Outline

Flesh in the Unbeliever Romans 6.17-18

But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Romans 6.17-18

Introduction

As Christians we are called to holy living. Ephesians 1.4; 2 Timothy 1.9; 1 Peter 1.15-16.

_______________________________________________

Review: Flesh in the New Testament

1) Physical Body. 1 Corinthians 15.39; Galatians 2.20

2) Humanity. In general, Galatians 2.16; Human origin, Galatians 4.23,29; Human perspective, 2 Corinthians 5.16, 10.1-4; Human effort, Galatians 3.3

3) Unbelievers. “In the flesh” is a description of all of humanity under the control of sin in need of salvation in Jesus Christ. Romans 7.5; 7.14; 7.18; 8.1-9

4) Residual sin in the believer. Romans 8.10-11

External Consequences of Sin

-Guilt and Death. Romans 5.12-19

-A Savior promised and illustrated. Genesis 3.15, 21

______________________________________________

Internal Results of Sin

-Slavery to Sin: Corruption of the divine image; Self-rule; Opposition to God. Romans 1.21, 8.5-8; Ephesians 2.1-3.

-Deception of sin through the comforts, sensual pleasures, entertainments and busyness of this world.

_____________________________________________

Conclusion

If you are “in the flesh” you are a slave to sin and need salvation in Jesus Christ. Romans 6.17-18

If you are a believer you need to walk in the Spirit so you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5.16  ________________________________________

Sermon

Flesh in the Unbeliever Romans 6.17-18

-We are looking at God’s Word to learn how a Christian is to walk in the Spirit. …Walking in the Spirit means that a Christian’s thoughts, and attitudes, and actions, the Christian’s whole life, moment by moment are yielded and directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. …When a Christian is walking in the Spirit his thoughts and attitudes and actions put the holy and loving character of God on display and glorify God.

-To walk in the Spirit we must first have the Holy Spirit of God inside of us. …As Jesus said, “we must be born from above”. …We need to know that God has made us spiritually alive with Christ and that we are no longer spiritually dead in our sins. …Are you spiritually alive this morning?

-Once we are spiritually alive in Christ, the first thing we need to understand is that we are justified in Christ. …We need to know that God has declared us righteous once and for all time in His Son Jesus Christ and that there is absolutely no condemnation for those who are in Christ. …We are free from the guilt of sin. …We need to know that the demands and the condemnation of God’s law no longer apply to us and that we are never to try and earn righteousness in order to please God. …In Christ, we are righteous before a Holy God. …Do you know and understand the truth of justification by faith?

-After God declares a Christian righteous in Christ, God then calls the Christian to live a holy life and to become a holy person. …The indwelling Holy Spirit brings with Him new desires for holiness and love that work in the Christian toward holiness. …To walk in the Spirit is to walk in holiness and love. …As the Christian keeps in step with the Spirit he fulfills all the righteousness requirements of the law.

-God has called you to be a Christian so that you can become like His Son, holy and loving, seeking to glorify the Father in all obedience. …“God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.” (Ephesians 1.4). …“God saved us and called us to a holy life.” (2 Timothy 1.9). …“Just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’ ”. (1 Peter 1.15-16). …Have you purposed to be holy before God?

-As a Christian you will not be on the high road to holiness for very long before you meet opposition by the flesh. …The Christian who seeks to be holy is involved in an ongoing conflict between the Spirit of God and the flesh.

-Last week we took a quick tour of this term flesh and discovered four ways that the word flesh is used in the NT. …It is important for any true follower of God to know about the flesh and then how God has given us power over the flesh in His Son Jesus Christ.

-Let’s review how the term flesh is used in the NT.

1) Flesh is used to describe all kinds of physical flesh and the physical body as a whole.

2) Flesh is used to describe humanity in general (all flesh); human origin (according to the flesh); seeing a situation from a human perspective (according to the flesh); human effort (in the flesh).

-These two uses have no connection with sin and are simply terms that describe the physical body, humanity in general, human origin, human perspective, and human effort.

-Same word. …Context dictates meaning.

-Paul took the word “flesh” and added new meaning to it, using the term to describe the effects of sin in fallen humanity. …“In the flesh” is Paul’s term to describe the unbeliever who does not have the Spirit within them and therefore is not “in the Spirit”. …“Flesh” is also how the NT describes the residual sin that continues to dwell in the believer and is in conflict with the Spirit in the believer who seeks to be holy.

-When Adam and Eve sinned against God there were external consequences for their sin and internal effects as a result of their sin. …Flesh as Paul uses the word is a description of the internal effects of sin in humanity.

External Consequences of Sin (Romans 5.12-19)

1) When Adam sinned and broke God’s commandment he became guilty before God. …As children of Adam we inherit that guilt. …You may not feel guilty before God this morning but as a result of Adam’s sin you are guilty before God. …Only through Jesus Christ can your guilt be removed and can you be declared not guilty.

2) When Adam broke God’s commandment his punishment for disobedience to God was death. …As children of Adam we are all born under God’s condemnation and only through Jesus Christ is that condemnation taken away. …As children of Adam we are born physically dying, spiritually dead, and eternally separated from God, all as a result of Adam’s sin. …Unless we come to Christ by faith for salvation and eternal life, the death sentence remains.

-On the day that Adam and Eve sinned, God promised them a Savior, but the consequences of sin still remain on each one born into this world until they receive Jesus the Savior by faith (Genesis 3.15, The seed of the woman is Christ). …On the day that Adam and Eve sinned, God made coverings of skin for Adam and Eve which required the shedding of blood. …This was a picture of Christ our righteous covering before God through the shedding of His blood (Genesis 3.21).

-Through faith in the death of Jesus Christ a sinner is set free from guilt and declared righteousness, and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit and eternal life.

Internal Effects of Sin

-When Adam sinned he also brought upon mankind some Internal Effects of Sin. …It is these internal effects of sin that Paul describes as “the flesh”.

-Paul describes all unbelievers as slaves to sin. …Paul describes his own life as a Pharisee before he became a Christian as a slave to sin. …All Christians were once slaves to sin. …In Romans 6.17 we read, “Thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” …All of us were born into this life as slaves to sin.

-By his sin Adam brought mankind into this slavery to sin and only Jesus Christ can deliver a person from their slavery to sin. …Some of you here this morning are still slaves to sin. …You may loudly protest that you are not a slave to sin but you are still a slave to sin if you do not have the Holy Spirit living within you and if you do not belong to Christ. (John 8.31-34) …As Paul would say, you are still “in the flesh” because the Spirit of God does not dwell in you. (Romans 8.9)

-What does it mean to be a slave to sin? …A servant is a hired worker and can quit and move on to other work if he chooses, but a slave is owned by his master and has no freedom to chose his master or his work. …All of humanity that does not have the Holy Spirit is owned by sin because sin is their master and they serve sin.

-Sin is a powerful master and even controls the Devil. …When Adam sinned against God, Adam put himself in slavery to sin, and all of mankind with him, began to serve sin as their master. …Man’s human nature, originally created in the image of God with all of its high and noble qualities, was corrupted by sin and came under the rule of sin. …Before man’s sin, Adam and Eve served God and enjoyed fellowship with God and expressed through their life the majestic image of God. …But when they sinned and the toxin of sin permeated into that divine image, Adam and Eve, and all those born from them, began to focus on themselves and turned away from God and hid from God and started to live for themselves. …Sin, which is deeply imbedded in human nature, rebels against God, refuses to submit to God’s law, defies God, and disobeys God. …Flesh is a description of sin’s present rule in human nature. …Flesh demands Self-rule and refuses to be under God’s rule. …Flesh seeks the fulfillment of its own desires and does not seek God’s desires. …Flesh lives in opposition to God with a self-centered focus. …Paul describes those who are slaves to sin as being “in the flesh”. …All unbelievers are slaves to sin and “in the flesh”. …We are born into this world in physical flesh and also “in the flesh” as slaves to sin, spiritually dead and without the Holy Spirit.

-Being “in the flesh” does not mean that a person continually does evil and never does any good. …Many unbelievers live selfless, kind and loving lives and are devoted parents, husbands and wives. …But all of this “good living” adds zero to a person’s salvation because only the work of Jesus Christ can remove the guilt and condemnation of sin and the slavery of sin. …At the core the unbeliever is serving sin in the worship of Self. …People today live for their own happiness and comfort, often seeking these things in very acceptable and respectable ways, but they are still “in the flesh” and under the slavery of sin according to God.

-Being “in the flesh” does not have to mean that a person is openly rebellious against God and perverse in their behavior. …Some are but most are blindly following the behaviors of a sinful and godless world that is in slavery to sin. …They are acceptable to the culture they belong to but they do not have the Holy Spirit living in them and they are controlled by sin and serve Self and do not serve and live for God and the love of God. …They are still “in the flesh”. …This world is sold out to sin.

-If you want an illustration of a man or a woman “in the flesh” talk to nice-guy neighbor, or with your sweet church-going aunt Jane, or to Mr. normal-family-man. …Remind them that God says they are sinners and under condemnation if they do not have Jesus Christ as their Savior. …Remind them that God is Sovereign and He decides the eternal destiny of their lives. …Remind them that God is Holy and demands that they be holy in all their ways. …Remind them that God commands exclusive worship and total obedience to Him and that they are to love God with all their heart, and with all their minds, and with all their strength. …Remind them that God owns all their possessions and that they are to ask Him how to use those possessions. …See what kind of reaction you get from nice-guy neighbor, and sweet-church-going-aunt Jane, and Mr. normal-family-man. …Compare that reaction with the acts of the flesh listed in Galatians 5.19-21 and see if you find a match. …If God’s grace is at work in their lives you will see conviction of sin and repentance and faith, and God will fill them with the Holy Spirit and they will no longer be “in the flesh” but in the Spirit. …But if God’s grace is not at work in their lives their slavery to sin and their being “in the flesh” will be very evident to you in their hostility and rebellion to the God of the Bible.

-Some of you here this morning may be saying inside, “I would never serve a God that is so Holy that He says all mankind is in sin and under condemnation. …I would never obey a God who has Sovereign control over my life and who demands total obedience and exclusive worship from me.” …My friends by your reaction to the true God of the Bible you are proving that you are in the flesh and not in the Spirit.

-One of the great powers of sin is deception, a blinding to truth, the offer of a false reality. …Sin uses the comforts of this world, and the sensual pleasures of this world, and the entertainments of this world, and the busyness of this world, as intoxicants to blind us from the realization that we are slaves to sin and “in the flesh” and that we are separated from God and in need of Jesus Christ to save us.

-An American named Langdon Gilkey tells of his experience in a Japanese prison camp. …Langdon’s father was the dean of Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago and Langdon himself attended Yale University. …Langdon had experience with cultured, thoughtful, generous people but in the prison camp, where food was of poor quality and in short supply, and sleeping space was limited, he saw what these people were really like when stripped of material comforts. …Langdon was in charge of sleeping arrangements and came face to face with man “in the flesh”. …Let me quote Langdon, “Such experiences with ordinary human cussedness naturally stimulated me to do a good deal of thinking in such time as I had myself. My ideas as to what people were like and as to what motivated their actions were undergoing a radical revision. People generally – and I know I could not exclude myself – seemed to be much less rationale and much more selfish than I had ever guessed, not at all the ‘nice folk’ I had always thought them to be. They did not decide to do things because it would be reasonable and moral to act in that way, but because the course of action suited their self-interest. Afterward they would find rational and moral reasons for what they had already determined to do.”

-These men, stripped of all worldly comforts, began to act like animals. …So would we if we found ourselves in those circumstances and were controlled by sin and the flesh. …One author describes the flesh as “animal and selfish propensities” that are within us as a result of sin. …That definition works for me. …The fact is that we are born in slavery to sin and have been severally damaged by sin, and sin will both control our lives and condemn us to hell, unless we come to Jesus Christ to be set free from the guilt and condemnation and power of sin. (fast/quit smoking/stop coffee/lose sleep/get sick/trial/be refused)

-If you do not have the Holy Spirit within you this morning then you are in the flesh and a slave to sin, and need Jesus Christ to set you free from sin.

-If you are a Christian this morning you are free from sin but the flesh is still very much alive in you and seeking to pull you away from your freedom in Christ. …Paul teaches us that we are free from the power of sin and the power of the flesh, in the cross of Christ. …As Christians we can live holy and loving lives, no matter what the circumstances might be, because the Holy Spirit lives within us. …We will learn more about walking in the Spirit and overcoming the flesh as we move ahead in this study.

MEDITATIONS FOR THE WEEK

[Take some daily quiet time alone with God]

Monday: Read Genesis 4.1-12. Adam’s sin placed the whole human race under the power of sin. Cain manifested his slavery to sin by murdering his brother. Take time to praise God for salvation that makes you free from sin and for His Holy Spirit to walk in freedom

Tuesday: Think about Genesis 6.5-8. Sin continued to worsen in mankind and God had to judge it. Take time to thank God for new life and power in the Spirit.

Wednesday: Read Romans 3.9-20. We do not dare say that we are not under the slavery of sin and sin’s corruption. Take time to ask God for insight into the vileness of your own sin.

Thursday: Meditate on Romans 8.5-9. The flesh is not God loving, God pleasing or God serving. Take time to thank God that you are no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit and how you can glorify God in your service.

Friday: Think about Romans 11:32; Galatians 3.22. Sin controls us and we are all under sin and in need of God’s salvation. Take time to worship God for His Word that teaches you about your sin and about your freedom from sin in Jesus Christ’s blood and cross.

The Good News of Our Sin

The late cartoonist Charles Schultz was known for doing his share of preaching in his Peanuts comic strip. Here’s one of his more powerful sermons: “You know what the whole trouble with you is, Charlie Brown?” Charlie replies, “No, and I don’t want to know! Leave me alone!” And then he walks off disgustedly and frowning. But Lucy, as usual, has the last word. She yells at him: “The whole trouble with you is you won’t listen to what the whole trouble with you is!” Lucy suggests here that it benefits us to listen to what the trouble with us is, even though the truth about the trouble with us might hurt. It can be good news. I’m saying that the news of our sin can be good news, news we need to hear.