Walk by the Spirit (Part 2)
Romans 8:1-13 (10-13)
September 29, 2013
As you know we are studying the person, purpose,
And expectations of the Holy Spirit.
We have seen who He is.
We have seen what He does.
And CURRENTLY we are studying those passages
That reveal the expectations as to how we are to respond to Him.
Recently we spent a few weeks dealing with the command
“Be filled with the Spirit”.
• And we understand that primarily to mean that we are to allow the Holy
Spirit to have all of us.
• We do this when we study the Scripture (which He inspired) and allow those
truths to abundantly dwell within is.
• In order to do this we must kill of the flesh by starving it, because the flesh
wars against the Spirit in our lives.
So our desire is to kill the flesh and “be filled with the Spirit”
LAST WEEK we moved on to begin looking at another command
That deals with our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
WALK BY THE SPIRIT
Galatians 5:25 “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”
Another way this same reality is stated is to “live according to the Spirit”
On one hand it refers to a believer who will do what the Spirit says.
It is a believer who reads the Scriptures,
Understands them to be the words of God, and then obeys them.
They live their life according to the instruction of the Holy Spirit.
They walk according to the directions that the Holy Spirit has given.
But there is another reality in this as well, and that is that not only do believers live according to the Spirit’s guidance, but that believers also live by the Spirit’s ability.
In an illustrative sense it would be like this.
You have a physical body.
In order for that body to walk, many things must take place.
1) Your brain sends the signal to the direct your body to move.
(That would be like the Spirit telling us where and how to go)
2) Your muscles must contract giving your body the power to move.
(That is also done by the Spirit)
And this is important to understand.
A person who knows the will of the Spirit,
But who tries to carry out that will apart from the power of the Spirit will only find a life of failure and frustration.
So when we not only walk in obedience to the Spirit’s instruction, but we must also walk according to the Spirit’s power.
And those are the two realities we have been dealing with.
1) We are filled with the Spirit (let the word of Christ richly dwell within you) – getting the instruction.
2) We walk by the Spirit – letting His power accomplish in us what we cannot do on our own.
Now we began talking about this reality last week.
You need to understand that all believers do in fact walk by the Spirit.
That is because all true believers in Christ
Have come to the understanding that
They cannot save themselves by their own efforts.
They have embraced Ephesians 2:8
Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;”
All true believers have to be there.
Otherwise you are still depending on your own works to save you and that is not walking in the Spirit’s power, that is walking in the flesh.
And we learned where walking in the flesh will get you.
Romans 8:5-8 “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. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set 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.”
In the flesh you operate by your own logic through your own strength,
And you fail every time.
But that is not us.
All true believers do walk by the Spirit.
But what we are talking about is not just the reality that we do walk by the Spirit, but the obligation that we must walk by the Spirit.
On one hand, it is who we are.
On the other hand, it is what we must do.
It is that unique tension that exists in many areas of Christianity.
Thanks to Christ the Christian is righteous.
And yet the Christian is commanded to be righteous.
Thanks to Christ the Christian is pleasing to God.
And yet we are called to live a life that pleases God.
Thanks to Christ the Christian bears fruit.
And yet we are commanded to bear fruit for God.
And it is the same way with walking by the Spirit.
The Christian does walk by the Spirit
And yet he is also commanded to walk by the Spirit.
In fact, as we are studying, he is obligated to do that.
Romans 8:12-13 “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
Walking by the Spirit is not an optional reality for a believer.
It is who he is, and it is what he must do.
He is obligated to do it.
And last week we started examining why.
And the first reason why he is obligated is this:
#1 WE ARE DELIVERED FROM CONDEMNATION
Romans 8:1-9
Verse 1 says a believer now has no condemnation before God.
God is not angry, there is no punishment coming.
All of God’s wrath toward you was satisfied on Christ.
And that is what Paul said in verses 2&3
We once were under the system of sin and of death.
(If you sin, you die)
But the Spirit set us free from that
By making us righteous and thus giving us life.
This happened because Christ came in the likeness of man
And took our punishment and killed our enemy.
And the reality which we saw was this:
Romans 8:4 “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
What Christ did was to make us practically righteous.
He didn’t take our sin and take our condemnation and give us His Spirit
And make us righteous so we could continue wallowing in the mud.
He did all those things so that we could live righteous.
And because of that we are obligated to live righteous.
If He set us free from sin, death, wrath, and condemnation, don’t we then owe it to Him to live as He intended?
It’s like a POW
You break behind enemy lines, you take out the guards, you open the jail cell…
After you do all that, don’t you expect the prisoner to at least leave the cell?
We owe it to Christ to live the righteous life
That can only be done through His Spirit.
Now this morning we are going to examine the second reason
We are obligated to walk by the Spirit.
#2 WE ARE BEING DELIVERED FROM CORRUPTION
Romans 8:10-13
Now before we get into these verses
I want us to take a little “flash back” first.
And for the flash back I want you to look back at Romans 7
Many of you are already familiar with this passage
Because so many of us have felt Paul’s pain
And lamented with him in these verses.
Paul has been talking about how the Law revealed his sin,
And ultimately condemned him.
And the point of Paul’s argument here is to point out
That his problem is not the Law.
(Many people blame the law for their failures)
Paul’s problem isn’t the Law, it is the flesh.
Notice what he says:
(7:14-16) – THERE IS A BATTLE WITHIN ME
We know there is a battle because Paul adamantly states that
He is not doing what he would like.
There is an obvious standard that he would “like” to achieve,
However he instead too often ends up dong the thing he “hates”
There is a battle being waged within him.
But that’s not all
(7:17-20) – I AM LOSING AND SIN IS WINNING
So many people today blame their failures on someone else.
We either have bad parents or bad leaders or bad circumstances
Paul says that his problem is his own sinful flesh
When you read those verses you can sympathize with Paul in his struggle
It is the heart of a person who loves God and loves God’s Law,
But despite their desires still seems to fall in defeat.
Been there?
We have all felt the remorse of stumbling in sin.
Now this battle brings Paul to draw a very astute conclusion.
(7:21-23) – I CAN’T WIN THE BATTLE
He fought the flesh, he fought sin,
But he lost and he ended up a prisoner of war.
And many understand this as well.
They fight and they strive and they still fail.
And more than one person has bowed their head in defeat and said, “I just can’t help it.”
Now here is where Paul takes the very important next step.
(7:24-25) – PAUL ASKS FOR HELP IN THE BATTLE
Remember, I told you that one of the punishments for murderer’s in Paul’s day was to strap the corpse of the person they murdered on their back until the decay literally seeped into the body of the murderer and the infection killed them…
Paul said that is how he feels.
He feels like he has a dead man strapped to his back.
And he wants to know who will help him.
Pay special attention to his answer:
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”
Now you recognize that Paul is thanking God
For what He did through Jesus.
And if you’ll remember what we studied last week,
You’ll remember exactly what God did through Jesus.
Romans 8:3 “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,”
Now also pay attention to what Paul said back in 7:25.
In his mind he served “the law of God”,
But with his flesh he served “the law of sin.”
Did we not talk about the “law of sin” last week?
It was that system that we were all under.
And Paul here recognizes that he was struggling with it.
He said in verse 23 that he was a “prisoner of the law of sin”
And then in verse 25 that he was “serving” the law of sin in his flesh.
So long as Paul fought this battle in his own strength, he lost every time.
So long as Paul walked in the flesh he was constantly defeated.
He could want, and he could cry, and he could push, but he could not win.
It did not matter how badly he wanted to win, he could not do it.
He remained a prisoner.
However, Christ came and set us free from the law of sin remember?
He did that so that we could be righteous.
And now we walk by the Spirit (and in the Spirit’s power)
And we fulfill the righteous requirement of the Law.
That means walking by the Spirit can allow us to accomplish
What walking in the flesh never could.
Walking in the Spirit frees us so that we can be righteous,
And that brings me back to the reality that Paul is showing us
Here in 8:10.
Notice what Paul says:
(10) “If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.”
NOW THIS IS JUST A PRESENT CHRISTIAN REALITY.
Don’t miss the condition – “If Christ is in you…”
None of this applies if the Holy Spirit does not dwell in you.
But if He does, your “body” may still be “dead”,
But your “spirit” is now “alive”.
Paul is speaking of our current situation.
• We now have the living Spirit of God within us.
• We are now spiritually alive thanks to the Holy Spirit.
• But we do still live in the old flesh.
When you got saved you didn’t get a new body, you got a new heart.
And you are all with me to this point.
You say, “That’s just the problem. I’m like Paul in Romans 7 and my new heart is frustrated by my old body.”
The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak
And even though I am now saved, I still don’t do what I wish I did.
But listen Paul is telling you that it doesn’t have to be this way.
(11) “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
This verse is so important.
First let me remind you exactly who is in you.
“the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead”
• Jesus took our sin
• Jesus took our punishment
• Jesus died
Now I don’t know a lot about medicine or medical treatment,
But I have learned that when death sets in, doctors quit.
• I’ve heard of doctors treating cancerous tumors…
• I’ve heard of doctors opening a skull and operating on a brain…
• I’ve heard of doctors taking a heart out of one body and putting it into another…
• I’ve heard of doctors making prosthetic arms and legs to replace lost ones…
Doctors will attempt just about anything in regard to the human body,
But one thing they all have in common, is they quit when death occurs.
Death is too powerful.
But we are here talking about the Spirit who conquers death.
We are talking about the Great Physician who raised Jesus from the dead.
That is power like you and I cannot fathom.
And listen, that is the same Spirit who dwells in you.
The same Spirit who called Jesus up from the tomb,
Now dwells in you.
And here is what Paul says He will do in you.
“He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
Now we are all aware of the resurrection.
We all know that when we die (and this body must die) that we will be raised
again in an imperishable body.
And in one sense Paul is saying that it doesn’t end in death for a believer.
BUT THAT IS NOT ALL THAT PAUL IS SAYING HERE.
We don’t get life once the body dies.
We have life now, even though the body is dying.
Remember what Jesus told Martha?
John 11:25-26 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
And here is the point.
God has already put in you all the power you need
To live the righteous life you desire.
God, through His life giving Spirit, will give life “to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
He will give you the ability to escape corruption.
Not physical corruption, but spiritual corruption
This is Paul’s point.
• I once was a man frustrated with my inability to do what I desired.
• I was a broken man continually losing the battle against sin.
• But finally I begged for help and was set free from the law of sin and of death,
• And when I started walking by His Spirit instead of in my own strength, I found freedom from condemnation, and freedom from corruption.
His Point?
WE DON’T HAVE TO SIN ANY LONGER
Now, if you fight this battle in your own strength
And by your own ability, you will never win it.
But if you walk according to the Holy Spirit and in His power
You find the ability to overcome.
We already have everything we need to live a holy life.
Listen to what Peter said:
2 Peter 1:2-3 “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”
We have everything we need for life and godliness through Christ.
THAT IS WHAT PAUL IS SAYING.
We have been delivered from condemnation
We are being delivered from corruption
And if you find yourself still overcome by specific sins
And unable to defeat them
Perhaps it is because you are fighting them in your own strength.
When you walk according to the flesh you are destined to lose.
Paul said:
Romans 7:18 “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.”
You don’t have the ability in your flesh to win,
So walk according to the Spirit.
Trust in His ability.
Follow His leadership.
Be filled with His will.
That’s why Paul could tell the Galatians:
Galatians 5:16 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
If you think this battle can’t be won,
Then you haven’t realized exactly who is in you.
He can free you from corruption.
If you need proof, just look at how far you’ve come.
Are you the same person you were when you were saved?
Of course not He has been changing you.
No sin so far has proven beyond His ability,
And neither is the one you struggle with now.
But you’ve got to quit fighting it in your own strength
And start submitting to Him.
BUT YOU SEE HERE THE THINGS HE HAS DONE.
He has delivered us from condemnation
He is delivering us from corruption
AND THIS BRINGS US TO THE OBLIGATION PART.
(12-13) “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
• Because of what God has done.
• Because of what Christ has done.
• Because of what the Spirit is doing.
We have an obligation.
“NOT TO THE FLESH”
You’ve spent enough time walking by the flesh
And doing what the flesh desires.
If you are still walking by the flesh “you must die”
Because you are still under the law of sin and of death.
Walking by the flesh will never gain you victory.
“but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
You must – I must – walk by the Spirit.
This isn’t an option.
We must see that in our own strength we cannot win the battle,
But through the Spirit who dwells in us,
Not only do we escape condemnation, but we can escape corruption.
And because we can, we are obligated to.
Now this morning you will notice that
We are once again partaking of the Lord’s Supper.
And certainly all that we’ve seen the last two weeks about us
Being rescued from the law of sin and of death through the sacrifice of Jesus
Is enough to move us to gratitude to partake of the table.
But I want you to know that this idea of obligation
Is also linked to the Lord’s Supper.
We are familiar with the passage in 1 Corinthians 11
Where Paul tells us to examine ourselves and partake of the table of the Lord in a worthy manner.
But 1 Corinthians 11 isn’t the only place
Where Paul mentions the Lord’s Supper in that letter.
He first mentions it in 1 Corinthians 5.
Now you will remember that chapter because it is the chapter
Which speaks of the man who is sleeping with his father’s wife.
And that isn’t really even the main problem.
The main problem is that the Corinthians had grown complacent with it.
1 Corinthians 5:1-2 “It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.”
See the Corinthians had adopted this “sin is inevitable” mentality.
They had grown to accept their immoralities.
Paul was livid.
And he commanded the Corinthians to pass judgment on this man.
Now the first reason he commanded them to do so was because this man was a threat to corrupt the whole body with his immorality.
1 Corinthians 5:6 “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?”
If you let one man live in that sin,
Then others will think it is ok and follow in his steps.
But the other reason Paul wanted him gone was because partaking in the Lord’s Supper while tolerating, practicing, or accepting sin was a farce.
1 Corinthians 5:7-8 “Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Paul said when you partake you need to do so
With the understanding that what Christ came to accomplish
Was holiness.
If you aren’t partaking with a spirit leading to holiness
You are missing the point.
And this is what I want you to understand as we partake this morning.
Certainly we first must remember the sacrifice of Christ.
• We must remember the high price He paid in coming in the likeness of man and as an offering for sin.
But we also must remember the aim of it.
• We must remember why Christ did it.
He did it to make you holy.
And if that were not enough,
He sent His Spirit to make your holiness possible.
AND THAT IS THE POINT.
We come to the table, remembering what Christ did,
But also understanding what Christ wants.
Because He died, because He rose,
And because His Spirit now dwells in you,
You are free from condemnation
And you are being freed from corruption.
Understand as you partake that you are also under obligation.
Church, we must walk by the Spirit.
• We must yield our lives to His leadership.
• We must be filled with Him.
• We must trust His ability to make us righteous.
This is how we truly honor Christ during this ordinance.
We will pray and then have a time of preparation
And then partake of the table of the Lord.
LORD’S SUPPER
Romans 7:24-8:4 “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
• Give bread to deacons
• Deacon prayer
• Deacons pass out bread
1 Corinthians 11:23-24 “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
• Take Bread
Romans 8:9-13 “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. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
• Give juice to deacons
• Deacon prayer
• Deacons pass out juice
1 Corinthians 11:25-26 “In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
• Take Juice
• Prayer
• Parting Chorus
