Let's turn back to Romans 8.
While you're turning there, we're going to have Vacation Bible
School this week. I trust the Lord will bless us in that. And
tonight, after services, we're going to be recognizing the high
school graduates with a get-together in the back. Before we look at Romans 8, I
was thinking of that scripture that Andy just read out of Psalm
14, where he talked about the children of Israel leaving a
place of a strange language. Grace is a language that only
those who believe understand. All other languages, strange
language. I've entitled the message for
this morning, After the Flesh or After the Spirit? Look in
verse 1 of Romans chapter 8. Paul said, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. And here's
how they are described, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the spirit. The saving benefits of Christ
is limited to those who are in Christ. to those who walk not
after the flesh, but after the spirit. Now in verses five through
eight, there are three words that jump out at me. Look in
these verses again. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit
They mind the things of the spirit. Now the three words that jump
out to me. Flesh, spirit, and mind. The mind of the flesh. The mind
of the spirit. What does it mean to mind the
things of the flesh? What does it mean to mind the
things of the spirit? The mind of the flesh, verse
six, to be carnally minded and that's fleshly minded. The mind
of the flesh. What is the mind of the flesh?
Now what the world thinks of when they think of someone that's
fleshly minded, they think of someone who is real given to
fleshly appetites, someone who perhaps commits sexual sin or
involved in debauchery and drunkenness and substance abuse and someone
who's real materialistic and shallow and they're just fleshly.
Well, that certainly all is involved in being fleshly, but it means
a whole lot more than that. You can be very religious You
can be very moral. You can be very seemingly sincere
and be completely taken up with the flesh. The flesh is the totality of
all that is essential to being a man. The flesh is what you
and I were born with. It's the way we naturally think. It's our natural thoughts. It's
just our thinking process, the way we're born into this world,
thinking. I think of what God said in Psalm
50 when he said, thou thoughtest. Thou thoughtest I was altogether
such a one as yourself." God says, you think that I'm like
you, but I'm not, not in any way. That's one of the things
I think is glorious about the Lord is you can't even compare
him to anybody. You can't say the Lord's like this person.
No, he's altogether glorious. He said, my thoughts are not
your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways. Now the mind of the flesh is
how the flesh thinks. It's how you naturally think.
It's how I naturally think. I thought of Naaman when he comes
to Elisha. He thought Elisha would come
out to him, but Elisha stayed in the house and sent a servant
out. And I'm sure he was offended
by that. And Naaman said, behold, I thought. That's where he got
in trouble. Behold, I thought he'd come out and strike his
hand over this place and call on the name of his God and recover
the leper. He thought all these things that
would take place, but they didn't take place. That's the flesh.
That's the way we naturally think. Now, I wonder if any of us believe
this. You can bet on this. What you and I naturally think
is wrong. You believe that? The mind of
the flesh, the way an unregenerate man thinks. It's being governed
by fallen human nature. That's the mind of the flesh.
And the mind of the spirit is the spiritual nature given in
the new birth. You see, a natural man does not
have a spirit. He's got a soul, he's got a body,
but he doesn't have a spiritual nature that died. in the Garden of Eden. Remember
when God said, in the day you eat thereof, you'll surely die?
Now, He didn't die physically, but He died spiritually. His
Spirit died. A spiritual man is someone who's
been given a new spirit, a new heart, a new nature. The spiritual man in Christ Jesus. It's called the Spirit of Christ.
It's called the mind of Christ. It's called Christ in you. It's
called the divine nature. It's called being born of the
Spirit. It's called the new man. It's called the inner man. It's
something that the unbeliever does not have. A new heart, God
said, will I give you. It's something that you never
had before. Now, they that have the mind
of the Spirit, they mind the things of the Spirit. Now, let me show you what that
means. Turn with me for a moment to Matthew chapter 16. Verse 21, from that time forth,
Matthew 16, from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his
disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem and suffer many
things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed.
He must be killed and he must be raised again the third day.
Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it
far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned
and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an
offense unto me, for thou savorest. That word is the word mind. You
mind, you savor. Not the things that be of God,
but those that be of men. Now, to mind something is just,
that's how you think. You think like a man. You know
how a cat thinks? A cat thinks like a cat. A dog
thinks like a dog. A tiger acts like a tiger because
he is a tiger. He acts according to his nature. And that's what
mind means. They that know nothing more than
being of the flesh, they mind the things of the flesh. That's
what makes sense to them. That's the way they think. That's the
way they act. You know, your nature, either
a spiritual nature or a fleshly nature, your nature determines
everything about you. The very idea of free will is
an absurdity. Your will is controlled by your
nature. Now you do what you want to. You do. Everything you do is because
you want to do it. But there's no such thing as free will. Even
God doesn't have a free will. His will is controlled by its
nature. Everybody's will is controlled by their nature. If you walk
after the flesh, you're just obeying your nature. If you walk
after the spirit, you are obeying your nature. Now, let's see what
Paul says in this passage of scripture. I've entitled this
message, as I said, After the Flesh or After the Spirit. He
says in verse 5 of Romans chapter 8, for they that are after the
flesh. What does it mean to be after
the flesh? Well, the Lord said in John 8, 15, you judge after
the flesh. You judge the way a fleshly man
judges. A man who doesn't have a spirit, a man who doesn't have
a spiritual nature. They that are after the flesh
do mind, they savor, they have a regard for, they think of the
things of the flesh. You know, the Lord said that
which is born of the flesh is flesh. It can never rise above
that. Now I want you to think about
that. That which is born after the flesh is flesh. It can never rise above that. It can never rise above fallen
humanity. It can only think of fleshly
things. Oh, it may be religious. I'm
not saying that it's not religious. It may even consider itself spiritual.
I'm a spiritual person, but it's a fleshly spirituality. It's
not that which comes from God, the Holy Spirit. It's flesh. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit,
They've been given a new nature, a spiritual nature, a new heart. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. Listen to this scripture. Being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. By the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. This is the new spiritual nature
that minds, that savors the things of the spirit, the glory of God.
The excellency and glory and beauty of Jesus Christ. The completeness
of the salvation that's in Him. Oh, this is what the spiritual
man minds. The things which are of the Spirit. Now, he says in verse 6, 4. To be carnally minded is death. But, To be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Carnally minded simply means
the mind of the flesh. That's all that word means. Fleshly
and carnal, the same thing. The mind of the flesh, the way
you and I were born into this world thinking, our natural thoughts,
the way we feel about things, the stuff we believe, the stuff
that comes natural to us. It is death. Paul said in Ephesians
2, 1, and you hath he quickened who are dead in trespasses and
sins. Dead. Dead. Now, what can a dead
man do as far as the functions of life? Can he see? Can he hear? Can he smell? Can he taste? Can
he feel? No, he's dead. He cannot perform
the functions of life. He's dead. A man who's spiritually
dead cannot perform the functions of spiritual life. He cannot
believe. He can't hear. Oh, he can hear
audibly, but it means nothing to him. He can't see the beauty
of Christ. He can't see the sufficiency
of God's grace. It's a strange language to him.
He doesn't understand. And it's death, complete spiritual
inability. And upon physical death, he will
experience an eternal death that will never end. To be carnally minded, if that's
all I got, what I'm born with, all it is is death. But to be spiritually minded,
Paul says, spiritually minded. That's the mind of the spirit.
That's the new nature that's given to a believer in regeneration
where he gives you a new heart. To be spiritually minded is life.
It's not death. It's life. It does what living
people do. It believes. There was a time when I had no
understanding of faith and I wondered, what's it mean to believe? But
then I found myself believing. I didn't decide to believe. All
of a sudden I was just believing. Why? I had life. I repent. I change my mind. I see all the
stuff I believed was wrong. I change my mind about it. That's
repentance. Why? I've got a spiritual mind, the
gift of God's grace. To be spiritually minded is life. I now love the Lord Jesus Christ.
I love God. I love everything about Him.
Wouldn't change Him if I could. Love Him. That's life. And don't
miss this. That's peace. That's the peace
of God that passes all understanding. It's divine in its origin. The
peace of God. It transcends human intellect
and analysis and insight. It's the gift of God. Christ
said, my peace, I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. And to be carnally minded, if
all I am is the way I was born, it's death. But to be spiritually
minded is life and it's peace. And then Paul makes this remarkable
statement in Romans chapter eight, verse seven. Let's go on reading.
Here's why, to be carnally minded is death, because the carnal
mind, the fleshly mind, is enmity against God. For it is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Now notice carefully
the language, the carnal mind not is at enmity with God, The
carnal mind is enmity with God. Hatred of God. It's not subject
to the law of God, which is a reflection of his holy character. It will
not subject itself to the law of God, and it's unreformable. It lacks the ability, neither
indeed can be. So then, here's what we conclude
from all that. They that are in the flesh cannot. They lack the ability. They cannot
please God. That's the conclusion of all
this. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It hates God. It
hates God. It wants to have nothing to do
with God. You see that so clearly when
Adam fell. He ran from God's presence, no
longer wanted to be in God's presence, no longer wanted to
hear his word. When The Lord comes to him in
mercy. He doesn't say, Oh, forgive me.
I'm sorry. No, he blames God for what took
place. We see his enmity. The woman
that you gave me, she gave me the fruit and I did eat. You're
behind all of this. All the false accusations against
the Lord that came from that fallen evil mind. Adam now hated
the living God. The carnal mind is enmity. against God. It's not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be, so then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. It's impossible for them. If
God doesn't arrest me and do something for me, I'm in trouble.
If God doesn't reach down and do something for me, me and you
are in trouble. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. Now let's consider the truthfulness
of that statement. they that are in the flesh cannot.
They lack the ability to please God. Let me give you five reasons
why we believe that. First, because the Bible says
it. Now that, that's enough, isn't it? The Bible says it. I was talking to a guy where
I go to the gym with this week, and he was arguing with me. He
came up to me to show me how, to prove to me from the scriptures
how the Bible doesn't teach election. Oh, how you can go about doing
that? He said, well, you just take out a couple of obscure
passages where it says that. I said, one's enough. One, that's
all it takes. One. One. And it's filled with
this. Filled with this. And the Bible
teaches that the carnal mind, the mind that I was born with,
is hatred of God. That's what God says. We only
look to the Bible. We're not looking because some
man said it or some church or some denomination or distinctive.
God said it. And that's enough for us to believe
that. That's my natural mind is by I'm born into this world. And I say this, I want to say
this reverently. I don't want to say this flippantly,
but you and I were born into this world, God haters. Hatred
of the living God. Now here's the second reason
I know that we see this truth, the truthfulness of this by observation. The carnal mind's not subject
to the law of God. Find me somebody who's kept the law. Show me a person who has not
lied. Show me a person who has not stolen. Show me a person
who's not coveted. Show me somebody who really has
loved God with all his heart and all his soul and all his
strength and his neighbors himself. You can't find me an example
of anybody that did that but one, the Lord Jesus Christ. He kept God's law perfectly. Everybody else hadn't kept one
commandment one time. We know this by observation. And here's another reason why
we know this. You ask any holy man, and that's what a Christian
is. He's a holy man, holy man of God. He's been given a new
nature, a holy nature. You ask any Christian if this
is true, and they'll say, yes, absolutely. They'll say with
Paul, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. Every believer knows this. This
is the testimony of every true Christian. Somebody that doesn't
testify to this, they just, Lord never has done anything for them.
Now, this fourth reason, First, because the Bible says it. Secondly,
because we see it. Thirdly, because it's the testimony
of every Christian to ever live, but in our own personal experience. You know, there was a time when
I did not know that I hated God. I didn't know. I was ignorant
of it. I might have heard the preacher
say, you hate God. Didn't mean anything to me. I
might have kind of sort of, well, if the Bible says that, I guess
I do it. I do, but it wasn't known by personal experience.
But you know, when I found out that I was guilty of hating God,
when I was confronted with the holy truth of God's electing
mercy and grace, when I found out that God chose who would
be saved and there wasn't anything I could do to save myself. That I was in the hands of a
sovereign God who could do with me whatever He was pleased to
do and I had no control of it. You know how my heart reacted? I wish God didn't exist. I wished
he wasn't that way because I couldn't see any safety for me if I was
totally in the hands of a sovereign God. There wasn't anything I
could do to save myself. That's when my heart responded
in anger. That's not fair. That's not right. That's not just. And that's when
I found out that no, I did not love this God. Not a God who
I was in his hands and he could do with me whatever he was pleased
to do. But remember this. That's where worship begins.
When you find out you have no control and you're in the hands
of an absolutely sovereign God who can do with you whatever
He is pleased to do, that's where worship begins. When you find
out what you're guilty of, that's when you start crying for mercy.
You know, I never really cried for mercy until I found out what
I was guilty of. against God. We find this to
be true. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. We find this to be true with
regard to our own personal experience. But here's the biggest, biggest
reason we know this is true. Well, they're all equally big.
I mean, I can't say this is bigger than the Word of God teaching
it. I don't guess I should say the biggest, but it's equally biggest. The
cross is the great declaration of that. The one time men were
allowed to do what they wanted to do, what did they do? They
nailed God to a cross and they said, we will not have this man
reign over us. And God allowed men to do what
they wanted to do and they nailed him to a tree. Now, this description,
the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. They that are in the flesh
cannot please God. This speaks of every person to
ever live. All classes, all races, all demographics,
enmity with God. And this is true all the time.
Genesis chapter 6 verse 5 says, And God saw, this is what God
sees, God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. That's God's testimony. And it's
the whole of the carnal mind, every faculty of the mind, the
understanding is darkened. The affections are depraved. We love what we should hate,
and we hate what we should love. The memory, easy to remember.
Isn't it amazing how easy it is to remember what people have
done bad to you, and how easy it is to forget the good things
people have done? The memory is defiled. The imagination,
the judgment, the conscience. And you think of the enormity
of this guilt. This is our crime. To hate the divine being? To
hate the glorious God? To hate Him who only is good? Who's glorious in justice? Who's
merciful? Who's gracious? The Creator of
the universe! The Lord of glory! To hate Him? That's a crime beyond imagination. You see, the reason God sends
men to hell is because they hate him. Because they will not have
this man to reign over them. With God, the punishment always
fits the crime. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. Unreformable. They that are in
the flesh cannot please God. Now, what can we conclude from
this? This horrid truth, but glorious truth, once the Lord
teaches you that you're this way, because it's not until then
that you'll cry for mercy. But what can we conclude from
this truth regarding the carnal mind? Well, number one, no man can
be saved by merit. He doesn't have any. He can't
be saved by his personal righteousness because truly he has none. And that is seen in his attitude
toward the living God. Oh, he may be religious, he may
be outwardly moral, but the carnal mind is enmity with the living
God. That man can't do anything to
save himself. Now here's the second thing that
I would notice is And I hope I can say this with
a tear in my eye, the justice of God in the damnation of sinners. God sends a man to hell. He's getting exactly what he
deserves. He's been guilty of hating the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's been guilty of hating the
living God. And if God would send me or you
to hell, if he'd save everybody in this room but me, just, holy,
and righteous is his name. We see the justice of God in
the damnation of sinners. It's such a desperately wicked
thing to hate God. But here's something else I see. What a glorious being God is. That he would send his son to
save people like me and you. Isn't that glorious? That he
loves people who have hated him. That he loves them so much that
he sent his son to bear their sins. That he can forgive people who
are so unretractably wicked and unreformable in and of themselves
that he can actually forgive them. and give them his son. What a glorious being God is,
that he delights in forgiving sin, that he delights in mercy. What a glorious being he is. And we see from the state of
the natural man, the utter, utter and complete necessity. And notice the word, the necessity. of God's sovereign grace. Now, what do I mean by God's
sovereign grace? What's the only kind of grace
there is? God is God. He's sovereign. I know that I
need this. This is what I need. It's what
you need. I need for God to choose to save
me. I need his unconditional election. If his choice of me is conditioned
upon something in me, there's no hope for me. I need him to freely and sovereignly
choose me. I'm going to save him. It won't
do me any good at all for him to offer salvation to me. He's
got to determine to save me. Thank God for election. But we're bound, said Paul, we're
bound to thank God always for you, brethren, beloved of the
Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. I need God to choose me. Let me tell you something else
I need. I need for Jesus Christ to actually put away my sin. I need him to offer up an atonement
for me that actually atones. It won't do me any good at all
if he died for everybody and made salvation possible for everybody,
but it's up to you to do something to make what he did work. That
won't help this sinner any. I need him for when he said,
it is finished, the salvation of my soul was accomplished. I need that. Do you? I need it. I need him to be a successful
Savior. I need his atonement to be successful. I need the
saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Let me tell you something else I
need. I need the grace of God the Holy Spirit to be invincible
and irresistible. I need that. Grace offered to
me won't do me any good. I need saving grace. Grace that
conquers me. Grace that causes me to believe. Grace that gives me a new heart.
saving grace. By grace you're saved, not simply
having grace offered to you. That won't do me any good at
all. I need saving grace. And I see that the Lord must
preserve me so I'll persevere. The only way I'll continue in
the faith, the only way the gospel will continue to be gospel to
me, good news, not just something I learned long ago and I've grown
tired of it, but it comes to me fresh. Right now, the gospel
I'm preaching is thrilling to me. Thrilling. The only way that
will be is if God preserves me and causes me to continue to
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. To whom? Coming, always coming. And I know this, the only way
this sinner will do that is by his preserving grace causing
me to continue in the faith. Now that's what I need and that's
what anybody needs who believes this description of the carnal
mind. Enmity against God. Anybody that knows you're like
that. That's what you are by nature. You need sovereign grace. It's not just something you argue
over. It's not just I believe this and somebody else believes
that. No, you desperately need this for you to be saved. Now,
to walk after the flesh is to believe something different from
that. Surely is. It's to believe something
different than that. Somebody says, oh, I don't agree
with that. Well, you're walking after the flesh. You have the
mind of the flesh. But if you have a spiritual mind,
this is what you believe. This is the only hope you have
is the grace of God. Now, do you believe this description?
Do you really believe that this description is a description
of you by nature? enmity against God, not subject
to the law of God. Neither indeed can be unreformable. They that are in the flesh cannot.
They lack the ability to please God. If you believe that about
yourself, I know what you're going to do. You're going to
cry out for mercy. Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, save me by your grace. Lord, come to me. I can't get
to you. Come to me and have mercy on
me. Now, I want you to remember this.
When we're talking about the doctrine of sovereign, distinguishing
grace, that never prevented anybody from being saved. Never been
somebody who came to Christ and said, oh, have mercy on me. He
said, nope, not one elect. Never happened, never will. Anybody
who comes for mercy, I don't care who you are, if you're a
sinner needing mercy, he will receive you. This man receiveth,
folks are described in that passage of scripture. May the Lord enable
all of us truly from the very depths of our hearts to come
to him. Let's pray.