We're being sanctified. In the soul, God is renewing your mind. He's changing your mind, will, and emotions.
Some of us are emotional wrecks. Because we're not feeding on the word of God, where God, by his word, changes what we are emotionally. You don't need necessarily some drug. There's so much psycho-babble in the church today. What you need is God's word to renew your mind.
But ultimately, before we're done with the eighth chapter, he's going to also say that your body is going to be glorified. Welcome to Search the Scriptures. The Bible Teaching Ministry of Dr. Carl Broge. Senior Pastor of Community Bible Church in Beaufort, South Carolina.
Today is part 3 and the conclusion of Pastor Carl's sermon entitled, New life in the spirit from the book of Romans, chapter 8. Verses five through thirteen. Romans chapter 8, verses 11 and 12. conclude that the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead, now dwells within believers. The Holy Spirit empowers us to overcome sin.
and live a new spirit-led life that leads to eternal life through Him. God is reshaping our minds, guiding our paths, and cultivating us in a new inclination toward His will. Let's join Pastor Carl Now. As he concludes, Romans 8 verse 6. For the mindset on the flesh is death.
Now he's giving some broad parameters here. And if someone's whole lifestyle, their whole mindset is this world only. It's going to result in death that leads to this second death. The mindset on the spirit, however, is life in peace.
Now please understand Satan will convince lost people. That the pleasures of this world will bring life in peace. And just the opposite is true, and he'll tempt believers with that. Sin brings short-lived pleasure. That's why it's tempting.
But the long-term consequences are profound. Look at verse 7. Because a mindset on the flesh is hostile toward God. For it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Is it well Pastor, if this world-only mindset is a fleshly mindset, then I guess I need to try to change my mindset.
Well, you're right. But you can't change it maybe the way you think you can change it. The solution is to have a new nature. Because as a lost person, you can try to clean up your acts. Read 2 Peter 2, but like a dog that returns to its vomit, like a sow that goes back to the mud, you can dress it up, perfume it up, put a ribbon around its neck, but unless it's fundamentally Brought, given a new nature, it will go back to its old dirty habits.
The solution is to have a new nature. And then, once we have that new nature, As Romans 12, 2 will underscore, we need to renew our minds that we might prove that God's will is something that is good and acceptable and perfect. And so the old emphorism is true. An apple tree is not an apple tree because it bears apples. It bears apples because it's an apple tree.
Even so, a man is not a sinner because he sins, he sins because he's a sinner. By nature, by birth, and that's why it's essential to be born from above, to be brought in Christ. And when you're brought in Christ, there's a new persuasion that you have that you cannot have in the truest sense, apart from being born again. It's a dual nuance, born from above, as some translations render it. All right, that's the first thing.
The Spirit gives us a new persuasion. Secondly, the Spirit gives us a new direction. The Spirit gives us a new direction. That's the point of verse 9. Remember, he just said in verse 8 that those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Now he says here in verse 9: However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.
Now, verse 9 is very important for several reasons. First, because it plainly teaches us that the mark of someone who is one of the Lord's is that they have the Spirit of God living in them. In that Spirit living in them is what gives them a new mindset. You're taken out of the flesh. You're baptized in the Spirit.
Remember 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 13. For by one Spirit we're all baptized. By the way, there's no water here. There's no water in Romans 6 when he speaks of the baptism of the Spirit. Every time you see the word baptism, don't always think water.
1 Corinthians 10 says they were baptized in the cloud with Moses. There was no water there. He's reminding them how they were identified with Moses in the wilderness. The baptism of the Spirit identifies you with Jesus Christ. What makes you and I brothers and sisters?
The same Spirit of God that lives in you lives in me. For by one Spirit we're all baptized into one body, whether Jews, Or Greeks, whether slaves or free. In other words, the early church was multifaceted. And if you go to a church and they're against a particular race or a particular socioeconomic background, there's a problem there. They're either babes in Christ that haven't had their minds renewed, but more often than not, they're lost.
Why was this church started? It was started by two Marine colonels who were. convinced That when they brought a black person to their church, that person wasn't welcome. They couldn't find a church in town where they were welcomed. That's pathetic.
That's evil. And so the birth of Community Bible Church.
Now I came here, there was one black person. I'm grateful for the one black person, but our county at the time was 38% African American.
Now it's 19% because the county has grown, and people have come from other parts of the nation to move here. Rick Warren said, Your target audience. Saddleback Sam, saddleback Samantha, is this person certain socioeconomic group? That is so false. Your target audience is anyone that moves.
Anyone that lives in your community. That's who you are to reach.
Now, historically, some of our Pentecostal friends said: first you get saved, later you get the Holy Spirit. That's just. Ignorance. I don't know how else to say it. I'm not trying to be mean.
They themselves have changed that, though there are still some segments of Pentecostalism, and there are many brands of Pentecostals. They're not all the same. But what they now say is you First, get the Holy Spirit of conversion, but then there's this deeper, broader, second work of the Spirit that they call the baptism of the Spirit, where Paul says every born-again believer has been baptized by the Holy Spirit. And he'll underscore that: that if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you're not one of His. Remember, Ephesians 1, He's talking about Jesus, verse 13, in Him in Christ.
You also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed, you first have to hear it.
Somebody can't get saved by looking at your testimony. They have to hear the message of truth, the gospel of salvation. Having believed, what happens? They're sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.
So, Romans 8:9. And Ephesians 1:13 both teach the moment you believe, the Spirit comes to indwell in you. Again, it's the new birth.
So salvation is not simply believing something, it's getting someone. God the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you. Salvation is not getting man out of earth into heaven. Salvation, in the truest sense, is getting God out of heaven into man. And you must be born again to enter the kingdom of God.
Now, verse 9: notice he is called, I have an underline in my text, he's called the Spirit of God. And he's called the Spirit of Christ. Or which is it? It's both. If you recall the night before Jesus was crucified in the upper room, He made a promise.
He was leaving. They were depressed. They were despondent. He said, listen, I will ask the Father. And he will give you another helper that he may be with you forever.
Now many of you know that there are two words that come into the English text, translated another, two words in the original. And we don't have the fine nuances, and if you're trying to do a word-for-word correspondence, you just use the word another.
Now I don't brag when I quote Great. One of my seminary professors used to say to us, listen. Greek is like your underwear. You don't show it off, you just use it for support. There are two words in Koina Greek for another.
There's the word alos, which means another of the exact same kind, and there's the word heteros, that means another of a different kind. And those two words come into English, like the word heteros. We speak of a heterosexual. Or we speak of heterodoxy, unlike orthodoxy. It's to teach something that's different or foreign.
If I asked you for a heteros biblios, another book, you could give me any book you could find on geography, on skiing, on sailing, any book you could find. But if I ask you for an Allos biblios, You would have to give me another book just like this one. Torn where it's torn, worn where it's worn, exactly like this one. That's the word that Jesus uses. He's going to send another helper.
It's hard to capture with a single word.
Some Bibles say another advocate, another comforter. She's just like Jesus. That is, he tells us who he's referring to, verse 17: that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you, he'll be in you. He had been abiding in their midst. And they had witnessed his work, the miracles he had done through Christ, and done through them.
But he's going to live in them.
Now remember, the Holy Spirit never permanently indwelt any believer under the old covenant. He doesn't begin to permanently dwell people until Pentecost.
So he is so much like Jesus. In verse 18 of that chapter, he says, I will not leave you as orphans. Orphanos, we get our English word orphan from it. I will come to you.
Now don't forget the broader context. In chapter 13, They were devastated that Jesus was leaving. Where are you leaving to?
Well, I'm going to prepare a place for you. And if I prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, you can be too. That didn't seem to satisfy. They had been with him, they loved him. He's going to heaven.
But I'm not going to leave you like an orphan. I'm going to send you one just like myself.
So in Romans 8:9, he is rightfully called the Spirit of Christ. Though physically and visibly, he would leave his disciples to go to the Father's house, spiritually and invisibly, he would come to them. It's a divine paradox. He leaves on the one hand, to the father's house. On the other hand, he remains.
And he'll be with us until the end of the age. I won't leave you as fatherless orphans. And so of the Messiah, he's called the everlasting Father in Isaiah chapter 6. I'm not going to abandon you, and so is this slide. illustrates.
Who comes to live in us when we're born again?
Well, on the one hand, Christ does. Christ in you, the hope of glory. On the other hand, the Bible underscores and emphasizes that we're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But even in passages like 1 John 4 and John 14. We will come and make our abode with them.
We who? We the Father, we the Son.
So you're technically indwelved by all three members of the Godhead.
Now it's just like spiritual gifts. Who gave you a spiritual gift?
Well, it's underscored in 1 Corinthians 12 through 14 that the Holy Spirit did. But wait a minute, God the Father is credited with the giving of spiritual gifts in Romans 12. God the Son would ascend on high that he might give gifts to men, Ephesians 4. Who created the world? You might say, well, God the Father in the beginning.
Elohim. created the heavens and the earth. Wait a minute, all things were created through The sun. Wait a minute, the Spirit was involved in creation. You can't dissect God.
We underscored that truth last time. But if there was an accent, in terms of the emphasis It would be that the Spirit comes to live in you. Look at Romans 8 now and verse 12. If Christ is in you, And he is through the Holy Spirit and by the fact that the members of the Godhead are inseparable. If Christ is in you, Though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
With Jesus Christ living in me through the Holy Spirit, my spirit is alive, but my body is dead.
Now it looks alive. And from earth's perspective, it's alive, but from heaven's perspective, it's dead. The principle of death, the law of death, dwells in me. Why? Because I'm aging.
We're getting older. With every Beat of the heart. It's a drumbeat towards the grave. and this body will someday give out and kill over. Unless Jesus comes first, there's death in it.
He gets sick. Paul describes it like a tent. Tents get holes in them. And they wear out. He describes our future body like a house made in heaven.
Sometimes it has to go to the repair shop. But in the Bible, God gives as much hope for the body as He gives for the soul. Look at verse 11. But if the spirit of him. He just spoke, Christ living in us.
He called him the Spirit of Christ. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, and he does if you've been saved, he who raised Christ. Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in you.
So there is coming a time when God is going to raise this body from its death-like state into a lifelike state, and He'll do it instantly through the Spirit's power in the twinkling of an eye, when this mortal will put on immortality, and this that is perishable will put on that which is imperishable. Have you ever thought about the role of God the Holy Spirit in the redemption of your body? I did not have to tell you that my body has yet to be redeemed. Because when we come to verse 23, Look at what Paul says, and not only this, but we ourselves having the firstfruits of the Spirit. First fruits, you know that great Old Testament feast that pointed to greater things to come.
We have the firstfruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for what? The adoption of sons, the redemption of our body. We're coming to that in some weeks down the road.
So according to Romans 8, 11 and Romans 8, 23, we're still awaiting the redemption of the body.
So the Spirit of God, He gives us a new persuasion. He gives us a new direction. When you're born again, we're headed towards heaven, towards a new outcome, but he gives us a new obligation. Roman numeral 3, the Spirit of God gives you a new obligation.
Now, don't miss the flow of thought. The Bible teaches me that I've been justified. in the Spirit when I receive Christ as my Savior. He came to indwell me in my spirit. My old man was made alive.
Now he could not do that before I was saved. Why? Because I was unrighteous. And until Jesus died in time and space, no old covenant believer could enjoy the things that we enjoy as new covenant believers. Because they were under a different testament.
But when you are declared righteous, You are now under the new covenant given a heart of flesh. The heart of stone is changed into a heart of flesh. You have a new capacity where you can be indwelt by the Spirit. Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? Under the old covenant, God had a temple for His people.
Under the New Covenant, God has a people who are His temple. And so I am justified in my Spirit. I'm being sanctified in my soul, and we're going to study these truths in depth as we walk through Romans 8. Your soul, suke, can refer in a specific sense to the whole immaterial person of man, in a broad sense, but in a specific sense, like in 1st Thessalonians 5, Paul speaks, we're awaiting for the redemption of body, soul, and spirit. We are trichotomous, we are made of three parts.
And so, the soul, in a technical, specific sense, refers to your mind, your will, your emotions. And so, God is sanctifying me. He's shaping me in those three areas. And this is why Paul can say in verse 12: So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, because of what God has done for you, because He has given you a new mindset and a new direction and a new proclivity through the indwelling of the Spirit. You now have a new obligation.
It's not enough to have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants to have you. Verse 13: If you're a true believer, for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit, if you've been saved, you're putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Again, he's speaking overall of the fruit of the proof.
Of a birth from above. If all you ever do is live according to the flesh. And again, we saw there are many examples by which people can do that.
Some live highly immoral lives, some are super religious, but they're self-righteous. And their whole mindset is this life only. Again, it might be their hobbies, it might be their horticulture, any number of things. But they live according to the flesh, and so someday they're going to die if they're not born again.
Now, he is not saying that you can lose your salvation. Before we're done with the eighth chapter, He is going to give one of the clearest, most profound arguments for the eternal security of the believer found anywhere in all of the New Testament. But he is simply reminding us that if you just live for the here and now, if you are driven by your pride, by your own way, your own desires. And you die that way. You will die eternally lost.
And so think your way through this. Again, he's going to underscore, but this is introductory in Paul's mind, and he's going to walk us through it. We're immediately justified in the Spirit. We're being sanctified. In the soul, God is renewing your mind, He's changing your mind, will, and emotions.
Some of us are emotional wrecks. Because we're not feeding on the word of God, where God, by his word, changes what we are emotionally. You don't need necessarily some drug. There's so much psycho-babble in the church today. What you need is God's word to renew your mind.
But ultimately, before we're done with the eighth chapter, he's going to also say that your body is going to be glorified. And so we've been baptized in the Spirit, that's in the past. And so your spirit is alive because of righteousness. That's justification, that's in the past. But we're to be filled.
With the Spirit, the Spirit in us is to work out in daily experience. Our obedience to the law, that's in the present, that's sanctification. And when our mortal bodies are redeemed. That's glorification.
So being baptized by the Spirit that's in the past, being filled with the Spirit. That's in the present, but someday we will be fully made alive, and that's in the future, that's being glorified. And because of this wonderful truth, we are to be different. There's no condemnation, there's a new liberation. There's a new obligation.
And the fact that you are born again and that you are secure is that you have an earnest. He'll underscore this for us before we're done. You have a down payment. You have a guarantee that what God has begun, He will finish.
Now, how can we apply this? Let me just make a few applications as we close our time. It's expired. Number one: Is your disposition and desire for the world? Or for the Lord?
What's your disposition? What drives you? What wakes you up in the morning? What puts you to bed at night? Is your disposition and desire for the world or for the Lord?
We just read in verse 5: for those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit.
So he's contrasting the mind of the believer with the mind of the unbeliever. He's not talking about one's IQ, but one's DQ. One's desire quotient. It's not your IQ that matters, it's your DQ that matters. What do you desire?
King David said, Whom have I in heaven but you? Besides you, I desire nothing on earth. In Romans 10, Paul will say, Brethren, my heart's desire, speaking of his Jewish brethren. And my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. Just prior to writing Romans He writes 2 Corinthians.
1 and 2 Corinthians and Romans were written on his third missionary journey in that order, and he had just written in 2 Corinthians: Therefore, we have as our ambition, as our desire, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him. In other words, it's my desire. To please the Lord. That's all he's saying. And the truth is...
Is that you have some people who have a high IQ in the realm of Christendom, but they have no real DQ. They know the plan of salvation, but they've never met the man of salvation. And there will be some, especially as we move towards the end of the age, who outwardly preached in Christ's name. They cast out demons in his name, and they did miracles in his name. And he'll declare to them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And I meet more and more people today who call themselves born-again Christians. whose life has not changed. And you may know right doctrine, but with the heart man believes unto righteousness. You can know it here, and you can miss salvation here in your heart.
Secondly, is your destination for heaven or hell? Is your destination for heaven or hell? I hope you noticed. In verse 6, that there's no in-between option, for the mindset on the flesh is deaf. But the mindset on the Spirit is life in peace.
You know, every time you see a natural disaster, you often see people in panic. What's the root of that panic? that they might die. Look, you can't always control natural disasters. But if you're driven by a fear of death, It typically means you've never met Christ.
The writer of the Hebrews said that. Jesus came to destroy the fear of death. And if you think natural disasters create a fear of death, you ain't seen nothing yet. Wait till the tribulation takes place. The sale judgments The scripture teaches one quarter of the world.
Diesel In the trumpet judgments, one-third of the world dies. Ever before you get to the bold judgments, half the world has been destroyed. And the bold judgments are the worst. That's why they come right at the end of the tribulation. In fact, Jesus would say, unless those days were cut short, nobody on all of earth would survive.
There's never been a time like that in human history. And people who rationalize the all-of-it discourse, my amillennial friends, who say it's historical, it all happened in 70 AD, they are abusing the scriptures. You talk about people with a fear of death, and why will God allow this? Because it will be His final wake-up call. He will have people's attention many times.
People, when they are in the midst of a national disaster, in the midst of some. Issue that has come across your life, they either typically habitually use God's name in vain. Were they call upon him in faith?
Now, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and unless you've been born from above, you'll never see heaven. Do you have the new birth you know? that you know that you know. If you don't, come Thursday night. Or at least stay with me all the way through Romans 8.
Now, our Father, we thank you for your grace and for your mercy, for the opportunity to study your word today. I pray today that you'd speak to the hearts of men and women, and boys and girls who are here.
Some who know even the plan of salvation. but their life has never changed. Others who've met you, but they've stayed babes in Christ, haven't grown but a smidgen. And there's so much more that you want to do.
So help us to get serious in these last days. We set our mind on the things above and not on the things that are on earth. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. If you enjoyed today's message, you can order a CD or DVD copy by calling Search the Scriptures.
At 877. 787. seven four seven eight and requesting program Our Identity in Christ. 016. Don't forget tomorrow that Pastor Carl's wife Audrey is in this time slot with her program for women.
Mothering from the heart. You can hear more of Audrey's messages on the Search the Scriptures app, Found in the iTunes and Google Play Store. Also, Check out Audrey's podcast, Rare But Real. On Apple? Google and Spotify podcast platforms.
You can also listen to her podcast at searchthescriptures.org. We hope that you will join us tomorrow. as we continue to search the scriptures.
