DONT BE CANAL

To be Carnally Minded is Death, but to be Spiritually Minded is Life and Peace

< Romans 8:4-11 >

“That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 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, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”


Overseas mission is effective when done through literature, which is what we are doing right now. We are blessed when we read the Word of God and our faith grow because we believe in His Word.
People have been suffering for the past five centuries, deceived by such false doctrines as the Doctrine of Incremental Sanctification, the Doctrine of Justification, and others that claim that redemption is possible through prayers of repentance.
Romans 8:3 tells us that God did what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in His flesh, and judged Him to deliver us from all our sins.
Today, we turn to Romans 8:4-11 for God’s truth. Romans 8:3-4 says, “He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” The question, of course, is this: what does this mean?


First, what does it mean to not live according to the flesh? 
This means to not seek the profits of the flesh. It is to discriminate between the wishes of the Spirit and the lusts of the flesh, and to stay away from those who do not obey the word of God. Verse 5 states, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.” What does “the things of the flesh” mean? This means that there are those who, even as they attend church, seek after their own desires.
To put it simply, Christians should not go to church for the purpose of profit-seeking businesses in the world. This is living according to the flesh. These people go to churches with large congregations to introduce and advertise their businesses, in the hopes of acquiring regular and loyal customers. They attend church and believe in Jesus for the sake of their own flesh.

There are others. Those who teach sectarianism within the Christian community, and those who teach their followers to pursue only material blessings are also the ones who live according to the flesh and who have set their minds on the things of the flesh.
We can easily encounter sectarianism in our Christian community. Who are these sectarians then? These are the people who deceive themselves with their misplaced faith in the superiority of their denomination. They say that their sect was established by so-and-so, that they have such-and-such theologians, that they are this big and greatly known over the world and have this strong a tradition, and so on. All these boastings are what make up the vanities of these people and build up their own faith. There are many with such faith in this world.
Sectarians believe in Jesus for the benefits of their own flesh. Those who live according to the flesh still boast of their churches and of having been materially blessed by attending their large churches. Some churches have such common community goals as “love your wife.” But this is what “those who live according to the flesh” means. Should churches set their eyes on loving one’s wives as their goal? They should not. Am I then saying that we should not love our wives? Of course not! But such goals, however nice and attractive, cannot be the fundamental purpose of our Church.
Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. Too many ministers today have turned themselves into such people by being interested only in increasing the size of their church membership, offerings, and building—these have now become the main purpose of their faith. Build a bigger, taller, and larger church has become their greatest goal. Even if they outwardly say that gathering more followers is to lead them to Heaven and offer other such excuses, their ultimate purpose is to raise more money in order to build bigger church buildings.
To make their churches to follow the things of the flesh, they had to turn their followers into religious fanatics. Some pastors have built their success on their ability to turn their congregation into fanatics, half-crazed, delusional, and utterly misguided.