+I. What is meant by being Christ's.+--It is to accept of and have an
interest in Christ in His prophetic, kingly, and sacerdotal offices.
By His prophetic office we come to know His will; by His kingly
office, ruling and governing us, we come to yield obedience to that
will; and by His sacerdotal or priestly office we come to receive the
fruit of that obedience in our justification.
+II. What is meant by the flesh.+--The whole entire body of sin and
corruption; that inbred proneness in our nature to all evil,
expressed by concupiscence. 1. _It is called flesh because of its
situation and place, which is principally in the flesh._ 2. _Because
of its close, inseparable nearness to the soul._ 3. _Because of its
dearness to us._ Sin is our darling, our Delilah, the queen-regent of
our affections; it fills all our thoughts, engrosses our desires, and
challenges the service of all our actions. This reveals: (1) The
deplorable state of fallen man. (2) The great difficulty of the duty
of mortification. (3) The mean and sordid employment of every
sinner--he serves the flesh.
+III. What is imported by the crucifixion of the flesh.+--1. _The
death of it._ He that will crucify his sin must pursue it to the very
death. 2. _A violent death._ Sin never dies of age. The conquest need
be glorious, for it will be found by sharp experience that the combat
will be dangerous. 3. _A painful, bitter, and vexatious death._ 4. _A
shameful and cursed death._
+IV. The duty of crucifying the flesh.+--1. _A constant and
pertinacious denying it in all its cravings for satisfaction._
2. _Encounter it by actions of the opposite virtue.--Robert South._
Ver. 25. _Life and Walk in the Spirit._--Life relates to what is
inward, walk to what is outward.
+I. To live in the Spirit.+--1. The Spirit begins the life of God in
the soul. 2. The Spirit gives new desires and changes all the motives
of life. 3. The Spirit lives in us.
+II. To walk in the Spirit.+--1. The walk will follow from the life,
for every kind of life is after its own kind and development.
2. Every outward manifestation will correspond to the inward
principle of life and will be marked by love to God and love to man.
3. Reputation will correspond to character and conduct to life.
+III. To be led by the Spirit.+--1. The Christian's life is a growth,
his walk a progress; but he is led and guided by the Spirit. 2. No
new revelation is made by the Spirit. He leads and guides by what is
written in the Word.
+IV. Learn our relations to the Spirit.+--1. We live under the
Spirit's dispensation. 2. He is the Spirit of God, and so of life,
truth, and authority. 3. He is the Spirit of Christ, and so unites us
to Him. 4. If we live by the Spirit, let conversation and conduct be
answerable thereunto.--_Homiletic Monthly._
_Walking in the Spirit--_
+I. Is to savour the things of the Spirit.+--To subject a man's soul
to the law of God in all the faculties and powers of the soul. The
things revealed in the law are the things of the Spirit, which Spirit
must at no hand be severed from the Word.
+II. To walk in the path of righteousness without offence to God or
man.+
+III. To walk not stragglingly, but orderly by rule, by line and
measure.+--To order ourselves according to the rule and line of the
Word of God. The life of a man will discover to the world what he
is.--_Perkins._