OK, we are in Romans chapter 8, verses 5 through 8, still yet. Starting with verse 5, he says, 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. So we're looking today at verses 5 through 8, as we promised on last week, where we saw Paul's description of the non-Christian, okay? Which, as we said, Paul is here comparing and contrasting the differences between the true Christian and the non-Christian. We'll begin today to look at the characteristics of the Christian. Now, we should know ahead of time that this section, if you recall how we initially divided it up, this section runs from verse 5 to verse 17. And if you want to do some really in-depth study, then I suggest you get Martin Lloyd-Jones' commentary, where you will find that just these 13 verses comprise 33 chapters in his commentary. OK? All right. Probably, yeah. These four verses that we are focusing on here for the time being cover four chapters in and of themselves. So we're not going to go that in-depth, but we will be looking very closely at this, not just in order to grasp Paul's argument here, but also because there is no better way of discovering our own state, our own status, and where we stand than by examining ourselves in the light of this kind of statement. We must also remember the fact that Paul's ultimate objective is to establish the certainty of full and final salvation for all of those who are in Christ. That there is now therefore no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. So is assurance of salvation important? Absolutely. True biblical assurance is infinitely important. If you recall those many who met Christ at the judgment, and who were in themselves assured, these people were assured of their own salvation. And yet Jesus told them in Matthew 7, He told them what? Depart from Me, okay? For I never knew you. So it was infinitely important to them. For those that struggle with their assurance and as a result lack joy in life and as a result live a life that is not ever what a loving God intended for them, it is infinitely important to have assurance. Therefore, we should consider this description of a true Christian from two standpoints. One, that we must be quite sure that we are not still living according to the flesh. And two, to obtain the assurance that results from our living and setting our minds on the things of the Spirit. Once again, we are reminded that Paul is referring here to every Christian, not just the certain special ones that have received some sort of second blessing or experience. You cannot be a Christian if you are not setting your mind on the things of the Spirit. which he will emphasize and put into application in verse 9, where he says, You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. And then to make it doubly certain, he adds this line, Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. Okay? It does not say that anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ is a poor excuse for a Christian or a carnal Christian. He says that they are what? Not Christian at all. Okay? So please avoid all those commentaries that tell you that Paul is here comparing and contrasting two different kinds of Christians, two different types of Christians. This is non-Christians contrasted with any and all actual Christians. So what then are the characteristics of the Christian? What is this amazing thing that God has done for us in Christ Jesus? What is a Christian? A Christian is the polar opposite of the non-Christian that we looked at on last week. But that, however, is not a very good way of describing a Christian as that is far too common. The Christian is not merely a person who no longer does what they used to do. Of course, that is one characteristic, but that is the very least that you can say about a Christian, that they no longer do the things that they used to do. Every non-Christian can and sometimes do give up sins and vices and bad habits and what have you, and as my granny said, they used to say, they still split hell wide open. What a travesty it is that the common view of a Christian is nothing more than a person that doesn't drink or fornicate or dress like the opposite sex. A Christian is not just a person that has given up all the things that they used to love in exchange for all the things that they used to hate. That's just a lost man. As Paul Washer says, that's just a lost man that found religion. Christianity is far more than just people that don't do certain things. Christianity is gloriously positive. So the first thing that Paul tells us is that a Christian is a person that lives according to the Spirit. As a style of life, this person is habitually dominated by the Spirit. Spirit meaning Holy Spirit, in case you were in doubt. much nonsense out there about this being in regards to a man's inner spirit or some kind of mystic part of a man's mind. I'm not going to go there because as I said it's nonsense. This is a direct contrast to those that live according to the flesh. So as we talked on last week, this is the exact opposite. Or in other words, according to their own basic animal instincts. remains a lot dominated by driven by controlled by regulated by god's holy spirit this is the first thing that is true of every christian cannot be a christian at all unless this is true of you poll later say in uh... of verse fourteen he says for all who are led by the spirit of god or what sons of god All who are led by the Spirit are sons of God, and only those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God. That's that. The next thing is that the person that is living according to the Spirit sets his mind on the things of the Spirit. This is a deliberate, voluntary action. Yes, we are aided by the Spirit within us, but a deliberate and voluntary action of setting the mind in a certain direction. The intellect, the emotions, the desires, feelings, all of his total interests are set in a certain direction and so deliberately. The things that attract him, the things that interest him, the things that he desires, things that he pursues, they are all set in a certain direction. This is now his first and greatest interest. This is the matter of greatest concern to him. This is ultimately important because the Christian does not reach this point out of duty, out of habit, or out of custom. He gets there by setting his mind there. He pursues them. That is what is meant by setting the mind. You are pursuing something. So what are these things of the spirit? They are not just things of the intellect. It is not just being interested in religion. It is not even that we are members of the church. You can be all of these things and still be totally opposed to the things of the Spirit. You can be very interested in religious organizations and religious activities and denominations and even activities in our own church and still have nothing to do with setting your mind on the things of the Spirit. In fact, those things can sometimes be one's greatest enemy in doing so. Even further, setting the mind on the things of the Spirit does not mean an interest in theology in and of itself. There are many who argue and debate theology and doctrine that have no concern for the things of the Spirit. Theology can be one of the most fascinating pursuits that a man could spend his life at, and yet he can do so while still remaining spiritually dead. Point being, that an interest in religious pursuits is not a proof of setting the mind on the things of the Spirit. So what then is the test? The things of the Spirit are the things to which the Holy Spirit always draws attention. Paul calls them the things of God, hidden wisdom and hidden mystery. These are the things of the Spirit. These that are hidden completely. Why are they hidden mysteries, hidden things of the Spirit? These are the things that are hidden completely from the world. Things that are foolishness to the world. Things that the world has no ability to know because he lives in a different realm from the Christian. The Christian is a man who has been awakened to truly spiritual things. They are no longer a mystery to us because God has revealed them to us by His Spirit. We now possess an understanding of them and we are interested in them and we want them. We pursue them. So what are these things? Well, in no particular order, we will start with those things that are a result of our own experience. First is that Christians are interested in themselves as souls. Okay? Not as to your occupation or as a husband or a wife or parents or children. Not in your business, your recreation, your hobbies. of what is your view of yourself. Now, I like to listen, okay? Sometimes I just stand up here and listen or sit there and listen before church starts and after it's over. And if you listen to the conversations going on around you, you will quickly find out how people view themselves. You will find out what people consider as being most important. what is most important will always come out in conversation even before church and after church so how do you think of yourself the first thing is that that is a that is true about a christian is that he is concerned about himself as a soul not as an american not as a republican or a democrat not as a liberal or a conservative the confirmation bias has been nauseating this entire week it's awful to say the least huge majority of all of those uh... people have been using the name of god this week but they have done so in vain yes in vain because none of their gods that they are referring to are the god of the bible um and because none of those have any bearing on you as a soul or your friends or your spouses or your children or your grandchildren none of those have any bearing on you as a soul okay now they love to use the name of God uh just like Daniel back last week if you recall gave an illustration about homeless people. Y'all remember that one? Okay. And he says that the homeless people are good at using the right words in order to get what they want from you so that they can feed their own addictions. Y'all remember that part? And I was sitting there at the time and I'm thinking, what a perfect description of a politician. Christless man with Christless goals using Christless methods and achieving Christless results. Okay? That's what that is. Which one? What? Christless man with Christless goals using Christless methods and achieving Christless results. It's been going on for 240 years. I'll say a lot of things this morning without trying to say a lot of things. Christians are not like that. Christians are not like that. Christians are concerned primarily about the soul. Which means, of course, his relationship to God. That is the Christian's supreme interest. That is what he keeps coming back to. It is the center of his life. The whole reason for his existence. Now, he can do many other things. God has given us the blessing of certain duties, okay? He's a husband, a father, wife, mother, breadwinner, businessman, businesswoman, whatever. But none of these things come first for a Christian. The man and his relationship to God always come first. Even our studies here are just a means to express our concern for our relationship to God. Now, if an unregenerate man were to come in here and sit down and hear Martin Lloyd-Jones' exposition of these scriptures, they would mean nothing to him, okay? They would be foolishness to him, just like they were once foolishness to all of us. We didn't think about them, didn't want to think about them. They were outside of us, and that is now no longer true. We are all here, hopefully, setting our minds on the things of the Spirit. For what purpose? So that we can relate what we set our minds on to our lives in the here and now. Our relationship to God in this world as well as in the next. We are certainly interested in our final destiny, but we are also interested in life in the present. We desire to be rightly and truly related to God right now. We become very uncomfortable if anything gets in the way of that relationship. A. W. Tozer calls it the pursuit of God. Anybody ever read that? It's a good one. Because that is exactly what the Christian pursues, the pursuit of God. The right relationship both now and for all of eternity. It is so true of this man that we can honestly say that everything else becomes relatively unimportant to him. This is the thing that establishes that we are Christians, and it is only when the center is established that everything else can fall into its proper position. As Christ commanded us, if we must give up everything in order that this one thing might be right, then we are prepared to do so. Is this you? Can you say that what matters to you above everything else is your soul? Is that what comes first? Jesus even told us that if we love mother or father or son or daughter more than Him, we're what? Not worthy of Him, right? Now, because our soul interest, not only interest, soul interest, is our supreme interest, we are aware of and concerned about our sinfulness. We know what it feels like to be concerned about our soul. We are aware of our weaknesses and we spend a lot of time thinking about those weaknesses. We now hate our weaknesses and our sins. Paul Washer again says that in the beginning of our walk with Christ, we see things that are sinful and those things attract us and we turn our heads because we know that God hates them. We want to turn our heads so that we can be pleasing to God. He says that there will come a day when you hate those things as much as God does. Okay? We no longer just ignore them. We mortify them. We kill sin before it can kill us, if any of you are familiar with John Owen. So what are the things of the Spirit? They include the soul and its relationship with God, its distance from God because of sin, and all of its shame and weakness and inability. These are the things that concern the Christian. We set our minds on them, but thank God the Spirit does not leave us there. He begins in that way, but He does not leave us in that position. The chief work of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why He is in us, to glorify Christ. He glorifies Jesus Christ by leading us to Christ, revealing Christ to us, making us more and more like Christ day by day. The Spirit reveals the person of Christ to us, his atoning work on our behalf to us, his work of reconciliation to us. And the Christian delights in these things because these are the things of the Spirit. Christian is concerned about the way of salvation. We know what it means to be justified and sanctified, and we set our minds on these things. Our union with Christ is our greatest joy. The gospel is our greatest weapon, and the word of God is our greatest assurance. These are the things that a Christian sets his mind on, a real and living and true communion with God. This is our life. Christian is concerned about his prayer life. He wants to pray in a more diligent and thorough manner. He wants to know more about it. The Christian is concerned about the fellowship of God's people. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren, as Scripture says. We are attracted to God's people and we love meeting with them, and the more the better. We are more than happy to let the things of the world go by with all of its so-called pleasures, in exchange for the opportunity to worship and fellowship with other souls of like-minded faith and talk with them about our shared faith. We have a concern not only for our own souls, but about the whole state of the world around us. Not as the non-Christian who is only concerned about the world politically and socially and financially and such things. member the phrase it's the economy stupid it's not the economy did not get us where we are we're interested in the state in the of the world because we alone can see the world that is in the grip of the devil we alone understand what is really wrong with the world christians alone can see that unrighteous men using unrighteous methods cannot fix a world that is where it is because of the 240 years of unrighteousness that has gone on before. We alone can see the powers and the principalities and the rulers of this present darkness using these fallen men to accomplish their goals. We do not choose sides from among those fallen men because we know that the victory that overcomes the world is our faith. Nothing else will do. Nothing else can do. There's no hope of improving the world apart from this one thing, that individuals become Christians. And if they do so in large enough numbers, then there is a revival. And a Christian period in history follows. You can go back for 2,000 years and see it. That's the only thing that works. That's the only thing that has ever worked and the only thing that will ever work. If those who claim the name of Christ spend as much time spreading the gospel, which is the result of setting the mind on the things of the Spirit, as they do advocating for the lesser of two evils, which is setting the mind on the things of the flesh, evil is still evil, by the way, and anyone who is not in Christ is evil, as Paul has already told us. They are hostile to God, plain and simple. If professed Christians set their minds on the things of the Spirit, then the results of that will become manifest. There will be life and peace. Setting the minds on the things of the flesh is death. So the man who lives according to the Spirit sets his mind on the things of the Spirit. In other words, this is his book. The Bible is his interest. It is his life. He wants to know it. wants to understand it he wants to do it in the right way not racing through a book a night just to get a reading plan done every January there's this whole all these people come out with these reading plans and you have to race through it just to get it you know I got that one done okay that's not how you study the Bible it's not a viable alternative to taking three years for eight chapters Seeking the revelation of the mind of God, word-by-word, verse-by-verse, context-by-context, precept-by-precept. A Christian is one who wants to know the Bible in that way and not just superficially. Will you know all truth perfectly? Absolutely not, as we have already proven in our studies and our differences of opinion. No one knows it all except for the author. But we will see, we will see, absolutely we'll see what the lost man will never see or hear or imagine. The question is, do you have a taste for these things? Even with my own ineptitude, do you enjoy going deeper and deeper into God's word? That is a proof that you are setting your mind on the things of the spirit. If these are the things that you have a taste and a desire for, uh... do they grab hold of you and make you want more that is proof that you are setting your mind on the things of the spirit that is proof that you are a child of god and therefore joint heirs with christ the christian sets his mind on the things of the spirit this brings along with it another truth about the christian verse six paul says for to set the mind on the flesh is death but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. A lost man who has a style of life sets his mind on the flesh is in a state of spiritual death. But the man who is governed by a mindset on the Spirit has life and peace. Essentially, this Christian who sets his mind on the things of the Spirit does so because he is alive. And because he does so, he gains ever-increasing measures of life. This is the mindset on carnal things leads to death. The mindset on spiritual things leads to life and peace. So what Paul is saying here, in effect, is that to be spiritually minded is life. It is proof that we have life. It is proof that we have spiritual life. If you remember so long ago as we worked through the first four chapters of this letter, everybody remembers that, right? Sure you do. We saw that Paul was proving and elaborating this great doctrine that we know as justification by faith alone. And then in chapter 5, he begins to apply that doctrine by showing what results from justification, the results of justification by faith alone. And what he emphasizes is this question of life. Chapter 5 and verse 10, he says, if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life now that should be in his life remember we went over this we're saved in his life right he he did a lot he lived his life so that we could be safe we are not saved until we are placed in his life right We are placed by the Spirit into His life. This is the first mention of this theme of life, which elaborates at great length, and which is the whole secret of what He is saying in this eighth chapter. A Christian is not merely a man who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, he does believe in Him, but that is not the most important thing to say about Him, because we know that even the demons do what? Believe and tremble, okay? greater thing is that he is alive in Christ and that the life of Christ is in him. We are in the life of Christ. The life of Christ is in us. That is the basis of our assurance and our final certainty of salvation and that is the great theme of this entire chapter. So, look at verse 2 again. It says, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. This is clearly Paul's major theme. The Christian is one who is alive from the dead, alive unto God, married to the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore, like Christ, is alive forevermore. As he says in Ephesians 2, chapter 2, verses 5 and 6, he says, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." So, raised with Christ from the dead, made alive in Christ, and seated even now in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. As Peter says in 2 Peter 1 and 4, he says that we have been made partakers of this divine nature. That is the position of the Christian now. He has a new life, he has a new power, he has a new energy, which comes from life with Christ and life in Christ. This can be said to be the major theme of the whole New Testament. Everything, everything in the whole New Testament, including justification, leads up to this and centers on this. The doctrine of regeneration, meaning to be given new life, is absolutely foundational to everything we claim to believe and hope in. The idea of regeneration and of life, that we really and truly are born again as the result of the operation of the Spirit and are made partakers of the divine nature, is the foundation of our assurance. Jesus tells us in John 4 and 14, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. Okay. And again, similarly in John 5, 24, he says, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life. He already has it. It is not merely that he might receive it sometime in the future way out there. The Christian already has eternal life and there is now therefore no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. Why? Because the Christian already has life and he will not come into judgment or condemnation because he has already passed from death to life. Again, in John 10.10, he says, the thief comes only to steal and to kill and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly. This is a glorious statement of this same doctrine. Christ has come not merely to forgive us, not merely to reconcile us to God, but to give us life. and to give it more abundantly. And still in the same gospel of John 17, 2 and 3, he says, Jesus telling us the reason that he has been sent into the world. He says, since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. He then gives us a definition of that eternal life. And he says, this is eternal life that they know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Now, Paul gives us a summary of this doctrine. Here's his summary, 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 45. The first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became what? A life-giving spirit. That was Jesus' purpose, to give life. Jesus Christ, the last Adam, gives us this life about which Paul is speaking. That is why he was sent into this world. So what is the meaning of this term life that we find in so many different places? This is a very important test that we must always need apply to ourselves. As we stated, as we looked at verse 5, it is possible, it is very possible for a lost man to simulate being a Christian. Much like, as we said, Jesus tells us in Matthew 7, it is possible for a lost man to simulate being a Christian, to perform many Christian duties and do many of the things that a Christian does. How do we distinguish between the two? Well, we apply this test. And it goes like this. According to the New Testament teaching, the Christian is a person who is no longer dead. He now has and is aware of his new ability to respond to God. Now this is just a slightly different angle from what we looked at before as we saw this man who put into practice those spiritual things which he has set his mind on. This one is more about proof of life. To set the mind on the things of the Spirit is life. It is proof of life. Like attracts like. The life that is in the Christian is attracted to spiritual things. He's no longer dead or dull or bored when spiritual things are placed before him. Even at his lowest points, there is always this evidence of life. Peter puts it like this in 1 Peter 2 and 2. Y'all already know this one. He says, like newborn infants long for pure spiritual milk. that by you may grow up into salvation okay it is because the baby is alive how do you know a baby is a is alive no matter how young or how immature he may be you know he's alive because he wants milk okay the fact that he desires milk is proof that he is alive it is because we are alive it is because you and I are alive that we desire the spiritual things of God They don't have to be forced on us. We don't have to force ourselves into them. If we are still dead, then there is no desire. None. Another way we can put this is to say that the activities of a true Christian are never an add-on. They are the fruit that flows naturally from life. The difference between a non-Christian and a Christian is like the difference between a Christmas tree that we hang lights and decorations and gifts and stuff on, and a living fruit tree that produces fruit. How do you get the stuff on the Christmas tree? Somebody has to put it there, right? It does not and cannot produce anything of its own. It's dead. But the fruit tree produces what? Fruit. Simple enough. The fruit is not something that is added on from an outside person or force. It is produced from the life and the sap and the power that are living in that tree. Our fruit, our fruit is produced from the life that flows within us who are attached to the vine of Christ. In other words, what the Christian does is not just a matter of duty. It comes from within. It comes from who we are. We desire and long for and reach for the things of God, the church, the scriptures, and the prayer, not because it is our duty or because we are being forced to, but because it is who we are. We set our minds on the things of the Spirit because of the life that is within us. A living tree brings forth good fruit. Corrupt tree cannot. Its fruit must be manufactured, added on, and it is artificial, counterfeit, and it has no value. However small the amount of life might be within us. Friend of mine uses the term fog mirror. Talking about trying to hire people to work. He says, you have to find somebody that can fog a mirror. That's how they used to test to see if people were dead or alive. Put a mirror in front of their nostrils so that when they breathed, fog the mirror. If you just have enough to fog a mirror, if you just have enough life to fog a mirror, if it is there at all, it cannot help but show itself. And we cannot be Christians without it. The mind set on the Spirit is life. It is there. And because it is there, the Christian sets his mind on it, and that life grows. And the Christian grows as the life grows. And as the life grows, the mind is set further still on the things of the Spirit. See where we're going here? And on, and on, and on. As you grow, you desire more of the Spirit. And then you grow more, and you desire more of the Spirit. And you grow more, and you desire more of the Spirit. Growing in grace, growing in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, growing and maturing day by day, until we finally reach glory and the pinnacle of our eternal life. Life is never static. It never stops growing, never stops developing, becoming more and more like the one who bought us. Now, can we backslide? For sure. Do we do things that we should not do? Certainly. But the seed of the life of God that is in us will not allow us to stay there. We will be miserable in our sin, and the proof of life in us is that we will always return and will always repent with a godly repentance. Those who are in Christ have the life of Christ and set their minds on the things of the Spirit, which leads to this abundant life. Always. You can be dead without knowing it. We read in the scriptures of people being dead and don't even know it, okay? But you cannot have life without knowing it. You may have difficulties and doubts, but you will know that there is a difference and a power and a presence within you that is greater than yourself. And those difficulties and doubts are sometimes nothing more than the proof, a reminder, that your mind is on the Spirit. And you do desire more of the life and the knowledge of God than you currently have. Christians do not live for the world or what it does for us or what it provides for us. Christians live on Christ and in Christ. He is the fountain of our life. To be spiritually minded is life. So let's summarize verse six and maybe gain some insight from it. It says, for to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. Now, we have said over and over, that this is a reference to the style of life that one lives. The non-christian that we talked about on last week has his mind set on the flesh as a style of life which leads to eternal spiritual death. We all understand that I hope. It is also true that the non-christian is never nor can he ever be in a position of setting his mind on the things of the spirit even for a brief moment in time it can happen even if he wanted to the non-christian cannot set his mind on the things of the spirit it is not possible these things are foolishness to him and if he were to pretend or manufacture some activity of the spirit It would only be for the purpose of gratifying his flesh, which is the only thing that his mind can be set on. Everybody agree with that? Okay? That's what Paul just got through telling us, alright? The only lost man, when he manufactures something of the Spirit, it is only to gratify his own flesh. We all agree on that, okay? So remember that the next time some famous person uses the name of God to try to manipulate you. Now on the flip side, is it possible for the truly born-again Christian whose mind is set on the Spirit to also set their minds on the things of the flesh? Not as a style of life, but in addition to their life. I would say that if there is a person here this morning, whose mind, even at this very moment, has no thoughts of the flesh, then we will miss you, because your chariot is on its way to pick you up. Okay? And we will refer to you from this day forward as the one who was not, for God took him. Point being, that fleshly beings that we are, we are unable within ourselves not think regularly of the things of the flesh. We're not able to do that. Some of y'all might be. I'm just speaking for myself. Jobs and money and bills and recreation and obligations and entertainment and drama and all of this stuff and politics and junk. And in America we have it worse than any other country. Okay? That's why James says that we should be grateful if we are born in poverty, because people who live in third world countries, they don't have to worry about it. They don't have all the stuff that we have to worry about. They're just worried about surviving. When all you have to worry about is surviving, you've got a lot more time to spend thinking about your soul. Everything and everyone around us, luring us with the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Got to do this, got to go there, got to have this, got to be this, got to achieve this. And we focus on these things like the good middle class Americans that we are. And then we go to church a couple of times a week and we wonder why we don't necessarily feel as close to God as we ought to feel. Why we spend more time in turmoil than in peace? Well, the answer is, for to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. So here's my closing point, our point of application and self-examination. The more time and effort we spend on the flesh, the more of our life and peace that gets taken away from us. Now, don't misunderstand me. Our eternal life can never be taken from us. It is not possible. We did nothing to earn it and we can do nothing to lose it if it is truly ours. But God never intended for us to live like we live. He wants us to have the joy and the peace and the satisfaction that comes only from Him. Not the joy and the peace and the satisfaction that comes from the world. It's an old story that I used to hear regarding salvation, and it is heresy. It is heresy with regards to salvation, but it is appropriately fitting for us with regards to our sanctification. It's the one about two wolves, which I'm sure most of you have heard. One evening, an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, my son, the battle is between two wolves inside of us. One is evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. And the grandson thought for a minute and said, asked his grandfather, he says, which wolf wins? The old Cherokee simply replied what? The one you feed, okay? I think this is a fitting analogy of our sanctification. We have the flesh. We live in this fleshly body. But more important than that, we live in the Spirit. And we walk in the Spirit. And we are in Christ. we as Christians do set our minds on the things of the spirit but sometimes the world and the flesh and the devil creep in through the TV or the internet or the peer pressure or our own minds whatever it is and they distract our minds and they try to get us to set our minds on the flesh but unlike the non-christians we now have a choice now we assuredly know that we are already victorious and that's what this whole thing is about we are already victorious we won christ has already won the victory on our behalf why then would we choose to consort with the enemy that he bought us from see that All of this world is the enemy that he bought us from. We chase after it like we ain't got no sense. The enemy cannot take our life, but what it can do is impede our growth, steal our peace, make us miserable in our walk here on this earth. The more involved you get with this world, the more miserable you're going to be. So the question is, which one are you feeding the most? 168 hours in a week. Out of which we spend at most four hours of that in church. Most people a lot less than the four hours. That leaves 164 hours a week that we get to choose between the flesh and the spirit. That time that we get to feed one or the other. The one we feed most will be the one that will become stronger and stronger day by day. The more you feed it, the more it grows and the more it has to be fed. The more it grows and the more you feed it, it just keeps going and going and going. On and on and on. We all, especially me, need to get back to the biblical mandate of mortifying the flesh killing the sin within us and setting our minds on the things of the spirit it is there and only there that we will find life and peace hope for our families hope for our country hope for this world can only be found there not nominally or sparingly but abundantly as the life of a christian should be let's pray oh god i do thank you so much for your word It is a reminder that if we would just dive into it, we could see how you really intend for us to live. We could see the joy that you've set before us, that we would give up the foolish things of this world and pursue you. I do love you. with us as we go through the remainder of our service this morning. Every word spoken be for your glory. In Christ's name, amen.