Book of Romans, 8:2-12 - We Are Not Debtors to the Flesh, Pt. 1 (01/12/2020)

You can be turning, if you would, to Romans chapter 8. We're going Sunday morning at 11.

We're preaching verse by verse through the book of Romans and we found our way to Romans chapter 8, really probably down around verse 12 by now, but I'm gonna go back and we'll take a look at verse 1 before we pick up where we left off last time.

All right, well let's have a word of prayer. We'll get started. Lord, we thank you so much for your word and the fact that it is you speaking to us, that you are the author of the word, the preserver of the word of God, and that every little word is important.

Thank you that you've given it to us and preserved it down, as you promised, to the last generation even.

And Lord, we would wonder where we could be without it.

We would have no light. And we also thank you for your

Holy Spirit, who's our teacher. And Lord, we know that with the water and the

Spirit we have everything, everything that's necessary for salvation and for growth in this life, in this walk that you've given us.

So thank you for the water of the word and for your Spirit. Be with us now as we study together.

In Jesus' name, amen. I wonder, we're gonna look at Romans here in a minute, but let me just read one verse from Galatians chapter 2 because we diverged a little bit a couple of Sundays ago and went out and looked at a few parallel scriptures because, as you know, the scripture sheds light on the scripture.

The best way to understand the Bible is to read the Bible because every great doctrine is found in more than one place.

And all the other places shed light on the place that you're currently studying. So we looked at Galatians chapter 2.

I just want to read verse 21. It says, I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then

Christ is dead in vain. And that's something the church has to remind itself of every generation because Satan always tries to bring legalism back into the church, always, always brings it back.

It'll be usually through a teacher who, where they put themselves forth as someone brighter than everyone else in the church, someone closer to God than everyone else in the church, and they subtly bring back in legalism.

We do not allow that here in this local church, and the best way to battle it is with the

Word. But you've got to stay in the Word. It can't be on last year's knowledge of the Word. You've got to stay in the Word all the time or it'll slip by subtly.

So Galatians 2, the whole book of Galatians is given by God to battle against that battle of legalism.

But it comes into play in Romans chapter 8 verse 1 that we've been studying for quite a while now.

So take a look at that and if you're visiting this morning I'll point this out. The rest of us have looked at it 19 times in the last few

Sundays, but I do want you to see it. This beautiful verse, Charlotte loves to read

Charles Spurgeon and she'll always, every morning she'll read me what what she's read. He was commenting on this particular verse just this week.

He showed me, it might have been yesterday. It's interesting because before I read it I'm going to tell you what he said about it.

He said, you know, it's an interesting, beautiful, he said that this particular chapter is the high point of the whole

Bible, chapter 8 of Romans. It's just full of so much knowledge and wisdom and beauty and doctrinal purity and all of this and information that we never could have had without God revealing it to us.

But he said this particular verse, verse 1, he said the Lord put both parts and we've been talking about A and B of verse 1.

It has two parts in it. Some of the modern versions of the Bible leave out the second part and say it's not supposed to be there.

Be really careful when you read a human being who says something is not supposed to be in the Bible because he's challenging

God and God's ability to preserve the word until the last generation. So just discount it when you see some scholar who says that's not really supposed to be in there.

It is supposed to be in there. It's an emphasis because it's also the second half of verse 1 is found in identical words in the second half of verse 4.

It's very powerful and persuasive because God puts it in twice within four verses of each other.

But the reason the second part of verse 1 is here, according to Charles Spurgeon, Prince of Preachers, greatest preacher who have ever lived since the apostolic times, is because he said this is a battle against universalism.

Universalism is the heresy that all, everyone will be saved. That God wants to save everyone and therefore

God will save everyone. And that's been taught in every generation. It's a heresy. It's not true. The Bible doesn't teach it.

But it's been taught through churches throughout all time. This verse denies that and Charles Spurgeon pointed that out.

Now why? So let's read it carefully. Look at the first part is the part we love and this is where people like to put a period is right after the first part.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, period. But the word doesn't put a period there.

The verse continues, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Now why do you think

Charles Spurgeon would believe that God put that second part there to battle the false teaching of universalism?

Because who among humans can walk after the Spirit and not walk according to the flesh?

It's virtually impossible, right? We know ourselves, don't we? It's a very, very difficult battle to try to walk this walk, don't you agree?

And so since very few humans, among humans, have ever walked this walk, then obviously not everyone is saved.

Because this walk is something you can look at and see. You can't see the heart, right? You can't see my heart, but you can see my walk, unfortunately.

Because my walk and your walk will confuse each other and certainly the world because we mess up from time to time, don't we?

But as we've studied, we've spent many weeks on this, as you go on from verse 2 down through verse 12, you find out a lot and go into Galatians, you find out what this doesn't mean and what it does mean.

One of the things it doesn't mean is a walk of perfection. What it does mean is a general direction of the walk.

And you can tell it from the grammar, you can tell it from word definitions and the context. It means a general direction of the walk.

You've turned your back on the world and the world system and you're following Christ and you're walking that direction now.

You're walking not after the flesh, that's the old walk, but now that you're saved, you're walking after the

Spirit, that's the new walk. But even that's difficult. But we have so much amazing information about it in the verses that follow.

So I want to do this, if you go down and you look through starting with verse 2, and I'm just going to review just a little bit, but there are several verses following verse 1 that start with the word for,

F -O -R. And that word means because. So if you wanted to start out with verse 1 and said, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ, and you look at the second part of the verse, who walk not after the flesh but after the

Spirit, you've got so many times where it says because. In other words, how is it possible to walk not after the flesh but after the

Spirit in this body and in this world? Well, there are many becauses, so let's look at them.

The first one is found in verse 2, for. That means because, all right, it is possible for saved people to walk not after the flesh but after the

Spirit because the law of the Spirit of the life of Jesus Christ has made me free from the law.

So the first reason it's possible to walk this walk is because we are free from the law.

Now, most people in churches don't even understand that. They don't understand the whole book of Galatians.

It's a very simple book, very clear, very plain, but we don't get it because we hear so many voices of, well, you got to keep the

Ten Commandments. They still apply. You know, most of the laws of Moses really still apply to us and all of this.

And the fact is, when Jesus Christ died on the cross, he said himself that he crucified the law.

So the law is dead to us and we're dead to the law. And how many times have you ever heard preachers stand up and say, oh, well, you know, it's not that Paul, when he talks about grace, is saying that I'm free, that all things are lawful for me.

He doesn't mean by that, it doesn't really mean what he's saying. What he means is we're free now to keep the law, that now we're made capable of keeping the law because we're saved.

That's a lie. That's Luciferian doctrine, actually. It's not true, but it sounds really good.

And if you hear enough cool old preachers say it, you tend to believe it, but it's not in the

Bible. And that's the problem with so many things. We used to have a wonderful couple here, Otis and Bea Fisher, they sat right over there, right where Bill is sitting, for 13 years, and then they both went to heaven.

He had taught the Bible 50 years the day I met him and became his pastor, and I was still in my 40s when that happened, wasn't

I? Or was I 50? I think I was late 40s. So, and here I've got this man pushing 80, taught the

Bible 50 years, I'm gonna preach to him, right? And the first time I ever went to hear him teach a Bible class, it was in his home, and I looked across two walls from the floor of the ceiling, it was like a 12 -foot ceiling, might have been 15 -foot ceiling, books, two walls.

I have, I own all those books now. When he passed away, somehow they found their way into to my possession.

Brother Otis, but we learned so much, we learned so much from this man, but one of the things that he and I talked about so many times, how legalism can sneak into the church so quickly and so easily, but we cannot allow it.

Now, what does it mean when it says the spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the law?

It means we are dead to the law, and the law is dead to us. It is not saying that because we're saved, we now can keep the law.

Who in this room has kept the law? And hopefully you are saved. I don't know about all my visitors, you look pretty saved to me.

All right, stick around 10 years, I'll tell you what I think then, I don't know. And you'll be doing the same to me too, right?

But, you know, we don't keep the law, that is a lie, that's a legalist who says that, and the sad thing is

I've preached it. Why? Because I heard a cool old preacher say it, and it was neat, so I said it. Well, I was going to say this about Brother Otis.

During the time we were together, I'll bet you we removed at least 200 words and phrases from our teaching and preaching because we recognize the

Bible doesn't teach it, it's just something we heard that sounds cool. Isn't that amazing? Amazing.

So we have to be so careful to stick with Scripture and not go beyond it, and not just because it sounds good and it may sound like human logic does not make it true, especially we know that if Scripture contradicts it, it's not true.

So now we see that contrary to being a

Christian making us able to keep the law, the Bible literally teaches in verse 2 that one of the reasons we can live a victorious life is because we're free from the law, all right?

Not because we can keep it, but we have been made free from it. It's like Paul said, all

God had to do, sounds like Adam and Eve when he says this, Bill, all God had to do to make me covetous was to say thou shalt not covet.

That's what the best Christian who ever lived said, Paul. All right, so we have the law out there, but the law does not help us to live right.

I mean, I'm not saying the law is evil, the Scripture says it's beautiful and good, but the problem is because of our flesh the law does not help us get saved, nor does it help us keep saved.

In fact, we are dead to it, and it's one of the principles that makes it possible to live a successful Christian life.

So that's pointing up the first because is found in verse 2. The reason we can walk not according to flesh but after the

Spirit is because what Jesus has done for us, the part of the finished work of Christ when he died on the cross and he nailed the law to the cross was he set us free from all.

Second reason is found in verse 3. Look at it, it starts with because. Four, because what the law could not do,

God sent his own Son and in his own flesh he condemned sin in the flesh.

So the second reason we can live a life is because the very sin and the very law that would have condemned us, the law has been nailed to the cross and sin has been condemned.

Rather than sin condemning us, God condemned sin because of Jesus dying with our sins in his body on the cross.

When the Father put our sins in his body and he died in our place as a substitute, when he became the ransom for our sins, he took our sins away and as far as God the

Father is concerned we have never sinned. That's the definition of justification, just as if I'd never sinned in God the

Father's eyes. So because of the finished work of Christ on the cross, that sin has been removed from us forever with respect to the

Father. Now Jesus sees our sin and he has to spank us from time to time, doesn't he? Correct us like children sometimes.

But the Father does not see that nor remember it, nor will he ever. Think about that.

So now what the law was not able to do, God accomplished through the death and burial and resurrection and life of his

Son Jesus. So Jesus has finished all and done all. If you think it requires keeping the law to be saved, he has done that.

He kept the law perfectly in our place. He is our substitute. And there's a beautiful quote that I have that John, I wish he hadn't walked out he'd hear me say it, but you can tell him

I said it. John came up to me after one of these sermons in the last few Sundays and he brought me this printout that was in his

Bible. He saw it, he's supposed to be listening to me, but he was thumbing through his Bible. And he found this printout and he brought it to me and it was something

Brother Otis had written in one of his Bible studies years ago that John and I both went to that heard him teach it.

And I read it and it was marvelous. I've always said Brother Otis could have been the seminary professor's professor.

It's so beautiful, but I decided to save it till we get to the end last verse in chapter 8 and then I'm going to read it to you.

It will blow your mind. The wisdom and truth in it is incredible. So now you have to keep coming back till we get to, and it could take months to get to the last verse in Romans chapter 8.

We don't really preach verse by verse, we preach word by word. So now the third because is found in verse 5, if you look at that Romans chapter 8 verse 5, because or for.

Why is another reason that we can have a successful Christian life? Because they, in other words those who are in Christ, that chapter 1,

I mean chapter 8 verse 1 starts off those who are in Christ, right? So it's speaking of those who are in Christ, they mind, in other words it means think about, that's what mind means in the old

King James language, they think about and are interested in the things of the

Spirit more than they are the things of the flesh. Now you can't say that about the world at large, can you?

The world at large, and even ourselves before salvation, we minded the things of the world.

We thought about the things of the world, of the flesh, that's what we thought about it, captivated our thought life.

After we were born again and this book became alive to us and the Holy Spirit began to teach it to us, we began to have an interest and a hunger for spiritual truth that we never had before.

It's one of the true symptoms of salvation. That's how you know you're saved. You didn't used to have that, now you do.

And that hunger for the Word of God has brought you to the place where now you mind the things of the

Spirit, you think about, you're interested in the things of the Spirit more than you are the things of the world. You know that the world is dying, you know that your flesh, the old man, is already dead, he has been crucified.

It happened 2 ,000 years ago when Christ died, you were in him and your old man died and was crucified and yet somehow he resurrects here and we get into the flesh and get in trouble still and yet we're not interested in that.

We may be interested in it for a moment and then we hate ourselves. That's another symptom of salvation. The world can enjoy its sin,

Christians hate it, we hate it, and we hate ourselves for a few moments until we remember 1 John 1 9, that we can confess the sin and agree with God that it was sinful and he's faithful, which means he'll do it every time, and he's just, which means it's righteous for him to do it because he died and took our sins away, to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, that means the ones we didn't remember to confess.

Think about that. Totally clean all the time when we agree with God that we've sinned and that's how the walk works because we aren't perfect yet because we still have this flesh.

But the thing about it is we predominantly mind the things of the Spirit, we think about the things of the

Spirit, we know that's where we're headed, we're not of this world, we're not Americans, you know, our country is yet to come.

And then the fourth reasons found in verse 6, for or because to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

We find no peace in any other walk than the Christian walk. When we get off in the flesh that's where we lose our peace, we begin to worry, we begin to be fearful, we even sin, and then we hate ourselves for a few moments and then the

Lord, Holy Spirit, brings us back, says, yeah, but you're sheep, you're not a hog, you're not a goat, you're sheep.

Lord loves you, He took your sins away, now go and sin no more. Stop doing it.

If it's a habit, break the habit. Stop doing it, but the Lord loves you, you're His sheep, and He reminds us and He brings us back into service again and again.

The Bible teaches us one of the reasons we can a successful walk is because the Holy Spirit reminds us all the time that the only peace we have, the only life we have, is to walk in the

Spirit. Didn't Jesus Himself say that the self -walk, the self -life is death?

But when we live for Him and for others, we walk an abundant life, so it's true life.

So we have these things that are true and these reminders that help us to want to walk not after the flesh but after the

Spirit. Now I'm going to skip verses 7 and 8 for a minute because they're sort of parenthetical, so let's drop down to verse 9.

And this is amazing because I've always wondered, I know, you know, we know some reasons why the

Holy Spirit writes the Bible like He does. Part of the reason is to make us study, don't you agree? Because if I wanted to make it easy,

I would have just made verse 9 be verse 2. Actually, instead of putting B on verse 1,

I would have let verse 9 be B and leave out B, right? Like the liberals want to do and say it's not supposed to be in there.

I would have just left it out, all right? But God didn't leave it out and He didn't put verse 9 until it got to be verse 9, which means you had to study for three months to get to verse 9 if you're a member of this church, all right?

So but now we're there. Now what's interesting about it, the people that want to try to bring law in and say that you're not just saved by grace through faith, but you got to do good works too to be saved.

And there you got friends all over town and you could name the denominations, you know what they are. Some of us came out of some of those denominations.

And sadly they're deceived into thinking, well, yeah, you got to believe in Jesus, but.

It reminds me of the Jews in the first century. Well, yeah, you got to believe in Jesus, but you need to be circumcised.

And what did Paul say to them? He said, look, here's the problem with that thought, is if you get circumcised for that reason,

Christ availeth you nothing. Now, how are you going to get to heaven if Christ avails you nothing? You can't.

You cannot. One of the most frightening verses in the Bible is that one, because you have friends all over town that believe, well, yeah,

I believe in Jesus, but you got to get in our water. You got to be baptized in our church's water to be saved.

That's a work, ladies and gentlemen. And if you believe that, Christ availeth you nothing. If you believe you have to have all the tradition of the old church, if you know what

I mean, then Christ availeth you nothing. Very frightening.

But we have friends everywhere that have this problem. And so they'll take

Romans chapter 8, verse 1, and say, no, no, no, you Baptists are not reading it right, where it says, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ.

There's not a period, it says, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. So you got to live right. If you don't live right and do good works, you won't be saved.

But that's not what the verse is saying. And how do I know? Because I read verse 2, and they don't.

You know, most preachers today preach topical messages, which means they put a snippet of a verse up there and then give a speech, and then everybody goes home.

No one ever checks the context. No one wants to know what the chapter before it and after it and during it said, or what the whole

Bible says about that. You just prove what you want to prove with that snippet. That is so dangerous, all right?

So that is not a safe way to study the Bible. But if you found your way to verse 9, what you would find out is that verse 1b is not the cause of the salvation, it is the effect of it.

It happens because you are in Christ. It's not what causes you to be in Christ. In fact, there's nothing that causes that human.

Because the Bible says, while we were yet in our sins, hath he quickened us. Salvation comes from God through the blood of Jesus plus nothing.

There's no human effort in that. It's all God's work to save us. Everything that saved us, God did it.

Everything. Even the belief that you have is a gift that he gave you. You can't take pride that you believe and your neighbor doesn't, because the

Holy Spirit gave you the belief of Christ. Put it in you. He gave you the Holy Spirit.

He gave you the love of God. He gave you over 33 things in a nanosecond the moment he saved you.

All is a gift. His grace was given to us. We can't be prideful of any of it.

We can be thankful for all of it, right? He loves us and knew us from before the foundation of the world and in a moment's time when he knew it was supposed to be our spiritual birthday, he gave us all of these things in just a breath.

Boom. We have it. We're equipped. Then the whole life is a walk. Walking not after the flesh, but after the

Spirit is the walk part. Only a born -again person can even do it. Look at verse 9. It proves without any doubt in anyone's mind that verse 1 is not saying, well, unless I stop walking after the flesh and never sin again and keep the law, then

I'm not saved. It proves it, because look at it. Read it with me. Follow along here. It says, but you are not in the flesh.

Now wait a minute. Wait a minute. You? Who is the you? The you is the people the whole chapter is talking about, which the whole book is talking to and about, and it's born -again people.

As we study on into chapter 8, we're going to get into some very interesting information about predestination, which nowadays

I have people come up to me all the time, you don't believe in that, do you? I say, yeah, no, I don't. I have a problem with two verses in the

Bible, I believe all the rest, but the two I don't have real problem with are the ones that talk about predestination and John 3 .16.

I just have a real problem with that one, and they look at me like, what? Then I smile at them, and I say, look, how can you ask me if I believe in it if it's in the

Bible? I mean, it's not just in the Bible. It's everywhere throughout Scripture. Yeah, I believe in it, but you got to understand what it's talking about, what it means, what it doesn't mean, and how it fits with all of Scripture.

It doesn't mean that we don't have responsibility, because responsibility is taught all through the

Scripture, too. And the great Charles Spurgeon is one of the most wise men I've ever read on balance, how

God has balanced. He said something else, Charlotte read me this morning or yesterday morning. Spurgeon said, every great doctrine of the

Bible is balanced by another doctrine. There's perfect balance in the Scripture.

It's so true. Well, look at this, but you're not in the flesh. Oh, no, wait a minute.

So, if verse chapter 8 verse 1 is supposed to mean, well, but if you walk after the flesh, you're not, you can't be saved.

Well, this says, yeah, but the people God's talking to in this chapter are not in the flesh.

So, therefore, they have no condemnation. Well, let's keep going here, but you're not in the flesh, but you are in the

Spirit. If so be, now let's see who this is, if so be that the

Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if any man has not the

Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And here, this pairs up with verse 1 perfectly, and it destroys the concept of universal salvation, because there are people who are none of God's.

They don't belong to God. God, Jesus said, look, I didn't put the tares here. Satan put them here.

I didn't put them here. I put, I put the wheat here. Now, look at what this is saying.

You're not in the flesh. So, by definition, if you follow the logic of verse 9, after having read verses 1 through 8, and all of the book of Galatians, like we've done, and all of chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of Romans, like we've done, then it's not so bewildering as it would be if you just plucked one verse out and read it.

But look what it's saying. Go to the middle of the verse. Who is this talking to? Who are these people?

These are people who have the Holy Spirit indwelling their body. And when does that happen? Just check, see if you're asleep yet or not, because that's how

I know how long I can preach. What? Sorry? When you're quickened.

All right, so like when the Holy Spirit calls you, and I'm talking about the effectual calling, not the gospel call that goes to every human in the world, but the effectual call is when the

Holy Spirit wakes you up, gives you eyes that see, ears that hear, and He quickens you, which means brings you to life.

So He regenerates you in a nanosecond of time. It's a work that He does on you. He applies the blood of Jesus to you personally.

It's already been shed for you 2 ,000 years ago. He applies it to you personally. It's at the moment of your salvation, when you were born again, right?

So what's the one or the other? We just named four or five of the 33 things He does, and there's more than 33. Those are just ones

I've counted, that He did at the moment of your salvation. So what's another one? He says that He indwells your body.

So the Holy Spirit comes to live in your body until the day of redemption, it says, right?

And He is sealed within you. He can't come out. God the Father seals the Holy Spirit within your body at the moment you're saved.

So that's who chapter 8 is written to, or these people. There is no condemnation for these people.

Now does it mean these people are perfect, that they never sin? No, no, no, no, because the Bible says that God put this treasure, that's talking about the new man, in this earthen vessel on purpose.

What does it mean by the earthen vessel? That's the proneness to sin that we talked about in Sunday school this morning, that Adam and Eve had, and all of us have.

The sin nature. We have that proneness still in the flesh. When we go down into the flesh, we can do damage to everything, everything we touch.

But when we're in the Spirit, 1st John says, we cannot sin. So that's the battle of the walk, isn't it?

But we have a predominant walk away from the flesh and toward the Spirit, because why?

Of the things we've looked at, all the 4, 4, 4, 4 that we looked at already, and in this one, because we are indwelt by God.

You can't be the same as you were before you got indwelt by God. You cannot be the same as you were, and you won't be, and you never will be the same, because your walk changed, and you turned your back on the flesh, and towards minding the things of the

Spirit, because the Spirit lives in you, in your brain with you. And the real you, by the way, is a new creature.

It's not the old man fixed. God couldn't fix it and wouldn't fix it, and therefore the old man is crucified.

The old woman is crucified 2 ,000 years ago with Christ. The day he was buried, your old man was buried with him, and when he rose again, your new man was arisen with Christ, in God's mind, right?

But the day, and time, and space, when you were born into this world as a little fleshly devil, and your parents immediately began to teach you good and evil, because they didn't have to teach you to be bad.

They had to teach you to be good, and all of those things began to happen, and then there became a day in your life, different from all of us, and in a different way with all of us, where the

Holy Spirit came to you and notified you that you were God's. I stole that from Brother Otis.

In fact, when he was alive, I never used to say it in church, because I didn't feel like it was biblical language, but I've mellowed a little since then, because it may not be found in the

Bible, but the word rapture is not found in the Bible either, but we use it, don't we? But you know, he exactly expressed,

Otis did, how God saves us. If it's true that God knew us as his own before the foundation of the world, before he made anything, and that you were always going to be his, and you never were a tare, you always were a sheep, you were just a lost one, and there came a point when

God knew he was going to save you on that particular day, all he did was notify you. He woke you up, you had eyes that couldn't see, you had ears that never heard it right, you couldn't get it, you didn't hear it right, you couldn't understand it, there's none that seeketh after God, not one, the

Bible says, you weren't seeking him, you may have pretended you were, but you weren't, you were seeking your own

Godship, you were God of your life, and you know it, and then there came a moment when you ceased to be that, and you know it, because you said, wow,

I see you for the first time, who turned the eyes on, it was the Holy Spirit, it was not you, it was not me, the

Holy Spirit quickened us, he brought us from death to life, that's your regeneration, the sad thing is the modern gospel knows nothing of that anymore, the modern gospel is purely humanistic, what do you do, what must

I do to be saved is the question, it's something you do as a human, it's works, well I got to repent, well

I got to believe, well I got to do this, well I got to get baptized, I got to do this, all this stuff you do to somehow make your way to a perfectly holy

God and please him enough to save you, it never has worked that way ever, it's just that the modern gospel is so corrupt, because there's so many false prophets like Jesus said there would be in the end times, and because a cool old preacher said it, we grew up believing it, and now when we come and we hear the truth of how the gospel really works, it's confusing, but you go back and you,

I'll exhort you to do this, I practice this, read only books that are 150 years old and back, don't read the new ones, and you will find that preachers used to preach similar to what's being taught here in Romans chapter 8 today, whereas today they don't preach this, and I have preachers all the time that'll just choke on what

I'm saying when I have private discussion that choke on it, and I have to give them some time to see it because they didn't learn it in seminary this way, because they went to modern seminary, but verse 9 says, so clearly you are not in the flesh but in the

Spirit if so be that you're indwelt, well if you're saved today you were indwelt before you even realized it, and later you learned about it by reading this, but you also felt it did you not, you knew something changed,

I remember I got saved in my work, in my work, in my car driving to work when I was 24 years old,

I didn't know all about it for years of studying the scripture, how it worked or what God did to me, but I promise you

I went home that day and I told Charlotte, I said something happened to me today, she said what, I said I think

I got saved, well I thought you're already saved, well but I wasn't, because now I am and I know the difference, so this is saying if you ever had that experience where you were born again, then the

Holy Spirit came to dwell in you and look what it says, therefore you are not in the flesh, now see the world doesn't see it that way, the world looks at you and me and when we mess up, which we will if we go down into the flesh, which we make that choice a thousand times every day, every day we choose to go in the flesh from time to time and then we, the

Holy Spirit helps us and we say I don't like that, we come back and we walk with Jesus and then we let go of his hand and we sink in the water like Peter did and Jesus holds his hand out, pulls as we walk on the water again, that's the life we live and it's on purpose

God made us be this way, so don't get down on yourself when you mess up, just correct it, ask the

Holy Spirit to help Craig get up and fight again, he doesn't take the sword out of your hand just because you messed up, all right, you're here to battle and you're here to battle in this world which includes having the flesh still and being a new man, a new woman and that's the battle, that's the challenge and this is telling us how to live it, the first thing when

Satan comes to you and says are you even saved, how could you have done what you just did or thought what you just thought, you come back and you say look,

I'm not in the flesh, God says I'm not in the flesh, you can say

I am all day just because I thought that thought but I mean I'm in a body of flesh, yeah but I'm not in the flesh, then you me,

I never sin, the born again me cannot sin, I don't sin,

Jesus blood has already removed that old man's stuff that I just did two minutes ago and not only that, from the

Father's viewpoint it never existed so devil you can just leave because you have no power over me anymore, everything that I have that you could have power over has been crucified and is gone and even though I somehow go down into the flesh

I don't live there and I'm sorry I did it and I'm not gonna do it again to the best of my ability with God's help but I don't follow you,

I don't walk with you, I'm not in the flesh but I'm in the spirit because I'm indwelt by God and I'll tell you that's a good spiritual warfare prayer and he will leave you at that moment because if you, if you resist him, he will flee, if you do nothing that's not resisting, he'll mess with you the whole rest of the day so if we are in Christ, in the spirit, we are not in the flesh because the spirit of God dwells in us and that's the reason

God doesn't consider us to be in the flesh, does it mean we don't do fleshly sins from time to time? Doesn't mean that because we do so that's not what

Romans 8 1b means, Romans 8 1b means is hey you're actually born again that's why you have no condemnation, in fact if this were not the case he ends the phrase by saying if this is not true of you and you're not indwelt by the spirit then you are none of God's, whoa okay so that's black and white so ask yourself do

I belong to God that's the question not not do I live sinless yet because we know we don't the question is do

I belong to God if the answer is yes then God says you're not walking in the flesh you're not in the flesh you're in the spirit so therefore walk like that don't be a hypocrite that's who you are now walk that way today now the next two verses discuss the dynamic of how all this works the power look at verse 10 and if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness here's the dynamic the working the power the dunamis of all of this and how you have power to live the

Christian life even though you live in a body of flesh by God's design not by accident but on purpose the whole garden of Eden happened on purpose the fall happened on purpose

God designed it that way now what is the power first of all even though our body our old man is dead due to sin if Christ be in us our new man the real us is alive through righteousness and what's great to do is check out that word righteousness in the

Greek because it's actually the word that more often is not translated into the word justification now what do we say that meant at the first of the sermon just as if I had never sinned that's what justification means it is something

God did to us not something we do for him God made us to be justified by the death of Jesus on our behalf he paid the ransom he paid the sin debt and the doctrine of imputation doesn't stop at the place where he took our sin and put it on him on the tree he also then took his righteousness and put it on us put it in our account it's an accounting term and therefore we have the very righteousness of Christ and so we have life because of justification you might want to pin that in your

Bible right there the last word of verse 10 put in parentheses justification it's a great translation of that word so the body is dead because of sin that's nothing new we know the old man is crucified already if the rapture doesn't come and we're praying for it to come soon we're gonna die physically that's the old flesh the old man that led us astray so many times good riddance right good riddance he's gonna die we know that the body is death because of sin but the spirit is life because we have been justified something's in the passive and grammar it's just like math you can't mess with it it's something someone bigger than you did to you

God did it to you he justified you and he justified me the carnal man here's the dynamic the carnal man the old man that wants to lead you astray is actually dead if you learn to count him that way you will sin less and the other part of the dynamic is the spiritual man is alive because he is already righteous he has the perfect righteousness of God he has all of the righteousness and perfection and beauty and holiness of Jesus Christ your new man has that there's your power to walk the walk we are successful as Christians because our old man was buried was killed was buried in Christ and our new man is risen with Christ and has been since three days after his death and then there's another part to this dynamic and that is we have the indwelling

Holy Spirit and we find it in verse 11 look at it Romans 8 11 the third part of this dynamic of being able to walk the walk is the old man is dead and the real you is a spiritual man with perfect holiness and the third part is this look at verse 11 but if the

Spirit of God that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you which he does if you've been saved he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal body that's this old body of flesh that takes us the wrong way so many times but the

Bible says that the same resurrection power that took Jesus back to life and out of that grave lives in your dead body and quickens it moment by moment every day is that powerful resurrection power lives in you and lives in me and how can

I not be successful if I have that how could Jesus not raised from the grave it's impossible that he not raised from the grave why the old man was dead but he is perfectly holy he is perfectly righteous he never sinned your old man is dead your new man is perfectly righteous as righteous as the righteousness of Christ and has never sin and never will and you have the same resurrection power every moment that Jesus had during the one moment that he needed it man

I don't know about you but I think that's good preaching he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal body what is that saying quicken means to bring alive in your mortal body means the one that gives you the problems the one you're living in now why is it important because that body that gives you problems is also the only mechanism

God has to communicate with the physical world in time and space is your body because Jesus isn't here anymore he's in heaven he's only here in you and me and God to continue his work here must do it through your mortal body which is the same thing that gives you the problem gives the world and your neighbor and your spouse and kids problems when we when we mess up but it's also the power of light to this dark world it is the light of this world now that's you that's me we have a specific job to do in our generation that no one else can do you're the

Moses you're the David you're the Joshua the

Abraham but if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you then he that raised up Jesus from the dead shall doesn't say might he does in fact bring to life your moral body moment by moment every day until you meet him how does he do it by his spirit that lives in you and that's good stuff golly what if we'd stopped with chapter 8 verse 1 well now we did skip verses 7 and 8 and boy

I'm going fast today so I don't quit yet we skipped 7 8 said it was parenthetical so let's look at it

Romans 8 7 because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be so then they that are in the flesh cannot please

God now the Bible said you're not in the flesh if you've been in dwelt do you get that so this is positional truth not experiential it's positional

God counts it to be so because he's God God placed his Holy Spirit in you he's already crucified your flesh he counts it is dead and gone and he is

God and he sees you positionally as spiritual not carnal but the world is carnal and when you have a large enough church to have a bunch of tears mixed in which fortunately we're little that's one benefit of little is that you don't see that as much but you have a lot of tears mixed in these big churches and I think the reason that the gospel gets perverted is we got a lot of tears mixed in the seminaries and so now what you think about it but sadly enough it's a tragedy a modern tragedy that the modern gospel is not the gospel it is a lie and it's what people are hearing you and I even heard it in our lifetime in what we thought were good churches and they probably all are things equal were good churches but the gospel had been torqued it had been bent and twisted to a thing that man could put his hands on and where man could have a part in his own salvation even if just a little part in every church group is a little different in which human part they want to put in there but they all put something in there and the sad thing is all these things that divide the churches into different denominations are merely effects that they think are causes none of those cause the salvation because the quickening of the

Holy Spirit is what causes it regeneration is caused by God and God alone and none of that stuff causes it they're all effects you wouldn't have gotten baptized in the water if the

Holy Spirit hadn't led you to do it because you were already saved so don't you have churches say no you got to get baptized to be saved see they've moved in effect and made it a cause

Spurgeon said this an effect this is just pure logic if you ever studied logic you know he's right an effect can never be the cause of the cause and yet we split our all these effects because we think some of them are causes that's another subject though isn't it if you're new if you're visiting

I do like rabbit trails and I know it's a burden for you guys but I love them but the gospel when you start adding anything like the people that brought us here to form this nation the

Puritans said this it's the blood of Jesus plus nothing and we're back to that in this church all right so it'll be a little uncomfortable if you hadn't thought it through but just all

I'm look my job is to get you to go home and prove me wrong just study go home and have to study if I did that I'm successful if I make you go study

I'm successful so now I think about this the modern gospel what does it say you come down the aisle right and a preacher gonna tell you something depending on what that denomination believes you have to do and he'll give you a list we'll do this this this and then you do it you think that saved you and the truth is if you're saved you were saved before you left the pew because the

Holy Spirit quickened you made you want to go down the aisle or you wouldn't have done it and he can't save you and the stuff he says a lot of it's wrong all right a lot of stuff

I heard Baptist churches are wrong every church gets it wrong somewhere if they start adding humanism to the gospel but isn't it sad because when you look at Romans 8 7 & 8 they proved that that gospel cannot work because it's a gospel where the human has to do something and look what 7 says the carnal mind is enmity against God it is an enemy of God and it is not subject to the law of God neither can it ever be it is impossible for it to become subject to the law of God so then they there in the flesh cannot please

God and if the modern gospel says come down this aisle and do this and you'll please

God he'll save you and you can't do it you can't please him

I don't care what the carnal mind concocts or the carnal church concocts his steps you have to do to please

God nothing pleases him but the blood of his son and the perfect life of his son and the death and resurrection of his son and his son living in you and then he loves you and that happens by regeneration which is something only

God does there's no human aspect to it other than the person he just did it to and it's just like Jesus said why in the world did he liken it to physical birth because it's a perfect example because the baby plays no role in his own birth he only accepts the benefits and that's what we do when we're saved once we study this we really figure out how

God did it you see see we we don't have to know all this to be saved when I got saved

I thought I did it didn't you I went told people listen what I did for Jesus I accepted him in my heart as if as if you know like I could have stopped him right like when the

Holy Spirit came to quicken me I could have just stopped him so like God knew before the foundation world

David Mitchell's gonna be saved me a preacher but I could have stopped that because I'm stronger than God I'm stronger than God's will

I'm stronger stronger than God's predetermination and even though God had already seen it I could change that I'm better than Star Trek right didn't change stuff that's already happened you know so it's all ridiculous when you analyze it and yet it's the modern gospel the problem with the modern gospel is it requires humans to do things that cannot please

God and tells them that it does it is impossible to please

God through carnality nothing of the flesh ever pleases God nothing humanistic pleases

God nothing that man does pleases God in and of himself I'm saying if you do it in and of yourself it cannot please

God neither can it and they that are in the flesh cannot please God so it really is a tragedy the modern gospel is alive because it proposes that man saves himself by doing something and this is false but the popular question today is what do you do to get saved in this church yet anything a carnal man would do is enmity against God is not subject to the law of God neither can it be and it cannot please

God and then when we get down to verse 11 we skip 7 and 8 and now we're down to verse 11 we see the conclusion of the passage starting with verse 1 all the way through verse 11 we see we see that it's

God's work we see that it's God that does all this and we come to verse 12 Romans chapter 8 therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh now

I'm going to stop there this morning because it sums up everything because think about this one of the greatest things that will help us to avoid sin it was kind of what we're talking about is how to walk the spiritual walk and not the fleshly walk right one of the greatest powerful tools that you have is to understanding verses 1 through 11 and everything they teach especially verse 7 and 8 right there where it says nothing you can do in the flesh pleases

God anyway and that's why these folks that come in and want to teach legalism they're always they have this spiritual aura they usually talk kind of like this and oh yeah you know

God told me to tell you this about yourself he just shared this with me I'm gonna share it with you and I'm saying you know what really

I got the Bible I don't need you to tell me what God just said because if he wanted to speak to me

I have the Holy Spirit too and the Bible says when he used to speak through prophets that he doesn't do that anymore

Hebrews chapter 1 chapter 11 he says he speaks through his son thank you though I love you but you know you can stop there

I don't think people can tell you what God wants to tell you you have to walk with the

Lord you have to be in the word you have to be walking in the spirit but one of the greatest things that you can do to win the battle against the flesh at any given moment is to take a look at all of these facts especially verse 7 and 8 that we just looked at that nothing in the flesh can please

God and realize therefore in other words everything before this verse it's referring back to all that was said all of that is true and so this is true we are not debtors to the flesh to live after the flesh so when the flesh comes to you and says well why don't you just back away from the

Holy Spirit and quench him a little bit so that you can do this one little sin today and it'll be okay you need to turn to your flesh and say look

I don't owe you anything you've never done anything to save me you've never done anything but try to kill me all that smoking you wanted me to do it kills me overeating that you wanted me to do it kills me all the immorality you want me to think about it kills me there's nothing you've ever done that makes me healthy or saves me so why should

I listen to you right now so I'm not going to and walk away from it walk away from the flesh and start minding the things of the

Spirit listen you can't sin without thinking about it so think about what you're thinking about all right think about monitor what your brain is doing because it's part of the flesh the real you is on a higher level and it can sit there and watch what your brain is thinking and when it goes offline and gets fleshly say

I don't owe you anything and bring it right back and say Holy Spirit thank you for helping me to remember that now what do you want to go do today and reach up and take

Jesus hand and you can walk on water again that's the Christian life let's stand and have prayer together

Lord thank you for your word and how clear it is and how beautiful it is and how you've written it such a way that we have to study hard to get it though because even that makes us closer to you and to each other and so Lord we ask you to take these truths we've been taught by your spirit and by your word today and use it in our lives to be salt and light in this world in our generation

Lord we ask you to bless each family represented here and those who couldn't be here today due to illness strengthen them