One thing Myrna has always been noted for is her lack of enthusiasm and timidity. I can well remember one day sitting in class when I almost got kicked out because she wouldn't stop talking to me. I think that's the way it was, something like that. You don't think that was it? Romans chapter 8, if you like that singing tonight she and Phil will present a full concert to us and there are tapes and records available at the bookstore if you're interested in those.
I'm also glad they could be here with us this weekend. Our text is Romans chapter 8 beginning in verse 5. For those who are according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death. But the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God. For it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.
And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who indwells you. At least nine times in the text that we've read the word Spirit is used. The context shows us that almost all of those times it refers to the Holy Spirit. The one exception is in verse 10 where it speaks about the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. There it refers to man's Spirit.
I would also draw your attention to the names given to this third person of the Godhead. He is called the Spirit several times. In verse 9 he is called the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. And then in verse 11 the Spirit of him who raised Jesus. Then you may remember last week in verse 2 the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. So if you've been with us in our study in Romans you know that a new emphasis is being made in this eighth chapter of the book.
So the Holy Spirit certainly has been mentioned before this but now he is the theme and his work in the believer is the thrust of this chapter. Paul concludes his initial paragraph as it's been divided by us in verses 1 through 4 by reminding us that God's purpose in our salvation is that the requirement or the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. God did not save us just to keep us out of hell. That's a wonderful part of it.
But God wants us in this life to fulfill his righteousness expressed in the law. We're not under the law. We have died to the law. But the righteousness of the law is nonetheless written on our hearts because the Holy Spirit lives in us. And now the Holy Spirit desires that he might fulfill God's requirement, his righteousness in the way that we live on Monday and Tuesday and Thursday and Sunday, every day of the week. That's God's purpose in our salvation.
He makes it clear at the last part of verse 4 that he's speaking about those who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. We said last week that that was a distinction between those who are lost in their sin and those who have been saved and cleansed by the blood of Christ. Those who walk according to the flesh are those who are unregenerate. Those who walk according to the Spirit are believers.
Now from that distinction, the apostle goes on to draw a series of contrasts in verses 5 through 11 between the two, between flesh and spirit, between those who are lost and those who are saved. And the contrasts are very clear. The first is a contrast of position. You may want to follow along in the outline in your worship folder. The first contrast is the contrast of position found in verses 8 and 9. The Bible only recognizes two kinds of people in the world.
There are those who have been born once and those who have been born twice. The only difference that God sees between any people is that some have the presence of his Spirit in them and some do not. They are void of the Spirit of God. That is the basic distinction. There are two groups. The one group is said here to be in the flesh. He says in verse 8, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Back in chapter 7 verse 5 he used that phrase talking about us in our unregenerate days.
He says while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. So that phrase in the flesh speaks about people who are without spiritual regeneration, who have no life of God. Now the word flesh is used several ways in the New Testament. You have to look at the context to see its meaning. Sometimes it refers to the physical body of flesh and blood and bones that we live in. Sometimes it refers to our ancestry.
Sometimes to our relations to other human beings. But many times, and I think we could say most of the time in the New Testament, it refers to unredeemed humanity. It refers to that which is the dwelling place of sin, the principle of sin. To be in the flesh is to be unredeemed, unregenerated man. It's an ethical sense. Life's essential existence is on the material fleshly level apart from contact with the spiritual. As Jesus said in John 3, 6, that which is born of the flesh is what? Flesh.
That's all it is. It's flesh. There'll never be anything more than that. It's limited to that realm. Melanchthon, one of the reformers, defined the flesh as the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit. In the flesh is the natural man's identification and position before God. Very frankly, he is the very last person to suspect that that is his lost estate. Because in the flesh, his mind is darkened. He cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God.
He is dead in trespasses and sins, but doesn't recognize that. Before God, he is in the flesh. That is his position. In contrast to that, there are those who are in the Spirit. Verse 9, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. He's talking to Christians. He says that our position is that we are in the Spirit. In other words, we are regenerated by the Spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is what? Spirit.
We have been born twice. We have had a new birth or a birth from above. We have been regenerated. Now our life's source, its essence, its springs are not found in the flesh, but in the Spirit, in the Holy Spirit. He says something similar to this in verse 5 when he says, those who are according to the flesh. Literally, it says those who are according to the flesh being. In contrast, those who are according to the Spirit being. In other words, it's the essence of one's being, what he is.
That is his position before God. This congregation can be divided this morning between those who are in the flesh yet, because of the lack of a new birth, spiritual regeneration, and those who are in the Spirit who have been born again from above. That leads us to the second contrast, and that is the contrast in direction. Being affects direction of life. It has to do with what motivates and interests a person. That's his direction.
The contrast is between those who walk according to the flesh, verse 4, and who mind the things of the flesh, verse 5, and then those who walk according to the Spirit, verse 4, and who mind the things of the Spirit, verse 5. The lost and the saved again. Now let's talk about those who walk according to the flesh. It means that that is the bent, that is the pursuit of their life.
The very word mind in verse 5, when he says those who are of the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, means that that is their pursuit. They set their heart in that direction. They are preoccupied with the flesh. The goal of their life is to fulfill this life's needs and desires, and the lusts and the desires of their body and of their natural personality.
This person who walks according to the flesh and who minds the things of the flesh is the person, the man, the woman of the 80s, and of every age for that matter, who may be scientific, religious, intellectual, cultured, materialistic, and refined, and not necessarily gross in immorality, but who is nonetheless in the flesh. It does not mean that one leads a life of crime to be in the flesh. It means that one leads a life apart from God. It means to live for oneself, even in serving others.
To walk according to the flesh means that one's actions proceed from his flesh, which is alienated from God. It means to be cut off from God, that is to be in the flesh, and therefore to walk according to the flesh. It means that God is up there somewhere, he is not really relevant to me. And that's where most people are. In contrast to that is the Christian, the genuine, the biblical Christian, who walks according to the Spirit, verse 4, and who minds the things of the Spirit, verse 5.
The Christian has a different world to live in. There is another dimension to his life. His motives, his objectives in life are different than those of the unsaved person. Now it is possible for a Christian to do otherwise than to walk according to the Spirit. Although he is not in the flesh, as we have said before, the flesh is still in him, he has that unredeemed humanity he is still attached to. It is possible for him to revert to the flesh direction for a time.
If that were not so, then the apostle would not have exhorted us to set our minds on things above, not on things on the earth. It's possible for Christians to set their minds on the things of the earth too and to live for the here and now. But that should not be the direction of his life, if it is, then there is reason to question whether he has been genuinely reborn. Because one who is regenerate has the general tendency, the direction, to walk after the Spirit.
The contrast between the two is quite clear. You can see it in the office where you work. You can see it in churches that you attend. There is such a thing as religious flesh, religious systems which please and fulfill the flesh. God help us if we ever approach that in our church. And often this contrast between those who walk according to the Spirit and those who walk according to the flesh is mysterious to those who are unregenerate. They cannot understand the Christian. He's beyond them.
This is seen, for example, in a seminar that's being held in the Twin Cities this week being promoted by the Minnesota Council of Churches, a group that knows very little about what it is to be in the Spirit. It is a seminar which deals with the dangers of fundamentalism. They're concerned about holy terror, as they put it. Two of the people leading the seminar have published a book in recent years, I know not exactly when, regarding snapping.
Now snapping is a term that they use to describe one who has had a sudden personality change. In other words, if you have been born again and you are no longer walking after the flesh but after the Spirit, you've snapped. That's what they call it. And so in this seminar they're going to teach people of the danger of snapping and how to deprogram those who have snapped.
Did you know that last year in three states, in the United States of America, there were laws proposed before the legislatures which would allow police to pick up people who had snapped and to deliver them to the state hospital for deprogramming?
In other words, if you are a parent and you have a child who snaps, who perhaps gets born again, you as a parent can go to the police and sign something and the police will be able to go and pick up the child and take the child to the state hospital for deprogramming. Now the laws did not pass, nearly passed, in Kansas except for the intervention of a number of vocal Christian groups in that state.
I would wager that you can expect to see that in Minnesota before too long, at least the proposal of it. I'll be down at the state house again, don't look for me in the office when it's proposed. Ted Patrick, who is the king of deprogrammers and was applauded even by Christians a few years ago because of his attempts to get Moonies out of that cult, has recently made the statement that the two great kings of the cults these days, the two greatest cult leaders are Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell.
And so now the effort is to deprogram those who have snapped by being born again. But I'll tell you something, those who are in the flesh are mystified by those who are in the spirit. They cannot figure it out. Obviously the only answer is they've snapped and they've got to be brought back to reality.
So there is a contrast, my friend, between those who are in the flesh and who walk according to the flesh and who mind the things of the flesh and those who are in the spirit and who walk according to the spirit and mind the things of the spirit. In that contrast, you can expect to become more clear as we move further into the last days. There's a contrast, thirdly, in verse 6, in the condition. The contrast is between death and life. There could not be a greater contrast.
Literally this verse says, for the mind of the flesh, death, but the mind of the spirit, life and peace. No real verb in there. He is telling us that those who have the direction of the flesh in their lives are death. It's not that they're dying, they are in death. That is their present condition. And really isn't that what Romans 6, 23 says? For the wages of sin will be death, right? Wrong. The wages of sin, death, is death right now in this world.
It's not just hell in the future, though that's part of it, that's part of the separation from God, but it is a present death. The Amplified Bible says it's death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter. It's the misery of sin, the degeneration of sin, that's death. Skevington Wood, who is an English commentator, has written this paragraph, so then those who make the flesh their ambition are even at this present moment entombed in death.
They are not really alive at all, they are simply going through the motions. How different is the viewpoint of God's Word from the viewpoint of the world? Those who are absorbed in the flesh imagine that they have found life. They are seeing life, they think. They are making the most of life, they are sampling the spice of life. But God pronounces them dead, dead through trespasses and sins. They are sowing the seeds of final destruction.
And then he quotes 1 Timothy 5, 6, and Paul to Timothy, she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. That explains the person who is in the flesh, physically alive, spiritually cut off from the life of God, dead. That's the condition. In contrast to that is the Christian, the one who has been reborn. He is alive. Verse 6, the mind set on the Spirit is life. And again that's not life in heaven someday, though it includes that, but it's life right here and now.
And it's the Greek word for life which has to do with quality of life, not its extent. It's the life of God Himself. It is life that is blessed and morally pure. It's the life of the one who said, I am the life. The Christian knows that quality of life in this world. It doesn't mean that there aren't struggles and heartaches. It doesn't mean that the Christian doesn't go through tough times because Christians do. But my friend, there's one difference between the Christian and the lost.
The lost person goes through tough times too, but he's in death. The Christian goes through his tough times, he's in life. There's a purpose in it. The trials and the sufferings are earning something for him. It's glory to come. It's meaningful. The condition is a contrast. And then, fourthly, there's a contrast of relations. The last part of verse 6 and verses 7 and 8 talk about this. It's the relationship to God that's in view here and it says that the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God.
In contrast, the mind of the spirit, the mind set on the spirit, is peace with God. And so there's the contrast of relation. The one who is in the flesh is in rebellion against God. He resists God. He is at war with God. And that hostility against God is evidenced by his lack of subjection to the law of God, God's standards, God's morality. This word subject here is a Greek military term. When a soldier was in subjection, he was in line with the other troops and marching in step.
But when he got out of line or out of step, he was not in subjection. And that's the thought here. The one who is in the flesh is out of alignment with God. He's out of step with God. We might put it another way. He's gone A-W-O-L. He has broken rank with God. How different is the spirit of General Charles George Gordon, who was a great British soldier of the last century and a devoted Christian.
At the beginning of every day, General Gordon would get out of his bed and immediately stand at attention before God to show that he was in subjection to his commander in chief. But not so the world. The world will not subject itself to the law of God. And notice it goes on to say it's not able to do it either. It cannot find within itself that mind of the flesh to submit to the law of God. Why? Because it has a perverted, warped idea about God. It sees God as harsh and stern.
And it resists and rebels against that kind of a God. As Wood says, it is simply not in him to love God or to recognize God's claim or submit to his wise and beneficent law. The mind of the flesh is controlled by sin. Sin is lawlessness. Therefore, the mind of the flesh cannot submit to the law. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
I don't care how many candles they light, I don't care how many times they get baptized, I don't care what religious ritual they go through, how much money is given to the Red Cross, or how many good things are accomplished in that life. My friend, the Bible says that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Period. Period. Because they are alienated from God. And even the good things that come out of the life are essentially for self in the flesh.
In contrast, is the one who has the mind of the spirit. There's peace. As Romans 5.1 said, therefore having been justified by faith, we have what? Peace with God. Because the Lord Jesus Christ has paid for our sins at the cross and the shedding of his precious blood. We can be justified, declared right with God. And when that takes place, there's no cause for hostility anymore. And there's peace. There's peace. No more sin there. Peace. That's the Christian's blessed experience.
That's his relationship to God. And though it doesn't say it here, those who are at peace with God, it's implied, please him. Because the righteousness of the law is being fulfilled in their lives. God is well pleased with them. Remember what God the Father said to God the Son in the presence of all who were there watching him? This is my beloved Son in whom I am one. Well pleased. Do you know that as God looks at you in the Spirit, in Christ being justified, he says I am well pleased.
Not because there's something in us that merits that, but because we are in Christ and seen and found in his righteousness, not our own. And then there's the contrast of possession, finally, verses 9 through 11. He says in the last part of verse 9 regarding the unsaved, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. In other words, the possession of the Holy Spirit is an indication that one is saved and the lack of it that he's lost.
The one who is in the flesh does not have the Spirit of God in him. He is lost. He is unsaved. He has no Holy Spirit and therefore he is not Christ's. Oh, he is Christ by virtue of creation. He is his creature, but not his child. Not his child. But not so the believer. The real thrust here is on the believer. Actually the believer enjoys a double possession. If you notice the text here, the believer has the Spirit and the Spirit has the believer. That's neat.
You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit's alive because of righteousness. Notice that we are in the Spirit and the Spirit is in us. And he says if the Spirit is in us, that means that Christ is in us. You can't separate the two. Jesus Christ is in the believer. In verse 9 he says the Spirit of God dwells in you. The word dwell means to make a home.
It's the word for house. The Spirit of God takes up his residency within you. Christ dwells in you. When you go home after church this morning, he's not going to stay here at church. He's going to go home and eat with you. And when you lay down and take your nap this afternoon, he's going to be there with you. He's not going to take a nap. He doesn't slumber or sleep, but he'll be there with you. When you punch the clock and head into the factory tomorrow morning, he's going to go with you.
There's no way that you can be separated from him. Even if, and you wouldn't, you wanted to be separated from him, you couldn't be. There is this double possession. He is in you, possessing you, and you are in him. You possess him. It's blessed. And he says in verse 10 that even though our bodies are dead because of sin, now he's talking about our physical bodies, our physical bodies are under the sentence of death because of Adam's sin. Unless Jesus comes, these bodies are going to die.
They're going to go back to dust. But he says nonetheless, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. That means justification righteousness. Even though your body is dying and decaying and your hair is getting gray and you have other problems, the spirit, the real you, the essential you is alive and cannot die because you've been united to him who said, I'm the life.
He goes on to say though in verse 11 that if in fact the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, and he's not doubting it, it really could be since he dwells in you. He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies. What is he saying here?
He's saying that even our bodies are so important to God and that though they will someday die and go back to the dust, someday by the spirit of God these bodies are going to be resurrected, new and glorified bodies, and that's talked about later on here in Romans. So there's no part of you that is ever going to be lost because you have been possessed of God. Now let me just draw three quick applications and we'll be done.
The first application is for the person who's listening to me right now and who admits, who's aware that he's still in the flesh and he's not in the spirit. How do you get from one to the other? Right after Jesus said that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit, he went on to say, Marvel not that I say to you, you must be born again. That's how you do it. You are born from above by placing your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.
By turning from the sins of the flesh, repenting of those, changing your mind about hating the way of the flesh and desiring forgiveness, desiring eternal life and receiving that from Jesus Christ who died for you and rose again that he might give eternal life to you. That's how you can make that change today. That's how you can be transformed from being in the flesh to in the spirit. Will you do it today? Application number two.
That which is of the flesh will always oppose that which is of the spirit. Will you write that down? Because that affects not only your personal life and struggle within, but it also has implications for you in the world where you live. That which is of the flesh will always oppose that which is of the spirit. Turn over to Galatians just a minute. We're now moving into high gear. In Galatians chapter four he draws an analogy which we can't go into in detail, but we're going to look at it.
It's an analogy with Abraham and his two boys. Verse 22, it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bond woman, who is that? Ishmael, and one by the free woman, who is that? Isaac. He says in verse 23, by the son of the bond woman, but the son of the bond woman was born according to the flesh, and the son of the free woman through the promise. So there's a contrast between the two boys. We don't have time to go into all that that means, but going down now to verse 28.
He says, and you brethren, like Isaac, here's the parallel in the allegory, are children of promise. That is, you have believed God's promise. You are saved by faith. But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also it is now. What's he saying? He is saying that those of us who have experienced the birth of the spirit can expect opposition from those who are still in the flesh, born of the flesh.
If you know anything about Abraham's household, you know there were problems after those two boys had been born. Because there was a contrast in them, Ishmael the flesh and Isaac of the spirit. And so it is in our world today, in the religious world it is that way. Religion in the flesh opposes and hates religion of the spirit, true religion. It's that way in your office. Those who are of the flesh will oppose those of you in the office who are of the spirit.
As Paul said to Timothy, all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Maybe not continuously, but constantly. It'll come again and again. That's the way it is in this life, don't be discouraged by it. Now in Galatians, look in chapter 6, replication number 3, it is this, a believer who allows the flesh to dominate his life will suffer loss. The believer is not in the flesh, but the flesh is still in the believer.
And if the Christian allows the flesh to control and to dominate him, he will suffer loss. Look at verses 7 and 8. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the spirit shall from the spirit reap eternal life.
Dear Christian, if you are today sowing to your flesh, allowing the flesh and its desires to dominate you, then you are going to reap a harvest of corruption. It doesn't mean hell, it means loss, it means decay, it means a diminished life. How much better to allow the Holy Spirit to dominate us so that we sow and therefore reap eternal life.
In this life, that quality of life that God wants us to enjoy, sowing to the flesh will rob you of your peace and your joy and the blessing that God wants you to know. And some of you know that because that's where you are this morning. Will you repent of that? Will you establish a fresh and new the Lordship of Jesus Christ in your life? And so according to the Spirit, let's pray. Father, these words have been so quickly said and they are so important.
I pray that you will take this teaching from the Word of God today and make it applicable to every life. And for those of us who sense that pressure, the voice of the Holy Spirit in this hour, may we yield and do what we ought to in this invitation, in Jesus' name, amen.