July 27, 2025; Sunday Evening Worship

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — 1 Chronicles 16:28-36
• Hymn — Let All Things Now Living
• Prayer of Invocation
• Heidelberg Catechism — Lord's Day 21 (Questions 54–56)
• Hymn — As Pants the Deer for Flowing Streams (#42B)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Sermon
• Hymn — Gracious Spirit, Dwell with Me (#400)
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14

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Sermon Title: The New Mind by the Spirit

Scripture: Romans 8:5-11

I. The Commitment of Having a New Mind by the Spirit

A. The contrast in Romans 8:5 is rooted in two modes of being, not merely two ways of living

1. In the Greek, Paul uses a "to be" verb — those who are according to the flesh versus those who are according to the spirit
2. Behind the living is a being: the old fleshly existence set against the new spiritual existence
3. As John Murray notes, such persons are "conditioned by and patterned after" either the flesh or the spirit

B. The new mind flows from a new existence given by the spirit

1. Before Christ, one has the being of one dead in sin; in Christ, new creation, new life, new being
2. The spirit becomes the new controlling and directing power of the believer's existence

C. The new mind entails new commitments, loyalties, and desires

1. Paul uses "mind" to encompass the thinking, willing, and desiring self — heart and mind together
2. The fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-24 describes the shape of the new mindset, contrasted with the works of the flesh
3. The believer is freed from the power of sin and given new inclinations and power to obey and love what God loves

II. The Condition of Having a New Mind by the Spirit

A. The condition of the flesh is death and hostility to God (Romans 8:6-8)

1. The mind set on the flesh does not and cannot submit to God's law; it cannot please God
2. This is Paul's statement of total depravity — there is no pulling oneself out of this condition by one's own will
3. This condition points ultimately to the final eschatological verdict for those who remain in the flesh

B. The condition of the spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:6)

1. Life in place of death; peace with God where there had been only hostility
2. The hiding from God in the garden is turned to harmony — the Father welcomes believers into his presence now and forever
3. This is not a wavering or temporary condition; it is a now-and-forever condition secured in Christ

C. The new condition is the package deal of the spirit: new mindset, new spiritual life, and real peace with God

1. The believer can enjoy the new mind because peace with God makes it possible to delight in obedience
2. There is therefore no condemnation — not now, not ever — for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)

III. The Confidence of Having a New Mind by the Spirit

A. Paul directly addresses believers in Romans 8:9-11, shifting from declaration to consolation

1. "You, however, are not in the flesh but in the spirit" — the three "if" clauses are not stirring doubt but driving home what is true
2. The believer is to look inward not to find self, but to see who dwells within: the spirit of God and the spirit of Christ

B. The indwelling spirit is the ground of confidence

1. God promised to dwell among his people (Exodus 29:45; Leviticus 26:12); this is fulfilled most fully when the spirit tabernacles within believers
2. "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you?" — the believer has become the dwelling place of God

C. The spirit dwelling in the believer is the guarantee of resurrection life (Romans 8:10-11)

1. The body dies because of sin, but the spirit is life because of the righteousness of Christ — his active and passive obedience
2. As John Stott writes, Christ's resurrection is the pledge and pattern of ours; the same spirit who raised him will raise us
3. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all involved in this resurrection work — the new mind is the fruit and foretaste of coming resurrection life
4. The believer moves from no condemnation now, through life in the spirit, to resurrection life — because the God who indwells cannot lie and cannot change his purpose