Photo taken by B Smith from the Kitchen Door
287 - THE SPIRIT’S WITNESS
JANUARY 31, 1965
Henry F. Kulp
Romans 8: 5 - 11 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: 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.
Many people have had a great deal of trouble with this portion of Scripture, but actually God is not warning a believer here how he should live, but is making a distinction, He is making a contrast—a contrast between the saved and the unsaved. A distinction between the saved and the unsaved—according to the Word of God, there are only two kinds of people in the world—those who are saved and those who are unsaved. God will never, and never has divided people, into what the world calls educated nor uneducated, cultured or savage, rich or poor, high or low. These differences do not exist in the mind of God, but only in the mind of men. God just recognizes those who are saved and those who are lost.
1/ Our present text shows that the only difference God recognizes is between those who do not have divine life and those who do. There are those who are after the flesh and those who are after the Spirit. Every individual in the world is described by one of these two phrases—after the flesh or after the Spirit.
2/ It is sad, but true, that those who are in the flesh, walking in the flesh, are the last to suspect their condition. Their mind is enmity against God.
Romans 8: 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
This is brought out in I Corinthians 2: 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Then, of course, you have Jeremiah 17: 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
The hearts of men are deceitful above all things and incurably wicked. So he doesn’t really know his condition.
3/ Our text shows us four things about those who are unregenerate, those who are unsaved.
First of all, and it is in verse 5 we have the description of their life. They that are after the flesh. Their life is fleshly.
Secondly, we have a picture of their nature—they do mind the things of the flesh, and thirdly, we have an announcement of their state—they are in debt—and lastly, we have the mind of God about their condition. They cannot please God.
Everything that is said of the unsaved man, can be contrasted with what we have in Christ. The description of our life is after the Spirit. We do not mind the things of the flesh, but the things of the Spirit—and rather than being in the state of death, we are in the state of life, and then the mind of God about our condition is that we please God. God is always pleased with those who trust His Son as their Savior.
4/ Remember, this is not religion, for we go back to Romans 8: 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
It is Christ. To be in Christ is to be spiritual—to be out of Christ is to be fleshly. We realize the flesh can have religion, but it doesn’t help it one iota. When one disobeys God as to His plan of salvation, he is not a child of God. Perhaps some of the strongest statements in the Bible concerning fleshly religion are to be found in the prophecy of Amos.
Amos 4: 4, 5 Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years: And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord God.
But in order to understand what we are driving at, we must say a word about the back-ground of this little book. There had been a civil war after the death of Solomon—the ten tribes in the North were separated from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin in the South. Leviticus 17 says that there be no animal sacrifice, no animal offered except at the door of the tabernacle, which was now established in Jerusalem in the Holy City—the only city that God ever recognized.
And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer it unto the Lord; even that man shall be cut off from among his people.
This left the tribes of the North without any place to exercise their religious rites, and if you will take a close study of the Old Testament you will see that the more faithful people in the North trickled down to the South to obey God in worshipping—they went to the tabernacle or the temple there in Jerusalem and offered up their sacrifices, and many of these people who went down to the South remained to strengthen the Southern Kingdom.
To counteract this trip southward, the northern authorities determined that there should be a place of worship within the confines of a northern kingdom that would enable the people to have their religion right there and not have to down to the southern section, so two places were suggested for worship and sacrifice. These two places were BETHEL and GILGAL.
5/ You should read the book of Amos and listen to the Prophet Amos, sent by God to cry out against these fleshly altars. The Lord spoke through Amos in the greatest example of irony and sarcasm. You just will not find a comparison to it anywhere else in the Holy Bible, or I believe in all of literature. If the words that I want to read to you are read in an ordinary tone the whole point of the story will be missed, but if the words are read with sharp and biting sarcasm, we’ll understand them better, for God said, through Amos, come to Bethel and transgress—God invites the followers of the northern kingdom who have set up this apostate altar and He says, come to Bethel and transgress—that’s right. Come and sin at Gilgal multiply transgression, and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes every three years, and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven. Proclaim free-will offerings and publish them for it is just like you, O Israel.
6/ And a little farther along in the book, God clearly indicates His deep hatred for human religion.
Amos 5: 21 - 24 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Listen to Him—He says, I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell, and this is about incense, in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them. Take away from Me the noise of your songs.
Here God is crying out against fleshly religion—they refuse to go down to Jerusalem, the only place of worship. You can read the Book of Amos, and you can say of the northern kingdom—they that are after the flesh, do mind the things of the flesh, and to be carnally minded is death.
7/ It is well for us to recognize the difference between a man being in the flesh, and the flesh being in the man. I am not in the flesh, tho’ the flesh is in me. The unsaved man is in the flesh, and they that are in the flesh cannot please God. We, on the contrary, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. And the proof of this is that the Holy Spirit dwells in us verse 9 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.
8/ Now we come to the 10th verse And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
And here we have a problem for some people, for it opens up and says, And if Christ be in you.
The English form might leave some room for doubt, because we are accustomed to using the word, if, in the sense of a possibility of uncertainty, but we must not forget, however, that the word, If, is also used in a sense that carries great certainty with it.
Let me tell you a story concerning two men who work in a certain office. Both of them make a telephone call at the close of the day to tell their wives that they will be working overtime. A third man hears both men’s conversations and he is a man who knows both men very well.
The first man tells his wife, “I can’t get home until late because I am working overtime.” The third man hears this and says, “If you are working overtime, you are going to miss the poker game tonight.” The first man laughs and winks, acknowledging that he has lied. He is not going to work overtime. But the second man says to his wife, “I am very sorry, I can’t get home for dinner tonight, as there is some extra work, and I’ll be working quite late.” The third man knows this man is an honest man, and he says, “If you are working overtime, you will have a nice bit of extra pay at time and a half rates.” The phrase was used in both instances, “If you are working overtime”—the phrase as addressed to the first man, clearly implies that he is a liar—the phrase as addressed to the second man implies that he is telling the truth. It is in the latter sense that we must understand the 10th verse. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Paul is addressing men and women who are saved—who are in Christ. The opening phrase of our text might well be rendered—and because Christ is 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.
Here our mortal bodies come in view. The Holy Spirit that is in us guarantees our resurrection body. Some people read that 11th verse to mean that He quickens our mortal body now, but our mortal body is a body that dies, for that is what it means—it is mortal—it is not immortal, and the 11th verse says, the Spirit that raised up Jesus shall also quicken or raise up your mortal body.
Notice, that is the future—shall do it—it is not done now, but it shall be done in the future, when you pass away from this present life and lay your body in a tomb, you are with the Lord, and your body will be in the care of God, for your body belongs to God, but at the present time it is a mortal body, it will still die. But our body is being watched over, taken care of, by the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit Who raised Christ from the dead, will raise you.
I hope you know that your body is cared for by the Holy Spirit, for He is in you. He is keeping you, He is using you, He is shedding the love of God abroad in your hearts.
I have received quite a lot of mail concerning the series of messages I preached on TV. Some of it has been about healings—how folks get so upset about this.
One woman wrote me a long epistle, and she signed it a lay minister. She tried to inform me that bodily healing is in the atonement for today, and what a lot of nonsensical things she had to say, for if we go to II Corinthians 4: 16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
We read, …Our outward man perish, and that word, perish, means to rot thoroughly or completely, and that is exactly what will happen and is happening to our bodies. Just do not wash your body at the present time and you will find that it is rotting. Do not take care of your body and you will see it is decaying, but if bodily healing were in the atonement, you wouldn’t have to clean your body and care for it—wash it up.
I am sure when you have your resurrection body, you will not have to do these things. Their won’t be a market for cosmetics, their won’t be a market for deodorants, their won’t be a market for perfumes, and all different scents. I am sure in the resurrection body we won’t have to shave. In our resurrection body we will not have to comb our hair, but our bodies are mortal right now. They are subject to death, but because the Holy Spirit, Who is in us, is life, the mortal body will become immortal when it is resurrected from the grave. It will be changed like the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
9/ Actually this text is telling us more than just the fact that our mortal bodies will be made immortal, be resurrected and made like the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. His teaching to us at the present time is that there is resurrection life in us, even though we are living in mortal bodies. That is the reason why Galatians 2: 20 is so interesting. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God – Oh, that you might understand the doctrine of the faith of God.
All of Romans 8 up to this point is dependent upon the faith of God. Right now, the life which we live is by the faith of God. That does not mean that God puts faith in us, but rather that He is the One Who is faithful, the One Who is dependable. He will perform what He said He will do.
Go over to Galatians 2: 16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ—the dependability of Jesus Christ.
It is the difference between subjective and objective faith. Objective faith is the faith that we have—we have faith in the One Who is to be depended upon. But subjective faith means One who is worthy of being trusted. How do I know I am justified when I believe, have faith in, Jesus Christ? Because He is faithful. He will do what He says He will perform, and right now, He has given us eternal life, and we are living this eternal, resurrected life right now.
10/ Even our prayer life depends upon the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I John 1: 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we confess our sins…How do we know this does any good? The Scripture goes on to say, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Because He is faithful, we know when we confess our sins, He purges us from our everyday activity and gives us fellowship with Him, so all is dependent upon the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
AMEN
Ref: 01/31/1965 / 287 - THE SPIRIT’S WITNESS / 08/21/2020
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