Lesson 30b
Romans 8:6-11 · JD McCulley · Mar 31, 2019
Romans (2018-21), No. 59
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261914255418

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So we're going to look at Romans 8, 4. I did bring the water. I snuck it over here in a corner. I didn't know where I put it. Is that lesson 29? Yeah. Yeah. We're going to bounce back. Let's re-read or revisit Romans 8. 4 and 5. Can somebody read those verses for me? So 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. Go ahead and do 6 as well.

For the mindset of the On the flesh is death, but the mindset on the spirit is life and peace. Okay, so we've got some pretty significant contrast that Paul has introduced here. Two weeks ago we talked about the unbeliever state versus the believer state. We talked about the fact that the unbeliever is in a state of unrighteousness, where in contrast the believer is in a state of righteousness.

The flesh is 100% attached to the sin nature. We said that that was paid for, right? On the cross. This sin was paid for, and they're sitting on a million dollar check, but they can't cash it in without what? Belief. Faith. You're exactly right. So it's paid, but it's not applied. They don't own it, right? It's not in their possession, and as a result, they have no spirit.

And as Courtney pointed out a couple of weeks ago, this is even more of a state of spiritual insanity. We talked about that relating to the believer as well, but in terms of quantity, this is even more in line with that spiritual insanity that we talked about. In contrast, though, we have the believer state.

Flesh. Do we have flesh? We do. What happened to that flesh? It was separated from my image. Separate from our sin nature through? Correct call. That's right. And what was the result of that? We received the spirit, and because of the spirit, the person of the spirit, it's not a thing, it's the person, we can yield and rest and we can walk. Paul says that you can reject the flesh by faith. So we have these two states, right? This is another way of looking at it. This is more in relationship to Romans 8, verses 4-6, but this is kind of the system that we've been working with through the book of Romans.

Over here, the unbeliever is controlled by their will, right? Literally controlled by the sin nature. They're slaves to sin. They cannot walk by the Spirit. They only have the sin nature. They're bound to Satan. Death is reigning. As a result, sorrow and suffering is their state. That's where they live. They have Adam's history, meaning everything that is true of Adam and the result of what Adam did in the Garden of Eden, when he chose to go his own way, Adam's history is attached to the unbeliever. Law is what reigns in their life. How does law reign in their life? What is it? What kind of law is it? Can it sound quite religious? It sounded religious to me last night at the baptism.

There was a big commitment that those parents were making to raise them up in the way of the faith and to never let them fall back into a state of sin. They were committing this and their entire body was committing to this. This law, and while I won't say that they are completely unbelievers, but the religious systems outside of the scripture, they live in a fear of condemnation.

The law produces something that you have to live up to. It's a do this and receive this or not receive this. In this case, a lot of times it's not receiving condemnation. So I'm going to produce in such a way that I don't have to deal with condemnation. For the unbeliever, it's constant fear. It's a constant state of fear. We said that there's no such thing as neutrality. You can't say, somebody has talked to me about this grace-based gift of the gospel.

I'm going to think about it. That's my state. I'm thinking about it. That's not true. You're either here or here. You're either here, controlled by the sin nature, or you're here. If a man asks a woman to marry him, and she says, I'll think about it, what's she saying? No. She's saying no until she says yes. And that's the same thing here. There's no such thing as neutrality.

We said that in Romans 1, 18, it's been revealed, it's been understood, and they are without excuse. So, we see that There is a dotted line around this unbelieving state because the work of the spirit can produce a conviction so as to grace based free gift of the gospel can penetrate this person and through what?

Through faith they can be identified with the very death of Christ and made alive. They can find themselves in the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. We talk about those identification truths. Based on faith, they can be sealed, made bond slaves of righteousness, is what Paul called it.

Your will is now swallowed up in the will of God, right? And now you have a new nature. You're now bound to Christ. We're going to talk about bound here in a minute. Another word, but very similar. Your life reigns in grace. You now possess Christ's history. Everything that was true of you in Adam has been separated. You have a new life and now you have Christ's history. Your operating system is not law, it is grace. And now you have the opportunity to glorify and love the Lord.

But still, there's this guy sitting over here on the side doing what? He's not a part of this nature, is he? But he's present because of the flesh. And when he dies, we say he barks. That's the term we've used. He barks, barks, barks. And in our condition, not our position, we may choose to say, all right, I'll go that way. He says, get down and give me 20. And I'm like, I'm not in the military anymore. Doesn't matter. Do it anyway. You say, okay, well, it sounds familiar. I'll do it. And you end up in sins, right?

1 John 1.9, the confession side of things, we have a solution for this, but in our condition, this is still barking and it never stops. I'm sure it barked at you this morning just like it barked at me in some form or fashion. Without physical death or the return of the Lord, we're going to be dealing with this sin nature. But it's been condemned, it's been judged, and I think Courtney mentioned a few weeks ago, it has zero authority over us. That's where we stay, that's our state. And we've used this to kind of build on a little bit more of the contrast here.

In verse 5, question 9, describe those according to the flesh. For those who are habitually dominated by the flesh put their mind on the things of the flesh. Describe it. What does this mean? What's the flesh? What's Paul talking about here? The nature, the sin nature. Sin nature, exactly. What about this dominate, habitually dominated? Who has unbelieving friends? Do you find that they look and behave like they're habitually dominated by us in nature?

No. No? Why not? I don't know. There's some very nice people who think Jesus is a joke. Say that one more time. There's some very nice people who think Jesus and my faith in him is an absolute hilarious joke. But they're nice. They seem nice. Anyone else? They're just wearing a mask. Wearing a mask? You know, J.D., we want to kind of follow on to what we'll get back into in Lesson 30, kind of ending up last week.

I thought about this more, you know, what can you do in the flesh that is good? And there's nothing. I thought even greater, kind of the greater thought is, think of all the unbelievers. Can they do anything that pleases God? Can they? No. Why? Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Exactly. They don't have this.

But with that, then you think, I mean, kind of what maybe Russ was talking about, people do great things, great things, you know, give tremendous amounts of money, serve the homeless, do whatever, but are they pleasing God? if they're an unbeliever. And it's kind of hard to swallow a little bit about that, that from the earthly or the fleshly perspective, it looks like they're doing nice things or good things. But if they're in the flesh, they're unbelievers, is it anything that they're doing pleasing to God? And the answer is no. But from an earthly perspective, it looks like they're great people. And if you ask him, well, I served the poor, I gave billions of dollars to whoever, and I did all this. When he stands before God, he or she who stands before God, that amounts to nothing.

What about those folks that are just nice in our life? I mean, they're not the big philanthropists out there, unbelieving philanthropists, but I have certain folks in my mind, and I think if I do too, It breaks your heart, because you love them. I mean, we love these folks, a lot of them. You know, some of them we were like, eh. But you've got buddies, right? You've got friends that don't know the Lord, and to recognize that this is their state, I mean, it makes me very sad.

Thankfully the spirit doesn't go, man. They're constantly working on him, no matter what. Well, I'm not the spirit. I just want a clarification on that. They're working on me still. They go, man, but the spirit's still going. They're working on him, no matter what.

Yeah, no, there's certain believers that you're like, okay, I don't want anything to do with that, right? But you've got your close friends, or your buddies, or folks that are around you, or people that you literally and genuinely care about, and to think of this being the state, it's sad, but it's true. And I think that's really important. And Paul, he's making a very clear distinction here that they are habitually dominated by the flesh. Even when you're having fun, good times, laughing, you can't... In points of spiritual clarity, you have to recognize the contrast here.

That they need the Lord Jesus. And that's where evangelism, as a larger term, comes into play. And you love them. You love on them and you wait for that need, right? And we're waiting for those needs and the questions that they have for the hope that we have. What's your deal? And so, when I think of unbelievers, yes, habitually dominated. And that word dominated is present and continuous. Do you find with non-believing friends that you have a tendency to compromise?

Yes. Who doesn't? I don't know if that doesn't make it... Right. No. That's because we all want acceptance. Sure. Well, and I think we could get into the whole postmodern mindset of, you know, you've got your thing and I've got my thing and I'm just going to kind of let you do your thing and hopefully my thing is right and yours is wrong. I mean, you can kind of like get into that mindset, but I don't think the scripture has any place for that way of thinking.

When you fall into that compromise, for me, It's a, okay, I am compromising right now, and this is not right. But the wonderful thing about that, as a believer, is you can know that. And you can stand on the fact of what is true. And even when you find yourself like, oh yeah, sometimes I even forget that there's a difference. That's on me. That compromise is on me. And it doesn't mean that I don't continue to love them or spend time with them, but I can't just blend this in such a way that, hey, your personality is really cool. Sometimes you get along with unbelievers better than you do believers. Right? And what you end up doing is blending this. But the Spirit of God in our new nature would have us call out in our mind what is true about that situation. That they are habitually, presently, continuously dominated by this in nature.

Even when you're having a conversation about basketball, and you're laughing, you're high-fiving or whatever, they're in a different state. And Paul is making this very clear. And he's not just making it clear So that we can call that person out and say, hey, you're in a different state than me. And it's like, I'm better than you. This is not what Paul is doing. He is explaining the very basic foundational truths about who we are in Christ. And he's putting us as a new man in contrast to one habitually dominated by the indwelling sinful nature.

And he talks about the mind. The mind is where the battle is. We talk about battles all over the place, right? But at the end of the day, the battle is for the mind. When you try and blend the two, that's just sin. It's just sin. Sin, the whole nature of sin. You can either only be in one or the other. You can't blend them. There's no neutrality. Right. You're exactly right. The mind, or the word in Greek, phroneo, to direct the mind to something, to seek or strive for, the word speaks of a deliberate setting of one's mind upon a certain thing.

Not only is there disposition, the sin nature, but because of the sin nature, they set their minds consistently and habitually on things of sin. Even when you're high-fiving, that's where they're at. And maybe that's where you're at sometimes too, but it's not because of your disposition.

It's because you're listening to a deposed monarch, someone that is not an authority in your life. The sin nature has no authority whatsoever. The unsaved person is dominated by the evil nature habitually, and this habitually puts his mind on those things that the sinful nature has always welling up within itself, the things of sin. The mind is possessed. Is your mind possessed? Yeah. Who said that? Ah, she speaks. How is it possessed? Possessed by God. Possessed by God. Agreed. What is the unbeliever's mind possessed by?

Sin nature. Sin nature. controlled and dominated by the sin nature, and that's the description of an unsafe person. They are dead in trespasses and sins, dead in the sense that he is separated from God and his life, for death is separation, and is on his way to the final and everlasting state of death and eternity. And that is a very sad thing. It's a sad thing. Question number 10.

Describe those according to the Spirit. Spiritually minded, verse 6, for the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace. So on the one hand you have death versus life and peace. That's something worth giving in to. And when I read these things, I not only see the contrast, but I think about what these folks need. It's not just what they have, which is death, separation from God, but they need the life and peace that we possess.

Our mind is possessed by the Spirit. You are controlled and dominated by the Holy Spirit. You say, well that's not how I feel sometimes. Is anybody there? I don't feel like I'm controlled and dominated by the Holy Spirit. Do you feel that way all the time? You're probably the sweetest person I know. Controlled and dominated by the Holy Spirit all the time?

No. But that's not because it's not who you are. You're acting out of your nature. It's not who you are. The question is not so much if I will to operate out of the spirit or operate out of the flesh. I can will all I want. It's a matter of believing who I am and what I have. I'm not the activator of, well, I'm going to be spiritually minded today and tomorrow maybe. We'll think about it when we get to tomorrow. Am I the one that makes the choice? Yeah, I am. But I make the choice to who's going to dominate me rather than I'm dominating anything. Does that make sense? Yeah, I think so. We will to believe. That's the only purpose of the will, is to believe. It's a yielding, it's not an action or beyond that. It has no meritorious work, right? Yeah.

It goes also back to our teaching our faith class, how important... You know, it is fight the good fight of faith. That's what we fight. You know, and we fall and we blend in and we try and do that. It's really a lack of faith in who we are. We don't believe who we are. And the spiritual growth is, you know, believing what's true about us. And so when you try to do the blending and we fall away, it's really a lack of faith and understanding or believing in who we are. that part of it.

I think having been at Holly Hills for what, 10 years now-ish? That statement is probably one of the biggest things that sticks with me. And you know you talk about out there on the street, just in here, I don't want to call it an incubator, but in here we have the privilege of clearing our minds, focusing on what is true about ourselves. We are reminded of the identification truths, which is our identity. It's who we are. In here, it's not an incubator, per se, but we're the body, and we're together, and we're encouraging and lifting one another up.

Once we get out there, it's that. Are you believing who you are in Christ right now? And that question crosses my mind all the time. And it's a good question to have cross your mind. It's either that or spiritual insanity. Yeah. It really is. Jim? Could you say that the religious unbeliever, depending on how strong their will is, you know, forcibly can live by the law. And they feel good about it. And if they do become a believer then, they can still obey without trusting, without faith. They can just obey by their strong will. I think that would be a very big stumbling block. Has anybody been there? Paul. Yeah? Who? Paul. Me, Ziggy, and not to pick on our Baptist background, we understood it, right? Identification truths and what the scripture actually speaks of is not a system in the way that our denominations have formed them, right? But growing up in the Baptist faith, before I became a believer, I knew I just had to go to church. Like, I just had to be there, I had to read, I had to go to Sunday school, I had to do the things that I was told to do.

And I thought, at the time, you know, I was 11, but I thought that that was what God wanted me to do. And so, in a sense, at 11 years old, I was obeying the law. The law was, get to church, be there, be present more than not, And when people stand, I'll stand. And when people sit, I'll sit. And when people say, do you want to come forward? I would go. And I had no idea what I was doing.

I went to the altar. That's what we call it, the altar. It wasn't the pulpit. Get down here in the altar. The mercy seat. Now, I didn't know anything about the tabernacle or the temple. All I knew is this was the altar and this guy up here was telling me that I needed to recommit myself. And I was like, okay, I'm coming back to church. It wasn't until vacation Bible school that I actually understood the person and the work of Christ and what he did, but only to a small, infinite degree.

It was just the basic of the gospel, but it was enough. And I was saved. And when I got saved, I said, okay, when are you going to get baptized? Baptism doesn't save someone in the Baptist faith. Church of Christ is a different story. But, it's a pretty big check mark. Okay, you're saved, you believed, but you need to be baptized.

Pretty quick. Tell everybody what's going on. I was baptized five times. Does that explain the situation? So, I was under the law, thinking I was doing the religious things under the law, As a younger person, it doesn't matter how old you are, you were in your early thirties, Mike, and you were doing things.

You were checking out. You were getting notches in the belt. You thought you were moving along the right direction. You certainly weren't going the wrong way. Because that's the way that you don't go when you don't go to church. Speak for yourself. You end up feeling this. I got a little bit more good than bad. I mean, just this much. I mean, you're weighing it out, right? I don't know what's going on back there, right? I think he did tell me the other day that both our phones just randomly go off. And I don't know why.

It's the work of the spirit. That's generalizing your own righteousness. That's a good way of putting it. You mentioned being under the law prior to being a believer. So, I came to know the Lord, but after having come to know the Lord, I still came up here, recommitted myself, And did the things and that was more about how often are my quiet times. I had to learn what that was and when to do them and how to do them and early morning is best. Set your mind for the day. Here's the way you should memorize scripture and maybe tuck those things in your wallet and anytime some kind of temptation comes out I'll pull out a scripture and slap it on it. It was just me trying to figure out how to not sin now, right?

And the law was still present in my heart because I didn't understand the freedom I had in Christ to yield to the Spirit. I didn't understand this stuff. What's funny is it's the basics of Christianity. But yet, it seems in today's evangelical realm, the basics are too hard to grasp. And I can understand that because we've all grown up in a religious sort of system, or you put yourself under your own religious system. And so, to think, oh, it's not a system, it's a person. It's the living and active word of God, and it's a person. It's like, what am I supposed to do? Rest. What? That sounds so crazy. I mean, it just sounds freaky to me to think, I'm supposed to rest in a person and he's going to do the living through me? What does that even mean?

And it's all through faith. Am I believing in who I am in Christ? And that produces what Paul calls, in verse 6, the mind set on the Spirit and it produces life and peace. And that's a radical shift from the way we all probably were raised, for the most part. So, again, Romans 8, 4, 5, and 6, they produce this contrast in our thinking. I think that, you know, as a high point, we need to be reminded that there's no compromise here. You either have death, a mind possessed by the sin nature producing, or in a state of death, separation, or we have the mind possessed by the Spirit of God producing life and peace.

And, you know, that was the last two questions there. I feel like I want to keep going, but I'm going to pass it off to Mike. Mike, as you're getting ready, I was going back on one of the things we touched upon, you know, blending in and how you blend in. what that means. Clarification, I think, is that Christ talked to the Samaritan woman. He went in with the tax gatherers. We're not to exclude ourselves from the world in doing this. Having spent the last 80 hours with drillers, it is blending in.

But I find that you don't blend in and do what they do. But I find I don't condemn them. You just don't participate in whatever. And after a while, they figure it out. It's like something's different about you. And they start asking about, why don't you jump into this? The thought is that we don't blend in, but we are to go to the world and to all, from the richest to the poorest to the craziest, and to be a light for them. It's not that we blend in and become like them. Or to preach the gospel. Sometimes you use words. Sometimes you don't. Well, there's that song, I think, sometimes I'd rather be a sermon than hear one any day. And I think that's really key, that as we go out we don't have to speak the word. We go into the world and we are their light.

I think it helps, too, in this study of Romans 8. It really helps for us to understand as we go into the world, live in the world, kind of what the parameters are and what the game plan is. I've been watching some of the basketball and the really good teams, they get the game plan. They know what it's about. I watched the Tech game, part of it yesterday. They have a tremendous defense.

They're all on the same page. Well, as we're describing with denominations, we're not all on the same page. We have different things that we believe in or compromise in Christianity because we are denominational, to coin a word. J.D. was mentioning the blending of the two.

A verse comes to mind in Romans 11.6 where Paul said, if it works in grace, it's not grace. It's not grace at all. If we merge the two, it's shut off. Grace, except in a few places, is very seldom talked about and studied. Exactly what is it and how does it work? That blending leads us to know what grace is. It does and it doesn't. Sometimes you think that you're blending, you're compromising, and you think you're doing a good job because people are starting to agree with you. Well, all they're agreeing with is your compromise. Yeah, that's right.

You know, I went to a friend's memorial service yesterday and J.D. was talking about, do you have friends who are not believers that are sweet people? Nice people, yeah. And this guy is probably one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet. This, you know, the dow, or whatever mortuary thing was filled with standing room only. And this is like trying to say how horribly messed up the whole world is about grace and faith. But anyway, the pastor was from Boulder. Well that's all I know.

And he would say that Tim was a really cool guy because he loved the Buddhists, he loved the... This is the pastor, he loved the Buddhists, he loved everybody. Everybody should be loved and accepted and more people should be like my friend. And this is the pastor from Boulder.

Sure. The thing was supposed to end and brothers and sisters were going up and trying to talk to say, I really love my brother. They go next to me and say, come on, let's get out of here. Do we love the Buddhists? Yeah, we do. And the Hinduists? Yeah. But we don't compromise on the truth.

We understand who people really are and that's why we love them. Because God loved them. God so loved the world. He didn't just love some Catholics and some Baptists and maybe not those Buddhists. He loved every human being to the point that he gave his son.

We understand that and that's where we come from. So what they are in terms of their earthly identification means little to us. It means absolutely nothing, really, because this is who they are. We know who they are. They're right here. And every human being is born and comes on the planet right there. There aren't anybody sort of floating out in here.

Anyway, let's move on. So you finished up, the last verse you were working on was 6, right? We should be on question 5, I think. So if we read 7 through 11, because it's going to answer the question for us, what is the deal with the flesh? Why does it function that way?

Because the mindset on the flesh is hostile towards God. It does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. Now that's hard for us Americans who have free will and a constitution, right? Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Really? Can't do it, huh? However, you're 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. So I'm going to stop there. Question five says, why can't those in the flesh please God? Why can't they? I mean, why can't your Buddhist friend please God? Why can't a good Baptist please God? Isn't that because the mind is set on the flesh? Yeah.

We talked, Vern used to talk about the angels were given a test by God and when they failed, the fallen angels failed. Their wills were locked. They can't, no fallen angel is going to say at any time, maybe I messed up there. I seek forgiveness. No. The mind of the flesh is at enmity, which means you're an irreconcilable enemy. You cannot be reconciled on God's side and your side. Both sides. You're not subject to God's law and the great phrase, it says, you can't be. So does that mean we have two minds? Not as an unbeliever. No, you only got one. No, I mean as a believer. You have two natures and both of those natures have mindsets. Sure. So the issue is, it's pretty cut and dried when you get to this verse. It's why God can't accept anything from the flesh. because it won't come around. It will not agree with God. I've talked about this before.

Who was the first really religious guy on the planet? Cain. Our boy Cain. He was a religious man, wasn't he? He just didn't want to do it God's way. But he was religious. Well that has carried out now all the way down to these denominations. Catholicism, Baptists, all of them Well, okay, we want to be religious, we want to try to be righteous, but we want to do it our way. And so I grew up in Catholicism, you grew up in Baptistism. Well, we thought, well, they're teaching us the way.

Well, we didn't find out until later, well, maybe that isn't the way. Because it isn't based on the word of God. It's a compromise. And it's a compromise. Catholicism is a long way away from the word of God. The Baptists are pretty close in terms of salvation. But it's a compromise with the mind of the flesh incorporating religion to create an environment that would make us acceptable to God, that would make us righteous. The problem is that the very source of who we are in the flesh is that enmity with God. They think it's easier to live under law than the freedom in Christ. They don't know freedom.

Right. The interesting thing of growing up in the flesh is that you're like one of the kidnap victims. You begin to identify with your kidnapper. You begin to identify with the flesh. You're comfortable there. Well that's why God had to condemn the flesh. There's nothing good in it. That's exactly right. He knew before anybody else knew that the flesh was irredeemable. You couldn't fix it.

But if you live in a contemporary religious denominational environment today, what are they really trying to do? What are Catholics trying to do? They're trying to work on the flesh and make it pleasing to God. Get a paycheck? They don't care about a paycheck. They just want your paycheck. They're pretty good at that too. But all denominations are really good at separating you from your money. They're really good at that. Because it can't exist without it. I like what the Holman Christian Standard translates 6 in 70.

They say both the mindset hyphenated word of the flesh and the mindset He was talking about two different kinds of minds here. Two entities. Two entities. The mindset of the flesh or of the spirit. It's not what I focus my mind on. It's just the mindset. Yeah, it's the mindset.

And so what's interesting about those who would be an evangelist, what they're really trying to do until they understand, they're trying to change somebody's mind. Well, they don't realize what they're up against is a mind that's totally set against God. That's why the dependence on the Spirit of God is so critical when talking to somebody about the Gospel and about Christ. Because you're not going to convince them. Their mind is set. The Lord will do it. He has to do it. You won't. So no matter how glib you are and how well educated you are and how wonderful you present it, it's the Spirit of God that saves people, not me. At first I was, although I never have been much of an advantage. Hey, I got question 5 done. So we'll pick up on 6 and 31. Did everybody get a copy of 31? No. Did I send it out yet? No. Oh, it's done. I'll send it out.

Father, how we thank you for your word, how careful you are to teach us exactly what the truth is about why the cross, why not only our sins were paid for, but our old man, the sin nature was condemned because it could in no way be pleasing to you, so you took care of it. And we're so thankful for that. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.