WEBVTT 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:06.639 So Romans 8. 00:00:06.719 --> 00:00:07.919 Here's what we're looking at. 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:17.280 There's this reality that's that's very fascinating about uh Paul and the way that he understands his ministry uh to Christians. 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:23.039 And it's this it's that Paul is relentless about preaching the gospel. 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:29.600 Uh and he's relentless about bringing it back to Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. 00:00:29.679 --> 00:00:31.679 And we have this problem in the church, right? 00:00:31.839 --> 00:00:36.560 We have this problem where we view the gospel as something that gets us started, right? 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:42.799 It's kind of the gun at the beginning of a race, uh, but then we try to move on to deeper things. 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:48.880 We try to move on to things of mystery or things that are this new revelation, right? 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:55.119 Uh, because we think that we no longer need the gospel, but we can actually move on to it in deeper things. 00:00:55.200 --> 00:01:09.599 And here's what happens: that pursuit of depth often in the church leads us away from the gospel and into territories of heresy and into territories of things that are become actually detrimental to our spiritual health. 00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:31.359 And so, Paul, and throughout Romans and throughout all of his epistles, he tries to work on okay, you thought you were gonna move away from this, this gospel message that uh saved you, but I'm gonna bring you right back because it's not just the gospel message that saved you, it's the gospel message that is saving you, and it's the gospel message that will save you. 00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:39.599 It's this reality of yes, you have been saved through it, you are progressively being saved through it, and you will be saved in glory by it. 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:42.719 This is the reality for us of the gospel. 00:01:42.959 --> 00:01:55.280 And here, Paul, he's eight chapters in to helping us understand who we are in relationship to God apart from Jesus, and then in relationship with Jesus. 00:01:55.439 --> 00:02:07.040 And here in Romans 8, after laboring for seven chapters to help these Christians understand who they are in Christ, he is about to declare to us the best news that you and I have ever heard. 00:02:07.439 --> 00:02:11.280 This is the best news that we can imagine. 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:13.360 And it starts off with verse 1. 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:19.599 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:23.840 That's the best news you and I have ever heard. 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:46.879 And we're gonna explain why that is and how we come under that state with Christ, that we no longer have condemnation because of who we are and what we've done, because Christ in himself has brought us out of death and into life, out of the flesh and into the spirit, out from under the law and into liberty. 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:55.840 There's something has transposed within our very nature from something that we were into something now we currently are. 00:02:56.240 --> 00:03:00.000 And all of that, all of that is the work of God. 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:15.680 None of that is the work of you, none of that is the labor of your hands, it's not the household you were born into, it wasn't how your parents raised you, it wasn't the culture or school district you were part of, it wasn't the decisions that you made in your life that were right or good. 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:20.240 Every single aspect of this truth and reality is God. 00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:31.840 So, verses one through four, as we start to dive into this text, the way that we would try to summarize this is that God did what the law couldn't. 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:34.879 God did what the law couldn't. 00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:42.080 And this is really going to be key into understanding the nature and character of the God that we serve. 00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:49.520 That God, in his own power and strength, did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:54.159 This opening statement from Paul is really the zenith of his work in Romans, right? 00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:57.360 It's the it's the precipice of his work in Romans. 00:03:57.439 --> 00:04:00.639 And now from here, he's gonna help us as he always does, right? 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:04.960 This is this is the truth that you should be believing, but you're probably not. 00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:10.159 Now believe this truth, and from believing this truth, now live this way, right? 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:18.079 This is kind of the format of the epistles that Paul writes, and everything from Romans 8 on through into 16 is gonna help us understand. 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:26.399 Now that we believe this truth, now that we've understood this to be our reality, how soon, how then should we live? 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:33.759 And he's gonna kick it off with understanding that we are in the spirit, not in the flesh. 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:47.600 Chapters one and two, and the first part of three work to show us that we are sinful in our very nature, in both will and work, and that sinfulness is deserving of God's wrath-filled judgment. 00:04:47.759 --> 00:05:01.920 So chapters one, two, and the first half of three all put forth that reality that we are sinful in our very nature, in both our will and work, and the sinfulness is deserving of God's wrath-filled judgment. 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:19.120 The back part of three, and then chapters four and five, reveal how the righteousness we need to be justified before God and to have peace with him comes to us and always has through faith, not works. 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:22.639 So, what does he work through in the back part of three, four, and five? 00:05:22.879 --> 00:05:32.879 What we need to be reconciled to God, to be made right with him, because our sinfulness created this chasm between us and God. 00:05:32.959 --> 00:05:35.600 It separated us from him and relationship with him. 00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:42.240 That not only did it separate us from him, but it established us as enemies of God in our very nature. 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:45.519 And then so we needed something to bridge that gap. 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:49.040 We needed something to reconcile us back to our Maker. 00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:53.839 And what we see in back part of three, four, and five is that God supplies it to us. 00:05:53.920 --> 00:06:05.680 What we need to be justified, to stand right before him and to have peace with him and not be at war with him any longer, has been supplied by God and it's always been delivered to us through faith, not works. 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:17.360 He uses Abraham as the kind of a case study to build every aspect of his argument that Abraham believed and it was counted to him as righteousness, and then works followed, right? 00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:23.600 And then circumcision and the law and so forth followed, proceeding Abraham's faith. 00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:37.519 Then chapters six and seven help us to understand that we have been released from the law and its demands, because we have both died and been raised with Jesus, so that we've been connected with Jesus in his death, burial, and resurrection. 00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:42.319 Now the law and its demands are released from us. 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:52.800 So now, Paul, after working through those first seven chapters, can emphatically proclaim this beautiful summation of the finished work of Jesus on our behalf. 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:57.120 Now, therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. 00:06:57.360 --> 00:06:59.759 Let's break this down for a minute. 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:00.720 Now. 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:04.800 It's an immediacy of differentiation. 00:07:05.759 --> 00:07:12.800 This is communicating a point of time where the circumstances change immediately, not progressively. 00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:16.160 Now, there is therefore no condemnation. 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:24.399 Not something that we're still trying to obtain, not something that's becoming progressive in our life, but something that is experienced in its immediacy. 00:07:24.560 --> 00:07:32.800 You see, when we come to Christ, we are justified before God the Father because of the finished work of Christ on our behalf. 00:07:32.959 --> 00:07:38.560 This isn't something that we continue to labor on in earning or adding to or supplementing. 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:40.160 It is an immediacy. 00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:45.360 Now in Christ, we are justified before the Father. 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:47.360 No condemnation. 00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:55.199 Complete removal of the guilty sentence and the penalty it justifiably demands. 00:07:55.600 --> 00:07:56.639 Listen to this. 00:07:56.800 --> 00:07:58.959 It's complete removal of the guilty sentence. 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:04.399 Because of our sin, there we were put on trial before the Creator of all things. 00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:06.000 And we were found guilty. 00:08:06.079 --> 00:08:08.079 The verdict was you're guilty. 00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:15.199 And then that sentence, that guilt sentence, justifiably, not not wickedly, right? 00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:24.240 Not in some type of power move or egotistically, it justifiably demanded God's wrath-filled judgment. 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:26.160 Look at Romans 1.18. 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:36.080 It says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man, who but by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:38.639 So this was the opening part of Romans 1. 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:42.720 He says, the wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness. 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:47.759 But see, we have no condemnation now in Christ. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:54.720 That means that that guilty sentence and that penalty that it demanded have been removed from us. 00:08:55.759 --> 00:09:06.480 For those, Paul continues on, this is a statement of exclusivity, dictating that there are those also who are not in Christ. 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:11.120 The finished work of Jesus on our behalf is not universal. 00:09:11.679 --> 00:09:17.759 And in such, not all of humanity will universally be the inheritors of its benefits. 00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:23.919 So now, therefore, there is no condemnation for those. 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:32.000 That's this exclusivity of Christ, that it is only those who are in him get to reap the benefits of his finished work. 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:36.639 We are the inheritors of Christ's accomplishment when we are found in him. 00:09:36.799 --> 00:09:44.000 This isn't a universal work for all mankind, nor will all mankind benefit from his accomplishments. 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:47.919 Who are those who are in Christ Jesus? 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:50.399 That's what he finishes with. 00:09:50.799 --> 00:10:06.000 It is only those in Christ, that is through faith, united to him in his death, burial, and resurrection, that are removed from the condemnation they justly deserve, and brought into blessed relationship with himself. 00:10:06.799 --> 00:10:20.080 So Paul's statement here, this opening phrase, is that we are brought into blessed relationship with God the Father because of the finished work of Christ on our behalf. 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:27.039 What an amazing, beautiful, good news statement for us to cherish. 00:10:27.279 --> 00:10:36.480 You see, it is in Jesus that we have been set free from the law of sin and death through the all-powerful law of the Spirit of life. 00:10:36.799 --> 00:10:43.679 It's the presence of the Spirit in the life of the believer that is their most distinguishing mark. 00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:46.480 When we think about what is a Christian, right? 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:51.919 I've done some counseling, I've done some discipleship and even some premarriage, right? 00:10:52.559 --> 00:10:57.919 It's always fascinating when I do premarriage work and I don't know the people and they maybe say they're a Christian or so forth. 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:00.080 I say, Well, how do you know you're a Christian? 00:11:00.320 --> 00:11:01.279 Tell me that. 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:04.639 And we get all kinds of different answers, right? 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:06.720 Well, I'm really, I'm really nice to people. 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:08.159 Well, sweet. 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:11.840 That that's not a mark, but hey, I'm glad you're not a jerk. 00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:12.720 Uh, right? 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:14.879 Or I try to do good things. 00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:16.159 Hey, that's great. 00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:19.120 So basically everyone else does as well, right? 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:26.879 I I there's probably a pretty minimum amount of people who try to do bad stuff all the time in the global scope of humanity. 00:11:27.039 --> 00:11:30.559 Um, how do we know we're a Christian? 00:11:30.799 --> 00:11:33.120 And the Bible gives us some of those markers. 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:49.440 But what we're gonna see is that the most distinguishing marker is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit because we couldn't do anything that God calls us to do for his glory and the good of our neighbor unless we first had the Spirit. 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:59.120 All other effort is an effort of the flesh that the Bible is gonna show us here in just a moment that only sows and reaps destruction. 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:08.879 You see, it's the work of the Spirit applying the finished work of Jesus to us that dictates our new state of freedom. 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:14.080 Verse 3, he says, For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:18.240 This is a powerful statement on the sovereign grace of God. 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:20.159 So here's our state. 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:23.679 We as a people have sinned against God. 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:32.960 The Bible says that we actually traded worship of creation for worship of the creator, where we're designed and created to worship him. 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:36.960 We exchanged that for relationship with created things. 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:39.919 And then that led to all kinds of sin in our life. 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:49.440 The outworkings of it led to people pursuing their own lusts and passions, to turning on one another and being all sorts of wickedness produced from that. 00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:55.039 Our fundamental issue was a worship issue, but then we found ourselves in bondage and slavery. 00:12:55.200 --> 00:13:06.879 We were bound to our own sin and the depravity that filled our hearts, to where we both didn't desire to have relationship with God, nor did we have the innate ability to have relationship with God either. 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:11.519 And so we were stuck in this prison of our own sinful state. 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:15.919 And there was nothing that we could do because here's what God did: God put forth the law. 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:18.159 He said, You want to know what righteousness looks like? 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:18.960 Here it is. 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:29.840 And it stood before us, not as something that gives us hope, but something that condemns us because there was no possibility for us to ever please God through perfect obedience of the law. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:30.799 We talked about this. 00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:38.159 We talked about how we often try to write our relationship with God through obedience to his law instead of understanding that it comes to the Spirit. 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:46.080 But the law Bible condemns us, the very law condemns us because it says this if you're guilty of one part, you're guilty of the whole thing. 00:13:46.240 --> 00:14:02.320 And so, therefore, for every pound of good work we try to put in this scale to tip it to our favor, when we do one thing wrong, when we mess up and sin in one area, we dump over 660 pounds in this scale. 00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:06.559 You can't win that situation. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:11.519 So we were utterly hopeless. 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:14.080 But God. 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:33.279 The law revealed sin, the law inflamed sin, and it stood as a testimony of our condemnation. 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:33.840 Why? 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:39.120 Because our flesh, both our will and our work, was too weak to fulfill it. 00:14:39.840 --> 00:14:47.759 We did not desire to have a relationship with God, nor did we have the ability to have one with him by our own strength. 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:49.039 But God. 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:57.519 Ultimately, he is the gospel because it is his work on our behalf for his glory and our good. 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:00.480 And how did God do it? 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:05.120 Paul does this, he preaches the gospel. 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:08.799 We've said this a lot at Sacred Mission, but I want to think it's worth reiterating. 00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:20.000 If you ever come here on a Sunday morning and you don't hear that Jesus died for your sin, was buried, and then resurrected, and now we have new life in him through faith in that, go find a different church. 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:22.559 We've already abandoned the gospel too far. 00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:33.440 Too many churches are just teaching you how to be a better self or three steps to a whatever, or some type of spiritual TED talk, or they've abandoned the gospel altogether publicly and openly. 00:15:34.399 --> 00:15:39.279 It is only the gospel that has the power to save us. 00:15:41.120 --> 00:15:43.840 And so Paul brings us into the story of the gospel. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:45.120 How did God do it? 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:49.600 By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. 00:15:49.840 --> 00:16:00.000 He condemns sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be filled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:02.320 God did it. 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:12.639 God sent Jesus, his own son, to be our substitute, receiving the condemnation our sin demanded on himself. 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:22.000 This work of substitution fulfilled the law's righteous requirements because a sinless man stood in the place of sinful men. 00:16:22.960 --> 00:16:27.120 Charles Haddon Spurgeon, he was a preacher in the 1800s in London. 00:16:27.200 --> 00:16:34.559 He said this you stand before God as if you were Christ, because Christ stood before God as if he were you. 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:42.639 That's the work of Jesus as a substitute, standing in our place. 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:59.919 This doctrine of substitutionary atonement is so necessary for us to understand, because it is only in Christ standing in our place, absorbing the fullness of God's wrath that our sin demanded, do we have any hope for reconciliation with the Father? 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:20.559 Because where he stood in our place and the wrath of God was poured out on him, we get to stand in his place, in his perfect righteousness, in his sinless obedience to the Father, and that we are now made right with God because our sin was imputed to him and his righteousness was imputed to us. 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:26.319 Let's break down this Christological statement that Paul makes here. 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:29.519 Number one, he says, sending his own son. 00:17:30.079 --> 00:17:39.279 This points to the pre-existent nature of Jesus and the eternal communion he has with the Father as his eternally only begotten. 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:42.400 Paul says, How did God do it? 00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:53.119 Christ pre-existed with the Father, equally God in glory, majesty, and power, but yet distinct in persons. 00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:59.279 He is the eternally begotten Son of the Father, and so the Father sent him for us. 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:00.720 How did he send him? 00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:03.680 In the likeness of sinful flesh. 00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:06.079 Jesus put on flesh. 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:09.279 This is the doctrine of the incarnation. 00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:13.599 He put on flesh but was not sinful himself. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:22.000 This helps us to understand that flesh in itself is not sinful, but how we use that flesh is sinful, right? 00:18:22.160 --> 00:18:26.319 Christ was able to put on flesh, but yet not be sinful himself. 00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:32.079 He was sinless, but he didn't have the depravity which we have within us. 00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:38.880 And so how we use the flesh God gives us is sinful and worthy of condemnation. 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:42.720 But Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh. 00:18:42.880 --> 00:18:48.960 He put on flesh, yet he lived perfectly in obedience to righteousness. 00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:52.960 Paul goes on to say, For sin he condemned sin in the flesh. 00:18:53.119 --> 00:19:00.319 It was our sin that he carried upon himself on the cross, bringing it under the judgment that it demanded. 00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:06.000 It was condemned in his flesh so that our flesh might be liberated from it. 00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:07.039 Think about this. 00:19:14.960 --> 00:19:16.880 This is what Paul is helping us to understand. 00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:21.440 We no longer walk in the way according to the flesh, but we walk in a way according to the spirit. 00:19:21.519 --> 00:19:30.960 And if that spirit indwells your mortal bodies, it will bring life, righteousness, obedience to those mortal bodies as well. 00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:44.079 The summation of Paul's statement is that Jesus is the eternally begotten Son of the Father who was sent to absorb the wrath-filled judgment of God for sin in our place. 00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:50.960 And now through God's work for us in Jesus, we are those who walk by the Spirit. 00:19:51.119 --> 00:20:03.519 We've been made alive, given faith, circumcised of the heart, baptized into Christ, made new, regenerated, filled by, sealed by, all by the Spirit. 00:20:03.839 --> 00:20:07.839 Paul's not speaking of a situation that may occur through our own efforts. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:12.799 He's speaking to a situation that has occurred through the strength of God alone. 00:20:13.599 --> 00:20:20.079 We, those of us in Jesus, are ones who now actively walk in the Spirit. 00:20:20.480 --> 00:20:29.759 This isn't some, and we're gonna work through this in just a moment, but this isn't some hoped-for situation for you and I, where if we just set our minds on this, then we will have this. 00:20:29.920 --> 00:20:33.279 Or if we don't set our minds on this, then we won't have this. 00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:35.680 Paul's not saying that this is a possibility. 00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:37.680 Paul's saying that this is a reality. 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:46.240 And the reality is not by yours and mine's effort of our ability to keep our minds on certain things or some type of seminar on positive thinking. 00:20:46.400 --> 00:21:00.160 He's saying because Christ has liberated you and he has united you in himself through his death, burial, and resurrection, you are actively transposed into a life in the spirit. 00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:05.279 5 through 8, he goes on. 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:10.000 We summarize it this way: those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 00:21:10.720 --> 00:21:14.960 This is a reiteration of what Paul has said in chapters 2 and 3. 00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:21.039 Uh, without Jesus and without the Holy Spirit, we cannot please God. 00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:25.279 Think of how devastating that statement is. 00:21:25.839 --> 00:21:29.839 That apart from Jesus, you and I can do nothing to please God. 00:21:29.920 --> 00:21:31.759 And we're convinced that we can, right? 00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:38.720 We're convinced that we can do what it takes to make God not super mad at us and let us into heaven. 00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:42.160 That's the fundamental basis of Christianity. 00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:45.440 Actually, that's the fundamental basis of all religion across all the world. 00:21:45.599 --> 00:21:55.279 It doesn't matter what title you put to it, whether you put Islam or Buddhism or Judaism, whatever you put on the title to that religion, here's the baseline summary. 00:21:55.440 --> 00:21:59.599 I can do enough good in my own efforts and strengths so that this God will not be super. 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:02.960 At who I am and will allow me into heaven. 00:22:03.519 --> 00:22:05.039 That's religion. 00:22:05.519 --> 00:22:07.839 Praise God that the gospel's not religion. 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:17.759 The gospel is anti-religious because what the gospel says is you can never do enough to appease the wrath of God that is fumed against your sin. 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:32.400 But because of his steadfast love and mercy for us, he accomplishes it on our behalf that we might be freely brought into by his own power and strength to a reconciled relationship with himself. 00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:33.599 That's the gospel. 00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:35.200 That's not religion. 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:42.559 And now so Paul moves to juxtapose these two realities for us. 00:22:43.039 --> 00:22:48.160 One is those who live according to the flesh, and the other is those who live according to the spirit. 00:22:48.400 --> 00:22:54.880 And the place Paul begins to help us understand their difference and how they impact us is in the mind. 00:22:55.519 --> 00:22:57.920 Look at what Paul does there in verses five through eight. 00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:01.839 He starts off with where are these two different realities? 00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:04.000 What's the starting point for these things? 00:23:04.079 --> 00:23:05.119 It's in the mind. 00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:11.200 Those who have their minds set on the flesh and those who have their minds set on the spirit. 00:23:11.759 --> 00:23:14.880 But again, this isn't a teaching on positive thinking. 00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:18.160 This is a battle strategy for war. 00:23:19.599 --> 00:23:24.079 Because it's in the mind that we are defeated or we win. 00:23:24.880 --> 00:23:29.119 Paul says it's where our minds are set to determine our outcome. 00:23:29.599 --> 00:23:31.279 But our problem's this. 00:23:32.559 --> 00:23:36.799 Apart from the work of the Spirit in us, we can't help but to have our minds set on the flesh. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:42.400 A mindset on the flesh is death. 00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:45.680 It's a mind that's hostile to God. 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:48.240 It doesn't submit to God's law. 00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:50.960 In fact, Paul says it cannot. 00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:55.119 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 00:23:55.279 --> 00:23:58.960 Look at the absolute nature of those statements. 00:23:59.200 --> 00:24:07.440 And you and I are gonna have to come to a wrestling point of is the are we gonna be able to take the face value of the scriptures or not? 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:14.400 Or are we gonna have to try to fight and contend against Pauline theology versus the words and sayings of Jesus? 00:24:14.559 --> 00:24:17.519 Are we gonna just be a red-letter Christian and throw everything else away? 00:24:17.599 --> 00:24:22.400 Or are we gonna allow the Bible to speak as authoritative truth in your and my life? 00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:23.759 What are we gonna do? 00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:30.000 Because Paul's saying here, and he's reiterated in other places, and you'll find it throughout the gospels out of Jesus' own mouth as well. 00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:32.319 Just a little spoiler alert. 00:24:32.559 --> 00:24:37.119 Um apart from the Holy Spirit, we can't please God. 00:24:39.599 --> 00:24:48.319 That means without the work of God in us, sovereignly on our behalf, we are utterly hopeless, condemned, and dead. 00:24:52.880 --> 00:25:04.000 Galatians 6, 8 says this for the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. 00:25:04.319 --> 00:25:16.799 Every work we put forth as a means to justify ourselves or to earn God's affection only obtains for us the opposite of our intent. 00:25:17.440 --> 00:25:18.640 Let me say that again. 00:25:19.039 --> 00:25:31.200 Everything that we try to do in our own strength and power to justify ourselves or to earn God's affection only reaps from itself the opposite of our intent. 00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:42.880 It doesn't reap life, it doesn't reap affection from Him, it doesn't reap joy, it reaps death, it reaps condemnation. 00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:49.680 Everything done in the flesh, not action, but state. 00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:59.200 So not flesh as an action, but flesh as a state of who we are as a person, will always and only reap corruption. 00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:12.079 This is a continued reiteration that those who have not been saved, brought into life by the Spirit through Jesus' death and resurrection, have no ability to obey, submit to, or please God. 00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:17.839 We so often fail to believe this and incorporate it into our worldview. 00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:22.799 Right, as us as Christians, this is something that we're battling majorly right now. 00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:38.319 To one, believe this truth that if you're not regenerated, brought to life, made new, transformed, filled with the Spirit of God, you can only reap corruption and death. 00:26:38.480 --> 00:26:43.279 That's a truth that we fail to believe, and it's a truth that we fail to incorporate into our worldview. 00:26:43.519 --> 00:26:52.079 And this is one of the most dangerous aspects of the social justice movement and the social justice gospel that we see before us today. 00:26:52.400 --> 00:27:00.240 Belief that we can usher in the kingdom of God through our works without first submitting to the king through repentance and faith. 00:27:01.599 --> 00:27:04.160 And this is the this is the movements that you're seeing. 00:27:04.400 --> 00:27:54.240 We're going to usher in the kingdom, we're going to make things right, we're going to uh uh uh demonstrate righteousness, we're gonna justify what's been done wrong, we're gonna condemn what is guilty, and we got movements and movements of people who are dead in their sin, who every action of their hand only reaps corruption, who cannot please God, who cannot find any source of relationship with him, cannot submit to his law, cannot obey him, and we think that we're gonna somehow revolutionize the culture through marches and thinking differently, or teaching that everyone who doesn't look like me is wicked and wrong, or whatever else we attempt to do, what we have to understand is that in the end, we are believing that we can usher in the kingdom of God without the king. 00:27:55.519 --> 00:27:56.799 You can't. 00:27:57.599 --> 00:28:05.839 You will usher in your own kingdom whose end is death and corruption at greater positions and measures than you see it today. 00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:14.160 There is no kingdom without submission through repentance and faith to the king himself. 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:18.799 That's why the church has to stand on the gospel. 00:28:19.359 --> 00:28:31.759 The church has to stand on it is through repentance and faith through the gospel of Jesus, our King, that the kingdom can then be ushered in through his people by the power of the Spirit. 00:28:32.240 --> 00:28:34.880 I'm not saying we shouldn't do good things. 00:28:34.960 --> 00:28:37.759 I'm not saying we shouldn't engage with the culture. 00:28:37.920 --> 00:28:59.680 I'm not saying that we shouldn't work to see justice and mercy be demonstrated in this world, but we have to do it first through the heralding of the good news of the gospel and calling people to repent and believe, and then through the spirit power, we go forth and see culture transform into what God had intended it to be. 00:29:00.880 --> 00:29:02.480 That's what we have to do. 00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:06.319 But let me tell you this, church, you here's a tall tale sign. 00:29:06.480 --> 00:29:11.920 If the world is leading the charge, then it's not of God's kingdom. 00:29:13.680 --> 00:29:14.880 And this is what's happened. 00:29:15.039 --> 00:29:23.839 The church for too long has ridden on the coattails of culture in an effort to just try and be relevant again. 00:29:24.079 --> 00:29:28.079 I don't give to whatever's to be relevant. 00:29:29.039 --> 00:29:30.960 I want to preach the gospel. 00:29:31.200 --> 00:29:35.440 I want to stand on the truth that Jesus died for our sin, was buried, and rose again. 00:29:35.599 --> 00:29:46.319 I want to proclaim and herald that all the days of my life, and I want Sacred Mission Church to be faithful to that end, that we work and desire to preach, die, and be forgotten. 00:29:50.799 --> 00:30:01.039 Summary of verses 9 through 11 as we continue in this section, we see this beautiful statement: the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. 00:30:03.200 --> 00:30:11.359 Just the opening statement of this section is an emphatic statement of who we are in Jesus. 00:30:11.839 --> 00:30:15.359 A people not in the flesh, but in the spirit. 00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:17.839 Look at what Paul says in verse 9. 00:30:18.160 --> 00:30:26.559 You, however, you, however, he's pointing to the common reality of the Christians of the church in Rome. 00:30:27.119 --> 00:30:30.079 You're not in the flesh, you're in the spirit. 00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:37.440 You see, this is what I'm talking about where Paul's not talking about a hope for possibility for you and I, depending on where we put our mind, right? 00:30:37.599 --> 00:30:40.480 If you put your mind on the things of the flesh, then you'll be dead. 00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:44.400 But if you put your mind on the things of the spirit, this isn't about our own effort. 00:30:44.720 --> 00:30:50.160 All and everything that Paul is talking about is what God has done for us on our behalf. 00:30:50.319 --> 00:30:59.200 And now because we are found in Christ through the sovereign grace work in us through the Spirit, we are now out of our flesh and we are in the Spirit. 00:30:59.359 --> 00:31:06.400 That means that everything that the flesh could not do, we now can by the indwelling presence of the Spirit. 00:31:06.559 --> 00:31:12.480 He's not talking about effort and action, he's talking about state and personhood. 00:31:13.599 --> 00:31:17.839 You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. 00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:26.160 Paul isn't warning us of our possible situations based on the behavior of our actions. 00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:32.880 He's working to bring us into a realization of our new condition based on the finished work of Jesus. 00:31:34.640 --> 00:31:40.480 The key component on whether we are dead or alive is the Spirit of Christ living in us, not what we do. 00:31:42.240 --> 00:31:47.920 Because the true mark of a Christian is not the way they live their lives, but the presence of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. 00:31:48.720 --> 00:31:56.720 Because the presence of the Holy Spirit in their hearts enables and empowers us to live like God would want us to live. 00:31:57.279 --> 00:32:02.799 To submit, to obey, to work righteousness in our members. 00:32:04.079 --> 00:32:08.480 So now we can have real, effectual victory over sin. 00:32:09.519 --> 00:32:15.200 Because the Holy Spirit has brought us out of death and into life, out of the flesh and into the spirit. 00:32:15.359 --> 00:32:21.759 The same power, the same spirit who raised Jesus from the dead now dwells in you. 00:32:23.359 --> 00:32:26.000 Can you ponder that statement for just a moment? 00:32:29.279 --> 00:32:34.079 There's an empty tomb in this world, in this physical reality. 00:32:35.599 --> 00:32:48.160 Because once laid a dead body, a suffering servant who was crucified, who came under the judgment of earthly rulers and under the judgment of a cosmic ruler, his own father. 00:32:48.799 --> 00:32:50.319 He was dead and buried. 00:32:50.559 --> 00:32:58.720 But then the Spirit of God, three days later, filled that dead body with power and life. 00:33:00.240 --> 00:33:01.759 That's why we can have hope. 00:33:01.920 --> 00:33:06.319 Paul says that if Jesus didn't raise from the dead, then we are to be pitied above all people. 00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:13.200 If we still serve and worship a dead king, then guys, there's better things to do with our Sunday morning. 00:33:15.680 --> 00:33:16.400 But we don't. 00:33:16.720 --> 00:33:19.359 We worship and serve a resurrected king. 00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:25.200 And that same power, that same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you. 00:33:25.359 --> 00:33:27.759 How does that impact your everyday life? 00:33:29.519 --> 00:33:31.599 How many times throughout your week do you think about that? 00:33:31.759 --> 00:33:32.960 Man, I'm filled with the Spirit. 00:33:33.039 --> 00:33:35.599 The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, I'm filled with now. 00:33:35.680 --> 00:33:40.000 I'm gonna walk in that spirit because he filled me, because he did all the work on my behalf. 00:33:40.160 --> 00:33:44.319 I don't have to submit myself to sin anymore because I get to submit myself to righteousness. 00:33:44.480 --> 00:33:48.559 I don't have to disobey God because I get to joyfully submit to him in obedience. 00:33:48.640 --> 00:33:59.200 I get to walk out the flourishment of which he desires for me to live in walking out righteousness in my members because I've been filled with the exact same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. 00:33:59.359 --> 00:34:04.640 How many times does that impact your daily, weekly, monthly life? 00:34:07.119 --> 00:34:16.639 Or are you frustrated and ticked at yourself because you didn't read your Bible again, because you didn't pray, because your kids got on your nerves, because you you you can't uh seem to figure it out. 00:34:16.719 --> 00:34:18.239 You're frustrated at work. 00:34:18.480 --> 00:34:21.440 This situation happened again, this happened over and over. 00:34:21.519 --> 00:34:27.119 You feel like you're some cycle of defeat and despair and sin, and that's where your focus is. 00:34:27.199 --> 00:34:28.000 Guess what that is? 00:34:28.079 --> 00:34:30.400 That's setting your mind on the flesh. 00:34:31.199 --> 00:34:33.199 You can't see past your own nose. 00:34:33.360 --> 00:34:47.679 The fact and reality that God has filled you with his own spirit, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, should impede and permeate every aspect of our thinking so that we might walk in the spirit of which Christ Himself has brought us into. 00:34:50.559 --> 00:34:57.440 It's a powerful truth that we are a people of whom God dwells within. 00:35:00.480 --> 00:35:07.280 Our main idea this morning is this that we live in the spirit because of God's work in and for us. 00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:11.519 We live in the spirit because of God's work in and for us. 00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:15.599 Our current state is due to no effort of our own. 00:35:16.159 --> 00:35:26.079 All of the gospel is God's doing, his providential, holy purpose to display his mercy and grace by saving a people for himself. 00:35:26.719 --> 00:35:30.000 This is the complete story arc of the Bible. 00:35:31.039 --> 00:35:33.920 We run away, and God chases us down. 00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:39.679 From Genesis to Revelation, we run away, God chases us down. 00:35:40.079 --> 00:35:41.519 This is the story arc. 00:35:41.920 --> 00:35:43.440 We see it from the very beginning. 00:35:43.599 --> 00:35:46.239 When Adam and Eve ate the fruit. 00:35:46.719 --> 00:35:50.239 One thing we have to realize the first thing they did is they tried to conceal and hide themselves. 00:35:50.400 --> 00:35:52.960 They tried to fashion clothes for themselves to cover. 00:35:53.039 --> 00:35:54.880 They were no longer naked and unashamed. 00:35:54.960 --> 00:35:59.920 In their sin, they were trying to conceal and hide because they were ashamed. 00:36:01.440 --> 00:36:02.880 And God does what? 00:36:03.119 --> 00:36:04.320 He comes walking in the garden. 00:36:04.480 --> 00:36:05.760 Adam, where are you at? 00:36:07.440 --> 00:36:09.679 They ran away, he chased them down. 00:36:10.400 --> 00:36:12.159 Abraham, a man, uh. 00:36:15.440 --> 00:36:17.280 He was an idol worshiper. 00:36:18.480 --> 00:36:19.679 He didn't even know God. 00:36:19.760 --> 00:36:21.360 He didn't serve God, he didn't love God. 00:36:21.440 --> 00:36:24.800 He was a pagan idol worshiper wandering through the desert. 00:36:24.880 --> 00:36:25.599 What'd God do? 00:36:25.840 --> 00:36:32.079 Chased him down, said to you, I'm gonna make many nations blessed through you because my son is gonna come through your seed. 00:36:32.320 --> 00:36:35.440 I'm 90 years old, my wife's a barren woman. 00:36:35.679 --> 00:36:37.440 Doesn't matter, I'm gonna do it. 00:36:38.079 --> 00:36:48.960 He chased down Noah, he chased down Jonah, he chased down David, he chased down every single person, and he's chased down you and me. 00:36:52.960 --> 00:37:00.239 God not only saves us but brings us out of death and into life, making us a people not of the flesh, but of the spirit. 00:37:00.480 --> 00:37:10.400 And we have relationship with God and have been reconciled to him because all the work that he has done in and for us, let's break this down for us. 00:37:11.039 --> 00:37:23.920 God, he himself has justified us, he's acquitted us of our guilty sentence and delivered us from the judgment we deserve by having Jesus become the suffering servant for us. 00:37:24.719 --> 00:37:34.800 And then in us, he placed his spirit in us, the same one that raised Jesus from the dead, so that we might walk in the very righteousness of his word. 00:37:35.519 --> 00:37:39.039 This is all by the power and mercies of God alone. 00:37:40.960 --> 00:37:50.559 When we had no desire or ability to save ourselves, God had already determined that he would rescue us with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm. 00:37:51.039 --> 00:38:03.440 This is the powerful sovereignty and grace of God that it says that Jesus Himself is the Lamb who was slayed before the foundations of the earth. 00:38:04.480 --> 00:38:24.719 Think about the long suffering, the steadfast love, the relentless mercy that God has for his people of whom he calls his own, that before he even spoke creation into existence, he had already determined a plan of salvation that would purchase us through the blood of his very son. 00:38:26.559 --> 00:38:28.960 That's the sovereignty of God. 00:38:31.360 --> 00:38:33.840 It is only his work. 00:38:35.280 --> 00:38:39.920 And now we are a new people, brought out of the flesh and into the spirit. 00:38:40.079 --> 00:38:44.719 A supernatural change has taken place because of the spirit's work in us. 00:38:44.960 --> 00:38:49.760 Not just a change of our status, but a very change of our essence. 00:38:50.320 --> 00:38:51.440 That's what Paul's saying. 00:38:51.760 --> 00:38:55.440 He's saying, look, I'm not just saying you're not guilty anymore. 00:38:55.679 --> 00:38:59.119 I'm saying you're not that person who was guilty anymore. 00:38:59.440 --> 00:39:02.320 I'm not just saying that you're removed a penalty. 00:39:02.639 --> 00:39:07.280 I'm saying they can't find the dude who they were supposed to persecute judgment upon. 00:39:07.599 --> 00:39:15.360 Because you've transformed in your very essence, that you are no longer a person in the flesh, but you are a person in the spirit. 00:39:16.079 --> 00:39:25.360 This is the beauty of what God has done in us in the culminating work for us, is that we would be like Christ, conformed to his very image. 00:39:25.519 --> 00:39:27.920 We were talking about this at a guy's night. 00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:33.039 I won't mention the um uh uh the uh uh un what holy smokes. 00:39:33.199 --> 00:39:38.800 We were hanging out talking, uh, and uh and we talked about the restorative nature of God. 00:39:39.199 --> 00:39:44.719 This is how great God is in restoring to us what our own hand had destroyed. 00:39:44.880 --> 00:39:51.039 Is that in his redemptive work, he's not just making us like Adam again, right? 00:39:51.280 --> 00:39:55.599 Because in Adam before the fall, we can say, well, that was perfect. 00:39:55.760 --> 00:39:56.800 I would argue that. 00:39:56.880 --> 00:39:59.360 That's a different conversation, but that was at least very good. 00:39:59.440 --> 00:40:02.480 We can, the Bible says that, so we're gonna stick with what it says. 00:40:02.719 --> 00:40:04.000 It was very good. 00:40:04.639 --> 00:40:13.679 Before the fall, Adam and Eve were these image-bearers who perfectly bore God's image in themselves. 00:40:14.239 --> 00:40:18.559 But God says this in Jesus, I'm not just gonna get you back to Eden. 00:40:18.719 --> 00:40:23.039 I'm not just gonna get you back to Adam, I'm gonna get you conformed into a better Adam. 00:40:23.840 --> 00:40:30.960 The restorative nature of Christ is not that we get back to what we were, is that we get to something that we never imagined we would be. 00:40:34.719 --> 00:40:36.159 We're a new people. 00:40:37.440 --> 00:40:42.639 The change of our relationship with God now also determines a change in our personhood. 00:40:43.519 --> 00:40:49.840 Verse 7 says, For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. 00:40:49.920 --> 00:40:50.960 Indeed, it cannot. 00:40:51.039 --> 00:40:53.679 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 00:40:53.840 --> 00:40:57.519 This defines who we were, not who we are. 00:40:57.840 --> 00:41:02.719 Too many of us as Christians, we we we wrestle with the reality of sin in our life, right? 00:41:02.800 --> 00:41:13.840 And we try to put language to that gap, that gap that exists between what we know God is asking out of us and living righteously, and what we see in our actual lives, right? 00:41:13.920 --> 00:41:15.840 It's this gap where we fall short. 00:41:15.920 --> 00:41:23.840 And we try to put language to that, but we've got to work to try and put the right language to that because too often we've just sat in this misery. 00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:24.960