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One thing Myrna has always been noted for is her lack of enthusiasm and timidity.

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I can well remember one day sitting in class when I almost got kicked out because she wouldn't

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stop talking to me.

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I think that's the way it was, something like that.

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You don't think that was it?

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Romans chapter 8, if you like that singing tonight she and Phil will present a full concert

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to us and there are tapes and records available at the bookstore if you're interested in those.

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I'm also glad they could be here with us this weekend.

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Our text is Romans chapter 8 beginning in verse 5.

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For those who are according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh.

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But those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

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For the mind set on the flesh is death.

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But the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is

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hostile toward God.

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For it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.

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And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

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However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells

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in you.

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But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.

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And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive

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because of righteousness.

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But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised

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Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit

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who indwells you.

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At least nine times in the text that we've read the word Spirit is used.

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The context shows us that almost all of those times it refers to the Holy Spirit.

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The one exception is in verse 10 where it speaks about the Spirit is alive because of

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righteousness.

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There it refers to man's Spirit.

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I would also draw your attention to the names given to this third person of the Godhead.

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He is called the Spirit several times.

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In verse 9 he is called the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ.

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And then in verse 11 the Spirit of him who raised Jesus.

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Then you may remember last week in verse 2 the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

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So if you've been with us in our study in Romans you know that a new emphasis is being

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made in this eighth chapter of the book.

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So the Holy Spirit certainly has been mentioned before this but now he is the theme and his

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work in the believer is the thrust of this chapter.

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Paul concludes his initial paragraph as it's been divided by us in verses 1 through 4 by

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reminding us that God's purpose in our salvation is that the requirement or the righteousness

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of the law might be fulfilled in us.

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God did not save us just to keep us out of hell.

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That's a wonderful part of it.

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But God wants us in this life to fulfill his righteousness expressed in the law.

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We're not under the law.

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We have died to the law.

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But the righteousness of the law is nonetheless written on our hearts because the Holy Spirit

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lives in us.

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And now the Holy Spirit desires that he might fulfill God's requirement, his righteousness

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in the way that we live on Monday and Tuesday and Thursday and Sunday, every day of the week.

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That's God's purpose in our salvation.

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He makes it clear at the last part of verse 4 that he's speaking about those who do not

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walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

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We said last week that that was a distinction between those who are lost in their sin and

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those who have been saved and cleansed by the blood of Christ.

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Those who walk according to the flesh are those who are unregenerate.

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Those who walk according to the Spirit are believers.

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Now from that distinction, the apostle goes on to draw a series of contrasts in verses

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5 through 11 between the two, between flesh and spirit, between those who are lost and

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those who are saved.

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And the contrasts are very clear.

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The first is a contrast of position.

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You may want to follow along in the outline in your worship folder.

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The first contrast is the contrast of position found in verses 8 and 9.

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The Bible only recognizes two kinds of people in the world.

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There are those who have been born once and those who have been born twice.

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The only difference that God sees between any people is that some have the presence

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of his Spirit in them and some do not.

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They are void of the Spirit of God.

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That is the basic distinction.

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There are two groups.

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The one group is said here to be in the flesh.

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He says in verse 8, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

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Back in chapter 7 verse 5 he used that phrase talking about us in our unregenerate days.

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He says while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions were at work in the members of our

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body to bear fruit for death.

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So that phrase in the flesh speaks about people who are without spiritual regeneration, who

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have no life of God.

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Now the word flesh is used several ways in the New Testament.

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You have to look at the context to see its meaning.

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Sometimes it refers to the physical body of flesh and blood and bones that we live in.

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Sometimes it refers to our ancestry.

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Sometimes to our relations to other human beings.

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But many times, and I think we could say most of the time in the New Testament, it refers

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to unredeemed humanity.

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It refers to that which is the dwelling place of sin, the principle of sin.

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To be in the flesh is to be unredeemed, unregenerated man.

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It's an ethical sense.

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Life's essential existence is on the material fleshly level apart from contact with the

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spiritual.

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As Jesus said in John 3, 6, that which is born of the flesh is what?

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Flesh.

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That's all it is.

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It's flesh.

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There'll never be anything more than that.

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It's limited to that realm.

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Melanchthon, one of the reformers, defined the flesh as the entire nature of man without

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the Holy Spirit.

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In the flesh is the natural man's identification and position before God.

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Very frankly, he is the very last person to suspect that that is his lost estate.

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Because in the flesh, his mind is darkened.

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He cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God.

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He is dead in trespasses and sins, but doesn't recognize that.

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Before God, he is in the flesh.

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That is his position.

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In contrast to that, there are those who are in the Spirit.

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Verse 9, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells

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in you.

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He's talking to Christians.

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He says that our position is that we are in the Spirit.

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In other words, we are regenerated by the Spirit.

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That which is born of the flesh is flesh.

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That which is born of the Spirit is what?

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Spirit.

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We have been born twice.

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We have had a new birth or a birth from above.

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We have been regenerated.

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Now our life's source, its essence, its springs are not found in the flesh, but in the Spirit,

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in the Holy Spirit.

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He says something similar to this in verse 5 when he says, those who are according to

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the flesh.

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Literally, it says those who are according to the flesh being.

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In contrast, those who are according to the Spirit being.

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In other words, it's the essence of one's being, what he is.

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That is his position before God.

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This congregation can be divided this morning between those who are in the flesh yet, because

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of the lack of a new birth, spiritual regeneration, and those who are in the Spirit who have been

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born again from above.

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That leads us to the second contrast, and that is the contrast in direction.

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Being affects direction of life.

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It has to do with what motivates and interests a person.

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That's his direction.

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The contrast is between those who walk according to the flesh, verse 4, and who mind the things

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of the flesh, verse 5, and then those who walk according to the Spirit, verse 4, and

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who mind the things of the Spirit, verse 5.

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The lost and the saved again.

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Now let's talk about those who walk according to the flesh.

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It means that that is the bent, that is the pursuit of their life.

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The very word mind in verse 5, when he says those who are of the flesh set their minds

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on the things of the flesh, means that that is their pursuit.

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They set their heart in that direction.

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They are preoccupied with the flesh.

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The goal of their life is to fulfill this life's needs and desires, and the lusts and

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the desires of their body and of their natural personality.

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This person who walks according to the flesh and who minds the things of the flesh is the

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person, the man, the woman of the 80s, and of every age for that matter, who may be scientific,

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religious, intellectual, cultured, materialistic, and refined, and not necessarily gross in

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immorality, but who is nonetheless in the flesh.

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It does not mean that one leads a life of crime to be in the flesh.

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It means that one leads a life apart from God.

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It means to live for oneself, even in serving others.

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To walk according to the flesh means that one's actions proceed from his flesh, which

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is alienated from God.

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It means to be cut off from God, that is to be in the flesh, and therefore to walk according

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to the flesh.

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It means that God is up there somewhere, he is not really relevant to me.

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And that's where most people are.

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In contrast to that is the Christian, the genuine, the biblical Christian, who walks

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according to the Spirit, verse 4, and who minds the things of the Spirit, verse 5.

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The Christian has a different world to live in.

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There is another dimension to his life.

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His motives, his objectives in life are different than those of the unsaved person.

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Now it is possible for a Christian to do otherwise than to walk according to the Spirit.

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Although he is not in the flesh, as we have said before, the flesh is still in him, he

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has that unredeemed humanity he is still attached to.

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It is possible for him to revert to the flesh direction for a time.

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If that were not so, then the apostle would not have exhorted us to set our minds on things

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above, not on things on the earth.

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It's possible for Christians to set their minds on the things of the earth too and to

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live for the here and now.

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But that should not be the direction of his life, if it is, then there is reason to question

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whether he has been genuinely reborn.

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Because one who is regenerate has the general tendency, the direction, to walk after the

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Spirit.

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The contrast between the two is quite clear.

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You can see it in the office where you work.

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You can see it in churches that you attend.

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There is such a thing as religious flesh, religious systems which please and fulfill

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the flesh.

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God help us if we ever approach that in our church.

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And often this contrast between those who walk according to the Spirit and those who

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walk according to the flesh is mysterious to those who are unregenerate.

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They cannot understand the Christian.

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He's beyond them.

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This is seen, for example, in a seminar that's being held in the Twin Cities this week being

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promoted by the Minnesota Council of Churches, a group that knows very little about what

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it is to be in the Spirit.

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It is a seminar which deals with the dangers of fundamentalism.

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They're concerned about holy terror, as they put it.

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Two of the people leading the seminar have published a book in recent years, I know not

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exactly when, regarding snapping.

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Now snapping is a term that they use to describe one who has had a sudden personality change.

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In other words, if you have been born again and you are no longer walking after the flesh

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but after the Spirit, you've snapped.

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That's what they call it.

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And so in this seminar they're going to teach people of the danger of snapping and how to

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deprogram those who have snapped.

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Did you know that last year in three states, in the United States of America, there were

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laws proposed before the legislatures which would allow police to pick up people who had

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snapped and to deliver them to the state hospital for deprogramming?

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In other words, if you are a parent and you have a child who snaps, who perhaps gets born

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again, you as a parent can go to the police and sign something and the police will be

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able to go and pick up the child and take the child to the state hospital for deprogramming.

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Now the laws did not pass, nearly passed, in Kansas except for the intervention of a

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number of vocal Christian groups in that state.

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I would wager that you can expect to see that in Minnesota before too long, at least the

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proposal of it.

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I'll be down at the state house again, don't look for me in the office when it's proposed.

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Ted Patrick, who is the king of deprogrammers and was applauded even by Christians a few

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years ago because of his attempts to get Moonies out of that cult, has recently made the statement

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that the two great kings of the cults these days, the two greatest cult leaders are Billy

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Graham and Jerry Falwell.

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And so now the effort is to deprogram those who have snapped by being born again.

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But I'll tell you something, those who are in the flesh are mystified by those who are

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in the spirit.

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They cannot figure it out.

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Obviously the only answer is they've snapped and they've got to be brought back to reality.

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So there is a contrast, my friend, between those who are in the flesh and who walk according

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to the flesh and who mind the things of the flesh and those who are in the spirit and

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who walk according to the spirit and mind the things of the spirit.

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In that contrast, you can expect to become more clear as we move further into the last

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days.

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There's a contrast, thirdly, in verse 6, in the condition.

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The contrast is between death and life.

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There could not be a greater contrast.

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Literally this verse says, for the mind of the flesh, death, but the mind of the spirit,

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life and peace.

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No real verb in there.

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He is telling us that those who have the direction of the flesh in their lives are death.

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It's not that they're dying, they are in death.

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That is their present condition.

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And really isn't that what Romans 6, 23 says?

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For the wages of sin will be death, right?

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Wrong.

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The wages of sin, death, is death right now in this world.

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It's not just hell in the future, though that's part of it, that's part of the separation

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from God, but it is a present death.

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The Amplified Bible says it's death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here

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and hereafter.

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It's the misery of sin, the degeneration of sin, that's death.

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Skevington Wood, who is an English commentator, has written this paragraph, so then those

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who make the flesh their ambition are even at this present moment entombed in death.

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They are not really alive at all, they are simply going through the motions.

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How different is the viewpoint of God's Word from the viewpoint of the world?

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Those who are absorbed in the flesh imagine that they have found life.

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They are seeing life, they think.

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They are making the most of life, they are sampling the spice of life.

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But God pronounces them dead, dead through trespasses and sins.

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They are sowing the seeds of final destruction.

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And then he quotes 1 Timothy 5, 6, and Paul to Timothy, she who is self-indulgent is dead

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even while she lives.

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That explains the person who is in the flesh, physically alive, spiritually cut off from

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the life of God, dead.

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That's the condition.

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In contrast to that is the Christian, the one who has been reborn.

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He is alive.

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Verse 6, the mind set on the Spirit is life.

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And again that's not life in heaven someday, though it includes that, but it's life right

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here and now.

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And it's the Greek word for life which has to do with quality of life, not its extent.

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It's the life of God Himself.

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It is life that is blessed and morally pure.

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It's the life of the one who said, I am the life.

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The Christian knows that quality of life in this world.

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It doesn't mean that there aren't struggles and heartaches.

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It doesn't mean that the Christian doesn't go through tough times because Christians

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do.

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But my friend, there's one difference between the Christian and the lost.

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The lost person goes through tough times too, but he's in death.

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The Christian goes through his tough times, he's in life.

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There's a purpose in it.

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The trials and the sufferings are earning something for him.

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It's glory to come.

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It's meaningful.

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The condition is a contrast.

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And then, fourthly, there's a contrast of relations.

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The last part of verse 6 and verses 7 and 8 talk about this.

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It's the relationship to God that's in view here and it says that the mind of the flesh

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is hostile toward God.

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In contrast, the mind of the spirit, the mind set on the spirit, is peace with God.

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And so there's the contrast of relation.

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The one who is in the flesh is in rebellion against God.

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He resists God.

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He is at war with God.

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And that hostility against God is evidenced by his lack of subjection to the law of God,

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God's standards, God's morality.

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This word subject here is a Greek military term.

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When a soldier was in subjection, he was in line with the other troops and marching in

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step.

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But when he got out of line or out of step, he was not in subjection.

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And that's the thought here.

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The one who is in the flesh is out of alignment with God.

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He's out of step with God.

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We might put it another way.

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He's gone A-W-O-L.

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He has broken rank with God.

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How different is the spirit of General Charles George Gordon, who was a great British soldier

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of the last century and a devoted Christian.

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At the beginning of every day, General Gordon would get out of his bed and immediately stand

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at attention before God to show that he was in subjection to his commander in chief.

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But not so the world.

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The world will not subject itself to the law of God.

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And notice it goes on to say it's not able to do it either.

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It cannot find within itself that mind of the flesh to submit to the law of God.

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Why?

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Because it has a perverted, warped idea about God.

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It sees God as harsh and stern.

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And it resists and rebels against that kind of a God.

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As Wood says, it is simply not in him to love God or to recognize God's claim or submit

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to his wise and beneficent law.

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The mind of the flesh is controlled by sin.

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Sin is lawlessness.

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Therefore, the mind of the flesh cannot submit to the law.

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And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

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I don't care how many candles they light, I don't care how many times they get baptized,

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I don't care what religious ritual they go through, how much money is given to the Red

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Cross, or how many good things are accomplished in that life.

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My friend, the Bible says that those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

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Period.

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Period.

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Because they are alienated from God.

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And even the good things that come out of the life are essentially for self in the flesh.

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In contrast, is the one who has the mind of the spirit.

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There's peace.

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As Romans 5.1 said, therefore having been justified by faith, we have what?

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Peace with God.

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Because the Lord Jesus Christ has paid for our sins at the cross and the shedding of

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his precious blood.

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We can be justified, declared right with God.

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And when that takes place, there's no cause for hostility anymore.

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And there's peace.

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There's peace.

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No more sin there.

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Peace.

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That's the Christian's blessed experience.

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That's his relationship to God.

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And though it doesn't say it here, those who are at peace with God, it's implied, please

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him.

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Because the righteousness of the law is being fulfilled in their lives.

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God is well pleased with them.

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Remember what God the Father said to God the Son in the presence of all who were there

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watching him?

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This is my beloved Son in whom I am one.

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Well pleased.

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Do you know that as God looks at you in the Spirit, in Christ being justified, he says

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I am well pleased.

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Not because there's something in us that merits that, but because we are in Christ and seen

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and found in his righteousness, not our own.

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And then there's the contrast of possession, finally, verses 9 through 11.

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He says in the last part of verse 9 regarding the unsaved, if anyone does not have the Spirit

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of Christ, he does not belong to him.

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In other words, the possession of the Holy Spirit is an indication that one is saved

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and the lack of it that he's lost.

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The one who is in the flesh does not have the Spirit of God in him.

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He is lost.

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He is unsaved.

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He has no Holy Spirit and therefore he is not Christ's.

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Oh, he is Christ by virtue of creation.

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He is his creature, but not his child.

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Not his child.

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But not so the believer.

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The real thrust here is on the believer.

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Actually the believer enjoys a double possession.

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If you notice the text here, the believer has the Spirit and the Spirit has the believer.

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That's neat.

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You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.

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And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit's alive

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because of righteousness.

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Notice that we are in the Spirit and the Spirit is in us.

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And he says if the Spirit is in us, that means that Christ is in us.

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You can't separate the two.

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Jesus Christ is in the believer.

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In verse 9 he says the Spirit of God dwells in you.

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The word dwell means to make a home.

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It's the word for house.

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The Spirit of God takes up his residency within you.

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Christ dwells in you.

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When you go home after church this morning, he's not going to stay here at church.

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He's going to go home and eat with you.

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And when you lay down and take your nap this afternoon, he's going to be there with you.

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He's not going to take a nap.

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He doesn't slumber or sleep, but he'll be there with you.

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When you punch the clock and head into the factory tomorrow morning, he's going to go

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with you.

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There's no way that you can be separated from him.

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Even if, and you wouldn't, you wanted to be separated from him, you couldn't be.

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There is this double possession.

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He is in you, possessing you, and you are in him.

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You possess him.

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It's blessed.

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And he says in verse 10 that even though our bodies are dead because of sin, now he's talking

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about our physical bodies, our physical bodies are under the sentence of death because of

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Adam's sin.

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Unless Jesus comes, these bodies are going to die.

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They're going to go back to dust.

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But he says nonetheless, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

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That means justification righteousness.

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Even though your body is dying and decaying and your hair is getting gray and you have

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other problems, the spirit, the real you, the essential you is alive and cannot die

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00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:31,520
because you've been united to him who said, I'm the life.

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He goes on to say though in verse 11 that if in fact the spirit of him who raised Jesus

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from the dead dwells in you, and he's not doubting it, it really could be since he dwells

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00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:41,800
in you.

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He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies.

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What is he saying here?

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He's saying that even our bodies are so important to God and that though they will someday die

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and go back to the dust, someday by the spirit of God these bodies are going to be resurrected,

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new and glorified bodies, and that's talked about later on here in Romans.

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So there's no part of you that is ever going to be lost because you have been possessed

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of God.

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Now let me just draw three quick applications and we'll be done.

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The first application is for the person who's listening to me right now and who admits,

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who's aware that he's still in the flesh and he's not in the spirit.

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How do you get from one to the other?

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Right after Jesus said that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born

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of the spirit is spirit, he went on to say, Marvel not that I say to you, you must be

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born again.

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That's how you do it.

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00:32:51,320 --> 00:33:01,140
You are born from above by placing your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.

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By turning from the sins of the flesh, repenting of those, changing your mind about hating

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the way of the flesh and desiring forgiveness, desiring eternal life and receiving that from

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Jesus Christ who died for you and rose again that he might give eternal life to you.

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That's how you can make that change today.

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That's how you can be transformed from being in the flesh to in the spirit.

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Will you do it today?

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Application number two.

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That which is of the flesh will always oppose that which is of the spirit.

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Will you write that down?

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Because that affects not only your personal life and struggle within, but it also has

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00:33:56,160 --> 00:34:01,920
implications for you in the world where you live.

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That which is of the flesh will always oppose that which is of the spirit.

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Turn over to Galatians just a minute.

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We're now moving into high gear.

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In Galatians chapter four he draws an analogy which we can't go into in detail, but we're

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going to look at it.

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00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:27,440
It's an analogy with Abraham and his two boys.

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Verse 22, it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bond woman, who is that?

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Ishmael, and one by the free woman, who is that?

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00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:40,760
Isaac.

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He says in verse 23, by the son of the bond woman, but the son of the bond woman was born

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according to the flesh, and the son of the free woman through the promise.

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So there's a contrast between the two boys.

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We don't have time to go into all that that means, but going down now to verse 28.

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He says, and you brethren, like Isaac, here's the parallel in the allegory, are children

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of promise.

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That is, you have believed God's promise.

447
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You are saved by faith.

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But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according

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to the spirit, so also it is now.

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What's he saying?

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He is saying that those of us who have experienced the birth of the spirit can expect opposition

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from those who are still in the flesh, born of the flesh.

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If you know anything about Abraham's household, you know there were problems after those two

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boys had been born.

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Because there was a contrast in them, Ishmael the flesh and Isaac of the spirit.

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And so it is in our world today, in the religious world it is that way.

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Religion in the flesh opposes and hates religion of the spirit, true religion.

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It's that way in your office.

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Those who are of the flesh will oppose those of you in the office who are of the spirit.

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As Paul said to Timothy, all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

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Maybe not continuously, but constantly.

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It'll come again and again.

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That's the way it is in this life, don't be discouraged by it.

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Now in Galatians, look in chapter 6, replication number 3, it is this, a believer who allows

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the flesh to dominate his life will suffer loss.

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The believer is not in the flesh, but the flesh is still in the believer.

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00:36:56,640 --> 00:37:03,520
And if the Christian allows the flesh to control and to dominate him, he will suffer loss.

468
00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:06,060
Look at verses 7 and 8.

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Do not be deceived, God is not mocked.

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For whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.

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For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one

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who sows to the spirit shall from the spirit reap eternal life.

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Dear Christian, if you are today sowing to your flesh, allowing the flesh and its desires

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to dominate you, then you are going to reap a harvest of corruption.

475
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It doesn't mean hell, it means loss, it means decay, it means a diminished life.

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How much better to allow the Holy Spirit to dominate us so that we sow and therefore reap

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eternal life.

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In this life, that quality of life that God wants us to enjoy, sowing to the flesh will

479
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rob you of your peace and your joy and the blessing that God wants you to know.

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And some of you know that because that's where you are this morning.

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Will you repent of that?

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Will you establish a fresh and new the Lordship of Jesus Christ in your life?

483
00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:35,800
And so according to the Spirit, let's pray.

484
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:42,880
Father, these words have been so quickly said and they are so important.

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I pray that you will take this teaching from the Word of God today and make it applicable

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to every life.

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And for those of us who sense that pressure, the voice of the Holy Spirit in this hour,

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may we yield and do what we ought to in this invitation, in Jesus' name, amen.