Get Your Mind Focused
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Soon after creation, Adam and Eve went against God and his revealed will by taking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and eating its fruit which they had been commanded not to do. Because of that, the land was cursed, things got hard, and death entered into our world and Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden. A while after Noah and his family survived the flood, the population was growing, and they openly defied God’s revealed will that they should spread out, populate the earth, and take dominion of it. Instead they stayed in Shinar and built a tower. God confused the language and dispersed mankind throughout the world anyway. At the end of time, we read that the world will be in open rebellion against God; they will fight with him tooth and nail, but it will not end well for those who do so.
And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army.
And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.
And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
And there are numerous other places we can find of similar instances, but what is my point? My point is simply this: God does not lose. God cannot lose. There is only one outcome for everyone who goes against God: they lose. The only way to win is to lay down our arms and join God’s kingdom. And that only happens when we follow Christ. God delivers us from the domain of darkness and transfers into the kingdom of his beloved Son and we then are to follow him. The Christian who is following Christ must keep his eyes on Christ lest he stop following him and follow his own path. Because there is a way that seems right to man, but the end thereof is death because any diverging path is hostile against God. And so Paul is showing the Roman Church that whatever they focus on will produce fruit. And he gives two opposing objectives and outcomes that a person will have. The first is that focusing on the flesh will produce the fruit of death but the second is that focusing on the Spirit will produce the fruit of life.
Focus on Flesh
Fruit of Death
Focus on Spirit
Fruit of Life and Peace
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
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.
Focus on the Flesh
Focus on the Flesh
The first objective that Paul brings out involves a person’s focusing on their flesh. This is what we are born doing. We are born focusing on our flesh. It is only when we put our trust in Christ that this changes for us. So if you’ve never put your faith in Jesus, you’re still focusing on the flesh. And this is what Paul says about that:
Romans 8:5 (ESV)
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. . .
Here is that word “for” again. Is this another word for because? Let’s look at verse four quickly and see if it makes sense:
Romans 8:4–5 (ESV)
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Because those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. . .
It works! So we have a cause, a reason. Why is the righteous requirements of the law fulfilled in those who walk according to the Spirit rather than the flesh? BECAUSE to live or to walk, or better yet, to have one’s being according to the flesh is to set one’s mind on the matters of the flesh. Or to say it a little bit more succinctly: When one finds his identity in the flesh, he cannot help but aspire to fleshly matters. That’s what Paul is saying.
The word that the ESV translators translated as “lives” is the word “ontes” where we get our word ontology or ontological. It’s the participle of “to be.” It means our very being. Who we are. I agree with Schreiner that Paul is talking about ontology here; what makes us up. Who we are. There are two main identities; all others are subordinate to these. There are those who are in Christ and those who are outside of Christ. All other identities will fall under the umbrellas of either of these.
Those who have their being, their identity in the flesh are outside of Christ. These people focus on fleshly matters. Things of the flesh, matters of the flesh equals fleshly matters, fleshly things. But what does the flesh mean? Are we talking about needs of the body? Are we talking about food and sex and water and air and shelter? Those types of things? Paul typically uses the word flesh to mean our sin nature. Not every single time is this the case, but almost always. When talking about Jesus coming in the likeness of sinful flesh in verse 2, Paul was not saying that Jesus had a sin nature. So again, it isn’t every single time, but almost every time and context will help you out to determine when it isn’t meant. When he is discussing the actual physical body, he usually uses the word “body.”
Today it is popular to identify with the sin nature, the flesh. It’s how people describe themselves. It often has to do with sexual preference, but not always. When asked about who someone, especially the younger generation, a person will start out by saying what sexual identity and preference he or she has. People identify as homosexual, transgender, cisgender, etc. But there are other identities as well. They will identify themselves a woman’s reproductive rights advocate, i.e. an abortion supporter. Rarely will you hear someone identify themselves as a coveter, liar, adulterer, etc. And yet, that’s who we all were at some point in life.
Now how one identifies himself will often give insight to what is most important. This is natural. Because those who identify according to their sin nature, think about, focus on, aspire to those fleshly matters. This is why the righteous requirements of the law cannot be fulfilled by those who walk/live/aspire/focus on the sin nature. They aren’t aspiring to those righteous requirements. They aspire to sinful desires.
Thus, those in the flesh will aspire to do and be sinful things. This is problem with our world. This is the cause of racism, selfishness, injustice, arguments in marriage, divorce, pornography, even popularity. No one wants to be disliked. Some don’t mind scooting by, but many want to be popular. They want to be famous. Don’t believe me? How many podcasts are out there? How many TikTok accounts? YouTube channels? Instagram accounts? Not everyone on these things is seeking fame. A few actually have something to say and something to contribute. But many, if not most, just want a following and will do just about anything to garner one.
But beloved, it’s not just out there. A focus on the flesh also leads to conflict in the church. When we begin to focus on matters of our sin nature, we begin focusing on our preferences. Selfishness creeps in; a lack of love and honor for our brothers and sisters creeps in. Suddenly a church goes from a powerful united force for the Kingdom of God to a bickering bunch of selfish men and women who focus on their own teeny tiny kingdom of self.
Fruit of Death
Fruit of Death
But what is the end of those aspirations? What is the fruit of them? That takes us to the first outcome of the first objective that Paul gives us. The first objective is that those who identify according to the flesh, the sin nature, focus on what the sin nature wants. But the first outcome is that those who do so will produce the fruit of death. Like I said, they lose.
Romans 8:6 (ESV)
For to set the mind on the flesh is death. . .
We could check and see if the “for” in this verse is a causal for. Let’s add it to verse 5.
Romans 8:5–6 (ESV)
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. . .
Because to set the mind on the flesh is death. . .
It doesn’t sound causal (because doesn’t sound right), which means it’s just a further explanation. Paul is explaining further the consequences to having one’s identity in the sin nature. That consequence is death. Paul made this same argument earlier in his letter.
But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
What was the fruit that you were getting at that time? What time? The time you were in the flesh. The time you aspired to give the sin nature what it wanted. What is the fruit of those shameful things? None other than death itself. You lose.
And then he gives the cause of this deadly fruit.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
Attach this for to the previous verse:
Romans 8:6–7 (ESV)
For to set the mind on the flesh is death. . .
Because the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
Look at that! It works great. Why does focusing on or aspiring to fleshly matters produce death? Because focusing on matters of the flesh is hostile toward God or we could say “against God.” To focus on fleshly matters, aspire to sinful things, goes against God and his revealed will. Hence, at the beginning I told you “God does not lose. God cannot lose. There is only one outcome for everyone who goes against God: they lose.”
And Paul goes further to explain why focusing on the flesh is hostile to God: because it does not submit to God’s law. Sin nature, by definition rebels against what God says to do. Sin is by definition rebellion against God. R. C. Sproul called it cosmic treason. So if our aspiration is to commit cosmic treason, then we will not aspire to obey God’s law. But Paul goes further than that because he wrote that it not only does not submit, but it cannot submit. Why? This goes back to a previous argument that Paul has made.
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
One aspires to do sinful matter because one’s will is enslaved to sin. Everyone wants to believe they have free will. But that isn’t true. Your will is enslaved to sin. Therefore, the will being enslaved to sin, cannot act in a way contrary to sin. Thus, it cannot obey God’s law. And since it will not and it cannot, then that aspiration, that focus on sin, will bring about the fruit of death.
Thus someone who is so focused on acquiring the American dream that he focuses his mind, attention, and energy on climbing the corporate ladder so that he can acquire more and do more and be more, will find that he forsakes the glories and treasures of heaven. Those who are so bent on their own sexuality rather than God will find that they will perish. Those who aspire to being a stronger, greater, purer race than others, will find themselves rejected from heaven’s gates. So long as we aspire to the things of the flesh, we will continue to store up more and more of God’s hot wrath. So long as we focus on the flesh, we lose. . .every time.
But even in the temporal, we can see these aspirations leading to death. How many have died chasing fame? Often by suicide. How many marriages have been broken because of pornography? How many churches have died because of preferences leading to bickering and ruin?
Focus on the Spirit
Focus on the Spirit
But is there a way of escape? That’s the next objective that Paul gives. It’s the opposite of the first objective that the apostle pointed out which involved a person’s focus on the flesh. This objective involves the person who’s focus is on the Spirit. Because the opposite is true for those who have their identity in the Spirit or in Christ. Paul uses these interchangeably. Those whose identity is in the Holy Spirit or in Christ have been given a new heart, a new focus. They think about matters of the Holy Spirit. Rather than spending their time focusing on what matters to the flesh, they spend time focusing on what matters to the Holy Spirit. Their aspiration is about the matters that the Spirit is about.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
A person who has never trusted in Jesus cannot identify with Jesus. It doesn’t matter if you grew up in church. It doesn’t matter if your parents were Christians. It doesn’t matter if you read your Bible everyday or offer up prayers. If you’ve never actually trusted in Jesus, you cannot identify with Jesus. Therefore, your focus is not on Christ. Your focus is not on the Spirit.
We saw last week how Jesus did all things by the Spirit. The Gospel Accounts tell us that he was conceived by the Spirit, was led by the Spirit, that he cast out demons by the Spirit, that he had the power of the Spirit, that he rejoiced in the Spirit, and that he gave the Holy Spirit. It would seem that everything Jesus did was by the Spirit. This is what perfect walking according to the Spirit means. This is what perfect aspirational living according to the Spirit looks like. There will come a day when we as believers will get there. But those who do not put their lives into Christ’s hands will never get there. Which means the vast majority of people will never get there. The majority of the people on earth will lose because they will not take their aspirations away from their own flesh.
But Christ died so that we could. He lived the life we were required to live. He was obedient 100% of the time to the law of God, something we could never do! He became our substitute by taking on God’s wrath so that we wouldn’t have to face it. As Paul wrote earlier
Romans 4:24–25 (ESV)
It [right standing before God] will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,
who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
He died because of our sins and rose so that we could stand before God in an unmistakable position of no condemnation! And in so doing, we are transformed so that our minds change focus. Our aspirations change. We focus on matters of the Spirit; we aspire to the things that matter to the Holy Spirit. Not perfectly, but progressively.
When a husband begins to focus on the Spirit rather than the flesh, his heart begins to change in regards to his wife. As his heart changes, so do his thoughts, and then actions. And over time, what was once a jerk of a husband can become the most loving and giving of men. The same for a wife who focuses on the Spirit rather than her own desires. Instead of being an overbearing, nagging wife, she becomes the wife who respects her husband and encourages him as he leads.
When a church focuses on the Spirit rather than their own flesh, their own preferences, they begin to see where he is leading and so follow. They are willing to give up sacred cows and listen to one another, care for one another, pray for one another, love one another. And the world takes notice.
Those who are living for the American dream, when you start to focus on the Spirit rather than what sin is causing you to crave, you begin to realize that you cannot serve God and money. Because you will hate one and love the other. You begin to see that work is simply a means to live and not an identity. Money is made so that you can survive and help others do the same. You see that it is better to give than to receive.
Fruit of Life and Peace
Fruit of Life and Peace
And this leads us into the second outcome. The first objective was Paul’s showing that a person naturally focuses on the flesh. The counterpart is that a believer turns from the flesh to focus on the Spirit. The first outcome is to show the fruit of the flesh which is death, but the counterpart that we see now is that focusing on the Spirit leads to life and peace.
For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
But what exactly did Paul mean by that? He means that when your aspiration is set on the Holy Spirit, then you are given life. But is Paul referring to eternal life as many would say that he is, or is he referring to temporal life? I would say he is referring to temporal, this life before death (or before Christ comes) and here’s why: Paul has used the word life in the letter to the Romans in similar ways as this and it looks to mean this life we live now. Let’s quickly look:
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
Walking in a newness of life is a present reality. Before, we were enslaved to sin and doing sins bidding. Now, we are dead to sin, buried with Christ and risen with him in order that (purpose) we might walk, right here, right now, in a newness of life.
We have been brought (already done!) from death to life. What’s the result, that the life we now live is lived to God as we present our members to him as instruments of righteousness. Which is really what Paul was getting at in
in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Walking, living according to the Holy Spirit. That’s this life—this temporary life. So when we focus on the Spirit we receive the fruit of life, i.e. righteous living in the present moment. So suddenly, the Christian has the power to gain victory over a besetting sin. A church suddenly is given life to live righteously and so can grow to a happy and vibrant body. A marriage can be given a fresh start and a happy home can be had. Those of different skin colors can reorient their vision and minds and be part of the one new man that Paul mentioned in Ephesians 2.
This is God’s radical gospel. It changes everything! God wins! And gives us ultimate victory! Because the life that we have now will go on into eternity. But it does not begin at eternity. It begins now!
But we also receive peace. Peace with God.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is why every believer is in an unmistakable position of no condemnation before God. Focusing on the Spirit rather than our own sinful desires gives us a way to live righteously and shows we have peace with God.
This can only mean that those who are not in Christ Jesus do not have peace with God and have no way of producing a life that is lived rightly. Though you are alive, you have no true life. Though you think you and God are fine, you are actually at war with the Creator of the universe and so you cannot please him so long as you remain hostile to him.
This is what Paul meant in
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
Remember that this comes right verses 7 and 8 which tell us that anyone who has not put their faith in Jesus is hostile to God, does not and cannot obey his law, and therefore cannot please him. Paul’s contrast here then is the assumption that those who are reading his letter are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. For a person to focus on the Spirit, he or she must be in the Spirit. A person in the flesh will focus on the flesh. A person in the Spirit will focus on the Spirit. But you cannot be in the Spirit unless the Spirit is first in you and the Spirit cannot be in you unless he belongs to Christ as a Christ-follower.
Now for the Christ-follower, this verse ought to bring comfort. It is in contrast to verses 7 and 8. What Paul is meaning by this verse is that you who are Christ-followers can bring pleasure to God. We can go a step further: you do bring pleasure to God. But you who do not trust in Jesus, you do not and cannot please God until you follow his Son.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
But you who cling to Jesus, you please your Father in heaven. Each step you take, sometimes baby steps, some times large leaps, but each step you take, sometimes with the help of others, sometimes its just you, your Bible, the Spirit, and no one else, but each step you take toward righteousness brings joy to the Father’s heart.
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
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.
You are given life because of righteousness. The body, this mortal body, is dead because of sin. This body cannot enter into heaven the way it is. It is corrupted; in other words, it is mortal. But that’s okay, because we live beyond just this body. We live because of the righteousness that is being produced in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul asked in
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
For now the body is dead, but we see we are given life to live in a new way, a righteous way by the Spirit. And one day, Paul told the Corinthians:
I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we finish Romans 8:5-11, I hope we have seen the importance of keeping our focus on the Spirit. If we focus on the flesh, the outcome will be the fruit of death, but if we focus on the Spirit the outcome is the fruit of life and peace. If you are identifying as that which goes against God and his word, then know that whatever you identify with and in, you will be focused on it and go after it and it will lead to your destruction. But if your identity is Christ, then you focus (not perfectly, but progressively) on the matters of the Holy Spirit. He gives you life. He gives what Jesus set out to make possible.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
So beloved, when your spouse has you at whit’s end, evaluate the situation. Are you focusing on fleshly matters or those things which pertain to the Holy Spirit. What are you aspiring to? Being right? Winning the argument? Or displaying a glorious God and loving your neighbor?
When change happens within the church, are you evaluating it based on personal preferences and sacred cows or are you focusing on that which matters to the Spirit?
When you are suffering greatly at the hands of friends or family and you are thinking, “with friends like these, who needs enemies,” or are you focusing on matters of the flesh or the Spirit?
Each moment that we are in is a moment to change our focus from fleshly matters to Christ.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
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