Carnally Minded Is Death — What Romans 8:5-8 Really Means

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures teaching in-depth Bible truth that change people's lives. Now here's your host, Les Feldick. Now we're ready to go and let's turn right back here in the studio audience to Romans chapter 8. For those of you joining us on television again, we always like to remind folk we're just an informal Bible study. We have no organization behind us. It's just more or less a family effort. And when you call, it'll usually be my wife or I who will answer the phone. And we have a little daughter-in-law that's helping us now, or she may answer the phone, but whatever. We're not a big organization. Invariably someone will call and say, well, I never intended to catch you on the phone. Well, we're not that big. So if you call us, it'll either be my wife or I who will answer the phone. And remember that we have all of these past programs available in videotape, as well as the printed page. If you're interested in that, you let us know. And again, I guess I could announce on this program, we're going to have a station in Minnesota that's going to start showing our program all the way back from Genesis on a weekly basis. And I'm real excited about that, that they'll be able to see the whole five years of programs really in about one year. And since these programs are not really dated, and I don't think I would teach anything that I taught five years ago differently today, I think the folk up there are really going to enjoy that. So okay, I think that's all for sake of announcements, and let's get right back in to where we left off in Romans chapter 8. And we wound up in verse 3, "...for what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin," in other words, to take the place of that old Adam so that we could be crucified with Him, "...condemned," old Adam, "...in the flesh." Now remember, I'm using the word, old Adam, in place of the singular word, sin, throughout the book of Romans, because that's what it's really talking about. Don't forget that, what we've learned in the earlier chapters, that when Paul speaks of sin, the singular, it's that old Adam. He is the fountainhead of all our problems. It's that Adamic, sinful nature. And then the fruit of old Adam are the things that we do, and that's S -I-N-S, plural, sins. But sin, singular, usually is referring to the old Adam, sins to the things that old Adam causes us to do. All right, now then let's move on in to verse 4, where he continues, "...that the righteousness of the law," now the law was righteous. Remember I said in the last program, it was weak and beggarly, and of course during the break time I had to hurry up and find it, and of course Dick Bacteria found another one in Hebrews. But let's go back to Galatians chapter 4. I was thinking last program that this verse was in Hebrews, but it's in Galatians chapter 4, and all of this of course is exactly what Paul is constantly referring to, is that what the law could not do, it couldn't, because it was weak, from the fleshly side, from man's point of view. Now I'll never lose sight of the fact that so far from God's point, it was perfect, always will be. Galatians 4, beginning at verse 8, "...how be it then, when ye knew not God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?" Well what's he talking about? The Law. And that was the whole thrust of this little book of Galatians, to prove to these Gentile believers up in Galatia that they were not under the Mosaic Law, they were under grace. Because the Law was weak and beggarly, and yet they thought that they wanted to go back under the Law, and oh, Paul just said, I could raise my voice against you. Because horror of horrors, why would a believer want to go back under the Law once we have tasted of grace? See the difference? Now come back with me to Romans chapter 8 again, so that the righteousness, or the full purity of the Law, as God first gave it, was perfect, it was holy, it was righteous, all right? That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who are believers, who have now enjoyed that position in Christ, and now as a result of that position in Christ which we have gained by believing the Gospel, now comes the appropriate place for that little statement that I said didn't belong in verse 1. For those of us who are now in Christ, we have experienced salvation. What is it? We walk not after the flesh or after old Adam, but we walk after what? The Spirit. See, the Spirit becomes our guideline for living. Turn all the way over, and we'll come to it in a few months, but let's go over to chapter 13 in this same book. Chapter 13, verse 8. "...O no man anything, or defraud no one, but to love one another. For he who loveth another, in other words the love of God is operating in that believer, then he has fulfilled the Law." And then you come on down to verse 10, "...love worketh no ill to his neighbor, therefore love," the God-given love, "...love is the fulfilling of the law." Nothing we can do that would do it, but when the love of God that is imparted now through the power of the Holy Spirit works in our life, then yes, we fulfill the whole law. All right, come back again to Romans chapter eight. "...so now that the righteousness, the completeness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh." In other words, as I said in the last program, one of the first marks of true salvation is a change in lifestyle. It's a change in appetites. It's a change in our whole thought process. Because whereas we were once under the control of the world and the flesh and the devil, now we're under the control of the Spirit of God. The things Paul says, I once hated, now I love. And the things I once loved, I now hate. And that's exactly as it should be. In fact, that's what I always look for. If I've had the opportunity of bringing someone to a knowledge of salvation, I like to see that complete change in lifestyle, that change in desire, because that's the whole point of the thing. All right, so then we walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. All right, now he comes into verse five and he makes this comparison again between the lost individual and the saved individual or the Christian, the true Christian. "...for they who are after the flesh." Now remember this word flesh is also the same word, I think, as sin. It's old Adam. "...for they who are after the old Adam do mind the things of old Adam." That makes sense, doesn't it? When a person is still out in the world, he's in spiritual darkness as we saw a couple of programs ago. He is blinded by the God of this world so that he can't believe. Then all naturally he has any concern for are the things of this world. And it stands to reason he has fleshly appetites. He has nothing but fleshly vision, materialism and so forth, and he has no concept of the Spirit. And so they mind the things of the flesh or the old Adamic nature. Now there's that flip side word again, but see, but they who are after who now live after and are living according to the Spirit, the Holy Spirit's capital S, they're going to mind the things of the Spirit. Now, you know, I've noticed this over and over. I've seen some of the most ungodly people who never had any spiritual appetite whatsoever. And yet when they came to believe the gospel and they were genuinely saved, they can't exhaust what's in this book. They just can't get enough of it. Well, that's as it should be. That's exactly the way scripture wants it to be. All right. So they begin then to mind the things of the Spirit rather than the things of the world and old Adam. All right. Now I'm going to leave that verse and we're going to chapter verse six for to be carnally. Now here we have to stop a moment. What does it mean to be carnal? Well, sometimes Paul will speak of a carnal Christian, a carnal believer, one who is not spirit filled and one who is not spirit directed. He's a believer. He's in the body of Christ, but his priorities are mixed up and he's still more in the flesh than he has in, than he is in the spirit. And so Paul refers to that kind of person as a carnal believer. But normally when we see this word carnal, we think of the lost individual, the individual who is still under control of old Adam. He is still in the flesh. He has nothing of eternal life in him whatsoever. He is carnal. All right. Now read on. So to be carnally or fleshly minded is what? Death. Remember what we said a couple programs ago, going back to what Jesus said in John's gospel, he that hath the son hath life. He who hath not the son hath not life. And the wrath of God abideth on him. He's condemned already. All right. This is the same thing. See these lost people are headed in only one direction and that is spiritual death. Eternal. Absolutely there's an eternal doom for those who reject the gospel and sad to say, all through human history, that's been the biggest majority. My, remember the analogy that Jesus used of the broad way and the narrow way? The broad way was wide and I suppose you could almost envision it as well lit, well traveled. And what did he say? Many there are that go there in, but the way that is to eternal life is narrow. There's nothing that really appeals to the masses and few there be that find it. It's always been that way. God has always had to be satisfied with just that small remnant. You go all the way back to Elijah there on Mount Carmel. Do you remember the account how that he put the death, all the prophets of Baal, and then when Jezebel heard about it, she sent the messenger right back and she said, you tell all Elijah that by tomorrow at this time he'll be just as dead as my prophets. And Elijah, instead of standing up realizing that his God had just defeated all the powers of Baal, what Elijah do? He ran and he ran and he ran. He must've been in pretty good shape, but he ran a long ways. And when he finally pooped out, what did he do? Sat down under a little old juniper tree out there in the desert and said, God, take my life. This is the last of Israel. I'm the only one left. Well, what God say, Oh Elijah, there aren't many, but I do have 7,000. Now that was a remnant, see? And it's that way all the way up through human history. And even now through the church age, it's always been just a small percentage, a small remnant. And I feel that as we're rushing to the end time, it's getting smaller and smaller. I appreciated the message. Our own pastor brought Sunday night and he was preaching on the 144,000 in Revelation seven. And he said exactly what I could say. And I agreed with him 110%. He said, I foresee no great worldwide revival. Neither do I. But he said there can be pockets here and there, which means that we're not to just give up and say, well, it'll never happen. Maybe you and I can cause a revival in our area, in our little corner of the world. But there is certainly nothing in scripture to indicate that there's going to be a vast revival now in the church age. Now, yes, in the tribulation, when those 144 ,000 Jewish preachers go to work, there's going to be a great multitude saved. The scripture says that, but we have to be aware that for the most part, the world today is totally unconcerned about things of the spirit. They're more concerned with how much salary they can make, how big a home they can live in and how many cars they can drive and how many boats and so forth, which is nothing wrong with those things in their rightful place. But when it becomes the first priority and it blinds them to spiritual truths, hey, they're going to be awfully sorry someday. They're going to wish that they would have had their priorities straightened out. All right. So to be carnally minded is death, spiritual death and eternal doom without end. But to be spiritually minded, here it comes again, life and peace. And what kind of life? Eternal life. The eternal life of God Himself has now become part and parcel of every one of us who believe. And it's going to carry throughout all eternity. And we can't comprehend that. I can't any more than I can comprehend the outer edges of space. It is beyond us. My, when I read some of these things, it just boggles the mind. I think I was reading an article, someone gave me again the other night, just for example, to show the eternalness and the infiniteness of God. Our sun, the solar system sun is so huge. It would take a million, 300,000 of our planet earths to equal the size of it. I'll say that's me on my understanding. And then the star, the star Centaurus out there is so much bigger again than our sun that it would take. I don't remember how many hundreds of thousands of our suns to be equal in size to the star Centaurus. Now that's the infinite God. That's eternity. And Hey, that's where we're headed. We're headed to that infinite eternal period of eternal life. Time only it won't be time, I guess, but listen, this is what we're dealing with. We're dealing with eternal things that are without dimension that are beyond human comprehension and what little we can comprehend. We appropriate how by faith, by faith. And you remember I've stressed it over the years that I've been teaching. This is not some far out kooky stuff that some Jew sat by his tramp fire and dreamed up. No, no. Because see, there's so much of prophecy in this book that foretold events hundreds of years in advance, thousands of years in advance, and it's all come true. Everything that hasn't come true. We can already see the handwriting on the wall. It's about to, well, if that much is truth, then why can't it all be true? Well it is. And so when we contemplate these things, we just rest on the word of God as being absolute. It's true. It's as sure as anything can be, and we can rest on it. See, all right, now let's go on. Verse 7, Oh, this throws a curve at most people. This is another thing would be hard to comprehend if the book didn't say it for or because the carnal mind. Now that's anyone who is still under the control of the old Adam. Someone who has never had the power of the gospel operate in their life. He is still the carnal mind. He's under old Adam. And that mind is, what's the next word? Enmity. See, oh, you talk to good people here in Oklahoma or anywhere else that you can think of. And they'll say, well, no, I don't hate God. I love God. I believe in him. I'm not his enemy. Oh no. The book says they are. And the book doesn't lie. Now how can the book say that when people say, no, I believe in God, I love God because you see their old Adamic nature is still a rebel. And that's what people have to be convinced of that their old Adamic nature is a natural born rebel against the things of God. Now if you're a rebel, then you're a what? You're an enemy. You're an enemy. Now we know there are a lot of us that we use the expression with friends like that, who needs enemies? Huh? Well, it's the same way with God. My, a lot of these people who claim to be his friends. Hey, you can't call them their friend. They're his enemies. Why? Because they're in that state of mind that is rebellious. They're not going to do what God says to do. They're not going to admit that they're a sinner. They're not going to admit that they have a spiritual lack in their life. Well, what is that? That's rebellion. And when you're a rebel, you're an enemy. It's that simple. All right, read on. The carnal or the old Adamic mind is enmity against God. Oh, now the next part of that verse is shocking. If you really read it for what it says for it, the Adamic mind, the Adamic nature, it is not subject to the law of God. That's scary, isn't it? You know what I always have to think of when I read that? It's amazing that man is as civilized as he is. Really? Because the unsaved person is not subject to the law of God. God doesn't expect the unbeliever to keep His law. God doesn't expect the unbeliever to be a good person, because God sees down in his nature that he's anything but. Hey, let's go back. Let's go back to where we were several months ago in Romans 1. Now let's go back to chapter 3. It's in 1, but I think a better one in chapter 3. Oh, let's see. Start at verse 10. Romans 3, verse 10. As it is written, y'all with me? Romans 3, verse 10. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one, there is none that understandeth. Now that is in the old Adamic nature of things. There is none righteous, no, not one, there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Now you see, people won't agree to that. They say, no, wait a minute, that's not me. I do a lot of good. I'm a good citizen. I contribute to a lot of charities. That's not what God's looking at. He's looking at the heart. He's looking at their old Adamic carnal mind. All right, reading on. Their throat an open sepulcher. That's an open grave. Nothing pretty about that. With their tongues they have used deceit. Well, that's easy to understand. We see this all over our whole government and everything else. Deceit and corruption and very little integrity and truth. With the poison of asthma that's under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing, bitterness, their feet swept to shed blood. My land, I don't even listen to news much anymore because again, I turned it on last night and what's it full of? Nothing but murder, murder, murder, murder. Why? Because that's the Adamic nature, see? And he's being turned loose more and more. Verse 15 or 16, I'm sorry. Destruction and misery are in their ways. You don't believe that? You haven't seen the news in Bosnia lately. What is it? Just exactly that. It's destruction of even the material world around them. Misery. War always brings misery, always has. And it always will until Christ returns. All right? The way of peace they have not known. There is, now watch this, this is the book talking, not me. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Why not? Because they have no comprehension of who God is. They have no real comprehension of the power that He can employ. They ignore Him. They've pushed Him out of their thinking. And that's exactly what Paul is talking about in Romans 8. That they are enmity against God. They are total rebels. All right, back to chapter 8. And consequently it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Boy, now that's hard to swallow, isn't it? That mankind is not subject to the law of God and can't be? That's what it says. And it means exactly what it says. And you see, here's the problem with the Christian community, even in our present time now. We would like to think that maybe we could legislate some decent morality. Maybe we can legislate things that would cause people to stop all this murder, to stop all the teenage pregnancies, to stop all the drug addiction. But you can't. Why? We've seen that in the drug war. They can't stop the drugs. And they'll never stop the drugs until people stop wanting to use them. See? When people stop using drugs, then the whole drug business would fall apart. But it's not going to happen. Always have to think back to the days of prohibition, the same thing. My land! They could pass a law prohibiting the sale of whiskey and so on and so forth. But did it stop? No. Because people still wanted it. And as long as they want it, somebody's going to produce it. And so that's human nature. And even though the laws of God are clear and they're precise, mankind totally rejects them. They don't want anything to do with it. All right, let's come back again to Romans 8. Verse 8. So here's a conclusive thought. If this is the state of mankind who are lost, if this is the way people are when they are outside of the Gospel, when they are outside of being positionally in Christ, then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Now, the other verse that comes to mind, let's look at it. Hebrews. We put it on the board long time ago as one of the absolutes of Scripture. Hebrews chapter 11, the great faith chapter. It's an absolute. Time is just about gone. We'll have to hurry on to the end. Hebrews chapter 11. And I call it an absolute. One of our key political figures a while back said something to the effect of, let's be thankful that we're getting away from absolutism. Well, that's our problem. We've got to remember that we do have absolutes. And here is one of them. Verse 6. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. And listen, that's where it's all at. And so the unbeliever who is an enemy of God is that simply because he does not have faith. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner supported ministry. If this program has been a help to your study of the scriptures and you'd like to see others enjoy the teaching, your support would be greatly appreciated. Write to us at Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Tinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Or call 1-800-369-7856. 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