Such Love III

Subtitle: Let's Be A People of the Spirit

John 16:8-11; John 7:37-39; Romans 8:5-8.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, April 16, 2023.

We will continue to look at the great love of God towards humanity, but now we are going to emphasize our response to God's great love.  God's amazing overture of love calls for a response from each one of us.  Tragically, some reject His love.  How can we say no to such a love?  Yet, people do it every day.

Our focus today will be on becoming a people of the Spirit of God.  This wording is group-oriented, but we should also personalize it.  I want to be a person of the Spirit of God. 

This is as opposed to being a person of the flesh.  I will talk more about this later, but we should recognize that those who live for their flesh will end up serving the purposes of the devil, the prince of the power of the air, and the god of this world.  Through our bondage to sin, the devil manipulates us on levels that we are not fully aware.  However, the Christian is given freedom from that by the Spirit of God.

Let's look at our first passage.

He directs us to believe in Jesus  (John 16:8-11)

In this passage, we have Jesus explaining to his disciples that he will send another "comforter" to them after he leaves.  This is described further in verse 13 as the Spirit of Truth.  There is no question that this is speaking of the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of God.

The word translated as "comforter" is a word that describes someone who comes alongside of you for what you need.  Since our needs are various, it is sometimes translated as Counselor, Advocate, Helper, etc.  The Holy Spirit is all of these things and more.  The translation is not as important as understanding what it is saying.  The Spirit would come to help them similar to the help Jesus was giving them, i.e., another Helper to be in his stead.

This sets up a great act of God's love.  He sends His Spirit to dwell within those who put their faith in Jesus.  This Spirit would then fill God's people to overflowing.  Thus, God's love took on the nature of a man, sacrificed that life on a cross for you and me, and then takes up residence within us by His Spirit.  No one back then deserved this, and we have not arrived at a place where we deserve it today.  God simply loves us this much.

Ultimately, humans were designed to operate within intimate relationship with God.  The humbling thing is that we go all over the place morally and spiritually when we do not have a relationship with God.  Without a faith relationship with God by the Holy Spirit, we are forever put off-balance by our flesh through sin.  If it weren't for the gracious work of God's Helper, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of God, we would never see our need for believing in Jesus.

In John 16, we see that the Spirit of God is working on people even before they believe in Jesus.  Verse 8 tells us that the Spirit helps unbelievers through the work of conviction.

What is meant by conviction?  The context would influence what is mainly in view.  In this case, it is not a Judgment Day senario, but the Spirit working on the heart of an unbeliever in the present age. 

There are typically three aspects that are tied to this biblical word translated as "convicted."  The first has to do with exposing them to the truth.  As unbelievers, we work very hard to avoid such exposures to truth.  We often minimize, or ridicule, them as they surface in our life and in our mind.  We will typically create mental refutations to these exposures to truth. 

However, the second aspect kicks in with the Holy Spirit refuting our refutations of the truth.  A person may respond in resistance to the Spirit's work of conviction, but they are being hemmed in by Him as life shows them the emptiness of their "fig-leaf" philosophies.  This continues an ever tightening case by the Spirit of God in a person's heart that continually brings them back to a decision point.  We either are moved closer to God or further away.  No one remains static precisely because of the work of God's Spirit.

This brings us to the third aspect of conviction.  It has to do with the concept of proving the truth.  This doesn't mean that the person must surrender.  It just means they reach a point where they are convinced that they do not have a good answer, and the truth stares them in the face proven by God.  God will not force anyone to love Him.  We all still have a choice.  However, to reject God over the top of such conviction is to sear your own conscience, to cauterize your own spiritual eyes, and to harden your heart.

This work of the Holy Spirit's conviction is happening in everyone's life until the day that they die.  We can often underestimate just how much the Holy Spirit has worked on people that we think will never be open to the Gospel.  Some shout the hardest against the Gospel because they are fighting what they secretly know to be true in their heart, and yet don't want to accept it.

Now that we have dealt with what conviction is, there are three particular truths that the Spirit is working to expose, to refute, and to prove to them.

The first of these is sin.  The Holy Spirit convicts sinners of the truth of their sin.  Our society makes a big deal over defining sin.  It wants to define sin because then you can game the system in order to declare yourself not a sinner.  Such definitions are based upon the whims and desires of society, or even myself personally.  Such definitions can never be trusted because a future society (tomorrow, next year, decades, or centuries later) will come up with different ones.  You can never trust such definitions.

This is why the heroes of yesterday are often crucified as the blasphemers of today.  For example, many women who fought for feminism through the last half century are now being thrown under the bus today for the new and improved righteous cause of transgenderism.  I am not commenting on either, but rather, I am pointing out the unstable nature of such ungodly definitions.

Thus, the Spirit convicts unbelievers of God's definition of sin.  That is often done through the effects of the sin and the things they experience throughout life.   By the way, the worst sin really is unbelief.  The two thieves on the crosses next to Jesus were both sinners.  However, the difference was that one believed on him and the other didn't.

We could bring up the Apostle Paul as well.  He is forgiven of murder because he put his faith in Jesus.  However, he is not running around pretending like that is no big deal.  Rather, he pleads with others to join him in this deadly serious love of God.

The second thing the Holy Spirit convicts people about is righteousness, first, that they have none, and second, that Jesus has enough to save all of us.  Most humans are inclined to think that they are good enough, whether they believe in heaven or not.  Notice that Jesus says that the Holy Spirit convicts us of righteousness because Jesus went to the Father.  While Jesus was still on this earth, the people could see for themselves the righteousness of God.  Even sinners instinctively knew that there was something convincing about the righteousness of Christ that was missing in the lives of the Sadducees and the Pharisees.  With Jesus gone, the Holy Spirit is needed to replace that perfect witness.  We need the righteousness of Jesus.

The third thing the Holy Spirit convicts the unbeliever of is judgment.  He convinces us that God's judgment is looming over the heads of the whole world, but also ourselves individually.  He connects this to the fact that the ruler of this world has been judged.  He refers to the devil here, who is the ruler by the fact of his manipulation of sinful men.  If the ruler of this world is judged, then so too are those who serve his purposes.  The Spirit of God convicts us that we are on the wrong side and will not survive judgment, whether globally or individually.

Let's go to our second passage.

He works within the believer  (John 6:37-39)

A convicted sinner is readied and prompted to come to Jesus in faith, to switch their allegiance to Jesus.  In this passage, Jesus gives a promise to those who will come to him in faith.  That promise is the Holy Spirit.

Jesus pictures the Spirit as a river of living water flowing out of the heart of a person who comes to Jesus and drinks of him.  Just as a watershed captures the water that falls upon it and channels it through the ground to streams, then to creeks, and eventually to a river, so too the believer will receive water from Christ that will come forth from their heart like a river of living water.  Some rivers are bigger than others, but he speaks of the Holy Spirit who is immeasurable by definition.

This reminds me of Ezekiel 47.  There, he has a vision of water coming out from the threshold of the temple.  The further out it goes the deeper it becomes, until it ends up at the Dead Sea.  It begins to cure the waters of the Dead Sea until all manner of fish and plants are living in and around it. 

This is a picture of the individual who has the river of living water, the Holy Spirit, springing up within their soul.  Believers should not be a Dead Sea that hoovers up all the grace that God sends its way, but without cooperation with the purposes of God.  We can be like a person eating a plate of "grace" with our head down crying out, "I'm running out; Give me more!"  God help us to wake up to the vast volume of grace that He is pouring out upon us, and see it for what it is, a holy thing from Him.  May we treat it as such.

Instead of fighting against the external workings of the Holy Spirit as unbelievers do, the believer is pictured as cooperating with the internal working of the Holy Spirit.  The same Spirit that led us to believe in Jesus will now work within us to make us a new creation: a disciple of Jesus, and a child of God.  We allow the Spirit of God to spring up within us, and then flow out through us to be a blessing to the people around us.  We are to be a source of the Spirit of God to the people in our life.

Yes, it is true that they don't need people to have the Holy Spirit working upon them.  However,  the work of the Holy Spirit on their conscience is like mercy drops in the dessert.  It is not intended to take the place of our submission to God's will.  The Spirit of God ALSO wants to work through us so that they will hear from Him like a river of living water.  That is so much better than an either-or scenario.

Jesus is telling us that we will become like a river of living water if we come to him in faith.  This is God's purpose and plan.  It will always be more than you ever knew it was because you are cooperating with an unlimited being.  You may feel like you really messed it up.  Yet, ten years later a person is sharing a testimony about how the Spirit of God really broke through to them by your willingness to be used of God.

Yet, even Christians have their struggles with the work of the Holy Spirit in their life. This brings us to our last passage.

Our flesh is hostile to the Spirit of God  (Romans 8:5-8)

In many passages, the apostles use the words body and flesh.  The body speaks of the organized system of physical appendages, organs, and other things, working together in a body system.  It emphasizes the natural and physical aspect of a human, pretty much what you thought.

Flesh can be used as a synonym for body, but also can take on an added sense that body does not have.  It can point to a nature that is rooted in the body, its senses, and desires.  It is sometimes translated as "sinful nature," and this is close.  It would perhaps be better to think of it as a nature that is rooted in the bodily sense, which leads to bondage to sin.  This nature is bent towards the pleasures of the body as opposed to what?  It is as opposed to being rooted in God Himself, the Spirit.

This is what Paul is talking about when he says that our flesh is hostile to the Spirit of God.  We use our body against God's work, but that resistance is directed by an inner nature that is rooted in the wrong thing.

For an unbeliever to surrender to the Holy Spirit, there must be a dying to the desires of the flesh, and a coming alive to the Spirit of God.  This internal battle may have been won at the moment of believing upon Jesus.  However, there is still a battle to be fought.

The Holy Spirit takes up residence within the believer and begins to teach them to root themselves in Him, in Christ, instead of in the desires of the flesh.  Though the flesh has been defeated at this point, there are still innumerable ways in which our inner man is rooted in the sense of our body.  Over time, the Spirit helps us to gain victory over the flesh, i.e., less and less roots down into our sensual nature, and more and more roots into the Spirit of God.

I like the image of Joshua leading Israel into the Promised Land.  It is full of giants and walled cities, i.e., strongholds, but God has promised to giving them possession and victory little by little.  It didn't happen all in one day, otherwise they would not have been able to truly possess the land.  Similarly, Yeshua leads us into the inheritance of our own soul by placing his Spirit within us to help us gain the victory one day at a time, one battle at a time.  This will only be done by a person who lives for the Spirit of God instead of living for the flesh.

In verse 5, Paul talks about what we set our minds upon.  A person of the flesh thinks about the things of the flesh.  They are motivated by a lower nature that is rooted in the body.  It prompts their purpose and desire.  It supplies the "strength" and vigor that they have for going after these things.  Such people spend their lives seeking to maximize their pleasures and minimize their pain.

This doesn't always look the same.  There are some unbelievers that are extremely self-disciplined in order to make money.  Their life may look extremely disciplined compared to another person who is a believer.  We can make our life look extremely noble by working for the most pleasure for the most people.  However, if all of this is driven by our flesh, then it is still for ulterior motives.

Contrarily, a person of the Spirit has their mind set upon the purposes and desires of the Spirit of God, which are the purposes and desires of Jesus, which are the purposes and desires of the Father.  God wants us to help one another to walk by faith in Jesus in love for Him and one another.

Of course, we must be alert to the tactics of the devil, who uses the world around us as pressure and temptation to live for the flesh.  They fill their minds with all manner of fleshly things, but not of God.

So how does this look?  Let's use the example of planning for dinner.  Both the spiritual and the fleshly will eat dinner.  We will die if we go too long without eating.  Thus, the Bible in no way pictures a super-spiritual person never eating.  They will fast from time to time, but they won't entertain notions of never eating.  So, the true difference between fleshly and spiritual thinking goes to the purpose and desire behind it.  The fleshly person only thinks about things of the senses like: what food would I rather taste tonight, what food would best impress so-and-so, etc.  In fact, people may fight and argue over what is for dinner because they are rooted in the flesh.  However, a Christian should not think like this.  We eat in order to better serve the Lord and bring honor to Him.  We make sure that the people we love in our life are getting the nutrition and sustenance that they need because that is part of a parent's duty to their children and dependents.  All things are spiritual things if you are a spiritually minded person.  Whereas, all things are fleshly, including church, worship, prayer, etc., for those who are fleshly minded.  This is why some Christians in churches will fight over the style of music, color of the carpet, who gets the solo, etc.  Let us always ask the question of our Lord, "How can I best please you and honor you in this?

In verse 6, Paul emphasizes that each of these lives has an effect.  A life of the flesh is death.  It doesn't just produce death.  The underlying verbiage says that it is death.  We must ask ourselves,  "What is the fruit of my life?"  Is it pouring death into my relationships and soul?  The fleshly mind can never fix the spiritual problems of humanity.  It can only double down on the problem and create an even worse hell on earth.  In our great human wisdom, we make decisions based upon our gigantic fleshly appetites and hope for Utopia.  We can build all the hospitals we want and even create buildings for mixed worship of all religions, but these things will only bring about more spiritual death.

However, a life of the Spirit is life and peace.  We could even add Galatians 5:22, which speaks of: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control.  All of these are different facets of God's life, the living waters of His Spirit.  It is possible to enjoy all of the goodness of God's creation and still miss His heart.  This is because we become too enamored with His gifts, and fail to look to the Giver behind the gifts.  It isn't always an either/or situation, but if we were forced to choose between Jesus and all of the comforts and pleasures this life offers, we should choose Jesus.  Yes, God made us to be able to bodily enjoy many things in this world.  But, He never intended us to be rooted in those pleasures and to live for them.

This brings us to the last question brought up by Paul's words.  In verse 7, the question is this.  To what am I hostile, and to what am I submitted?  The fleshly mind is at odds and hostile to the things of God.  The woman who broke the flask of oil upon the feet of Jesus did so because the Spirit of God moved upon her to do so.  However, fleshly minded disciples nearby judged her and openly castigated her for her actions.  The flesh always persecutes the Spirit.

James touches on this in James 4:4.  He warns us that friendship with the world is enmity with God.  He then boldly states that whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God!  He is talking to Christians.  We should note how he addresses those "worldly Christians,"  adulterers and adulteresses!  To live in such a way is to be unfaithful to the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of God that He has placed within us.  Our proper place as a child of God is serving the purposes of our Lord and following His Spirit.  Instead, we are like a wayward spouse, and a prodigal son.  When Christians fall back into fleshly living, it is called spiritual adultery.  We become led by the lusts of our flesh, the lusts of our eyes, and the pride of life.  We may even make it look noble by loving each other in our sin more than the Lord who calls us to help one another live holy.

The grace of God is that Israel did not cease to be Israel when they failed.  When Christians fail, the Spirit of God works discipline in their life in order to bring them back to God.  When God convicts us, it is always, "Take my hand and live!  Let me save you!"  He didn't hang on the cross for us to be an adulterer, and He didn't supply His Spirit for us to ignore Him and live for the flesh.  However, His had can only save us in this life.  We should take hold of it today!

This world cannot be saved with more flesh, even a fleshly life that is covered over with a veneer of Christianity.  I believe that this is what the high priest represented in the days of Jesus.  He was internally a fleshly, spiritually plundered man, but it was covered over with a veneer of God's commands and duties.  He looked like he was serving God to some, but others saw through it.  When God showed up in the person of Jesus and through the power of the Spirit of God, he had nothing internally to hold up that veneer.  He folded and caved in spiritually.  His following of God crumbled before the truth of what he really was.  Christians can be in danger of walking this same path.

Praise God that our eternity does not depend upon just one of our choices.  However, we want to take every single choice seriously, every single day.

May God help us to be a people of the Spirit of God instead of a people who are ruled by the flesh, and therefore, the devil.  Let's be a people who are led by Christ through his Spirit to do the works of our Father in heaven.

People of the Spirit audio

Follow Me

Luke 9:23-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 26, 2021.

We are finishing the year of our Lord 2021 and headed into 2022.  As we do this, it is good for us to do some self-assessment that recognizes any personal challenges of this year that we need to work on, and then focus our living for Jesus in the new year.

The Twelve disciples were called to follow Jesus.  Of course, for them, it began by actually following Jesus.  However, they too had to learn to spiritually follow Jesus and not just follow him around physically.  The day came when Jesus left and wasn’t coming back at least not during their lifetimes.  This is our challenge today.  We cannot see Jesus and yet, we can still “look” like we are following Jesus.  May the Holy Spirit help us to follow Jesus in word, and in deed this coming year.

Let’s get into our passage.

Following Jesus is not as easy as it sounds

“Follow me,” is an important theme in the Gospels.  Each of the disciples were called to follow Jesus, and this is specifically recorded of some of them.  We see it with Peter and Andrew who were fishing on the Sea of Galilee in Matthew 4.  It says that Jesus also “called” James and John, so it is most likely that he said the same thing.  We see it with Matthew sitting at the tax collection booth in Matthew 9.  We also see it with Philip in John 1.

There are those who balked at this command.  At the end of this chapter in verses 51-62, several excuses are given as to why people did not follow through on following Jesus.  Jesus had no place to lay his head, i.e., place to stay that was his or guaranteed.  To follow Jesus was no luxury for the flesh.  One man wanted to follow Jesus, but asked to bury his father first, and another man wanted to say goodbye to his family and friends.

Probably the most well know is the rich young ruler in Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 18.  The rich young ruler wasn’t confident that he had eternal life.  Jesus pointed him to the 10 commandments and the man said that he had done those since he was a youth.  Why didn’t he trust that this wasn’t enough?  The answer lies in the area of relationship.  If the young man had a living spiritual relationship with God, then he would have never doubted God’s salvation.  Jesus tells him that he lacks one thing. 

It is interesting that Jesus tells him that he is missing something, but then tells him to sell all of his possessions and give the money to the poor.  He was not only missing something, but his material possessions were in the way of him getting it.  This man needed to get rid of his wealth so that he could find a real relationship with God through Jesus.

It is interesting that people will read these passages and focus on how harsh Jesus sounds when people give excuses.  We are told that Jesus loved the rich young ruler and was sad to see him go.  Listen, the emphasis is that there will always be something, it doesn’t matter what it is, that will get in the way of you and I having a relationship with God.  There will always be an excuse, an obstacle.  Following Jesus is not as easy as it sounds.

Our passage is addressed to those who desire to follow Jesus, to respond to his call.  He tells us exactly what a person needs, or must do, in order to follow him.  The first thing is internal, inside of us.  I must deny myself.  Following involves giving up the direction and the way of travel.  I will not always like, or agree with, where Jesus is taking me.  In fact, right before this passage, Jesus had told them that he was going to suffer many things, be rejected, and killed by the religious leaders of Jerusalem.  This is not what they wanted to hear, but it is exactly where Jesus was going.

Jesus is a man of peace, but he is also a man of Truth (he is Truth).  It is precisely this aspect about him, that will get you killed in this world.  Jesus knew that they would hate him, and kill him.  He knew that his disciples would be tempted to stop it, or stop following him.  They would be tempted not to stand with Jesus, and in so doing they would be choosing to stand with themselves, their thoughts, fears, and decisions.  If they wanted to follow him, they would need to fight this temptation to stand away from Jesus, and deny themselves.  In the crunch, Peter denied Jesus instead of denying himself.  Later, he would be restored and learn the lesson.  Your flesh will not, cannot, follow Jesus.  It will always balk when following Jesus becomes painful and difficult.  Jesus or me?  That is our question.  To follow Jesus is to say of yourself, “I swear that I don’t know that man!”

The second thing a person needs in order to follow Jesus is a cross.  Denying yourself represents an internal battle that must be fought and won, but picking up our cross is when that internal victory walks it out in life.  The cross can be literal.  The disciples all faced a world that eventually put most of them to death.  However, it is more than being willing to die for Jesus, to be a martyr.  You can see this by asking this question.  How can a person actually lay their life down for someone else?  The answer is that they have to have conquered the internal battle first, and then they readied themselves to do what they had to, even die.  The cross represents the very thing that my flesh is afraid of and is running from, or seeking to save.  It represents all the different ways that I am going to have to die to myself in order to keep following Jesus.  Regardless of whether I will be an actual martyr or not, I must learn to put myself to death daily, my purposes and desires, and then get up and do what it is Jesus is calling me to do (or not to do as is the case).

Once you have denied yourself, and readied yourself for daily dying, now you are ready to follow Jesus, and not a second sooner.

Many people have started following Jesus over the years.  However, not all have been willing to fight this battle, and take seriously that following entails giving up where you are going and how you will travel.

Only a person who has crucified themselves repeatedly, and is ready to do it again, can follow Jesus, because, in truth, he crucified himself out of love for the purposes of God the Father.  I know it sounds strange to hear it said that way, but that is what he said.  “No one takes it [his life] from me, but I lay it down of myself.”   Jesus simultaneously paid the price for my sins and showed me the path to salvation.  “Follow Me!”  Only Jesus can lead us to the Father and eternal life.  All other paths are dead ends, boxed canyons of self-destruction.

I am my own worst enemy

My worst enemy is not the Russians or the Chinese.  It is not the Democratic Party or the Republican Party.  It is not progressives or conservatives.  It is not even the devil himself, though he is a powerful enemy.  No, the worst enemy is myself.  I am my own worst enemy.

Jesus highlights this in verses 24-26.  The first thing we see is the problem of self-preservation.  “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

This preservation can be physical in that none of us wants to die.  It is also metaphorical.  I worry about preserving a way of life, or particular things that I like such as: an economic station, social standing, positions of influence, fame, and the list goes on.  It is the fear that we have of losing something because we are following Jesus.  Jesus is both warning and encouraging us here.  You will tell yourself that you are saving your life by not following Jesus.  The irony is that our sinful self can’t save itself because the path of true salvation requires the sacrifice of self, the very thing that your flesh doesn’t want to do.  This is about holding onto things versus letting them go, and trusting God.  If you don’t trust God, then you will be lost eternally, but if you simply let it go…, then and only then will you find eternal life.  No one makes me selfish.  It is what I am by nature.  If I choose not to be selfish, it is because I have disciplined my nature and chosen something better.

In verse 25, we see that the fear of losing something is enhanced by our selfish-ambitions.  “What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?”  There are things that I desire for myself: things that I want to see, things that I want to experience, and things that I want to accomplish.  We see this in the disciples before the cross.  They often argued about which of them was the greatest disciple.  Jesus rebuked them for this and showed them the path of serving others.

In a way, this is a type of loss as well.  I am afraid of losing the potential of having the things that I desire.  It is not that we can’t follow Christ and have things.  It is not about the things.  It is about something inside of you, an ill-attachment to those things.  We can have things and do have things.  The problem is precisely when following Christ threatens something that we have, or hope to have.  I’m reminded of Baronelle Stutzman, the florist in the Tri-Cities of Washington State who refused to do the wedding of a homosexual couple.  She did not plan on having the Attorney General of Washington taking her to court and even seeking to take her personal assets.  She could have balked and said, “Fine, I’ll do it!”  Instead, she stuck to Jesus.  What is your ambition in life?  Be careful that it is not more important to you than following Jesus.

Finally, we see in verse 26 the issue of shame, which is a symptom of pride.  “For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory…”  There will always come a time when my pride will be threatened by following Jesus.  Today, it is things like these.  “You follow ancient teachings over modern enlightenment?”  “You don’t believe that this activity I am doing is moral?”  “You associate with the Church that is responsible for so much evil throughout history?”  Leaders and lay people of the Church have made plenty of errors, not to mention some who were flat out apostates.  They were not following Jesus.  However, that is precisely the issue.  Are we following Jesus, or are we following an institution, erudite scholars, and charismatic leaders?

For some odd reason, Jesus was not too proud to be associated with the Church.  Don’t get me wrong.  He will correct, and judge, those in his Church who abuse the station he has given them.  Still, he is working within and through his Church.  He is standing with us, but will we stand with him?  Let’s make the determination to stand with Jesus moving forward, by getting ourselves internally and externally prepared to lose some things because we are dead set on following Jesus.

Follow Me audio

Will You Walk with Me?

Romans 8:1-11.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Pentecost Sunday, June 09, 2019.

Pentecost Sunday emphasizes the giving of the Holy Spirit to God’s people, which is described in Acts chapter two.  In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is very active.  However, He comes upon certain individuals, at certain times, for a particular work such as: prophesying, miracles, and even physical exploits in the case of Samson.  During this time, God promised that a day would come when His Spirit would be poured out upon all God’s people.  Thus, in the New Testament at the day of Pentecost, we see God’s Holy Spirit come: to dwell within believers versus come upon them for a moment, to do so with all believers versus a select few, and to do so continually versus at special occasions. 

As a feast in the Old Testament, Pentecost celebrated the middle of the Harvest and points to the great harvest of God among mankind.  In one sense people are harvested when they are taken from the field of the world, bundled together with other believers and eventually brought into the barn of God.  This analogy does miss the other sense in which believers are called to become fruitful in their life.  In that sense we are not harvested until we leave this earth.  Harvest points to God’s desire to have humans in His family.  It is His work of drawing mankind back to Himself.  Thus, it is all about relationship.

The title of this sermon comes from the fact that Romans 8:1 refers to walking with the Holy Spirit as opposed to walking with the flesh.  This ties back to the Garden of Eden where God would come down to walk and talk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.  This relationship between God and humans is adversely affected in Genesis 3.  What used to be a wonderful thing filled with joy (God’s presence in the Garden) had become a fearful thing filled with dread because of their sin.  Yet, God in His mercy speaks of help that will one day come to help them against their adversary the devil.

Our passage today is on this side of the cross of Jesus and a long history.  Today, I would like us to recognize that Jesus and his apostles continued this theme of calling people to quit running from God and walking with the devil by following the desires of your flesh.

Will you walk with me?  This is the question God asks every person today through the work of His Holy Spirit and those who believe in Jesus.  No, it won’t be easy.  Your greatest enemy will actually be your own fleshly nature, but it will give you life and peace with God rather than death and condemnation.  I pray that we will be a people who choose to walk with God.

Christ invites us out of condemnation and into life

Verse 1 makes a statement about those who are “in Christ.”  The statement is simply that those who are in Christ Jesus are not under condemnation.  Before we delve into the statement itself, it is important to recognize just how a person comes to be “in Christ.”

It is Jesus who first invites us to come to him.  In Matthew 11:28 he states, “Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  His invitation is for people who are in a place, or legal status, of condemnation before God.  Thus, in Romans 8, Paul is not talking about a feeling of condemnation, but an actual legal guilt before God.  Jesus calls people out of that place to himself.  Those who come to him leave their condemned state behind and enter into a place of forgiveness, life, and peace (again, this is about a relational peace between us and God, not a feeling of euphoria).

When Jesus went into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit to continue this calling of people to Jesus.  Yes, the believers of Jesus also have a role in this, but they are to do so with the help of the Holy Spirit.  Only He can convict people of their sin and the judgment that hangs over them.  Only He can convince them that their righteousness is not good enough, but that the righteousness of Jesus was intended to give them freedom and life.  It really is a work of the Holy Spirit when a person comes to believe in Christ as their Lord and Savior.  Without His gracious work, they would not choose to believe.

So, the Holy Spirit brings us to Christ and asks us to choose.  Will you walk with Jesus?  Those who choose to follow the Holy Spirit into Christ by putting their faith in Jesus enter into a new standing before God.  The Holy Spirit takes up residence within them and causes them to become spiritually alive, which means they can sense God and interact with Him).  They are saved from the judgment that looms over them because the righteousness of Christ covers any sins that they have.  Even more, they are adopted into the family of God and made co-heirs with Jesus. We become the children of God.

Having chosen to follow the Holy Spirit into the new place before God called being “in Christ,” our walking after the Spirit shouldn’t stop there.  In Romans 8, Paul is speaking about this new standing we have before God and emphasizing that we are those who keep following the Holy Spirit now that we are in Christ.  This brings up the issue of our flesh, which Paul also talks about in this passage.

The flesh can refer to muscles, bones and tendons.  However, in this context Paul uses the term flesh to refer to that part of us that is drawn away from God towards sin.  It is so connected to our bodily appetites that the simplified word is used.  Context helps us determine if the word merely means flesh, or if it is referring to the tendency towards sin within us.

In verse 6, Paul points out that this choice leads us into one of two directions.  If I follow the flesh then I will find death, but if I follow the Spirit of God then I will find life and peace.  The devil is good at using our past life in sin against us as a means of condemning us in our hearts and minds.  Through this, He is able to rob people of their inner sense of peace.  However, the devil cannot touch our standing before God.  He can only attempt to convince you to walk away from Christ on your own.  Yes, I was a sinner and unworthy of the grace of Jesus, but the Holy Spirit drew me to Jesus and says that I can be clean if I will only believe.  Remember this always.  If God has removed you from your deserved condemnation, why would you continue to participate in condemning yourself?  And, if God has declared us to be at peace with Him, why would I worry that He will change His mind and go to war against me at any moment?  Why would I interpret every bad thing that happens as proof God doesn’t love me anymore?

Be careful of looking back at your past life and dwelling there.  If we look back, may it be in order to learn from our errors and to draw strength in order to press forward in Jesus.  However, let us not look back and become stuck in the quicksand of fear and depression.  God has not led us to this point to abandon us!

My flesh tries to pull me back into condemnation

In verse 7 Paul speaks about the challenge that lies before the Christian each day.  The Spirit is faithful to lead us to accomplish those things in your life that He has for you.  Yet, our sinful nature (or flesh) keeps trying to pull away from Jesus and back towards that place of condemnation.  In fact, we are told that the flesh is hostile to God and the things of the Holy Spirit.  The word translated as “enmity” or “hostile” has at its roots in the idea that it hates the things of God.  My flesh wants me to follow its desires and whims, but when I follow the Holy Spirit, I am led away from pleasing my flesh and its whims.  This doesn’t mean that we never have any joys and pleasures.  It just means that those joys and pleasures are not my focus.  Rather, the Spirit of God is my focus.

I know that there is a part of us that wishes or thinks that God might zap us and make our flesh go away.  However, this is not His way.  He puts His Spirit within us to help us to say “no” to the flesh and to say “yes” to Him.  God’s way teaches us to become spiritual warriors against our own evil desires, rather than to focus completely on the evil of others.

Satan’s mindset is the way of death because it focuses on others and uses them as an excuse for its sin.  It is interesting that our flesh will focus on others when it comes to sin and yet, focuses on self when it comes to love.  The Spirit of God calls us to flip this and focus on ourselves when it comes to sin and to focus on others when it comes to love.  Our flesh hates this. 

In verses 9 and 10, Paul challenges us.  If the Spirit dwells in us, which He does if we have put our faith in Jesus, then we are no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit.  This is just a different way of describing this new state in which we find ourselves before God.  Being “in Christ” is to also be “in the Spirit.”  Yes, we still have flesh to fight against and we will not feel like we are in the Spirit during those battles.  However, we are in His Spirit because that Spirit is within us working to help us overcome sin and our flesh.

This leads us to verse 11, which makes a powerful statement.  The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is dwelling in you and leading you.  It will give life to your mortal bodies!  Pause and meditate on that for a moment.

There are two ways in which this can be applied.  First, the Spirit gives us life spiritually in victory over our flesh in this life.  As we walk this Christian life, we are given eternal life by the Spirit of God and victory over the flesh (not without wounds and failures).  As we choose to follow the Spirit of God, or as some of the translations say “walking after the Spirit,” or “walking according to the Spirit,” we obtain a wellspring of life within our soul.  This life is experienced each day as He gives it to us in victories over sin, and spiritual accomplishments.  We grow spiritually and bear fruit in Jesus (a process that does not happen overnight).

However, just as Jesus was physically resurrected, so too, we are promised the same.  This is the second way in which verse 11 can be applied.  At the day of Resurrection, we will physically receive the eternal life of God in a new body.  Though it will be physical, it will not have the propensity to go towards sin, neither the physical decay and weaknesses of these mortal bodies we now have.  This becomes the capstone to our salvation as God completes every promise to us and then some.

Final Thoughts

The Holy Spirit is not someone that we can define and use against each other.  There is a lot of water under the bridge when it comes to the Holy Spirit and especially the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  Too often, it has been used as a kind of badge of accomplishment against other Christians, particularly certain gifts including speaking in tongues.  However, in so doing we forget that the Holy Spirit is not an inanimate object or a force that we operate.  He is a person who is capable of being grieved and resisted.  Some of the fleshliest things that have happened in the Church were done “in the name of the Holy Spirit.”  We cannot follow our flesh and then call it the Holy Spirit.  This is the same kind of thing the Pharisees did.

So how should a believer navigate this area?  First, quit worrying about speaking in tongues and spiritual gifts.  Instead, focus upon the One who is busy working in your life and wants you to cooperate with Him.  Focus upon the Holy Spirit.  Were you actually led to believe in Jesus, or were you simply looking to use church for your own ends?  If you were actually led to believe in Jesus then the Holy Spirit led you to that place.  If you surrendered and embraced Jesus in faith then it was the Holy Spirit who made you spiritually alive and even now dwells in you.  No one can take that away from you regardless of what spiritual gifts may or may not have been expressed in your life.  Quit worrying about what others think and start listening to what the Holy Spirit thinks.  Choose to follow Him.

Lastly, recognize that the Holy Spirit wants to lead you and empower you to do the work that Jesus has given you.  Pray each morning for the Lord to fill you with His Holy Spirit and to help you to listen to Him.  Pray that the Holy Spirit will empower you so that you can be more effective in your own life and the life of others.  Be open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but don’t focus on what that must look like.  Rather, keep surrendering to the Holy Spirit and being open to what He is doing in your life.  I know that people can take what I have just said and twist it to their own ends, but those people will one day have to give an account to God.  Today, however, the Holy Spirit calls out to you.  Will you walk with Me?

Will You Walk audio

The Carnal Christian

1 Corinthians 3:1-4; Hebrews 5:12-14.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 13, 2019.

Today we are going to talk about what it means to be a carnal Christian.  Suffice it to say that this is not something that the believer should aspire to be.  However, it cannot only be an appearance that we avoid.  Much like “trying to look humble,” trying to look spiritual is itself the fruit of carnality.

The word “carnal” can also be translated as fleshly, and it refers to something that is characterized by the flesh and its desires.  The believer in Jesus who is walking with Him will find that Jesus always leads us away from the desires of our flesh and towards the desires of our Father in heaven.

As we look at our passage today, let’s not drum up images of people that we think this describes, but rather let us ask the Lord to search our hearts and help us to grow in becoming like the Lord Jesus this year.

What is a carnal Christian?

There are some who teach that the phrase “carnal Christian” is an oxymoron, and that such a person is not really saved.  Yet, I do not believe that this idea completely squares with Scripture, especially the passage before us today.  In our passage Paul refers to the Corinthians as carnal and yet back in chapter one he made it clear that he saw them as true Christians.  1 Corinthians 1:2 says, “To the Church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.”  So it seems that it is possible to be saved and yet characterized by the desires of one’s flesh.  We will explore more later.

First we should note that in this passage carnality is used in opposition to being spiritual (vs. 1).  Spiritual here does not mean having a spirit, as all humans have one.  Neither does it mean having the Holy Spirit because Paul never denies that these Christians have the Holy Spirit, but rather uses the fact that they do have the Holy Spirit in his arguments throughout the book.  Thus it is a characterization of their predominant life-choices.  They are not listening to the Wisdom of the Spirit of God in some very obvious areas, but rather listening to their flesh.  It might be good to note that it is not enough to be open to spiritual things.  There are many who avoid any sense of religion and pride themselves in being spiritual.  However the Word of God warns us that there are many deceptive spirits in this world.  We should be careful of opening ourselves up to deceiving spirits.  Believers are to be open to the Holy Spirit, but closed off to any other spirits that would work in opposition to the Father.  So we want to be spiritual, but in a biblical way.

Verse 1 also brings up another aspect of carnality.  Paul uses it to refer to those who are babes in Christ, i.e. immaturity.  This is a clear picture of a person who is newly saved.  We are not told how long a person should take to be mature.  However, it is clear from verse 2 that the Word of God is intended to help a person grow.

The milk of the word is that part of Scripture that is more easily digested.  It represents the love of God and his offer of grace towards us.  However, the solid food, or meat of the word, is such things as the call to pick up your cross and follow Jesus; it is the message of becoming like Jesus in holiness; and it is the truth about what is coming upon the world.

Thus a baby in Christ has the Holy Spirit resident in their life.  They have the Lord Jesus Christ, in a sense, sitting on the throne of their heart, yet, their work has just begun.  They have many giants that they must battle, against whom the Lord will systematically lead them and help them.  Immaturity in this sense is normal and expected.  It is not a bad thing when babies are immature.  However, a 24 year old baby, or a 60 year old baby, is a bad thing and is not healthy.  Even the baby Christian, though immature, should not be comfortable with carnality in their life.  However, they should be patient and trust the work and leading of the Holy Spirit.  If the Holy Spirit dwells in you, then Christ will help you to overcome sin and grow spiritually.

So we end up with 3 proper categories within this designation of a carnal Christian.  A carnal Christian is a believer who has just begun to follow the Spirit of Christ, or who has not developed properly in their ability to fight their fleshly lusts since salvation, or who has had proper development yet has regressed.  The first of these is normal, but the second and third are considered abnormalities in the sense that they are not God’s work.  They are also spiritually dangerous.

We should also note the things that Paul points out as proof of their carnality.  He lists envy, strife, and divisions.  They are anti-virtues, or rather vices, that are the fruit of listening to our flesh and not the Holy Spirit.  Galatians 5 gives a good list of the virtues of the Holy Spirit and the vices of the flesh.

Now let’s go to a similar passage in Hebrews 5 starting at verse 12.

What characterizes a carnal Christian?

Though our definition gives the character of carnality, this passage explores it further.  We are told that carnal Christians cannot handle the solid food of God’s Word.  In both cases, the Corinthians and the Hebrews, it is expected that they should be more mature than they are because they have the Word of God and the example of the apostles.  However, they are not.  They are in need of someone to come alongside them and assist them in “digesting” the milk of the word.  If they were properly digesting the milk, they would grow to the point that they could eat the solid food.  So how are they not able to handle the word of God?  First it can mean that they cannot “stomach” the more difficult parts of God’s Word.  They are unable to break it down and draw life from it.  It is too complex for their current level of maturity.  There is a resistance to it in their mind and heart.

However, it can also mean that they do not properly use the Word of God.  They are unskilled in its proper use.  They may have skill with the milk, but they are unskilled in the heavier things.  They may ignore clear meanings of some passages and over emphasize other passages in order to obtain what their flesh wants.  This is understandable in a new Christian.  Thus God puts us in a family of believers where there are those who are more mature and can help us to mature ourselves.

Both of these situations are not good, especially in the life of a person who has been a Christian for years.  So what is the solution, or is there one?  The solution to not being able to stomach the heavier parts of God’s Word is to go back to the milk and learn to properly draw life from it.  Then move on to more solid food.  The solution to the inability to properly use the Word of God in our life is to repent, turn away from our fleshly desires, and obey God’s Word.  We must learn to listen to the experience of those who have gone on before us from each generation.

Another danger in being a carnal Christian is that we are unable to properly discern what is good or bad (Heb. 5:14).  One’s fleshly mind and heart can manipulate reason and emotion in order to declare things of the flesh as good, thus the problem of self-justification.  We can focus on whether or not we are permitted to do something rather than if it is something that is actually good for me spiritually, or bad.  Such a state leaves us in a position to be easily manipulated by the devil.

Final Thoughts

All Christians have parts of their flesh that they must battle.  In other words, to become mature does not mean you no longer have things to fight against and places to grow.  God is always working on all of us.  However, as we mature the battle should become more of an internal battle and less and less of one that is on the outside.  This is not stated as an excuse for sin.  Rather it is recognition that every day all of us need to turn to the Holy Spirit and say, “Search me, O God!”  “What are we working on today, Lord?”

Let me close by reminding us of the passage in Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

May God help us to choose spiritual transformation by the Holy Spirit over the top of fleshly conformation to the things of this world that are at odds with the Lord of Heaven.

Carnal Christian audio