Walking in the Spirit is presented as the core of Christian practice, moving beyond the limitations of the flesh and the law. The sermon outlines five key aspects of this spiritual life: ambition to walk in life, liberty, and light; attitude focused on spiritual things; activity of living through the Spirit by mortifying bodily deeds; yielding to the Spirit's guidance as a way of life; and receiving the Spirit's adequacy for prayer and assurance. The ultimate conclusion is that true Christian living is not about self-effort but about being filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit, leading to a life of purpose and peace.
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There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." Now I have a little bracket around that last expression there, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. If you have a modern translation you will probably find that that is omitted. It's generally conceded that it is taken from further down the chapter and doesn't belong in that first verse. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. For 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, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 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 dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life, because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit who mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God.
And if children then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be all so glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who had subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain 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 the body. For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for? For if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it? Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself 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 those twenty-seven verses, I hope, in a very precursory fashion, we'll be able to look at tonight. I want to finish promptly at a quarter past eight, and that'll give us the last few minutes for prayer. And I do want to take a moment or two just to recap so that we can recall to mind what it is we covered in chapter six and seven. You'll remember in the, we divided the chapter six into two parts.
The first eleven verses and then what remained, and then we took the chapter seven in its entirety. Tonight we're going to be in chapter eight, looking at verses one through twenty seven, and then on Sunday night we'll look at verses twenty eight through thirty nine, that is the rest of the chapter eight of Romans. Now the first section in chapter six we called the principle of spiritual life. We noticed three things there, the commencement of that life, the confession of that life, and the challenge of that life. And then we spoke about the possibility of spiritual defeat as we looked at the last part of chapter six.
We noted, first of all, that spiritual defeat is not infrequent. We noticed, secondly, that it is not inevitable. And thirdly, that it is not inconsequential. If we are going to be spiritually defeated, then we shall have to pay a very real and costly price. It is not inconsequential. Spiritual defeat in the life of the believer cannot be excused. It will be as a result of a definite commitment on the believer's part. It is contrary to teaching or doctrine. It has been costly in the past. and it will be more costly in the future.
That's why that last verse written to believers says, the wages of sin is death. And at the conclusion of that study, we solemnly reminded ourselves of the possibility of a believer dying before his time, as did some of the Corinthian believers For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. God took them away because of their sin. And actually the verse that ends that chapter six is not a gospel verse, though we use it so often in that way. That's an application, it's not the interpretation. It is to believers that the reminder comes that the wages of sin is death.
So there is the possibility of spiritual defeat. In chapter seven on Sunday night we looked at the problem of spiritual conflict and there were four laws that we just mentioned where we talked about two of them and we mentioned the other two. There is that which is referred to as the law and that of course is the Jewish law. Concerning that, we notice it's identified in the verses, it is illustrated, it is inferior, and finally, it is insufficient because it supplies no strength, or it supplied no strength for the carrying out of that law.
And then we observe the, that which is called a law, and that was referred to and described for us in this way. I note a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. Now this is that which is referred to as a law in verse twenty one of chapter seven. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. Now, as we look at the verses that surrounded that verse, we noted the reminder that I, even though I'm a believer, there was a time in my life when it could be said of me, I had a tenant.
Sin dwelleth in me. Now, that's the reminder of what we are by nature. And then there is no other tenant in us. By nature, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. And then we noted also that that tenant is a tyrant. So that we do the things we don't want to do, we leave undone the things that we want to do. I want, but I cannot perform. Verse eighteen, I loathe, but still I obey by nature that which is the tyrant in me, sin that dwelleth in me. A law.
Then we made reference to the law of God and the law of sin. found in these last verses of chapter seven. I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Now there were three things we didn't have time to dwell on here. Let me just mention them. The first is that this law of God operates within the new man. Now if you were all newly converted, I would surely stop there and talk at some length about the two natures. When God gave us a new nature, He did not take away the old one, and we every day decide which of those two natures is going to be victorious.
Now, I didn't mention in detail on Sunday night, but on Sunday morning a man stayed behind following the service in a very disturbed frame of mind, and he was in tears before our conversation was terminated. A man who is mayor of his little town in Georgia and a local magistrate. But he was very burdened because he made a profession in nineteen sixty-two, but he has seen no real evidence of it in his life. I think it may be real, but I went into great detail with that man about this matter of the two natures. I asked him, Did you read your Bible?
Did you meet with Christians? Did you witness for the Lord Jesus? To begin with, he said, yes, but it very soon faded away. Well, now I said, you have two natures. You're going to feed the old nature, then the old nature is bound to be victorious. If you feed the new nature, so it's the new nature that gets strong, then the new nature is going to be victorious. I delight in the law of God in the inward man. So that operates within the new man. It is a source of delight. I delight in the law of God over the inward man, it says, but it is constantly being challenged by another law. That's what the next verse says.
I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Now again, if we had time to dwell here, we'd notice three things about the law of sin. It has its dwelling in the heart. That's verse seventeen. It has its ally in the flesh. That's verse eighteen. And it has its means in the members. That's verse twenty-three. Now there's so much that could be said about those, but we don't have time to go into that this evening. Now I want to dwell on the positive tonight.
I want you to notice five things about the Spirit in the first part of chapter eight of Romans. The first is walking after the Spirit, verses one, two, three, and four. The second is thinking in the Spirit, verses five, six, seven, and eight. The third is living through the Spirit, verses nine, ten, eleven, twelve, and thirteen. The fourth is yielding to the Spirit, verse fourteen, and the last is receiving from the Spirit, verses fifteen through twenty-seven.
Now it's obvious that we're going to have to rush through this, and that's rather unfortunate because this is the positive. This is where our emphasis should lie in the whole of this series, because all too often we neglect the ministry of the Spirit both talking about it and experiencing it, and yet there's nothing that we can accomplish in our Christian lives without the operation of the Spirit of God within us and throughout us and through us and so on. So, when we talk about walking after the Spirit, thinking in the Spirit, living through the Spirit, yielding to the Spirit, and receiving from the Spirit, we are really getting into the heart of the matter.
Now I want to call this first, walking after the Spirit, ambition in the realm of spiritual things. It's been well said that the man who aims at nothing will be bound to hit it. But he won't accomplish very much, will he? I can remember an old Christian saying to me one day when I was a young man, Young men, you're too ambitious. You're too ambitious. But I lived long enough to find out that God expects me to be ambitious. As long as I'm ambitious in the right direction. Paul says we strive, and the thought is we are ambitious because we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
It is necessary for us to have ambition in the realm of spiritual things. And that's a threefold ambition. Let's see if we can find it. Look at verse two to begin with. For the law of the spirit of life. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. I must be ambitious to walk the way of life. And that is life with a capital L and a capital I and a capital F and a capital E, the kind of life I mentioned a little while ago, which is a capital life altogether. There are lots of believers who are not living in the real sense of the word living.
They're sort of drifting along in their spiritual lives, and they're limping, not living. God wants me to be ambitious. to walk the way of life. That is real living. The kind of living that makes other people want to live as I live. Look at verse two again. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus have made me free from the law of sin and death. He wants me secondly to be ambitious to walk the way of liberty. If the sun shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Was it Sunday night I mentioned about being British and singing, rule Britannia? Britannia rules the waves, Britannia never shall be slaves. And I used to sing it with the rest of Britons, and yet like most of them, I was slave to myself and my sin and so on. If the sun shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. And God wants me as a believer to be ambitious, to walk the way of liberty. God never intended that we being saved should be bound by sin, by salvation, by fear, by doubt, or by anything else.
He wants us to walk the way of liberty as well as the way of life. And then there is verse four, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Now this is a walking in light. The word here is righteousness. And it might be a good idea for you if you're underlining in your Bible to sum up these first four verses by underlining these words in verse four, walk after the Spirit. the Spirit. Here it is then, walking after the Spirit. Ambition in the realm of spiritual things.
I'm to be ambitious, to walk the way of life, to walk the way of liberty and to walk the way of light. And I would just love to stay there a little bit longer, but I mustn't. Now verses five, six, seven and eight. Underline in verse five these words, will you? For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit are things of the spirit. Underline the words, mind the things of the spirit. Mind the things of the spirit. Because what we have here is not walking after the spirit, but...
thinking in the spirit. And once again we're talking about the mind and we're talking about the importance of the way we think. I remind you again, as I reminded you earlier, you're not what you think you are, but what you think you are. Mind the things of the spirit. Now do you know what we have here? Not ambition in the realm of spiritual things, but attitude. in the realm of spiritual things. Now, how do you think? What are you thinking? Again, let me remind you. You sow a thought, you reap an action, you sow an action, you reap a habit, you sow a habit, you reap a character, you sow a character, and you reap a destiny.
And it all begins with the things that you mind. It all begins with your thinking. Now, verse five says, For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. But they that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit." Now what we have in verse five is the proof of true believing. A man who is really believing in the Bible sense, a man who has put his faith and trust in the Lord Jesus in a real way is the man who thinks about the things of the Spirit and not about the things of the flesh.
This might be called the acid test. When we examine our thought lives, we get a good idea of what kind of Christians we are, if indeed we are Christians at all. The proof of true believing is our desire to mind the things of the Spirit. Look at verse six. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. So this attitude in the realm of spiritual things is not only the proof of believing, verse five, but if it is productive of true peace, verse six.
If you want to be a Christian at peace, You've got to be a Christian who is thinking about spiritual things, minding the things of the Spirit. Now we all of us know, and that without exception, what a cesspool the mind can become. And the speaker is speaking to himself as much as to the congregation. We know how necessary it is to watch the things that we think because they can take over control. You can prevent the birds from flying over your head, we said, but you can prevent them from making a nest in your hair.
And if you want to be a believer at peace, then you've got to mind spiritual things. That which is proof of true believing is productive of true peace. Now look at verses seven and eight. It is also part of true obedience. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, so that they that are in the flesh cannot please God. If we are going to mind the things of the flesh, we shall not be obedient Christian. But if we mind the things of the Spirit, we shall know what obedience is.
Because minding the things of the Spirit is part of the Spirit. of true obedience. I'd love to stop here and talk about that word carnal. It comes from the Greek word starks, which actually means the flesh. Now put those together and you'll come up with the meaning of carnal. Attitude in the realm of spiritual things. I have eleven minutes. Walking after the spirit, and thinking in the Spirit. Now let's take a look at verse nine and see what it says. First of all, maybe you'd like to underline something around which this third section revolves.
The verse is nine through thirteen. Will you please look at verse ten and underline the words, the Spirit is life. The Spirit is life. Because now we are thinking about living through the Spirit. walking out of the Spirit, thinking in the Spirit, and now living through the Spirit. The first was ambition in the realm of spiritual things. The second was attitude in the realm of spiritual things. The third is activity in the realm of spiritual things. And you know, in my notes here, I have a little reference to that word attitude.
Attitude. Are you conscious of your attitude? Do you know what kind of a person you are? Do you realize what kind of impression you give to other people, how they read your attitude? There are some Christians, and their attitude is one of constant complaint. Oh, they grumble on Monday, grumble on Tuesday, grumble on Wednesday, too. They grumble on Thursday, grumble on Friday. They grumble the whole week through. They grumble when it's raining and they grumble when it's dry. And so it goes. What's your attitude?
Are you a chronic complainer? Of course not. You live in Park of the Palms. Nobody complains in Park of the Palms. I wonder if you're... No, I better not keep on talking about attitude. I don't have time, but in any case, somebody's going to say somebody else was talking about me. All right, just a thought in fashion. It's a good idea sometimes for us to examine our attitudes, our activity. Notice verse nine, and you will see that it begins with possession of the Spirit. And then look at verse thirteen, and you'll find that it ends with possession by the Spirit.
Verse nine says, But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be, that the Spirit of God dwell in you. There it is, possession of the Spirit. We possess the Spirit of God. But let's remember the words of Captain Reginald Wallace, who suggested that while in every believer the Holy Spirit is resident, Only in some believers is the Holy Spirit president. So he lives in you. You possess him. You belong to him. He belongs to you. Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, which dwelleth in you? This is possession of the Spirit.
But living in your heart, does he sit upon the throne of your heart? That's the question and the challenge that comes to us constantly from the word of God. We possess him. The Spirit of God dwells in you. Verse nine. But now look at verse thirteen. If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Now this is possession by the Spirit mortifying the deeds of the body. You know, back in England we have undertakers.
But you long since dispensed with undertakers here in America, now you have morticians. Just like you have funeral homes. You know, it's a very... It's amazing how we like to dress death up and try to pretend to ourselves it's not the desperate thing that it really is. So, undertakers in America have given place to morticians. Maybe that's just a little bit more accurate. Mort. Mortify. You know what mort means? Well, it's a Latin word that means death. And you will notice we are to put the death of these of the body.
Now, how are we going to do this? How do we mortify the deeds of the flesh? Well, the Bible says make no provision for the flesh. Now, if you and I make no provision for our families, what would happen to them? If we didn't feed them on Monday and we didn't feed them on Tuesday, we didn't feed them on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday, we didn't feed them for three weeks, I've got an idea very soon, they'd all be corpses. And, you know, if we make no provision for the flesh, we'll starve it. And that's the way to mortify it. And as the Spirit of God takes over control, and we through the Spirit fail to feed the flesh, we bring about its demise.
Now that's the thought. And day by day the deeds of the flesh, or the deeds of the body must be mortified. That should be our activity in the realm of spiritual things. living through the Spirit. Begins with possession of the Spirit and it ends with possession by the Spirit. I wonder of how many of us can it be said that the Spirit of God really controls us, that the Spirit of God really has His way. It's a moment by moment, hour by hour proposition.
And it's something about which I, as the Speaker, need to remind myself as much as I need to remind you. Remember what the Word of God sets before us as a goal as believers. Be being filled with the Spirit. If I had a glass of water here, and there were five pebbles in the bottom, and the rest of the tumbler was filled to the brim, I could not hold it up and say, here I have a glass full of water. While there's space taken up in the glass with pebbles, it cannot be filled with water.
If my life is not emptied of the things of the flesh and sin, it cannot be filled with the Spirit. But when I meet the conditions, I don't have to attend waiting meetings to get filled with the Spirit. All I have to do is comply with the conditions. God is more anxious to fill me with His Spirit and to possess me than I am to be filled and possessed. living through the Spirit. It comes about by being filled with the Spirit and under control of the Spirit, and so mortifying the deeds of the body. Let's go to the next verse, verse fourteen, and underline the words led by the Spirit.
And this is a very interesting expression, led by the Spirit. Now what we have here is authority in the realm of spiritual things. yielding to the Spirit. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Do you know that this expression is only found twice in the New Testament? This particular Greek expression is only found here and in one other place. And in each case, very, very specifically, the reference is not to just a specific instance, but to a practical way of life.
Have you heard people say that as far as they're giving is concerned, they give as the Spirit leads? But you know, they do it very haphazardly. The question is, what Spirit is leading? The truth here is that unless the practical way of life of a believer is that of being led by the Spirit, He cannot expect in specific instances to be led by the Spirit. In other words, you can't shelve the Spirit of God for a year, and then suddenly, when you're up against a crisis, cry out to God, O Spirit of God, lead me, and expect the Spirit of God to lead you.
He does not work that way. These two instances where we read about being led by the Spirit of God refer not to specific instances but to a practical way of life. If you're not led by the Spirit day after day, day in and day out, don't expect to be led by the Spirit when a crisis comes up. Yielding to the Spirit. How concerned are we every day that we live? about being yielded to the Spirit of God. Let's look at verse twenty-six as we end here, because I have one and a half minutes to go.
It says, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. Would you like to underline that in verse twenty-six? Because that is the expression around which these verses fifteen through twenty-seven revolve. Verse fifteen says, You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but You have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father, the Spirit himself beareth witness with our Spirit. And so we read in this portion about the activities of the Spirit of God. And here, in receiving from the Spirit, we have our fifth thing, adequacy, in the realm of spiritual things.
We are not adequate in our prayer life without the Spirit of God. We are not adequate in our witness without the Spirit of God. We are not adequate in our victory without the Spirit of God. Adequately in the realm of spiritual things is found alone in the Spirit of God. Now there are two things in the portion fifteen through twenty-seven. Let me quickly mention them and I'm through. One has to do with assurance in the Spirit of God and the second has to do with assistance in the Spirit of God. Verse fifteen, assurance as to the past. Ye have received the spirit of adoption.
Verse sixteen, assurance as to the present. The spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit. And in verses seventeen through twenty-five, assurance as to the future. My, I'd love to be able to dwell here. There's so much here. You'll have to look for it yourself. adequately in the realm of spiritual things. You and I don't have to speculate. We can be absolutely certain. We can have assurance through the Spirit of God with regard to the present and the past and the future. What about assistance? We have assistance according to verse twenty-six in the area of infirmity and the same verse we have assistance in the area of intercession.
I read the verse to you and I'm true. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makeeth intercession for us with roanings which cannot be uttered. And that's a lovely verse to take and analyze. Look at it for yourself. There's so much of it. Shall we go to prayer?