We learned that while we ALL were once IN ADAM, something happened when heard of salvation in Jesus:
• We recognized how dreadful our sins were, and repented of them and trusted in Christ
• We were immediately justified by the blood of Christ
And now we are no longer IN ADAM, but we are IN CHRIST.
In John 5:24, the Lord Himself said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."
Romans, chapter eight, verse 1, explains several things about our new life IN CHRIST, that show why we no longer live in sin.
1. OUR POSITION OF BEING IN CHRIST
What we, in our sinful flesh, could not do, Christ did by coming, in the flesh, and fulfilling the law, thereby placing us IN HIM!
The Bible tells us that because of this position IN CHRIST, we are no longer under condemnation.
Paul suggested that the second reason the new believer has eternal life is because of:
2. OUR POSITION OF HAVING CHRIST IN US
Here are a couple of reasons believers should be victorious over sin:
I. THE BELIEVER'S LIFE IS TO BE SELF CONTROLLED
Look at verses 5-8, "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God."
Illus: When the Lord saves us, we do not become robots for God to control by pushing buttons. We still are free moral agents, and make our own decisions, but now we seek to make decisions to please Him.
We will discover there are two kinds of life we can now live.
A. WE CAN LIVE A DECEIVED LIFE
Much of the preaching we hear today, teaches people that they are to live lives devoted to Christ.
However, we must proceed with caution here. We must be careful not to get the idea that once we are saved from sin, we can then "pull ourselves up by our own boot straps,” and save ourselves from sin from that time on.
We frequently hear people say, "I am going to devote myself to living a victorious life over sin."
If you think you are going to do that on your own, forget it! You and I, IN THE FLESH, are wasting our time to think we can live victoriously over sin.
Paul said, "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh..."
Victory over sin comes from the DISCOVERY that, while we are still unworthy, GOD SAVES US FROM SIN AND PLACES HIS SPIRIT WITHIN US TO KEEP US FROM SIN.
If we could do it in the flesh, there would be no need for the Spirit of God to dwell within us.
The flesh can not do it, so God places His Spirit within us to do what we cannot do in the flesh.
Before accepting Christ, a person can not live above sin. But after he is saved, in the flesh, he also can not live above sin.
It is not that he sins and becomes a sinner, but he sins because he is a sinner.
He is in TOTAL REBELLION against God's Word.
Look at Galatians 5:19-21, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, laschiviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like...they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
Many preachers today will not preach from these verses, for fear of being accused of being legalistic.
But these things need to be preached, because so many people, even those who attend church, are manifesting these "WORKS OF THE FLESH," probably because they are not saved.
He said, "...they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
He was not teaching salvation by works, but he was preaching that if we are IN CHRIST, we will not be manifesting these "works of the flesh."
You may be saying, "Preacher, I know a lot of people who claim to be saved, and they still live the same sinful life they always lived."
You were right when you used the word "claimed." One can "claim" to be anyone or anything, but that does not necessarily make it so.
Illus: The reason:
• A duck quacks like a duck, is because he is a duck.
• A rooster crows, is because he is a rooster.
• A pig wallows in the mud and is content to stay there, is because he is a pig.
• A sinner sins, is because he is a sinner.
Yes, the nature of man is totally depraved, and God has made no plans to redeem the old nature.
HE GIVES US A NEW NATURE!
As Christians, we may find ourselves in a "pig pen" like the prodigal son, but the difference between us and those who are not saved, is that we WILL NOT STAY THERE!
It will not be long before we will say, as he said, "I will arise and go to my father." Why? Because the Spirit of God within us will cause us to run to the Father.
Illus: Dr. J. Vernon McGee had a good answer to the question that is often asked, "What is the difference between a sinner committing sin and a Christian committing sin?" He said, "When the lost man goes out at night and paints the town red, he comes back and says, 'I'll get a bigger brush and a bigger bucket of paint next time; wow, I want to live it up!' While the child of God, if he does a thing like that, will cry out to God, ‘Oh God, I hate myself for what I've done!'"
If you claim to be a Christian today, and you have that nature of wanting to paint the town red with sin, it is probably because you have never been born again, and you are still living "in the flesh," and it will continue to deceive you and destroy you.
"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh..."
We do not need more Christians trying to live DEVOTED LIVES through their own efforts:
• We need more Christians DISCOVERING that we NEVER HAVE been able to overcome sin
• We need more Christians DISCOVERING that we NEVER WILL be able to overcome sin
It is Jesus our Savior who saves us from sin.
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger tells that when he was in jr. High, he dated a pretty teenage girl and they went to a swimming party. At the party, two fellows decided they liked his date as much as he did. They moved him off the scene so they could get acquainted with his pretty date. When they came after him, he offered some resistance, but he was no match for the two older fellows and they turned him every way but loose. Later that evening his big brother came. He told him what those two had done. His big brother went over to those two, and beat them to a pulp, and all the while he was cheering him on yelling, "Hit them again! Hit them again, harder! harder!"
People who try to defeat sin in their own strength, “In the flesh," are to be pitied. They are deceived into thinking they can do this. THEY ARE NO MATCH FOR SATAN!
The only way victory can come, is by DISCOVERING that JESUS IS THE INDISPUTABLE CHAMPION OVER EVERY FORCE OF EVIL.
Illus: The people who are trying to live a devoted life within themselves, are like people that you see who look the same, year after year. Have you noticed it seems that some people are this way?
• THEY WEAR THE SAME HAIRDO
• THEY WEAR THE SAME STYLE OF CLOTHES
You could move away for ten years, and come back, and you would not find any changes in them.
Some who profess to be Christians are the same today as they were before they were saved, even if they claim it was 20 years ago.
They still have the same UGLY TEMPER, DISPOSITION, ENVY, BACKBITING SPIRIT they always had, and they will stay that way until they discover that the beauty of the Christian life is found IN CHRIST!
B. WE CAN LIVE A DIVINE LIFE
Look at verse 5 again, "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit."
Paul would have been a good southerner, as we can see by the way he expressed himself.
Notice the word "MIND" in verse 5. This is a word that we use in the South, the same way Paul was using it.
Illus: For instance, when our children misbehave after being told not to do something, we say, "Our children do not mind us."
We have in our minds what they should be doing, and they won’t do it.
What we really mean is, "Our children do not obey us."
• Paul was saying that those who are in the flesh, mind the things of the flesh.
• Those who are IN CHRIST, mind the things of God.
The Holy Spirit is mentioned nine times in this chapter.
Why? Perhaps to emphasize and remind us that we who are IN CHRIST, now also have HIM IN US. And God wants us to MIND HIM!
The reason God places His Spirit within us, is because through THE SPIRIT OF GOD WITHIN US we can overcome sin.
II. THE BELIEVER'S LIFE IS TO BE SPIRIT CONTROLLED
Paul shows us three ways THE SPIRIT controls us.
A. THE HOLY SPIRIT CONTROLS OUR MIND
Look at verses 6-7, we read, "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
The Christian's biggest problem today is the problem of being "CARNALLY MINDED”, instead of being "SPIRITUALLY MINDED."
The word, "MIND," means “to have something as the habit of your thought; something in which you place total interest."
Those who put their total interest in the things of the flesh, can not please God. They are carnally minded
The solution to this problem is to recognize that there is no good thing in this flesh, and that we can only overcome sin as we have the MIND OF CHRIST.
Philippians 2:5 states it this way, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."
B. THE HOLY SPIRIT CONTROLS OUR MOTIVES
Look at verses 8-9, we read, "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."
He tells us that we can not please God as long as we have our minds set on pleasing the flesh. The mind full of "the flesh" has no room for God.
People who think like that are controlled by the carnal mind that is at enmity with God.
Notice what Paul says about Christians in verse 9, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you."
When you are saved, HE DOES DWELL IN YOU.
Look at the latter half of verse 9, "...Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."
After you are saved, you may give the Holy Spirit more of yourself at one time than you do at other times.
As we give ourselves more and more to Him, He controls OUR MIND, He controls OUR MOTIVES, and also:
C. THE HOLY SPIRIT CONTROLS OUR MEMBERS
Notice the Bible teaches in verse 8, that the Holy Spirit, "quickens your mortal bodies."
Illus: We have those today walking among us, who have bad hearts. But now a device has been invented that can be put into a person, so that when his heart stops, it will automatically send a shock to it and cause it to begin pumping again.
In a way, this is what the Holy Spirit does for us.
Through Adam we all died (spiritually), but In Christ we have the Holy Spirit, and He gives us life, preparing us for every disaster.
Look at verses 10-13, “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do MORTIFY THE DEEDS OF THE BODY, ye shall live.”
Notice the word, "mortify." Paul was saying that we who are IN CHRIST, and who have CHRIST IN US, reckon that the deeds of the flesh are no longer alive.
Illus: They advertise a product on television that housewives can buy to kill pests that crawl, uninvited, into our homes. It is called RAID.
The advertisement shows a housewife getting her can of Raid, like a gunfighter would get his six-shooters, and she goes through the house and blasts every varmint she sees.
When the Holy Spirit is allowed to work through us, He blasts every sin.
Conclusion:
I. THE BELIEVER'S LIFE IS TO BE SELF CONTROLLED - VS 5-8
A. WE CAN LIVE A DEVOTED LIFE
B. WE CAN LIVE A DIVINE LIFE
II. THE BELIEVER'S LIFE IS TO BE SPIRIT CONTROLLED - VS. 6-13
A. THE HOLY SPIRIT CONTROLS OUR MIND
B. THE HOLY SPIRIT CONTROLS OUR MOTIVES
C. THE HOLY SPIRIT CONTROLS OUR MEMBERS
