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8 we continue with uh Paul's major discourse on the person and work of the Holy Spirit the most concentrated teaching that we have in in the uh Pauline epist Pauline epist of the work of the Holy Spirit we're
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going to be looking at verses 5 through 11 this morning going to read that passage I like to ask Ariel if you pray for the ministry of the word this morning Romans chapter 8 beginning in
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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 for
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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
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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
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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
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belong to him and 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
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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 indwells
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you let us pray Heavenly Father we ga corporately we look forward to hearing your word exp founded we pray that you
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would open the ears of our heart that our spirit would be attuned that the work of your servant would be blessed this day pray that there are any here
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who are listening with unbelieving ears that the spirit would enter in and that salvation would take place for your glory and our joy in Christ's name we
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what is a Methodist I'm sure you all woke up this morning wondering what is a Methodist well I have here a definition of a Methodist from the founder of methodism John
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Wesley a Methodist is one who loves the Lord his God with all his heart with all his soul with all his mind and with all his strength God is the joy of his heart
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and the desire of his soul which is continually crying whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth whom I desire besides thee he is
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therefore happy in God yay always happy as having in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life and overflowing his soul with peace and
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joy does anybody know any methodists that fit this description any Baptists any Baptists any episcopalians what's the point what's
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the point of that little question and answer well John Wesley the founder of Wesley and methodism is also famous for his doctrine of Christian
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perfectionism and he advocated throughout his career that a Believer could attain perfection in this life and he spent a great deal of time over a
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Ministry that spanned 50 years defining what that P Perfection was interestingly when asked if he knew anybody who had attained it he was not
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able to give a name he actually gave quite an interesting evasion but we won't go there he does limit this definition of perfection his primary
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Treatise he published in 1777 so that kind of tells you where John Wesley was in the in the life of the world about the time that we were rebelling from our mother country John Wesley was writing a
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plain account of Christian Perfection and he limits this Perfection he says they are not perfect in knowledge they are not free from
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ignorance no nor from mistakes they are not free from infirmities such as weakness or slowness of understanding irregular quickness I'm
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sure that meant something in the 18th century or heaviness of imagination that too is a bit archaic now what's interesting is he does allow that a perfect Christian can relapse odd
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that his definition of perfection is really simple really simple sinlessness he writes a Christian is so far perfect as not to commit
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sin now he's not speaking of the new believer of course but he's speaking of one who is mature or perfect in Christ now he's
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drawing from Paul's writings and that's why what he taught is so important to consider in light of what Paul's saying here regarding walking by the spirit and
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not by the flesh Paul says for example in Philippians to those who have attained Perfection the word is often translated in your Bibles maturity because the word
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Perfection has kind of been tinted Now by Wesley's teaching the question remains can a Believer attain to sinless perfection in this
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life he writes we mean one in whom is the mind which was in Christ and so walks says Christ also walked a man that
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hath Clean Hands and a pure heart one in whom no occasion of stumbling and who accordingly does not commit sin now there were many who
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disagreed with Wesley and argued one of the reasons he wrote this Treatise was to respond to those who brought up other passages of scripture that indicate that
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we do continue to sin and that even Paul as he says in Philippians had not yet attained Perfection but pressed on but that does bring up the the
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question that we're faced with we've read that we are dead to sin we are dead to the law we are alive in the Holy Spirit but what does that mean in terms
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of our conduct in terms of our Behavior are we to continue to sin that Grace might abound Paul actually gives that option and of course he says may it
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never be that that's not even conceivable for one who has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit but we are daily faced with this the body of this death we are daily faced with the
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Temptations and the failures Wesley like to call them weaknesses but they are in fact sins ignorance can be a sin weakness can be a
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sin this is the essence of methodism I don't know if you've ever wondered that because the methodists have gone a long way from their Founders teachings but the path that they have taken is a
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logical one it's the it's the path of sanctification according to the Armenian doctrine that it's in us to do what God commands this this arose with pelagia
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back in the days of Augustine in the fifth century if God commands then therefore that implies we have the ability to do what he commands and now even more so if we have the Holy Spirit
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as I mentioned last week it's the it's the idea okay now it's up to us now we take up the charge of Holiness and we work it out in the flesh Paul called
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this foolishness to the Galatians oh Galatians you who have started in the spirit are now continuing in the flesh but the essence of methodism did you
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ever wonder why that name methodism because it teaches a method a method of devotion and dedication to the means of Grace in order to bring about
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sinless perfection a method that is nothing less than working out in the flesh what God has begun in the spirit it is
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not the logic of Paul the though Wesley quotes Paul copiously frequently but Wesley did not understand what Paul meant in my opinion
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he did not understand what Paul meant in chapter 7: chapter 7: 24 when he cried out oh Wretched Man that I am who will free me from the body
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of this death you see in all of the discussion of the Flesh and of the spirit Paul rarely uses the word body but he uses it
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significantly and he uses it in distinction from flesh the body is what I have what God has given me what was knitted together in my mother's womb
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what I will exchange for another body the body that we have as he says in verse 11 is Mortal it will Decay and die we will one
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day exchange Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 the Mortal for the immortal and we will be clothed again with a body but he also says in that same
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passage that Flesh and Blood shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven so in a sense we will have a fleshless body Now by that I don't mean some ethereal
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spiritual body but the sense of Flesh as weakness and vulnerable will not adhere to that glorious body that we will be given in the resurrection we will be I
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believe believe as Christ was after his resurrection we will be flesh and blown we will be able to say to a doubter here touch my side give me a piece of fish that I might eat it we will have those
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that that capacity of our flesh but we will not have the negative connotation that is so rampant in Paul's letter of the flesh as being weak and vulnerable
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and led astray by the law to sin and death so Paul has taught us in so far beginning going back into chapter 6 that
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we have died through baptism yet we live how does that work I mean honestly this is where the rubber meets the road for believers we can have our Doctrine
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straight that we have died and been buried with Christ in baptism that we are dead to sin we are dead to the law we live under grace but frankly how does
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that work day to day how how are we to live out what has been wrought in us and that's what Paul is getting into now
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much more heavily in chapter 8 because the gospel is not just about getting people to heaven when they die and it is certainly not about having your theological teas crossed and your eyes
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dotted correctly actually getting saved is only part of the Gospel it is the power of God unto salvation and as you read Paul you realize that that word
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salvation is past present and future not that we can lose it at any place because of it's something that God has done but it is not something that we obain obtained fully the moment of our
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regeneration it is something that we will finally obtain fully at the consummation of the ages and so there's a time in between a time between our our
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new heart our new creation and the time when that new creation lives in the new creation the new Heaven and the Earth new Earth so what do we do
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well Paul is answering here in this passage this morning that cry from the previous chapter verse 24 particularly I want you to look at verse 11 of chapter 8 so I'm kind of starting with the end
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and then we're going to go back through verses 5- 11 he writes but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised Christ from the dead isn't that
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repetition I mean how many grammar teachers would allow you to get away with that with that paragraph you've just said the same thing twice now when you read the same thing
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twice in scripture you don't think oh Paul you really failed grammar didn't you you think oh this is important this is something that he is drawing our attention to
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immediately redundantly the one who raised Christ from the dead if that spirit is in you than he who raised Christ from the dead this is so incredibly
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trinitarian I mean you could you could preach an entire sermon on the Trinity from this verse because it is God the Father who raised Jesus the son from the grave through the power of the Holy
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Spirit and that power of the Holy Spirit now dwells in all who are regenerate in Christ Jesus but he goes on to say he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will
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also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who indwells
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you if it were not now this is this is um my thinking not chapter in verse but if it were not for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at the the moment of our
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regeneration our lifeless bodies would drop to the ground and we would be with the Lord in heaven because heaven because that power that gave us life life which
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Death Dies at the time of our regeneration we are born a new but what about our mortal bodies they are not yet regenerate they are still flesh and
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blood blood they Decay and will die returning to dust from which they were formed so if it were not for the Holy Spirit indwelling Spirit indwelling us we would fall as a heap to the ground
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lifeless and we would be in the presence of the Lord but that was not the Lord's will that was not the purpose of regeneration the purpose of regeneration was not only to kill the old
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man but to bring a new man to life and that new man in order to live requires an enervating animating Force just as
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that pile of dust and spittle in the garden needed the Breath of God to become alive a living Soul so we need the Holy Spirit to maintain our mortal
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bodies in life so here he mentions mortal body but it's not the first time he've mentioned it but I want to draw your attention that verse 11 of chapter 8 is truly the answer to verse 24 of
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chapter 7 who will set me free from this body the body of this death this is what I don't think Wesley God the idea of the body of this
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death that's this package this Tabernacle that we have been given is the body of this death it is not the body of that life it
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is the body of this death and therefore it decays it grows weak and it will die it is also Al the package in which our vulnerable and weak
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flesh is manifested in this life and so that continues even after regeneration so Paul is answering his
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own question and he's explaining how it is that we continue on after regeneration after we have died to sin after we have died to the law after we
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have died to death yet we live how do we live now we all know that Paul answers that very succinctly in Galatians 2:20 but we'll get to that in a moment
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here it is far far more detailed see this has always been the challenge to the church and to any doctrine of sanctification and there have been many
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and there will be many because there really is no agreement within professing Christianity as to how we are Sanctified there are many and perhaps the predominant belief is that we are saved
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by faith but we are Sanctified by works that we are saved by grace but we are Sanctified by rules and so there is much in the church that teaches methods of
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sanctification in fact most of Christianity is Methodist and most of what you see in Christian literature is Methodist whether it's Presbyterian
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whether it's Baptist it's all Methodist this is what what you need to do in order to be holy in order to be Sanctified some of it of course will get close to the truth most of it is nothing
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more than working out our Salvation In the Flesh it is foolishness and it is not what Paul teaches and yet it is our challenge Paul has already mentioned
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this challenge back in chapter six where he's talking about our death to sin he says therefore do not let sin re in in
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your mortal body that you should obey its lust well that seems to indicate that sin does
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sin does Remain the flesh certainly remains and it remains for us not to allow sin to re in our mortal bodies so
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therefore we are to struggle Wesley understood that his his real error if you read his writings and his sermons you think yeah he was pretty
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spoton but his error was in thinking that we could somehow attain the goal to which we which we strive what Paul says in chapter 6 he repeats here in chapter 8:12 so then
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brethren we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh notice there's in your Bible there's probably a dash there this is
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one of Paul's famous an ktha where he doesn't finish his sentence he he would have been a star pupil for any grammar or writing
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or writing teacher sometimes he needed to put some commas and periods in where he didn't and often times he just doesn't finish his sentence but why should he why should he bother to write down what we should already know that we're not under
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obligation to live according to the flesh but according to the spirit we can all fill out the end of the sentence right and Papyrus was expensive so why waste the ink
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okay getting Paul off the the grammatical hook there but there really is no method by which we can sanctify by which we can
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sanctify our mortal body and I guess one of the first things I want to point out in in my assessment of what Paul's saying here and I'm going to mention it again later that when Paul talks about
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the Mind according to the flesh and the impact of the mind and the life according to the flesh the agent the subject of the sentence is always
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man but when he talks about the Mind according to the spirit the life according to the spirit the agent the subject of the sentence is always the
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holy spirit that is significant we can take it too far but we need to understand as I think Wesley did not that we we are not to work out
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our sanctification by any other means than by which we were saved in the first place and that is believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and
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Christ and so the difficulty comes in when Paul outlines the two types of life and we can understand the life that is according to the flesh that's leading
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to death and we understand the life that is according to the spirit that leads to life and peace
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but is it a simple either or proposition you see this is what Wesley conceived was a life of a believer that has lived 100% according to the spirit
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this side of death even he had to admit that that was a process in a path that did not happen the moment of
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regeneration even he had to admit that very very few attained to that and he never named anyone including himself
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never that I read did he claim to have achieved sinless Perfection that is one step better than a 20th century Evangelical leader who told the world that when when he learned to fast for 40
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days he gained complete victory over sin I don't know when Pride ceased to become a sin
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but I don't think he gained victory over that one he is he is now um he has now
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corrected is this an either or proposition can a Believer who is of the Spirit fall back into being of the flesh oh that's that major question many struggle with can I lose my
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salvation because Paul makes it very clear that to walk according to the flesh is flesh is death and only by walking according to the spirit do we attain life so that if
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I am living according to the flesh am I even a even a believer well I think that's a valid question I think that comes under the rubric of Paul's teaching on communion
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in 1 Corinthians chap 11 where he says examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith and he says here that if anyone does not have the spirit of
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Christ he is not of his okay so can a Believer who is of the Spirit fall back into being of the flesh
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is the is this the optional case of being spiritual versus carnal surely many of you have heard teaching on the carnal Christian where they are saved and they're going to
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heaven even though they live like the world and you couldn't tell it they're just carnal Christians so is that what Paul's saying here that it is it's okay for believers who are of the spirit to
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walk according to the flesh because they've got their policy their fire insurance policy and and they'll get saved but they won't have much in the way of rewards frankly not going to hell
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seems to be a pretty good reward just in itself can we attain sinless Perfection while in the body of this death well
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let's look at what Paul teaches he has a very interesting section here from verses 5 through 11 where he sets flesh and spirit off bang bang bang bang okay
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verse 5 for those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh that's one the other those according to the spirit on the things of
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the spirit then verse six the same thing for the Mind Set On the flesh is death but the Mind Set On the spirit is life and peace so he sets the two types of
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lives side by side in verses 5 and six ab ab death Life Death life but then starting in verse 7 he
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describes for us the Mind Set On The Flesh and the next two verses are going to be dedicated to showing the impossibility of pleasing God In the
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Flesh or through the Flesh and then finally verse 9- 11 this is not he he now focuses on the Spirit but as I just mentioned this is
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not what we do like we were doing through the flesh but now we do it in the spirit no it's what the spirit does in those who are in
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Christ the agent has changed from me according to the flesh to the spirit according to the spirit and I think that's that is so CR crucial to all of
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Paul's writings how he changes the subject of the sentence when he speaks of one who is unregenerate then it's entirely entirely them but when he
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speaks of one who is in Christ it's the spirit it's the spirit it's the spirit in fact it seems to me that the only thing that we manage to do
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according to Paul's letters is get in the spirit's way quench the spirit grieve the spirit frustrate the spirit but we do not walk according to the
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spirit and so we're not looking for a method we're not looking for Paul Paul okay Paul I understand all of that some of that theology that you've given us
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now what do I do show me what to do give me a method how many how how long should I pray every day how much scripture should I read how should I read my
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scripture you know what do I do he doesn't do any of that he was not a
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Methodist the Mind Set On The Flesh then let's talk about that briefly because what's really important here he is transitioning to the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit and he's going to he's going to focus on the
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comprehensive nature of the work of the Holy Spirit which is going to include the salvation and Redemption of all of creation but let's talk a little bit more about the flesh well when we think
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of the mindset on the flesh we tend to go to the realm of of sensuality the realm of lust the realm
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of of fleshly desires and indeed that is part of the manifestation of the flesh but that is not in keeping with the context here the
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weakness and vulnerability of the flesh has been shown by Paul not to manifest itself in sensuality and lust but rather in covetousness that was his particular sin
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that he used by way of example in chapter 7 that I did not know what it meant to covet until the law came and said Thou shalt not covet and when that came all manner of covetousness came in
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sin became alive and I died now the point isn't that that the Mind Set On the flesh is Covetous Covetous it's that the Mind Set On the flesh is
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incapable of obeying the law the Mind Set On the flesh is indeed sensual and is selfish and self gratifying yes but
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it is fundamentally the mind that is set on oneself and not on God there have been many people in the history of mankind
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whom we would look at and say there was a noble man or woman but they weren't Believers there are many people who are able to control the more publicly
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unacceptable sins of the flesh but they're still Sinners they're still disobedient to God it this idea of the mindset on the flesh to borrow from
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John's letter it does include the lust of the Flesh and the lust of the eyes but perhaps more importantly it's the boastful pride of life it is the self
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focused on the self it is me saying I can do it I have no need of God's grace that is the Mind Set On The Flesh
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and it cannot please God the one who lives according to the flesh is not a Believer because the spirit of God does not dwell within him the one who lives
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according to the flesh is incapable he says here of pleasing god well he's already said that in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 or chapter 2 excuse me but a
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natural man does not accept the things of the spirit for for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them for they are spiritually appraised but the believer who has the
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spirit within still has the flesh without that's that overlap that causes us so much difficulty both in our
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comprehension of sanctification and certainly in our achievement of it we do not just go as a light switch from the darkness to the light we do not go simply from the flesh to
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the spirit and all that was fleshly is done away if that were the case then Paul would need would not have needed to write any of his letters we are still in the flesh we
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live out this life in the body of this death and that is what we call sanctification it's fairly obvious I
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think in Paul's letters that he not only desired but expected Believers to no longer live according to the flesh but rather according to the spirit he was
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not setting up two types of Christians here carnal and spiritual he was not saying as many teach today that you need not walk according to the spirit but you
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must understand that you will be forfeiting rewards in heaven if you choose to obey Christ and accept Jesus not only as your savior but also as your
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Lord please understand understand and especially those who listen to this later I do not agree with what I'm saying okay sometimes that get you know you come in halfway think oh heresy turn
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that off no that you can accept Jesus as your savior but if you'll accept him as your lord then you will store up riches in heaven in that mansion that Jesus is
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preparing for you some of you will get there and find out you're homeless you know that's the teaching but that's not biblical it's not
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Paul but also Paul does not accept the idea that we can attain Perfection because we are in the body of this
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death and you have to take his what we would call eschatological teaching along with his soteriological teaching his teaching of Salvation and sanctification
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please don't forget the end of the the story the last chapter that we will exchange this Mortal for the immortal we will exchange this corruptible for The
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Incorruptible that is yet to come to think that we can somehow achieve the blessedness of the resurrected State before the before the resurrection is one of the chief
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heresies of heresies of arminianism because it robs again the glory of Jesus Christ and of the spirit who will raise us into that new new
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Earth that new creation that has begun but has not been compensate or um fully realized yet again notice he does not provide us
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with a method for Perfection and again remember that the active agent for life according to the flesh is man but the active agent for the life according to the spirit is the spirit keep that in
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mind as you read Paul as we get into the more exhortative passages in Romans and you can think in your mind of those passages in Philippians and Ephesians and Colossians where he says do this and
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do that and don't do this remember it is God who is at work within you both to Will and to do according to his good
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his good pleasure he says In this passage if you live according to the flesh you must die verse 13 but if by the spirit you are putting to death the Deeds of the body
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you will live so much of Christian teaching on teaching on sanctification loses that prepositional phrase by the
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spirit and that is again the essence of all forms of methodism do this do that read this much pray this much give this much serve this much and you will attain
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sinless Perfection no you will attain either despair or Pride but not sinless Perfection but if by the spirit you are putting to death the Deeds of the flesh
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you of the body you will live certainly there's one thing that we can derive from this teaching and from elsewhere in the scriptures like first
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John there is an there are irreconcilable differences between the Flesh and the spirit Paul points it out in Galatians 5 where he says the spirit lusts after the Flesh and the flesh
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after the spirit so that you do not do that which you wish essentially saying the same thing he said in Romans chapter 7 we we cannot have an alliance with the
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flesh though we do not have a method as to how to overcome the flesh we do have a power within us Whose desire and intention is to put to death the Deeds
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of the body that is what we have through the spirit that raised Christ from the dead now dwelling in us now empowering our life our mortal
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bodies the life that we live that walk that newness of life from which we rise in the waters of baptism to walk is empowered by the holy spirit that indwells us that's it that's Paul's
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methodism walk according to the spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh but how do we do that how are we
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to work out with fear and trembling our Salvation Paul writes in Philippians chapter 2 and then again I've already said but he immediately says for it is God who is at
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work within you both to Will and to do that really kind of covers everything according to his good pleasure but what does it look like that's really kind of what the books are
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all written about all those shelves of how to be a Christian how to walk a Christian Life 12 steps to becoming a perfect Christian I don't think that one's been written but maybe I'll write
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it how no I'm not how are we going to work this out well it seems to Paul first of first of all that all that the center of our attention in terms of
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working out what God has worked in is the mind so much of modern Christian would Christianity would say no it's the heart
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now the heart that is not Guided by the mind is the heart of a fool Paul does not say and we're we're
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we're slowly heading toward Paul's primary exhortation in chapter 12 veres 1 and 1 and two but he says there do not be conformed to the world but rather be
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transformed by what the renewing of your heart no renewing of your mind newos not C
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and here in chapter 8 he says the Mind Set On The Flesh versus the Mind Set On the spirit for the Mind Set On The Flesh does not think of the things of God and
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nor can it because it is natural and these things are spiritually appraised and therefore their foolishness to the mind that is on the flesh but the mind
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that has the spirit that is the mind of Christ Wesley believed that attaining the the mind of Christ was a mark of Christian Perfection no Paul says you
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have the mind of Christ he was writing to the Corinthians there's no way you can tell me there was a perfect Christian in Christian in Corinth to whom that letter must have
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been solely written no he says you have we have we have the mind of Christ because we have the spirit of Christ it is in the mind that we believe it is in
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the mind that we will and it is what PA calls us to renew and therefore be transformed so these irreconcilable
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differences between the Flesh and the spirit battle for Supremacy in our minds and it has to do with what we will set our minds our minds to whether we give our minds over to the
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things of the Flesh and that is such a myriad of different mental images or whether we give our minds over to the spirit of God and that is very singular Paul says set
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your mind on things above where Christ is seated in the heavenlies and what he is saying here again remember he does not give us any method he simply is telling us what God has done in Christ
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through the Holy Spirit and he's going to go on to say you have that Spirit of adoption that cries out ABA father that's what's in our mind that we are the children of God that we are The
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Heirs of the new Heaven and the new Earth that will one day that come to pass but even now are groaning and yearning for what the revelation of us
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the sons of God the daughters of God I think I think this was it's behind the scenes but if you read The Chronicles of Narnia you see Lewis grasped this he he
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grasped how this current creation is divided between talking animals and non-talking animals talking trees and non-talking trees what he was saying is those who are of the
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spirit and of course in that fiction it was the spirit of aan but we know it to be the spirit of Christ and those who are of the flesh those who are of the
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world the dumb animals the dumb vegetation those who did not know the glory of aan the glory of Jesus Christ
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we are of those who have that Spirit if we are in Jesus Christ Christ so we don't set our minds as he says we are not under
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obligation to the flesh to live according to the flesh we do not set our minds even certainly we don't set our minds on covetousness greed lust those
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are things that we must put to death but then we also don't set our minds on religious fleshiness oh if I just do this if I
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just do that and I'll I'll set up a Journal I'll keep a journal as I read my Bible and I'll spend this much time that is all working out our Salvation through the power of the Flesh and it is just as
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forbidden as the more recognizable sins of the flesh it is not walking by the spirit it is walking by the Flesh and
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so Wesley uses Galatians 2:20 in his treatise but he gets it all wrong he doesn't understand that Galatians 2:20 is another Pauline
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Exposition on that plaintive cry in chapter 7 verse 24 and I have I've gone back to that several times you know since we've first went through it
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because it it really is the Cry of every believer it really is and I don't I'm not saying it should be it is every believer cries who will save me
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from the body of this death who will deliver me from all the things in my mind and in my heart and in my Deeds that I do not want to do and yet I seem
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powerless not to do them and and any believer professing believer that knows nothing of that cry may know nothing of Jesus Christ may
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know nothing of the Holy Spirit in fact may not even be Christ and so Paul so many times what he says points back here's the answer folks
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I understand your travail I understand your frustration your despair here's the answer he says in Galatians chapter 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ well
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that's Romans chapter 6 and it is no longer I who live well that's what we've been talking about that's why I say if it weren't for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit the moment of our Salvation
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would be the moment of our death because there would be no animating force in this Mortal body the animating force that we now possess in Christ is the
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spirit of God that's the power that we have to walk according to the spirit it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in
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the flesh that's the Mortal body that's the body of this death I live by faith in the Son of God Who Loved Me delivered
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himself up for me the steadfast persevering dedicated
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persevering dedicated unwavering Faith let us pray father we ask that you would strengthen our faith we know that the faith unto salvation is not the full
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extent we even know that some are given the gift of faith we pray for that gift more than the gift of Prophecy more than the gift of tongues or any other
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spiritual gift we pray that we might believe and in all things believe that our minds would be set fully upon what you have done in
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fulfilling and being faithful to your Covenant promises from Adam and from Abraham on through Jesus Christ also that our minds would be settled
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upon what you will do knowing that you who have begun a good work in us will bring it to Perfection Faithful is he who has called
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us and he will bring it to pass so many benedictions point to your faithfulness and not our effort and so we ask that we would not
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interfere grieve in any way hinder the Holy Spirit from Guiding Us in the paths of Truth and Love and life we ask that you would make us
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testimonies of Your Grace by your spirit and not by methods but only by believing that we might bring honor and
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glory to you through Jesus Christ Our Lord for it is in his name that we pray amen please rise for the benediction
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from Hebrews now the God of Peace who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the Eternal Covenant even Jesus our lord equip you in every good thing to do his
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will working out in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be the glory forever and
