No Condemnation: From Romans Seven to Romans Eight

June 26, 2016 · Romans

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Series · Romans · Week 46 of 85

Scripture referenced 8 passages

The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.

Romans 7:14-25 the main passage reviewed from last week, depicting bondage to sin under the law

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.
15 For I don’t know what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.
16 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.
17 So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.
18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good.
19 For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice.
20 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present.
22 For I delight in God’s law after the inward man,
23 but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, the sin’s law.

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James 1:8

quoted to describe the double-minded man as unstable in all his ways

8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

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Romans 8:1-11

the passage covered in this sermon on the transforming work of the Holy Spirit

1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.

3 For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;

4 that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

6 For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace;

7 because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.

8 Those who are in the flesh can’t please God.

9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.

10 If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

11 But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

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John 17:17

Jesus quoted in the garden: sanctify them by your truth

17 Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.

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Romans 10

referenced to support that people come to be saved through hearing the gospel

1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God is for Israel, that they may be saved.

2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

3 For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

4 For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

5 For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, “The one who does them will live by them.”

6 But the righteousness which is of faith says this, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down);

7 or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)”

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart”; that is, the word of faith, which we preach:

9 that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

10 For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”

12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him.

13 For, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher?

15 And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”

16 But they didn’t all listen to the glad news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”

17 So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

18 But I say, didn’t they hear? Yes, most certainly, “Their sound went out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

19 But I ask, didn’t Israel know? First Moses says, “I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation, with a nation void of understanding I will make you angry.”

20 Isaiah is very bold, and says, “I was found by those who didn’t seek me. I was revealed to those who didn’t ask for me.”

21 But as to Israel he says, “All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

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2 Thessalonians

cited as the source of the slide describing how God chose from the beginning how salvation would happen

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Romans 6

the yielding passage quoted: present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

2 May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?

3 Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;

6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.

7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.

8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him;

9 knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!

10 For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

11 Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

12 Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

13 Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

14 For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.

15 What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!

16 Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?

17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered.

18 Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.

19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.

20 For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

21 What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

22 But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life.

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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Romans 15

read as the benediction: may the God of perseverance and hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing

1 Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

2 Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up.

3 For even Christ didn’t please himself. But, as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”

4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

5 Now the God of perseverance and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to Christ Jesus,

6 that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7 Therefore accept one another, even as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God.

8 Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers,

9 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore will I give praise to you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.”

10 Again he says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”

11 Again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Let all the peoples praise him.”

12 Again, Isaiah says, “There will be the root of Jesse, he who arises to rule over the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles will hope.”

13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

14 I myself am also persuaded about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish others.

15 But I write the more boldly to you in part, as reminding you, because of the grace that was given to me by God,

16 that I should be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the Good News of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

17 I have therefore my boasting in Christ Jesus in things pertaining to God.

18 For I will not dare to speak of any things except those which Christ worked through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed,

19 in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of God’s Spirit; so that from Jerusalem, and around as far as to Illyricum, I have fully preached the Good News of Christ;

20 yes, making it my aim to preach the Good News, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build on another’s foundation.

21 But, as it is written, “They will see, to whom no news of him came. They who haven’t heard will understand.”

22 Therefore also I was hindered these many times from coming to you,

23 but now, no longer having any place in these regions, and having these many years a longing to come to you,

24 whenever I travel to Spain, I will come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while.

25 But now, I say, I am going to Jerusalem, serving the saints.

26 For it has been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are at Jerusalem.

27 Yes, it has been their good pleasure, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, they owe it to them also to serve them in fleshly things.

28 When therefore I have accomplished this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will go on by way of you to Spain.

29 I know that, when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of the Good News of Christ.

30 Now I beg you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,

31 that I may be delivered from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints;

32 that I may come to you in joy through the will of God, and together with you, find rest.

33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

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Recap

The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.

This message worked through the transition from Romans 7 into Romans 8, tracing the movement from a life stuck in the cycle of sin to one that is genuinely free through the work of the Holy Spirit. Pastor held up the question of who Paul is describing in Romans 7 and let it press on the congregation before showing how chapter 8 answers it. The answer, he said, is not a what but a Who.

What was said

Romans 7 presents a portrait of someone trapped, saying over and over in the Greek, ego, ego, ego. I want to do what is right but I do what I hate. Pastor pointed out that Paul uses the first person so relentlessly it almost sounds obsessive, and then asked the congregation to sit with a question he had been wrestling with for a month: who is this person? Is it someone who has never believed? Someone under conviction? A carnal Christian? A genuine believer still at war with indwelling sin? He asked people to hold all of those options and not settle too quickly.

The lament in Romans 7 does not end with a solution but with a cry: who will free me from this life dominated by sin and death? Pastor noted that Paul does not ask what, he asks who, and that shift matters. The answer bursts out of Paul like doxology, not as a program to follow but as a person: Jesus Christ. That moment in the text, he said, is the bridge into chapter 8.

Romans 8 opens with no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and Pastor read that as almost a whisper following Paul's desperate cry. The law of the Spirit of life has already set believers free from the law of sin and death. Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh, with no sin of his own to pay for, and condemned sin in the flesh on behalf of all who would believe. This, he said, is the ground level. It is not behavior modification.

To illustrate the two laws at work, Pastor used an analogy he attributed to a Bible school teacher named Dave Reed. Gravity acts on every bird, but a bird does not abolish gravity by flying, it overcomes it through another law entirely, the law of flight. In the same way, the law of sin and death is still in play for believers, but Christ has made it possible to overcome it by yielding to the Holy Spirit. Every analogy breaks down somewhere, he acknowledged, but the point held: what Christ did makes flight possible.

The word he kept returning to was yield. In Romans 6, Paul commands believers to present their members as servants to righteousness, and Pastor noted that the Greek carries the sense of presenting oneself for military orders. He said he prefers yield because it captures something present is the decision made at enlistment, and then the orders come and you carry them out. Yielding is not a one-time event; it is constant, because at every moment a person is yielding either to sin and death or to the Spirit.

He quoted A.J. Gordon, a Baptist pastor from the nineteenth century, who said that if sinless perfection is a heresy, contentment with sinful imperfection is a greater one. The point was not to raise an impossible standard but to push back against settling for Romans 7 as a permanent address. Paul is calling believers to set their minds on the Spirit, which leads to life and peace, rather than on the flesh, which leads only in one direction.

Pastor closed with an image from his own background as a sculpture student. Subtractive sculpture means chipping away everything that does not look like what you are trying to create. God, through His Spirit, is doing that work in believers as they yield, removing everything that does not look like Jesus. Sanctification is not something a person achieves by effort alone; it is the Spirit's work, taken up as a person humbly yields. The benediction, drawn from Romans 15, sent the congregation out not with a to-do list but with a reminder that doing follows believing, not the other way around.

Doing a Bible study?

Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.

The pastor asked the congregation to wrestle with who the man is in Romans 7 - an unregenerate person, someone under conviction, a carnal Christian, or a genuine believer still at war with sin. Which of those options do you find most convincing, and why?
The pastor quoted A.J. Gordon, who said that contentment with sinful imperfection is a greater heresy than sinless perfection. What do you think Gordon meant by that, and do you agree?

and 3 more questions in the guide

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0:00 Speaker 2Morning. I'm so blessed to be here again. Amen? Let's have fun. Let's worship God.

0:06 Will you please stand up? I'm so thankful that I see wonderful faces here. I'm so glad that brother Felix is here. I don't know. I love brother Felix.

0:15 He's such a wonderful brother. I honestly, it's just a blessing to talk to him and have a wonderful fellowship. Let's worship God. That's why I'm here. Amen?

3:24 Oh, you guys sing so beautiful, man. We're so thankful to be here, honestly.

3:28 Speaker 1Amen. Alright. Y'all can have a seat. I've got a couple of announcements this morning. Maybe even a few.

3:36 If this thing will work, there we go. Monday nights at First B are on. We have Monday nights at First B is happening at First B on Monday night right down the hall in the fellowship hall. Grilling burgers and dogs tomorrow. Grilling burgers and hot dogs tomorrow.

3:51 I've got a buddy, Mark Hutto and his wife, Priscilla, will be presenting tomorrow. They are missionaries headed towards Italy. You'll get a chance to meet them in a little bit. The connect hour is happening in between services today and that is right down the hall, same place, fellowship hall. We have a young adult cookout that's coming up and it's going to be at River Crossing.

4:14 It's multi church. You see the multi family yard sale signs? They're always better, aren't they? They're always better. The multi family yard sales are always the better yard sales.

4:23 So, the multi church young adult cookout is happening at River Crossing Tuesday, August 9. It says, bring lawn games and something to share and bring somebody with you. It'll be a fun time. I started to make a joke there but let's not do that. It may come up in the sermon.

4:39 Who knows? This Friday, Renzi is going to take the high school kids and middle school kids out for Folf. That is not the mixture of a fox and a wolf. Folff is Frisbee golf, okay? So, they're going out to the the the village to play Frisbee golf.

4:57 Is that on, Renzy? Ten: 3zero am, meet here. All is well. Very good. BBS was this week.

5:06 We have a video. Turn Amen. So, That was fun. If y'all can't tell, it's a barrel of monkeys in here for VBS every year. It is chaotic as it can possibly be from about 08:45 until about one.

8:03 Every every day during VBS. Would you stand up and greet one another and if you can, move forward. There are people standing in the back. If you can, move forward. I'd appreciate it.

8:13 Fill in some of the empty seats. We'll bring you back together with a song.

8:20 Speaker 2Let's sing together again. I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus, the Nazarene. Amen. I'm so happy to be an amen. I He died for me.

12:48 Amen. Oh, you guys sound so beautiful. And I'm telling you from the bottom of my heart, I can feel the Holy Spirit here in this room. I can feel God's presence, and that's why we are here, isn't it? We have this wonderful fellowship with together as a church, but also to feel this wonderful feeling which is only in the Holy Spirit.

13:05 Amen? Amen. This song is my favorite one. Hallelujah. Jesus is here.

14:42 Amen? God of mercy, sweet love of mine. Oh, I love it. This is personal. Oh, I love it so much.

16:49 It's so precious to be here. I feel like I wanna pray. May I please pray? Heavenly father, I'm so thankful for this privilege that we have as a church to worship you. We worship our savior, the one that came and died for us, the one that save us, the one that gave us hope.

17:07 I'm I'm asking you from the bottom of my heart, please bless us and help us to stay closer to you, the closest possible so we can feel that sweet love that comes only from you. I'm so thankful for this church. It's a wonderful church. It's a great church with wonderful people. In Jesus' name, pray.

17:24 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

20:16 Speaker 1Invite the frontline team to come forward. Would you pray with me as we ask God's blessing on this offering? God, we thank you for this beautiful place whether we're living here, whether we're just passing through, whether we are on our way out or on our way in. God, I thank you that you've given us such a glorious place to see, to experience, and that points so so strongly towards you.

20:48 Speaker 2Amen.

20:48 Speaker 1God, thank you and we acknowledge you. The creator is present with us right now and he's screaming forth day after day, night after night. Creation is pouring forth. The glory of God. So God, I pray that those of us who know you would not look away, that we would accept it and glorify you, that we would not push the knowledge of God out of our minds, that we would embrace it.

21:16 And lord, we pray that you would live your life through this body, this body of Christ. God, I pray as we acknowledge you right now that you are the giver of every good and perfect gift that all that we have comes from you by our tithes and offerings. Lord, we are giving it back, asking you to bless and multiply it.

21:37 Speaker 2Amen.

21:38 Speaker 1So that others can experience the peace and the joy and the love that we have experienced. So, God, we ask you sincerely to take this offering, multiply it as you would, to do your kingdom's work here in Jackson, in Wyoming, in The States, and to the ends of the earth. You are a missionary God. You are sending out. Amen.

22:04 In Jesus name, lord, we ask your blessing. Amen. Amen.

24:18 Speaker 2That was a little bit of gypsy then. Oh, I love it.

24:29 Speaker 1A little bit of gypsy music from a little gypsy. He brought he brought that with him this morning. Florine's from Romania. If y'all don't know that, we've got a lot of folks visiting from all over. I've talked to lots of folks from lots of places in The States and several from other places in the world.

24:48 I have a couple that I want to introduce to you right now. Mark Hutto went to the same seminary that I went to. He was there the same time that I was there and this is Priscilla. She was there the last year that I was there. I did not know her but they have since gotten married and are headed to Italy.

25:05 We're going need a mic. Here it comes. And so I just wanted for Mark and for Priscilla. Actually introduce themselves, tell you who they are, what they're planning on doing, and I'll get back up here when you finish.

25:16 Speaker 3Alright. We'll take a long time. So I'm Mark. This is my wife, Priscilla. We currently live in South Carolina.

25:22 Priscilla is originally from Italy. So she came to the seminary just for Bible college and to study pastoral counseling. So we plan on going to Italy in November and to back to her hometown which is in Bari which is in the South right above the heel of the boot, if you can look on the map there. And it's a beautiful place, but what's going on currently is the whole refugee crisis. There are thousands coming in each week and it's just only getting more chaotic and God's really given us a lot of compassion and faith to work among the refugee community there.

25:51 But not just traditional type work, but we really have grown a lot and just how to minister to people's traumas and wounds through counseling and other other means. So we've seen God do some incredible stuff the past two years as we grow in this. Just a lot of faith to see God coming and heal. Kind of a glimpse into kind of our vision is from Isaiah 61 or Psalm one forty seven, Luke four. God talks about healing the broken hearted.

26:17 And a large amount of people carry brokenness in their heart just from that happens in their childhood. It could be anything, small or big. But especially people who have to forcefully leave their home because of war, persecution, or torture, cross the Mediterranean Sea, getting rescued out of an ocean that's cold or whatever. I mean, they carry a lot of trauma. And we work with refugees in Columbia, South Carolina as well.

26:42 And so I've met many Afghanis, Congolese, Eritreans, Iraqis. They're coming from all over, but they just have a lot of hurt. But God heals. Amen. And he doesn't he doesn't just mask.

26:53 He doesn't just manage. He heals and restores the core of who we are. And we're we're products of that. God has healed us through different ways. And for her to be able to stand here from the family, you know, she came out of it.

27:05 It's just awesome to see how God restores us. So we wanna bring that to people who are hurting as well. Thank

27:15 Speaker 1you. That's good. So tomorrow night, Monday night, he's gonna tell a little bit more about what they're planning on doing and what they've seen to some stories, and Priscilla's gonna speak up. You didn't say anything, but yeah. She's from Body, Italy, like they said, so her accent is awesome.

27:33 And y'all know Tanya and I actually eloped. Twenty four years ago, we eloped and we moved to Italy the next day. So, So it's something that's always been pretty close to our hearts and it's just great to hear what you're doing and that they're doing it right now in Columbia, South Carolina. So, please come tomorrow night and and hear what they have to say. If any of you want to meet them between services, they'll be down the hall at the connect hour, and they'll answer every question and they'll stay here till the last customer is served.

28:00 Alright. And you are raising support. I will say that. You are raising support. They're about 60% of the way there as far as pledges go.

28:08 So, that's that. So, onto this, bondage, just like you're talking about under the law. Whether that is the Jewish law, the Torah, the 10 commandments, or just the our own internal sense of what is right and what is wrong. We cannot live up to any of those standards as human beings and we start off in bondage. Now, the passage that we went through last week, seven fourteen through seven twenty three, twenty four, twenty five.

28:37 We went through that and it was a pretty good picture of what bondage looks like. It was that kind of can't get out of my own way picture. Bondage under the law. But today, we're going to bridge over into chapter eight and go up to about eight eleven and see the transforming work that the power of the Holy Spirit does. The death of Christ enables this because the transaction has been made already.

29:05 In the past, the transaction was made on the cross at Calvary. Death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and deliverance is available. I'm gonna get back to the subject we were talking about in chapter six about yielding, yielding, and so, let's just go through it. So, last week, we covered these yellow words up here. I'm gonna go back through it again, read it, and then we'll pick it apart a little bit.

29:35 So, the trouble is not with the law. For it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me. For I am all too human. I'm a slave to sin.

29:46 I don't really understand myself or I want to do what is right. But I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate but if I know that what I'm doing is wrong, then, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So, I'm not the one doing the wrong. It's sin that's living inside of me.

30:06 There's a concept there that is the sinful nature. He doesn't call it the sinful nature at this juncture but it comes back up repeatedly in Paul and I try not to introduce anything that's not biblically introduced into evidence. Y'all know that. We're going in order and so, he says right there, it is the sin living in me. So, indwelling sin.

30:25 It's living in there. So, that's what we're saying. So, I'm not the one doing it wrong. It is in the indwelling sin that is living in me that does it. Now, I know that nothing good lives in me, Ego, ego, where we get our word ego.

30:39 I know that nothing good lives in me. That is in my sinful nature. There it is. First time in Paul that we've heard it called that. I've got a buddy in the second service that's right here.

30:50 He calls it the walking around man. The walking around man. The old man. The sinful nature. I want to do what is right but I can't.

31:00 I want to do what is good but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong but I do it anyway. Can I get a witness? But if I do what I don't want to do, then I'm not really the one doing the wrong. It's sin that's living in me, indwelling sin, my sinful nature that does it.

31:16 I have discovered this principle of life, Paul says, that when I wanna do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. Alright, keeps on saying and for you to read it in Greek, it's ego, ego, ego, ego. It says it over and over and over again. You don't have to use the first person pronoun. You can just skip it because it's obvious.

31:34 You're the one speaking but he uses it over and over. Ego, ego, ego, which we get our word ego, ego, ego, okay? I have discovered this principle of life that when I wanna do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart but there's another power within me that is at war with my mind. Now, how can he say both of those things?

31:56 He's got his mind and he is torn between two. Either yielding to righteousness as he has said in chapter six or yielding to sin. He's gonna do one or the other. You're gonna be yielded to one or to the other. There's not a chance of remaining neutral.

32:13 You can't just sit back and wait. If you sit back and wait, you're yielding to your normal, sinful nature. There's still time. There's still time. I love God's law with all my heart.

32:26 He says, but there's another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. So, Paul can say this and he says it as if it's it's present tense. So, he's saying it like this is in the present tense. He does not say that it was in the past.

32:44 He could be using the dramatic present, the narrative present. So, last week, I asked you if you would wrestle with this. Now, I know that about three quarters of you were here last week, about a quarter of you who are traveling or a quarter of you are just here visiting, whatever. I asked, who the man? Who the man in this passage, okay?

33:01 Who is it that Paul is talking about? Now, he's speaking first person. He says it over and over and he's speaking in the present tense. I ask you, is it an unregenerate person? That is someone who has not been born again, generated one time, regenerated as born again, okay?

33:15 This is someone who has not put their faith in Christ. Is it a non Christian, an unregenerate? Is it a man who is under conviction but is not yet persuaded that Jesus is the answer? Is it a carnal Christian? Now, carnal Christian, some people say does not exist at all.

33:35 If you're a carnal, you're not Christian, okay? Is it a Christian who spends his time thinking on the things of the flesh and therefore, going after the things of the flesh according to the passage we're in? Or is it a bonafide believer that is still at war with his sin? I ask you to wrestle with it this week. I've been wrestling with it for about the last month.

33:59 I even included one more but I'll get to that later, okay? I love God's law with all my heart but there's another power within me that's at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me and it automatically think of this. James one eight says, a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Does it sound unstable?

34:21 When Paul is presenting that passage, it sound unstable. Say, I want to do this and I don't do it. I don't want to do this but I end up doing it. I think that's what James talk, James is talking about right here. To be resolute that you are going to yield to the spirit, Paul has presented as a possibility.

34:37 It is possible because of the death of Christ. It is possible that you can actually yield to the spirit. He says, even you can produce a harvest of good works. You can. It's possible.

34:50 Have you decided to? Have you decided to yield to righteousness? Now, Paul is asking us that. Okay. So, 24 25, I agree.

35:00 I talked to David this morning. David Jennings back there and he says, he thinks that Paul, occasionally, you'll hear Paul just burst out into doxology where he's praising God for something. He thinks that after all of this struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle, he's presented, lament one for two verses. Lament two for two verses. Lament three and then he gets to this and he said, oh, what wretched man that I am or oh, what a miserable person I am.

35:22 Who will free me from this life that's dominated by sin and by death? He is bursting out because he can't stand it, to say it. He's experienced what it's like to live in the life of peace and God but he is expressing what it's like to deal with your sin on your own. I, I, I, I, I, ego, ego, ego. Oh, what a wretched man I am.

35:46 Who will deliver me from this body of death? It's the King James. Who will free me from this life that's dominated by sin and death? Who? He asked who?

35:54 He doesn't say what? Praise God. He doesn't say what. Who will deliver me? It's not what you do but it really is who you know.

36:04 Jesus. It really is. It makes a difference. What you do, we all sin. He's covered that.

36:11 My goodness. Chapter three was the gospel presented in a very straightforward manner for absolutely everybody because we all have sinned. So, for the unregenerate person, here in chapter three and seeing that you're, no one does good, no one's righteous, no one seeks after God but he gave Christ anyway. That's the gospel. And this passage, actually, the next passage in eight is really the gospel for believers.

36:38 It's not just about justification which he's talked about for five chapters. Justifying being saved is the work of God available through your belief in that. By his grace through faith. Here, he says, who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Who will free me?

36:59 Now, this is future tense. What we've been talking is present, present, present, present, present, present, and then he says, who will in the future? My goodness, I feel like this is never going to be over. Who will free me from this life that's dominated by sin and death and he immediately, like I said, burst forth into Thanksgiving and praise. Thank God.

37:16 The answer is in Jesus Christ our lord. He is the answer to sin, to the law of sin and death which all of us start off. Identifying with Adam. So, you see how it is? He goes back.

37:29 Let me sum up. So, you see how it is. In my mind, I really wanna obey God's law but because of my sinful nature, I'm a slave to sin. So, I present one more option on my list here. Is it someone who has achieved moral perfection?

37:49 Last week, I just strike struck that one off the list. Don't even consider that one. I want you to consider it because people have preached that it is possible. There is a certain line of theology that has presented as a a possibility that someone could actually achieve moral perfection. I I have a hard time with that.

38:04 I have a really hard time. I really have a hard time preaching that. My goodness, what a standard to measure up to. So, you see how it is. In my mind, I really wanna obey God's law but because of my sin for nature, I am present tense, a slave to sin.

38:19 So, I don't think that it is one who's achieved moral perfection and I would, like I said, have a hard time presenting that. Where I went to seminary. Actually, it's where Mark went to seminary too and they have five standing stones they call em and y'all hear me mention these usually one at a time when it comes up in the text. Authority of scripture, absolutely. I believe in the inertia.

38:42 I believe in the authority of scripture. It contains everything that we need. Life, faith, and practice. Authority of scripture. No doubt about it.

38:51 Sanctify them by your truth. Jesus says in the garden seventeen seventeen of John. Prayer and faith. By all means, if you're a missionary going out on the field or if you're somebody that sits here on Sunday and goes to work in your mission field, prayer and faith. Believing that God has the resources necessary for you to be able to do what work he wants for you to do.

39:11 Pray. Have him direct what he would have you do and then have the faith to do it. Pray and faith. Absolutely. Nope.

39:18 No problem. Evangelical unity. How many times have you heard this one from me? I believe that there is a continuum of belief, spectrum of orthodoxy. Some of us are more to one side, some to the other.

39:31 But evangelical unity says, we're gonna have different members in the body of Christ. They're gonna have different functions and so we should try to pull people to the center of the gospel, not major on the minors, pull it back together, and get along with one another. Euodia, Syntiki, get along, okay? Evangelical unity. World evangelization, absolutely.

39:53 We should be sending people to Romania, to Italy, to Mexico, to wherever, South Africa. We'll hear from Melissa Landis next week. World evangelization. I think we're all in agreement about that. Victorious Christian living is the last one.

40:09 And whenever you start to preach a sermon about victorious Christian living, like living a life of victory in Christ, you start to get scowls from the from the gallery. I'm so conscious of my sin. There's no way that that's possible. I feel just like Paul in Romans seven. I know what it's like and I just am living a life where I'm battling, battling, battling against myself all the time and I live somewhat defeated.

40:35 I have not been able to let go of whatever sin and I feel defeated. Well, what Paul is gonna present in chapter eight is it is possible to live in victory. Now, we might say, I have been living in victory for a while or I could say, I have been living in victory for a while of over certain areas in my life. But Paul is presenting this like, we need to yield to righteousness. When you start listening to the still small voice of God and being obedient to it, it gets easier to hear it and it's so great that it's better and better and better and you can walk along.

41:21 It does get better to borrow a phrase. It does get better. Victorious Christian living and this is the way they define it in the core values of that seminary. Victory in Christ comes to those who yield humbly to the Holy Spirit. Who makes us more like him in our daily lives?

41:39 Now, sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit. You cannot just go, I'm going to buckle down, egg go, go. Spiritual growth. Now. Serenity now.

41:51 No. You can't do that. It's the work of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives but you can humbly yield to his will. You've seen this before? It's taken from second Thessalonians.

42:09 God chose from the beginning how this would happen. Christ would come to Earth, be tempted in every way that we're tempted. Yet, without sin, he would do the work of an evangelist. He'd do the work of the savior, the only savior. His whole perfect life, his whole sacrificial death, burial, resurrection, ascension session.

42:32 's seated at the right hand of the father and interceding for us. Christ work is true and real. It's God's way. The gospel witness goes forth. From someone, it could be from the book, it could be from the Bible, Should be from the Bible if it even when it's coming through us but from somebody who's experienced belief in Jesus, the life, and the peace.

42:58 The gospel witness goes forth. Jesus said, he would build the church but he's gonna do it through his servants, his disciples. The gospel witness goes forth and when someone hears, Romans 10 says, you know, that's how people come to be saved is through hearing the gospel, the gospel. The message of the cross. We'll get to in a minute and when one is believes, immediately, all of those promises of God, all of the salvation, all of the justification is immediate, absolutely.

43:29 You just went from sinner to saint, just like that. Sinner to saint and then the sanctification process begins and as you yield your will to his, you'll see this sanctification. Hopefully, you'll be on an upward trajectory. As you yield to him, you will be. It's the work of the Holy Spirit and as you yield to him, you'll be in a and you might resist and go, now, when we get to Romans eight twenty eight, he says, all of it is gonna work together for good but as far as your life and peace and joy goes, when you don't yield to the spirit and you yield to sin and death, you start to sink.

44:13 There are two laws and we'll get to the laws in just a minute. So, there's a law of sin and death. Let's put it this way. I think Dave Reed who used to teach at the Bible School, somebody told me about him this week and I I loved his analogy about this. There there are two laws in play.

44:29 So, the law of gravity is in play. All of us are feeling it right now. We're stuck to the ground. Birds are subject to the law of gravity, right? And to simplify, I don't know all the aerodynamics and everything else, drag coefficients and whatnot.

44:44 I'll just say, there's another law, the law of flight. So, there's a law of gravity and there's a law of flight. We don't. We can't do the law of flight ourselves with our arms. Birds can.

44:54 Now, our birds completely throwing away the law of gravity. No, they can overcome the law of gravity though. In yielding to the Holy Spirit, Christ has made the way possible for us to be able to overcome the law of sin and death. Does that make sense? It's like the law of life.

45:14 Every analogy breaks down at some point. Don't press it too hard. But I really like that. To think that we can fly it basically. Because of what Christ has done, putting our faith in him, yielding to him.

45:28 So, I was talking about the sinless perfection thing, absolute moral perfection. I love this. AJ Gordon, Baptist Pastor of the nineteenth century, had a lot of good things to say. I love this one. He said, if we regard the doctrine of sinless perfection as a heresy, and most of us do, okay?

45:44 I say, we do. We regard contentment with sinful imperfection as a greater heresy. The key thing there is contentment with it. If you've been living in Romans seven and you're content to live in Romans seven, you haven't quite turned the page yet to Romans eight. He says, that's a greater heresy than sinless perfection and or moral, absolute perfection.

46:12 We should not be content with a sinful and imperfect life. Now, we should know we're forgiven and we should be able to walk in peace no matter what but we should be striving for holiness. Amen. That's what he's called us to. Okay, so I'm going to skip back just a second to my yielding verses here.

46:28 For just as you in the past presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness resulting in even further lawlessness. Have you noticed that? When you go into sin, it gets a whole lot easier to sin more. Just as you presented your members in the past as slaves to impurity and lawlessness resulting in even further lawlessness. So now, this is an imperative.

46:51 Present your members as slaves to righteousness. Resulting in sanctification and that sounds very active to say, so now, present your members. It's a very active thing and it is but the reason I use the old King James yield is because this present is like to present for orders in a military situation. That's the main way this word is used and it is to present and be ready for orders. Now, what are you gonna do once you get the orders if you're in the military?

47:21 You're going to carry them out. You have decided when you signed on, I am yielded to whatever orders I receive, I am going to do whatever he directs me to do if they're of a superior rank. So now, present your members. I like yield because it feels better to me. I had somebody say last week, we were in heated agreement Over this because present sounds so active and yield sounds so passive.

47:47 The truth is, yielding is happening all the time. Either you're yielding to sin and death or you're yielding to obedience and righteousness in spirit. So, even so now, imperative a command, yield your members as servants to righteousness unto holiness which it gets us back to our slide if I had it up there. The upward progression towards the day of lord and glory. So, now, yield to righteousness for your sanctification.

48:18 Now, double minded man is unstable in all his ways. How irritating this is? Paul is calling for us in chapter eight to set our minds on the things of God and not set em on the things below to think on him. Now, it's a good place for a preacher to say, read your Bible more, pray more, great idea. Paul doesn't get completely into that at this point but those are the things that you know are of God, right?

48:51 Okay. Here we go. Who will free me from this life that's dominated by sin and death? Well, thank God. The answer is in Jesus Christ our lord.

49:00 Let me sum up. See how it is. In my mind, I really want to obey God's law but because of my sinful nature, I'm a slave to sin. You see how big this print is? He's screaming this and then, this follows and it's a whispering, still small voice of truth that says, now, therefore, there is present tense.

49:19 Now, present tense. Right now. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Doesn't it feel like a Praise God. He's done the work.

49:33 He's grounded me in the work of Christ. For the law of the spirit of the life of Jesus has set you free, has set you free. In the past, he did the work. You've accepted it already. You are free from the law of sin and death.

49:47 You have a, well, let's keep on going. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did. God, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. He said, had to say likeness there because Christ had no sin. He had no sin debt to pay.

50:03 He went to the cross to pay the sin debt for all who would believe. It's an open offer, universal offer. And as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. This is God's answer for your sin. He condemned sin in the flesh.

50:23 That's the message of the cross. Now, if you're looking at and going, this is just behavior modification. No. This really is the ground level and I know it's simple that Christ died so that you don't have to. To those who are perishing, that sounds like foolishness but to those who are being saved, you can truly acknowledge and say, it's the power of God.

50:48 It changed my life. It gave me the freedom necessary to get out of Romans seven and to get into Romans eight. So that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled. Now, for weeks, I've been going on and on about indicative imperatives and subjunctives. I wanted to point out a subjunctive right here.

51:07 So that, I love so that clauses. It tells you why. So that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. It might be. It's dependent upon your will.

51:24 It's dependent upon you accepting what he's already stated as fact that Christ has died. He has already set you free. Living in that and staying away from the other. Let's just behavior modification. No.

51:38 It's so that it might be fulfilled in us. Those who who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit and if you're wondering, he goes on. For those who are according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh and those who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. For the mindset on the flesh is death. If you're yielding to that, it heads only one direction but the mindset on the spirit is life and peace.

52:02 That's what you're asking. When you're there, you're asking people what it is that their minds are set on basically and all of that that's wrapped up with it. The mindset on the flesh is death but the mindset on the spirit is life and peace because the mindset on the flesh is hostile towards God. It does not subject itself to the law of God. It's not even able to do so.

52:25 We saw that. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you're not in the flesh people. He's speaking to Christians. He's writing this letter to Christians.

52:37 I know most of the folks in here today would claim Christ. Most of us in here. You're not in the flesh but you're in the spirit. Now, over and over and over in Paul, he says, be what you already are. Be what you already are.

52:51 Be what you already are. You're already a Christian. Be that. You're not yet complete. You're still on your path.

52:57 You're still on your upward trajectory. You're going to carry that sinful nature around with you and it's going to be tempted to act in the only way that it can. Your sinful nature can only act that way and your new man can only act this way. That make sense? Double minded man is not deciding which one of these.

53:17 It's going back and forth between which one of these you're going to follow. If you can resolutely say, lord, I surrender humbly and yield my life to you. When I recognize anything as sin, I will yield to you and go towards righteousness and said, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you but if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. Now, there is some theology out there that says there are varsity and junior varsity Christians. Some people have believed in Jesus but they do not have the spirit.

53:50 Well, Paul disagrees with that right here. I know that there are times in our life when we feel filled and there are times of filling and there are times of baptism or change in the spirit. I agree with that but he says, if anyone doesn't have the spirit of Christ, he's saying it's possible for every Christian. It's possible for every believer to do this because if he doesn't have the spirit of Christ, he doesn't belong to him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

54:20 But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead. Is there anything more difficult than that? No. He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give you life and give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. I love this slide.

54:43 I like I like thinking about this because I can feel the times where I'm going where the law of gravity is taking over the law of flight. I've just dropped my wings. He's saying, keep on flapping. It's my work. I'm doing it.

55:02 As you yield to me, you'll see it and then on the day of the Lord, there's no doubt about it. There's an incorruptible hope. We've got this to look forward to and glorification. Amen. When that happens.

55:15 It's the work of the Holy Spirit and he will do it. Try him. He will do it. So, yield to righteousness for your sanctification. Sanctification, if I had to say what it's like in a process, sanctification, we'll get to it later in chapter eight, is the process by which God through his spirit shapes you more and more into the image of his son.

55:37 So, I was a sculpture major way back. When I went to Italy, we went there to study art. Tanya Vas Tanya and I were both accepted to this program in Italy. We got married right before we left to go over there And while we were there, I was a sculpture major. I did some additive stuff and I did some subtractive stuff.

55:52 Subtractive sculpture sculpture, you take a piece of wood, stone, whatever, and you chip away everything that doesn't look like whatever it is you're trying to create. If I wanna make an elephant, I chip away everything that doesn't look like an elephant. That make sense? We are a block. Some of us are blockheads.

56:10 We are a block and God as we yield. Some things are easier to carve than others. As we yield, Christ, God is making us more and more through his spirit into the image of Christ. So, he's knocking off everything that doesn't look like Jesus. Yield.

56:29 Trust me. Yield to that hammer. Yield to that chisel. Yield to that sandpaper, whatever. Yield to righteousness for your sanctification.

56:39 Would you rather look like Jesus? Even people that don't like Christians still like Jesus, right? Christians don't all look like Jesus but we are as we yield all head in that direction. That looks a lot like the last slide. I'm gonna invite the band back up.

56:57 I never have like landing. The law of flight is fine. I never have like the landing for for this stuff. I've got a great benediction. Would you stand with us and sing the last song?

57:10 Amen.

57:19 Speaker 2I really like chapter seven because I see myself a lot in that chapter. I still do the things that I don't want to. But this song kind of talks this is good ending. It's good. Yes.

57:36 Yes. Let's play one more time. If you want, close your head. Close your eyes, please.

1:01:08 Speaker 1Amen. This is from Romans 15 and the benediction for today. Think about this now. Like right now. Now, may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus.

1:01:23 So that with one accord, you may, with one voice, glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ and may that God, same one, capital G, God, almighty. May God, the God of hope, fill you with all joy and all peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. That is not that is not Roman seven, is it? It's the transition between seven and eight. You can abound in hope.

1:01:53 In believing. Hang on that. Doing follows believing. Not the other way around. You're not gonna convince yourself by trying.

1:02:03 Doing follows believing. Trust that what Paul has said and indicative is true and then just let your life be yielded. Put it in neutral and let the Holy Spirit lead. In Jesus name, amen. Amen.

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Holy Spirit Romans 8 Sanctification Sinful Nature Victory Over Sin Yielding To God

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