A Christian Has Moved On From Living the Flesh
Romans 8:12-16
October 15, 2023
Pastor Craig Ledbetter
Bible Baptist Church, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland
I. Introduction
A. We are studying chapter 8 of the letter to the Romans
B. The apostle Paul presents the brightest promises and truths probably ever written for the Christian
C. This chapter is written to every believer and settles so many important facts about salvation!
1. I am perfectly pardoned for all my sins – SAVED!
2. I now can mortify (put off) my flesh every time sin tempts me to rebel against God – THAT IS A MIRACLE!
3. I am Eternally Secure in Christ’s grip – I cannot lose my salvation, no matter what
4. And a dozen more facts! The Bible is not full of religion… it is full of FACTS!
II. Review (Romans 8:1-11)
A. “No Condemnation” (Romans 8:1)
1. Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2. I love those words!
3. Three facts are stated:
a. There is No condemnation – meaning…
1) No eternal punishment for my sins
2) Yes, chastening, and correction, but not eternal punishment – no hell for a believer
3) Jesus came to save sinners from the eternal punishment for their sins!
4) We have passed from the condemnation of hell, to eternal life!
5) John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
b. That pardon only applies to them who are in Christ Jesus
1) A description of salvation
2) Being removed from a life “in sin” and placed into eternal life “in Christ Jesus”
3) So, there is no condemnation to people who are born again
4) And there is one more fact…
c. Who by their new nature, follow the leading of the Holy Spirit of God
1) That is a general fact
2) Christians by nature now “walk … after the Spirit.” (follow the Holy Spirit)
3) Christians, REAL Christians are known for being spiritual men and women, spiritually minded, obedient to the Holy Spirit, and yielded to His will.
4) We are NOT perfect yet, but we are attracted to a new PULL from heaven, instead of the old pull from this world!
B. A Christian is Now Free to Follow the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:2-4)
1. Romans 8:2-4 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2. What a thought… that a slave of sin can follow a Saviour to liberty and freedom FROM sins! (Matthew 1:21) And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
3. The Holy Spirit does not MAKE you follow after God, but is in you so you CAN follow
4. If only you and I WOULD!
5. And as we do follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, the Bible promises that we will supernaturally fulfil all the righteousness of the law of God, without our flesh being perfect, or sinless, or flawless! [REPEAT]
C. Why the Christian’s New Life Matters (Romans 8:5-11)
1. Three quick questions:
a. Can a Christian follow their flesh? Obey its lusts, its desires, its way of living?
1) Of course Christians can! They shouldn’t and don’t HAVE to, but we all will at times do things that the Holy Spirit would not want us to do
2) People who think they don’t sin anymore are deceiving themselves
b. DO Christians follow the lusts of their flesh still?
1) Yes. Christians lie to get out of trouble, steal to get things they can’t afford, lust for things they shouldn’t have, and hate people that Christ died for!
2) They even can do worse things – Why? Because they still have their old nature hanging around, pulling at them
3) That’s why we need to treat our old habits as dead and gone!
c. Are there consequences to following after the lusts of the flesh?
1) Definitely YES!
2) That is why Paul takes the time to write about these things in Chapters 6,7 and 8
2. So, What are the Consequences of doing whatever you feel like, or not doing what you don’t feel like doing (Romans 8:5-8)
a. If you only enjoy the way you have always lived (your fleshly nature)…
b. You will obey your flesh – you will serve it like a slave - IT will be in charge
1) Romans 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
2) It is like a slave owner that will trap you and make you do its will instead of God’s
c. Your flesh will kill you – end your life early – your body does not know when to stop
1) Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
2) A slave owner does not value his property
3) And our flesh treats our soul as second class
4) It doesn’t care if it dies, or you dies, as long as it is happy
5) Your and my flesh is the greatest narcissist there is!
d. You will end up fighting God – so stupid!
1) Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
2) Our old nature will never WANT to obey God, or the Bible, or the Spirit of God
3) And you will end up at Enmity – conflict – at war!
e. Your life will not please God, which is a terrible contradiction!
1) Romans 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
2) That is the worst!
3) Because your flesh is never happy anyways – always seeking more and more!
4) It is GOD that made us, and yet so few care to make HIM happy
f. Is that how you want your life to be seen by God? A wasted life? Of no value to the One who made you and designed you for His glory?
1) Christians do it – they waste their lives
2) They refuse to grow
3) And many die early, miserable
4) Yes, because of saving faith, they are in heaven, but they have nothing to show for all the goodness of God showered on them because of Christ
3. But a Christian is NOT living in his/her flesh anymore. Not normally (Romans 8:9-11)
a. We are NOT in the flesh now (Romans 8:9) – that is not where we live
1) Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
2) What does that mean?
a) We have been cut free from the control of our old life – old habits
b) Our old man is dead in God’s eyes
c) And it needs to be dead in OUR eyes too – it is not where we live now
d) EXAMPLE: A kid grows up in a broken home with yelling and pain and fear and anger. He is given a Gospel tract one day, and is witnessed to by a Christian, who tells him he is a sinner and will die without hope and without God, but he doesn’t have to die that way. He can run to Jesus Christ and be born again! And that young man bows his head and cries out to Jesus to save his broken, lost soul… and Jesus saves him! Later, that young man goes off to Bible College, and then gets married, and starts a family. Should he then have a broken home with yelling and pain and fear and anger? No! He doesn’t live there anymore! By the way… that young man was ME!
e) So, if you grew up with a drunken father, or a depressed mother, or a painful childhood, you probably are going to stay that way… but you don’t have to. Not if you could move on, by the power of the Holy Spirit of God in you!
b. We live “IN the Spirit” now – that is a Bible description!
1) We live in a spiritual realm (not a fleshly one) a realm called the Kingdom of God
2) Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
3) The kingdom of God is not a physical kingdom, with physical blessings, and physical weapons and battles
4) It is a new and powerful lifestyle, full of righteousness, and peace, and joy
5) Where? It is found “IN the Holy Ghost”!
c. We have the Spirit of Jesus Christ IN us, otherwise we do not belong to Him (Romans 8:9)
1) All believers are in Christ, and have Christ in them!
2) Romans 8:9 … if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
3) Somebody once told me, You just need to Spirit. I told them I have the Spirit. He just doesn’t have enough of ME!
d. Our body is dead in God’s mind (Romans 8:10)
1) Romans 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
2) Wake up in the morning, and take a look at that frame of a person and say, All that flesh is dead. It is dying, and aging, and still seeking to sin, but as far as God is concerned, it is dead and buried with Christ.
3) And the life I now live, is in the Holy Spirit of God
e. But… amazingly, this same dying and dead body WILL be raised back up completely new one day (Romans 8:11) when it is resurrected
1) Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
2) That is what I am so glad for – that this stinking old body of mine can die and rot in the grave, and one day, Jesus will call it back to life, sinless and perfect forever!
D. I love Romans chapter 8!
III. Message
A. We Owe Our Old Life (the Flesh) Nothing (Romans 8:12,13)
1. That is what the Bible says in Romans 8:12,13
a. Romans 8:12,13 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
b. Once a person gets born again…
1) We do not owe our old life, our past life, our past sinful life anything
2) Not attention, not glory, not concern
3) We do not need to “live after the flesh” – seek to make the flesh happy
4) That’s why a Christian doesn’t mind being left behind by everyone else who is living for the now
5) That’s why a Christian doesn’t mind being poor, but rich in the Kingdom of God
6) That’s why a Christian doesn’t mind fasting and doing without food when praying for some big needs – I don’t owe this body anything it screams for
a) Didn’t your parents teach you that?
b) You get nothing you demand and scream for
c) You get only what you respectfully ask for
d) Have that attitude towards your body, and you will have a much happier life
2. Our flesh never did us any good at all
a. Oh it had fun, and was often successful at many things, but was only helping us dig our own graves! Every emperor, czar, president, rich man and woman, all die, and leave everything behind!
b. Romans 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die...
c. The lusts of the flesh war against not just God, but against our own soul!
1) 1Peter 2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.
3. We have someone far more important and powerful in us now, to give our attention to… (Romans 8:13)
a. The Holy Spirit – HE now should have all our attention
b. We should want to be FULL of Him, instead of full of the pleasures of sin
c. Because He is there to help you mortify the deeds, actions, desires of the body
d. Romans 8:13 …but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
e. To mortify means to destroy, to put to death “the deeds of the body”
4. The “deeds” of the body – what are they? Wow! That is why the Bible is so big!
a. Paul describes them quite clearly in Colossians 3:5-8
1) Colossians 3:5-8 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off [DESTROY] all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
b. Look at that list…
1) Fornication – sex outside of marriage
2) Uncleanness in lifestyle
3) Sinful loves
4) Lusts
5) Constant covetousness – never content or happy unless buying something
6) And… Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth
7) And so many more controlling, addictive, destructive sins!
5. All can be DESTROYED with the help of the Holy Spirit in you
6. IF… you rely on HIM instead of your own abilities and strengths
a. Watch Paul in Ephesians 4:22-32 hammer all the “normal” sins even Christians still struggle with…
1) Ephesians 4:22-24 That ye put off [MORTIFY, DESTROY] concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; [GET YOUR THINKING RIGHT] And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
2) It is a constant work by the Christian, putting off and putting on
3) Why? So that you can destroy the following unmovable sins…
4) LYING – we can put it away in the rubbish bin (Ephesians 4:25) Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
5) ANGER
a) Ephesians 4:26,27 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.
b) The Holy Spirit will make it so that the devil has no place in your life anymore!
6) STEALING (Ephesians 4:28) Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
7) FILTHY WORDS/TALK (Ephesians 4:29,30) Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
8) And, BITTERNESS, WRATH, ANGER, CLAMOUR [YELLING], EVIL SPEAKING], and MALICE (Ephesians 4:31) Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
9) And replace every one of those sinful deeds with right acts (Ephesians 4:32) And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
b. The truth is… the Holy Spirit WILL destroy every one of those habitual sins, IF you depend on HIM to do it, and ALLOW Him to do it!
B. Four Proofs of a New Man (Romans 8:14-16)
1. Romans 8:14-16 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
2. The apostle Paul now gives us four amazing proofs we are born again – sons of God!
a. Not of a new health-kick, or of a new direction in life
b. But of a new man – new creature!
c. 2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
3. Four Proofs that a Christian has been born again, and is NEW on the inside…
4. You have a new pull ON you “led by the Spirit of God”
a. Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
b. Leading you
c. Speaking to you specifically
d. Calling you
e. Convicting you when you do the wrong things
f. Trying to stop you from doing wrong and sinful things
g. And trying to START you doing good things, godly things, right things!
h. The Holy Spirit leads us like an internal RADAR away from danger, to good places
i. Oh that you all had the desire for the Holy Spirit to actually LEAD your steps, your thoughts, and your understanding, away from danger, and deceptions, and into safety!
j. David said in Psalm 31:3 For thou [GOD] art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me.
5. The spirit of adoption IN you – an awareness that I am adopted into the family of God!
a. Romans 8:15,16 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
b. What family were we in before we were saved?
1) None of us were born Christian – we were born separated from God because of sin
2) Jesus said to some very religious men in John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father [SATAN] ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
c. I’m amazed God adopted ME into His family – treats me now as if I was natural-born!
d. I no longer live in fear of failing God, and am no longer in bondage to my sins!
6. A heart-cry of worship FROM you – “Abba, Father”
a. Romans 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
b. The Christian has a closeness to God as their heavenly Father, not just as God Almighty, and worships Him, and gladly talks with Him… they WANT to learn to pray, no matter how hard it is!
c. Born again is not a religious thing – it is a heart thing! That causes us to WANT to talk with God, and listen to Him, and wait on Him, and do His will, and tell Him we love Him, and let Him change us!
d. This is Next Week’s subject we are going to focus on
7. A comforter THRILLING you – bearing witness, telling us that we are children of God!
a. Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: [WHAT A COMFORT – NOT LIVING IN FEAR ANYMORE]
b. John 14:16,17 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever: Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
c. Spoken by Jesus before He was crucified, and resurrected
d. 1Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
e. That means every Christian in this room can handle whatever the world throws at you, without alcoholic drink or drugs! But by the power of the Holy Spirit in them
f. Ephesians 5:18-20 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
8. All of those things are what the Holy Spirit is busy at work doing in every believer!
9. And the Holy Spirit is not finished with you yet
C. The Holy Spirit actually ACCOMPLISHES all that IF…
1. You would shut off ALL your distractions for a little while each day! Your smartphone, and your youtubes and your TV, and your gaming systems, and your radios
2. And if you would just talk to God, from the heart, and see if Jesus is IN you!
a. 2Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
b. Is it still dark and empty in your heart?
c. Are you just doing what is expected of you, wanting to die and get this life over with?
d. You won’t have those thoughts if Jesus Christ is IN you!
e. I fear that many people in this room have no idea if Jesus is in them
1) Or maybe they won’t admit that He is not there
2) The devil has kept them (maybe YOU too) distracted hour after hour after hour!
3) It is time to take your SOUL much more seriously, instead of your flesh, your body, your lusts, your dreams, and your griefs
3. And if you would agree to let HIM be in charge of your life – yield to His words, His pressures, His will
4. THAT is when your life will change, and your victories over sin will come!
IV.Conclusion
A. Do yourself a favour… See if Jesus is IN you!
B. If not, you have nothing but your dying flesh enslaving you, and damning you
C. But if Jesus Christ is IN you…
1. You are living “IN the Spirit” now – that is a Bible description!
2. We are spiritual people now. Spiritually-minded people
3. Your body is dead in God’s mind – not important to Him, it shouldn’t be important to you either
4. You have Someone in you that made you a new person
5. And the Holy Spirit is not finished with you yet
D. What is the Holy Spirit able to do with you if you would just walk with Him everyday?