{podcast id=277}
Living by the Spirit Romans 8.5-11
Sermon preached at Christ the King Willetton on 6 May 2012
Sermon Outline
1. Two Groups v5
Those whose lives are determined by the ...
flesh/sinful nature: the Adam nature (chap 5). I can/will work it out. I can/will decide. I can/will ignore God.
Spirit: Holy Spirit of God.
2. Two Practices v5
A. Have their minds set on what ...
flesh/sinful nature/Me: desires...
- I make the rules. I am at the centre. Self interest first. What I want, desire.
- What my environment urges on me.
- What the evil one entices or pushes me into. Fear of obeying Jesus.
Maybe not all the time, but enough to know that our minds are still under the dominant influence of the sinful nature.
B. Have their minds set on what ...
The Spirit desires: What does the Spirit desire? Glorify God, Jesus. Do Father's work. Hear the Father's words. Desires God and his kingdom. You?
3. Two States. v 6-8
Flesh:
- The mind, the thinking, the outlook, the reasoning, is Death, leads to death and is a kind of spiritual death now. Unable to know God, or to share his life. To think in the way God thinks.
- Hostile to God
- Does not submit to God's law
- Cannot submit to God's law
- Cannot please God
Even though we act religiously. And even though we try.
This is a very scary state to be in.
Spirit: life and peace
The mind under the Spirit is life - of God. Alive to God. Listens, hears, communicates with God.
Peace - with God. Reconciled. Nothing in the way of being with God, no guilt, no hindrance to knowing and understanding God. Direct personal fellowship with the living God.
4. Two Benefits - for those with the Spirit v9-11
V 9. You are in the Spirit since the Spirit of God lives in you.
Having the Spirit/ Christ makes the difference. Puts you in the realm of the Spirit's operation/rule.
NB: Spirit, Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, Christ. Christ is in you.
What an amazing statement. Must not undervalue or trivialise the Spirit's presence. God himself is in us.
(If no Spirit - not Christ's. The absolutely necessary mark.
What are the benefits?
Makes a difference to body and spirit.
V 10. Our spirit is alive because of Righteousness - of Christ, ie the righteous standing he has secured for us. V1-4.
Brought by the Holy Spirit to new life. God's act in bringing us to new birth, new life with God. Removed condemnation, forgiven sins, reconciled us to himself, and brought us with Christ from spiritual death to spiritual life.
This is how we escape the power of the flesh.
God has done this. Not us. Like first birth. It is a new birth, from above. Not our doing.
And because our spirit is alive to God, we are able to live in an entirely different sphere to what we lived in before we knew Christ (more next week).
V 11. Body
Bible doesn't separate body and spirit. God is interested in the bodies he created. How is your body going?
Here is wonderful assurance about the future of our declining bodies: The Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us-of-the-decaying-bodies.
So? So just as Jesus was raised from the dead, so through the Spirit, he will also give life to our mortal bodies.
Note: mortal bodies. But they will become immortal through the resurrection from the dead.
Are we sure of this? Yes because the Spirit of the dead-raising God lives in us.
Can get too obsessed with frail bodies; or get too obsessed with the non-body spiritual life.
Notice John 5.14.
Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”
Worse things than being sick. There is eternal condemnation for those who don't turn from their sin.
John 5.28-29
“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out–those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.
Better things than being healthy. There is eternal life in the presence of the living God.
Are you looking to eternity too?
God has made it possible for us to live under the rule, care, and direction of his own Spirit. How to do that - next week.
Today: give thanks. OR
Ask God to give you new life through his Spirit.