Who has not set out living in the Spirit only to be confronted by your own fleshly desires? I think each of us at one time or another, in one way or another, has battled the flesh.
In Romans 8:1-3, Paul states There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.
Paul states there are two laws at work in this world. There is the law of the Spirit which is the ruling influence and control of the Holy Spirit, and there is another law, the law of sin and death which works in the flesh to bring spiritual death and defeat. And both of these laws are presently at work, or should I saw, at war, in the lives of every Christian.
Paul understood this war well. He said in Romans 7:18-20, For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I am doing the very things I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
Paul is saying, there is this battle going on, and I have come to realize, I can’t call on my flesh to help me win because my unredeemed flesh is causing all the problems. He is saying, I have the right desire, but to often I do the wrong action. He is saying the sin principle is at work in my life.
Now how many of you can relate to what Paul is getting across? The sin principle is something we all have, it is that part that rears its ugly head every now and then that wants us to rebel against the Word and will of God. There is a part within us that wants to do what God hates because sin still dwells within us. It sort of hangs out and we can’t get rid of it because it has attached itself to our flesh.
Perhaps this explains why God will dispose of these old corruptible bodies and give us new ones which are made like His glorious body one day. Now lets look back at Romans 7:22-25: For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
Understand, Paul is a saved man, he is a Christian here. He is saying basically, there is a part of me that wants to shout on Sunday, but there is another part of me that wants to be independent on Monday. In my heart I know I want to please God, but in my body, I want to please myself, to feed my own passions. Paul calls this the conflict of a war. He is not saying that he is living in a war zone, but rather he is the war zone and that until he does something about the problem, it is just going to continue because the problem is sin in him.
That’s why you can’t run from your problems. Wherever you run to, guess what, your flesh is there. And you can’t truly blame someone else, because it is your sin. Is it any wonder Paul cried out, Wretched man that I am! If we are honest about our own sin, that is probably our song also.
But praise God, the song has another verse. Paul begins the stanza with where am I going to find freedom to live a victorious spiritual life?
I have good news for you tonight. The law of the Spirit, and the law of the flesh are not equal in power. In Romans 8:2, Paul said the law of the Spirit has set us free from the law of sin and death. The part of us that wants to rebel has been overcome so whenever we want, whenever we choose to live in God’s higher law, the law of the Spirit, we will see it overcome the law of sin and death. Amen.
Allow me to illustrate how this work by talking about gravity. The law of gravity is what holds us to this earth so we won’t fly off into space. But there is another law which overcomes gravity and it is quite noticeable when you fly in an airplane. One day the Wright brothers did some aero-dynamic analysis and discovered this higher law, they found with a certain amount of combustion, combined with a certain amount of speed and with a certain air flow, we could transcend the law of gravity. Now the Wright brothers did not eradicate the law of gravity, they just rendered it inoperative by a higher law called aerodynamics. If this law stopped working, such as by an airplane engine failing, then the plan will come tumbling back to the ground because the law of gravity is not dead.
It is the same with the law of sin and death. As Christians, this law is still around, it is still at work. But when you combine the combustion of the Holy Spirit with the speed of obedience and the air flow of holiness, you are lifted to a higher plane of spiritual life. We ought to be rising higher and not living under the circumstances of life because of the aerodynamic power of the Holy Spirit at work in us which transcends the law of sin and death.
How many of you have seen an acorn move a sidewalk. I mean just break it up because it has fallen in the crack of the sidewalk? An acorn cannot do that, but when you set the acorn free to be what it was created to be, you no longer have an acorn, you have an oak tree and when an oak tree begins to grow, it can move concrete because it transcends the law of concrete.
Now follow me tonight. When you accept Jesus Christ into your life, you receive the acorn of the Holy Spirit who wants to become like the oak tree in your life and move aside the concrete problems of your life. And as a Christian, if you are a slave to sin, it then becomes slavery by your own choice. You don’t have to be a slave if you allow the spiritual principles of God loose to work in your life. But the course of direction in your life will depend on whether you are living under the authority and law of the flesh or the authority and law of the Spirit.
Turn to Romans 8:4-7 In order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 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."
What is Paul saying? Simple. If you do the things of the flesh you will get the things of the flesh. We will be dominated by what we go after. You will look like the crowd because you are following the crowd and doing what the crowd does. And you allow the world to set your walking pace.
And this doesn’t mean that God empowers some Christians and He doesn’t others. We all have the same Jesus, we all have the same Holy Spirit even if some have come from more difficult backgrounds than others. It is the same God who wants to impact all of our lives. But you have all heard the old adage, You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. Well, it is true of us as well. You can’t make a man or woman walk after the Spirit, after Jesus. They choose to do their own walking. We can only show them the way, we can only offer to help, but ultimately they make the choice. And God does not make the choice for your or I either. God did not stop Adam or Eve from partaking of the deadly fruit. They chose through their mind what they would do, that is why Paul said Make up your mind in verse 5.
Let me help you understand this better by the Biblical illustration of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11. King David was out on his roof when he looked over and saw Bathsheba in the bath. Now this was not an ordinary woman. This was someone we might call a fox and David looked, and looked. He went on a Babe watch. And the more he looked, soon his heart and mind began to walk in the desires of his flesh and it wasn’t long before this married woman was a guest in the kings bed chamber. The result of the adultery was not just a personal tragedy, it had national consequences as well. But the point is, David could have avoided the mess before it ever found fertile soil if he had decided not to look and look until he finally invited Bathsheba over to the palace.
Now grace is a wonderful thing. David was able to bounce back from his transgression, his sin, following confession, but it didn’t change the fact he did wrong, acted wrong, walked according to the flesh, and he and the nation suffered for his wrong choice.
And we have talked about the battle that takes place for the mind, how what you feed your mind you will become in time. That is why Paul writes in Romans 8:6 The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. It doesn’t mean that Christians who are living in the flesh are going to drop dead. They might, but death here is a life opposite the spiritual life and peace, it is spiritual impoverishment. You may be alive and well physically, but spiritually emaciated. Your spiritual life is ebbing away which leads to all sorts of emotional anxiety and depression because you have trained you mind to think on the things of the flesh and there is no peace, joy or purpose truly in the flesh.
But there is good news. We have a choice, to walk in the flesh or to walk in the Spirit. When we set out minds to walk in the Spirit, there is life and peace, there is purpose and meaning. There is joy and contentment. We come to a place where we say, God, you are in control. Things may not be where I want them to be, but it is where you have them so I am going to relax and be content.
So church, where are you drawing your identity? Paul suggest two possibilities. Romans 8:8-9 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.
We are either a] in the sphere of the flesh. That is we are unsaved, or
b] in the sphere of the Spirit, saved.
Paul is saying, hey, lets get it straight who you are. A lot of Christians are not acting like they should be acting because they cannot remember who they are. When you forget who you are, you will forget how you should act. Church, do you know who you are? You are a child of God. You are a saint. You are sanctified. You are secure. You are part of the holy ones. You have royal blood pulsating through your veins. That is who you are!
You need to stop letting Satan tell you that you are a liar, an adulterer, a dishonest person. That is who you are not. How many of you have friends who are trying to tell you who you are by who they are, and telling us if we cannot accept their identity for us, we can’t be their friends.
Listen church, when Jesus died, you died. When Jesus arose, you arose. When Jesus comes back, you will rise to go with Him because of who you are. So we must understand who we are in Christ. We have a new identity. That is why Paul says in verse 11 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."
With this kind of power, you don’t have to live a dead life. The Holy Spirit can turn the resurrection power of Christ loose in you.
There are in Romans 8 found 2 contrasting obligations. vs. 12-13 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh--for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
The contrast. We can live a life of obedience, or a life of disobedience. But as Christians, we owe our flesh nothing. You flesh hasn’t done a thing for you. Paul said you are not obligated to the flesh, you are obligated to the Spirit.
There are those who say, but my flesh is so strong. It wants what it wants so bad. And this may be true, but that only happens when you keep feeding it. You need to put it to death. You need to say, okay flesh, I know you want to eat bad language today, but I am not going to say it. Okay flesh, I know you want to eat immorality today, but I am not going to become involved. Okay flesh, I am no longer going to feed you pornography, alcohol, drugs, or pride. I’m dead in Christ, so I am going to starve you flesh.
Now you might need someone around, an accountability partner to help you through this battle, but the Bible says you can win if you move in the Spirit. When you starve your flesh long enough, it will shrivel up and die. They say it takes 40 days to break a habit, to kill off some of the flesh issues you are struggling. The problem for many trying to break a habit, they indulge during those 40 days, and guess what, they have rejuvenated the flesh and it grows stronger. But when you kill the flesh, you live.
I want to make a final point before I close tonight. I want to talk about being an heir of Christ. Romans 8:16-17
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.
All Christians belong to the family of God, so in a sense we are all heirs. But we are not all fellow heirs with Christ, or co-heirs. I want you to follow this. There are conditions to being a co-heir: it said, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we many also be glorified with Him.
Do you know what I see in the church today? Born again, Bible believing Christians who run from the cost of being a Christian, and this passage tells me, if you run, you will not co-inherit. This does not mean you cannot be saved if you don’t suffer for Him, that would put a condition of salvation, and we know salvation is by grace, a gift from God. But it does say that suffering brings co-heirship.
Paul said in 2 Timothy 2:11-13 It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we endure, we shall also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.
What did Paul say, If you died with Christ you are going to live with Him. But if you are a committed Christian, that is, if you endure, you will get to reign alongside of Him. I believe there will be many in heaven who will not be reigning in heaven. They will get the presence of Christ, but they will not get the glory of Christ.
The key is in verse 12, if we live a denying kind of Christian life, He will deny us blessings in time. He will deny us the privilege of reigning with Him in eternity.
Understand this, if you are truly saved, but you live a denying kind of life, God is going to deny you in your prayer life. He is going to deny you of your blessings. He is going to deny you of your desires, and when you stand in heaven, He’s going to deny you of the position He had planned for you. But He remains faithful to His promise. That is, nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
Tonight I have given some reasons to keep the fire alive, the flame burning, the spirit seeking an active, powerful relationship with Jesus Christ. Now I close with this question. What will you choose to do?
