One of those hidden sins, right? To covet, to not forgive, to bear a grudge. You can fake that, can't you?
You can act like you forgive the person, but inside, you are bitter and you're looking for a chance to get back. That's sin. We struggle with something, and God knows that, and that's what makes the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses me from all sin, unlike anything else, anywhere else, ever. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Romans.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Saved versus unsaved is the title of Pastor Rick's message, and today he'll be teaching in Romans chapter 8. If you are a Christian always wondering if you're saved or not, you lack blessed assurance. You're not believing what you're being told from God's Word. You're editing out those things that address your fallen state that Christ has paid for. When he said, it is finished, I've paid the price, what part of that are you not getting? Well, can't be too hard on them.
We understand. Satan comes along, and what does he sow? Seeds of doubt and discord, and you've got to learn to face that if you're going to be more effective for Christ.
Or you just go through your life doubting all the time. You know, if a person says, I'm just, you know, I'm so unworthy to be used by God, and God is, let's just say in this scenario, God is using them, and I'm just so unworthy. Okay, enough. God is investing. We know you're not worthy, but don't badmouth his investment.
If he's using you, be used. And don't keep reminding us of how unfit you are unless we start doubting what you're saying. Imagine if I came about, I'm not worthy to preach this.
Okay, now watch it. I have feelings. But imagine if every time I'm so unworthy, I'm so, well, we know that. We're not interested in what you're not worthy, your unworthiness. What we're interested in is in Christ. What's he doing through you right now? You want to honk my nose like mole.
Get me to get my head in the game. Well, what about you? Do you share your faith in Christ with the spirit of doubt? Or have you grabbed hold of your salvation and said, it's finished. I have blessed assurance. John, Paul had to write the Romans and say, you have no condemnation because they needed to hear that.
John had to write the churches likely centered in Ephesus at that time. These things I have written to you that you may know that you have eternal faith. Why do you have to say that? Because Christians struggle with that. Because there's a real devil that comes along and says, you're not walking in the spirit. You're going to hell.
And we're supposed to stand up. I am in the spirit. I am saved by Christ. And if I sin, I have an advocate with the Father. And you don't. You can say that to Satan because he doesn't.
He does not have an advocate. But you do. So because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, verse 7, nor indeed can be. Don't blame your brain. Mankind's problems are far, far deeper than the brain. It is the mind. And the mind is the seat of the soul, the heart, the will, and the feelings all bundled together.
This is who you and I really are. The brain is just a servant of the mind. The mind directs the brain, the body, its thoughts, its choices, its behavior. And that's why Paul says, have the mind of Christ. Let this mind be in you. Think like Christ thinks. See things his way.
Filter everything through him. The Christless, they have, not the Chryslers, the Christless. They have a body and they have a soul, but spiritually they are dead. The Christian, reborn, has also a body and a soul, but the Spirit is now alive in Christ. The Christian rebirth renders the Spirit alive. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1. You, he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. He doesn't say there, if you behave, if you continue to behave, once you're in the ark, you're in the ark.
I made that illustration last session. We're not hanging on outside the ark hoping we don't let go. We're inside the ark and he has shut us in. And Satan fears the Christian that has a robust understanding of how robust their salvation is, that it is not made out of egg shells, that it is not made out of iron mixed with clay, but it is formed and shaped by the very hand of God and kept by that same hand. The carnal mind hates what God loves and loves what God hates, and the Christian does not agree with anything that goes against God, even if they are too weak to follow through. One of those hidden sins, right? To covet, to not forgive, to bear a grudge.
You can fake that, can't you? You can act like you forgive the person, but inside, you are bitter and you're looking for a chance to get back. That's sin. We struggle with something, and God knows that, and that's what makes the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses me from all sin, unlike anything else, anywhere else, ever. Now Paul does usually reserve this word carnal here in verse 7 to describe a Christian who is behaving like an unbeliever. You could say a backslidden Christian. You could say a Christian who's just, maybe you've gotten them angry, and now they're in the flesh. But this carnality is a shared characteristic. Here, he applies it to unbelievers.
They are in a constant state of carnality. They never come out of it, so long as they are in the flesh in the sense of being lost, dead in their sins, not born again, not submitted to Christ. I'm saying the same thing different ways, because Satan will come at us with the same thing in different ways. For it is not subject to the law of God. The carnal nature, the natural man, the sinner without Christ is not subject to God, whether it is ignorantly so or willfully so, it's not subject. God cannot be known without God. That's how serious this is. That's how big a deal it is. That's how it's impossible to just drift into salvation.
You cannot do it. If we are to be subject to God, it will be because of God. If you have any love of Jesus Christ, it is the work of God in your life. And rather than him and hawing about, am I saved or not, just rejoice in that, go out in that strength. John chapter 6, no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father. And elsewhere he says that they are drawn to Christ by the Father.
Drawn, not dragged. God will not drag you to him, but he does draw, and we love that he does that. Imagine if you came out and you said, okay, we're going to sing a hymn to the Lord, and you better be singing, and you better like it too.
I mean, you see how messed up that would be. For it is not subject to the law of God. The carnal nature is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. It is impossible to reject Christ and somehow be saved. You can't hear the gospel and say, I don't believe that, but I'm still going to heaven. Well, you have no problem believing Satan, but you have a big problem believing God, don't you?
And you think you're going to get away with that. Well, it doesn't work that way. Hebrews 11, we're told, without faith, it is impossible to please God. So he says, nor can it be. I want to refer to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 4.
The natural man in Scripture is the lost man, as the flesh in its context in these 11 verses of Romans 8 are also the lost man. When the writers wrote the Scripture, they too would use alternate words to say the same thing. When someone uses the same words in writing over and over again, you lose concentration. It's like, oh, okay, this is redundant. But when they start hitting it with different words to say the same thing, it helps us understand and stay focused on what's going on.
Well, the New Testament writers wrote the same way. Now, you know, the old saying, brevity is the soul of wit. Well, sometimes.
Not all the time. I don't want a surgeon that's about to operate on me to have been a student of brevity. I want him to have dug into the details of what he's doing. I don't want the guy that designs a bridge that I'm driving over to say, well, we don't need detailed drawings.
We just drew a sketch. Sometimes it takes detail. And that would explain why some of the books of the Bible are so long. It's what it calls for. And Paul, in writing about salvation in Romans, he could have just summed it all up in a few, in one chapter.
But he hits it from different angles throughout. He's doing here what he started back in verse, in chapter 5, those who have peace with God. And then he went on to explain what it looks like to not have peace with God, but to still believe in God, a wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death.
Christ will deliver you. But I knew that. Yeah, but did you see that in your own life?
Well, not until he pointed out that he has the same struggle. Now I'm beginning to understand a little bit more. And I'm going to embrace this. So he says in 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. That's our dependency on God. So what if you're a ho-hum Christian? You know, you go to church, you believe, you don't disbelieve, but you're just sort of there.
You shouldn't be content with that. If you're around other passionate Christians, there's something inside of you that's going to call out and say, I want that. I want that. You read about David dancing before the ark, and you say, I want that. You read about Abraham falling on his face before God, you say, I want that.
You read about Daniel saying that he did not defile himself for the portion of the king's delicacies. You say, I want that. Well, what happens when you don't have it? Ask. Ask for it. You don't mind asking for a deal if you go to buy something.
Have you got any specials going on here today and you take these coupons? Ask. Seek.
Knock. Ask the Lord. Lord, give me this passion that all these other Christians are making such a fuss about. Help me to be like Joseph, whose theology was totally betrayed, but he didn't betray you. He stood up for the principles of his God and was punished for them, and yet he never wavered in his faith. He did not sin with Potiphar's wife, and he went to prison for it. And instead of bad-mouthing God, where were you?
Why didn't you save me from this? He ended up rising to prominence in jail. In other words, the righteous took over enough to be a light in a dark place. Verse 8, so then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Those who are lost, that's who he's talking about, because we know if you're sinning, no sin pleases God.
That would only have to be said. But what does have to be said in contrast to the saved person is that the unsaved person cannot please God. They can be used by God, such as the book of Esther, King Ahasuerus. He was not a believer.
God used him to save the Jews from the plans of Haman. So yeah, God is sovereign, but that doesn't mean because he uses you that you're going to go to heaven. God used many of the kings in the books of kings, and they were vile and they are judged. So the flesh, that mindset, disinterested and opposed to God, is impossible to please God. Now this eighth verse has a dual meaning. As I mentioned, possible to be used by God and be wrong with him, but it also means those who are saved and don't behave like Jesus are not pleasing to God at that time.
So if you're not forgiving somebody and you know you're supposed to do it, don't think that's pleasing God. Don't think you can say, yeah, but. Just look at them, Lord.
How could anybody like that person? You know, we're not free. You know, if God didn't say he loved the whole world, that he gave his only begotten son, we'd have license to hate the world. There are other religions like that.
This ain't one of them. We are to love. We are to look for every opportunity to spiritually be a blessing to anybody God puts in front of us. If we get a chance to preach the gospel, to demonstrate our faith, that's what we're supposed to do. Joseph was doing it before the gospel was formulated and before his eyes. And so, yeah, carnal Christians are not pleasing to God, but neither are lost souls. So there's your dual application of verse eight. Now verse nine, but you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.
How could he say that if this was about their behavior? I know I'm cutting midway the verse. Let me finish the verse, verse nine. But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. You know, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his. Very easy to understand that last part. But how could he say to the Romans, the Christians in Rome, but you're not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if he's a thousand miles away, if this is about behavior? But it's not about behavior. It's about saved versus lost.
I know I have to keep repeating that. We are not in the flesh in the sense of being lost, but we are in the spirit. And John 3, 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
We are saved because of God. Verse, he continues, now if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he's not his. The spirit of Christ, salvation received, that's what he is saying there. 1 Corinthians 12. See, it means something to say, I understand this verse because this verse helps me understand this verse. 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 4, by one spirit we are all baptized into one body. Galatians 4, 6, because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father.
We'll get to that in verse 15, next session, that's the plan. The point is, Paul is saying, you can't be calling on Jesus Christ, the Father of Christ, with passion unless you're saved. And yet a lot of Christians forget that.
They get tripped up. The Christian may stumble in the flesh, but always disapproves whatever Christ disapproves, again, evidencing their salvation. The lost soul, on the other hand, simply does not worship the Godhead of Christ. Now, I have to point it out that way because there may be somebody that says, well, I worship the God, the Trinity, the Godhead, and Mary and Saint Peter, and see, now you're eliminated. You shall have no other gods before me. That means in my presence.
That doesn't mean you can have number two and three, but I have to be number one. That's not what that commandment means. That commandment means I don't even want to see one.
Don't have them in my sight, and God sees everywhere. So, verse 10, and if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Well, the flesh, the flesh and blood, unsalvageable. We will not take this flesh and blood into heaven with us. There's nothing about our lost state that God can improve. That's why we have to start all over again, be born again. God saves the soul by reviving the spirit that died in Eden when Adam and Eve fell into sin, original sin. Always in the fallen man is the capacity to accept Christ.
Don't think that man is so depraved that he can't even respond. The Bible doesn't teach that anywhere. In fact, God's handling of Cain the murderer. There's nothing good about Cain. No redeeming feature about that character Cain in the scripture. Everything about him is bad.
If you wanted to force something, well, he did a fruit basket once. But other than that, there's nothing about him. But how did God handle this guy?
With care. And so God's handling of Cain, the murderer, reveals that man is not too depraved to accept God. Cain's life and how God dealt with him demonstrates this. Here we go, Genesis chapter 4. This is after Cain killed his brother Abel. The Bible says because Abel was more righteous than Cain. Cain resented that. And they got into likely a religious argument and he slew him.
And then he gets smart-mouthed and snarky with God. Am I my brother's keeper? Where's your brother? Am I my brother's keeper? That's the point you wish, oh Lord, just right across the mouth one time.
He'll tumble for a year. Anyway, God sums up this conversation with Cain this way. If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door and its desire is for you. But you should rule over it. God is saying, Cain, you got it in you.
You can beat this thing. David did. David committed murder later and he beat it. But Cain did not. And Jude tells us about that. Cain, Balaam, Korah, you won't see them in heaven. There are few people in scripture that you know won't be there. Judas Iscariot is another one.
They're named. But we've got to be very careful with everybody else. I always say if King Saul, I don't think we're going to see him in heaven. But if we do, I won't complain.
That should have been a little chuckle, like, ha ha ha, me too. Verse 11, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So he references the death of Christ because he's talking about our death, physical death. Now you would take this verse, I would use to take this verse, okay, so God's going to give my mortal body help in overcoming sin.
Well, he does do that, but not as much as I thought. Not as much as I'm taught by some who teach this verse that, you know, the spirit will come and if he doesn't come, you're messed up. You don't have enough faith or something. First off, but the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. Well, that's deity of the Holy Spirit. That's why he's a member of the Trinity.
He is distinct as a person. He is divine every bit as the Father and the Son. Otherwise, he could not do what he is said to do. And that's the goal for Christ. You can't take the words of Jesus Christ and put them in the mouth of anybody else unless they are self-created, unless they are eternal, unless they are divine. You can't take his actions and apply them to anybody else unless they are divine.
Well, there's nobody else and he is divine. And so to understand these things is critical. Otherwise, you might fall for the heresies of Jehovah's Witnesses and of the Mormons and of any other groups that question the deity of Christ and the Trinity. Well, woven into these nine verses from verses two through eleven, we have the saved versus the lost. We have the empowerment to preach who gets saved, by who and how. Old Testament didn't have that. Otherwise, who would need the apostles? Who would have had everything in the Old Testament?
But it had to be developed. And then what we have here in verse eleven is our glorified and faultless state that hasn't happened yet. It doesn't happen until you die. By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of sin will be forever, well, we're ready, we're in this, not yet, but by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of sin will be forever annihilated. We will not enter into heaven with a little bit of sin.
It'll be gone. And that's what this verse is talking about. That's the primary meaning of this verse. First Corinthians 15, verse 53, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
This body dies, it is mortal, but immortality. That is the glorified state. We like to sing about justification. That's our salvation.
We like to sing about sanctification. That's development in Christ's likeness in this life. But glorification, the third one, doesn't happen until death. And so rereading verse eleven, but if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Annihilation of sin will be the final act of our redemption.
The final stroke of our redemption is that we will be sinless when our bodies are glorified and we are forever compliant with God. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.
We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again or want to listen to others like it, head over to crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. On our website, you'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross Reference Radio, so make a note of it, crossreferenceradio.com. That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans here on Cross Reference Radio.
