Address—C. Hendricks
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I'd like to ask the question tonight and we'd like to look into the word to seek the answer to this question.
The question is, what is Christianity?
One of the comments I'd like to make in connection with that question is.
Most of what we see.
In Christendom.
Is not true Christianity.
Most of it is.
A mixture of Christian truth and man's opinions and man's order and man's way of things.
So we really have to get the answer to that question.
From this book it has the answer.
Let's turn to John chapter.
12.
John, Chapter 12.
Verse 23.
And Jesus answered them, saying, the hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die.
It abideth alone.
But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Now here the Lord Jesus is Speaking of his death.
And he speaks of himself as that corn of wheat.
Falling into the ground and dying, and then there would be much fruit as the result of that.
He says.
If it doesn't fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. And he would not go back to heaven alone. He would have us.
That he could take back with him.
And so he came.
Not only for God's glory, which was the paramount in principle thing, but also to save you and me and to bring us into.
A new order of things that had never existed prior to this time of his death and resurrection.
Verse 27.
The Lord looks.
At the cross.
Which was absolutely essential in order to accomplish.
This.
New order of blessing that he was going to introduce.
And as he looks at it, he says, now is my soul troubled?
And what shall I say?
And then as he.
Anticipates the awful hour.
That lay before him, he cries out. Father, save me from this hour.
But immediately he follows that with But for this cause came I unto this hour we sometimes sing the hymn He came to die.
That he's the only man that was ever here in this scene.
Over whom? Death had no claim. No claim. He did not have to die. He was not a Sinner.
The wages of sin is death. We die because we are sinners. He didn't have to die, but he came to die.
His death was voluntary on his part. Man did not take his life from him.
He didn't die as just a martyr.
It's true. In the acts, Peter charges the Jews with murdering him.
Because that was the intent of their heart. But actually, if we want to be very accurate.
No one took his life from him. He laid it down voluntarily as a sacrifice for our sins.
Repeatedly they tried to take him. In Luke 4, they took him to the top of the hill to throw him down.
And he, walking through the midst of them, went his way.
In John 8, after he had declared his deity before Abraham was I am.
They took up stones to cast at him, and he, passing through the midst of them, went his way.
In John 18 when they came to take him.
He said, Whom seek ye, They said Jesus of Nazareth.
And he said I am.
I am.
And they all fell backward to the ground. None could touch him.
Until his hour had come.
I recently reread Mr. Bellitz, The Son of God, The Moral Glory Also and The Son of God and enjoyed so much.
00:05:00
His comments on the Ark when the Philistines captured the Ark.
They took it from city to city to city, and every place they took the ark of God. There was judgment upon the Philistines, judgment upon the Philistines.
And he makes this comment. He says, why didn't they just smash it?
It was just a box. Something like this right here. It was just a box made of wood overlaid with gold. Why didn't they smash it?
And his answer came back. They couldn't.
They couldn't touch it.
Because of what it represented, the person of Christ.
And so man could not touch him until he allowed them to.
He was.
Invincible He was the eternal Son of God.
Well, he gave up his life.
He says for this cause came I.
Unto this world under this hour, Father, glorify thy name. Verse 28 There came, then there came a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
The people therefore that stood by and heard it said that it thundered.
Others said an Angel spoke to him.
Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out.
And I.
If I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
This he said, signifying what death he should die. He was going to die. The ignominious death, shameful death of crucifixion, lifted up between heaven and earth on a cross on a Roman jibbit.
And he says now is the judgment of this world.
Up to that point, the world was on trial.
He had taken a segment of humanity God had, and he had given them the law, the nation of Israel.
That perfect moral code, that law which is holy and justice and good. No fault in the law, nothing wrong with it. The fault is in this heart.
The heart that will not.
Do what God commands.
The trouble with the laws that addressed itself to a nature which was bound and determined to have its own way.
And so it would not submit to the righteous demands of God.
Oh man is guilty.
The Lord says in John 7, did not Moses give you the law, and none of you?
Keepeth the law.
But there was a further test.
He himself, the Son.
Came and when they saw him they said this is the air.
Let us kill him and seize upon the inheritance.
And they killed him.
They recognized who he was. They had killed the ones he had sent prior, mistreated them, and then they said this is the air. Let us kill him and seize upon his inheritance.
Not just the law, not just God's righteous requirement for man, but God come here as a man in goodness.
In love, in mercy, in grace, and in truth.
And man could not stand the light which shone with such luster as to expose the treachery and the wickedness of his sinful heart.
And so he put that light out.
He cast him out of the vineyard. He crucified him.
And that was the end of the world.
As far as trial was concerned, now is the judgment of this world.
God had tried man in every possible.
Set of conditions.
He himself even had come.
Had become a man, a perfect servant.
He could say to these very Jews that wanted his life's blood, Which of you convinceth me of sin?
The Sinless 1.
I remember when I started work at Sure Brothers, the company. I was there about 30 years, and I remember the vice president giving a little speech to the new employees that were hired that week.
And I remember the comment that he made.
He made a comment about a perfect man.
00:10:01
And he said none of us would like a perfect man.
And I nodded my head Yes, that's right.
They didn't like him, they could not stand him because his life condemned.
Their lives.
Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out? That's the first thing we have to apprehend.
When we want to answer the the question is what is Christianity? Christianity is not another religion for this world. Judaism was. It was a religion for this world and it was given to the nation of Israel to see if there was any good in man. Of course, God knew from the beginning that there wasn't, but man didn't know it and so he had to to experience it himself. He had to go through it if God hadn't given.
Man, the law, he could always have said, well, you never gave me a chance. You never told me what your requirements were.
You never told me how you wanted me to live, so how can you blame me? No, that man can't say that.
Because God has given him the perfect moral code and he's failed in everyone, every single one of those commandments.
So the curse of a broken law rests upon him, the nation that has rejected.
Christ.
And broken the law.
So the world is under judgment, not just the Jew, but all the world.
Over the cross it was written the Lord's sentence. What he was nailed there for this is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
And it was in three languages, Hebrew, the religious world.
Greek, the cultural world.
Latin.
The political world.
The whole world is guilty before God.
Man is no longer on trial.
What we learn in the epistles is that the cross is the crucifixion of the first man.
Here it's the judgment of this world.
And it's well for us as Christians to remember we are going through a judged scene, a scene which is under the sentence of condemnation and death.
If you could pass by a house and there's a sign on the front and says condemned.
You would think a man a fool if he hired a carpenters and painters to paint that house up and to fix it up.
Because condemned means that its structure is unsound and is going to be torn down.
And that's this world.
The sad thing is that we see Christians on every hand round about us, I mean true believers that are engaged in activities trying to pick to fix up this world.
To make it a better place to live in, to correct its ills, to raise protests and and all kinds of things to.
Stem the tide of increasing evil.
Is that why we're here? Is that true Christianity? That's what's being presented out there. I remember when I was at the Regina conference, a brother came to me and he said there are so many sincere, really sincere Christians that feel it is our responsibility to.
Protest against abortion and.
*********** and homosexuality, all these awful evils that are being practiced today in the world, and they are that. There's no question that they're evil.
There's no question that the Christian ought to take a strong stand against those things, but how is that stand to be expressed?
Are we to join hands with the ungodly?
To suppress the evil of this world.
And until Christ comes.
That's exactly what has to be done.
No, we're a people that have been called out of this world.
We're not here to set it right.
He will do that when he returns.
And justice about all of the leaders in Christendom today are promoting that idea that we ought to set this world right.
It seems like we are shirking our responsibility when we don't do that.
00:15:00
Why are we here if that isn't the case?
Well, if Christianity was a worldly religion like Judaism was.
And we were here to correct things here to fix up that condemned House.
To paint it to.
Hire carpenters to fix up the some of the walls that need bending.
When the foundation.
And the structure is rotten to the core.
No, we can't change that.
What man needs is a new heart.
And we're here to witness to man's lost condition.
Not to join hands with the ungodly in their endeavors to.
To make this a better place to live in.
This is a judge seen through which we're passing, and I was thinking of these verses in connection with an answer to the question, What do you tell those that are true Christians that have that kind of an outlook on things?
Well, the first thing that we have to learn is that we're going through a judged scene.
And the one who has been sent away from this scene is our Lord Jesus, and they sent him away with a cry. We will not have this man to reign over us.
For the Christian to join hands with the world in trying to improve it or to rid it of some of its many ills and evils, is to say that that can be accomplished without Christ.
And it can't. He will be the one that accomplishes the renewing of this scene.
Let's turn over to Chapter 14.
In chapter 14 we have.
In these chapters 13 through 16, we have the ministry that the Lord Jesus gave beginning in the Upper Room, often called the Upper Room ministry, which sets before us an altogether different line of ministry than we have it in the synoptic Gospels.
It's it's Christianity in principle, before the thing was established, in fact.
And it's told us by the one who was to become the head of that new creation, which he became in resurrection.
In verse 15 he says, If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Love to Christ during his absence will show itself in obedience to Him to what he has told us, keeping his commandments. His commandments are the expression of his will to us. And he's told us many things that he would have us to do. And he says, if you love me, keep my commandments. And then he goes on to say, and I will pray the Father.
And he shall give you another comforter. He was a comforter. He was a comforter amongst them when he was with them.
But now he's going to take his leave. He's going back to the Father, and he's going to leave them alone. No, not alone. He's going to send them another comforter in His absence that He may abide with you forever. The Lord Jesus was not going to abide with them. He was going to leave them. He was only here for a very short time, 33 1/2 years, 3 1/2 years in public ministry.
And then he was going back to the father, and when he told them of this, they were very sorry.
They were sad in heart, they loved him. They did not want to lose him.
But it was necessary. And he says this other comforter, in contrast with my abiding with you only for a very short period of time, he will abide with you forever. We will never lose the presence of the this other comforter, even the spirit of truth.
Whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. This world knows nothing of the Spirit of God and His sphere of activity and what He is doing in this present day of grace. It does not see Him, It does not know Him.
But ye know him.
For He dwelleth with you, in contrast with the Lord's being dwelling with them only for a short time. He dwelleth with you.
And he shall be in you.
The Spirit of God taking up his residency in the Christian.
Claiming our very bodies for him.
00:20:01
We get that truth in Romans 8.
And there's so many wonderful truths that flow out.
From the abiding permanent presence of the Holy Spirit.
It is this truth which characterizes Christianity. We're living in the day of the Spirit, the day when the Spirit of God has been given not.
In a measure, as it was in the Old Testament, the Lord says in John three that He giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him. And those last two words in that verse unto him are in italics, which means that the translators have supplied those words.
And that's certainly true. He didn't give the Spirit by measure unto his beloved Son, when he gave him the Spirit of God at the Jordan. He came down upon him as a dove, and it abode upon him. And the one who said to John that.
The one that He was to witness to, he says Upon him whom ye see the Spirit descending and abiding upon him, the same as he which.
Baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
And then John says I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God.
The Son of God.
The one who received the Spirit.
And the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
That's the truth that is not understood today.
And it's it's that which formed the Christian company.
Took place once.
Never to be repeated on the day of Pentecost.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit and everyone that believes the gospel receives the gift of the Holy Spirit and is brought by that reception into the baptized body.
And he also.
I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but I'm going to make these comments. He also inhabits the house.
He inhabits the Saints collectively and individually.
Every blessing that the Christian has in this present day is bound up with the Spirit of God.
He is the one that unites us to the man in the glory. He is the one that makes us heavenly because He links us with a heavenly man.
He is the one that makes our bodies the temple.
Of the Holy Spirit.
A powerful motive for holiness. He is the one who characterizes the life.
That we have in Christ the law of the Spirit of life.
In Christ, Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death. He is the one that gives deliverance from the power of the flesh, enabling the Christian to fulfill the righteous requirement of the Law, that which we could never do.
When under law is now fulfilled in the Christian, who walks not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
I'm making these comments based upon Romans 8.
But let's go back here to John 14.
I will pray the Father verse 16 and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever.
Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.
But ye know him.
For He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come.
To you, and I think that is true today by the Spirit He has sent us. He comes to us in the person of the Holy Spirit, whom He sends from His place in glory.
Yet a little while in the world seeth me no more. But ye see me, because I live, ye shall live also. He lives in that resurrection life.
Which is a life beyond sin, beyond the curse of the law, beyond the ******* of the law, beyond this world. It's a life in resurrection.
And because he lives, he says, ye shall live also, and we live of that same.
Resurrection Life.
At that day, the day of Christianity, that's what he's talking about. Ye shall know.
00:25:01
That I am in my Father. We know that He is in the presence of His Father right now, tonight. He's been there for nearly 2000 years. He has ascended and sat down at the right hand of God, sat on the Father's throne, and he's there in the Father's presence. Father has said to him, Sit down at my right hand until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. At that day He shall know that I am in my Father. He is in the presence of the Father, a man.
In the glory, the very man that hung on that cross.
The last time the world saw him was a dead man hanging on the cross. His own took him down.
His own.
Handle that body, that precious body, and they placed it in the tomb, that new tomb which wherein never man had had lain before.
And.
In resurrection.
In resurrection, that body rose from the dead, and he said to his.
To his own.
In Luke 24.
Handle me.
And see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones.
As you see me have.
He had shed his blood.
Atoning death was accomplished.
God was glorified.
And now as the risen man.
He says a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me have.
Flesh and bones, Luke 24. Connect that with Ephesians 5.
We are members of his body.
Of his flesh.
And of his bones.
That is, we are connected with him, united to him in.
Resurrection life in resurrection conditions, not before.
Not as he was down here before the cross, but after he died, rose again, and ascended to the right hand of God. Christianity begins Acts one. It says they watched him go up into heaven, and a cloud received him out of their sight. Christianity begins on the other side of the cloud.
A man in the glory.
Sins atone for all put away by the work that he accomplished on the cross.
And now there's a man in heaven.
That blessed man, the head of a new creation, and you and I in Christ have been made new creatures, a part of that new creation, and brought into it by the power of the Holy Spirit.
At that day ye shall know.
That I am in my father. There he is in the presence of the father.
First essential truth. Man had to be in the glory.
And ye in me, that's Ephesians. We are in Christ before God.
In Christ's place before God, ye and me.
And I in you, that's Colossian truth, Christ in you, the hope of glory. So here you have in one verse.
Christianity, Christ in glory, He's in the presence of the Father. We are in Him there, and He is in us here.
And that's developed in Ephesians and Colossians, but we have it here.
In one verse before it actually as a fact was accomplished.
Chapter Well, let's turn, let's read on to verse 26. I want to read verse 25. He says these things. Have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
But the comforter now was necessary to tell them of these things, because he was going to leave them.
And now he.
Tells them of what would take place in his absence but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name. He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. So He is our Teacher, and He gives us to recall what He. He says this of His disciples that were accompanying him when He was here.
They would recall everything that he had said.
And so we have the Gospels, and what the Spirit of God saw fit to give them in recall is what we have in the four Gospels.
00:30:07
Now in chapter 15.
Verse 17 He says these things. I command you that you love one another.
That's the the last verse of that section which speaks of fruit bearing and I'm not going to go into that, but what is to characterize the Christian community is that we love one another.
We love one another. And then he says verse 18, if the world hates you.
Ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
In our countries.
United States and Canada.
In our countries, we we have a hard time, we Christians have a hard time realizing the true character of Christianity and the true character of this world because we've.
And put him to death.
My blessed man.
Impossible for man to have committed a greater crime and he has never repented of that crime. The world is still guilty before God. It is still under the judgment of God. God isn't looking for fruit from the first man that has been condemned.
And now he's calling out of this scene a people for his name to be a witness for him to unite them to himself in the glory.
Let's go on chapter 16. These things have I spoken unto you, that you should not be offended.
They shall put you out of the synagogue. Ye the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God's service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father nor Me.
But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you while He was with them, and a distance from His leaving. He didn't have to tell them of these things, because He took care of their every need. But now he's going to wait going away. But now I go my way to him that sent me. And none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.
It is expedient, it is necessary, it is essential.
For you that I go away.
For if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you. We have a far higher blessing.
In Christianity, then, the disciples had that accompanied with the Lord Jesus when he was here on earth.
He was their Messiah.
Jewish Messiah among the Jews, and he had come to present himself.
And they went forth to proclaim that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
It was at hand, it was, it would have been set up in power had they received him.
But they rejected him.
Now he's in rejection and we are identified with the rejected Christ. Let's never forget it.
And let's not think that we are here to.
Make a name for ourselves in the world that has cast him out.
That's really a shame.
Should we aspire after that kind of thing? Should we aspire after being great?
In a world such as we're passing through a judged world.
A world which is.
Guilty.
Of the crucifixion of the Son of God.
The very presence in this world of the Spirit of God is a witness of that truth.
Let's read on. We'll see it.
It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you.
But if I depart, I will send him unto you.
Now in the 14th chapter we learned 2 grand truths about the coming of the Holy Spirit. He says He dwelleth with you in contrast to the Lords leaving, and he shall be in you.
Never to be taken from you.
Will have the Spirit of God as the power of worship and communion forever.
When we have our glorified bodies.
Will have the Spirit of God to occupy us with himself. But now we have the coming of the Holy Spirit presented in three distinct ways. Notice what it says verse 8 when he has come.
00:35:11
He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment.
Now I want to reread that verse as it is in Mr. Darby's translation. When he has come, he will bring demonstration to the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, three things that his very presence here demonstrates.
It's not so much what he does when here, it's not so much his activity, but his very presence here is a demonstration of three things Sin.
Righteousness and judgment. What do those three things really mean? He goes on to say verse 9 of sin. Because they believe not on me.
The presence of the Spirit of God in this world demonstrates the unbelief of man in rejecting the sent one of God.
So the Spirit of God here is a demonstration of the world's guilt in rejecting Christ.
Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more.
The righteousness of God has taken that blessed one, raised him from the dead.
Exalted him to his own right hand, Set him at the highest place in glory.
Given him that place.
Given him a name which is above every name.
Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you see me no more. The sin of man has set him on the cross and rejected him. They would not believe the righteousness of God exalted him to the highest place in heaven.
And then he says of judgment.
Because the Prince of this world is judged, we already saw in Chapter 12 now is the judgment of this world. This world system is under judgment and its Prince.
Is judged Satan the God and Prince of this world?
Of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged. This world is under the influence and the power of its Prince.
And it is under judgment, and the Prince of this world is judged.
The Spirit of God down here is the demonstration of these three.
Truths.
The sin of the world in rejecting Christ, the righteousness of God, and giving Him the highest place in glory.
And the judgment of this world's leader.
As well as the world itself.
I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now.
He had more to say. We don't have it all recorded in the Gospels. We have other things that He said recorded in the epistles. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth.
For he shall not speak of himself.
But whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak.
And he will show you things to come.
Brother asked me just recently.
It seems more and more Christians are.
Singing hymns to the Holy Spirit and praying to the Holy Spirit and worshiping the Holy Spirit. And the question was.
What's wrong with that since he is a divine person?
Well that's true, He is a divine person, but the only way I can answer that question is.
The way the Word of God presents it is the Spirit of God does not draw attention to himself. He is here to glorify Christ.
We are the Circumcision Philippians 3 who worship by the Spirit of God and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
John, Chapter 4.
The hour cometh, and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
Now it's true that when we worship God, God being Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we're worshiping God in, in every, every person of the Godhead.
But when the persons are singled out.
We worship the Father in the Spirit. We worship the Son by the Spirit.
But it's never.
00:40:01
He doesn't draw attention to himself and that's what he says here.
It says.
He shall not speak of.
Or from himself. We get a beautiful picture of that in the servant that Abraham sent across the desert sands to gather a bride for his son Isaac.
And he presented all the things that would.
That would speak to her heart of Isaac.
And the finer the question was put to her by her kindred, Wilt thou go with this man?
And that's the question that we put to everyone when we preach the gospel. Wilt thou go with this man?
Receive him.
Will you?
Agree to spend eternity with him.
And she said I will go.
And all the way back.
Those 400 miles across the desert.
That servant was telling Rebecca about Isaac.
Not about himself.
He wasn't there to witness.
For himself or of himself?
But he was there to speak of Isaac.
And when she lifted up her eyes and saw a man coming in the fields.
She said. Who is that?
And he said it is my master.
And then she veiled herself, alighted from the camel.
And they met, and Isaac took her.
Into his mother Sarah's tent and she became his wife and he loved her.
The Spirit of God is here.
To fill us with Christ.
It's not that he is not worthy of worship. That's not the point. But it's not presented in that way. He is the power of worship.
He shall glorify me.
For he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.
All things that the Father hath her mind. Therefore said I unto you.
Said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.
A little while and ye shall not see me.
And again a little while and you shall see me, because I go.
To the Father.
Well, there was more that he was going to say to them.
And he said it in the Epistles.
There's so much more on this subject, this wonderful subject.
Of the Spirit of God. Let's just turn to two more passages. John 20.
John 20.
And Acts chapter 1 and 2, but we'll look at John 21St.
John 20.
Verse 19 Then the same day, at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. First thing he speaks to them is peace, the peace that He had won for them by His death on the cross. And when He had so said, He showed unto them his hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad.
When they saw the Lord.
Then said Jesus to them again. Peace.
Be unto you.
As my father had sent me, Even so send I you this time he he proclaims peace.
Not for them, but that they might bear the message of peace to others. He sends them forth as the Father had sent him. He sends them with this wonderful message of peace. God has made peace by the blood of the cross. And when he had said this, he breathed on them.
Or into them, and saith unto them, receive you, the Holy Ghost, literally receive Holy Spirit.
It's characteristic.
It's not the spirit given personally here, but rather.
The Spirit of God as characterizing the risen life that we have in Christ. He breathes on them as the risen Christ, the breath of His resurrection life, which they were to receive in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now we get that truth.
In Romans 8, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.
It's a wonderful thing to realize that the life that we have in Christ is a resurrection life. It's a life beyond condemnation, beyond sin, beyond the law, beyond this world. It's a risen life, a life identified with that risen and glorified man. And we have it in the power of.
00:45:09
And characterized by the Holy Spirit.
Let's just look at Romans 8 for justice a moment before we close.
In Romans 8 verse one, therefore there is therefore now no condemnation.
To them which are in Christ Jesus.
Notice the last part of that first verse is found at the end of verse 4. That's where it properly belongs. I don't think it belongs in verse one.
Verse 1 is a statement of our standing in Christ, not a question of our walk.
4 is a question of our walk.
But here we have just the statement of our standing before God in Christ. And then verse 2 Says the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.
Verse 9 says 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.
The Spirit of God is the one who marks us out as being Christians.
He is the one that characterizes the new life that we have in Christ, in resurrection, and He dwells in us personally as a divine person.
And he takes this out of the old state of in the flesh.
And puts us into a new state called in the Spirit.
Takes us out of the old standing in Adam, puts us into a new standing in Christ. So in Christ and in the Spirit go together. In Adam and in the flesh go together. We are not in the flesh. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now that's true of all Christians, whether they're carnal or spiritual. If they have the Spirit of God dwelling in them, they're not in the flesh any longer.
And that opens up a whole range of precious truth that is developed.
In Romans 8.
Just touch on a couple of them.
Verse 5 says for they that are after the flesh.
Mind the things of the flesh. Can't mind anything else. That's all he has is the flesh.
But they that are after the Spirit mind the things of the spirit.
There.
The things of the flesh, which the flesh minds, and there are the things of the spirit which the spirit minds. Now verse 6, I'm going to reread that as Mr. Darby translates it for the mind of the flesh.
Is death.
But the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.
Two minds. The mind of the flesh. Flesh is personified as having a mind. Everything that it delights in, everything that it wants to do, everything that it desires is death, has the stamp of death upon it. The mind of the spirit is life.
And peace.
Life and peace.
Verse 7 Because the mind of the flesh, it's not the carnal mind, but the mind of the flesh is enmity against God.
It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
The natural man who is in the flesh, who does not have the Spirit of God, he can't please God. He's at enmity with God.
Think of a Christian who has the Spirit of God, who is in the Spirit, who minds the things of the Spirit being married.
To one who is in the flesh.
Who cannot please God?
Terrible thought, isn't it?
I don't know of any more powerful argument there is in all of scripture why you should never young person.
Even go out with an unsaved person.
Much less be married to one. Must be awful to be in the in the spirit yourself.
Desiring the things of the Spirit and yoke to one for the rest of your days down here.
With someone that is in the flesh.
That.
Cannot please God.
Whose very nature is enmity against God.
00:50:05
They that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Well, we're not in the flesh verse 9 again, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he's none of his a Christian.
Is one who is dead to the world.
Who has died with Christ?
Whose old man is crucified with him?
Who is alive in the new life of Christ, risen from the dead? Who is indwelt of the Holy Spirit? Who is united to the Spirit of God, to the Christ in glory by the Spirit of God?
And who's not in the flesh any longer, but in the Spirit? Who's not any longer in Adam, but in Christ?
He has a new head.
He's united to him. There's so much more.
He's sealed with the Spirit, He's anointed with the Spirit, He has the earnest of the Spirit, He has by the Spirit been put in Christ.
Before God.
Well, we've only touched tonight.
These precious things.
But I trust that we've had a little.
Picture of what Christianity is in contrast with just being a religion for man in the flesh, which is the view that so many have of Christianity. They're just another worldly religion. It's nothing of the kind. It's a person, Christ in glory. We're united to that person. He's made living and real and vital to us by the power of the Spirit dwelling within.
Giving us to rejoice in Christ and to enjoy the things that are above.
If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Well, I feel we've very very imperfectly addressed that subject, but made it stir us up to look further into the scriptures ourselves.
For.
Precious truths.