His Love Ministries
Episodes
Wednesday Jul 27, 2016
ROMANS 8:5-6 DO YOU HAVE A CARNAL MIND OR A SPIRITUAL MIND?
Wednesday Jul 27, 2016
Wednesday Jul 27, 2016
1. To those who set their minds on the
things of the Spirit, not the flesh, pleasing God (5-8)
Now,
the contrast between those who walk according to the flesh and those who walk
according to the Spirit is a contrast in behaviors. The word “walk” means
behavior. It's a word in the New Testament used many, many times,
particularly by the Apostle Paul to describe daily conduct. What we're talking
about here is conduct. So we've moved into this whole matter of behavior
with the word “walk.” It flows then into verse 5. Listen to verse
5"
Ro 8:5 For those who live according to
the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according
to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
There is as clear a definition of the
distinction between a believer and a non-believer as you will find
anywhere. Believers set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
Non-believers set their minds on the things of the flesh. That couldn't
be more clear. Again, I remind you that this is a matter of
behavior. Listen carefully. Behavior based on the word “walk” in
verse 4, but behavior is a product of what? The mind. Thinking.
And He says then, "Those who walk according to the flesh do so
because that's where their mind is set. And those who walk according to
the Spirit do so because that's where their mind is set.
To
put it in another way, as a man thinks in his heart, what's the rest? So
is he. So is he. So what we note then is that at the point of
conversion, there is a dramatic internal change. There is what we would
call, borrowing the words of the apostle Paul in Romans, a new nature or a new
disposition or a new principle, a new law, a new will; a new disposition,
perhaps, is best.
People
who live carnal, fleshly, sinful, indulgent lives do so because that's how they
think.
The ones being according to the flesh is
simply another way of expressing people who are dominated by the flesh. This
is an unsafe person, habitually controlled by unregenerate and depraved and
fallen humanness. They don't know God. They can't understand
God. They're not connected to God at all. They may be
religious. They may be atheistic. They don't know God. To be
according to the flesh is simply to be in the flesh, and that's the way he
expresses it in verse 8. "Those who are in the flesh cannot please
God." Being in the flesh, being according to the flesh, simply means
being unregenerate and dominated by sinful impulses. And it is those
sinful impulses that effect sinful conduct.
The
flesh is Paul's word for fallen human nature apart from God. Okay?
Fallen human nature apart from God; corrupt, directed, and controlled by sinful
impulses. And the flesh is so corrupt, so corrupt, that no matter how
much a...a wicked person would like to change his condition, he can't do
it. Jer 13:23 said Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its
spots? No more can you change your nature." The heart of man is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. You can't even
understand it, let alone alter it.
So
these people who are in the flesh, who are dominated by unredeemed human nature
— both in the physical part and the mental part of who they are — do what their
fleshly impulses tell them to do. And then when it talks about the mind
being set. It's...it's an interesting word. It's from the verb phroneō.
And it's a word used for the seat of all mental faculties, mental affections,
expressing any form of mental activity, including emotion, will, as well as
just pure intellect. Their whole mind and their emotion and their will —
the whole realm of mental activity — is corrupted by the flesh.
It's really a word for a disposition, a
dominant, controlling disposition. They have a deliberate mindset.
The unsaved person is dominated by unredeemed carnal, fleshly impulses.
They are bent toward the expression of their depraved nature. And
that's what he says in verse 5. "They set their minds on the things
of the flesh."
On
the other hand, back to verse 5, "Those who are according to the Spirit
(implied, set their minds) on the things of the Spirit." Now, here
you have a whole different category of people. This is a whole different
disposition. These people are in the realm of the Spirit and are drawn by
the truest impulses in their heart to the Spirit. They submit to His
direction. They concentrate their attention, purpose, desire on whatever
is precious to the Holy Spirit. They love what He loves. That's
what it means when it says, "They seek the things of the Spirit."
When
you look at their life and you see someone whose behavior is indulging the
flesh and whose bent and disposition is toward the flesh, you have positively
defined the person.
You
say, "Well, what about Christians? We sin, too, don't we?” But
we resent it. It's not the truest expression of our nature. It's an
invasion. It still happens, because we're not all yet redeemed. Our
flesh, our humanness is still there, even though our inward nature has been
changed and our longings are toward God and energized by the Holy Spirit toward
what is righteous and pure and good and holy. We still have to fight the
battle of that changed nature being incarcerated in unredeemed humanness.
That's why in Romans 8, Paul is so anxious to have the glorification of his
body.
6 For to be carnally minded is death,
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Now,
the results of these two dispositions are given to us in verse 6. The
results are pretty clear. "The mind set on the flesh...” Literally
in the Greek would be read this way, “The mind set on the flesh equals
death. But the mind set on the Spirit equals life and peace."
Now, this further describes the state of these two kinds of people. In
the case of the mind set on the flesh, death is the result. It doesn't
say it leads to death. It says it is death. It isn't that they're
going to die. They're dead. They're dead right now.
Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
What
does it mean to be dead that way? It means that you are totally
insensitive to God. I would suggest to you that the most obvious
characteristic of a dead person is the inability of that person to respond.
A person who cannot respond in any way to any part of his or her
environment. And that's what spiritual death is. It is an inability
to respond to the divine presence. It is an inability to respond to
anything in the realm of divine truth and the presence of God. They are
dead in terms of being utterly insensitive. They are like a corpse in a
casket with no awareness of anything going on at the funeral around them.
It
is in that death a spiritual separation from God which someday will become an
eternal separation of God...from God. Now, I want to make this very
important. This kind of death is utterly insensitive to God, but highly
sensitive to godlessness. So that the sinner in this life is highly
sensitive to sin and temptation around which dominates his life, and in eternal
death will be eternally insensitive and separated from God, but highly
sensitive to all of the repercussions of wickedness and sin in this life and
all of the consequent punishment that's meted out against them forever.
They'll be completely sensitive to that.
First
Timothy 5:6 defines this person as dead while she lives. It says that,
"She that lives in pleasure is dead while she lives." People
who live according to the flesh, who have that disposition, are currently dead
to all that is divine, and they will be forever. But they are sensitive
to sin now, and they'll be far more sensitive to its consequences in the life
to come as they bear that eternal judgment. To be fleshly minded, equals
death.
"The
mind set on the Spirit is life and peace." Life, what does that
mean? Alive to God. When you come to Jesus Christ, and you're
changed by the Holy Spirit, you are alive to God. You are sensitive to
God. You read the Word and it comes alive to you. The Spirit of God
moves and prompts your heart to...to give praise and thanks to God. And
you're filled with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and you sing and make
melody in your heart to the Lord.
Those two things simply mean we are alive
to God and, not only are we alive to God, we are alive to God without
fear. What is that? We are alive to God and, at the same time, at
peace with God. The life and peace he's talking about here is not
just something so easily defined as, "Well, we enjoy our living, and we
really have peaceful, tranquil lives." That's not the idea.
The idea is we are alive to God. We're alive to His working, and His
Word, and we are alive to Him and not in a hostile way. We are alive to
Him and at complete peace with Him. Therefore, life takes on consummate
blessedness. We're alive to God, because He gave us His life. He
made us alive together with Christ, Romans chapter 6.
Jesus
said, "I am come that you might have life."
What
He meant was that we have a living communion with God, because we share the
same life. And we have peace. That's the end of alienation.
We have fellowship with God, and we're at peace with God. We made truce
with God. We're in communion with Him, and that'll never change.
God is never going to cast us out.
Isa 26:3 You will keep him in perfect
peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.
That
we'll keep Him in perfect peace is the promise to those who have come to know
Christ. What a thought. We have life. We have sweet communion
with the living God. We hear His voice on the pages of Scripture.
And we long to obey and respond, and we long to worship Him and to know Him
better and to serve Him. We have received His grace. His love has
been shed abroad in our hearts. We have been given permanent peace with
God and joy forever. We have an inner assurance that all is well, and
nothing can ever change our eternal relationship with the Lord.
He
doesn't mean that we're never going to be disturbed in life. Even Jesus
was disturbed about things. And even Paul said, "Wretched man that I
am." Romans 7:24. He wasn't talking about psychological
tranquility. He was talking about a relationship with God that is forever
settled.
We're
not in the flesh. We don't mind the things of the flesh. We are not
compelled by the flesh. We, rather, are in the Spirit, according to the
Spirit, minding the things of the Spirit. For us, there is a pursuit of the
things of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
self-control; these are the things of the Spirit. The things of the
flesh: Immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife,
jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying,
drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.
"I'm
telling you,” Paul says, Galatians 5:21, “those who practice those things shall
not inherit the Kingdom of God." That can't be more clear.
Lessons
1. Do you desire to live for the Lord
or the world?
2. Is your destination Heaven or Hell?
Wednesday Jul 20, 2016
ROMANS 8:1-4 THERE IS THEREFORE NOW NO CONDEMNATION TO THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST JESUS
Wednesday Jul 20, 2016
Wednesday Jul 20, 2016
· FREEDOM FROM THE CONDEMNATION OF SIN or The statement of the believer's condition
1. Available to
those in Christ, made possible by the law of the Spirit of life (1-2)
Ro 8:1 There is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in
Christ Jesus, who
do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
"Therefore" introduces a conclusion based on everything that Paul wrote
from
chapter 3 on, not just chapter 7, specifically 7:6. He reaffirmed
justification as the indispensable basis for sanctification.
A Christian
must believe that he or she has permanent acceptance with God before that one will grow
much in grace and godliness
Romans 3:20 shows the 'therefore' of condemnation; but
Romans 8:1 gives the 'therefore' of no
condemnation
Notice who he is
speaking to; those in Christ Jesus. Paul
uses the term in Christ about 160 times
The
reason is that the believer is in Christ Jesus. The Savior has suffered the
consequences of our sins as our substitute. He will experience no
condemnation, and we, as those He represents, will not either. Note the
absolute force of
this great
promise. We
are eternally secure!
Wednesday Jul 06, 2016
ROMANS 8 INTRO - WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?
Wednesday Jul 06, 2016
Wednesday Jul 06, 2016
Definition:
God eternally exists as Three persons: Father Son Holy Spirit. Each person is
fully God, and there is one God
God
Eternally exists as 3 persons
o Eternally - Micah 5:2, Col 1:17, John
8:58, John 1:1
o 3 Persons
Matthew 28:18-20 Mt 28:18 And Jesus came
and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven
and on earth. 19 "Go therefore and
make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 "teaching them to observe all things
that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the
age." Amen.
2Co 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you
all. Amen. (Trinitarian formula)
Baptism of Jesus
Joh 14:16 "And I will pray the
Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you
forever-- 17 "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and
will be in you. 18 "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
1Co 12:3 Therefore I make known to you
that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can
say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. 4 There are diversities of
gifts, but the same Spirit.
Eph 4:4 There is one body and one
Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God
and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
2Th 2:13 But we are bound to give thanks
to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the
beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and
belief in the truth, 14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and
hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.
Tit 3:4 But when the kindness and the
love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
5 not by works of righteousness which
we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us
abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
1Peter 1:2
Rev 1:4-6
OT – Genesis 1:26, Isaiah 48:16, 61:1
o Spirit is a Person
Intelligence - 1Corinthians 2:10-13 1Co
2:10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit
searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the
things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one
knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not
the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the
things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak,
not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
Emotions - Eph 4:30 And do not grieve
the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Heb 10:29 Of how much worse punishment, do you
suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot,
counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing,
and insulted the Spirit of grace?
Will - 1Co 12:11 But one and the same
Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He
wills.
Other Actions - teaches/guides (Joh 14:26
"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He
will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said
to you.),
commands (Ac 13:2 As they ministered to
the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, "Now separate to Me Barnabas
and Saul for the work to which I have called them."), He commands, as in
Acts 16:6 and 7
prays/intercedes (Ro 8:26 Likewise the
Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for
as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered.)
performs miracles (Ac 8:39 Now when they
came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that
the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing.)
can be blasphemed (Mt 12:32 "Anyone
who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever
speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age
or in the age to come.)
can be resisted (Ac 7:51 "You
stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy
Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.)
can be lied to (Ac 5:3 But Peter said,
"Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and
keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?).
Further, Scripture indicates that he is
revealed as one who speaks. Act 13:2,
Revelation 2:7. He prays, as we will see
in Romans 8:26 and 27. He teaches, as
John 14:26 tells us. He guides, as John
16:13 indicates. He communes or fellowships, as in 2 Corinthians 13:14. He may be tested, Acts 5:9.
This is a person in every sense.
Grammar
• Proper grammar teaches us that when a
pronoun is substituted for a noun, it must be of the same gender as the noun.
(John 14:26, 15:26, 16:13, 14)
• The significance of the phrase αλλον
παράκλητον (another Helper) in John 14:16. Another means another of the
like/same kind, not just another. It means one exactly alike, like a bible with
the same exact markings and wear and tear
Each
person is fully God
o Father is God – Romans 1:7, 1
Corinthians 8:6, Eph 4:6
o Holy Spirit is God
Works - Creation (Genesis 1:2),
inspiration of Scripture (2 Peter 1:21), regenerates (Titus 3:5, John 3:3-5),
resurrects (Romans 8:11), miracles (Acts 8:39), generated Christ (Mt 1:20 But
while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to
him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to
you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.).
Attributes – Holy (and declared to be
the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the
resurrection from the dead), To lie to Him is to lie to God (Ac 5:3 But Peter
said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit
and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? 4 "While it
remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own
control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to
men but to God."),
• Omniscient (Isa 40:13 Who has directed
the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor has taught Him? 14 With whom did He
take counsel, and who instructed Him, And taught Him in the path of justice?
Who taught Him knowledge, And showed Him the way of understanding?),
• omnipresent (Ps 139:7 Where can I go
from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into
heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. 9 If I
take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10
Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me.)
Names - Spirit of YHWH, Spirit of
Christ, Spirit of the Father, Holy, Spirit of glory, “Other Counselor” the
Spirit of Jesus, and in Galatians 4:6, the Spirit of His Son. In Philippians 1:19, He is even called the
Spirit of Jesus Christ. In John 14:26,
He is “another comforter” just like Jesus Christ
o Jesus is God
Works – Creation (Col 1:16), many
miracles, He received worship (Matt 28:17), He forgave sins (Matt 9:2), He has
authority over His life (John 10:18)
Attributes – omniscient (John 1:48),
immutable (Hebrews 3:8), omnipresent and omnipotent (Matt 28:18-20).
Names –
My Lord and my God (John 20:28), Emmanuel (Matt 1:23), Alpha Omega, God
(Hebrews 1:8), King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev 9:16 cf 1 Tim 6:14-15)
Claims – equality with God (John 5:18), eternal and YHWH of OT (John
8:58)
There is
one God
Deuteronomy 6:4, 4:35, Isaiah 44:6,
44:24, 45:5,18,22, 46:9, 1 Timothy 2:5, 1 Corinthians 8:5-6, Ephesians 4:4-6,
James 2:19
Trinity (the holy)
Mt 28:19 "Go therefore and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Joh 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and
bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
Joh 15:26 "But when the Helper comes,
whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from
the Father, He will testify of Me.
2Co 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you
all. Amen.
1Pe 1:2 elect according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be
multiplied.