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Everything.
To the fall.
Center.
Way.
Of thee.
And Luke's gospel. We have the servant's place brought before us, and the prodigal When he returned, he said, make me as one of thine hired servants. The passage goes on to the judgment, the beating with stripes of the unfaithful servant. But I wondered if you read in Romans 8 if we couldn't go be there so many young people here to spend some time in Romans chapter 8 to see what is the proper Christian position.
He spoke of the pathway, and it's we have in Romans 8 as many as are the sons of God. They are led by the Spirit of God.
And if it wouldn't be helpful for us to to take up this passage?
For the young and our those of us that are older as well, to have a look at this, but I it's just a suggestion given your the fact that you left the door open to go on to something else.
That's a good suggestion.
We might get beyond that, but we could.
Chapter 8.
There's therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not out to the flex without the Spirit. 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, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sins condensed sin in the flesh.
In the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in US, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
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For they that are after the flesh remind the thing of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, where it is not subject to the law of God either in these tangents. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwelling.
Now if any man have not saved Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you.
The body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is light because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwelling you, he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwells in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
Where if you live after the flesh, you still die, but if you through the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the Spirit of ******* again through fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA, Father.
The Spirit itself, and star Spirit, that we are the children of God, And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs of Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed enough.
For the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subjects of anarchy, not willingly by reason that you have subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth and paid together until now.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit.
Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen as not hope For what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then we do, Then we then do we, with patience, wait for it.
Likewise, the Spirit also help with our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose, for whom he did for know He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
What shall we say then to these things? If God before us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Making a comment, Neil, I didn't say anything because I wanted to hear what others say, but we have pretty well covered what I had on my heart in Luke's Gospel chapter 12. So yes, that's.
That's just fine if we go on to something else.
See to realize that no matter what you look like or what you act like.
What Your standing is before God. And every Christian exhortation is based on where you are before God. You're standing before God.
And.
These, those exhortations, are because we've been placed before God in an entirely new standing.
And the same is true of the condition of the world before us. In Romans, we find the guilt of those that had the law and did not obey the law, and we have the guilt of those that didn't have the law but knew in their conscience what they were doing was wrong and had the evidence and refusing to retain God in their knowledge. But we have the gospel, and it's a wonderful gospel that we have to take to the world because God has been propitiated. And that's a big $10 word. But what does it mean?
It means that God looks down on this and He's satisfied, but He's satisfied because of what Christ has done.
And so we can say to the Sinner that God has been satisfied, and you can come to Christ and find a full and a free salvation. And God has been satisfied, and He places you. No matter what is going on in your life, If you truly belong to Christ, He's placed you on a perfect standing before God.
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And he wants you to live your life. He wants me to live my life in a way that reflects that.
I'm just going to use an illustration before we come to this chapter because I believe in the preaching of the gospel. It's so important that men understand that God is not in any way sacrificed his righteousness, but he's left away open that he can be satisfied. Our brother Chuck referred to his house and suppose he said, Neil, you can come and live in that house and I carry on very badly and I trash that house and I behave wildly And all the neighbors said, what kind of a fool is Mr. Hendricks that he would let a character like that live in his house?
And that is what the way man speaks of God.
And supposing the house gets to a condition, the building inspector comes to say, the only solution for this house is it to be condemned. But then, you know, somebody from far away comes and they sell everything that they have to rebuild that house. He has been satisfied, they say, look at what kind of friends he has that they would do. That doesn't let me off the hook. I'm still the one who trashed his house, doesn't let me off the guilt, but it lays A righteous basis whereby he can say, Neil, I forgive you for what you do if I come and repentance, and we can say that to sinners, but it doesn't let me off the hook until I come and beg his forgiveness for art to to take my guilt before him for what he's done.
But God, who has been dishonored in this world, has been honored by what Christ has done, and there's a righteous basis left so that the whole creation, which now groans and travails, can look for the manifestation of the sons of God. But here in Romans we have the proper in this 8th chapter we have the proper standing, in which the believer is now placed before God because of the work of Christ.
What is important is to understand that Romans 8 follows what is taught in Chapter 7.
In Chapter 7, you have defeat, you have failure. Why?
Because the believer is seen in the new nature.
The new nature gives us desires after God, but doesn't give us the power.
To do what we desire, and that's what we have in Romans 8. The power to do what is pleasing to God and what the nature delights in is the indwelling Spirit.
You know, so you have in Romans 7 defeat because the believer is seen in the new nature.
But as Christians, we have more than new birth. People say are you a born again Christian? If you don't have more than new birth, you're not a Christian.
The Old Testament Saints were born again.
But they weren't Christians. What makes us Christians and different from any St. that ever lived before the day of Pentecost is that the Spirit dwells in us, that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And that's why we have the power to live pleasing to God and to do that which the divine nature delights in. That's the secret of Christianity and that makes us Christians.
That the spirit dwells in us. If you don't have the Spirit dwelling in you, you're not even a Christian. It is possible even today that a soul is born again. There might be a time between new birth and sealing of the spirit, you know, I think if I remember correct, Mr. Darby says of himself that he was in that state for seven years, you know, but you become a Christian.
You couldn't be a Christian without first being born again, because the spirit doesn't seal a Sinner. He seals one who is born again.
And the Spirit comes then to indwell our body, and that gives us the power to do what the divine nature delights in. In Romans 8 teaches that side of things, it's the power of the Spirit of God that makes the difference. The experience of Romans 7 is a man under law, quickened or burned. Again same thing, but not sealed. And he says in verse 22 of Romans 7.
I delight in the law of God after the inward man. That's the new nature.
But I see another law on my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
That's the flesh that's doing that, he says, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death or this body of death? And then he finds deliverance in Christ. He'd been looking for strength within, which doesn't that. We don't get that without the Spirit of God. He's not mentioned once in Romans 7. The Spirit. He's mentioned 18 times in Romans 8I thank God, he says.
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Deliverance comes this way. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's where I get deliverance.
So then, with the mind.
I serve the law of God. That's the new nature. He agrees with it, but he doesn't find the power to carry it out. But with the flesh, the law said, And then we have Christianity. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. I believe that's where that verse should stop. The last part of it goes correctly with verse four, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.
But in verse one, it's just our being in Christ. I was asked just recently with the Old Testament Saints in Christ. I said no, there was no Christ to be in. In the Old Testament, being in Christ means to be in Christ's place before God. And he he wasn't in that place until he became a man and then died and rose again and ascended to the right hand of God. To be in Christ is to be in Christ where he is in his place before God. That's the way God sees us. He sees us in Christ.
And there was number such thing in the Old Testament. They were quickened, yes, or born again. But now we are not only that, we have that, of course, but we are sealed by the Spirit, quickened, anointed, energized.
We have all our blessings by the Spirit of God 18 times mentioned in Romans 8. What a wonderful chapter just to remove any confusion, and I don't think there is any. But is stealing something we have to pray for? When is a person sealed? After that you believe the gospel of your salvation. You were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
And so when that little girl gets down in her bed at night and confesses the Lord Jesus Christ as her savior, she's sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. And when she comes down to her mother the next morning and she says, Mommy, I accepted Jesus as my savior, last night, she shows the evidence that she's been sealed. She didn't ask for the ceiling when she believed the gospel of her salvation. Whether you're 8 years old or 98 years old, when you do it, you're sealed with the Spirit of God. Now, when we speak of those not to take too much time.
But there are two examples, I believe in scripture of those that were quickened and yet did not have life. Zacchaeus went to the Lord, and I didn't understand what Mr. Darby said. And I preached otherwise and.
He kind of dismissed what I preached as being a bit of fanciful thinking, and I found out he was right and I was wrong. But anyways, Zacchaeus, he came to the Lord and he said to half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I've taken anything, I restored fourfold. He was doing that before the Lord ever came along. It didn't satisfy his heart.
Cornelius, He gave much alms to the people, and his prayers went up to God. It didn't satisfy his heart. He needed to be saved. So the Lord sent along a servant, Peter, to preach the gospel to Peter, and he told Cornelius all the things he knew. He said, you know that Jesus came going about doing good, preaching, peace, these things. You know, Cornelius? But he said, I'm going to tell you something that you don't know, that Jesus was crucified and raised and that we can preach the forgiveness of sins by that man. And when Cornelius heard that, he was immediately sealed by the Spirit of God.
Faith is the hurt. That's good. Faith in the person of Christ gives life or quickens. Faith in the work of Christ brings peace to the soul. You can't have peace until you see the value of his work, where he bore our sins in his body on the tree. So that's salvation and that's what we have. It's not just being quickened, but it's quickening and then sealing by the spirit of God.
The Old Testament Saints are not in Christ. I Thessalonians 4 says the dead in Christ shall rise first. The Old Testament Saints rise then.
Rise at the same time. But that's that doesn't mean that they were in Christ.
And she addresses Christians.
And he gives the hope of the Christian the death in Christ. In First Corinthians 15 he says all that are Christ that is coming.
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That refers to all the Saints that died in faith. 1St Corinthians 15 gives that side, while Thessalonians refers to the Christians portion. Those who are Christ's at his coming, you know he comforts the Christians they had.
Some passed away, and they were troubled about that. And so he says, the dead in Christ shall be raised first. But in First Corinthians 15 he refers to all that belong to the Lord Jesus. The work of the Lord Jesus has not only made us his. All Saints that died in faith became his through the work of Calvary's cross. That's excellent. The dead in Christ are those that die in this present day of grace, and then they'll be raised.
But those who are Christ said it's coming are all the Saints from Adam onwards.
That time when when our bodies will be the time of our the redemption of our bodies. And that is that what is referred to in Ephesians 430, where it says, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
The day of redemption, that is that time that we've been Speaking of, correct?
So someone.
A young sister that.
That my wife and I took in when she was put out of her home for coming to meeting.
Some years ago.
Called me recently.
And apologized or tried to explain that recently she has begun to question some some things that we had told her that she just accepted. And one of the things that she had begun to question was eternal security.
Not in a perhaps real deep way.
But she said after she asked me about that the following week from two or three different sources, she heard that verse was mentioned in Ephesians chapter one.
113.
Ye were in whom in whom ye also trusted. After that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
Well, that is the beginning of the ceiling. When you believe that is when you're sealed.
And then I told her that ceiling lasts until the day of redemption that's in Chapter 4. So you could read these two together and say whereby.
You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, and turn over and read sealed unto the day of redemption.
So that's it. No one can open that seal. That's it. When you believe your seal, that seal will not be broken until the day of redemption.
That is put upon the believer.
To seal that man belongs to me. That's the seal you know. But it only speaks and shows there is more coming, you know, It's just like a down payment.
And assuring future blessing the fullness.
Will come when we are brought into full conformity to Christ. The redemption of our body is future, you know. We have the present redemption of our souls and we are saved in our daily walk with him. And salvation is seen as that which will take in the future take place in the future. When we brought into full conformity to Christ, well, we have something to look forward to, brethren.
And as we get older, we're looking forward to that more than when we were younger. Is that right? We're looking forward to that because we realized that body is not what it used to be, you know? But the day is going to come when we get a new body, when we will be brought into full conformity to Christ. How is that body? How can we know what that body is going to be like?
Look at the Lord Jesus in resurrection like unto his body of glory that refers the body that he had when he appeared.
To his own in resurrection, he had a natural body, you know, a normal body, a physical body, I should say. And he could eat.
Have you anything to eat? But he didn't need to eat to sustain that life, you know, so how wonderful we will be like the Lord Jesus as we see him in resurrection. And there's not going to be any possibility of ever dying again, you know, just like he cannot die again.
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You know, we will be like him and with him forever and with all the Saints. Looking forward to seeing my mother, my father, my son, you know, all those who have gone before, those who have taught us much truth, and they are gone, We'll see them again. I'm looking for more than forward, more than anything, to see the Lord Jesus, but I'm certainly looking forward to seeing Gordon and others that have taught us much truth, and they're already there.
They got promoted ahead of us.
But that's our future. To be with and like him, and to see him face to face. Shall I? Shall we go to 1St Thessalonians Chapter 4?
Sir, for First Thessalonians, Chapter 4.
Verse 16, I'd just like to comment to Ruben Roger's questions, That's all.
For the Lord himself with an assembling shout with an.
Voice and with trump of God shall descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise possible, although in the Old Testament they were not Christians.
But when the Lord comes for the charge, he comes with two boys, one with his lost own voice. 1 voice. Because Old Testament says they do not recognize the voice of the Lord, they recognize the voice of the angels. So Lord's own voice.
Lost own voice for the Old Testament science voice of the astrangel and for the New Testament sense. He gives his own voice and they are raised up that what picture we get from this because in the Old Testament although the spirit of the Lord was there but they do not recognize the voice of Christ. They want to recognize the angels and in the New Testament weaving bride.
Choice being bride, we understand his voice. We recognize his voice. So there are two voices.
Lord's own voice in different stones.
I don't know if that's correct.
About Romans 7, It is not Christian experience, but it may be the experience of many Christians.
And so if I look within.
If I look within myself for good, I'm not going to find it. And that's why we're led to Romans chapter 8 and we may have to go through that experience as Christian and I may try and try and try, and all my best efforts fall flat in their face.
But really, the blessedness of Christianity starts with Christ in glory, a man in Christ as we've had before us. And so there is now therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. That's our standing before God.
And there's a power to that life, as our brother Heinz has been bringing before us, and the scriptures here bring before us, is there's a spirit of God. That is the power of that life. So the Lord said they were sorrowing that the Lord was going again. He said I will come again. In John's Gospel, he's not referring to the Rapture there, but he was going to come as the Spirit of God. He's going to be in US and with us forever.
We are going to the power of the Spirit of God is going to be with us in heaven to cause us to enjoy heaven.
But we have that now.
That's why he says, why is though living on earth? Why is though living in the world, you say, Well, what do you mean why is though living in the world We are in the world? But that's what he means. Yeah, you're in the world, but you're not supposed to live as if you were there.
Because your life is hid in Christ.
In the second verse of our chapter, it says for the law of the Spirit. Now that's not referring to the Mosaic law at all. The word law there means the fixed principle for the constant tendency. You take an apple and you let it go. The constant tendency of gravity is to bring that apple down. And that's that's a fixed principle, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Have made me free from the law of sin and death. The law of sin and death brings condemnation, and the fixed principle of the Spirit brings deliverance.
For what the law could not do, it demanded obedience, but it could not get it. He could not produce it. What the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh.
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God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.
So the sin in the flesh that's there still has been condemned at the cross, and we have now a new life energized by the spirit of God.
What the law could not do, it could not produce obedience in that it was weak through the flesh. The flesh wants its own way and will not be subject to the to the law of God. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. You notice that the accuracy of scripture.
It doesn't say sending his own Son in the likeness of flesh. No, It doesn't say in sinful flesh. No, that would be wrong. It's in the likeness of sinful flesh. You looked at him, and when he was here as a man, you wouldn't see any difference in his outward appearance from any other man. But he didn't have sinful flesh. He had flesh, but he had no sin in it. The idea that the Lord did not sin.
Is right, but that he could have sinned is totally wrong. Don't ever accept that that that is a it is a slur on the on the humanity of the Lord Jesus.
He didn't. He could not sin. Not simply because he was deity in flesh. The Word became flesh, but because his humanity was holy. When Adam was created, He was without sin.
But he had a sin, but he had the possibility of sinning. The Lord Jesus outs innocence. Innocence is sinless but capable of sinning, and holy humanity is sinless incapable of sinning. That holy thing that was told to marry, that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.
His humanity was holy. That's different than innocent. Adam was innocent, but he could sin and he did. The Lord was holy. He couldn't. He did not sin and He couldn't sin. And that's so important to see that because.
There, there are. There are men that are leading evangelical preachers even to this day. Billy Graham, he held. The Lord could have sinned. He didn't sin, he said, but he could have. MRI used to listen to him all the time as a young believer. He held that the Lord could have sinned.
His son, Richard Dehan wrote the most blasphemous pamphlet I've ever seen. It was so bad I wouldn't even put it in my bad doctrine. I didn't want it at all, even in my library. But I'm sorry I threw it away because it would be good to prove how far someone could go.
He wrote things like this.
Think of the struggle that the Lord had when He had those sinful desires against for Mary Magdalene, and things like that, and blasphemy. To think of such a thing. He never had an errant thought.
His whole purpose in life down here was to do the will of his Father. Therefore doth my father love me because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man take it from me, but I lay it down to myself. This commandment have I received of my Father.
Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, anything that was a suggestion to him of sinning was, was a terrible sorrow and grief to him, and and repelled instantly by his holy nature.
I knew I was saved and yet I came to parent And I said, you know, there's one thing that concerns me knowing me is that when I get to heaven, I'm going to sin and ruin heaven.
And this truth was brought before me, that I was in Christ, and I now have the nature of Christ to which sin could not attach itself, and the Lord could not sin. And we have a nature to which sin cannot attach itself. I have an old nature, and it manifests itself. But we have to understand that we have the life of Christ. Now the law was a schoolmaster to bring it up until Christ. That doesn't mean it was directing us to Christ like a traffic man, but it was to scare man into a form of obedience.
If I may put it that restrain man's evil passions, but it it couldn't, as our brother said, and the scriptures say, it couldn't produce obedience.
We have stop signs and we know if you go through the stop sign, you're going to get a ticket and you're going to get demerit points. And men might feel like murdering and the only reason they don't want to murder is because there's police officers in jail. But when a man gets saved, if they legalize murder in Canada, I don't think it would cause anybody in this room to murder anybody.
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The law has nothing to say to one who's in Christ.
And so the law couldn't stop a man from wandering to murder somebody. It may restrain him because there's consequences. It's like a schoolmaster, but and we're thankful that there are governments that are terror to evil doers and so on. But the gospel we preach takes a man that once wanted to murder people, and even did and and completely makes the thought of murdering and lying and stealing absolutely abhorrent to him as abhorrent to. It's as abhorrent to your soul to tell a lie as it is to Christ.
Unless the kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die and abide it alone.
The Lord Jesus came and he died. He was a human being, but he was alone.
He was not part of sinful humanity, and he had to die. If he wouldn't die, he would abide alone. But now he has died.
And as a tremendous change, now he's the head of a new race. You know, there's a new creation.
We're identified with the one who is heading up a new race. That's our blessed Lord. You know he's not alone anymore. He was alone when he was as a man on earth. The Colonel of wheat was alone, but he fell into the ground and died. No, he's not alone anymore. We're the fruit of the travel of his soul. And he will see, and does see already.
And he shall be satisfied, but a joy it will be for him to have us in heaven will be joy for us to be with him. But don't you think it will be great or joy for him to have us the trophies of His grace and what a price he has paid to make us His. And we belong to Him. We're not our own. We have been bought with a price, and we won't have the old nature anymore.
How wonderful. Yeah. In first John, three. And this is the absolute proof of what we just said first nine.
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. He's he's looking at the new nature abstractly now. And he says the one who was born of God does not commit sin for his seed. That's the new the new nature remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Now that's looking at.
The man just in the new nature. If we can't sin because we have the very nature of Christ, he certainly couldn't.
And it proves very clearly and when we leave this scene that old nature will be forever gone. Thank God. We'll never have another errant thought. We'll never have another sinful desire. We'll never want to do our own will contrary to the will of God. It'll be the same as it was with that blessed man, the Lord Jesus.
Whose every every desire was to do the will of God.
He never had anything other than that.
As you doubt, the latter part of the first verse really belongs with the fourth verse.
We can, we do have an old nature and we can go over the things of the flesh. And so we're told, make no provision for the flesh, don't feed it, starve it. Now maybe some are troubled. How does somebody sit in meeting and say, well, the latter part of that verse doesn't belong there. We all have Bibles that were printed on printing presses and so. But Can you imagine if every one of us had a Bible that was only written out by hand And many people have little notes in their bibles and so little things got crept in there?
And so it took godly and spiritual minds to know what was originally in the text. And so those that have looked at those texts see that. It is true, as far as I can see outwardly, that if a man walks after the flesh, there's condemnation. But the point of the Scripture is that if you are in Christ, there is no condemnation.
But already now.
Those of us who are Christians, In verse four it says in order that the righteous I'm reading JND in order that the righteous requirements of the law should be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh.
But according to the Spirit, what the man in the flesh could not do.
Because he only had the flesh. We who have the Spirit now can do what one under the law could not do, and we can do more than what was ever expected of one under the law. We can love our enemies that was never expected. Overdue, you know. So the righteous requirements of the law shall and should be fulfilled in the believer you know. And we do more than what was ever expected of one under the law.
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I'd like to speak especially to the young people right now. These next three verses, from verses 456 and seven, actually 8 going through 8, show how serious it is for a young man.
To start dating a young woman if he's saved and she's not, or a young woman if she's saved and he's not, that they should go together and get married.
Notice what it says.
Verse five. They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. If you marry an if you're saved and you marry an unsaved woman or an unsaved man, he doesn't have a new nature. He he can't.
Mind anything but the things of the flesh.
Now you have the two natures, you have the old nature that sins, and you have the new nature that doesn't sin, but to marry someone that has only the old nature, whose mind is only that which is of the flesh, not of the spirit.
Puts you in a very serious condition. They that are after the flesh.
Do mind the things of the flesh. You can't change that. You can say, well, you know, I I'll I'll just preach Christ to them and and and and and labor with them and finally finally they'll get saved. Well if they do get saved that's our our great mercy. But if they don't you're linked up with a person that can only mind the things of the flesh.
And you may want the things of the spirit you will if you're saved.
It says for to be carnally minded, verse six or the mind of the flesh.
Is death. You're my you're marrying a person whose mind and every desire has the stamp of death upon it. We come on. We want to go out to have a good time. We're going to see life. They're not looking at life. They're looking at death. Because the things of the of this world and and the of the carnal mind is dead. They that are after the flesh. I'm, I'm quoting now Mr. Darby. Mind the things of the flesh.
They that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded or the mind of the flesh is death, but to be spiritually minded or the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.
Think of linking up with one that has only a nature which is against God, which only minds the things which are contrary to God. Terrible thing.
Verse 7 Because the mind of the flesh new translation is enmity against God, you're going to link up with a person whose mind is enmity against God.
Quite contrary to what you have, you have a new nature, and you love him. You love God, for it is not subject to the law of God.
To link up with one who is not subject to the law of God.
They will not submit to God's word.
That's exactly what is true of a person that's never had a new nature, never been sealed by the spirit of God, and then it says so, then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Think of it, young person. If you're a person, if you're saved and you're going with the person that is not, you're going with someone that is at enmity with God. That is not subject to the law of God, that cannot please God.
I can't think of a stronger passage in all of the Bible that Romans 8 here to show how awful it is for a true believer to link up with one who's not safe. Terrible.
I'm the companion of all them that fear thee, and that's good for young people. What company do you see?
Seek outdoors that you can recognise.
Having a desire to please the Lord, I'm the companion of all them that fear thee. You know we don't have to have a lot of scriptural understanding to see even as young people who wants to be pleasing the Lord.
00:45:08
What companions do you seek? Who do you want to keep company with? You know, I'm not now speaking like Chuck did, primarily with relationship between boys and girls. What about boys, you know?
Do you want to have a boyfriend?
That doesn't love. The Lord has no interest in the things of the Lord. He'll pull you down.
You can't pull him up. The law of gravity is in his favor. He pull you down, you know, so I'm the companion of all them that fear D is a good scripture for young people or for us older ones to remember now in our work relationships we.
Cannot help many times to come in contact with people who don't love the Lord.
But do you want to be in partnership with somebody who doesn't know the Lord?
That's not just marriage.
That's also partnership in business.
You know, and so we ought not to even consider such a step. And it's not always easy to find jobs.
And especially working in a factory, that's not a problem because they hire you and you work there. But when you want to go in business for yourself, do you want to be in business with somebody that isn't saved? He looks at things totally different. He doesn't bring the Lord into his business dealings. I'm not saying that they are not honest businessmen in the world.
There are, you know, people that deal honestly and uprightly. Thank God for that.
But there always comes a time when, as a Christian, if you have a companion like that.
That will go the opposite way than the way you should go. So I'm the companion of all them that fear thee.
Laws as being principles, as Brother Hendrix mentioned.
And there's another law that works in an unregenerate person.
And I have some experience in this. My first child in the gospel also happens to be my brother according to the flesh, and he made the mistake of marrying an unbeliever.
It was over within a year.
She turned almost immediately into someone he never knew.
And if I can put it this way.
An unregenerate person you can think of as a puppet in the hands of Satan, and he is a good puppeteer.
He can make them outwardly appear like anything he wants, including like a good, upright, decent person or a Christian.
And so he thinks it's OK I'll marry this this woman. And then.
I won't mention what she did, but you might imagine and it was over very, very quickly.
So we have to remember what law works in in the flesh And that someone who's unregenerate, they have no power. You know, my mother ran into her before the divorce between the time that they split up and there was a divorce and and she was working at a grocery store. My mother went through the line there and said, and she wanted to apologize to my mother. And my mother said, well, why did you do those things? Why did you do those things? You know what she said?
I don't know.
I don't know.
They don't know why, but it's all they can do. The unregenerate has no power over the the sin that's in the flesh.
So don't be fooled, the brother in there have setting up on that.
People meeting at a conference.
Everybody puts on a nice front at the conference, but be careful.
Get to know what the person is like in the home assembly. Everybody put on a nice front at conference.
You know, there's nothing wrong in being slow. Certainly it's nice many have met their married partner at a conference. But better make sure before you commit yourself that that person is also carrying on the way they do at a conference when they're at home, you know?
I'm bringing that in because I'm the companion of all them that fear. D There are those in the assembly, young people, who make a profession, but they're not characterized in their life by what is expected of one that fears the Lord. So be slow and make sure before you commit yourself that that person is indeed a sincere.
00:50:16
Exercise Christian.
Tonight helps in this.
Because the eight first they that are in the flesh. That is not Speaking of a believer or even a carnal believer. It's talking about somebody who does not know Christ. And a believer, even a carnal believer, he is in Christ.
When he writes to the Saints and faithful that are in if. If the Apostle Paul wrote to the Saints and faithful that are in Christ Jesus and Saint Thomas, he is referring to everyone that has got their faith in Christ.
And they're a St. because of their faith in Christ. He's not referring to a small group of individuals, to the Saints and faithful. Now they may not act like it. They may go in a place and carry on in a way that you don't know it, but that is true. That's their standing. But they that are in the flesh, no matter how pretty it is and how nice it is they are in the flesh, they have a different standing before God. But in answer to what Brother Heinz is saying is how do you know that somebody is indwelt by the spirit of God?
He says if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. The way that one knows that somebody is indwelt by the Spirit of God is that they manifest the Spirit of Christ.
And so our brother was speaking about submission and obedience, and you quickly find out it doesn't matter what a person says, but is there a spirit of submission to the Lord? Is there a spirit of obedience to Christ? That is in evidence of whether a person belongs to Christ? And while the Old Testament Saints were not in Christ?
We read in Peter that even they manifested the spirit of Christ, the spirit of Christ which was in them. And so you recognize a person. We've all had that experience. We've sat down in a hamburger place, or you've been on a bus and you look over at somebody and you just see by their department. You wonder if they really belong to the Lord and then they bow their head and give thanks, or they they do something by the manner that they speak and so on. And so they are these telltale signs, if I may put it this way, that a person is indwelt by the spirit of God. But what is characteristic, as our brother said in the address?
Is of the Christian pathway is submission, obedience and where you find rebellion against the word of God. No matter how much a person knows about the word of God and and in submission to the Lords hand in their life, then certainly there's evidence that the spirit of God is being grieved in their life at at best and perhaps that they're not the Lord's at all and if they live in sin. I was in a restaurant and I saw a man bowing his head giving thanks for the food.
I went over to him, I said. Can you tell me how I can get to heaven?
He said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and I said Amen. I said you're real and I'm looking forward to seeing him along with Heinz mother.
'S.
Heaven is going to be a wonderful place.
We shouldn't think it's not a scriptural thought to be looking forward to seeing other Saints in the glory.
That's not, that's a scriptural thought, because that's why Paul spoke to the Thessalonians about it, because they were grieving over the day and so that's why he brought that out.
I'm looking forward to eating Moses.
And other of the Old Testament says, you know, and they will be happy to see us and I believe they will rejoice in us even having a closer place than they have. They will not be jealous of us. They'll be happy for us, you know and well how wonderful to meet all those things. They all will be there because of the work of Christ. They are not there because of the sacrifices that they brought. You know they were accepted these sacrifices and the blood was accepted.
Because God accepted them, because he was looking forward to the sacrifice that his Son would bring. And if they would bring that in obedience and with the desire to please God, it was acceptable. Not because their dead blood itself could cleanse them, God accepted it in view of what his Son would do. It was a picture of that which would be accomplished through the work of Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses us from.
All sin, you know, we had a lady that we bought a house from and then I became her landlord later on.
And I would visit her because she had to make the monthly payments. And she said, yeah, I know that the Lord Jesus died for me, but there are some sins that I have to pay for. I said, Pearl, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Who do you believe but the priest tells you, or what the Bible tells you Cleanses us from all sin. They're all wiped away. And the Scripture says our sins and iniquities.
00:55:26
He will remember no more. Does he have a poor memory? No. But he decides not to remember them. He will not bring that up against us ever again.
They are taking care of. They are cast into the lake of forgetfulness. They are removed from us as far as the east is from the West.
Just on this point, because about the Old Testament Saints, when I came here, a brother said, well, the Old Testament Saints that were saved by keeping the law, we're not going to meet anybody in heaven that is there on any other basis than the blood of Christ. And I'm going to use this illustration. Suppose I got terribly into debt and the bank was going to take my house.
For the debt and I had no way of paying it. And then brother Brinkman wrote a letter and he said I'm going to pay what most debt when I get there and the bank manager looks at it. I don't know how he's going to do it, but bank manager looks at it and he says I know that man. I know he's generous and I know that he's able.
And so the debt is covered. The head office calls and says what about what most debt? And he says it's covered. It's not gone. But then one day he sells everything that he has and he comes and he pays my debt. And that's what it means in Romans when he says that he was just in the remission of sins that were passed.
That God covered the sins of the Old Testament Saints until the time of restitution, but they're gone. But Heinz says, I know what most brother and he's going to do the same thing. So I'm going to leave enough so that when he comes and owns up to his debt, then it'll be paid too. And that's the basis on which we're saved now is that Christ did a work on Calvary's cross at every repentance center, that their debt can be righteously not covered, but wiped away the blood of Jesus Christ, which was shed at Calvary's cross.
Cleanse at us from all sin. I guess I don't want to digress from our chapter here, but I guess I did.
Sometimes this is bothersome that the gospel is treated.
Purely as if salvation is a legal transaction.
And salvation is far from being merely a legal transaction, right? That's what this chapter, Romans 8, is presenting to us what our salvation is.
It's way beyond just the legal transaction, and we often use those legal illustrations.
But the very fact that we can't lose our salvation is because how can you? How can if you were born someone's son, how could you somehow become not their son?
Part of salvation is in the essence of salvation is we were born of God.
We can't be undone.
And the justification of God in doing that.
Was provided by the work of Christ.
Neil mentioned propitiation if you read.
The final judgment there in Revelation at the White Throne sins not mentioned.
There's nothing, no mention of sin there.
There's just one question. Is your name in the book of life?
And if it's not, you're cast into the lake of fire.
A sin isn't a question there because Christ propitiated not only our sins, but the sins of the whole world.
So God was justified in what He has done when He regenerates you and when you know He provides all the circumstances for you to hear the gospel.
And you believe in it. It's all a work of grace. It's all his work. And he was justified in it with regard to sin because of the work of Christ.
To add to what you said.
On the Day of Atonement.
There were two animals presented.
The one the blood was sprinkled before God.
That's atonement.
God's holy claims as to any sin ever committed.
Was met in the death of Christ. That's atonement. But then the second animal, the Saints, were confessed upon that animal, and the animal was sent into the wilderness to perish that substitution.
And he did not atone for the sense of all mankind.
01:00:04
Yes, he did atone as far as maintaining God's holiness.
But substitution is only for those who have faith, you know, and God, who knew my sins that I would commit. And he laid them upon the Lord Jesus when he died. And he died for me. I know my sins were borne by him. You know, wonderful that we know there is.
Predestination and election and predestination. Election is the individual chosen. Predestination is what He's chosen for, you know, And God choose us in Christ, and He has put our sins long before we live upon our substitute, the Lord Jesus. And we are free when we come by faith to accept Him and His finished work.
That's the same God is not in being purchased and being redeemed.
Christ sold all that he had, and he bought this world.
And reference was made earlier in the day and through Ephesians chapter one.
And verse 4 where it speaks of.
The earnest of our inheritance until the redemption.
Of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory. That doesn't just include the redeemed, but it includes all who were purchased.
Including the world, including all creation. But redemption is for those who are who trust in Him. Because to be redeemed is not only to be to be purchased, but is to be bought back and set free. And that's for everyone who put their trust in the Lord Jesus. But there will be those who He is moored over as we get in. I believe it's First Peter Chapter 3.
The Lord who bought them. And so that's the thought in being purchased. Every one of us is responsible to him. This world is guilty of turning away from him who bought them, who paid the price for them. But if they would put their trust in him, now they're redeemed. So we get both bosses.
Coming to back to what Brother Ted said about his former sister-in-law. I don't know why I did what I did, who sometimes say Christians say well I can't help it, but in this 10th and 11Th 1St we see that the same power of the Spirit of God.
Dead is now in the Believer.
There is no power greater than the power of resurrection. And if the Spirit of God could raise a dead body from the grave, then He can give us the power to live without sinning.
That is a wonderful thing to realize that we're indwelt by the spirit of God. What a contrast to Romans 7 and even the good works of Cornelius and and.
Zacchaeus, he said, This day is salvation come to, has come to thy house.
Is that we have now in this dispensation, and dwelt by that spirit of God, to take a dead thing and to make it living again.
We also are in the spirit and in verse eight it says.
They then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
You know flesh is used in different ways in the scriptures, even as to our blessed Lord it says who in the days of His flesh, that was when he was in the body.
But here they that are in the flesh is the position of sinful man before God.
He that is in the flesh cannot please God. We are not in the flesh. We are in the Spirit.
And the Spirit dwelt within us, but they that are in the flesh still in their natural state before God, they cannot please God. They don't have what it takes to please God. And but the believer, as we have seen here in these verses, has the Spirit, and that makes the difference. And we have no excuse beloved Saints of God for sinning. Unfortunately, we far too often.
Do sin. But if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's not said to the unbeliever. That is said to the believer in First John. If we confess our sins, you know we judge it and acknowledge it before him. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I'm looking forward to the day when that flesh is gone.
01:05:06
Where there is no more possibility of dishonouring the Lord or letting that flesh get the upper hand, you know it's something that we have to contend with. The world, the flesh and Satan are our three enemies that we have to contend with. As long as we are in this world and in this body, but wonderful, the time is going to come. When that is gone, we are no longer even positionally now in the flesh, but even.
We will not be in this body any longer. We'll have a new body like unto his body of glory, and there is no longer any possibility of dishonouring God at any time at any way. We may live after the flesh, but we're not in the flesh. That's right, and just in connection with your comment is to the world and the flesh and the devil.
Sometimes you see this thing. The devil made me do it. The devil doesn't need to occupy us by tempting us all the time because we have the flesh, and so we give no place to the flesh. But he is the God of this world, and he set up a world around us that appeals constantly to the flesh.
And where you find the devil himself active in Scripture is to oppose himself to the person and work of Christ.
And so it's going to speak later in the chapters. Many As are the sons of God. They are led by the Spirit of God. And So what the devil will do is he will attack the person and work of Christ and the word of God. That's his direct work. And so when you find the word of God questioned, it is a direct work of the devil. And even when those words came out of Peter's mouth, he said to Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. He would became the instrument of Satan, you and I, if we call into question the word of God and the authority of Word of God.
May be like Peter, an instrument of Satan.
And so the so the devil is crafty, but as to the flesh, he's created a world around us that appeals to us. And if we live after that, then we can't walk in the power of the spirit.
Speak up, speak up. OK brother, I'll try.
1St Corinthians 15.
Just for clarification, I may have missed this already.
Verse 44.
It says it is so. In a natural body that has raised a spiritual body, there is a natural body.
Verse 46 Obvious that was not first, which was spiritual, but that was just natural. That's what we are. Before we're safe, we're natural. After we're safe, we're spiritual.
My understanding please correct me on this, that if I sin after I'm saved, I'm not sending us the natural man but as a Colonel man. Now is that correct? I'm currently minded. Now so back in our chapter I thought correctly on this that our verse 5-6 and seven there that we currently mind you here and got this carnal mind in verse 7. Is a Christian the believer that the margin says it was minding minding the flesh.
This is not a long believer, but a believer who was minding the flesh. It shouldn't read carnal mind as though that that's it should mean the mind of the flesh there's treated in the Darby translation and that should clear up your question. We don't change our standing before God. When we sin we allow the flesh to act. But the flesh has a mind and it always sins and the the spirit has a mind and he always does the right thing. But the way the King James Greaves it makes it a little bit confusing.
That this really isn't. These scriptures aren't really meant to make a determination there. They're Speaking of the principles. What What is the carnal? The nature of the carnal mind.
This is the nature of the carnal mind, right? Say it right. That's the correct translation.
Because when we say carnal mind, we think that the Christian has, has, has that that acting and and that it's true, but it's it's much better. There's two minds. There's a mind of the spirit and the mind of the flesh and that doesn't if you allow the mind of the flesh to act.
It doesn't change your standing before God. When we get home to heaven, we won't have that. We won't have the flesh anymore.
01:10:01
Cannot please God either.
It's the same flesh.
Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you, so everyone that has the Spirit of God indwelling them. God sees him as being in the Spirit, not in the flesh anymore. Though he may have the flesh in him, but he's not in the flesh as to his standing before God.
We have to be very careful to accept the confession of one who lives in sin. Scripturally, we have to question the reality of that person's faith.
In one Corinthians 5 if one who is called a brother.
It doesn't say if a brother does this. If one who is called a brother, you know that very statement makes it a question whether the man is indeed a brother. He's called that. Now. Fortunately, this man referred to in the 5th chapter of First Corinthians in the second epistle. He has repented.
And it proved that he was indeed a brother. He was restored, but while he was going on in his sinful way, the Scripture is very careful. One who is called a brother, you know, that calls it in question well, and hopefully if that happens to any among us who fall into such a serious sin of immorality and has to be put out.
Hopefully the time will come.
He's not put out as a brother, he's put out as one who is called a brother, a wicked person.
A wicked person? Yes.
And hopefully it will prove in time that he is real and that he will be restored. And we can pray to that end, you know, pray for the restoration of such a person. Actually, we we say, sometimes we say, well, we had to put brothers so and so out.
He's assuming that he's a brother when he says that.
I mean, if he was put out, Mr. Kelly makes it very clear, he says. We only put out wicked people.
A helpful comment in connection with what you said, Brother Heinz says confession is an act and repentance is a process.
And so if if there's no confession, there's not going to be any repentance. And so if we confess our sins, he is faithful and justified, I should read it. So if we confess our sins, he is faithful, he is faithful.
Forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so repentance is a process. And so there is a it's a turning around. And confession is saying I did the wrong thing. What I did was disobedient to the word of God. But there has to be with that repentance.
And are turning around and that's the cleansing from all unrighteousness, I believe and the 2GO together.
Thank you to brother Derek Mullins questions.
And reverse in First Corinthians chapter 3 for a couple verses.
Verse one and I, brethren, could not speak unto you, is unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able, for ye are carnal.
I think that was our brother's question of Christians, and they are Christians being addressed here called carnal.
Then how is it?
That we find it in our chapter and we say, well, a Christian isn't in that standing and I guess just wanted to bring that out to make his question clear. And our brother.
Brought out that it's not the proper translation in our chapter to use the word carnal.
The Christian is never seen and is standing in the flesh. Has been brought out, and I just like to think of it this way. The Christian is never in the flesh, but the flesh is in the Christian, and when it acts up unjudged, we need to judge that flesh. If it raises its head, then the apostle said of the Corinthians.
We're carnal. We're acting in a fleshly way.
01:15:00
Speak of it as the composition of something. That's what we are.
Then two, in addition to that, we might just remark, because it's helpful that the Scripture uses the word natural as well as the word carnal, and although the natural man is carnal.
Yet there is a different emphasis. It says the natural mind, The natural man is at enmity with God. The natural mind is at enmity with God, cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, and so on. Why? Because he has no new life in Christ. He's not indwelt with the spirit of God. There's a dimension lacking that does not permit him to do that. In First Corinthians 15, there's a natural body, the human body.
As it is natural, is not in itself sinful, but it is subject to the effects of sin, and in that sense we get old and eventually if the Lord leaves us here, we die.
Well, there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. There is a body that the Lord rose from the grave with. That is a spiritual body, and in that sense it was different from the natural body. You and I have natural bodies now, but will be raised with spiritual bodies. And so I just suggest that the emphasis is different when it talks about there being a natural body. It's not so much Speaking of sin as that which is terrestrial.
That which is suited to this world. And so when it talks about the natural man, natural desires are not always wrong, but because they're the flesh is connected with them.
The natural desires can be used in a sinful way. It is not wrong for me to be hungry and want to eat, but if I become a glutton, I sin. Natural desires between men and women are not wrong if they're used in the right way.
But if a man uses them outside of the bonds of marriage, then he sins, and so there's a difference between the expression natural and carnal, although they may be found in the same individual.
I walked over and kicked you in the shins, Brother Bill's. Your natural body is going to hurt and I may see some of the flesh. Probably not, but.
Probably would, but I think that just in a simple way puts it. And so when the Lord came and we, we need to realize that people are not without feelings. When the Lord came to the Pharisees house, he said, You gave me no water for my feet.
He felt it. It's not wrong to feel it. We may feel the same thing and act in a very carnal way. And so that distinction that you make is very important because sometimes we say, well, it's, you know, he's just touchy or something else like that. Well, a person may respond in something of a carnal way, but really it's the natural man. It's hurting and we have natural bodies. And the Lord, we see in the Psalms that the Lord felt things he wasn't. It hurt his hands when they put nails in them.
But he never responded in a carnal way.
In First Corinthians.
The natural man is spoken of as one who is not saved. Let me read the verse, verse 14. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But the spiritual man discerns all things, and he is discerned of no one. For who I'm reading the Darby translation. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Who shall instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
Now in the end of chapter 2, the natural man is an unsaved man contrasted with a spiritual man who is a Christian. But now in in chapter three you have when I, brethren, have not been able to speak to you as spiritual, but as to fleshly. Now now that's a true believer, but he's carnal. He's fleshly As to babes in Christ, I've given you milk to drink, not meat, for you have not yet been able, nor indeed are you yet able, for ye are yet carnal.
Now that's a real believer who is in a baby state, so to speak. But the natural man, according to 1St Corinthians 2, is not saved.
Now there is a question of logic is not wrong and reasoning things is not wrong. And by simple and pure logic and upright, a man's not going to know God. And it's not really the emphasis as you point out. It's not really the flesh there at enmity with God. It's just an incapability of doing something.
It's just like if a fish was sitting here on the chair, the fish, it's impossible for you may be a very nice and good fish, but he, he can't understand what's going on in this room. And so a natural man cannot receive the things of God. It's not a question whether he's a good fish or a bad fish or an enmity or not. And so that's what he's pointing out. And so in that chapter of Corinthians, he's saying spiritual things are communicated by spiritual means.
01:20:21
And then so he goes on to tell the spiritual means by which the truth of God is communicated and spiritual men.
Carnal things are communicated to babes.
We stand for this.
Day.
For God.
Day.