WEBVTT 00:00:00.959 --> 00:00:03.680 Hey everybody, uh Mark Medley here again. 00:00:03.759 --> 00:00:09.439 We're looking at session seven of our foundations series. 00:00:09.519 --> 00:00:16.160 And I hope you see that there's uh kind of a building, a foundation, and there's some building on this foundation. 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:39.840 We understand who God is, what he thinks about us, how we come to know him through Christ, how we are um brought into new life, regenerated, justified, adopted into his family through new life, and how those uh those that new life brings uh the work of the Holy Spirit into our lives. 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:48.079 He's active and drawing us near to God and showing us God and helping us to live correctly, how prayer has a part of this. 00:00:48.159 --> 00:00:54.320 And now we're talking about something today which is which was um like really crucial to me. 00:00:54.479 --> 00:01:01.039 It was one of the revelations that helped me get over humps in my uh spiritual life. 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:06.560 And I think maybe the best way to think of it is all of us have struggles. 00:01:06.799 --> 00:01:12.959 All of us sometimes feel like we deal with some things that we just aren't seem to be getting free from. 00:01:13.359 --> 00:01:43.760 And so I want to tell you my story today in the context of Romans chapter 5, 6, and 7 and 8, and uh talk to you about how we can conclude our past, close the door on that, turn around into a new kingdom and a new life, and walk forward free, not only clear of the guilt of our sins, um, the penalty of our sins, but also free from the power of sin over us. 00:01:44.239 --> 00:01:52.799 So let me start by uh turning to chapter 5 of Romans, and I want to read to you. 00:01:53.040 --> 00:02:09.919 Again, there's uh quite a quite a bit in your booklets that you can read here, but I just want to walk through the scriptures here, uh, chapters five, six, seven, and eight of Romans, because Paul is talking about how to apply the powerful work of Jesus Christ into our lives. 00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:16.400 So I'll read to you from uh chapter five, verse one, starting there at least. 00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:29.439 And it says, Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:48.960 And we understand this that we have been, uh, as we have talked about in former sessions, that we are in on a solid ground, we are in a place of right standing with God because not of our of our own works, but because of the work that is finished, the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:57.199 So therefore, by our faith in his work, we are justified and we have peace with God, and we are standing in this grace. 00:02:57.360 --> 00:02:57.680 Okay. 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:02.000 I love the way he says that, the the grace by which we stand. 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:12.639 Okay, so um, and then he goes on down and he talks about, uh, he begins to talk about practically living out a Christian life. 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:21.759 Um, so it says in chat in verse 6 that you see that just at the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:30.400 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man, someone might possibly dare to die. 00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:33.919 But God demonstrates his love for us in this. 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:38.639 While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 00:03:39.280 --> 00:03:47.360 Since now we've been justified by his blood, how much more will we be saved from God's wrath through him? 00:03:48.479 --> 00:03:53.599 And so, and there's there's a phrase right there that Paul uses over and over and over. 00:03:53.759 --> 00:03:57.039 I think four or five times in this one chapter he uses it. 00:03:57.360 --> 00:04:00.479 And he it's the phrase, how much more? 00:04:00.719 --> 00:04:01.680 How much more? 00:04:01.919 --> 00:04:03.120 Let's read through that. 00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:18.399 So it looks in verse 10 it says, For if when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more having shall we be saved through his life? 00:04:19.360 --> 00:04:26.399 Not only this also, but we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have been received reconciliation. 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:32.560 Okay, so the idea is there is a long arm of the effect of sin. 00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:38.720 Sin uh did a lot into our lives, although we were created to be in fellowship with God. 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:48.560 We were created to be um to walk with him and know him in unity, to hear his voice with no problem, to fellowship with him. 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:53.839 Uh, this is this is our original state, but sin broke that. 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:56.959 And through sin came this separation from God. 00:04:57.120 --> 00:05:00.879 We were friends, now we're enemies, we were near, now we're separate. 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:06.319 It also changed the way we, our relationship even with ourselves. 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:08.480 Now we are self-deceived. 00:05:08.639 --> 00:05:17.839 Now we have this fear of rejection because we have our identity problems, we feel like orphans, we're we have problems in our own self. 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:35.600 It also changed the way we relate to other people because now there are there's jealousy, there's factions, there's rejection from people, there's war, there's all of these things that that are building walls between us and other people. 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:39.680 And sin brought spiritual death and separation from God. 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:41.759 And sin brought physical death. 00:05:41.839 --> 00:05:47.439 We weren't created to ever die, but death came with sin. 00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:58.000 And then if we come to physical death, still being spiritually dead, we have eternal death, which is eternal separation from God. 00:05:58.160 --> 00:06:00.000 This is what this is the effect of sin. 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:04.560 Sin had a long arm, it reached a long ways. 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:08.319 But when Paul is saying this phrase, how much more? 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:14.079 He's saying, Sin went this far, sin had this effect, but how much more? 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:17.279 Farther the work of Jesus went. 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:23.439 So this is the effect of sin, but even more, how much more the effect of God. 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:25.040 This is what he continues to say. 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:26.319 So let's read this. 00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:28.399 There we see that in verse 9. 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:31.040 How much more will we be saved from God's wrath through him? 00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:35.839 Verse 10, how much more will we we be reconciled to God through Christ? 00:06:36.160 --> 00:06:40.560 If we keep reading, we see this in verse 15. 00:06:41.600 --> 00:06:44.879 But let's back up and let's read verse uh from verse 12. 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:53.600 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all men because all sinned. 00:06:54.160 --> 00:07:02.000 For before the law was given, sin was in the world, but sin is not taken into account when there's no law. 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:06.480 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses. 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:14.319 Even over those who did not sin by breaking a commandment, so did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. 00:07:14.639 --> 00:07:18.720 But the gift is not like the trespass. 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:36.720 For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, that's Adam, then how much more did the grace of God and the gift of that that came by that grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflow to many? 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:42.319 So there's a power of sin, how much more the power of this grace in the work of Jesus? 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:44.240 We see it also in verse 17. 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:59.439 For if by the trespass of the one man death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:12.240 And then verse 18, consequently, just as the result of one trespass was the condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 00:08:12.480 --> 00:08:26.720 For just he keeps on going, he just beats this one, because he wants us to understand for just as through the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one man, the many will be made righteous. 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:37.039 The law was added that the sin or trespass might increase, but where sin increased, grace increased all the more. 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:38.480 How much more? 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:48.720 So that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:08:48.960 --> 00:08:52.559 There was a power that sin released in our lives. 00:08:52.639 --> 00:09:02.879 It was a power of uh to oppress us, it was a power from the outside to oppress us, to enslave us, to bring us into these habit patterns. 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:06.159 But here he says the grace might reign. 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:14.639 When sin did reign, it was we were lorded over or ruled over in this domain of darkness by sin. 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:26.080 But now, by the gift of righteousness, by the grace of God, grace will reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:27.600 Okay, here we go. 00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:33.200 Sin had a powerful effect, the work of Jesus had a more powerful effect. 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:50.240 Whatever the sin of life, the effect of sin in your life has brought, whatever bondage or whatever uh um habits or enslavement that you've had to these sins, the grace and the power of Jesus Christ is greater. 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:51.679 How much more? 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:54.399 Yes, sin had an effect. 00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:56.480 How much more the effect of Jesus? 00:09:56.639 --> 00:09:58.240 This is what Paul is saying. 00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:00.559 So then we get to chapter six. 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:03.679 Now, here's why I'll back up and I'll tell you my story. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:07.440 I was raised uh in church, but I did not know Jesus. 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:09.840 I went to church every week, but I was not born again. 00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:12.000 In fact, I was far from it. 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:21.759 And I was a musician, there were a lot of places that was rocking, played in a rock and roll band, there was a lot of drugs, a lot of bad uh relationships in my life. 00:10:21.919 --> 00:10:26.480 This was bondage, and I was in bondage at a very early age, actually. 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:29.360 When I came to Jesus, everything changed. 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:31.200 I mean, my whole life turned around. 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:40.879 It was very difficult, even for some people to believe it, the change that went from one school year to the next, my last school year in high school. 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:43.279 There was such a change that happened. 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:45.519 I was this man and now I'm this man. 00:10:45.679 --> 00:10:47.600 How is that even possible? 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:55.840 And there were some things in my life that were broken immediately, like the power of addiction to drugs and alcohol. 00:10:56.080 --> 00:10:58.720 You know, that was that was just taken away. 00:10:58.879 --> 00:11:03.360 It was just chains broke off, and I was free. 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:05.039 That's my story. 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:08.159 I was bound one day, I was free the next. 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:09.919 This is the power of God. 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:20.639 But there were some other things in my life that I was dealing with, personal things, personal sins, that for some reason didn't seem to just break right off. 00:11:21.039 --> 00:11:26.480 They seemed to have a hold on me or keep their hold on me. 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:33.919 And I was walking, uh, trying to walk with the Lord, and yet I felt myself being pulled down by these sins. 00:11:34.159 --> 00:11:36.159 Surely you can understand that too. 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:43.360 You there are some things in your life that you still deal with, whether it is actions, whether it's attitudes, you know, your thought life, whatever it is. 00:11:43.519 --> 00:11:45.600 Um, these are things that are very real. 00:11:45.679 --> 00:11:48.720 And Paul is dealing with this here in chapter six. 00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:51.200 So I was dealing with these issues. 00:11:51.360 --> 00:12:00.799 I had a very uh a wise man in my life that once, who said, when I talked to him about uh sort of a mentor, I talked to him about these things. 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:05.440 And he said, uh, you know, you need to memorize chapter six of Romans. 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:09.039 And I and I understood a little bit about memorization. 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:15.440 I started memorizing scripture when I was born again, but I thought, uh memorize chapter six, verse what? 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:18.559 Like uh no, he said, memorize the whole chapter. 00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:21.200 You you should memorize the whole chapter. 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:25.039 And you know, I didn't even couldn't even think of that. 00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:30.720 Like I've I could do a verse or a couple of verses, but to memorize a chapter, is that even possible to do? 00:12:30.879 --> 00:12:32.879 I don't know what that even is even like. 00:12:33.039 --> 00:12:46.559 So, but you know, I started trying and I went into chapter six, and you know uh I eventually I eventually uh memorized the whole chapter because I found in chapter six the answer to my problem. 00:12:47.039 --> 00:12:49.440 The answer is Jesus and what he has done. 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:51.840 Now let's look and see what Paul says about it. 00:12:52.159 --> 00:12:52.799 Chapter six. 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:55.279 How do you get free from your past? 00:12:55.519 --> 00:13:00.159 How do you conclude your past, step into your future in Jesus? 00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:01.759 This is the point here. 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:11.840 So he says, chapter six, after saying, sin had this power, but grace has even more power. 00:13:12.080 --> 00:13:14.480 Then he says, So what shall we say then? 00:13:14.639 --> 00:13:18.320 Should we go on sinning so that grace may abound? 00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:25.279 Should we go ahead and sin so that we can receive that forgiveness and just live in sin so we can be forgiven? 00:13:25.759 --> 00:13:30.159 Well, Paul sometimes asks questions and then answers his own questions. 00:13:30.240 --> 00:13:33.519 This is the way he writes, this is the way he teaches. 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:34.799 What should we say? 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:38.080 Shall we go on sinning so grace can increase? 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:40.480 By no means. 00:13:40.799 --> 00:13:46.159 One version says, God forbid, another version says, No way, no way. 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:49.120 We died to sin. 00:13:49.679 --> 00:13:52.879 How can we live in it any longer? 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:59.279 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:11.519 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may have a new life. 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:19.120 If we've been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly be united with him in his resurrection. 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:25.519 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with. 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:32.879 That we should no longer be slaves to sin, because anyone who's died has been freed from sin. 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:43.200 Now, if we die with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, for we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die any he cannot die again. 00:14:43.679 --> 00:14:46.399 Death no longer has mastery over him. 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:51.279 The death he died, he died to sin once for all. 00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:54.159 But the life he lives, he lives to God. 00:14:54.399 --> 00:15:02.159 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:08.320 Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 00:15:08.559 --> 00:15:24.159 Do not offer the parts of your body as sin to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 00:15:24.320 --> 00:15:27.440 For sin shall not be your master. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:34.240 Sin shall not be your master, for you are not under the law, but you are under grace. 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:36.320 Don't you know? 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:38.399 Well, then it says, What then? 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:42.000 Shall we sin because we're not under the law, but under grace? 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:44.799 By no means, no way, God forbid. 00:15:45.039 --> 00:15:56.960 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or obedience, which leads to righteousness. 00:15:57.200 --> 00:16:08.159 But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed that form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:14.159 You've been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:17.840 Okay, this is what set me free. 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:21.039 I've trusted Jesus as my Savior. 00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:30.720 I trusted that his work on the cross would deliver me from the penalty of my sin, deliver me from hell, and deliver me into heaven forever. 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:33.200 This is this was what I believed. 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:40.320 My faith in Jesus had to do with his taking of my sins, the penalty of my sins. 00:16:40.559 --> 00:16:49.200 But I did not yet understand or believe that Jesus' work on the cross also dealt with the power of sin in my life. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:52.320 And so I began to say, you know what? 00:16:52.480 --> 00:17:04.880 If this is what Jesus did, if this is what the Bible says, that I died with him, was crucified with him, I was raised with him, buried with him in baptism, raised again to newness of life. 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:12.799 So that just as death has no power over Jesus, now sin has no power over me. 00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:16.640 Therefore, do not let sin have power over me. 00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:23.039 This thing, as memorized, I memorized this chapter of this thing, the truth kept going into my in my heart. 00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:32.400 And you know, the scripture says, Jesus said, if you continue in my truth, continue in my word, then you'll know the truth, and the truth will make you free. 00:17:32.640 --> 00:17:36.559 Okay, this is this is the truth that set me free. 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:44.160 And not only Jesus dealt with my the penalty of my sin, but he dealt with the power of sin in my life. 00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:49.680 Those things that I was struggling with, he has given me power over them. 00:17:49.839 --> 00:18:17.440 Now I had known the power of God to break those chains immediately in some areas of my life, but other areas of my life, he was giving me the opportunity and the and the grace to walk step by step, day by day, in freedom by making decisions that were consistent with my commitment to him, but more so to his commitment to me and his work for me. 00:18:18.240 --> 00:18:22.799 I began to just believe this sin will not have dominion over me. 00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:29.359 I don't have to have, I don't have to walk as slave to this sin. 00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:32.079 And I want to tell you that it's the same thing for you. 00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:35.119 You don't have to walk as slaves to sin. 00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:38.799 This is not something that you're stuck with for the rest of your life. 00:18:39.039 --> 00:18:47.759 It's not that Jesus saved me and is taking me to heaven someday, but I still have to be under the power of sin here. 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:57.519 Now the scripture says that he has delivered you out of the kingdom of darkness and put you into the kingdom of his dear son, Jesus, out of darkness into life. 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:01.440 Sin doesn't reign anymore in your body. 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:04.319 The power is broken, so don't give it power. 00:19:04.480 --> 00:19:11.119 It's very interesting, very important that we have to make sure we are in a position to not give it power. 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:13.440 We don't go those places on the internet. 00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:16.799 We don't hang with the people that are dragging us down. 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:22.079 Maybe we'll be strong enough someday to drag them up, you know, to pull them up out of there. 00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:26.640 So but right now, maybe you just need to not hang with them yet. 00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:32.480 You need to separate yourselves from the influence of sin. 00:19:33.759 --> 00:19:37.519 And understand that there's a price that's already been paid. 00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:44.319 So he goes on into he goes into another um section here in chapter seven. 00:19:44.640 --> 00:19:46.799 Excuse me, let me fix this up here. 00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:54.000 Um my Bible's too heavy for my podium, so it is like is weighing it down. 00:19:57.039 --> 00:20:11.920 There's this um section here in chapter seven when he talks about this illustration of marriage, and that if you are married, uh if you're married, then you are bound to your your spouse. 00:20:12.160 --> 00:20:14.799 If your spouse dies, you're free from that. 00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:24.880 And he talks about that, you know, and he says that if you're or if you're still married and you committed, if you marry someone else, you've committed adultery, right? 00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:34.720 So you but if your spouse dies, you're free to be married, and you're not committing adultery, you know, because because your spouse is no longer living. 00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:40.559 This is very simple, but he uses the application concerning the power of sin in our lives. 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:44.880 And he says that the law was what we were married to. 00:20:45.839 --> 00:20:54.480 And when we were crucified with Christ and buried with him in baptism, we died to those old sins. 00:20:54.720 --> 00:21:06.400 And the law, which is the thing that actually opened our eyes to that sin, the law helps us see our sin and helps us understand our need for a savior. 00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:13.920 And so he says you're free from those things, and so you're free to be married again to another, which is Christ. 00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:23.599 Okay, so in some sense, there's a New Testament form of adultery, which is shifting back and forth uh between law and grace. 00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:30.000 So uh I'm I'm married to Christ in grace, but I put up myself back under the law. 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:34.400 You know, I'm I am now living the law, uh living under the law. 00:21:34.720 --> 00:21:46.880 And um, this is uh something that he goes into in chapter seven, but he goes through there and he speaks very personally in a way that we all can very much understand. 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:56.079 If you look in chapter seven, and tell me if this doesn't sound like uh something you've st struggled with. 00:21:56.960 --> 00:21:59.680 We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual. 00:22:02.559 --> 00:22:08.720 Sold as a slave to sin, I do not understand what I do, for what I want to do, I do not do. 00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:12.000 But what I hate, I do. 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:18.480 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 00:22:20.720 --> 00:22:29.839 That is, and it is uh, and as it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:33.440 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my sinful nature. 00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:38.000 I have the desire to do what is good, but I can't carry it out. 00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:41.039 For what I do is not the good I want to do. 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:44.960 No, the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing. 00:22:45.920 --> 00:22:51.039 Now, if I do what I do not want to do, it's no longer I who do it, but sin that's living inside me. 00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:54.000 So I find this law at work in me when I want to do good. 00:22:54.319 --> 00:22:56.400 Evil is right there with me. 00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:09.039 For in my inner being I delight in God's law, but I see another law working in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin working in my members. 00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:14.559 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 00:23:14.880 --> 00:23:16.480 Haven't you felt that way sometimes? 00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:19.200 You felt, I just don't know how to get free from this. 00:23:19.359 --> 00:23:20.000 I'm not sure. 00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:21.599 What I want to do, I don't do. 00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:24.400 The things I don't want to do, I find myself doing. 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:26.880 God, how wretched I am. 00:23:27.119 --> 00:23:29.119 Who is going to help me with this? 00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:32.319 Well, Paul doesn't leave the question unanswered. 00:23:32.559 --> 00:23:34.720 He answers it really strongly. 00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:37.599 What a wretched man I am. 00:23:37.680 --> 00:23:40.880 Who will rescue me from the body of this body of death? 00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:46.400 Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:23:47.920 --> 00:23:55.200 So then I find myself, that's why I find in my mind I'm a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature, a slave to the law of sin. 00:23:55.359 --> 00:24:02.240 Therefore, chapter 8, verse 1, there's now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:10.640 Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death. 00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:23.759 And what the law was powerless to do, in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:40.400 And so he condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the flesh, sinful nature, but according to the spirit. 00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:43.119 Okay, so he's saying two things here. 00:24:43.359 --> 00:24:46.480 He's saying there are two things at work, two laws at work here. 00:24:46.799 --> 00:25:07.440 And to me, this was one of the most powerful things that helped me release myself from all the things I had identified myself as in the past, and release myself into my new identity as a beloved son of God, filled with his spirit, longing to serve him and free from sin. 00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:10.240 Okay, so here he says there are two laws at work. 00:25:11.039 --> 00:25:16.000 The law of the spirit of life in Christ and Jesus and the law of sin and death. 00:25:16.160 --> 00:25:16.960 Okay, two laws. 00:25:17.039 --> 00:25:23.200 And the way we can think of this is um there are there are there are two laws, like physical laws. 00:25:23.279 --> 00:25:25.680 Okay, one law is the law of gravity, right? 00:25:25.920 --> 00:25:29.599 Law of gravity says if I drop the glasses, they're gonna fall. 00:25:29.759 --> 00:25:34.559 100% of the time, they're not gonna stay there, they're not gonna rise. 00:25:34.799 --> 00:25:38.559 Gravity pulls them down every single time. 00:25:38.799 --> 00:25:44.400 Gravity is what pull that what anchors us to this earth, you know, and we're kind of happy for that, right? 00:25:44.559 --> 00:25:49.839 Because or else everything would be floating around and they would be out of control. 00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:59.039 So gravity is a a gift, but it's a law that that pulls us down, that keeps us down, that holds us here. 00:25:59.359 --> 00:25:59.680 Okay. 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:03.119 There's another law, though, that's greater than the law of gravity. 00:26:03.279 --> 00:26:04.720 I mean, gravity is everywhere. 00:26:04.880 --> 00:26:07.440 You go everywhere on the planet, it's there. 00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:10.160 But there's a law that's greater than it. 00:26:10.799 --> 00:26:15.599 And for example, there's a law of the aerodynamic law of lift. 00:26:15.839 --> 00:26:29.119 And the law of lift is why a 747 full of passengers, full of fuel, and full of luggage, can get off the ground. 00:26:29.279 --> 00:26:37.119 Sometimes I look and I'm on a plane a lot, and I look and I'm thinking how heavy this plane is. 00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:39.200 It's a massive plane. 00:26:39.279 --> 00:26:40.559 And it's so heavy. 00:26:40.720 --> 00:26:55.440 And then when you fill it full of uh of gas, of fuel, jet fuel, 36,000, 38,000 for a huge one, uh, less for a smaller one, uh, gallons of fuel, that's a lot of weight. 00:26:55.519 --> 00:27:08.720 And then you put 250, 300 people on it, and their luggage, all of them slightly over, probably many of them over overweight in their luggage. 00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:12.160 Uh, but this is this is a huge, this is a huge number. 00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:15.839 How can this get off the ground? 00:27:16.079 --> 00:27:23.599 It's really crazy how this can happen, but it's uh actually very simple because there's another law that's greater than the law of gravity. 00:27:23.839 --> 00:27:24.799 It's a law of lift. 00:27:24.880 --> 00:27:58.880 And the law of lift says if you make airplanes' wings a certain way so that that the air that goes over the wing travels actually more or farther than the air that travels underneath the wing, because the wing is shaped like this and flat on the bottom and round on top, then that simple, that simple thing there, when you add speed to it, then what you have is you have a force that lifts things off the ground just by the speed and by the airflow. 00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:11.279 That plane, which is impossibly heavy, held down by gravity, can be lifted off the ground by the law of lift. 00:28:11.519 --> 00:28:16.480 There's a law that's greater than the law of gravity, the law of lift. 00:28:16.640 --> 00:28:18.160 This is what Paul is saying here. 00:28:18.319 --> 00:28:30.880 There was a law of sin and death that was holding us down, that was binding us to our old life, that was uh enslaving us to habits and addictions. 00:28:31.200 --> 00:28:33.920 There are ways the old person lives. 00:28:34.319 --> 00:28:49.680 But because we're buried with Christ, we're raised with him in baptism, and death has no dominion over him, and sin has no dominion over us, and we're free, we're free from the law of sin and death. 00:28:49.839 --> 00:29:05.680 The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death, just like the law of lift has made us free from the law of gravity, and we can live, and we don't have to be pulled down always to the ground in our spiritual life. 00:29:05.920 --> 00:29:11.359 We can be lifted up and we can walk in the spirit of God. 00:29:11.440 --> 00:29:26.000 And later on, he talks about walking in the spirit and how the spirit is in our hearts and the spirit that cries out, Abba Father, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, it is living inside of us, and it's making us free. 00:29:26.799 --> 00:29:30.799 Okay, so how do you get free from sin in your life? 00:29:30.960 --> 00:29:39.200 How do you conclude your past life, close the door on it, lock the door, turn around and walk into your new life? 00:29:39.440 --> 00:30:01.119 It's through the work of Jesus on the cross, the same power that raised Christ from the dead, the same power that uh, the same work of the cross that made that brought us freedom from the penalty of sin brings us practically every day power to overcome the power of sin in our lives. 00:30:01.279 --> 00:30:07.599 There's a greater law, the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 00:30:07.839 --> 00:30:19.599 So, Father, I pray that you would help us to understand this more and more that we can live in the freedom that you have purchased for us, that the fullness of what you died for us to have, we would live in. 00:30:19.759 --> 00:30:21.039 In the name of Jesus. 00:30:21.279 --> 00:30:21.839 Amen. 00:30:22.079 --> 00:30:23.039 God bless.