means
in this passage of scripture. So if you'd read along and listen
carefully, Paul makes this statement in Romans 8, verse one, there
is therefore now, right now, present tense. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Now, right now, I
stand before God uncondemned. There is nothing to condemn me
for. I have no guilt. Christ put away
my sin. And right now, this is true with
regard to every believer, there is no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. Now, what does that mean to be
in Christ Jesus? I think the simplest illustration
of that is baptism. Christian baptism. Now, what happens when someone
is baptized? Well, first, it's not an infant
that's baptized. It's a believer. The Lord said,
whoso believeth and is baptized, the same shall be saved. It is
a believer that's called upon to be baptized. This is what
a believer does after they believe the gospel. They confess Christ
in believer's baptism. Now, what does baptism signify? The word means immerse. You go
under the water and you come back out of the water. Immersion. Baptism. What does it signify?
When I'm baptized, I say that when Jesus Christ lived, I lived
in Him. When He kept the law, I kept
the law in Him. Baptism has to do with union
with the Lord Jesus Christ in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. God's elect are
eternally united to Jesus Christ. There's never been a time when
they were not united. Now, when I was born into this
world, I didn't know that. Until I heard and believed the
gospel, I didn't know that, but every believer has always been
in Christ. He said, Behold, I have loved
you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. Now, when Christ lived, I lived. Now, when you're baptized, you
go under the water, signifying death and burial. When Christ
died, I was in Him. I died. When He made payment
for sin, the sins that I've committed in this body, He bore in His
own body on the tree, and that's why He died and He paid for them.
He satisfied the claims of God's law against them. So when he
was punished for sin, I was punished for sin. Now what happens when
you're baptized? You come back up out of the water.
That is Christ being raised from the dead. When he was raised
from the dead, I was in him. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. That's why there's no condemnation
for me. I have been justified by Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus And here is what all who are
in Christ Jesus have in common, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. Now the word after is usually
translated according to. All who are in Christ walk not
according to the flesh, but they walk according to the Spirit
of God. Now let's go on reading. He's
going to expand as to what that means. Verse two. The law of
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from
the law of sin and death. Now, notice the use of this word,
law. The law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus. Hath made me free from the law
of sin and death. One law makes you free from the
other law. Now, what is the law of the spirit
of life in Christ Jesus? If you're alive, you breathe. You take air into your lungs. Your heart's beating. It's causing
the blood to circulate through the body. The oxygen from that
air is brought into the blood. It feeds all the different parts
of your body. That's a law that's going on.
If you don't have that going on, you do not have life. You're dead. When that stops,
they put me in the grave. That's the law of life. If you're
alive, you breathe. Your blood pumps. Now, if you
have spiritual life, there are certain laws that operate in
you. If you have spiritual life, God's
given you a new nature, you believe the gospel. It's the nature of
a believer to believe. He didn't believe before he was
given this new heart and this spiritual life, but he does now.
It's your nature to continually practice repentance. It's your
nature to see yourself as a sinner. It's the new nature that sees
the old nature of sinful. It's the new nature that owns
the sins of the old man. It's your nature to see your
need of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's your nature to love God.
It's your nature to love Him in all of His glorious attributes.
It's your nature to love your brethren. A spiritual law. The law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. It's what all who practice having
life in Him by the Spirit, His Spirit within them. The law of
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free. from the law of sin and death. Now, the law of sin and death
is God's holy law. The 10 commandments, everything
contained in the law given to Moses, it's called the law of
sin and death. And here's why it's called the
law of sin and death. Because all it does is expose
my sin and pronounce my death apart from the work of Christ.
That's all the law can do. I can't keep it. You can't keep
it. All it does is expose our sin and sentence death upon us. Now, I love God's law. I'm not
speaking disrespectfully with regard to God's law, but it is
the law of sin and death. Now, what does he mean, the law
of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from that
law of sin and death? Well, Paul expressed it in Romans
6, verse 14, when he said, sin shall not have dominion over
you. And that word dominion is lordship. Sin's not your lord. Christ is your lord, if you're
a believer. Sin shall not have lordship over you, for you're
not under law, but you're under grace. You see, the law's already
been satisfied. I'm not under that law. I'm under
the grace of God. Now he says in verse three, for
what the law could not do, Speaking of the Ten Commandments of the
law God gave Moses, what the law could not do, you know, it
can never produce love. It can never produce forgiveness.
It can never produce faith. It can't save anybody. That's
what he's saying. For what the law could not do
in that it was weak through the flesh. The problem's not with
the law, the problem's with me. My flesh, my sinful flesh, my
natural man. The law is not the problem, I'm
the problem. Every man and woman born into
this world is so evil that they cannot keep the law at all. And we're going to see that in
a couple of verses down, but let's go on reading. What the
law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Not sinful flesh,
the likeness of sinful flesh. He never sinned. But it was man
in the flesh that sinned. Man in the flesh must die. God
sent his son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,
on account of sin. My sin became his sin. He condemned
sin in the flesh. That's why there's no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. It was condemned in Christ and
put away. Verse four, that the righteousness
of the law The holy law of God might be fulfilled in us who
walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. God's holy
law is fulfilled in Christ. I've kept it in us who walk not
after the flesh, but after the spirit. Here we have that phrase
again. Now let's go on reading. Verse
5, for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the
flesh. And they that are after the Spirit
do mind the things of the Spirit. Now, if I'm after the flesh,
that means I haven't been born again. It means I have the nature
only that I was born with. I'm going to mind the things
of the flesh. I'm going to think the way a lost man thinks. I'm
going to conduct myself the way a lost man conducts himself.
I'm someone who does not have the Spirit of God, and my mind
is fleshly. I naturally believe in salvation
by works. That's as natural to me as breathing
if I'm in the flesh. I look to myself rather than
Christ for salvation. That's what every natural man
does. He looks to himself in some way. He's after the flesh.
They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh,
but they that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit. You see, if you have spiritual
life, You don't look to your flesh for salvation. You look
to Christ. You don't look to your works
to save you. You look to His work to save
you. That's having the mind of the
Spirit. If you have the mind of the Spirit, you look only
to Christ. If you have only the mind of
the flesh, you're a stranger to actually trusting and resting
in Jesus Christ. Now he says in verse six, for
to be carnally minded, to think the way the natural man does,
is death. That's where it will lead eternal
death that which born of the flesh is flesh and it can't rise
above that But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Now this spiritual mindedness
is not somebody that's real spiritual as opposed to materialistic.
That's the way people think, I'm a spiritual person. You're
a spiritual person if you've been born again. That's the only
thing that makes someone a spiritual person, you have a spirit. And
that spiritual mind looks to Christ only. Because the carnal
mind, he says in verse seven, the fleshly mind, the mind you
were born with, is enmity against God. You and I were born into
this world God's enemies, hating God. Now, before you say, not
me, the cross says you and the cross says me. The one time men
were allowed to do what they wanted to do, they nailed God
to a tree. They said, we'll not have this
man reign over us. The carnal mind is enmity. against God. It's not subject
to the law of God. It's unable to keep the law of
God. Neither indeed can be. It doesn't even have the potential
to. So then, they that are in the flesh, those who have not
been born of the Spirit, those who are nothing more than natural
men, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But, You 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's none of his. Only the believer has the
Holy Spirit dwelling in them. And I love the way he's called
the Spirit of Christ. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Verse 10, and if Christ be in
you, the body is dead. because of sin, but the Spirit
is life because of righteousness. Now, what this is a reference
to is the two natures that are in every believer. The body is
dead. Now, my body is not dead yet. It will be one day as far as
physically dead. But that's talking about the
old man. The old corrupt man is dead because of sin. That's
why Paul cried out in the last verse of Romans chapter 7, O
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of
death? The body is still dead in sins. It's just as corrupt as it ever
was. But the spirit is life because
of righteousness, because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
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." I'm not always going to have this body of death. When
I die, I'm going to be raised from the dead with a glorified,
sinless body, perfectly conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors,
not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after
the flesh, you shall die. If I live according to fleshly
maxims, the wisdom of the flesh, the religion of the flesh, the
works of the flesh, I will die and I will go to hell. That's
what he's saying. If you live after the flesh,
you shall die. But if you through the spirit do mortify, do put
to death, the deeds of the body, you shall live. Now what is meant by that? How
do you put to death the deeds of the body? Does that mean you
are tempted to commit some sin and you put it to death and it's
gone and you no longer have problems with that? It doesn't mean that
at all. What does it mean? Well, I hope
this will be helpful. You are to put to death any hope
of being saved by the deeds of your body. Put it to death. It won't happen. Put it to death. Look to Christ alone and put
to death the deeds of these bodies. Understand that your righteousnesses
are nothing more than filthy rags, according to the Scriptures. And put to death any hope of
self-salvation. That's when you trust Christ.
That's when you rest in Him and look to Him. It also means this,
and this is so important. It's true that I still have this
corrupt nature, sinful nature that still has all the appetites
that it always had, sinful appetites. I've heard a preacher say one
time, I don't have the sinful desires that I used to have.
I said, you're a liar. I don't believe that for a second.
That's just not so. We still have these corrupt natures. Now, let me give you two examples
from the scripture. The Lord said in Matthew chapter
five, whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her in
his heart hath committed adultery with her already. Now, those
are the Lord's words. Well, does someone say, well,
I have done that in my heart. Therefore, since I'm doing it,
I might as well act it out." No. Put it to death. Don't think you're allowed to
act that out just because you have a sinful nature. You're
to put it to death. You're to stab it. You know,
the Lord said, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause
is guilty of murder. Now, I've had plenty of people
make me mad. I wish I had a more gracious
disposition, but I've had plenty of people make me mad, and I
thought, I'd like to kill them. I'm so mad at what they did or what
they said or how they hurt me. It's fleshly on my part, but
okay, well, you've already committed murder in your heart. Might as
well go ahead and act it out. No! No, you don't act it out, you
put it to death. This is a part of what Paul was
speaking of in Galatians 5, verse 17, when he says, the flesh lusts
against the Spirit. That's not talking about the
Holy Spirit, that's talking about the spiritual nature that every
believer has. The flesh lusts against the Spirit,
the Spirit lusts against the flesh. These are contrary one
to the other, so that you can't do the things you would. If you live after the flesh,
you'll die, but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds
of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received
the spirit of bondage again, to fear, that spirit where you're
just afraid of God punishing you because you did this or you
didn't do that, therefore he's going to make you sick or make
you wreck a car or he's going to make your children sick or
something horrible is going to happen. That's bondage. That's the thinking of the flesh. That's salvation by works. But
he says to every believer, you've not received the spirit of bondage
again to fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption. Whereby
we cry, Abba, Father. God is my Father, reconciled
to me through His Son. Beloved, behold what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God. Abba, Father. The Spirit itself
bearing witness with our spirit that we're the children of God.
I hear the gospel, I believe the gospel, I know I'm a child
of God. That's God the Holy Spirit bearing
witness to my spirit that I am a child of God and if children
Oh, every believer is a child, not a slave, not under bondage,
but a free child, because the Spirit of God dwells in them. That's why they're children.
And if children, then heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Christ is the heir of God. All
God has is his, and I'm a joint heir with him. Listen to this
scripture. The Lord said in John 17, verse
23, with regard to all the Father had given Him, He said, Thou
hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me. Now, however it is
that God loves His altogether lovely Son, that is how He loves
every one of His children. And they all, without exception,
if you're a believer, this is you. You are the temple of the
living God, the omnipresent, the omnipotent, the omniscient
God. Every believer is the temple
of the living God, and God the Holy Spirit dwells within us. How amazing! To receive a copy
of the sermon you have just heard, send a request to todd.neibert
at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.