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Collierville First Baptist Church
Untitled - February 19, 2026
00:00:00 Speaker: Hey, I was able to come yesterday and I heard two of Marquis's messages and they were wonderful. And young people, you received a challenge from the Word of God to be a Daniel, to be a Shadrach, to be a, Meshach, to be a and Abednego. And I just want to preach a message today that goes right along with what Marquis preached to you this weekend. You know, we just sang a song, the choir just sang a song. And that we need the Lord now. Don't don't we need the Lord now, I tell you, Joshua does not know but that that song goes perfectly with what I'm preaching today. But we shouldn't be surprised. That's the way the Holy Spirit works. The Holy Spirit laid on my heart what to preach, and the Holy Spirit laid on Joshua's heart. What we should sing. And it's amazing. I've seen it happen time and time again. How the Holy Spirit weds what I think I need to preach. And what Joshua thinks we need to sing. And it all works together for the glory of God. Amen. Hey, I want you to take your Bible. Turn to Romans chapter eight. We're in a series in Romans chapter eight, and I'm going to be preaching verse by verse through this entire chapter. Not this morning, not this morning, but over the course of the next few weeks. Okay. I've got a question for you. Is it possible for you to live the Christian life in your own power? Are you got the answer right? Many folks up here said no, and that's the answer. We need supernatural help to lead, to live the way our Lord wants us to live. That's what Romans chapter eight is all about. But but look, if you go back to the previous chapter, Romans chapter seven, it's all about the Christian struggle with sin. In fact, the one who wrote Romans, Paul, if you believe it or not, Paul, struggle with sin in his life. In fact, in Romans chapter seven, verse nineteen, Paul wrote, for the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. Does that describe you at time? Do you find yourself at times as a Christian, not doing what you know God wants you to do, and then you find yourself at other times doing things that you know God does not want you to do. I'll tell you that. That's a frustrating thing in the Christian life. If you look at Romans chapter seven. The perpendicular pronoun I is found many, many times. But if you flip over to Romans chapter eight, there's another term that dominates the entire chapter, and it is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit. I think the Holy Spirit is mentioned in Romans chapter eight approximately twenty times. Now, we learned last week that the Lord has provided for key powerful blessings for us as believers. The blessing of a persuasive affirmation in verse one of chapter eight, the blessing of a permanent liberation in chapter and verse two of chapter eight, and the blessing of a perfect compensation in verse three, and a personal transformation in verse four. Here's the truth I want you to latch on today. Every student, every adult, every child latch on to this truth. The Holy Spirit helps us to live the Christian life. And without him, we are toast. I was down here. I just took a minute down here during the last song, and I prayed. And I asked the father to fill me with the Holy Spirit. I asked the father to anoint me with the Holy Spirit. I surrendered to him my mind. I surrendered to him my tongue. I surrendered to him my heart and every member of my body as an instrument of righteousness for his name's sake. See, I don't want to get up here and preach in my own power, because if I did that, as Paul said in another part of the New Testament, I would be like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. It would be ugly, I promise you. So, with the help of the Holy Spirit, I want to preach a message today that I've entitled the Christian life. The Christian Life. Now, the first thing I want you to see in our text today. Number one, the contrast, the contrast. Look at chapter eight of Romans, verses five and six. For those who are according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace. Do you notice there's two places your mind can go? It can go to the flesh. It can go to the spirit or the Holy Spirit. And there's a a gigantic contrast right here in the beginning of our text today. Now the word spirit here refers to the Holy Spirit. Now, keep in mind that we worship one God who has eternally existed in three persons God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, all of whom are co-equal. Okay, the Holy Spirit is fully God. We talked about Jesus being fully God last week and fully human. Well, the Holy Spirit is not fully human like. Jesus is fully human. The Holy Spirit is fully God. Now look, the Holy Spirit is not an it. Please, please, in my presence, don't ever call the Holy Spirit in it. Don't fall into Star Wars terminology and call the Holy Spirit the force. I'm telling you, he's not the force and he's not the it. He's God, he's God. He's a Holy Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit's key ministry. We find it here in the the latter part of Romans chapter eight. His key ministry is to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ, to take every teenage Christian, every child who's a Christian, every adult who's a Christian, every senior adult who's a Christian, and to make them more like Jesus every single day. It's called the theological name is sanctification. Now there's another word here in the first two verses. It's flesh. So there's spirit and then there's flesh. Now, this refers to our fallen human nature. Now I have been saved. I was saved when I was twenty. I've been born again. I'm a new person in Christ. But I'll tell you, there's a. I still have my old humanity. It's still present in my life. Now the members of our body, our soul, our spirit are susceptible, even as believers, to temptation and to sin. And that comes out of our flesh. In this particular text, Paul is referring right here in verses five and six to the unredeemed person, to the person who is not saved. Now he or she is unregenerated. MacArthur said this I quote. He said, in God's eyes, there are only two kinds of people in the world. Just two those who do not belong to him and those who do belong to him. Put another way, there are only those who are according to the flesh and those who are according to the spirit. As far as spiritual life is concerned, God takes no consideration. Now we need to hear this today. God takes no consideration of gender, of age, of education, talent, class, race, or any other human distinctions. God differentiates people based upon their relationship to him. Period. That's how he differentiates. So today, either you are in Christ or you're outside of Christ. Either you're saved or you're lost. Either you are in the flesh or you're in the spirit. Now I want you to notice that you're not a Christian because you're an American. You hear me? You're not a Christian because you've done some great things for people. You're. You've given a lot of money to charity. You're not a Christian because of that. You're not a Christian because you've got a godly dad and mom. You're not a Christian because you are religious and you come to church two out of every four Sundays. You're not. You're not a Christian because you were baptized. Baptism has nothing to do with you being born again. You're born again when you place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord. Now I want you to notice verses four and five. I want you to see how they come together. Look at chapter eight, verse four, so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled. Talking about the moral law in us who do not walk according to the flesh, that human part of us are fallen human nature. But but who are? But according to the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. Look at verse five for those who are according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace. Now, I want you to look at that little conjunction in verse five, for we can translate that here because, because the point is that a believer does not behave according to the flesh, because his or her mind is no longer focused on the things of the flesh. Notice the word mind. It's used three times in two verses. Set their minds. Set your mind. Now think of the word focus. That's what I want. That's my explanation of this phrase. Set your mind. Set your mind. Now, Paul uses this idea of setting your mind in several different places in his epistles. It's imperative. Let's think of driving. Okay. I used to teach driver's education when I was coaching. That is a dangerous job. I'm serious. One time, I promise you, there was a young lady. We were on highway eighty two in Starkville, and her name was Melanie, and she was driving and I had two other students in the back seat. They were alternating. And Melanie froze. She froze. And here comes an eighteen Wheeler and she is frozen. Her eyes are as big as saucers. And I said, Melanie. And she's still frozen. I said, Melanie, she's still frozen. Thank goodness. In the driver's education car, I had a brake on my side over there. I hit the brake and I grabbed the steering wheel, and I pulled us off the road, and it could have been ugly. But, see, her focus was off. And when you're driving a car, if your focus is not out the front windshield at what is ahead of you, if you get distracted by six deer over here in a field, or you get distracted by a text, you suddenly get on your phone. You know what's going to happen. Your car is going to drift. And just like that, if you get distracted in your spiritual life, if you don't set your mind on the things of the Spirit of God, your, your, your, your life will drift into the things of the of the flesh. And it's not a pretty sight when that happens. Now Paul says here the mindset on the flesh is death. That means you're cut off from the life of Christ. The mindset on the spirit is life and peace. Life and peace. Where? Which would you prefer? Death or life and peace? Where's your focus? Where's your focus today? I remind you, God the Father sent God the Son to save us, and he sent God the Holy Spirit to make us more like Jesus, to be our helper. And here, here's our here's the truth we're latching on to today. The Holy Spirit helps us to live the Christian life. Aren't you glad that we have supernatural help to live the Christian life? Now, the second thing I want you to notice in our text today is not only the contrast between the flesh and the spirit, but I want you to notice the conflict between the flesh and the spirit. When the things of God dominate one's mind and heart, there is life. There is life. God has included in that life a desire to please him, a desire to read the Bible, a desire to pray, a desire to share our faith. A desire to obey him, a desire to worship him in spirit and in truth. A desire to rest in the security of God's love and peace. These two words, life and peace imply contentment, inner security, and purpose for life. Do we experience conflict between the Holy Spirit who indwells us and the flesh, and is a part of our humanity? Absolutely. Look at Romans chapter eight, verses seven and eight, because the mind set on the flesh. That's your focus. Your focus is on the flesh is hostile toward God. It does not even subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. And even those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Now, I want you to consider what it's like for a person who's not a Christian. Maybe you're here today. Maybe you're a teenager, maybe you're an adult. Maybe you're a you're a child twelve years old and and you're not a believer. You've never come to that place in your life where you have repented of your sin and placed your faith in Jesus as your Lord and your Savior. Now the Bible says here in six, seven, and eight, verses six, seven, and eight, it lists the things that characterize a person who is not a Christian who is in the flesh. Verse six says they are spiritually dead. Do you realize if you're not a Christian, you are spiritually dead? And they are hostile toward God? Verse seven, they are resistant to the word. Verse seven, they are powerless to obey God and they cannot please God no matter how hard they try. They'll never be able to please God. And if your mind is set on the flesh and you've never been born again, these characteristics are a part of your life today. Pastor, how do you know that? Are you reading my mail, pastor? Yes, I'm reading your mail. And your mail is found at the post office of the Word of God. This is what the Word of God says about the person who is not a believer, whose mind is focused and bent on the flesh. Now a true Christian has three enemies. Three enemies. The first enemy is what I call the external enemy. It's the world. It's the world that is designed to oppose God. The world that is hostile toward God. That's the way our world is today, by the way. We have an external enemy, and we see that external enemy at work all around us. But we also have an internal enemy that's our flesh, our unredeemed humanity that's still a part of our lives, even as believers. And then we have an infernal enemy. And that's the devil, Satan himself. Now, these three enemies, let's say that you're a believer. You're a believer. You have repented of your sin. You have placed your faith in Jesus as your Savior and your Lord. And your mind is set on the spirit, on the things of God, not the things of the flesh. Well, do you know what the enemy does? The enemies here, the three enemies that all of us have. These three enemies try to lure you back into the sinful habits of the fleshly life? That's what these enemies do. Take your Bible and look at Galatians chapter five. Galatians chapter five. Paul talked about this in great detail in chapter five of Galatians. He says in verse sixteen, but I say, walk by the spirit. In other words, live by the spirit. Let the Holy Spirit control you and guide you and direct you and empower you. Walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh for the flesh. That's his desire against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now, now, look at the deeds of the flesh. Paul lists them out here. If your mind this morning is set on the flesh, you're you're you're not saved. And your mind is set on the flesh. These things pop up in your life. Or if you're a believer and you've allowed those three enemies to lure you back into the sinful pattern of your pre redeemed life. I want you to know that these things can pop up in your life too. Look at them. The deeds of the flesh are evident. Verse nineteen of Galatians five. Which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarn you that those who practice such things, those who make that a lifestyle, these things are a lifestyle. They will not inherit the kingdom of God. They won't go to heaven when they die. But look at this. But the fruit of the spirit, let's say your mind is focused on the spirit and you want to do what God wants you to do. You're a believer. You want to please him and honor him. Well, when your mind is focused on the spirit, then the Spirit of God produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Now, which would you prefer? How do you want to live your life? Oh, I would encourage you. I would encourage you if you're not saved. Receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord today. You can do it today. And if you're if you're saved, I would encourage you every single day that you get up, Make it your goal to set your mind on the things of the Spirit of God, the things of the spirit. Reading the Bible. Praying. Worshiping God. Being thankful to God. A heart of gratitude. I'll tell you, it'll make all the difference in the world, in your life. So we've looked at two things so far. We've looked at the contrast and we've looked at the conflict. Now, I want you to see the conquest. The conquest. Look at verse nine of Romans chapter eight. However, you are not in the flesh but in the spirit. If you're a born again believer, you are not in the flesh. You are in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. Now, now, the constant presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer is vitally important. I want to say something to every Christian teenager. Look at me for just a moment. Every teenager. If you're a born again believer, I want you to know that on Friday night, the Holy Spirit is with you. I want you to know that on Tuesday, when you're at school, the Holy Spirit is with you. I want you to know when you pack up the car and you move off to college, your mom and dad may not be there, but I trust me. The Holy Spirit is with you. He's eternally present with you all the time. All the time. Now in first Corinthians chapter three, verse sixteen, Paul wrote, do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you. He dwells in you. First Corinthians six nineteen through twenty. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price. Now look at this teenager. Look at this. Therefore, because the Holy Spirit is with you, the Holy Spirit has made your body his temple. Therefore glorify God in your what? In your body? In your body. God loves you. He created you body, soul, and spirit. And I want every one of you to know that you must glorify him in your body, not just your spirit or your soul. Now, let me make this very, very clear. Every Christian. is blessed with the Holy Spirit's continual presence. Every believer. You say, but pastor, I'm just twelve years old. I'm just a kid. I'm telling you, the Holy Spirit of God lives in you. The Holy Spirit of God has moved in and made your body his temple. And the Holy Spirit of God wants you to please God and to honor God. And the Holy Spirit is a key to life, peace, and victory over our three enemies. Now, as we consider our conquest, by the way, verse nine is past. It's something that's happened in your life in the past. When you were born again, you received the Holy Spirit. And then verse ten is present tense. Look at it. If Christ is in you. Notice the word is the verb, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. So we have here in this verse a dying body and a living spirit. That's our spirit. That's not talking about the Holy Spirit. That's your spirit. And that that spirit has been energized within us because of the righteousness that the resurrected Christ has imputed to us. See, I want you to understand something. I've got a truck out there in that parking lot. And if you were to go out there today and try to jump in my truck and take off, you wouldn't get very far. In fact, you wouldn't get outside the parking lot because you don't have the key. This is the key to starting the church. The truck. Starting the church. Starting the truck and driving off right here. I want you to understand what this key is to the truck. The Holy Spirit is to the life of a believer. He's the key. If you want to be a Christian, if you want to live for Jesus, you have got to depend upon the Holy Spirit of God to do supernatural things in you and through you that only he can do. In Romans chapter seven, verses twenty four and twenty five, here's what Paul wrote. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, on the one hand, I myself, with my mind, am serving the law of God, but on the other with my flesh, the law of sin. Now it's clear from verses nine to eleven that the various designations we see here all refer to one person of the Trinity. Let me listen for you in verse nine. He's called the spirit capital S in verse nine. He's referred to as the Spirit of God. In verse nine he's referred to as the Spirit of Christ. In verse ten, he's referred to as Christ in you. In verse eleven, he's referred to as the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead. In verse eleven, he's referred to as His Spirit who dwells in you. Now, all of these designations refers to one person in the Trinity, and it's the Holy Spirit of God. You say, why all these different designations for the Holy Spirit? Now these all refer to the mighty and powerful Holy Spirit, and the variety of titles indicates the glorious unity between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In Romans chapter eight, verse eleven, now we've looked at how the Holy Spirit impacts our life in the past, how it impacts our life in the present, how it impacts our life. Now, I want you to see it in verse eleven, how it impacts our life in the future. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, so who raised Jesus from the dead? The Bible says right here, it's the Holy Spirit, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead, by the way, who indwells your life as a believer. He's eternally present with you as a believer. The Holy Spirit who raised Christ Jesus from the dead, will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Hey, one day, one day you're going to you're going to find on social media, or you'll get a call from the church or something that that Chuck herring had died. He died. Don't believe it. Seriously, I tell you, when I breathe my last breath on this planet, I will have breathed my first breath of fresh, eternal air in the presence of Jesus. I'll be more alive than ever. The Bible says that our outer man is decaying, but our inner man is growing stronger every single day. So you got two things happening. You got the outer man, the the body going down. I can tell you I feel it, I feel it, trust me. But I tell you, I'm having the greatest quiet times I've ever had in my life. I'm spending a lot of time reading the Bible and praying, and I'm getting closer and closer to Jesus. What a privilege that is. Now, here's what the Holy Spirit wants to do for the believer. He wants to raise the believer to new life, to new desires, to a new purpose, to new fruitfulness, and to a new destiny. One day, one day, one glorious day, the Lord Jesus is going to come again, and he's going to take this old body that was placed in a grave that has deteriorated to dust, and he's going to raise this body, and he's going to glorify this body and reunite my glorified body with my soul. And I'll serve Jesus forever in the new heaven and the new earth. That's the power that God's made available to every single believer. Now, what's the truth we're latching on to today. The Holy Spirit helps us to live the Christian life. So I want you to examine your life today. Does your life revolve around the flesh? Now remember, we we read a few minutes ago what Paul meant by the flesh. And it's a list of ugly, nasty stuff. Is that what your life is revolving around? If it does, that means you're not saved. If the Holy Spirit does not indwell you, you're not saved. If your mind is focused on things that are contrary to what God says should be a part of every believer's life. It means you're not saved. You're not saved. But I've got good news for you. Your condition can be reversed today. You can be saved today. Now here's the key. God sent his son two thousand years ago to become sin for us. That we might become the righteousness of God in him. And Jesus, the Son of God, went to the cross of Calvary, and he took our sins in his own body, and he shed his blood, and he offered his body as a sacrifice so that our sins could be forgiven. And if you will repent of your sin and receive Jesus as your Savior and your Lord by faith he will forgive your sins. He will change your life. He will save your soul. He will give you the gift of eternal and abundant life. And he will give you the gift of the Holy Spirit. You say, pastor, when do we receive the Holy Spirit? The exact moment that you repent of your sin and place your faith in Jesus as your Savior and Lord. That's when you receive the Holy Spirit's presence. Now, if you're a Christian today. So if you're not a Christian today, I'm going to ask our staff and our worship team to come, and we're going to have a time of worship, and we're going to give you an opportunity to receive Jesus as your Savior and your Lord. But if you're a born again believer here today and you're that that battle between the flesh and spirit that goes on inside of you, where those three enemies try to pull you and lure you back into the sinful ways of your pre-saved life. And you feel it today. I want to invite you to come to the altar and remember your victory is in Christ alone. I'm going to invite you to come nearly this altar. Ask God to forgive you. Ask him to help you set your mind on the things of the spirit, not the things of the flesh. And help you to live the way he wants you to live. I promise you, he'll help you. You don't have to do it by yourself. He'll help you live the kind of life that pleases the Lord. And there's no better way to live, I promise you.