Life, Peace, and Pleasing God - Romans 8: 5-8

1:01Is my eternal life secured? What is eternal life? Do I have it? How do I get it? How do I make sure that I should not be expecting eternal death instead of eternal life? At other moments when your life seems frail, you might begin to wonder, how do I know for sure that I am at peace with God? How do I know if I've been warring against him all my life and he's my enemy? How do I know if I've been forgiven so that now I'm at peace with God? I'm reconciled with God.

1:47Or if you're already a Christian and you're confident in God's promises and you've come to him and you know that God is your father, well, another question we can ask is: how do I please my father? If I want to honor him, if I want to please him, live in a way that glorifies him, how do I know if I'm doing that or if I'm displeasing him? All of these questions are important questions, the most important questions, right? How do I know if I have life? How do I find peace with God? How do I know if I'm pleasing him?

2:28Well, in our text today, Paul's going to mention each one of these questions, each one of these topics. And he's just going to briefly touch on each and all of them. He's going to tie to a single activity. And that's walking in the Spirit. Walking not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Last week when we studied Romans 8, we saw that there are a certain group of people. Christians, us believers, people who can fulfill the righteousness of the law. People who can walk by the Spirit and not according to the flesh. Well, in our text today, Romans 8, verses 5 through 8, this text is seamlessly connected to that idea that there is a certain group of people, Christians, who can fulfill righteousness, who can walk in the Spirit. And the reason that it's connected is because our text today gives the reason for that truth.

3:38So if you ask the question, why is it that Christians can now walk in righteousness? Why is it that only Christians can walk in righteousness? The answer is our text. Paul will give three rules for life. Three rules for life. Identity determines mindset. Mindset determines fruit. And so, identity determines fruit. That's our outline for today. And it's the answer to the question: why is it that only Christians can walk in righteousness? Seems like such an exclusive statement. It seems rude. Why is it that only Christians can walk in righteousness? Well, Paul proves it with these three rules for life. Identity determines mindset. Mindset determines fruit. And so identity determines fruit. Follow along as I read Romans 8, starting in verse 5. Paul 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.

5:02For 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. Pray with me. Father, as we begin to study this passage, as we start to see Paul's answer for why it is that only Christians can fulfill true righteousness, I pray, Father, that you would help us pay attention to your word, help us learn from it, help us be humble before it instead of stubborn before it, stubbornly resisting what it says. Instead, help us be humble. Help us love the truth. Truth of your word.

6:02Help us treat it as the truth. Help us bow the knee before you as you teach us from your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, the first rule of life is that identity determines mindset. Identity determines mindset. Look at verse 5. 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. He starts by saying, Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. Now, setting your minds on the things of the flesh, this is something that a believer can do. And you can read that statement as something a believer shouldn't do. Remember in Romans 6, he said, a believer shouldn't present his members to sin in order to serve sin. That person would be setting his mind on the flesh. But I think the point of this verse here, the point of Paul's argument, is that this, setting the mind on the flesh, this is the entire existence of an unbeliever. Until someone comes to Christ and repents and has faith, someone's entire existence is setting his mind on the flesh. So yes, a believer can do this, but the Unbeliever has no option.

7:35There's a contrast between the believer and the unbeliever, so that who you are dictates what you can set your mind on. For the believer, those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Christians are people who live according to the Spirit. That's a definition of a Christian. Someone who lives according to the Spirit, people who walk according to the Spirit. And this is because they set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

8:12Something that unbelievers can't do. And so you can see already why this text is answering the question: why is it that only Christians can truly walk in righteousness, can fulfill the righteous requirement of the law? Why is that true? Well, it's because when your identity changes from unbeliever to believer, from non-Christian to Christian, your mindset changes. When you change from God's enemy to God's redeemed, your thoughts change. Now, a couple of clarifications about this. First, Paul is not trying to be mystical here.

8:58He's not trying to. Say what the world says when the world says, if you heard someone in the world say something like, we should stop being so focused on the flesh and we should focus on the Spirit, usually what they mean is something mystical, mysticism, spiritualism. Stop focusing only on the physical and empty your mind and encounter the spiritual world. But I don't think that's what Paul means here at all. It'll become more and more apparent as we go through this chapter that he's not talking about spiritualism, he's talking about the Spirit, God, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, the person of the Holy Spirit.

9:46And so when Paul says that the believer is someone who sets his mind on the things of the Spirit, he's not just saying it's a spiritually minded person. No, he's saying that this is a person who sets his mind on the things of God, who sets his mind on the things of the scriptures as revealed by the Holy Spirit, not empty mysticism. Another clarification: when he's speaking about setting the mind on something, it's more than just thinking about it a little bit. This word that he's using is not just speaking about random daydreams. Oh, you know, sometimes, occasionally, I think about God.

10:28He's speaking about a preoccupation. This is what you think about. This is your mindset. This idea of mindset was so strong that it became a common idiom in Greek for political parties, which kind of makes sense, right? If you have set your mind on the things of Herod, well, then you're in his faction, you're on his team, you're in his political party, you're preoccupied with that. I bring this up not to say that you can never think about anything else except for God. You know, that would be unrealistic.

11:12But I bring this up to clarify that these are not friendly, compatible systems. It's not that he's just saying that every now and then you think about God and you think God is great. He's speaking in this mindset as if there's two teams that are at odds. That there's this drastic change, that when you became a believer, you moved to this different mindset. You're on this different team. You're now against the flesh. Whereas before you served the flesh and you served sin. He uses similar language in Galatians chapter 5 from our reading this morning in verse 16. He says, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, for the desires of the flesh are against. The spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. So there are these warring parties.

12:13When you're born again, when you're really changed, your mindset changes because your identity determines your mindset. Let's flip that around for just a minute. If it's true that your identity determines your mindset, then it's also true that your mindset says something about your true identity, right? Or to borrow from John Stott, your mindset expresses your nature. Your mindset expresses your nature. And again, that's not to say that if you have thoughts that are not about God, if you have times where you're not thinking about God, then you must not be a Christian.

13:00No. But on the other hand, if your preoccupation, if what your mind is devoted to, is only the flesh, if your mind is continually devoted to greed, or if you're always thinking about lust or other things of the flesh, well then be warned. This passage is saying that the The flesh is not the preoccupation of the redeemed. It's not your greatest concern. And so, do you never long to know what pleases God? Do you never long to understand His Word?

13:48Do you never long to serve and love His people? Well, then, how can you have any confidence that you are one of His people? If these are never the things you think about, for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. So, your true identity should come out in your mindset. It should manifest itself in your mindset.

14:23The second rule for life is that mindset determines fruit. Your mindset determines your fruit in your life. Verse 6: For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. And so, the result of setting the mind on the flesh is death. But life and peace, those are the fruits of setting the mind on the spirit. So, the things that you're preoccupied with, the things that you're setting your mind on, they have consequences, they have fruit. There's results to the way you think.

15:05Thinking always of the flesh leads to death. And remember, he's saying this is what the unbeliever is always trapped in. The unbeliever always thinks of the flesh, and the wages of sin is death. The unbeliever is stuck here. The believer, on the other hand, the person who has come to Christ, the believer can set the mind on the Spirit, and thinking on the Spirit leads to life and peace. Paul has already discussed this in Romans chapter 6, and turn there for just a minute. We're going to review for just a second. Turn to Romans chapter 6.

15:52Because Paul makes the same distinction when he first speaks about how the wages of sin lead to death. We wrestled with this passage a few months ago in verse 16, Romans chapter 6, verses 16, verse 16. Paul speaks of this sin of sin in our lives leading to death. So look at verse 16. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, Or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.

16:37Look down at verse 21, Romans 6:21. He says, But what fruit were you getting at the time, at that time, from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit that you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. When we went through that passage, there were so many distinctions that we saw: that the unbeliever by his sin is earning a wage, and that wage is death. But the believer, by his good deeds and by his faith, is not earning anything. It is a free gift from God.

17:27We also wrestled with the fact that he's not saying, even though he's saying that sin leads to death in the life of a believer, he's not saying that the believer can suddenly start to sin so much that he somehow merits back death instead of the eternal life that he had already been given by Christ. He's not saying for believers that you're earning a wage, and if you sin enough, that wage will go back to being death.

18:01No, Paul is very clear in Romans 6 that the person who has become a believer, the person who has become a Christian, has been set free from sin entirely, set free from the penalty of sin. If the believer, it is the believer who's become the slave of God and received that free gift, never taken back again, that received that free gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul's point in chapter 6 was to say: if we know, if we know that as an unbeliever, when we were sinning, the wage of that was death.

18:48If we know that serving sin only led to death, well, then why in the world would we go back and serve that old master? That was his point in chapter 6. Instead, we serve righteousness, we serve the law, we serve the Lord, being slaves of obedience, because that's going to lead to righteousness. And so, if you turn back to Romans 8, in Romans 8, verse 6, this same parallel is found here. The unbeliever sin leads to death, but the believer is expecting life and peace. That's what he's been given by God.

19:26What's new in this passage in Romans chapter 8, verse 6? Is that that concept of the mindset? That's what he didn't mention before. That specifically, it's the unbeliever's mindset that he's stuck in, his preoccupation. The faction that he's on as someone who serves the flesh, the faction that he's in, as somebody who serves the flesh, that's what's leading to his eternal death. He's stuck in that mindset, but the believer has been freed from that mindset and instead is somebody who is preoccupied with the Lord, who has turned away and been changed.

20:05So his mindset is one that accords with life and peace. Gifts from God. Verse 6 again, he says, For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. Now, it's certainly a principle in Scripture that thinking about what is good leads to good things in your life, at least generally. Thinking of what is truly good leads to good things in your life. Thinking on what is evil leads to disaster in your life. The book of Proverbs shows that this is generally true. This is what wisdom says. The book of Job. Job says that this is not always true.

21:04And the book of Ecclesiastes helps you to know how to live with that tension between the two. But it is certainly true that generally thinking that is in line with the fear of the Lord, thinking that is grateful, thinking that loves God's law, those kind of thoughts, they lead to goodness in your life. But I don't think that's what he's saying here when he's speaking about the mindset. Yes, again, that is true, but I don't think that's the point he's trying to make. Remember, I think he's still trying to prove that point that why is it that Christians are the only ones who can truly walk in righteousness, who can truly fulfill the just requirement of the law and walk in the Spirit? Why is it that Christians are the ones who can do that? Well, part of the reason is that the Christian's mindset results in that life in peace. Your mind has been changed. You think differently.

22:08Not life in peace as just positive qualities when he says life in peace. It's not just feeling full of life or feeling at peace. I think he's speaking of objective truths, life, eternal life, something you have, something that you have acquired. When you Changed as a believer from this mindset to this mindset, your eternal life was secured by God. The same with peace. Not a feeling of peace, although that comes from the Lord as well. But he's speaking of peace, true peace, reconciliation with God, peace with God, forgiveness from God.

22:53Something objective. This is something that happened when you were changed. In both of these realities, true life, eternal life, true peace with God, these are things that the unbeliever can never have because he's stuck in a mindset that only leads to death. That's why this is part of the answer to the question we've been asking. And so, the most immediate application of this verse for anyone who has not yet come to God, for anyone who has not yet repented, for anyone who has not yet had faith in God, and ask God for forgiveness of sins, the most urgent application for you is to instead come, come to God and be changed.

23:45Ask God to change your mindset. Ask God to free you from being preoccupied with the flesh, with your own comforts, with your own sins. You must be born again. You don't have life automatically. You aren't at peace with God automatically. You must be changed. But for the believer, I think the application is for you to remember that this is true of yourself. You are somebody who has come. Your identity has been changed. And so your mindset has been changed. And so remember to be preoccupied with the things of the Spirit. Excel still more in this. We hear this command all over the New Testament. Colossians 3, verses 1 and 2 says, If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. So since you are someone who has been changed as a believer, as a Christian, then this is your privilege that you get to all the more set your mind on the things that are above. Think on the Lord. Understand his truths from his word.

25:10Again, from our scripture reading this morning, Galatians 5, verse 24, he says, And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Again, this is your privilege. Privileged as a believer. You have been changed, and so you can fix your mind on the things above. You can keep in step with the Spirit. So do it. All the more, set your mind on the things of God. Set your mind on the things above.

25:49Keep in step with the Spirit. Your mindset determines your fruit. The third rule for life. The third rule for life is that identity determines fruit. I know that sounds repetitive, and it is repetitive. Identity determines fruit. We already saw that identity determines your mindset, and mindset determines your fruit. And now the last point, he puts those together: your identity determines your fruit. Verse 7, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.

26:29For it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. First, Paul says that the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. You can tell he doesn't leave any middle ground there, right? The mind that is set on the flesh is not set. Is hostile to God. Either you are someone whose mindset is changed to where your mind is set on the things of the Spirit, or your mind is hostile to God.

27:17Hear me on this. Some of you might have grandparents who are always talking about God. You might have a brother who seems to always be thinking about God. Or you've got a friend whose mind is set on God. And you always think to yourself, well, it's not that I'm against God. I just don't think about God as much as they do. I'm not God's enemy. I just assume that if He loves me, I don't really need to worry about what's between us. I don't need to worry about knowing Him.

28:02I'm not His enemy. I've never done anything wrong to God. That's a wrong way to think. I think this verse is so clear. The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. Hostile to God. God is your Maker. He has revealed Himself to you in. His word. He expects you to know what he has revealed. And choosing to do otherwise is hostility towards God. If you're not for God, you are hostile to God. And he's saying the unbeliever, the non-Christian, is always in this state.

28:59Since a believer only sets his mind on the flesh, since the unbeliever only sets his mind on the flesh, then the unbeliever is only, always a hostile enemy of God. Even if you think you've done nothing against God. Well, why is this the case? Why is it true that the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God? Paul goes on to say, because it does not submit to God's law. It does not submit to God's law. If you are actively choosing to not know God's law, well, then you're not submitting to God's law. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. If you do know God's law and you still go against it, then you obviously are not submitting to God's law. And so both of those groups The one who feigns ignorance, or the one who actively rebels, both of those are hostile towards their Maker, hostile towards what He desires for us. He's revealed what He wants in His Word.

30:18The unbeliever does not submit to God's law because He cannot submit to God's law. The mind that has not been changed cannot submit to God's desires. He says, 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. If you're a guest with us this morning, maybe you've never read those words before. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

30:55If you're certain that you don't want to change, if you're certain that you do not want to come to God, if you're certain that you do not want to repent and be forgiven of your sins, well, then don't fool yourself. There's no middle ground here. You cannot keep his law if you have not trusted in Christ. And so you are hostile towards God, and you can never please him. With your good works. You cannot please him.

31:36God says in Hebrews 11, verse 6: Without faith, it is impossible to please him. You must come. You must be born again. And if you are, then you can walk in a way that's pleasing to him because you've been changed. Well, Christian, again, this is your calling to remember that this is true about you, that you have been changed to somebody who can please him. In 1 John 3:22, John describes Christians like this. He says, We keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

32:17After we become believers and we're changed, we can please him. We can do what pleases him. We hear often in the New Testament that we should strive to do what is pleasing to him. And I think this is great terminology. It's so clear in the New Testament. Because it catches this dynamic that we see in Scripture: that it's never that we're trying to do good works to earn favor with God and earn our way into heaven. It's always only by the grace of God and the forgiveness of God that we could ever hope to be forgiven and enter heaven.

33:00We cannot buy anything with our good deeds. Heaven has already been bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus for the believer. Instead, now that we are believers, now that we are saved by grace, now that we have been forgiven, then we can know that God is our Father. And we can seek to do the things that please him. We should want to please him. That's why I love this language. It's not about earning our salvation, it's about wanting to do what pleases the Lord. In Ephesians 5:10, Paul says that we should try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

33:42In Colossians 1, 10, Paul shows that we should want to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him. So if you're a believer, you can do what is pleasing to God because you have been changed. And so you should strive to know what that is and strive to do it. After that verse in Ephesians, after he says to try and discern what is pleasing to the Lord, he follows up with, before too long, with those instructions about that we should be full of the Holy Spirit, that we should be singing with one another, that we should be teaching one another, giving thanks and everything, submitting to one another in the church.

34:31After that Colossians passage, after he says, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, he gives a list. He says, bearing fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God. He mentions being strengthened for endurance with patience and joy, even when we're in trials. He says, giving thanks to the Father, the Father who's saved you. All of these things are things that please him and things that as Christians we should strive to do because we should strive to please him, because we can please him.

35:13But if you've not believed and repented and trusted in Christ, then you cannot please him because you're rejecting his truth, you're rejecting his son in hostility. So the only answer for you is to come to him. Identity determines fruit. Who you are, believer, unbeliever, Christian, non-Christian. Saved, unsaved. Who you are, that determines your fruit. If you have not repented and been changed, then you can only earn the displeasure of the Almighty. If you have, Then you can please God, your Savior, and you should strive to know what is pleasing to Him.

36:12How do I get life? Eternal life? How do I make sure that I have peace with God? How do I please God? These are the questions we opened up with this morning: life and peace, pleasing God, all of them. Paul has connected to this single idea. We must be changed. Our mindset must be changed. If we take that outline and we flip it all around backwards, then I think it becomes a warning for us that our mindset expresses our nature. That our deeds, what we do, expresses our mindset. And so our deeds, what we do, expresses our nature.

37:06What we do, the way we act, the way we think, it expresses who we are. So be warned. You must be born again. You must be changed. If your mind is set on the flesh, then you will receive what you have earned, and that is death. Not life. Not peace. And so, if you are on your sick bed, if you're having those moments where you feel very frail when you know your life could wink out at any moment, well, remember these words. You have not pleased God.

37:57Don't fool yourself. Don't pretend like you're not God's enemy if you're an unbeliever. Remember, you have not pleased God. Don't pretend like you've just been friendly towards God. You have not pleased Him. You cannot please Him unless you come to Him. So, come to Him now and ask for His forgiveness. God is gracious and loving and merciful and compassionate, and He will change you in a moment. He will change your mindset. He will change your identity.

38:35No matter what you've done. You can live a lifetime pleasing Him. You can set your mind on the things of the Spirit. You can walk according to the Spirit. You can keep in step with the Spirit. You can live according to the Spirit. All of these things are available to you now if you come to the Lord. It is only those who have been forgiven and changed by the grace of God who can be truly righteous. It is only those who have been forgiven and changed by the grace of God who can be truly righteous. 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. Pray with me.

39:50Father, you have made it so abundantly clear in your word that there's not middle ground. You've made it so abundantly clear in your word that before we come to you and ask your forgiveness and become one of your children, one of your redeemed, before we come, as an unbeliever, we don't please you. We are not acquainted with you. We are not friendly towards you. Instead, we are hostile towards you. And so, Father, we do pray that for those even in this room who have lived a life of being hostile towards you, that they would see your grace and your forgiveness and your love, and they would come to you even today and be changed from your enemy to your friend. Be reconciled. Receive eternal life. Receive peace with God.

40:59Father, for the church, we pray that you would make us people who remember that we have life secured by you. We have peace with you, fully reconciled. Nothing standing in the way of our relationship with you. So that now we have the ability to please our Father that we love. Help us be men and women and children who love to please you, who love to search out in the scriptures to find those lists of things that please you and do them. Not because we're trying to earn our salvation, not because we're trying to live in our own strength or not be dependent on your grace, but just because we want to please you. We love you.

41:54Help us be Christians that remember that everything we have is from you. That we're only saved, that we're only born again because of the work that you've done to change who we are, and change our identity and change our mindset so that we can have changed fruit, the results of who we are. Help us remember, help us be joyful, help us love each other. In Jesus' name, amen.