Recognizing the Mindset of the Flesh

to his will and his law. We said before that the law of God is like a doctor's regimen of life. This is how you can be whole and healthy and healed and he gives us his law, this revelation and this is how you ought to live. Husbands love your wives like Christ love the church, be willing to lay down your life for her, do everything that you can to promote her purity and her growth and her wholeness. Wives submit to your husbands, see them as a gift from God, respect them. You know why he gives us those laws, what he gives us those commandments, it's for our good. It's because he loves us and it's because it's a reflection of his character. It's a reflection of who he is. That's what he's called us to be.

Well, I want to ask you something. Is this passage simply descriptive or prescriptive? I already told you actually that it is both and that's the answer to this question. This passage is descriptive and prescriptive. That is not only does this describe the difference between the mindset of the flesh and the mindset of the spirit, not only does it describe the difference between being in Christ and in the spirit and being outside of Christ in the flesh, but it also is prescriptive. In other words, in scripture always the commands of God flow out of the promises of God. In other words, what God has done and the statements of God about who we are in Christ Jesus. If you look for example at the book of Ephesians, the first three chapters tell you who you are in Jesus Christ.

Who are you? Read the first three chapters of Ephesians and you'll see that you're seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. You've been blessed with every spirit of blessing. According as he is in Christ, in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, according as he has chosen you in him before the foundation of the world, shows you, brought you into Christ, has blessed you with every spiritual blessing, and then in chapter four he begins to say, therefore, this is how you want to live. This is the pattern of scripture. This is who you are, now live like it. Be who you are. That's what the New Testament tells us to do. Be who you are. Now, in this passage, when it talks about the mindset of the flesh and the mindset of the Spirit and placing him as such stark contrast, the person who has a mindset of the flesh is completely different in the way he views the world and approaches life than the person who is in the flesh.

If you're in the flesh, you're going to approach life completely different than the person who is in the spirit. Now, primarily, this is a corporate description. I think that's important here. This is a corporate description. If you want to be among people who have the mindset of the Spirit, who value people more than things, who value God more than this world, then you have to get among the people of God who have the mindset of the Spirit. The best place in the world to be is in the church of Jesus Christ. It's where people have the mindset of the Spirit and not the mindset of the flesh. One of the warnings that Jude gives in his little book is that there will be in the last days those who creep into the church whose eyes are filled with adulteresses.

And what he means by that, there will be those who creep in among the saints because they want to take advantage and they see every woman as a target. You see, that's a person who has the mindset of the flesh. The person who has the mindset of the Spirit sees every woman as a sister in Christ and he treats her as a sister in Christ. Now, we have the potential because of what we have been told in Romans 7.23. When Paul describes his own struggle within, I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind. My mind has been transformed by the work of regeneration, but he says, I see another law at work in me that is against the law of my mind and making me repetitively a prisoner of the law of sin, which is in my members.

This is what one man called the law of repetitive capture. That we go through these times where it seems like I want to live for Christ. And before I can turn around, sin has taken hold of me. And I become captive to sin. Well, because we still have sin dwelling in us, because we still have this law of sin and death dwelling in our members, even though we have been given the mindset of the Spirit, then we have a problem. Let me give you a couple of examples of mature Christian leaders in the work of God and among the people of God who have succumbed to the mindset of the flesh at a given moment and sometimes in a season. First of all, look with me at Matthew 16. Here's the Apostle Peter, the Apostle Peter.

Now, it's the most amazing passage because it shows you Peter and all of his glory. The Roman Catholic Church claims it was the first Pope. He's the most fallible of all the Apostles. He is what John MacArthur calls the Apostle with a foot-shaped mouth, because he was continually putting his foot into his mouth. Well, it's amazing in this passage here. This is the passage where Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 16, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist doesn't say Elijah, but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. And he says to them, but who do you say that I am? Who is the first guy that speaks? Simon Peter. Peter speaks up and Peter makes the most amazing statement.

In fact, this is a dramatic expression of the central issue of the gospel. Now, art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now, it's hard to imagine how you could have said it any better. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. You are the anointed one, the Messiah, that the Old Testament promised the Son of the living God. And Jesus said to him, blessed are you. Simon, Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter and upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you, and that's actually a singular there. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven and whatever you lose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Then he warned his disciples that they should tell no one that he was the Christ. These apostles, as they confessed the truth about who Jesus Christ was, were exercising the keys to the kingdom of God. They were opening the doors as they preached the gospel and they proclaimed the truth about Christ. Glorious moment in the life of the apostle Peter. I mean, this is a mountain top experience. He has made a statement that is a clear, one of the clearest statements concerning the nature of who this Jesus Christ is. And then notice what happens immediately in the text. From that time Jesus began to show his disciples, now that they know he's the Messiah, they've confessed it. They're clear on it.

It says Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders in chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Why in the world did he review him? Because it didn't fit his mindset. The way he was viewing things and the way he was viewing the future and the way he was viewing how things were going to work out was in total contradiction to Jesus being arrested and crucified. He was ready to march into Jerusalem and for Jesus to take the kingdom and for him to reign at his right hand. And notice what Jesus, what Peter says to Jesus, God forbid it, Lord, this shall never happen to you.

Now imagine what's going on here. The Apostle Peter is saying you will never go to the cross. You're not going to accomplish this greatest work, the height point of all the ages according to Hebrews 924. You're not going to accomplish the work on the cross. And notice what Jesus does. But he turned. Jesus turned and said to Peter, man, can you think it isn't amazing the moments in Peter's life? I mean, you think about this event and then when Jesus was being tried and Peter was denying him and it tells us in the account that Jesus turned and looked at Peter. And then in the sea of Galilee when Peter after his fail so miserably and Jesus has now been raised to the dead and for the first time he's alone with Jesus and he's so sheepish.

And I can't blame him. And notice what Jesus says to him here. He turned and he said to Peter, get behind me Satan. Man, if I would have ever called my brother Satan when we were growing up, I'd have gotten a licking. Jesus calls him Satan. Why does he do that? Well, notice what he says. You are a stumbling block to me. Jesus had set his face like flint to go to Jerusalem because he was going to be arrested. He was going to be tried. He was going to be convicted and he was going to be crucified and hang on the cross for you and me. And Jesus said, Peter, you are a stumbling block. You are doing the work of the devil. For and here's the explanation. For you are not and here's our word, setting your mind on God's interests but man.

You are not setting your mind on God's interests but man. That is the mindset of the flesh. Isn't it amazing how he could slip into this? Isn't it amazing how unperceiving Peter is at this moment? You know, we could look at other places. One would be, in fact, well, we turn there real quick. First Kings, chapter 19, you need an Old Testament exercise. Turn back to first Kings, chapter 19. That's about a quarter of an inch in from the beginning of your Bible. First Kings 19. Elijah has just accomplished one of the greatest things in all of his ministry. He has challenged the prophets of Bale, 450 prophets of Bale because the King, Ahab, had married Jezebel and Jezebel had converted him to a Bale worshiper, the King of Israel.

And Elijah comes and challenges the prophets of Bale and you remember the story they set up altars and he said, I'll put an offering on this altar to Jehovah, the one true and living God. You put an altar on this, you put an offering on this altar of sacrifice and you call upon your God that he would bring fire and consume this sacrifice. And I will pray to my God that he will bring fire and consume this sacrifice. And the one who sends the fire and consumes the sacrifice is the true God and we will worship him and all the people who were hesitant before that said, that's good, that's what we'll do. And so you remember the prophets of Bale, they begin to cry out to their gods and they begin to cut themselves and wail and go on and on and on and Elijah taunts them and he says, well maybe your God is on a trip or maybe he's using the restroom or maybe he's gone on vacation, maybe you should yell louder.

The fire doesn't come. Then what Elijah does, he takes all this water, courts and gallons of water and pours it on the sacrifice and the wood under the sacrifice and fills up a trench around it. And then he begins to call up on the one true and living God. God sends fire, consumes the offering, a demonstration of the people of God who are halting between two opinions and they said, Jehovah is our God. Oh what victory he had. In fact, he executes himself 450 prophets of Bale. And then he tells Ahab, you better get in your chair and get home because God is going to sin rain because there had been a drought in the land because of the judgment of God and now Elijah says God is going to sin rain. And Ahab knew that Elijah had inside information because he's the one who told Ahab there was going to be no rain and there was no rain for three years.

And now he prays. And pretty soon after a series of things, they begin to see the clouds roll in. Ahab gets in his chariots and flees to jazz real to get back to Jezebel and tell her what's happened. And Elijah runs and passes up Ahab. He is in the height of victory in his ministry. God has used him in mighty ways. God has used him to raise the dead to heal the sick, to call down fire out of heaven. Man, Ahab is at the height. I mean Elijah is at the height of his ministry as a prophet of God. But he gets back to Jezebel. When Ahab tells Jezebel what Ahab had done that he had killed her 450 prophets of Bale, she said, go tell Elijah that I will do the same thing to him. I'm going to take his life.

When that word came to Elijah the most amazing thing happened. He crumbles and he heads for the desert. He heads south. He goes out in the desert and is attending his with in this young man who is his young associate and he says, you wait here. I'm going to go off by myself. He goes off under a broom tree. He gets under this broom tree on the desert and he gets on his face and he tells God. In fact, let me read this to you. This is in verse 1 Corinthians 19, Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, so many the gods do to me and even more. If I do not make your life as a life of one of them by tomorrow about this time and he was afraid.

He was afraid. He's just killed 450 prophets of Bale and he's afraid of Jezebel. Amazing. What's going on with this man? He arose and ran for his life and came to Bershiba which belongs to Judah and left his servant there. But he himself, when a day's journey into the wilderness came and sat down under a juniper, a broom tree and he requested for himself that he might die. And he said, it is enough. I've had it. I've done all these things and now failure. Now, O Lord, take my life for I am no better than my father. My father's failed. They killed his fathers which were the prophets and he says, I have failed to. And he lay down. They slept under the juniper tree and behold, there was an angel touching him and he said to him arise and eat.

Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a breadcake baked on hot stones in the jar of water. So he ate and drank and he lay down again. And this is R&R. This man's exhausted. He ran 18 miles to Jezreo. Ran so fast he passed up the chariot. He's been fasting and praying. He's exhausted and he's crazy. Have you ever been crazy? It's time when I came back from the Philippines 15 hour flight and I got back and I thought I could just take up life as normal. And about three days into it, I was I was shaving and I said to Judy, where have I been? I couldn't remember where I had been. I couldn't remember that I'd gone to the Philippines and all those things had happened. It just vanished from my memory.

I mean, I was crazy. You know that you can get so exhausted that you just lose touch with reality, don't you? Well, here is Elijah. And in this weakness, what Elijah does he begins to look through the eyes of the flesh. And it's amazing what happens when you look through the eyes of the flesh. Jezebel looks 20 feet tall. And notice what happens. This is God's solution by the way to the minds of the flesh. When you begin to look at the world, when you begin to have a world-oriented perspective of life, when you begin to look at life the way your neighbors who don't know Christ look at life, when you begin to value things the same way they value things, the way when you begin to approach life just like your neighbors do instead of with the minds of the Spirit.

Notice what happens. The angelard came again a second time touched him, said a rhizae because the journey is too great for you. So he rose in eight and drank and went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the Mount of God. That's Mount Sinai. And he's going to the cave where Moses had gone when God revealed himself to Moses. Moses said, God, I've got to seal. I need to seal before we move on. And God says, I'll reveal my name to you. And so he puts him in the cave. And then he puts his hand over the cave. And he lets Moses see who he is by watching him depart. He saw his after-blow as he passed by. And here he puts Elijah in the same cave. And he came to a cave and lodged there and behold the word of the Lord came to him and he said to him, what are you doing here Elijah?

Notice it's been 40 days. He's had enough time to think about it. He's had enough time to get his head straight. But notice what happens. He said, I've been very jealous for the Lord. I have worked so hard for you, God. The God of hosts, for the sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, killed your prophets with a sword, and I alone am left. I am the only one. Have you ever felt like that? People in ministry, that's what happens to them. You go along and you lay down your life and you sacrifice and suffer. And you go through these times where it seems like nobody will lift a hand to help. And you think you get the Elijah complex. You're under the broom tree and everybody has turned their back on serving God and you're the only one left.

And notice what happens. I am alone and they seek my life to take it away. And he said, go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord. Here is his dose of reality. Let me tell you the cure for the believer. When you begin to adapt the mindset of the flesh, the cure is you need to see the living God to put things back into perspective. You need to see the living God. It's like a little boy walking down the street in the neighborhood bullies who beam up every day. As he walks down the street, they yell at him from across the street and threaten him and run at him. But if he's walking alongside his dad, he has perfect confidence. It doesn't scare him a bit because it changes everything. When you see God, bring God into the situation and everything changes.

And so God's going to do that. But he does it in a peculiar way. Because Elijah is thinking, God, you haven't come through with me. For me, I have seen these mighty works. And now you put me in this situation where this woman is threatening my life and you don't exert your mighty power. And notice what happens. The Lord was passing by and a great and strong wind was rinding the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord. Maybe this is God manifesting Himself. This mighty blowing wind, spectacular things, miraculous things. But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind and earthquake, the earth shakes. The Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake of fire, supernatural fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire, a sound of a gentle voice, a soft voice as God speaks to a servant. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle, went out and stood in the entrance of the cave and behold a voice came to him and said, what are you doing here, Elijah? And an amazing Elijah says the same thing to the same God. He says, I have been very zealous for the Lord of the God of hosts, for the sons of Israel, for sick and you're coming and torn down your elders. You see, he thinks he's going to convince God. Things are bad, God. It isn't going to work. Everybody's turned against you. I've told you the three times now. And notice what happens. Killed your prophets with a sword. I alone am left and they seek my life to take it away.

And the Lord said to him, I love this. The Lord said, this is not like any counselor I have ever heard. Look what God does. God says to him, go, return to your way, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you have arrived, you shall anoint Isaiah, King over Aram. I am in charge of Aram, the enemy of the people of God. And you're going to go anoint the next king of Aram. That is Syria to the north. And Jahu, the son of Nimshi, you shall anoint King over Israel. I'm going to remove Ahab, this ungodly king, this king of misplaced faith. And I'm going to have you anoint Jahu as king. And anoint Elisha, the son of Shafat of Abel Mahola, you shall anoint as prophet in your place.

A part of the thing that he's telling him is here is, look Elijah, you've finished your work. Here's your final assignment. And you're coming home. You see, all he needed, it's amazing. All he needed was to hear the voice of the living God. And when God gives him direction, when God gives him instruction, Elijah responds, responds. And God says, it gives him this promise that she'll come about, that the one who escapes from the sort of Isaiah, these people you're worried about, the enemies of God, Jahu, shall put to death. And the one who escapes from the sort of Jahu, Elisha, shall put to death. Yet, he says to him, I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to bail in every mouth that has not kissed him.

See, there were 7,000. He thought he was alone, but there were 7,000. But isn't it amazing how the servant of the Lord so quickly adapted the mindset of the flesh? All you have to do believer to start taking on the mindset of the flesh and practice in your life is simply remove God from the picture. What are you facing? Sometimes go talk to Connie O'Donnell for a little while and let her tell you how in the world she can have peace in the final stages of Lou Gehrig's disease, as it's creeping closer and closer to taking a life. How can she have peace? One way, if God is with me, if God is with me, if God is in my mindset, if my life is over here around who he is and notices, I want you to look at a couple of things.

First, no, I don't. One last thing, sorry. Look at Colossians 1. Well, they had manager of time. Colossians chapter 3. Colossians 3.1, listen to this. Therefore, since it is true, that's the import of those words. Since it is true believer that you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ who is our life is revealed then also will be revealed. You will be revealed with Him in glory. The Bible says what Paul has said in these chapters is that you have died to sin. You have died to self.

You have died to the law and you have died to the world according to Galatians chapter 6. You have delighted to sin, self, the cosmos, the world system, and the law. You have died to those things. Guess what the mindset of the Spirit is? The mindset of the flesh is a mindset that has a sin focus, a self focus, a law focus, and a world focus. And the mindset of the Spirit is to have a Christ focus, to have an others focus. So I'm not seeking to get all the gusto I can in life. I am seeking to be used by God as an instrument in his hands as a dispenser of the grace of God into the lives of his people. Why? Because God is in my mindset. That's the mindset of the Spirit. It will cause you to value things that are truly valuable and it will cause you to see things, things of this world in this world system that are of so little value, so little value.

Imagine if we could get the money that people spend on extreme makeovers in this country and use it for the God, the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. What an amazing investment we can make. Where is your value system? Well, let's say it's the outgrowth and it is the effect of your mindset. And so God, the Spirit, would ask you this morning, where is your mind? Where is your heart? What is your mindset? Let's stand together and pray for one another. Our Father, we confess to you that we are so easily, even as servants of God, even those of us who have come to the place where we've committed our lives to giving our lives for the service of Christ. Those of us who are engaged in ministry of one kind or another, we confess it is so easy for us to get sucked into the minds of the flesh.

So we ask you to help us to be alert and attentive to intentionally think on things above that we would bring Christ into the situation always as we evaluate our plans, our purposes, as we evaluate even our values system and the things that we invest our lives and our resources in. Help us oh God to bring Christ into the picture. We thank you for your treasure that you've given us. And we pray that as Paul told Peter, we would, Paul told Timothy, we would guard the treasure that we would see it as the most valuable thing in all of our possession to have this salvation and this unveiling of the salvation in the Word of God. Oh Father, help us to set our minds on things above and not on things in this world we pray today so that we can be of some earthly good.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Our Father, as we come to the Word now as your people, we long to hear from you. All of us come here today with great needs and the primary need that we have and the answer to all the dilemmas of life that we face is you and hearing your voice. And so we pray that you could speak to us through your Word that you would unfold it before our hearts and let us see and understand and take it to heart and find the salvation that Jesus has promised through faith in him we pray. Amen. I'm going to begin reading in Romans chapter 7 and it will give us a little bit of the context and we'll go down through the first few verses of chapter 8. Romans chapter 7 beginning in verse 24.

Paul cries out after describing this great struggle, this inward struggle between sin, the law of sin and death and the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. He says, wretched man that I am who will set me free from the body of this death and his responses thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This deliverance is going to come through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then notice what he says, so then, in light of that, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God but on the other hand with my flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do weak as it was through the flesh.

God did sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. We do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who are according to the spirit the things of the spirit. For the mindset of the flesh is death but the mindset of the spirit is life and peace because the mindset of the flesh is hostile toward God. For it does not subject itself to the law of God for it is not even able to do so and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However you are not in the flesh but in the spirit if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you but if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ he does not belong to him.

If Christ is in you though the body is dead because of sin yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Notice the question that is raised at the end of chapter 7 and that is how will Jesus Christ set me free from the body of this dead. This is what we want to ask Paul cries out that Jesus Christ is going to be through Jesus Christ that he's going to be delivered from this body of death or the body of this death. That is this struggle, this spiritual struggle to live an obedience to God and to have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us to actually experience what God has promised to those who trust him and follow him because we struggle with sin and we lose the battle so often Paul says in chapter 7 he describes what all of us who've been walking with the Lord for very long can say yes I've experienced that.

The answer that he gives in chapter 8 to that question how is it that Christ is going to set me free from the body of this death is it's going to be through sanctification and glorification. sanctification and glorification and sanctification means to be set apart to God to be set apart for him unto him and for his purposes. God when he saved you when you rested your faith in Jesus Christ he sets you apart to himself. You became his unique property in the King James it translates a little phrase often as you are a peculiar people and we don't use that expression today because it sounds too weird but the idea of peculiar in that King James English was you are a people that are uniquely belonging to God you are set apart for his purpose that's true of every single believer you have been set apart for God but as we have all discovered being set apart for God doesn't necessarily change me on the inside there has to be an ongoing process and that's the other part of sanctification it is this ongoing process of not of God doing in us changing our character and our hearts our lives so that we in spirit and character are truly the servants of the living God and then ultimately he's going to finish that process with what is he refers to in chapter 8 as glorification we're going to be glorified we are going to be transformed into the image of his son it's a beautiful chapter to read because when as Paul begins to tell you God's provision for your daily Christian life it's such a wonderful thing that he's given you the Holy Spirit he has set you apart for himself and then he has put the spirit of God in you and that spirit is a spirit of adoption he has made you his child and the spirit of adoption keeps saying to your heart you are a child of God and then he says not only that but he has promised to completely transform you and make you exactly like his son in character so that when you enter into the physical presence of the living God in the future you will be at home you will be at rest you will be in the presence of the one that you love more than all of life now what I like to do is just step our way through this text and look at some things if you notice as we read through the first 11 verses of chapter 8 you have verses 5 through 11 you have verse the bad news and that is that those who are in the flesh cannot please God in fact he goes overboard to drive that home to our hearts those who are in the flesh cannot please God what he means by being in the flesh and being in a spirit we'll see down in in verses in verse 9 and that is it means to be a Christian to be a Christian is to be in the spirit before you came to Christ you were in the flesh and while you were in the flesh you had no ability to please God but the good news is in verses 9 11 you were not in the flesh but in the spirit if it is true that the spirit of God dwells in you and if you don't have the spirit of Christ that you don't belong to Christ now in John 14 Jesus promise that he would pour out the spirit that he would give us the spirit in fact he says that is how I'm going to come to you my father and I are going to come and dwell with you through the Holy Spirit so the spirit's been given to us but those who are in the flesh have no ability to please God now what's important about this text is that it is not only descriptive but it's prescriptive that is it doesn't just tell you what the case is but it tells you what you ought to do in light of that the implications that fall from this text let's take a look at this first of all what he does is in comparing flesh and spirit if you notice as we read through here that he describes two realms you're either in the flesh or in the spirit and as we have seen from chapter 7 this is referring to two realms two powers under which people live you either live in the flesh that is and all that means is you live separate from God you live independently of God you live without God you don't live your life and trust of the living God before you came to Christ you lived independently of God on your own that's what it means to be in the flesh it's all that you are with all of those good things bad things everything about you every ability you have every part of your character apart from God you're in the flesh he said but then the person who's in the spirit is in a different realm he's in the spirit and in the spirit means that I'm living in the realm where the spirit of God is ruling over my life and giving me direction now the drive of the person the flesh is to be independent of God it's what's so offensive about Christianity and about the gospel that the gospel brings this message that you actually are accountable to your creator but the one who created you and created this world and created you for this world and for yourself you owe him something and that's offensive and the drive of the flesh is to be independent of God and the essence of hell according to second Thessalonians chapter one is the essence of hell is to be away from the presence of God and the glory of his power the flesh is driven to be separate from God and ultimately the flesh gets it's with separate from God apart from the glory of his power now not only that but then he talks about how there are two mindsets the mindset of the flesh and the mindset of the spirit now sometimes we hear this word this expression those who are in the flesh set their mind on the things of the flesh we think only of the intellect only of what we would consider to be a notional thinking but the word that's used here is much broader than that and deeper than that it's much closer to the concept of the heart it's not simply the the intellectual thoughts but it includes the affections as well as the reason perceiving the way you take in things as you look at the world the way you look at the world the way you interpret and evaluate those things it includes your desiring and your purpose in life so it's a word that's much deeper it's a word that has to do with the the Greek word frame that's used here for mine means that inner part of man it's almost equivalent to the heart of who I am inside the mindset that he refers to it if you notice in verses verses six and seven it uses that expression the mindset on the flesh of the mindset on the spirit that's actually one word those two words mindset is one word and it simply means a mindset now all of you are raising kids know what a mindset is right that that sounds familiar to you you can interpret what that means a mindset it means the general bent of thought and motive it's an outlook that includes the flesh's assumptions values desires affections and purposes I heard this guy reading an article the other day was very humorous about a guy and a girl who had been dating for four months and they're driving on the street going out to dinner and she says wow did you know this you realize this is our fourth anniversary we started dating four months ago and there's this long silence deep silence and so immediately she thinks I'm coming on too strong I'm going to drive him away and he goes on and on and on describing what's going on in her heart about their relationship and oh I don't want to mess this up and I'm not sure if I really do want to marry this guy and have children with him I don't know if this is going to be lasting and she's thinking I've offended him I'm driven him away he's over there all quiet and then it tells you what the guy's thinking four months that means I haven't changed one of my car in four months in fact the the guarantee on my transmission is about to run out I can't believe this it's been four months I've got to take care of this car you see there was some lack of communication there because there was two different sets of assumption and the mindset has to do with this general bent the outlook as one translation has it the outlook of the flesh and the outlook of the spirit the way we view reality the way that we interpret the events of our life the way we view people and events and notice this in chapter 8 verse 27 it says he who searches the hearts and that text is referring to Jesus Christ the spirit intercedes for us with groaning studio for words and Jesus Christ takes those groanings of the spirit and it says he is the one who searches Jesus Christ is the one who searches the heart and knows what the mindset exact same word front him on he knows what the mindset of the spirit is he knows what the mindset of the spirit is and he knows what mindset you have what are you praying for do you pray with a mindset of the spirit that's what he's called us to and Jesus Christ intercedes takes the intercessions of the spirit because the spirit is always praying what is really the best for us as we pray because sometimes we don't have we are not exercising this mindset that we have been given a notice from his 12 16 D of the same mind toward one another do not be hot in mind but associate with the lowly which means have a mindset of a servant don't have the mindset of somebody who's high in mighty and think you're better than everybody around you the mindset of the spirit is a mindset of humility it's a mindset that sees that you're not the greatest thing walking but in fact you can be used as a tool in the hand of God to bless his people and you can actually lay down your life for the benefit of his people and for the glory of God do not be wise in your own estimation wow you could spend a month just contemplating and meditating on that couldn't you do not be wise in your own estimation see yourself as a humble servant put on the mindset of a servant and then in Philippians 319 he uses this concept whose end is destruction whose God is their appetite to referring to those in the flesh those outside of faith in Christ he says their end is destruction their God is their in the King James their God is their belly it's their appetite it is their fleshly desires it's the things of the flesh I want more things I want to experience more less it's all world oriented to set their minds there's that word to set their minds on earthly thing by everyone's estimation who's ever written about it in the last 10 years the church in America today is the most worldly materialistic church that has ever existed in the history of the world that is when you're talking about true believers that are congregating around the name of Jesus Christ there have been false religions that have been as worldly but never as a church been so worldly as a whole so materialistic and so in danger of living with their mindset on earthly things as they were before they came to be in the spirit or Colossians 3 2 set your mind on the things above not on the things on the earth this is mindset this has to do with something a way of looking at reality the filter through which you view and analyze all things the third thing that he contrasts is the kinds of fruit that these two realms produce the believers that is the church of Jesus Christ is the community of faith that walks according to the spirit and the fruit of that life the fruit of being in the spirit is life and peace the spirit is life the spirit is the spirit of life the spirit is the one who brings the life of Jesus is purchased for us and implants it within us so walking in the spirit results in life not just life in the future but life now in fact one of the things the New Testament teaches us is that we have since the coming of Christ and the pouring out of the spirit if you're familiar at all with redemptive history as it's unfolded in the scriptures from Genesis through Revelation you know that we live in a period of time in which we have received the life that the Old Testament prophets prophesied about we have received this what's called this eschatological life this life that was promised in the last days we have come to receive it and we'll possess it for all eternity today in our mortal bodies we experience life and peace with God that's a glorious truth isn't it that we experience life and peace with God that's the product that is the fruit well the fruit that flows out of the the mindset of the flesh is death now why does he use that kind of word death being the effect of the mindset of the flesh because it's the goal of the flesh you see what death is according to scripture is separation from God that's what death is now physical death is the separation of the immaterial part of man that relates to God with the material part of man but death as an overall term and concept is separation from God and the goal of the mindset of the flesh is to be separate from God it's to have God out of my life and not to have him impinge on anything about my life that's the mindset of the flesh and so the mindset of the flesh bears the fruit of death not only in the future second Thessalonians chapter one will be put away from the presence of God and the glory of his power but today as I live my life if I if I am in the flesh if I've never turned to Jesus Christ I am living a life of spiritual death that doesn't mean I can't think it doesn't mean I can't think about God it doesn't mean I can't understand the gospel facts it means that my life is lived in separation from God I have locked God out of my life and when I turn to him in faith when I turn to Christ in faith when I hear the good news that those who are in the flesh can come to this God and be brought into the spirit and have a life that's characterized by fellowship and union and communion with God when that takes place when the spirit of God comes in power in a person's life and brings them into this new sphere they begin to experience life life one of the most dangerous things that happens in the life of a church is that children grow up in churches thinking that all Christianity is are these external things and if we live like that if we live in such a way that we portray Christianity as simply being these external things you'll have the product of that is is people growing up in the church who think they are Christian because they do all the external things and yet they have never entered into life they need enter into life and entering into life is by entering into the spirit through faith in Jesus Christ and then he talks about two patterns of behavior the person in the flesh his behavior is described as walking according to the flesh the word walk is Paul's favorite word for describing your pattern of living it just is referring to the word actually means to walk about it means where you go who you go with the pace you go at everything you do in life all of your living he says all of the living of the person who is in the flesh is under the control of the flesh the mindset of the flesh the values of the flesh now don't misunderstand the word flesh doesn't mean it is an equivalent with sexual sin and sexual perversion the works of the flesh are far broader than simply sexual sin the flesh is life lived in independence of God and notice how he described it in verses 7 and 8 because the mindset of the flesh this is the reason that the mindset of the flesh produces death it is because the mind set on the flesh or the mindset of the flesh is hostile toward God hostile towards God and it does not for it does not subject itself to the law of God where it's not even able to do so and those who are in the flesh cannot are not able to please God man that is strong language isn't it I mean that's kind of offensive those who are in the flesh those who are outside of Christ are hostile to God most people outside of Christ that you know maybe not most of them but a lot of them don't feel hostile they don't feel like they're hostile to God they don't think that they treat God as an enemy I mean the fact that you ignore God why should God be offended by that why should God be offended the fact that you simply act as though he doesn't exist well try it on your wife for a week and then ask her why does that offend you that I just live as though you don't exist I'm not attacking you are anything like that why are you so angry the God of the universe created you for himself he shaped you body soul and spirit created you in his image we're told in Genesis chapter 3 and 2 that he actually created you in his own image after his likeness to mirror who he is through your relationship with him that's what you were created for that's why you exist for the glory of God and what we do is we say I don't want to live under your kingship I want to be my own king and why should you be offended the Bible tells you why this sovereign lord demands from you worship allegiance obedience to follow him to love him to receive his love that's what God demands and the person that flesh by definition is a person who is hostile to that kind of God see the reason a lot of people don't feel hostile towards God that is they don't feel like they're hostile towards God is they have a greatly distorted view of who God is we we tend to create God in our image don't we we tend to create God in the way we want him to be you see that is the very essence of idolatry idolatry simply I just want to train the God of the Bible in for a different God and I'll worship this God that I create in my image but God says he is God and you are not and he created you for himself to receive from him to receive love from him and to worship him obey him and walk it with him but the person in the flesh the person is the mindset of the flesh the mindset that says God is absent from my whole perspective of life is hostile towards God does not subject himself to the law of God and cannot please God you know sometimes we forget the reason that we are against certain things it is though we begin to think we're against certain things because of our cultural leanings and values or our politics no that's not true the reason that Christians are against certain things is because of God's revealed will God's law the reason that we are against things like same-sex marriages because we don't because we don't love homosexuals the fact is homosexuality doesn't really affect the church a whole lot I'll tell you what affects the church fornication adultery lying with holding love from one another and it's almost as though people aren't near as upset about fornication and adultery as they are with homosexuality well the fact is homosexuality is a sin like adultery as a sin and fornication as a sin and it is a perversion that goes against the nature of God's creation but I got to tell you it's not the thing that's doing in the church in this area of moral purity the thing that's doing in the church in the area of moral purity is fornication adultery pornography dirty mindedness as the Bible calls it those are the things that's what comes out of the mindset of the flesh that is really a danger to the life of the church but the reason we are against these things is not because we hate homosexual or the yuck factor in fact I don't know one pastor in my acquaintance that doesn't have at least one family in his church who's touched by homosexuality I don't know one and you know what they need to hear from us you know what I understand there is this political movement and this this the gay movement that tries to voice their immorality on us and force us to say it's right when it's wrong I understand that the average person who has fallen into this pattern of sin of homosexuality you know what they need to hear they need to hear about the love of Jesus Christ in the gospel Randy Alcorn who's a pastor of perimeter church was and they were having a church meeting I was actually a meeting for new members and so anybody could ask questions this is a huge church in Atlanta and somebody razor hand and said what is your stand on homosexuality he said my stand is I wish that every homosexual in Atlanta would attend this church so that we could preach the gospel to them so that we could demonstrate the gospel to them so we could show them that we serve a God who saves real sinners so we could show them that we are simply beggars who found bread telling other beggars where the bread is in Jesus Christ the glorious thing is that God transforms people's lives as Paul said into the Corinthians he said he lists all these aberrations he lists all these sinful life all this this brand of sinning in the world and he said and such were some of you it had wonderful the God saved you out of sin you know the sin he saved you out of it took exactly the same work to save you out of your sin as it takes to save a homosexual out of their sin same work of Christ and I don't know why I got off on that so now we get back on track here the other side of it is the other pattern of behavior is that those who are in the spirit those who have the minds of the spirit walk according to the spirit they walk according to the spirit now God because he has the audacity to demand of us and makes a claim on our allegiance outside of the spirit when we were in the flesh before we experienced regeneration and this new life in Jesus Christ the nature of fallen man is this determination to assert his independence to be the center of his own life to be his own God to be his own God and let me tell you something that the nature of hell is this this is the most wretched thing about hell the most horrible thing to think about hell it's not the fire it's not the physical suffering it is this the every man every woman every person in hell is going to be their own God they're going to be by themselves the one thing that the Jesus of course is the one who talks about hell on the New Testament I don't know if you're aware of that but he's the one who teaches us everything about hell the mecan lowly Jesus because he knows that we need to warn about the reality of hell to spend an eternity separated from God because you don't want to have God in your life separate from God being your own God away from the presence of God and the power of his glory because we refuse to submit