| September 2, 2001 | The Reprobate Horse | Romans 8: 5-13 |
If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn
to Romans 8, verse 5. " For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit
the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against
God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be.
Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please
God."
The things of the flesh and the things of the Spirit. The things
of carnality and death as opposed to the things of life and peace.
God is telling us that we are looking at things that are opposites,
things that are impossible to reconcile. Why is
it that things of the flesh, these carnal things, cannot
please God, why is it impossible for them to be
subject to the will of God?
It is because of that little word in the middle of verse 7; enmity.
We first find the concept of enmity all the way back at the Garden
of Eden, where God tells the serpent: "I will put enmity
between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed."
Enmity is a deep rooted hatred, an absolute hatred, a hatred with
no chance of patching things up, no possibility of reconciliation.
It is the hatred that Satan has for God, for Jesus Christ, a hatred
where peace is impossible.
That exact same hatred dwells in the carnal, fleshly
human mind. Verse 7 tells us: "The carnal mind is enmity
against God." Carnal means natural, fleshly, the natural
mind of man is polluted with that same attitude and emotion of
hate towards God that characterizes the mind of Satan. That is
why the unsaved, the unregenerate person cannot please God:
somewhere deep in their mind there is a hatred, an animosity,
a pervasive distaste for the goodness and holiness of God. Why
would anybody dislike goodness? Why would anybody hate someone
who loves them? But we see it in people all the time, don't we?
One of the worlds great mysteries is people who reject love, reject
the care and compassion of others, reject and hate those who seek
to do them good. It is such a mystery that the only explanation
for it is sin, sin in the heart, sin in the mind, sin in the soul.
And it's not just people, sin also affects the natural world. Let me tell you about a horse that is an excellent illustration of the natural carnal enmity that we have towards God.
My nephew Ronnie has a horse that he got about 7 years ago named
Power. Power is a big beautiful horse, and he has a lot of potential
as a show horse, but he also has a problem that makes him useless.
He hates people. He hates it when people try to do things with
him, or for him. He hates people. He is a good object
lesson for the way our carnal minds feel towards God.
Ronnie is a very laid back, easy going person, very
gentle and patient. But even after owning Power for years, the
horse refuses to make friends with Ronnie, or acknowledge
his blessings. When Ronnie comes into the barn to feed him, Power
lays his ears back and shows his teeth, kind of like; "What
are you doing in my space?" The flesh does that with the
things of God, doesn't it? The flesh doesn't like it when God
comes around, the carnal part of our nature wants to hide behind
a tree and hope that God will just leave without asking any embarrassing
questions. The flesh would be much happier if God would just go
away, stay out of our space and leave us alone.
Sometimes God does things for our good, He allows us problems
that we don't want, or He takes something away from us that we
do want, because He is working in our lives, changing us into
the likeness of His Son. And the carnal part of our nature hates
it. At times like that, the flesh just wants God to go away
and leave us alone. The Spirit would draw us to God for
healing and comfort, for feeding and nourishing, but the flesh
just wants Him to leave. How do you respond to God
in times of pain and disappointment? Are you glad to see Him?
Or do you lay back your ears and show your teeth? Depending on
your response, we could ask what is running your life: the flesh,
or the Spirit?
Power seems unable to understand or appreciate the care and love
that he receives. Once he got his foot caught in the fence and
would have bled to death, but Ronnie found him, untangled him,
got him loose. Did that change things? Did that teach him any
appreciation or love for his master? No. The best attitude that
he ever seems to have for Ronnie is toleration. Love is never
part of the equation. Do we ever treat God like that? The flesh
does. Toleration is the best it can do. The flesh cannot
love God.
I asked Ronnie if he had any idea why the horse is like that,
and he says he thinks it has something to do with genetics, something
in his breeding. Kind of like us. We have inherited a sin nature,
we don't have to learn it, we are born with it. The flesh doesn't
need to learn how to hate God, it comes with the territory. That
is why we must be born again spiritually. Without the crucifixion
of our fleshly nature in Christ, with Christ, on His cross, unless
there is a spiritual new birth through receiving Him as Savior,
there can be no change. Because the carnal, natural mind hates
God, and it cannot change. It can only be crucified,
and counted as dead in Jesus.
Power tends to be very rebellious. When Ronnie tries to ride him,
he doesn't want to cooperate. He stops. He refuses to go. When
Ronnie tries to turn him with the reins, he gets so mad that he
bites himself.
Where is God trying to get you to go? Do you hate His directions?
Do you just want to stop and refuse to be obedient? When you feel
His guidance, do you just get eaten up with rebellion, and He
makes you so mad you want to do something stupid? Even something
that's harmful to yourself? That is your carnal mind, as verse
7 says: "the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can
be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot
please God."
Just as those people who are living in the flesh cannot please
God, the reverse also seems to be true; God doesn't seem able
to please those that are in the flesh. The flesh rejects the things
of God, even the good things that He would like to do for us.
That analogy is certainly true of the horse; Power can't stand
being touched. That is abnormal. Horses normally enjoy being scratched,
they like being brushed and having their skin skritched. Power
hates being touched, he won't tolerate it. That's sad,
because he has a problem with ear wax. His ears stay clogged up
with wax, because he won't let anyone touch him, even to clean
out his waxed up ears.
There are some people like that toward the gospel. God would love
to reach out and clean them, heal them, make them whole, but they
just can't stand His touch. They would rather keep their ears
clogged up, they would rather be deaf than hear about Jesus Christ,
and His salvation, and they never seem capable of hearing the
good news that Christ died for them. How sad.
Power has a need to be around other horses, any time that he cannot
see any other horses, he panics. Once he can see
another horse, he calms back down. I have known unsaved people
like that. They have a need to be around others that are like
them, to reassure themselves that things are OK. The knowledge
and awareness of God does that to people. 2 Corinthians 5:11 tells
us: " Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord,
we persuade men;" Hebrews 10:31 tells us: "It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God." If you know
Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you have nothing to be afraid
of. If the thought of God terrifies you, and you frequently feel
the need to run with unsaved companions, then let me suggest to
you that there is probably something lacking about your salvation.
Power is not focused in his enmity, he doesn't just hate Ronnie,
he hates all humans. It doesn't matter who it is, on those occasions
when Ronnie gets someone else to take care of his horses when
he's not there, Power goes ballistic toward them just as badly.
In John 15:18, Jesus tells us: " If the world hate you, ye
know that it hated me before it hated you." The carnal mind
hates God, and it hates those that love God and belong to Him.
If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, this next part is especially
for you:
The Bible tells Christians not to be unequally yoked to unbelievers,
and this is part of the reason why. Imagine what it would be like
being married to someone that hated part of who you were, that
hates that spiritual part of you, that has a hatred for God, and
hates the Holy Spirit that lives in you.
Would you want to go into a relationship knowing that there would
be one area of it where hatred would be the norm, and it would
be unfixable, unless and until that other person received Jesus
Christ as Savior?
Don't deceive yourself that you could bring the other person up
to your spiritual level, because you can't do it.
The Holy Spirit can do it, Jesus Christ could save that person,
but there are no guarantees of that happening.
And if that other person does not get saved, eventually that unsaved
person will tend to bring you down to their level. See, Ronnie
has two other horses that were never any problem, they were always
perfectly nice, but things are changing. Power is not getting
any better, he is not becoming more like the other horses, they
are becoming more like him. He is a bad influence
on them. They are somehow acquiring his negative attributes.
Christian, be very careful of who you associate with, and under
what circumstances you do it. Your salvation will not "rub
off" on anybody. Maybe it seems encouraging when
you hang around your unsaved friends, and out of politeness for
you, they quit cursing and acting heathenish, but if it is only
external, what good is it? What has it accomplished? All you have
done is motivate them to clean up the outside, the inside
is as unsaved as ever. If anything, their "better"
behavior has given them the false hope that they are now "good"
people, good enough to qualify for heaven. What Jesus called a
"whited sepulcher, full of dead men's bones."
You won't convert your unsaved friends by hanging around them,
waiting for your Christianity to rub off; you will convert
them through the convicting and convincing truth of the Word of
God. 1 Corinthians 1:23 tells us: "We preach Christ
crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks
foolishness;" Your Jewish friends will get stubbed up, and
your Gentile friends will think you're a fool, but if you want
to see them converted; sharing and proclaiming Jesus Christ is
the only way it's done.
If you are just hanging around with your unsaved friends, waiting
for your faith to rub off, what will probably happen, without
you even realizing it, is that their carnality will rub off on
you, and you will gradually tend to pick up their fleshly attributes,
their sinful thoughts and attitudes. Just like the horses that
share the stable with Power, they are not accomplishing anything
to make him any better, but he is causing them to become worse.
Power has become very much a liability. Ronnie isn't going to
scam him off on anybody, and anybody that knows what he is really
like wouldn't want him. He could be a valuable horse, but in reality,
he is useless to anybody, even to himself. I'm not sure what kind
of emotions go through animal brains, but you know that he cannot
possibly be a happy creature.
What is Ronnie going to do with Power? For the moment, nothing.
The horse appears to be unredeemable, but Ronnie is patient, and
willing to wait a little longer. Will he wait indefinitely? Probably
not, it is not good that Power is corrupting his stable mates.
His days are probably numbered.
What would remedy the situation? The horse is at total enmity
to his master and to all humans, what would fix it? He seems set
in his ways, and apparently it is genetic, it is a part of his
breeding. Seems to me like the only solution would be for the
animal to be born again and start over. Unfortunately, I don't
know any way for horses to do that, but God has provided a way
for people to do that.
Verse 11 tells us; "If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus
from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the
dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that
dwelleth in you." All of us were at one time
dead in our trespasses and sins, we were all at
enmity to God, we hated Him, and we put ourselves under His rightful
condemnation. Jesus Christ took those sins upon Himself at Calvary,
He nailed our sins to His cross, He became sin for us, as us,
in our place, and suffered the punishment we deserved for our
hatred and rebellion towards God. He takes our sin, and gives
us His righteousness when we receive Him as Savior. We count our
flesh as dead on His cross, and we live in Him in the power of
the Holy Spirit, and we put no confidence in the flesh. That is
the normal Christian life.
What if we do start to put confidence in the flesh? What if we
start slipping back into carnality, a carnal lifestyle, a carnal,
fleshly, worldly way of thinking? What if we have genuinely trusted
Christ for salvation, and then we start hanging around those who
are rebellious against God, keeping company with those who hate
God, spending time with those who want nothing more than for God
to get out of their space, just take His righteousness and His
holiness and go away?
What do you think will happen? Do you think that you will be unaffected?
Do you think that your love for Jesus is solid enough that they
won't get to you, bring you down to their level? You think you
can hang in there for Jesus? Proverbs 22:24 tells us: "Make
no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt
not go: Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul."
1 Corinthians 15 tells us that evil company corrupts good morals.
Is it possible for a truly saved person to get backslidden into
that place where the flesh is in the drivers seat? Yes it is.
Is it possible for a truly saved person to get all wrapped up
in carnality? Yes it is.
If a you allow yourself to get into that position, will you lose
your spiritual discernment, your understanding and appreciation
for the things of God? Yes you will. When God disciplines you
in order to restore you, will you get angry with God, accuse God
of being unjust, and act in many respects just like you did before
you got saved? Yes you will.
The carnal mind is enmity against God. If you are
saved, but walking in the flesh, you cannot please God,
and God cannot please you. And because of your new birth
in Christ, because of the convicting actions of the Holy Spirit
who now dwells inside you, you cannot please yourself either.
Are you content with your walk with the Lord today? If you're
not, maybe it's because you have slipped back into that old carnality
in some area of your life. Maybe it's because there is some controlling
aspect of the flesh in some area of your life, and that
carnal hatred for the things of God is frustrating your close
walk with Him. If that's the case with you, now is an excellent
time to make it right.
In just a few minutes, we will be remembering the Lord around
the emblems of the bread and the cup, and this would be a good
time to make sure that there is nothing between you and the Lord
to hinder that perfect fellowship, that sweet communion. Would
you like to ask the Lord to search you and look inside your heart
and mind to see if there is anything that needs getting rid of?
Is there something that needs doing, that hasn't been done? Is
there anything that needs being made right?
In just a few moments we will be remembering the Lord in His death,
gathered around the table of the Lord's Supper. Let me encourage
you to see if there is anything in your life that is causing you
to be at enmity to God, invite the Holy Spirit to bring to your
mind right now anything that is grievous to Him,
and if He does, deal with it. Decide what you are going to do
about it, and then stick with your decision.
If memory serves me right, one of the saints who was active during
the time of the reformation said that Christians ought to reform
themselves every day, and that repentance ought to be a way of
life. That was good advice back then, and it's still good advice
today. Why not ask God right now if there is something that you
and He need to sort out, and then go ahead and take care of it?
Then in a few minutes, you can remember the Lord with a free and
a glad heart, unburdened with carnality, untroubled by the things
of the flesh.
God has called us into the most wonderful freedom and liberty
imaginable; He wants you to live in it fully, love Him freely,
and enjoy it totally. Please don't settle for anything less.