This sermon focuses on the life and conversion of Aurelius Augustine, a North African bishop and theologian. It explores the contrast between being carnally minded and spiritually minded, emphasizing that those who are hostile towards God are in a state of spiritual death. The sermon highlights the significance of being spiritually minded, which leads to life and peace with God.

Welcome back to Burnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the book of Romans. Good afternoon again. Let's turn in our Bibles to the book of Romans once again. Chapter eight, and let's stand for the reading of the word of the Lord.

Romans chapter eight, verses five through eight. 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. 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, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Let's pray.

Father, again Lord we're asking God for a work of your spirit. We ask God that you would send the spirit to do a work for the glory of the name of your son, our Lord Jesus. And it's in his name we pray, amen. Let's be seated. How many are familiar with the name Aurelius Augustine?

Anyone? Aurelius Augustine. Okay, a few hands here and there. Aurelius Augustine was a North African bishop. He was ordained a bishop in the North African city of Hippo Regis in 395 AD, in what would be modern day Algeria.

In Augustine's lifetime, he would be used of God to deal with heresies, one of which Mr. Beckler pointed out a few moments ago, the Pelagian heresy. He would be the champion against Pelagius and his doctrine of perfectionism. He would deal with heresies within the church. He would also be used of God to exalt the doctrine of grace alone in the salvation of the souls of men.

He would also be used to exalt the authority of Scripture above the writings of men, which is very important at that time as well as today. Aurelius Augustine is recognized by many as the greatest theologian of the early church. But he spent the first 30 years of his life in the fallen state of corruption in which he was born He spent the first of 30 years of his life in rebellion against God and in sexual uncleanness Augustine's father was a pagan But Augustine's mother Monica was a devout Christian. In his autobiography entitled Confessions, Augustine recounts how his mother was greatly troubled at heart for the lost state and wayward life of her son. And how she experienced in his words more pain and prayer for his conversion than she did in giving birth to him.

During the years Augustine was running from God, his mother actually followed him around to whatever city he went to. If he went to another city, she followed, leaving a trail of tears behind him. Then one day, under great conviction for his sin, while sitting with a friend outdoors in a garden area and having a copy of Paul's letter to the Romans in his hand, from the bottom of his soul, in his words, Augustine said, there arose a mighty storm bringing a mighty shower of tears and he and he set down the the volume and he left his friends sitting there alone And he went and found a secluded place. And he cast himself down under a fig tree, quote, giving full vent to his tears. And crying out to God, how long?

Tomorrow? Why not now? Why not this hour? Is there an end to my uncleanness? As soon as Augustine had finished speaking those words, he said that he heard the voice of children in the distance at a neighboring house chanting and repeating the words over and over again, take up and read, take up and read.

And Augustine said he took it as though it were a command from God himself to open the scriptures and to read the first verse, the first passage that his eyes were laid upon. And he went back to the place where his friend was sitting in the garden area. And he picked up the volume of the apostle Paul's letter to the Romans. And he opened it up at random. And his eyes landed on these words, Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, that is sexual immorality, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.

Augustine said he didn't need to read any further because at that moment, a light as it were of serenity infused into his heart and he was converted on the spot. His carnal mind that was before at enmity with God was now at peace with God, and his life that followed would prove it. He went immediately and told his mother, first stop, and he said that his mother literally quote leapt for joy and blessed God whom she trusted was able to do exceedingly far above all she could think or ask. Augustine became a new man that day. He was no longer in the fallen state of corruption in which he was born.

But he was a new creation of God and Christ. No longer did he follow after the flesh because he was no longer in the flesh. But he followed after the spirit because he was born of the spirit with new life from above. Augusta now had a new mindset because he had a new heart. And the world would never be the same.

I said in our last session, there are two categories of people in the world at any given time, and only two. There's only two categories of people in the world. They that are after the flesh who mind the things of the flesh and those that are after the Spirit who mind the things of the Spirit. Those who live according to the flesh, whose minds are set on the things of the flesh, and those who live according to the Spirit, whose minds are set on the things of the Spirit. And I said those who are after the flesh live according to the flesh because they're still in the flesh, that is still living in the fallen state of nature every one of us inherited from our first parents.

While those who are after the Spirit live according to the Spirit because they're indwelt by the Spirit, born of the Spirit and in Christ by faith. And I said the apostle is contrasting the life of those in the flesh with the life of those in the Spirit, the life of those outside of Christ with the life of those in Christ. The life of the unsaved with the life of the saved. The life of the unregenerate with the life of those who have been regenerated. The life and mindset of those who have been born of the Spirit with the life and the mindset of those who remain in the graveyard of the spiritually dead.

Like Augustine, when we were in the state of the flesh and corruption of nature in which we were born, our minds were fixed on the things of the world. And we lived according to the flesh because we were still in the fallen state of the flesh. And our thoughts were fixed on things below and not on things above because we had no life from above. Every unregenerate man, every unregenerate man or woman, may not sink so deep in sin as a gust and sunk. But conviction for the sins we have committed against God will sting our conscience no less when the Spirit of God comes upon us in full force.

In the fallen state of flesh, we were all preoccupied with earthly and temporal things. All our ambitions, all our goals, all the pursuits of our life were wrapped up in this world. And our thoughts fixated on the things of this world. Before the grace of God invades the life of a sinner, he has no sight beyond this life because he has no life beyond this life and outside of this life. Before God saved us, we had no interest in the things of God because we didn't know God.

We were dominated and governed by the flesh because we were still in the flesh. We had no spiritual affections because we had no spiritual life. But when we are regenerated, when we're born of God with new life from above, a radical change takes place. A radical change takes place both positionally and experientially. Positionally we exit the state of the condemned and enter the state of the justified before God.

And with that new state comes a new state of mind. Spiritual mindedness. When we were raised from death to life in Christ, we weren't the people we once were. With our changed estate comes a changed life. And with our changed life comes a change of focus.

We're no longer fixated on things below, but on things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. We're no longer preoccupied with earthly and temporal things We now have sight beyond this life because we have a life beyond this life. We have an interest in the things of God because we know God. We're no longer dominated and governed by the flesh because we're no longer in the flesh and our mindset reflects it. We now have spiritual affections because we now have spiritual life.

The apostle tells us in verse six of our text this afternoon to be carnally minded is death. That is to be in the state of spiritual death. While to be spiritually minded is life and peace. That is to be in the state of life and peace. The true believer has been raised from death to life.

He's been rescued from the state of the condemned and delivered into the state of the justified and his mindset manifests it. He's been delivered from the power of darkness, as Paul puts it in Colossians chapter one, and translated into the kingdom of God's dear son. And again, with that new state of existence comes a new state of mind. No new state of mind, no new state of existence. To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

The spiritually minded are those in the state of grace, in the state of justification before God, in the state of resurrection life in Christ, and in the state of peace, which we'll talk about in a few minutes. But first the negative. The Apostle says to be carnally minded is death. To be carnally minded is to be in the state of death, eternal death. And there's a reason for that.

In verse 7 Paul goes on, because the carnal mind is enmity against God. The carnal mind is enmity against God. Man in the unregenerate state in which he was born is at war with God. There's no peace between him and God, nor God and him. In World War II, there were neutral countries, nations that didn't take sides.

Switzerland was one of them. But there is no state of neutrality with regards to God. Those in the state of the flesh and corruption in which they were born live in opposition to God. They don't like the God of the Bible. They don't like his laws.

They don't wanna be governed by God. And they have no real interest in him. In Romans 1.30, Paul says they are in reality haters of God. Those aren't my words, those are the words of the Apostle Paul. He says they're haters of God.

They actually hate God. You're either a hater of God or a lover of God. Notice that I'm not saying that unsaved people are hostile towards every notion of a God, little g, because Paul isn't saying that. But that those who are in the unregenerate state are at war with the one true and living God. People all over this country claim to believe in God.

You can knock the doors out and burn it. You believe in God, oh yeah, I believe in God. You believe in God, oh yeah, I believe in God. Oh, there's a God, I believe in God, yeah? But when you press them with biblical descriptions of the essence and of the character of the one true and living God of the Bible, the hostility surfaces.

I've seen it over and over again in street ministry. Oh yeah, I believe in God. Well, let me describe the God of the Bible to you. Do you believe in the one true and living God? I've had encounters with people who, hearing about the day of judgment and the reality of eternal condemnation and hell for unrepentant sinners tell me, well I believe in God, but I could never believe in a God like that.

I could never worship a God like that, a God who would send people to hell. Oh no. And I respond, that's what I've been trying to tell you. You don't like the one true and living God. The God of the Bible.

And you could never worship him in the unregenerate state in which you are now living. But I always pray that the Spirit of God, wielding the sword of the Spirit of God, the gospel will pierce their hearts with the truth of his word and give them grace to repent and believe and embrace his son by faith and be saved. People all over the world believe in a God, little g. But the God they believe in, many times, is just a figment of their imagination. A God made in their own image.

A God they can love. A God made in the image of man, but a God that cannot save them or anyone else. I got into a taxi in Austin one day, and the driver was a Muslim. And I started to talk with him about the direction of the world in which we live today, and of the rapid moral collapse of America in the West that's currently taking place. And I talked about the evils of abortion.

And I talked about the evils of the proliferation of homosexual perversion. And how we have men all over this country and women all over this country who are literally shaking their fists in the face of God. And he kept agreeing with everything I was saying, kept agreeing with everything that I was saying until I started pressing him with descriptions of the one true and living God of the Bible. And at one point he stopped me and he said, well we all believe in the same God because there's only one God. And I responded, oh, oh so you believe in the God who made the heavens and the earth out of nothing, whose son, Jesus Christ, one with him and the Holy Spirit, came to earth from heaven and suffered and died on a Roman cross outside of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago to pay the sin debt of his people and reconcile them to God, reconcile them to himself.

And he said, God has no son. And I said, well then we don't believe in the same God. The God who made heaven and earth is triune. One in essence, three in person, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and every other god is a mere idol. You can get out of here.

Immediately his hostility surfaced. A few minutes ago, we all believe in the same God. Oh yeah, we're all on the same team. Here's a description of the one true and living God from the scriptures, whose son is Jesus Christ. Sorry, we don't believe in the same God.

The fact of the matter is that there are many gods and all the gods of the nations are but idols. Press a Mormon, for instance, with the biblical doctrine of the Trinity and the person and work of Christ from scripture and watch the hostility surface. Press the Jehovah's Witness with the biblical doctrine of the deity of Christ, that Jesus Christ is equal with the Father, He is deity. He is God manifested in the flesh. Press Him with the doctrine of the triune Godhead and watch the hostility of the Jehovah's Witness toward the one true and living God be displayed with all its venom.

In my debates many years ago with the oneness Pentecostals, the guys who say that Jesus is the same person as his father. Some people say none of this stuff matters. If it doesn't matter, then why talk about anything? It's all the same God or any God or whatever, anything you want to say about God or believe about God, it's all true. No.

There's things that are true about you that are not true about anyone else. And if anyone said something different, you would defend it. We must defend the doctrine of God. But in my debates with the oneness of Pentecostals many years ago, the guys who say, Jesus is the same person as the Father, they would tell me, well there's only one Jesus. And I would tell them, that's not what Jesus said.

Jesus said, many false Christs will arise and they will deceive many. And Paul told the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians 11 four that there would be those who would come and preach quote another Jesus. That is a different Jesus whom we've not preached. Don't have anything to do with these guys. Tell the oneness or so-called apostolic pedicastal that the Jesus of the Bible is not his own father, like they say he is, and he'll blaspheme the one true and living God to your face.

Unsaved men and women are not hostile towards every notion of a God, little g, but they're hostile towards the one true and living God. Why? Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. Those living in the unregenerate state are hostile towards the one true and living God. The apostle again is contrasting the Christian and the non-Christian, no matter their profession.

He's making a distinction between the saved and the unsaved, those born of the Spirit, those who mind the things of the Spirit, and those who are still in the flesh who mind the things of the flesh. He's contrasting those who are alive in Christ with those who are still dead in their trespasses and sins. Again, people all over the country claim to believe in God, but when you press them with descriptions of the essence and the character of the one true and living God from the Bible, their hostility will surface. And this is not only manifested in the worship of false gods or false understanding about the one true and living God. Hang on with me.

It's not just manifested in the worship of false gods and what we would call spiritual adultery. It's also manifested in moral behavior. The spiritually dead who have their minds set on the things of the flesh naturally pursue the things of the flesh that end in death. Charles Hodge from the late 1800s writes quote a carnal state of mind which reveals itself in its desire and pursuit of carnal objects is death. In other words, those in the carnal state of spiritual death pursue those things that end in death, death eternal, Because to be carnally minded is death.

It is in its nature opposed to God, Hodge goes on. And opposition to him is death, folks. There's no such thing as a carnal Christian. How many have heard of that doctrine? Well, there's carnal Christians and then there's more Christians who are growing in holiness.

Have any ever heard that doctrine? There's no such thing as the carnal Christian. Some have suggested that a man may be forgiven but not be changed. That a person could be a true Christian but never grow in holiness and obedience to God. But the true Christian is a changed person.

Where self once sat on the throne of his life, Christ now sits on the throne of his life. Jesus is not only our savior, but also our Lord. He doesn't just save us from our sins, he gets to tell us what to do and not do. If there is no evidence of a changed heart and a new life, we should be asking ourselves if our profession of Christ is genuine. It's true, as John Bunyan once said, that quote, no child of God sins to that degree as to make himself incapable of forgiveness, end quote.

It's true. The Apostle Paul, the Apostle John, said if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Amen? And Psalm 130 verse four says, if thou, O Lord, should mark iniquities, who could stand, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared There's forgiveness with God that he may be reverent for who he is.

The true Christian is spiritually minded and to be spiritually minded is life and peace. The true child of God has passed from death to life and peace with God has been made for him by the blood of Jesus' cross. He now, John Bunyan says, he now has his back to the world and his face toward Christ and a book in his hand. The true Christian says with the psalmist, I delight to do thy will, oh God. Your law is written in my heart.

I wanna do your will, God. The converted man just wants to serve God. Why? In gratitude for his saving grace, in gratitude for having saved his soul, and in gratitude for all that Christ has done for him in his life and in his death. The converted man, you've heard me say this before, he isn't what he ought to be, he knows that.

He knows he isn't what he ought to be, but he knows he isn't what he once was. And he's trusting that the one who purchased his salvation from the penalty of sin has also purchased his salvation from its bondage. And he trusts in the word of God, that he who began a good work in him will also complete it. To be spiritually minded is life and peace, the word says. The spiritually minded have passed from death to life, from a relationship of hostility to a relationship of peace with God.

They've been resurrected from the graveyard of the spiritually dead to new life in Christ. They've been delivered from the state of corruption and a mind of the flesh that was hostile to God. They've been delivered. Delivered from sin's penalty and delivered from sin's power to enslave them and control them and dictate to them. Time, Charles Spurgeon once said, is like a ship.

Whether it appears to be standing still or sitting, it's still moving towards its destination. The same is true of every one of us in this room right now. Everyone in this assembly today is moving toward an eternal destination as well. It's my prayer that the grace of God might invade every unconverted soul or any unconverted soul in this assembly today. Just as he did with Aurelius Agustus so many centuries ago, and bring that conviction of the Holy Spirit for sin that sets you alone with God and causes you to cry out to him as Agustus cried out, how long, oh Lord?

Tomorrow, tomorrow, Why not this hour? Is there an end to my uncleanness? May the grace of God in Christ Jesus that brings serenity to the heart and brought serenity to Augustine's heart. Bring serenity to your heart and peace with God. Let's pray.

Oh God, we know that in reality, all there is in this life and the life to come is eternal life and eternal death. And we know God that from your word that eternal life begins now for all those who turn from their sin and put their trust in the person and work of your son, Jesus. Oh God, may that be the case with every soul in this assembly today. For the glory of the name of your son, who suffered and died for our sins, and rose from the dead the third day. For we ask it in his holy name.

Amen.