No Condemnation for Those in Christ Jesus
First B Jackson
2024-06-16

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Okay. Alright. Oh, thank you very much. I appreciate it. I don't wanna jeopardize any relationship with with John or anybody.

You know what I mean? So Okay. Good. Good. Good.

Good. That's good. She had. Transgender person. It's so hard.

It's so hard. Hard. Yeah. Thank you. He definitely does.

He definitely does. Howdy. Good to see you again. This is great. Good morning.

Morning. Nice to see y'all. Howdy? Oh, fantastic. Well, good morning, everybody.

How are you? Judy just vamped until I got up here. I knew I had a timer on me but I get the congregation to when it's appropriate to thank the Lord for sixty years God has given us. Yes. That sounds great.

I got a couple things. Sixty years, is it your anniversary? Yes. Alright. Sixty years of marriage.

There we go. He said, when it's appropriate, can we get the congregation to give thanks for the sixty years that God has given us? That's fantastic. That's wonderful. And and it's Alice Thrasher's birthday today too.

So, happy birthday, Alice And happy Father's Day. There's a lot going on here this morning. We're celebrating a lot of different Armen and Maryann's fiftieth anniversary. Wow. It's a lot going on here.

Would you stand with me and we're gonna sing about what allows for all of that. The wonderful grace of Jesus. Yep. Greater than all our sin actually is the first line. So if you would, sing with me.

This is a bouncy number. If you know your part, sing it loud. Amen. Wow. That's pretty good.

Y'all are ready for choir. Redeemed, how love to proclaim it. Redeemed by the blood of the lamb. We'll sing hymn number three fifty six. Amen.

Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements and I hope I don't butcher them as bad in this service as I did in the last one. First Bees camp out is happening. First Bee church camp out, July 19. There are two options.

You can go to both, you can go to either, July 19 through the twenty first and August 23 through the twenty fifth down around Palisades Lake, around Alpine. For more information, you can call Brian McCooey or Mike Demetrius. Mike's out of town right now, so call McCooey. But if you'd like to know more, you can talk to them. But we've got a little time building up to it.

That's always a fun time of getting together and roughing it, kinda. Enjoying one another and you know, campers and tents and whatever. I usually go sing around the fire and then sleep in the bed. That's the way I like to camp. So June 23, that's next week.

So June 23 will be the first of our first BBQ, first barbecue out here on the green space between services. So if you normally come to this service, come an hour early and have brunch, lunch, some warmed meat out there with games, food, fun, fellowship, and it's going to be June 23, July 14, August 18, and September 15 between services. 10:00 out here. Instead of doing the connect hour which we do most every week down the hall, weather permitting, we'll be outside. Sound booth volunteers, if you feel like you're technically gifted in this kind of an area, we'd love to train you in our particular system.

Nick and Blake would be able to show you how to use the system. We could always use a deeper bench, you know, for that sort of thing. Next week, this says donations of certain items needed. I think that we have hit a critical mass on the items needed. Volunteers, we'd always like to have a couple more volunteers, but the Vacation Bible School starts a week from tomorrow.

So the twenty fourth through the June 27. It's tomorrow week, we would say in Georgia, Monday week. It's a week from tomorrow. So that's happening June 24 through the twenty seventh. Keep on praying.

It's hometown Nazareth where Jesus was a kid. That's it. Also, see if there's another slide up there. Yes. Sisters Saved by Grace.

Sisters Saved by Grace is a it is the name of a Bible study that is gonna be this week at Mike Yockel Park at 06:00 in the evenings. They're studying Psalms together. They've been getting together on Thursday night at six in our fellowship hall for a long time but glory, hallelujah. The summer's so beautiful. Why not?

Meet out at Mike Yockel Park and this one's confusing to me. I'm going to skip it. That's the one I butchered in the first service. Okay? Our third through fifth grade Sunday school class that happens during the first service is going to take the summer off.

They can still go down and be in miss Crystal's class if they want to but third through fifth grade is gonna have Sundays off. So they'll be up in the congregation in the 09:00 service. Anybody else have anything I've forgotten? Omissions, deletions, suggestions, questions, no? Okay.

I'm glad you're here. Would you stand? Happy Father's Day to all and we're going to sing we have come into his house and gathered in his name to worship him. And worship Christ the Lord. Worship him, Christ the Lord.

Amen. And for our next song, we'll do hymn number two nineteen, surely the presence of the Lord is in his place. We'll probably sing through it twice. Amen. Y'all can have a seat.

This is our operatory time, the worship through giving. Would you pray with me? God, thank you for those who are here gathered in your name to worship you as the song says. I thank you lord and know that you are surely present here with us. It's an amazing thought to know that you omnipresent, omniscient, and all good God are here with us, that you're right here with us, that you abide, that you live, lord, on the praises of your people.

So, I pray lord that we would do what is pleasing in your sight that we would abide with you, in you, that we'd be looking forward to what the next steps you have ordained for us and Lord God, we want to do your will in your way. May we arise in the morning with the thought that lord, I long to do your will and then realize that your spirit is present with us, empowering us to be able to walk that out. Would you show us as we humble ourselves before you? Would you show us your way? We want to do your will and your way, lord.

Your kingdom come, your will be done. In Jesus name, amen. Wow. Amen, Judy. Thank you.

So this morning, we're gonna go through a passage that if you've been reading along with first b in the Bible, we have a little email that goes out every day and there are 40 something of us in the church that are writers for it. So each day, we'll write on a a passage of scripture and for a long time, we were doing a chapter of scripture a day and we did the whole New Testament and Genesis and Exodus and and we did a couple few of the minor prophets at a chapter a day which is a pretty good clip, hard to keep up with but lately, what we've been doing is going through Romans for the past few months. We're going through Romans just a verse or two at a time and taking it really slowly and easily and it's there's a lot of stuff. There's a lot of hard stuff In Romans one, we see that the irreligious pagan is guilty and in Romans two, we see that the religious are also guilty and in Romans three, it reiterates that we are all guilty. Romans four, it hits that note again, offers a little bit of hope and in Romans five, we get a really soothing thought that while we were yet guilty, sinners, Christ died for us and he makes the way available so that we can have life so that we can walk with God so that we can be set free.

So, that's Romans five, six, and seven get complicated again. The things that I want to do, Paul says, are the things I don't do and the things that I don't want to do are the things I end up doing. So, oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? And then we have Romans eight which is like a the whole of Romans eight is such a great deep breath. It's inspiration from the Holy Spirit is very helpful.

We're going to go through the first 18 verses today. I mentioned last week that we had a couple of very difficult deaths that we were doing funerals for over the past week. So on Tuesday and Saturday, we did those and thank you for praying. Tuesday went better than I ever could have imagined. It was felt very helpful, healing, restorative, and very good at the Elliott Cemetery and then for Kiernan Schultz yesterday here at the church.

The community came together and I thought it was a very beautiful remembrance, a celebration of his life but also a call to greater community and fellowship which was really good. So, thank you for praying for that. That is partially what inspired this for right now. It is good to know. Romans eight one through four.

Therefore, now the therefore is those first seven chapters. Alright. Everything that he has said here to four gets to, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If you have Christ, there is no condemnation for you. Though you do have an adversary.

Peter says, that the devil is like a roaring lion. He is your adversary, prosecuting attorney. He knows the list of the charges and he knows you're guilty. Yet, the judge, the only righteous judge has said that you are set free and there is no condemnation there. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So, the in Christ Jesus is operative. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Every sin, every shortfall, every missing the mark that has ever been committed will either be justly condemned for those that do not have Christ or mercifully forgiven for those who have humbly accepted the sacrifice he made and union with Christ is what makes the difference in that. Union with Christ through faith as Ephesians says, is what it's all about. God has made the way that we can be in a right relationship and Christ is that.

In fact, the second verse reiterates, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is what has set you free from the law of sin and death. So, in Christ Jesus, it came up in verse one, it comes up in verse two. In Christ Jesus, you have life and in Christ Jesus, you've been set free. Law of gravity. So, the law of gravity.

Does it matter whether you believe it or not? Right? It literally is what holds us down. Right? It applies to every natural born creation at all the music of the spheres, every every object in space.

If we have this, it is what holds us down. The law of gravity really does not matter whether you believe it or not. I'm reminding myself of songs when I have a slide like this. Have you all seen the movie Crazy Heart? Maybe.

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart. It's actually an exploration of an old kind of an outlaw country singer who has a problem with alcohol. There are scenes I would have left out. There was a lot of language I would have left out. But one of the scenes is of him singing this song called Fallen and Flying and it says, it's funny how fallen seems like flying for a little while.

Right? Fallen and flying look a whole lot alike for a little while but there's that hard stop at the end of falling. Falling and flying. The law of gravity applies to every natural born creation. It is what holds us down, but the law of flight, it allows those beings that God has empowered overcome.

The law of law of gravity still applies to birds. They just have a way of rising above it. Right? For what the law could not do, Paul has been going on and on about those who don't have the law are guilty and those who do have the law are also guilty and it's worse if you know it and you don't go by it. So, he's already explored this but he's coming back in chapter eight.

He's coming back to it and saying, what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh. Our flesh, in our flesh, we cannot meet the law's demands. But what the law cannot do weak as it was through the flesh. God did it. Sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh who's born as a man he lived as a man.

He was in every way human. Just as we're human and he succeeded where Adam failed, where all of us fail. For what the law could not do, we because it was in the flesh, God did. He sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. Whereas, we've sinned and fallen short and James says, if you've broken law in any one point, you've broken the whole law.

Where we've fallen short and do not have a perfect record, Jesus did walk it out perfectly, had the perfect record that he could voluntarily and sacrificially offer on the cross which is what he did. So, the law of sin and death, it applies to every natural born person. It's not sin it's not gravity now. This is the law of sin and death as Paul outlines it. It applies to all of us.

It's universal but it's also it's still powerless knowing that you are sinful does not keep you from being sinful. It's universal but still powerless to remove the sin and the guilt or to restore broken relationships but the law of the spirit of life is something that God offers to everyone. It allows those who accept it to overcome the law of sin and death. I think of the words to, I think of these quite often actually. Rock of ages.

The song Rock of Ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. It says Rock of Ages. Be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath.

Yes, salvation but make me pure. Let me walk out the spirit filled life. The Holy Spirit makes believers free as a bird from the law and sin and death. It allows for us to rise above because we're empowered and as they would get to in a minute by the spirit of God. The same spirit that rose Jesus from the grave is alive and at work in us.

But why? Why would it be? I love a good so that. Last week, you remember I rolled out the scroll of all the so so that's, it's like 20 something feet of henna clauses. This is another henna clause.

So that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. It doesn't always make sense the way that God leads to us. In a human way of thinking, it does not make sense to use a little boy to defeat a giant. Right? David and Goliath.

It doesn't always make sense the way that he chooses to do things but the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us to sow that there is that God sent his son to condemn our sin and his flesh so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. Now, the might underline is that's kind of concerning for some of you probably. When you see that it might be, does that sound like, well, it might happen, it might not. That is a subjunctive. Here we go with the grammar lesson for today.

Close your close your whatever book you had open and open this one. We have three different moods here. There's the indicative mood, the imperative mood, the and subjunctive mood. Wake up. Wake up.

I know I'm pretty asleep with this sort of stuff. An indicative is something that is it expresses certainty. The indicative says, I went to the store. There's no doubt about it. It's already happened.

I went to the store. You can even use it in the future tense. I'm going to the store. Like, that's gonna happen. It's indicative.

Imperative, I point out most every time we hit it in scripture because if something is an imperative, it's a command and it's nice to know. When you're expected to do something, it's nice to know what that is. So the speaker or the writer or author desires that something would happen and they want you to do it. Hey, go to the store for me and get x y z, whatever it is. That's a command.

The subjunctive is more difficult to explain than that. When we were in Spanish, in language school in in Costa Rica, one of the teachers stood up and I'd been using some subjunctive, occasionally, not really, kind of, not sure I was right because it's hard to explain. And then she got up and said, in Spanish, there are 27 different times when you should use the subjunctive. You're gonna have to narrow this down. It's In English, it's disappearing.

We don't say, would that it were so anymore. That's subjunctive. It's leaving the possibility open. It expresses possibility. It's it's not certainty and it's not a command but it's expressing the wish of the author but it's contingent upon the will of the receiver.

Does that make sense to you? Is there another nerd in here that likes that would like to try to explain it any better? Yes. Okay. So, it's contingent.

Mainly, it's about two wills. There's a there's a saying in Spanish as as God wills, you hear it in Arabic or if God wants or means if God should will. That's another time to use it, but in scripture usually it expresses possibility and so here we go. So that this is God's design. He gave Christ to die on the cross, to walk out a perfect life, and offer his spirit and offer his perfect record to whoever would receive it so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.

Now, he's given us everything necessary, salvation and his spirit to walk out the will of God in victory. We still we still fall and falter but it's usually because our will is not willing to do what he wants us to do. Does that make sense to you? So, what is the requirement of the law? Your mind might go immediately to Micah six eight.

For this is, oh man, what God requires of you that you would, what? Love mercy. Walk justly and walk walk humbly with the Lord your God. What is the requirement of the law? You could think of that but Jesus summed it up into loving God and loving people.

The motto of this church by the way is with all we are, loving God, loving people through Christ because why? Union with Christ is what it's all about. Loving God and loving people is what the law ultimately was about. Actually, if you boil the law down to the 10 commandments, the first four are about loving God. No gods before me, no graven images, taking the Lord's name in vain and keeping the Sabbath holy.

That's about our relationship, our personal relationship with God. And then the next six are about loving people. Not killing them is one of the most loving things you can do for people. Right? Sometimes you feel like you want to.

Honor thy father and mother. Happy Father's Day. Romans 13, I'm gonna skip ahead. I'm in Romans eight but Romans 13 where it gets to the how we work it out every single day. Come to this, be owing nothing to anyone except to love one another for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

That's the requirement of the law. That's what Jesus said, loving your neighbor as yourself and loving God. Those are the two that sum it up. For this, you shall not commit adultery or murder or steal or covet and if there's any other commandment, it's summed up by this, you should love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor.

Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. So that's the requirement of the law and the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. Now, that's great and I think that's wonderful but what happens when a Christian is not walking according to the spirit? Is that even possible? Yeah, it's possible.

The whole rest of the section I'm going cover today is not just saying it's possible. It's saying it's likely if you don't take care and set your mind. So, so far, believer in Christ, because of what Christ has done, because of union with him, it is now possible for you to love God and love people as you should. Does that mean that it's automatic? It doesn't.

Unfortunately, it doesn't. But you are free from the law of sin and death. You can rise above it. God has empowered you to rise above it by his spirit. So proceed humbly and depend on that spirit.

That's what he said so far. This next section is gonna point out a couple of pitfalls and it's gonna give some advice for how to get over that. For those who are according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. You set your mind on one or the other.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is death. If all you're looking for is your own good, your own advantage, you're constantly looking for that, that is a way that ends in destruction but the mind that is set on the spirit is life and it is peace because the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile towards God. It reminds me of first John again where it says, you cannot simultaneously be loving the things of God and at the same time loving the things of the earth, right? You're you have before you every day always a choice what to set your mind on. That reminds me of another song.

Do you all remember the George Harrison song? Came out in the eighties. I got my mindset on you. I got my mindset on. You know that song?

Yeah. So setting my mind is set on you. Now that he's looking at a girl and his mind is set on her, but it goes from there and says, but it's gonna take a lot of money, a whole lot of spending money. It's the wrong things to set your mind on, you know, but what you set your mind on is is the direction you're going to be going. If you think, well, like to think that if we're saved, we're just going to God's going to use us.

He will. But he's telling us, actually, Paul tells us quite often. He says, be setting your mind on things above. Christian, now, automatically, you would think that would just be normal. This is another grammar, little grammar deal.

The imperative indicative complex. Paul says it often. He says, be what you already are. Right? Be what you already are.

He's encouraging us because it is possible as believers to get our mind set on something else. It is possible to turn our eyes away from Jesus and when we do, we lose all of our bearing and it becomes impossible to love God and love people as we should. So, Jesus says this, Peter. Oh, Peter. Love Peter.

From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and from the chief priest and from the scribes and to even be killed and to be raised on the third day. This is pretty early in Matthew for him to start telling him this and Peter, leader that he was, pulls Jesus aside and began to rebuke him saying, God forbid it Lord, this shall never happen to you. I'm by your side. We're not letting that happen. But Jesus turned to Peter and said, get behind me Satan.

You're a stumbling block to me for you are setting your mind not on God's interest, but on man's interest. We all have the possibility, even Peter. We all have the possibility to set our minds on the things of earth and the way that the world works instead of the way God works. So can a Christian set their mind on the things of the flesh? Absolutely.

If not, we wouldn't have commands like we do from Colossians three. Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, if you have believed, then keep on seeking continually the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God and b, setting your mind on the things above, not on the things that are of earth, for you have data and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Besetting your mind is an imperative verb. It's a command and the reason that we're commanded to do it is because it's possible to just not do it. If we're not conscious of it, we can turn away.

So Christian, be setting your mind on the things of the spirit. Let's go forward. Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, just like Jesus called Peter Satan, for it does not subject itself to the law of God. For it is not even able to do so unless you're empowered by the spirit of God, you will make the earthly choice, the fleshly choice. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Now Christian, you have the choice of going with the spirit, feeding the spirit or you have the choice of feeding the flesh. However, you're not in the flesh, be what you are, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone doesn't have the spirit of Christ, he doesn't belong to him. This is something that I don't ever usually make any kind of denominational distinctions. I'm still not but the second blessing.

You hear about the second blessing where after you've received Christ, then you'd receive the Holy Spirit to be a completely different This is saying that if you don't have the spirit of Christ, you don't have Christ. It's a gift that he gives to everyone who has humbly submitted to him and believed in him. He gives it to him. Now you might have a deeper infilling of the spirit at some later time, that's certainly a possibility. But he's saying that for everyone who believes, he gives his spirit and they now have the ability to walk in humility, carrying out the will of God, loving people and loving God as designed.

If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. Union with Christ is what it is all about. And think about this, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. This is how God is actively working in the world. God opposes the proud and he gives grace to the humble.

Through humility, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is working at you to love God and love people as you should. That's those are words from one of the first service songs we sing sometimes. The same power that rose Jesus from the grave, the same power that commands the dead to wake lives in us, lives in us. The same power that moves mountains when he speaks. The same power that can calm a rage and see lives in us.

He lives in us. That's a that's a powerful thought to think. Lord, I feel like I'm stuck. I feel like my back is up against the wall or my back is up against the Red Sea. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that parted the Red Sea.

It's the same power that can allow for us to forgive somebody who wronged us. It's the same power that can allow us to be generous towards someone in need. It's the same power that can see the hurt in someone and be there to come alongside and comfort. So then, brothers and sisters, we are under an obligation not to the flesh, not to live according to the flesh which is like this, to be arrogant, to be selfish, to be stingy, to be caustic, to lie, to cheat, to steal, to hate, to fear, to lust, to drink more than we should, to eat more than we should. Actually, reminds me of this too.

Galatians five. The works of the flesh, they're obvious. Sexual immorality and impurity and sensuality and idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealous, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. But look at the contrast there with the fruit of the spirit. What is available through the spirit of God and what will grow out of a life that is surrendered to God?

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Which one of these list do you want to set your mind on? For if you're living according to the flesh, then that leads to death. You must die. But if by the spirit, then you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you'll live.

Be what you are. So, for the future, for all who are being led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God. That's up through 14. 15 says, for you have not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again. That's that's saying, once you've accepted who he is, yes, it's still possible to sin.

Yes, it's still possible to set your mind on the right wrong things but if you will humbly walk it out day by day, then you won't fall back into the same desperate situation that you were in before. You have received a spirit of adoption and this is specific. It says adoption as sons and for us, we see that and it's what's the difference, sons or daughters but for them, in that age, adoption as a son was a greater inheritance. It was exactly as a child, natural born child to someone whereas adoption as a daughter was not exactly the same thing. He's saying, you received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, daddy, papa, father, a familiar name for dad.

Happy Father's Day. The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. There can be and there is assurance If you've placed your faith in Christ, you can have blessed assurance and security of salvation. If we're children, then we're heirs also. We're heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this side to be a part of the family of God.

Indeed, if indeed we suffer with him, why does the suffering have to keep on coming up? Because it is a part of this life. When God gave free will to all of us, the free will of another person very likely is gonna cause problems for me. My free will could cause problems for somebody else. If indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

For I consider this, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. So, the way he puts it in Corinthians, second Corinthians four, I think it's six and seven, somewhere around six and seven. He calls it a light affliction. Our momentary and light affliction. For our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

When you take all things into consideration, the difficulties of the Christian life and putting yourself last. They do not measure up against the eternal glory. That is to be revealed. So, I think that's the last slide. Will you pray with me that we would just be able to humbly abide in the presence of Christ.

Judy, you can come on forward. We're going to sing, oh master, let me walk with thee. You can stand too. As we look at this, the first service we sang a song called Abide. It's the first time we sang it today but to abide in Christ, we've sung about the you're the you're the vine, we are the branches, Lord.

Would you allow us the pleasure of walking knowing we're children of God and knowing that because we've received comfort, we can comfort. Because we've received forgiveness, we can forgive because we've received your love, we can also love. God, would you allow us to walk in that place where we set our minds on the things above. May we that know that is the kindness of God that leads to repentance, be kind to other people. May we do so in Jesus name.

Oh master, let us walk with thee. Amen. And for the benediction today from Hebrews 13, Now, may the God of peace who brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, by the spirit, right? He brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant. May he equip you with everything good that you may do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be the glory forever and ever.

Amen and amen. Amen. Thank you so much.