'For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live' (Rom. 8:13)
Fleshly religion. It is the status quo in apostate through and through Christendom 2011. The outward-professing church of our day is simply a wretched mass of unregenerate puffed-up false-teaching judaizing self-appointed blind leaders of unregenerate self-satisfied ignorant of the Word of God cross-rejecting blind followers who raised their hand once at a so-called altar call and think that that is all there is to it and believe that because of that they are "eternally secure". They comprehend not that there is a race to be run and finished and so far from being eternally secure the Lord Jesus Christ says of these Laodiceans that "I will spue thee out of my mouth" [Rev. 3:16]. Do not fall into the trap. Run the race all the way to the finish line.
***
(The following is excerpted from a J. C. Philpot sermon, "No Condemnation" (Rom. 8:1), preached at North Street Chapel, Stamford, on March 30, 1862).
What are we to understand by the expression “the flesh?” This word takes in the whole of that fallen nature, both in body and soul, which we have inherited from our first parent [Rom. 5:12]. It does not, therefore, mean merely those gross, sensual lusts, which are so sad a part of our original inheritance, but embraces every faculty of body and mind which we possess as children of Adam.
To walk after the flesh [Rom. 8:1] carries with it the idea of the flesh going before us—as our leader, guide, and example—and our following close in its footsteps, so that wherever it drags or draws we move after it, as the needle after the magnet. To walk after the flesh, then, is to move step by step in implicit obedience to the commands of the flesh—the lusts of the flesh—the inclinations of the flesh—and the desires of the flesh—whatever shape they assume, whatever garb they wear, whatever name they may bear. To walk after the flesh is to be ever pursuing, desiring, and doing the things that please the flesh—whatever aspect that flesh may wear or whatever dress it may assume—whether molded and fashioned after the grosser and more flagrant ways of the profane world—or the more refined and deceptive religion of the professing church [2Tim. 3:5].
But are the grosser and more manifest sinners the only people who may be said to walk after the flesh? Does not all human religion, in all its varied forms and shapes [Gen. 4:3], come under the sweep of this all-devouring sword? Yes! Everyone who is entangled in and led by a fleshly religion, walks as much after the flesh as those who are abandoned to its grosser indulgences. Sad it is, yet not more sad than true, that false religion has slain its thousands, if open sin has slain its ten thousands. To walk after the flesh—whether it be in the grosser or more refined sense of the term—is the same in the sight of God [Matt. 7:22-23].
(J. C. Philpot; 1802-1869)
*Gal. 5:24 'And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts'
***
see also: Struggling Christian, Are You "Crucified...Unto The World"? [Gal. 6:14; also by JCP]
Fleshly religion. It is the status quo in apostate through and through Christendom 2011. The outward-professing church of our day is simply a wretched mass of unregenerate puffed-up false-teaching judaizing self-appointed blind leaders of unregenerate self-satisfied ignorant of the Word of God cross-rejecting blind followers who raised their hand once at a so-called altar call and think that that is all there is to it and believe that because of that they are "eternally secure". They comprehend not that there is a race to be run and finished and so far from being eternally secure the Lord Jesus Christ says of these Laodiceans that "I will spue thee out of my mouth" [Rev. 3:16]. Do not fall into the trap. Run the race all the way to the finish line.
***
(The following is excerpted from a J. C. Philpot sermon, "No Condemnation" (Rom. 8:1), preached at North Street Chapel, Stamford, on March 30, 1862).
What are we to understand by the expression “the flesh?” This word takes in the whole of that fallen nature, both in body and soul, which we have inherited from our first parent [Rom. 5:12]. It does not, therefore, mean merely those gross, sensual lusts, which are so sad a part of our original inheritance, but embraces every faculty of body and mind which we possess as children of Adam.
To walk after the flesh [Rom. 8:1] carries with it the idea of the flesh going before us—as our leader, guide, and example—and our following close in its footsteps, so that wherever it drags or draws we move after it, as the needle after the magnet. To walk after the flesh, then, is to move step by step in implicit obedience to the commands of the flesh—the lusts of the flesh—the inclinations of the flesh—and the desires of the flesh—whatever shape they assume, whatever garb they wear, whatever name they may bear. To walk after the flesh is to be ever pursuing, desiring, and doing the things that please the flesh—whatever aspect that flesh may wear or whatever dress it may assume—whether molded and fashioned after the grosser and more flagrant ways of the profane world—or the more refined and deceptive religion of the professing church [2Tim. 3:5].
But are the grosser and more manifest sinners the only people who may be said to walk after the flesh? Does not all human religion, in all its varied forms and shapes [Gen. 4:3], come under the sweep of this all-devouring sword? Yes! Everyone who is entangled in and led by a fleshly religion, walks as much after the flesh as those who are abandoned to its grosser indulgences. Sad it is, yet not more sad than true, that false religion has slain its thousands, if open sin has slain its ten thousands. To walk after the flesh—whether it be in the grosser or more refined sense of the term—is the same in the sight of God [Matt. 7:22-23].
(J. C. Philpot; 1802-1869)
*Gal. 5:24 'And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts'
***
see also: Struggling Christian, Are You "Crucified...Unto The World"? [Gal. 6:14; also by JCP]
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