He's saying, if you live according to the lost life, there's only death in that.
There's no benefit. When a soul dies in rejection of Jesus Christ, they get nothing. Satan has no rewards to hand out. And then he continues, but if by the Spirit, but if you live as a saved soul, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
You fight those. When you come to Christ, the sin has been dealt with. We are continuing in Paul's letter to the Romans, so if you have your Bibles, chapter 8, Paul's letter to the Romans. As I mentioned, this eighth chapter is all about salvation, so we'll be reviewing that. The Saved Life, that's the title, and we'll take verses 14 through 16 in our reading. We'll try to get up to verse 17. Romans 8, verses 14 through 16, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, you received the spirit of adoption, by whom we cry Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. I've been mentioning that, at least in our first session in chapter 8, that this eighth chapter is like a book within a letter.
I know that seems to be a little weird, but that's how I see it. It's so much here, so beneficial to us. This entire chapter makes the distinction between those in Christ, those outside of Christ, those who are saved, those who are lost. And may the language never become so commonplace to us that it loses its impact, its punch. May it always be vibrant to us when we speak about the saved and the lost.
May we really not miss out on the importance of it all. We go right to verse 12, Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. Now he's, of course, been talking about salvation, and he is continuing, he says, Therefore, because of all the things I've been saying to you, since we are saved in the Spirit, as it's used here, not lost in the flesh, as he's using it here. To be in debt is to lose a degree of freedom. And we are debtors to Christ, our responsibility as believers is to obey him, and there's a loss of some freedom.
So good riddance to that kind of freedom. It's better to serve Christ, but the flesh does not agree. Now I'm using the flesh in a different sense. Again, the flesh in Scripture has three applications. There's the flesh in the blood, the body, the physical body of the individual, there is the lost state of an individual, and then there is the Christian who gets in the flesh who behaves as though they're not saved.
So paying attention to those things, keeping our definitions in line, we get a lot more out of what's going on. Here he says in verse 12, Not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. That's not where our debt is. We owe nothing to the old life. We owe nothing to sin. The grip of sin causes unchristian behavior.
Well, we get that. The Old and New Testament, the letters are all dealing with aberrant Christian behavior. Not exclusively, but this large portion of the corrective. Colossians do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds. Well, why would he have to say that to Christians, don't lie to each other? Isn't that basic? Well, because they were lying to each other just like they still do to this day. Every generation has got their shot at following the Lord, and every generation gets their particular brand of resistance, but they don't all come up with the solutions.
They should. We have the same textbook, we have the same manual, we have the same ammunition, same Holy Spirit, but it comes down to the individuals applying themselves, and so that's what he's saying. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the lost life, to live according to the lost life.
We don't owe that life anything. Verse 13, For if you live according to the flesh, the lost life, you will die. But if by the Spirit, the saved life, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Now, why am I inserting this so often so far in just two verses, lost life, saved life?
Because I used to listen to many good commentators, I still listen to them, I still read them and respect them, but I don't always agree. And here, I've always struggled with, as a Christian, well, you know, not at the moment, but in times past, with, so if I'm a Christian and I'm saved, but I get in the flesh, am I going to die? Am I lost? What is that saying to me? We all get in the flesh. If you were behind the steering wheel on the way here, you likely got in the flesh, but you get another chance on the way home if it missed you. Somewhere, you're going to get in the flesh. Well, that means again, the Christian having impulses that don't match the impulses of Christ. I would love to see the Lord drive. Just like, Lord, show me how to do it because it can't be done, except by you.
Well, anyway, I think he'd call fire down on all of the other dakar's. Anyhow, back to this. So that's why I'm saying if you live according to the flesh, you will die. It cannot mean that if I get in the flesh, I'm dead. So then what does it mean? Well, he's saying if you live according to the lost life, there's only death in that.
There's no benefit. When a soul dies in rejection of Jesus Christ, they get nothing. Satan has no rewards to hand out. And then he continues, but if by the Spirit, but if you live as a saved soul, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
You fight those. When you come to Christ, the sin has been dealt with. And Christ doesn't say, I forgive you of your sins, but if you mess up again, I can't help you. Oh, man, that wouldn't be the gospel.
That would be a time bomb. Well, the flesh here, the lost, the lost don't care about what Christ says as Lord. They may say, oh, that's a noble thing.
That's very virtuous. But they're not saying he is Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, died for my sin because I'm the dirty one. They don't go that far. So they don't go far enough. Sin is the cause of spiritual death.
That's what he is saying here. If you live according to the flesh, your sin will eat you alive. If you live like hell, don't expect to go to heaven.
What is complicated about that? Well, Romans six, verse six, he covered this. So he says, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
He's trying to he's trying to do his part as an apostle to instill in these Christians everything they need to live a useful life for Christ. Now, after this eighth chapter, which we're just getting started, when we get later into the eighth chapter, he just really rolls out, this is Christianity and nothing will shake you from this. We haven't gotten there.
We won't get there. But when we get to chapter nine and then 10, he stays on the Jewish people trying to get them saved. He said, why so many words? Paul, you could have, I could have cut this down for you. Because that's what happens when you're passionate about something.
That's what happens when you really want to make it work. You pour into it and that's what he's going to be doing. Well, back to this, he says that our old man's crucified, that the body of sin might be done away with. Yep, that's what has happened. Thank you, Lord. We should no longer be slaves of sin. And yet, there are those pockets of resistance that seem to enslave us, or if not us, somebody we know. In the spirit, that does not always reference some static episode in our walk. It does not, when the scripture says in the spirit, it does not always mean you're speaking in tongues or you're prophesying. Here, in its context, speaking of those who walk with Christ, they are in the spirit, as he started off the first verse, who walk according to the spirit. Where's that first verse? There is therefore now no condemnation to those who in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the lost life, but according to the saved life. That's paraphrased verse one.
I think it's an accurate paraphrase. Why didn't Paul say it? Because he didn't ask me.
Why didn't he say it that way? Right. That's a joke.
If you're visiting, I do a lot of them. They miss sometimes, but sometimes they come through. Anyway, if saved, if I truly am, I will fight to kill my sinful ways every single time it will register with me when I fail, when I get in the flesh. Now that doesn't mean I'm instantly, you know, pull up and get that altitude back, but it does mean I know that this is not where I belong. You see somebody who flies off the handle. Well, we have a lesson like that in the book of Kings, do we not? The axe head flew off the handle, but the prophet was there to retrieve it.
But look at the metaphor in that. I don't want to be the guy that flies off the handle and nor do we want to be around the guy that flies off the handle. We have been transferred from the kingdom of self to the kingdom of God. This is now the king we want to follow. We do not say, as Jesus gives in the parable, they said about the ruler, we will not have this man rule over us. The Christian says, no, we want him to rule over us. Please rule over me more.
Please help me be free from the things that I detest in Christ Jesus. So from where do we learn right and wrong? How do we know what's right? Is it God that tells us? Is it the self, me? Do I decide?
Am I captain of my own ship? How about Satan, someone or something else? Where do we learn right or wrong? I bring this up because this is a big part of this woke generation attack on decency, trying to blame everything on the Judeo Christian influence. You've got to be grateful for that Judeo influence because if you didn't have it, you wouldn't be able to open your fat mouth.
But they do. This is the question God wanted to know from Adam and Eve. Where did you get that? In the Garden of Eden after they sinned and we were covering ourselves with fig leaves. That's got to itch. He said, who told you that you were naked?
Where do you get this? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you? That you should not eat? Now, God is not inquiring because he doesn't know. He's conducting an investigation. And when you conduct an investigation, you ask questions.
The only way you're going to conduct it. This is behind, again, much of what is happening in our culture today. There are other cultures who have other problems. Yet the word of God addresses them, too. Just not the way the message is coming to us. We have a society of people so open minded that their brains have fallen out and into the dirt, trying to redefine what is decent, trying to make the word obscene obsolete.
Nothing new, right? Isaiah said they call evil good good evil. They're all messed up in their head.
How do you fix somebody like that? Well, you sometimes can't. But you look for those who you can or you hope to be ready to be used for those who can be saved. And, you know, don't let Satan pack your parachute. Don't let him write your dictionary. We are the ones that are supposed to influence the world, not the other way around. God told his people, I don't want you cutting your hair this way and that way.
I don't want you doing this to your body because I don't want you being influenced by them. You're supposed to set the pace through righteousness. And that has not changed for the Christian and the Christian church.
We're not supposed to ask the world, how should I thus be? We're supposed to say, thus says the Lord and I'm throwing everything I've got against the sin of my own life. And now we have, you know, man-made laws legalizing things that should be crimes. They have fallen with the spiritually untrue. How will they know that? This is why our witness is so important because we're the ones that are supposed to tell them. If you follow them, is what Paul is saying, you will die. The life in the flesh at the end is death. The life in the spirit is eternal life. And that death for those in the flesh is not the end of an existence.
It's a miserable, unending existence. And thus Paul's words again, knowing the fear, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade all men. We are fighting two spiritual wars. At the same time, all of us, we fight to reach the loss. We fight to know our Bible so we can rightly divide the word of truth. We fight to be loving because the Bible tells me, which is God tells me, if I have not love, what am I? Go ahead, you can get in this one.
Nothing! If I have not love, I am... Yeah, we're getting there. We're getting there. So listen, this is uncomfortable. Can you just preach? Well, this is karaoke day at the... Everybody's a good singer now.
I want that point to drive home for us all. Because you have to know, when God says, if you do not have agape love, you are nothing. And there's no way to dodge that. You cannot say, yeah, but did I not prophesy in your name? Look at all my skills and talents. Look how much I give to the poor. Look, I've given my body to be burned.
Yeah, but if you don't have love, it's nothing. Because other people do the same things in rejection of Christ, and they end up dead spiritually. Because that's where the flesh goes. So the fight is still ours. So the first part, the first part of the fight is to reach the lost. The second part is to fight our own disobedience. That rebel that lives in our own heart.
That's our flesh. And we are to fight that fallen nature all the time. And the Holy Spirit helps us in war against both. But it's only help. He doesn't always just come in and give the total victory.
The fight is still ours. And if it weren't so, you would not have to study to show yourself approved a worker. Because he'd just do it all for you. But you do have to study. Well, what happens if you don't? Then you're caught flat-footed. And when you need to move into the area of wise spiritual counsel, you don't have it.
This is the problem. You know, the scripture said, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He leads me into green pastures. That means he feeds me. Not only the things I need for life, but his word. When it comes to scripture, God is not in the habit of leading his children into dirt fields where there's nothing to feed on.
He wants us healthy. And, you know, what happens if you don't fight the good fight? You see, it's not automatic. It is a knock-down, drag-out affair. And by the time it's done, we can't wait to get out of here.
But we do have to wait to get out of here. And anybody who comes to Christ because of my contribution makes it all worth it. So he says here in verse 13, But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you fight to restrain the deeds of the body. He's already mentioned that he himself has struggles that he can't get the upper hand on in chapter 7. A critical difference between the saved and the lost is in the Spirit versus in the flesh.
They don't get it, and hopefully we'll be able to bring this to them because the Christian's lifetime quest is to defeat their flesh and to develop their strengths. So as you sit there and you say, well, you know, I'm good at this, and this is a virtuous thing, are you developing it? Are you putting any of it to use? Is it getting stronger? Because your flesh will get stronger, and it doesn't even have to practice. It doesn't have to train. The flesh does not have to study to show it's self-approved. It's already strong.
Well, if I'm going to meet these challenges, I better start investing myself. This used to excite men into the ministry. You know, oftentimes you get men, they don't want the ministry.
They just want the limelight, and that is a tragedy. But good Bible teaching should send Christians to their knees. They should hear things in sermons that strike them.
And not necessarily in a hard way, sometimes just a glorious way, but it sends them to God. You know what I've learned? I've learned a lot of things. Alphabets, one, but sorry I didn't mean to do it like that.
It felt like I'm talking to a friend. When I pray to have a pen and pad close by, we're going through Leviticus now, and God summons Moses to the temple. Do you think he had a pen and pad with him? Because he then gives him the law. There's no way he's going to memorize this.
He's writing away. Because we want to hear from God. We want to remember what we've heard from him.
We want to do something with it. I remember once praying to God, and he gave me something. I said, oh, this is great. I didn't write it down.
I'm still kicking myself. So I try to keep a pen and pad with me whenever I'm in my quiet time talking to the Lord. The quest to defeat the flesh, develop the strength.
I charge you, well, let me reread that. This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare. Timothy, we prayed for you, and it was identified in the spirit that you had a particular gift.
I'm telling you, Timothy, to work that gift, to develop it, to make it stronger. Fight the good war. Fight the good fight. He says, again, repeating it, that by them you may wage the good warfare.
So yeah, we have two fronts to fight on. We fight to save the lost, and we fight to be strong as the saved. He says here in verse 13, and you will live.
That's the prize. I love this verse from Philippians chapter 3, verse 14. I press toward the mark. That's the old King James.
I knew it was the goal, but I like the mark better. I press toward the mark for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. You see, this is high preaching. Would you like low preaching?
Would you like to be encouraged to fail? Would you like to have your flesh fed or your spirit challenged? Because you've got to feed the spirit more than the flesh.
If that dog's going to get the upper hand in that dog fight, he's got to be fed more. So you will live, and evidence of that life is we will confront sin even in ourselves. You ever come across somebody who tells you they're Christian? Maybe they are, and they've committed some sin, and they won't own it.
Yeah, but what? The only thing you can do when Nathan says, you're the man, is repent. There's no hemming and hawing.
Well, let's look at this from a different angle. These are marks of the true Christian. The true Christian says, I have sinned. Forgive me, Lord.
What do I need to do to get this fixed? Verse 14, for as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God. You see this use of the word spirit in this eighth chapter? This is a voluntary act. It is by consent. For as many as are led by the spirit. You don't have to be led.
You can choose not to follow Christ. He's a gentleman. He's not going to kick the door in. Behold, I stand at the door and I knock. I don't kick it in and force you.
I love that about him. This is said by one who suffered harassment and hardship and heartache. Which is the worst one of those three? To be bullied? To have things that are just, you know, just exhausting?
Or to have your heart broken? Well, they all go together if you're serving Christ long enough. The twofold meaning of this 14th verse, which is a kingpin verse. Every Christian should memorize this verse. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the children of God. The twofold meaning is, yeah, my salvation. When I give my life to Christ, I'm led by God. I'm a child of God.
But the primary application I think Paul is giving us here is my sanctification. My guided life. What happens after I'm saved? I don't just say, well, I'm saved, Lord.
See you when I get to heaven. If I'm saved, Lord, can you guide my life? Can you lord over me? Can you lead me? Can you take me under your absolute authority?
And when he doesn't, we're disappointed. Lord, why didn't you do more? 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.
