Life By the Spirit

This is a sermon I preached about a month ago at Wyatt.

Romans 8:12-17 "Life In the Spirit"

Introduction:
A few months ago I preached on Indwelling Sin in believers as we looked at Romans chapter 7. In that passage we learned that as believers we all deal with the sinful nature that we have always had. We do what we don’t want to do, we don’t do the things that we know we ought to do. Before chapter 7 in Romans 1-6 we see that in our natural state we are in rebellion to God Romans 1:1-3:20. In Chapter 3 vs. 21-4:25 Paul shares God’s plan to rescue us from the sinfulness that we all find ourselves in. In chapter 5 we see another turn and that is the hope that we have as a result of God’s effort to save us. Chapter 8 describes the Christian life by the Spirit.
Jordan preached chapter 8 verses 1-11. Now I’m going to preach chapter 8:12-17. Next week I will zero in on verse 13.
I’m picking up tonight where Adam left off this morning, and talking about Life by the Spirit. Once we come to know Christ and therefore God the Father by the Spirit certain things will begin to change about us.

I am going to talk about three characteristics of Christians (those who live by the Spirit):
1. Christians are at war with sin.
2. Christians are heirs of God and therefore identify themselves with God as their Father.
3. Christians suffer with and for Christ.

I. Christians put sin to death. Vs 12-13 We are no longer debtors to the flesh. “So then” this goes back to what has previously been said.
a.12 a- Since we are no longer under condemnation and are in the Spirit, we are no longer debtors to the flesh to live by the flesh.
i.You owe the flesh nothing. So many of us are walking around as though we have debts to the flesh that you are trying to pay.
ii. The problem is that “paying the flesh” results in death. It’s like paying for the bullets that someone puts in their gun to shoot you with.
b. 12 b-We are dependent on the Spirit. We work to rest and depend on the Spirit. A big part of the Christian life is understanding what it means to rely on the Spirit. It is not a “Let go and let God” mentality, as though we are not engaged, but it is also not a “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps” kind of life either.
c. 13 a- Living by the flesh kills. John Owen put it best “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” This is a matter of fact, if you live according to the flesh you will die. This is a real warning, and we should take heed lest we find ourselves in this category as one who “lives according to the flesh.”
d. 13 b-Living by the Spirit means putting to death the deeds of the body. This necessarily implies that there will be “deeds of the body” to kill. Therefore it is not the absence of sin, but the fight against indwelling sin that we learned about in chapter 7. The big idea that we should learn is that true Christians have sin to kill.

Next week we will zero in on this verse and answer a few questions about it.
1. What does it mean to live according to the flesh?
2. What are the deeds of the body? How does this apply to believers?
3. What does it mean to put to death the deeds of the body?
4. How do you do this by the Spirit?


II. Christians are identified and identify themselves as children of God. Vs 14-16
a. This is the second in this sections’ description of true believers. It seems like anytime Paul writes to churches He assumes that unbelievers, and merely professing believers are present. It’s as though Paul is saying. “Test yourselves here brothers, those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God, and those who are led by the flesh are not the sons of God. Which are you?”
b. How do we know we have received this Spirit? You say ok, the question about whether or not we are led by the Spirit is a little too subjective for me. I get that believers are those who fight against sin, but how do I know I am a son of God?
c. Paul goes further and says that this Spirit that we are led by, causes us to apprehend our adoption as sons and causes us to cry out to God “Abba, Father.” As opposed to a slave/master relationship, this is a Father/son relationship. The way you view your relationship with God determines how you will act toward Him. If He is merely your slave master, you may be tempted to fall back into fear. In slavery, your master could snap and kill you. How many of you fear that your father might kill you? There is a fundamental difference in God being your slave master and being your Father.
d. Believing that God is your Father is the work of the Spirit. The Spirit testifies with our Spirit that we are children of God- This is not a sentimental “feeling” but an earnest biblical assurance that comes from deep biblical meditation and understanding of what the Bible says about true believers. There are three main ways that we know we are God’s children:
i. The declaration of Scripture- Believe and you will be saved.
ii. The fruit of obedience- If you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
iii. The third way is verse 16. The Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are sons of God. Dan Wallace puts it this way. “I know I’m a child of God not just because the Bible tells me so, but because the Spirit convinces me so”
e. We cannot pull this one verse out of its immediate context and try to turn this into some kind of very subjective warm and fuzzy feeling inside. If you are not trusting in Christ, and have no fruit of the Spirit who supposedly lives in you, you cannot have any assurance if you just have some warm and fuzzy feelings that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

III. Christians Suffer With Christ Vs 17
a. The third description of a Christian in this passage is that Christians suffer with Christ.
b. How do we know we are heirs? We suffer with Christ. What does this look like in America?
i. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we suffer in persecution for bearing Christ’s name, though that will come in some way if we truly believe (sooner or later our faith in Christ is going to tick someone off).
ii. We can also suffer “with Christ” if when we have the cancer, or when we lose a loved one, or the degenerative disease leaves us crippled, we react in such a way that shows Christ to be sufficient.
iii. It is sometimes hard for us to think about suffering for Christ in any other way than persecution. How do you separate the pain of persecution for your faith that may be accompanied with getting beat up? Pain is pain, in one sense, and all pain in believers should be experienced “with Christ.” That is, the way you act under pain should make Christ look good, and should point to the fact that Christ is sufficient for you. Your joy in Christ should be more than the horror of whatever is causing your pain- whether it is a mob with sticks, a family member with a sharp tongue, or cancer. Christians suffer with Christ.

Children of God are not:
Debtors to the flesh
Passive about our sinfulness
Living by the flesh
Slaves to sin
Suffering with no reference to Christ

Children of God are:
Dependent on the Spirit
Active in the fight against sin
Living by the Spirit
Sons and heirs of God
Suffering With Christ

The call of the text this evening is to cast yourself on Christ. Seek out the kind of relationship in which you put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. Seek out the kind of relationship with God where you see Him as “Daddy.” Don’t waste your suffering, whatever kind it might be, and use it as an occasion to honor Christ by showing that He is more valuable than whatever you lost.

Talking to yourself isn't Crazy, it's Biblical

I have been reading the book Spiritual Depression by "The Doctor" (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones). I have only read the introduction, but have already found it very helpful. One thing Jill often wrote about in her journal was about "Preaching to Herself". Here is what "The Doctor" says about this concept. He quotes Psalm 43 as an example of a struggling believer talking to himself.

Psalm 43:5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.

Somebody is talking. Who is talking? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: "Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you . . ."

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: "Why art thou cast down" -– what business have you to be disquieted?

You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: "Hope thou in God" -– instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do.

Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: "I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.”

Romans 8:13 War With Sin Part I

This is a sermon I preached at Wyatt a couple weeks ago. The spacing and bullets are kind of weird on here, but hopefully it is clear how the points flow.

Romans 8:13 War With Sin

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Introduction:

Get to know your enemy: Some of the greatest warriors in history were those who knew their enemy the best. You may have brute strength, but brute strength focused in the wrong place, or underestimating your enemy can cause you to be defeated. In the movie “We Were Soldiers” Mel Gibson’s character Colonel Moore was an expert in war. He did not go into the jungles of Vietnam without knowing his enemy and his surroundings. He was always one step ahead of the enemy. If we are going to be successful in our war against sin, and it is a war, we have to know the enemy and how it works.


In my next two messages I am going to answer at least 4 questions about this text:

1. What is the flesh, and what does it mean to live according to it?
2. What death/life is being spoken of in this text?
3. What are the deeds of the body?
4. How do you put them to death “by the Spirit”?

In this message I’m going to answer the first 3 questions and in the next message I will answer the final question.


1. Life by the flesh
1. “For”- This hearkens back to the previous verse. Since we are not debtors to the flesh, we need to know that paying debts to the flesh will kill us. It’s like saying- You owe nothing to the flesh, because if you live as though you owe the flesh, you will die. To put it another way- This was the best illustration that I could come up with. It’s kind of like cigarettes. Living as though you owe something to cigarettes will kill you. Smoking cigarettes does nothing but kill you, why would you live as though you owe something to them? That is the same logic that Paul is using here. Why would you serve a master that has no other intention but to kill you?
2. “If You Live according to the flesh”- Here are the things living according to the flesh means (according to verses 5-9 of Chapter 8). A warning- If you see yourself in any of these things, you ought to repent. Being in the South, and especially in this area, is one of the most dangerous places to live in the world for a Christian. Everyone thinks they are a believer, and it is therefore easy to fool yourself, and easy to be fooled.
1. You set your mind on the things of the flesh- This is anything that does not have God as the reference point. You can set your mind on “church” and have a fleshly mind. Church minus God is fleshly. Marriage minus God is fleshly. Family minus God is fleshly. I don’t think Paul has specific things in mind when he says this. He is talking about a frame of mind or a way of thinking that is fleshly.
2. You are hostile to God- Those who live according to the flesh are hostile to God. You have no interest in subjecting yourself to God. When the Law of God comes to you, you reject it. You want your way, and you say no to God’s way. You know He is there, and you know what He wants, but you reject Him anyway. Because you don’t subject yourself to God and don’t want to, you cannot subject yourself to God. You have a moral inability to subject yourself to God which is why we are completely dependent on Him to give you a new heart.
3. You cannot please God- Because you do not set your mind on the “things of the Spirit” and because you are openly hostile to God, therefore you cannot please God.

2. The Death You Will Die
1. There are questions about what death this is referring to. You may be tempted to say that this cannot mean spiritual death because, “What if a believer lives according to the flesh?” Paul is talking to Christians in this text and therefore, Paul is intending for believers to hear this. Therefore he cannot be talking about Spiritual death, but something else. This is Spiritual death because:
2. People live physically all the time, who live according to the flesh.
3. People die physically all the time who put to death the deeds of the body.
4. Unbelievers who automatically live according to the flesh live long and healthy lives. Believers who put to death the deeds of the body live short, painful lives.
5. It seems from Paul’s letters that he assumes that there will be at least three groups of people hearing the reading of his letters:
1. True believers
2. The openly unbelieving/ skeptics
3. Merely professing believers- If Paul does not have in mind this category, we need to rethink our doctrine of security and assurance of salvation.

3. The Deeds of the Body- Think venue, where does this battle take place?
1. The world tells you that your problem is outside of you, and the answer to your problems is inside of you.
1. All of secular psychology and our therapeutic culture are making all kinds of things a result of environment, or our genes, and hormones.
2. Everything is a “condition”- alcoholism, drug addiction, kleptomania, are all conditions that we suffer from, not sins to be repented of.
3. I’m not saying that there is nothing to depression or chemical imbalances or genes, but you cannot extract the spiritual dimension and the problems caused by our rebellion from life.
2. While the world says the problem is outside of you, Christianity says that your problem is inside of you. We to put to death the “deeds of the body.”
3. While we do not just battle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, we must also not underestimate our own flesh and our own sinfulness. You can’t say “The devil made me do it.” And expect to get off the hook. Paul is not talking about demonic power that forces you to do something you don’t want to do. My problem is not other people, and is not primarily the devil though he can exploit our weaknesses, we must have preexisting weaknesses for him to exploit.
4. The deeds of the body are sins that we all commit. When we sin we believe the lie that sin tells us.
1. Idolatry- You believe that whatever you put before God will be better for you than to put God first. Money, stuff, power, respect
2. Lying- You believe that by lying you will be better off, than if you trust God and speak truth. Do you see how this is rebellion against God. Lying is atheism in practice, you control your own destiny.
3. Stealing- You believe that by stealing you will be better off than by using the legal means of gaining wealth and possessions that God has ordained, and by trusting God to provide for you is a second rate way to live.
4. Lust- You believe that by indulging whatever illicit desires you may have will be better for you than following God’s plan of healthy sexual expression in the confines of a monogamous, heterosexual, Marriage between a man and a woman.
5. These deeds are just symptoms of the deepest problem of our rebellion against God. We do these deeds because our minds are set on the flesh.


The first part of this text is a warning to us, and a description of what the enemy is. The second half of the verse tells us how to kill it which is what we will turn to next time.

More Pics of Bryce

Here are some more pictures of Bryce. Please click on this link to be taken to the main database of the pictures.
Please let me know if you cannot view them.

Update on Scott:

Scott preached for the first time on this past Sunday night. He will also preach this Sunday morning. We are kind of on a "week-to-week" schedule right now. He did very well Sunday night and will be spending some time alone this week to try and think through everything and see where he is in the grieving process. Please be in prayer for him for the next few days.

My impression of Scott's status is that he is (still) doing as well as could be expected. He has been a great example of grieving appropriately and trusting in God. He mentioned Sunday night that he is still at the "bottom of the mountain" in the grieving process and that he feels like he has barely started. This may be the case, but I think he has started well. His eyes are are fixed on the right object.

I know he appreciates all your thoughts and prayers.

I hope to begin blogging some more in the next few weeks. I know it has been slow recently, but things have been crazy at work, at home and at church.

New Book From Shepherd Press

The book is called Get Outta My Face: How to Reach Angry, Unmotivated Teens with Biblical Counsel. Here is a blurb from Tedd Tripp about the book:
"Rick Horne has invested in teens his whole life. He has learned that he is more like them than unlike them. From years of first hand experience, he knows how to talk with them and his is not afraid of the tough ones. What you will read here is the wisdom of a man who has experienced the courage and hope that transforming grace can give to you and that hard teenager God has chosen for you to be near. This book is a call to action with biblical perspectives and practical steps that God can use to change the teenager and you as well."
Everything from Shepherd Press is golden. They are a trustworthy organization.

You can click here or on the title above to get it from Westminster Bookstore for 65% off.

Pics of Bryce

We had a helpful suggestion about posting pictures of Bryce.

Here are some for your viewing pleasure.

Children's Books

I love finding new books for children that are God-centered and Christ honoring. Here is a new book by Susan Hunt, illustrated by Cory Godbey. It is called Sammy and His Shepherd: Show Me Jesus in Psalm 23.

I will start a series of posts on children's books and link to Westminster Book Store which is a great book store that sells solid books at a great price (what more can you ask?)

The Aging Soul

“I am many years older than I was a few days ago” Robert Dabney

The preceding quote is taken from a letter that Dabney wrote just days after his sons death. This is a lesson I have learned in 2008 with the loss of Jill and other struggles. We all understand that the body grows weary from age. Things do not work the same when we are 80 as they did when we were 20. The body becomes a burden. However, the thing that I have learned in 2008 is that the soul ages as well. With every sin committed, with every sad goodbye, with every sorrow we watch friends carry, and with every other strike of the rod of suffering our souls grow more weary and tired. This earth feels less and less like home as the soul ages. I contend that this abuse of the soul is a great grace from God. We live in a cursed world that is longing to be redeemed. This is a world that takes more than it gives. Our weary, broken, limping souls send us away from this world towards Christ. Though I am just 31 I feel that my soul has aged by decades this year. Honestly, I have never been one who truly longed for the immediate return of Christ. There has always been more that I longed to do and enjoy on this earth. 2008 will be to me the year that my tired soul finally broke and said “Amen, come (NOW) lord Jesus”.

Letters to Bryce Extension

Lindsey and Cari have extended the deadline for "Letters to Bryce" for 2 weeks. Please send your letter to letterstobryce@gmail.com or lfwatson(at)gmail.com.

Hijacking Christmas Part III: Coming soon.

Hijacking CHRISTmas Part III: Cutting the Root and Tearing Down the Tree

I'm sorry that posting has been light (insert "non-existent") the last few days, we've been busy in the Baird household Christmas-ing and New Years-ing.

In my first post I identified the root problem of the hijacking of Christmas as the idolatry of consumerism. Fundamentally, this is unbelief in the promises of God in the gospel. People believe that by producing, and consuming stuff, they will be made happy. It stems from an atheistic world view, in which we are our own saviors, or at least we can make our own saviors.

We must realize the bankruptcy of all false saviors, in this case, the god of consumerism. It will not satisfy. It will not make you eternally happy. It is an impediment to true happiness.

For believers, the fight is to rest in God's promises and not the promises of the world. I think this is what Romans 8:13 means when it says "For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." The fight against consumerism and all other false saviors is to be fought "in the Spirit." Which of course begs the question "what does it mean to fight against sin 'in the Spirit'?" Which is a topic for another blog post. I will be preaching on this in the next few weeks. Suffice it to say that there are right ways to fight against the flesh and wrong ways. We need to fight in the right ways.

For unbelievers, the fight is to rest in God's promises and not the promises of the world. The difference between believers and unbelievers is not that believers never buy the promises of the world and the flesh, but that ultimately we don't trust in them even though we sometimes act like we do.

That's the root. Here is the tree.

This mentality and worldview has permeated our culture and has (especially) infiltrated the church. We play along with the effort of the culture to make us think that stuff can save us. I'm not going to prescribe how we ought to "do Christmas" but I do think that there is a lot of wholesale buying into the traditions of our culture without discernment and prudence and without keeping our priorities. Here's the way Emily and I think about Christmas, even though we haven't implemented these principle perfectly:

1. Christmas is about Christ. We will feel like we have failed if our children don't think about Jesus when they think about Christmas.

2. Christmas is more about giving than receiving. We want our girls to understand the meaning of the coming of Christ as the greatest gift anyone has ever received, therefore we don't want to give our girls so much stuff that they get the erroneous idea that Christmas is about receiving and not giving.

3. Christmas is not about Santa Claus. Ok, this one could be controversial. We have decided not to emphasize Santa Claus in our household. We don't tell them that there is no such thing as Santa, but we don't talk a lot about him. We don't put out cookies for him to eat, and we don't give them presents from him. I'm not saying it is sinful or wrong to do the Santa Claus thing, but we have decided against it. This is a work in process because we definitely don't want our kids to be the snot nosed brats who go around to the other kids and say "There's no such thing as Santa!", but we don't want the fat man in the red suit to overshadow the Baby in the manger.

4. Christmas is not about us. Again, we intentionally limit the amount of stuff we give our kids (even though if you came in our house, you would wonder if we really do!) so that they won't think Christmas is about them. If we just give lip service to Jesus and spend most of our time showering them with presents, I doubt that they'll believe us when we say "Christmas is about Jesus."

I hope these posts on Christmas have been thought provoking at least and helpful to those who are thinking through these issues. This has certainly not been the final word, but it may be a good place to start.

Blessings on you all as you seek to think like Christians. If you are not a Christian, blessings on you as you consider the Christ who's coming we celebrate.