Know Your Enemy: The Flesh Examined by the Worst of Sinners (2) | Romans 6

I want to go ahead and start out today by noting, as you can see from the sermon title, that we're going to continue harmonizing and examining the flesh with its interrelated doctrines, what doctrines it relates to, especially in light of what the chief of sinners, who is the Apostle Paul, says in Romans 6 in particular.

And so thus far, we've been answering some very important questions throughout these past few sermons, such as, what is the source and seat of corruption in man? And the extent, the influence, the dominion, and the power of the flesh, especially in regenerated believers.

Okay, keep this in mind. And actually, so before I continue here, I did want to mention to everybody to please be sure, as much as possible, to attend the Lord's Day worship on Sundays and the Wednesday Bible studies as well.

We've been covering a lot of important stuff in the Bible studies too, and stuff that we don't cover here on Sundays. So I do want to encourage everybody to participate as much as you are able in the Lord's Day services, in the means of grace, and in the Bible studies as much as you can.

And it was funny because I was actually reading R .C. Sproul's commentary on Romans, and he said something that really stood out to me. It kind of blew me away because I had never really heard him say something this strong.

And so he says, We are to make diligent use of the means of grace, and make sure our souls are being fed regularly by the Word of God. We have responsibility to be on our faces before God in prayer, earnestly, on a regular basis, and never to miss the corporate worship of the people of God, unless we are absolutely indisposed.

So this is like hardcore, those are some strong, that's very strong language. But I must say that I do think that's biblical, and it's important because the Scripture itself tells us, let us not forsake the gathering of ourselves, corporately as a people, right?

Because you can be sanctified by reading Scripture on your own time, and by studying books and things like that, but you're not going to get the primary means of sanctification, which is as our Reformed confessions and catechisms and the Bible teaches, is primarily through the preaching of the Word of God in a public, corporate setting as a church.

That is where we get the most benefit as believers. You will often find solo Christians, people who don't go to church regularly, they will often have imbalances, and they will have a lot of weird ideas and teachings because they're not being checked by, or being held sharpened by the preaching of the Word, and by like-minded believers who are helping them to see, hey, you got something going on here.

Let's work on those things. Very extremely important, and I really want to encourage us to do that, to be faithful in the corporate worship and in the studies, what we try to provide for you all, for your edification, for your benefit, very important stuff, because we're going to need this in order to be prepared for our last and evil day.

And so, that being said, now, last week, I also preached on the importance of having a balanced, biblical understanding of man, of the flesh, of mortification, putting to death the sin in our lives, as opposed to, and in contrast to asceticism, which is a sinful, you know, denying ourselves to the point of it being, like causing harm to ourselves, like the Roman Catholic Church teaches, and of true worship as well, of true worship as well, because God Himself, we know, is good, and created good things for us to enjoy with thanksgiving and prayer, which is why He also condemns asceticism.

God, it is good for us to get married, in other words. It is good for pastors to get married. It is good for everybody to get married, if they so desire to. It is good to eat and enjoy good food and the things of this life, with imbalance and discipline and all of those things, of course, not overindulging, but they are good things for us to enjoy that God has given us.

And even though God created everything good, including man, however, the fall and disobedience of our first parents, that is, sin, or original sin, as the doctrine is called, original sin has nevertheless corrupted every single part of us to the very core of our nature.

Everything, mind and spirit, is affected by sin, by the fall, and the curse that God brought on, that Adam brought on the earth, the whole earth, because of his first disobedience. This includes, like I said, our mortal bodies and our spirits and the body of death.

Well, the mortal body of sin and death is how scripture explains it. We are going to get into that a little bit more in chapter 6. So we need balance. I can't stress this enough. I've tried to mention it as much as I can.

We need balance when it comes to weighing out the doctrines of scripture and putting them together properly, not sacrificing one for the other or overextending or overexerting or emphasizing one to the expense of another doctrine.

That balances it out. So, just like we talked about last time, regeneration versus the flesh. How do we balance those things out? The corruption of man that remains and the regenerating power of God. And also, we need to apply the analogies of scripture and of faith.

These are very important hermeneutical principles and principles of interpreting the Bible correctly in which we use scripture to interpret scripture. Where the clear passages interpret the less clear passages.

And all scripture interprets scripture. So we interpret scripture in light of its immediate context and in light of its whole entire biblical context. What does the Bible as a whole teach about the flesh or these related doctrines?

And the analogy of faith because now we also need to know what the Bible, not just what it says, but what it teaches. What doctrines does the Bible teach? And how do we systematize and harmonize what the Bible teaches as a whole?

That's the analogy of faith. We must therefore also avoid the extreme views of regeneration like I covered last week. The first being instant or entire sanctification or perfectionism, which is an overly optimistic or triumphalist view of sanctification, which is sort of a self-deceived view of the reality of sin that still remains in our lives.

The second view, extreme, is the belief that Christians are forgiven but don't really change after they're regenerated and converted by the Spirit of God. And they essentially remain vile, wicked sinners who have an abyss of hell in their hearts like I quoted some of the well-renowned men of the past who expressed things us, described us in that way, which is, of course, unbiblical because it is overly pessimistic and a defeatist view of sanctification because God is the one who is working in us.

He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion. Amen? So, and I was dealing with 1 Timothy 1 in verse 15 specifically where Paul says that this is a trustworthy saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am the foremost, the chief, the worst.

And why does he say that? Is he saying that because he's still a wretched sinner?

No.

He says he was a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. That's why he calls himself the worst of sinners because as the worst, in the next verse we read, that as the worst, for this reason he was shown mercy because being the foremost or the worst, Christ Jesus might demonstrate all his patience as an example for those who are going to believe upon him for eternal life.

So if Paul is that bad and God can give him grace and transform him to make him an apostle of his will, then God can save us and make us whole and actively, progressively better and good. Right? Amen?

So we need to be careful not to overemphasize the power and extent and control that the flesh has in our lives as believers, especially when we read or when we study men from the Reformed faith and tradition because you have to be careful to discern when they're overstepping, when they are becoming imbalanced and saying things that they should not, that are not biblical.

And one of the key texts, of course, that I want to keep emphasizing to give us that right mindset and the right amount of hope that we as believers have the power to overcome sin in our lives because Christ has overcome it and nailed that body of sin and death to that cross in 2nd Corinthians 5 .17.

This should be a memory verse for all of us. We should all memorize this verse. It's a very important verse for our lives and when it comes to sharing the gospel as well because this is where we have a very powerful promise and indicative that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, reborn, renewed by the Spirit of God.

The old things, the previous moral, spiritual lifestyle and condition and sin has passed away. Behold, new things have come. But all these things are from God himself. They come from God. God gives us to them, gives them to us.

There are major obvious differences between unbelievers and believers. There should be. We're supposed to be salt and light. We're supposed to be salt and light to the world. We should be a peculiar people like the Bible says.

A royal priesthood, a holy nation of people that stands out in contrast to the world. They should wonder what is it that's different about you? Why are you so different from everybody else? Why don't you curse and look like the devil and like the things of the world and the music and the movies?

Why are you so different? Because we have the Spirit of God. That's why we're different.

Amen.

So I want to reiterate this maxim, very important theological maxim for us to internalize as well. Our aim, our goal, is not self-debasement. It is not to beat yourself up or flagellate yourself like Rome teaches and to try to destroy your body, but self-humiliation, humility of mind.

Humbling ourselves. Not self-confidence, but God-confidence.

Okay?

Confidence in God. That God is powerful enough to deal with our issues and help us to overcome them as well as the sins that we struggle with in our lives. Not self-esteem, but spiritual esteem. The esteem and the confidence that comes from God.

That is because God is all-powerful. And He cares for His people, for His sheep, which we belong to if you indeed believe the Gospel. Repent and believe the Gospel. God does not save us and leave us in a state of wretchedness.

He saves us for good works. He saves us to conform us to the image of His Son, to make us perfect like His Son, Christ Jesus.

Okay?

So, that being said,.

However,.

We cannot as well over-correct our understanding of the flesh and of regeneration either. We have to watch out for imbalances once again. Because theology is all about making right and proper distinctions.

And more specifically, what I'm referring to is by thinking that we become a completely different person altogether when we are saved and converted.

Okay?

There are very notable examples of this false understanding of regeneration and of the popular... I'm sorry. There are some notable examples of this misunderstanding of regeneration comes from the very popular Lordship Salvation missionary, Paul Washer, whom I've criticized before regarding his Lordship Salvation and things like that.

And also the Plymouth Brethren, which is a sort of denominational group that was founded in London by John Nelson Darby, who was not a good guy, by the way.

Okay?

He was a very bad guy. He was a diatrophist. So I used to... Regarding Paul Washer, I actually used to wholeheartedly recommend one of Paul Washer's sermons called Being What You Are, Having Too Low a View of Regeneration.

And he's preaching on Romans 6. And some things in that sermon are good. And you can listen to it yourself. Just as always, be discerning.

Right?

We must always be discerning and watch out for imbalances and biases that are not biblical. But as I matured in the faith, I started noticing some problems with the sermon that I had overlooked before.

Because at certain points, Paul Washer actually claims that our nature itself is changed in regeneration. And then he actually gives the illustration of a pig chomping down on pig... What's that pig stuff called?

Slough.

Yeah, pig slough. And enjoying himself and loving it. And then suddenly, he's supernaturally converted or transformed into a man. And then the man realizes what he's doing and he's all disgusted with himself.

And he's like, why am I eating this disgusting slough? This is disgusting. And now his nature finds it repulsive what he used to love. And he uses that as an illustration of describing what happens to us in regeneration.

When we are transformed by God's Spirit, when we are transformed by God's Spirit and changed. But this does not mean... This is known as a category error. Yes, God does change us, but He doesn't change our nature.

He does not change our nature. We are still human beings.

Right?

We are still the same person. We're going to get into this a little bit more. It's not that God changes us from a man to something else. We are still men. And likewise, in one of his other studies called Discerning the Plight of Man, Paul Washer claims that God does not draw men to Himself by dragging them against their will.

Rather, He first regenerates the hearts of men, giving them a new nature. This new nature, which has been recreated in the image of God, possesses new and righteous affections that then draw men irresistibly to Christ.

Okay, there's a big problem here. We need to be able to identify it. Recreated in the image of God, right? So that's actually implying that we did not have the image of God beforehand. Before we were regenerated.

We are still creatures in the image of God. We are still the image of God. It's just that our nature, what the Bible teaches, and what theologians have taught of old, is that the image of God has been distorted.

It has been marred in us because of sin. So, God does not give us a new nature. It is not a new nature, okay? It is a renewed nature. A renewed nature. Also remember that the image of God in man is primarily a rational, thinking knowledge of the truth.

Like I preached on a few weeks ago. It is not primarily the affections, okay? But rather, the mind. The mind, the spirit, or the spirit embracing truth. Because affections, at least in the sense that Paul Washer seems to define them, are more like desires.

Or expressions of what the mind thinks and believes. They are outward expressions of what we think and believe. And that is what the image is. It's knowledge of the truth of God. Of His Word. And theologians of old spoke of how in regeneration, God implants in us a new, not a new nature, but a new disposition.

Disposition, okay? New desires.

New habits.

New...

Yes. It's a disposition, okay? And behaviors, new behaviors. And in his critique of the Plymouth Brethren, which is, this is what they also teach. The Plymouth Brethren, more sharply than anybody else probably, teach that you become a different person when you are regenerated.

And that, of course, is very problematic because that would imply that the old person that you were, then who was saved? Who was actually saved then? If the old person wasn't saved, then that person was never saved.

So there's a big, it's just a very dangerously false, unorthodox, false teaching on the nature of man and regeneration. We need to be careful with. So R .L. Dabney, an excellent, excellent Southern Presbyterian theologian in the time of the Civil War, highly commend him to you.

He has his imbalances and things like that, just like everybody does, but nevertheless an outstanding theologian that we should all make ourselves familiar with. Dabney clarifies that regeneration is not a change of nature because that would imply, that would mean that we are no longer, we would no longer be human, which is absurd.

It's a new disposition, okay? And I appreciate what Dabney does in his article on The Theology of the Plymouth Brethren. Again, I highly recommend that you all read it. It's called The Theology of the Plymouth Brethren.

Dabney first asks this question, what is a nature? What is a nature? We always need to define our terms first. If you do not define your terms, you do not know what you're talking about. You do not understand what is being said.

We must know, that's why I'm spending so much time defining what man is, what the spirit is, what the body is, what the flesh is. We must understand what these things mean in order for us to understand what the Bible teaches about them.

So that when we read these words in the Bible, the flesh, the body, the body of sin, we don't misunderstand them and impose a false meaning on them. That's called eisegesis, rather than exegesis, by which we draw out the meaning from the text, from the passage.

So, what is a nature? And Dabney explains for us that a nature is a collection of permanent characteristics or attributes or predicates.

Okay?

An example of permanent, that's a key word. You know, this kind of reminds me of this whole LGBT agenda, right? Of transgenderism and how people try to act like, you know, gender is fluid and it can change.

But guess what, folks? Gender is not fluid and your gender does not change. You cannot change your gender no matter how hard you try. Once a man, always a man.

Amen?

Once a woman, always a woman. And you see the utter disgusting perversion. I hope you all didn't see it, but if you did, the disgusting, vile display of perversion from the Olympics and how totally perverted it has become, you know, not just allowing men to compete with women and women to compete with men, but the disgusting display of transgenders, of men in dresses, with beards, still, it's just vile.

God despises that corruption of our nature. That is not natural. That is why Romans 1 says, it is against nature to pursue homosexual desires or lesbian desires. It goes against our nature as humans. By nature, you are a man or a woman.

That is not something that can change. That is what also a predicate is. A predicate is like God is holy. Holy is a predicate that describes God. Man is fallen, right? Man is body and spirit. Man is created in the image of God.

Those are all predicates that describe our nature and that describe God's nature, any nature, the nature of anything. That is what nature is. A nature is. Now, Dabney continues here. In strictest speech, man's nature is never actually changed, either by the fall or even by redemption.

For if he were, he would no longer be a man. Right? Like we've been saying. He would become another animal altogether with a different nature from that which made him a man. Okay, this is not hard. This is very basic, right?

Very basic. Man is a man. Woman is a woman. Yet our society has no sense of this anymore. That's a sign of God's judgment on a people when he gives them over to a debased mind of foolishness, to their darkened hearts, to their vile, degrading perversions and lusts.

So there is... So he continues. But there is a popular use of the word nature. So there's a different colloquial use of the word nature and more frequently of the phrase moral nature.

Okay?

Moral nature. Men mean by it the moral abitus.

Abitus.

That's a Latin word for disposition.

Okay?

Disposition. And in the Greek, like in 1 John, as I've been preaching in 1 John, the word is peripateo.

Okay?

Peripateo. That means your walk, your lifestyle, your thoughts, your habits,.

Your words.

How do you carry yourself? Do you carry yourself as one who walks in darkness like an unbeliever in sin without repentance, without mortification, without sanctification, without belief in Christ? Or do you walk in light, in truth, in holiness, in faith, in Christ and his word, in the gospel?

How do you walk? That is what this disposition is. That is what has changed. Not our nature. It's our lifestyle, our desires, our behaviors, our actions, thoughts, words, and deeds.

So,.

Very important to understand. This is that which permanently qualifies the disposition. It's what permanently qualifies the active powers of the soul of man for good or for evil. That's exactly what he's describing.

What is your disposition? Are you inclined towards evil? Are you an unbeliever? Or are you inclined towards good? And you are a believer. It's one or the other, okay? There is no other. There's nothing else.

Either you are lost in Adam, dead in sin, and bound for hellfire and damnation for eternity, or you are a believer in Christ and have been declared righteous and good by God because of what Christ did on the cross for you and are therefore being made actively good through sanctification, through God's Spirit living in you and becoming more and more righteous and conformed to the will of God and His law.

So,.

In other words, your deepest convictions, your habitus, your peripateo, your disposition, your lifestyle,.

This,.

Your deepest convictions, this is what drives your thoughts, words, and actions. It is what the Bible refers to as the inner man, the heart. The Bible refers to as the heart. It is what you really are and believe on the inside.

It's like Jesus said, these people honor me with their lips, with their words, but their hearts, their true selves, their inner man is far from me. They don't actually believe what they claim to believe.

That's what James 2 also talks about. Faith without works is dead. You're a hypocrite if you claim to believe and you don't have a walk, a lifestyle, a disposition, a peripateo of good works to show for it.

That's a dead faith. It's a false faith.

Right?

So,.

Therefore, this is a better definition of the word affections.

Okay?

They are your deepest rooted convictions, your deepest beliefs that drive everything else that you do. And that is what God changes. He changes what we believe. He changes our, our desires and our belief.

He changes our minds. That's what metanoia means. Repent, repent to repent means to change your mind. And that is what God does for us through his spirit, the regenerating power of his spirit. That is conversion from believing a lie to believing the truth of God.

Amen.

So,.

This may have been what Paul Washer was trying to explain, but unfortunately he was just too confusing. We have to be very careful. How we explain things in the kind of illustrations that we use, which I'm going to, I'm going to have to bite my own tongue shortly.

Um,.

Dabney, RL Dabney,.

Who has,.

Who has become a very good friend, a personal friend of mine. I just really enjoy reading his work. Furthermore, gives us a nice summary of the whole, of this whole matter. That is reminiscent, reminiscent of Augustine.

He says in the carnal state of the unbeliever, the Abitus, the lifestyle, the disposition of the sinner's will is absolutely and exclusively Godless.

Okay.

It is no good at all. He is completely controlled by the flesh,.

The evil,.

Sinful desires of the flesh in the regenerate state. Of believers. That is those who believe in Christ. It is prevalently commonly normally there, but not completely Godly. So we are now prevalently prevalently or more commonly, normally Godly.

We tend to doing good works, doing good, thinking good thoughts, saying good words and performing good actions,.

Good works,.

But not exclusively,.

Right?

Because we still sin and we still have to wrestle against the flesh. And yet in the glorified state, Dabney says it is absolutely and exclusively Godly. So just as unbelievers were only and exclusively evil, believers in the glorified state will be only and exclusively perfect, holy and righteous and good.

Because we will be made like unto Christ, our savior.

Now,.

Very important to understand. So we need to test these claims, even when they come from those who profess to be reformed.

There,.

You know, I've mentioned this before. We have to be careful. Just because somebody says the reform doesn't mean that what they're teaching or preaching is sound or reformed or biblical,.

Right?

We have to always examine all things like the word says, including what I preach and teach. Always be discerning.

Always.

It's a lifestyle that we exercise our powers of discernment through constant practice. That is a mark of a believer who has been made good by God. You are a discerning individual who can tell good from evil, lies from truth.

One of the primary marks of believers is that discernment to know. Because my sheep, what did Jesus say? My sheep know me and hear my voice,.

Right?

My words, they recognize the voice,.

The words,.

The teaching of their shepherd, the savior, Christ of our God.

Now,.

We must remember to examine all things with the whole counsel of God at using the analogies of faith and of Scripture to prevent us from incoming imbalance or from believing falsehoods or lies or false doctrine, which happens often, especially when sound, confessional, systematic preaching, teaching and doctrine is neglected or ignored.

OK,.

So it's not just important to attend the faithful preaching of the word to attend Bible studies and attend the fellowship of God's people and attend the corporate worship of God, of God's people in a local church and to participate in the means of grace, like the Lord's Supper and baptism and especially and most importantly, the preaching of the word.

But you have to attend a true church that preaches faithfully,.

Right?

It does you no good if you attend a Mormon church that preaches a false gospel or Jehovah's Witnesses church that preaches a false gospel or a Roman Catholic church that teaches a false gospel. Because they don't teach that justification is by faith alone, apart from works of the law, apart from apart from anything that we do.

It is by grace and grace alone through faith alone in the right gospel. So you must attend a church that preaches the word faithfully in order to be sanctified, edified properly. We all have a responsibility to do that and to do it regularly, like Sproul says, and like the word says, to not neglect the assembling of ourselves.

This is how you are not going to grow by becoming a lone ranger,.

A lone wolf,.

Right?

That is not healthy. That often leads to despair, to apostasy, to depression, to an imbalance, like I said. So we must be very diligent to attend, to participate, to cooperate with the means that God has given us and receive them regularly.

In addition to,.

Of course,.

The private means of grace.

Yes,.

You do need to do your own study as well. Prayers, study, reading good books, good theology in the Bible, but very important. Now we get a chance to dive into Romans to continue examining and unpacking our doctrine of the flesh, our understanding of the flesh.

And I'll confess this at first, that I actually wanted to jump right into Romans 7, but then we have to realize that we need to examine the broader context of what Scripture teaches in Romans 6, 7, and 8.

Okay?

We need to check all three of those chapters because all three of those chapters deal substantially with the flesh. So instead of cherry picking verses from them, it's better to just preach through them with a specific topical focus on the flesh.

Okay?

That's my goal for these next messages, to preach through Romans 6 through 8, specifically focusing on the flesh. And interestingly enough, when I was reading Sproul's commentary on Romans, he mentioned that Romans 6 can be difficult to understand.

This chapter that I'm preaching on, because of the language that Paul uses. Now, why is that? It can be challenging because it can be challenging to determine when Paul is speaking in a physical or literal sense as opposed to a spiritual or figurative sense.

Okay?

So have these categories in your mind as we read and go through, plow through Romans 6. Because we have to make sure we understand these terms that Paul is using correctly. Do we understand them more literally or more figuratively?

So, turn with me to Romans chapter 5, to the end of Romans chapter 5, so that we can transition into Romans 6.

Okay?

Romans chapter 5, starting in verse 20. Romans 5, starting in verse 20. God's Word says, and I'm reading from the LSB. Now the law came in so that the transgression, the sin, would increase. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now, Romans 6. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? Okay, so based on what you told us, Paul, should we continue sinning so that God's grace may continue to abound and be poured out to us?

What is Paul's answer? May it never be. God forbid. Absolutely not.

Why?

How shall we, who actually died to sin, what is this past tense? Died to sin. Still live in it. Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life as new creations with a new disposition, a new habitus, a new peripateo, a new lifestyle, a renewed nature.

For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.

Amen.

So, this is why we need to make sure we don't go off the reservation, like this phrase goes. We have to keep the doctrines of Scripture in balance. That's what Paul was addressing. He was addressing these perverters of God's grace, of God's Word.

They were saying, oh, well, let's keep sinning then, so God's grace can continue to be poured out to us. Like, you fool. You fool. Do you not know that when you die to sin, you no longer live in it?

Right?

Amen?

Why?

Because God changes our disposition to now desire and to walk after the Word of God, the law of God, and the means of grace. Those are diametrically opposed, mutually exclusive. You cannot walk both roads.

They are totally different divergent roads. Like Jesus said, you cannot serve two masters.

Right?

You cannot serve the world, possessions, mammon, the love of the world, and the love of God. Just like 1 John 2 says, which I catapulted us this series from, the love of the world means that the love of the Father is not in you.

You are not saved if you love the things that you are not supposed to be loving that God prohibits as sin.

Okay?

So, continuing now. Very important verses here. Romans 6, 6. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him in order that our body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

For he who has died has been justified, has been set free from sin.

Okay?

From sin. From the power, from the bondage, from the slavery of sin. Remember the question that I asked before. After a believer dies, does he or she continue to sin? After a believer dies and his spirit departs from his body, does he or she continue to sin?