WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:02.000 Good morning, Redemption Church. 00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:04.719 This is the word of the Lord. 00:00:04.959 --> 00:00:07.440 This is Romans eight, nine through seventeen. 00:00:07.599 --> 00:00:15.839 It says, You how are you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you. 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:20.239 Any one who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:27.679 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:38.719 If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:45.039 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:48.079 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:54.880 But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 00:00:55.439 --> 00:01:04.159 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery, to fall back into fear. 00:01:04.959 --> 00:01:11.439 But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:17.200 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God. 00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:26.799 And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him. 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:28.319 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:32.719 You may sit back down on your couch or repent for not standing. 00:01:33.599 --> 00:01:36.159 That was a joke, if you're new to our live stream. 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:37.680 That's the type of jokes I tell. 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:47.200 Another type of joke that I tell is when we uh we're deciding what our graphic would be for this new sermon series, we're going to be moving through Romans chapter 8. 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:49.680 It's one of my favorite chapters in all of scripture. 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:54.560 And uh Tim Lawrence, who does our graphics for us, he goes to our church. 00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:56.000 You'll meet him when we get back together. 00:01:56.159 --> 00:01:58.480 He said, Why don't we use Times New Romans font? 00:01:58.560 --> 00:01:59.280 That'll be hilarious. 00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:00.959 And I thought, that is hilarious. 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:04.400 What if we called the sermon series Romans for New Times? 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:08.159 Because then it would be like a sermon series based on a joke about a font. 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:09.680 And I love that. 00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:17.840 Um if there's uh anything that Ryan Gosling and I have in common, it's that we can't resist a joke about a font. 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:20.719 Um you can Google that uh later. 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:22.240 That joke was for like three people. 00:02:22.479 --> 00:02:24.639 Welcome to Redemption Church. 00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:35.759 Uh this is the beginning of a new sermon series which we actually started on Easter because we're going to continue moving through the chapter that we began then, which is Romans chapter eight. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:39.120 This is one of the most important texts of Scripture to me. 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:44.719 When the pressure mounts, when things get difficult, it's the place that I return to over and over again. 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:50.960 Um I memorized it with a friend in college, and it's just become such an important part of my life. 00:02:51.120 --> 00:03:13.280 Uh, and one of the uh parts of scripture that God has used more than uh almost anything else, probably, uh, to cement in my heart this assurance that I have in Christ and that is available to all of us as Christians, that we can truly rest in what Christ has done, in what Christ has accomplished for us because of the Holy Spirit. 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:15.120 Uh quick announcement. 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:21.360 Right after uh we uh conclude here today, there's a Zoom prayer. 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:26.639 So the link to the Zoom prayer is in the uh YouTube video description. 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:32.000 So uh you can just click that afterwards and log in and you'll be brought into a Zoom meeting. 00:03:32.159 --> 00:03:40.400 Usually it's about 20 minutes, and we pray together uh for our city and for the world uh that is in so much suffering right now. 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:41.759 All right. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:46.159 Uh so with that, let's pray and I'll get into the text for today. 00:03:46.400 --> 00:04:02.400 Holy Father, I ask that you would attend this time and that uh although we are not together, uh I get to look out and see the faces of our church still because of the pictures that are up, and uh know that we are gathered together in spirit. 00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:20.720 Lord, I ask that you would transform living rooms into places of worship, and that your word might go out and not be bound, but be effective in our hearts, and that our uh our hearts might be truly changed by your spirit, that you would be glorified in our worship this morning. 00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:22.319 Lift this up in Jesus' name. 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:23.279 Amen. 00:04:24.319 --> 00:04:45.600 So uh in the book Endurance by Alfred Lansing, uh uh Alfred Lansing that tells the story of Ernest Shackleton, who gets together a crew of people and they're going to uh make an expedition across Antarctica by way of the South Pole. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:56.800 And uh it becomes this uh amazing adventure story, one of the great adventure stories of all time, uh, because uh right away things start going wrong. 00:04:56.959 --> 00:05:00.240 And that's what makes a great adventure story. 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:25.120 So their ship, which is called Endurance, uh gets trapped in an ice flow, and uh they end up having to abandon the ship, it sinks, and they go uh across these ice flows hiking and dragging behind them their lifeboats and just trying to cling to life in such a harsh environment that is Antarctica. 00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:36.079 So as they get trapped on certain ice flows that kind of drift away and then come back, um they uh name the places that they get trapped at for a while. 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:41.759 And Ernest Shackleton is probably one of the great uh examples of world-class leadership. 00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:47.600 And he names one ice flow that they get trapped on for a particularly long time. 00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:50.160 Uh he names it patience camp. 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:54.079 Uh they are living in patience camp. 00:05:54.240 --> 00:06:06.319 Food is short, they are getting smellier and smellier, and they're getting more and more on each other's nerves as they sit and wait day after day with unchanging scenery in patience camp. 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:10.399 Uh, ladies and gentlemen, I think that would be a great name for where we are. 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:12.639 We are in patience camp. 00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:13.279 And you know what? 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:15.279 It really helps to name it. 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:20.800 Um helps to say this is a spot that just is going to require a lot of patience. 00:06:21.839 --> 00:06:24.800 Now, patience camp wears on you. 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:34.879 And just over time, the monotony of day after day, as the stresses mount with each passing day, weaknesses in ourselves get exposed. 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:42.959 And we tend to think that it's a question of whether or not your weaknesses will be exposed in situations like this. 00:06:43.759 --> 00:06:49.040 And the strong won't have weaknesses exposed, and the weak, of course, will. 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:51.600 But that's not the question. 00:06:51.839 --> 00:06:55.439 It's not whether or not your weaknesses will be exposed. 00:06:55.600 --> 00:06:57.519 They certainly will be. 00:06:57.680 --> 00:07:00.079 That's what Patience Camp does. 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:03.120 It exposes our weaknesses. 00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:11.360 The question is, what do we do in response to the discovery of our weaknesses? 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:13.839 As I see it, there's two real options. 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:22.720 Option one is we deny that we're experiencing those weaknesses in an effort to maintain a sort of facade of strength. 00:07:22.879 --> 00:07:34.079 So we don't have to encounter this reality that perhaps we are the type of people that Patience Camp does wear down on, that this does expose our weaknesses in. 00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:48.480 Now, the danger of that option, of the denial of our weakness option, is that it teaches us to deny the reality of the situation that we're in. 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:54.560 And that makes us start to live in unwise ways in the midst of that reality. 00:07:54.800 --> 00:08:00.720 We never name it patience camp because we say, well, this isn't really wearing on me that badly. 00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:04.480 Uh, and so there's no real adjustment that needs to be made here. 00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:12.160 That teaches us to live in ways that are not in accord with the reality of our situation and to deny the weakness that it brings up. 00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:17.920 And so, although we may feel strong, it's a strength that only comes from self-deceit. 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:27.199 The other option is to make the reality of patients camp exclusively about our weaknesses. 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:48.159 So that when we're coming face to face with them, what's happening is we're just exposing the how unlikely it is that we're ever going to make it out of this, uh, that we're ever gonna get off this ice flow, that we're ever gonna return to a world that has any sort of normalcy, that we'll ever be able to recover from the deep losses that so many of us are experiencing. 00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:58.879 And so we start to look and meditate on the weaknesses that are being brought up in our own hearts. 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:01.519 Those become the focal point of our reality. 00:09:02.559 --> 00:09:10.080 And what that leads to is a sort of self-pity and a total self-concern that says, look at me again. 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:17.120 I got myself into a situation like this, or I I've I've I'm experiencing now a real crisis. 00:09:17.279 --> 00:09:22.000 And instead, what's being shown is I don't have the character to withhold this. 00:09:22.159 --> 00:09:24.399 I am as weak as I ever thought I was. 00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:28.879 I am as hopeless and doomed as I feel like I am. 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:39.840 And so those options of patience camp are either one, you deceive yourself, uh, or option two is you despise yourself. 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:49.600 And the reality of the situation is you you need someone who isn't you to come from the outside and rescue you. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:52.240 But we can complicate the story even further. 00:09:52.480 --> 00:10:07.600 Imagine that someone who isn't you comes from the outside, rescues you, and this has the grave, dangerous potential to just reinforce whatever it was that you were thinking in the first place. 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:13.759 Imagine if somebody flipped a switch, you know, everybody this is this is the language that we use now. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:17.519 Uh you know, you're not just gonna flip a switch and turn the country back on. 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:20.799 Well, imagine if somebody just flipped a switch and turned the country back on. 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:25.519 Uh somebody comes from the outside and rescues. 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:31.919 Well, if you've been deceiving yourself, then now you will feel vindicated. 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:38.480 And that deception that you were living in of your own strength, uh it'll validate that self-deception. 00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:48.320 And now you'll be trapped in this, continuing to live in ways that are out of line with reality and out of line with the true weaknesses that you bring into the world. 00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:56.159 And you'll develop this method of continued self-denial, which will take itself out, especially on the people closest to you. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:05.919 Now, the other option is you get rescued immediately, and you say, of course, I had to be rescued from the outside. 00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:12.960 I am as useless as I ever thought I was, I am as codependent as I ever imagined, I am as weak as I could have ever possibly dreamed. 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:17.679 And so, because of this, I was only able to escape by this type of rescue. 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:22.240 And there's a worthlessness that just gets confirmed in yourself. 00:11:23.519 --> 00:11:35.200 So being rescued from the outside, it can be just as dangerous as living in the self-deceit or in the self-despair. 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:38.000 We're in quite a pickle, ladies and gentlemen. 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:41.360 Patients camp is a very difficult place to get out of. 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:44.720 Uh, it's a very strange thing to be a human. 00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:57.279 We need someone to come from the outside and help us on the inside. 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:02.639 That's the type of rescue that a human needs. 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:12.320 Someone from the outside, outside of our circumstances, who isn't trapped in patient's camp with us, so that they there's actually a hope that they can bring us out. 00:12:13.759 --> 00:12:26.399 But it needs to be met with this transformation on the inside, so that when we're brought out of this place, we're not trapped in the same despair or deception that we were living in while we were in it. 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:36.480 Instead, when we're brought out into freedom, we're brought out into a freedom that we can actually experience and take part in with our whole hearts. 00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:40.000 That's what Romans chapter 8 is about. 00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:45.440 It's about how Jesus comes from the outside. 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:54.320 And he rescues us even on the inside by giving to us his spirit. 00:12:54.639 --> 00:13:06.799 Last week we saw that in Christ that means there's no condemnation for any of us, that the gavel has come down, and because of what Jesus accomplished, we are perfectly righteous in God's sight. 00:13:08.240 --> 00:13:30.000 But this week, as we continue to move through Romans chapter 8, we're going to see that he offers us a transformation on the inside so that we can actually begin to experience in our lives the freedom of the spirit that Christ purchased on the cross, one that isn't plagued by self-deceit or by self-despair. 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:41.120 So that's what it means for the spirit to move in our hearts and to live a life that is in the spirit that God freely gives to us in Christ. 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:43.440 So we're going to look at three things. 00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:53.919 The first is the promise of the Spirit, the second is the power of the Spirit, and finally we'll look at the identity that the Spirit gives us. 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:57.360 Promise, power, identity. 00:13:57.600 --> 00:13:58.159 Here we go. 00:13:58.320 --> 00:13:59.919 Romans 8, verse 9. 00:14:00.159 --> 00:14:03.679 You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:07.440 If in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. 00:14:08.480 --> 00:14:13.519 Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:22.720 Now, what Paul is doing in this section is he's creating the dividing line of humanity. 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:33.279 Now, for us in Patience Camp, it's tempting to think that there that the dividing line of humanity is the weak and the strong, the people that are handling this well and the people that are not handling this well. 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:51.120 Or we might think more traditionally that the dividing line of humanity is are the good and the bad, or the religious and the irreligious, the moral versus the immoral, that those are the ways that humanity can best be divided up. 00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:59.120 And on one side you see the people who are destined towards heaven, and on the other side you see the people on the road to perdition with Tom Hanks. 00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:01.039 I just watched that movie recently. 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:02.080 It was excellent. 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:03.279 It's on Netflix. 00:15:03.519 --> 00:15:04.799 Do yourself a favor. 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:12.799 But Paul offers a very different dividing line of humanity. 00:15:12.960 --> 00:15:18.320 Instead of the religious and the irreligious or the moral and the immoral, he says, look, here's the reality. 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:26.000 There are those who are in the spirit, and there are those who are in the flesh. 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:33.919 Now, if you are in Christ, if you have Christ, then the Spirit of God most certainly dwells in you. 00:15:34.080 --> 00:15:42.240 There are not two types of Christians, those who are saved by Jesus, and those who are saved by Jesus and have the Spirit. 00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:50.639 If you are in Christ, if you trust in Christ for your salvation, then that means you have been given the Spirit of God. 00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:52.240 So, Christian, listen to that. 00:15:52.399 --> 00:15:57.679 That means you actually have the Spirit of God dwelling in you. 00:15:58.720 --> 00:16:06.159 And that is what that is the dividing line of humanity. 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:11.679 That is the difference between the Christian and the non-Christian. 00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:16.879 We're so uncomfortable with this because it's so starkly binary. 00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:28.639 What this text is saying is there is a reality that anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:40.799 But if you have the spirit of Christ, Paul so confidently writes to uh the people who are receiving this letter, you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:44.080 That is the true dividing line of humanity. 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:46.000 It is Christ alone. 00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:54.080 We are all weak, we are all bound up in our weakness, we are all irreligious, we are all immoral. 00:16:58.240 --> 00:17:00.559 Christ makes us clean. 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:05.200 Which leads us to the promise of the Spirit. 00:17:05.440 --> 00:17:10.799 If this is the true defining dividing line, if this is the true marker, what is the promise that attends it? 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:19.440 Romans 8, 10 through 11, it says, But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. 00:17:19.759 --> 00:17:34.400 If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mort to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:38.480 Now, this is the reality of our circumstance. 00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:42.799 That because we are in sin, we die. 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:48.960 And you can tell that everyone is corrupted by sin because everyone dies. 00:17:49.599 --> 00:17:58.000 And so sin has infected the hearts of every single person on the earth, and this is the pattern of our existence. 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:07.039 Our flesh, which is our selfish desires that deny God, leads to sin, and that sin leads to death. 00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:16.720 When Christ gives us his spirit, that means he gives us his righteousness, and that righteousness leads to life. 00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:19.279 So what is the promise of the Spirit? 00:18:19.519 --> 00:18:43.440 It's that just as Christ having the Spirit meant that when he died, he was resurrected, so too does our having his same spirit by faith in him means that even though we will die, we will live forever, resurrected eternally with God. 00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:49.599 This is an unthinkable hope for humanity. 00:18:49.839 --> 00:18:53.279 It's almost too big to wrap our minds around. 00:18:53.920 --> 00:19:02.400 And it's such a big hope that I think I probably lost like half of you at least that are just like, okay, uh, this is about what I expected to hear. 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:18.960 Sin, uh, this incredibly supernatural thing that relates to the ways that we've disappointed God in some way, uh, it leads to our death, this incredibly natural thing which seems to support the you know whole circle of life. 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:21.599 Um it moves us all. 00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:29.359 Uh all right, enough Elton John. 00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:40.559 I know this feels like archaic language, that it's your sin that produces death, and you can know everyone's sins because everyone will die. 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:44.319 It almost seems like uh toutological. 00:19:45.519 --> 00:20:02.640 But I I think that if we approach this from one of the fundamental assumptions of scripture, that you'll be able to see this is actually a much more intuitive claim than you might initially think. 00:20:03.759 --> 00:20:13.200 So one of the fundamental assumptions of scripture is that existence itself is fundamentally relational. 00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:19.039 Our very existence is fundamentally relational. 00:20:19.519 --> 00:20:25.200 Now, if we just approach this subjectively, I think that you'll consider that that is true in your life. 00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:28.960 I've heard it said that the quality of your life is in the quality of your relationships. 00:20:29.119 --> 00:20:30.720 I think that's very true. 00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:34.400 Uh consider your relationship to yourself. 00:20:34.559 --> 00:20:43.119 Consider your relationship to your immediate family or those that you spend the most time with, your coworkers, the people that you're most deeply missing right now. 00:20:43.599 --> 00:20:47.599 The quality of our life is so determined by those relationships. 00:20:47.839 --> 00:20:55.599 So I think subjectively, that's that seems sort of evident, at least to the human experience, if we don't want to zoom to existence as a whole yet. 00:20:55.839 --> 00:21:01.119 It seems very clear that the quality of our relationships is the quality of our lives. 00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:16.799 Now, if we consider this theologically, in this very text of scripture that we're looking at right now, uh we see that God is presented to us uh not just as one, but as three. 00:21:17.119 --> 00:21:32.640 And this is the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, that God is totally one, uh complete and simple in his oneness, and yet introduces himself to us in the vernacular of three persons. 00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:38.319 Three persons that are in an eternal mutual relationship. 00:21:38.559 --> 00:21:40.640 It is the Father who begets the Son. 00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:45.920 It is the Father and the Son together who beget the, who send the Holy Spirit. 00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:52.880 And there's this language of relationship in the very essence of God Himself. 00:21:54.319 --> 00:22:05.119 And so that means that God, in his creation, as he demonstrates himself to us in his creation, Creation, he builds in the relational reality of who he is. 00:22:07.759 --> 00:22:18.559 So that means sin or breaking with reality is a fundamentally a breaking of relationship. 00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:26.240 The Bible uses this term covenant to describe the way that we are in relationship with God. 00:22:26.559 --> 00:22:28.960 A covenant is like a marriage, for example. 00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:30.400 That's a covenant. 00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:34.480 Or who else has covenants? 00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:43.039 What a homebuyers associations has covenants, but yeah, marriage is probably a better example. 00:22:44.559 --> 00:22:46.160 Homeowners associations. 00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:48.880 I don't know what a home buyers association is. 00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:52.559 Probably for real estate agents. 00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:10.559 The Bible uses the term covenant in the way that we would use the word physics to describe, look, this is the most basic structure of things. 00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:16.640 The way that the atom interplays with the strong and the weak force. 00:23:16.799 --> 00:23:20.799 That was just a bunch of words I've heard before that I said in one sentence. 00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:22.319 But you get the idea. 00:23:23.359 --> 00:23:41.599 But the Bible would say, look, instead of that being the most fundamental aspect of reality, what's actually the most fundamental real aspect of reality, even supporting those truths that we discover in physics, is the relationship that the creation has to its creator. 00:23:42.720 --> 00:23:53.200 And so this language of relationship is actually a more accurate metaphor for describing reality than is even the best metaphors that we can that we describe in physics. 00:23:53.359 --> 00:23:55.200 It's more fundamental. 00:23:56.240 --> 00:24:14.720 And so that means that disobeying a moral law of God, like committing adultery, like stealing, like lying, is the same type of language as disobeying the physical laws that God has put into the world. 00:24:14.960 --> 00:24:23.599 It's like building an airplane with no consideration that objects fall at a rate of 9.8 meters per second squared. 00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:31.440 It's like trying to make an internal combustion engine with no regard to what type of fuel you're going to put into it. 00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:38.240 It will ultimately result in failure. 00:24:39.680 --> 00:24:47.359 And so because the fundamental aspect of our reality is relationship, and not just any relationship, but our relationship to God. 00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:55.440 And in being in right relationship to God, we experience all the benefits of existence, all the benefits of life as we know it now. 00:24:55.920 --> 00:25:07.039 Then it is not so archaic to say that sin being out of step with the relationship that leads to the source of all life results in death. 00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:17.119 And in the same way, being brought back into right relationship with this source of all life results in life. 00:25:18.480 --> 00:25:24.640 In fact, it's just a more fully human way of understanding those things. 00:25:29.599 --> 00:25:50.319 Because the Spirit is in us, the Holy Spirit from Jesus, we are certain that death will not conquer us, that sin will not have the final word. 00:25:51.759 --> 00:26:00.559 But we are freely given by the grace of God, by his action, to restore our relationship to him. 00:26:01.759 --> 00:26:08.000 We are given his own spirit so that we might dwell in his righteousness, which leads to life. 00:26:08.319 --> 00:26:11.200 That is the promise of the spirit. 00:26:11.359 --> 00:26:14.240 It is fullness of life. 00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:18.960 That's why the dividing line of history is not the moral versus the immoral. 00:26:19.039 --> 00:26:20.319 It's not the good versus the bad. 00:26:20.480 --> 00:26:22.799 It's in the spirit or not in the spirit. 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:24.880 It's life and death. 00:26:27.279 --> 00:26:29.599 So what does this mean for us now? 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:38.400 If we have the spirit dwelling in us, it is this glorious, hopeful promise for the future, but it's also a hope for us now. 00:26:39.039 --> 00:26:44.480 This is uh in and so now we move into the power of the spirit. 00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:46.240 The power of the spirit. 00:26:46.319 --> 00:26:48.319 This is Romans 8, 12 through 13. 00:26:48.640 --> 00:26:53.839 Paul says, So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 00:26:54.079 --> 00:26:56.960 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. 00:26:57.279 --> 00:27:03.839 But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 00:27:04.640 --> 00:27:11.200 So Paul goes in and he says, look, concluding from this, that means that you aren't debtors to your flesh. 00:27:11.359 --> 00:27:21.599 You don't owe your flesh anything, because the flesh, all it craves and it craves and it craves, but all satisfying those cravings lead to is death. 00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:41.839 And so, you know, related or to finish the other side that Paul doesn't actually finish but jumps into another point, it we can see that what we owe, if we actually desire life, is to live in the spirit by the spirit that he has given us. 00:27:42.960 --> 00:27:47.920 Now, to not owe our flesh is actually a pretty countercultural statement. 00:27:48.160 --> 00:28:00.000 It's a, it's a um, it may seem obvious because we're in, you know, a church, whatever we're in, because we're live streaming a service right now, and our heads might be in that space. 00:28:00.160 --> 00:28:04.000 But to say, like, oh, to of course we don't owe the flesh, it leads to death. 00:28:04.160 --> 00:28:07.680 But I think that is actually a pretty countercultural way of viewing the world. 00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:16.720 Um we think of ourselves as the way to find our flourishing is to satisfy the desires of our flesh. 00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:32.880 Those those selfish impulses or those selfish intentions to not satisfy those is to create a type of person that is repressed and restrained and full of anxiety because of this external repression and restraint. 00:28:34.079 --> 00:28:42.400 Uh there is there's like uh a whole bunch of movies in the late 90s, I don't know why, that are about throwing off these restraints. 00:28:42.640 --> 00:28:46.720 Um uh somebody should write a thesis that no one reads about this. 00:28:46.960 --> 00:28:50.720 Uh because you get office space, that's about this. 00:28:50.799 --> 00:28:52.960 There are all these constraints of the office worker. 00:28:53.039 --> 00:28:55.440 And I need to throw those off and I'll be a liberated person. 00:28:55.680 --> 00:28:59.359 Fight Club, same exact movie as Office Space, just not a comedy. 00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:03.039 Um and uh American Beauty, all 1999. 00:29:03.119 --> 00:29:04.720 What was happening in 1999? 00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:07.599 Um American Beauty is about the same sort of thing. 00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:10.400 It's this liberation, the sexual liberation story. 00:29:10.640 --> 00:29:15.599 I need to give myself these desires of my flesh that I've been denying. 00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:21.920 And in denying those desires of the flesh, I have been uh dehumanizing myself. 00:29:22.160 --> 00:29:28.160 Um uh and so I need to throw those off and I need to satisfy the desires of my flesh. 00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:38.720 But this is saying precisely the opposite: saying, look, when you're living out of step with what God has called you to be, that is the dehumanizing action. 00:29:38.880 --> 00:29:41.759 That is the thing that actually leads to death. 00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:50.559 In fact, humanity is described in Scripture as the type of creature whose fundamental desires are flawed and twisted by sin. 00:29:50.960 --> 00:29:58.799 And so to follow those is to be walking blindly on a path towards our death, towards our demise. 00:29:59.039 --> 00:30:08.400 And to satisfy those, it might temporarily throw off this feeling of weakness that we would experience if we were told that we should actually be resisting them. 00:30:09.200 --> 00:30:15.440 Uh but in throwing off that weakness, we're only plunging ourselves into self-deceit. 00:30:16.319 --> 00:30:18.480 It's not a true liberation. 00:30:19.119 --> 00:30:32.400 It's uh uh it's more of a Stockholm syndrome where we're saying, since I can't really get out, uh, I'm just going to fall in love with my captor. 00:30:33.119 --> 00:30:37.119 That's what it means to consider yourself a debtor to the flesh. 00:30:38.880 --> 00:30:41.839 So we aren't debtors to the flesh, though. 00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:52.799 Um, but instead we are given this incredible power of the spirit, where Paul continues in verse 13, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. 00:30:53.680 --> 00:31:01.920 But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:05.119 This is the pattern of Christian change. 00:31:05.279 --> 00:31:08.880 Uh the finest book written on this is John Owen's Mortification of Sin. 00:31:08.960 --> 00:31:09.839 It's so excellent. 00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.559 It's basically just a book-length meditation on this verse, Romans 8.13. 00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:21.759 But uh this gives us the pattern of Christian change, which is death, resurrection, and glory. 00:31:21.920 --> 00:31:24.559 That is the order that we change in. 00:31:24.720 --> 00:31:33.359 We death, we die to ourselves, we kill our sin, and then we experience the resurrection and the glory on the other side of that. 00:31:33.440 --> 00:31:39.200 And that's something that can only take place by the spirit, because only the spirit can bring resurrection. 00:31:39.359 --> 00:31:43.440 So let's break down this uh sentence into its component parts. 00:31:43.599 --> 00:31:48.720 Uh, we've got the deeds of the body, we've got put to death, and we've got by the spirit. 00:31:48.880 --> 00:31:50.240 So let's walk through those. 00:31:50.400 --> 00:31:55.920 So, first of all, the deeds of the body, the by the spirit, put to death the deeds of the body. 00:31:56.079 --> 00:31:58.799 What precisely is Paul talking about? 00:31:59.039 --> 00:32:03.440 And we better get this right because if we do this, then we will live. 00:32:03.599 --> 00:32:06.319 Uh, and if we don't do this, then we will die. 00:32:06.559 --> 00:32:08.799 So uh let's try and be clear. 00:32:09.359 --> 00:32:22.720 What's interesting about this phrase is Paul has been using this phrase uh flesh throughout the whole uh conversation so far, which is uh a phrase that refers to these desires. 00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:32.880 Uh it's not a phrase that refers to our physicality so much as it refers to what our motivations are, uh these fleshly desires and impulses. 00:32:33.279 --> 00:32:38.799 Now he switches to a word which uh isn't the word for flesh, but it's just the word for body. 00:32:38.960 --> 00:32:42.559 It's a very neutral term that just refers to our physicality. 00:32:42.720 --> 00:32:46.559 And he's saying, put to death those deeds of the body. 00:32:46.799 --> 00:32:53.839 That's because Paul is trying to be very practical here, saying, look where your sin takes place. 00:32:54.079 --> 00:33:05.599 It takes place where you steal with your hands, you look at porn with your eyes, you commit adultery with your adultery parts, you this is a family-friendly service. 00:33:06.160 --> 00:33:13.440 You uh these are uh where your sin actually takes place in your physicality. 00:33:13.599 --> 00:33:16.480 They take place in space and time. 00:33:17.279 --> 00:33:29.200 As Christians, we can so over-spiritualize and over uh make overcomplicated uh what sin is because we are so interested in the motivations of our hearts, which is important. 00:33:29.440 --> 00:33:30.640 But Paul is calling us here. 00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:37.920 He's like, look, by the spirit, which seems very ethereal, put to death these very practical realities in your life. 00:33:38.160 --> 00:33:40.240 You know, get that app off your phone. 00:33:40.400 --> 00:33:45.119 Uh change your uh it don't drive that way home from work because you get tempted. 00:33:45.279 --> 00:33:48.640 You know, quit uh whatever you know your sins. 00:33:48.799 --> 00:33:51.359 Consider those take place in real space and time. 00:33:51.519 --> 00:34:02.079 That's why Christ had to come and die uh and offer a real space and time uh atonement for the sins that we do, because these are real things. 00:34:02.240 --> 00:34:07.759 So Paul is bringing us into touch by his use of the word body with the reality of our sin. 00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:16.400 So before you get too spiritual about this, by the Spirit you stop doing those things with your body. 00:34:16.880 --> 00:34:21.679 That's what it means to try and put those to death, the deeds of the body. 00:34:22.320 --> 00:34:24.719 Next is this phrase, put to death. 00:34:26.159 --> 00:34:30.880 So let's consider this the way that Paul is talking about this. 00:34:31.039 --> 00:34:38.480 You put them to death, you kill, you know, the language is you mortify uh the deeds of the body. 00:34:38.719 --> 00:34:41.840 So when you put something to death, you put to death a sin in your life. 00:34:41.920 --> 00:34:44.239 That means you're robbing it of its vitality. 00:34:44.480 --> 00:34:55.760 He's talking about sin like it's this rival force or a rival entity that's taking place in your life, and you need to kill it before it kills you. 00:34:58.639 --> 00:35:11.199 This word death points towards a finality, that it is eliminated, so that the vitality of the force that was coming after you in the sin is done away with. 00:35:12.079 --> 00:35:14.400 Now, I know what you're thinking. 00:35:14.559 --> 00:35:24.719 Uh I've been a Christian for a while, and there's still sins that just keep coming back, and I still feel so plagued by there's sins right now that I consider my life that feel like they are vital agents. 00:35:24.800 --> 00:35:28.639 You know, they they have they're full of vitality and they're coming after me. 00:35:30.159 --> 00:35:33.440 So here's what we know this this can't mean. 00:35:33.760 --> 00:35:39.920 This can't mean that we will have a complete and final victory over sin in this life. 00:35:40.079 --> 00:35:41.280 We know it doesn't mean that. 00:35:41.360 --> 00:35:47.360 If anyone says that sin isn't in them, then they are a liar, John writes in 1 John. 00:35:47.760 --> 00:35:57.280 Uh so that means that if you say you don't have sin in you, uh then that's that's you sinning because you're lying by saying that. 00:35:57.360 --> 00:36:01.039 There are certain streams of Christianity called perfectionists. 00:36:01.199 --> 00:36:12.079 Um and that doesn't mean they're detail-oriented, it means they think that they can become perfect on uh uh before their death and resurrection in Christ. 00:36:12.480 --> 00:36:19.440 In fact, uh that means they aren't detail oriented because they haven't been paying attention to scripture. 00:36:20.400 --> 00:36:23.280 Enough said, I don't think any of you are struggling with that. 00:36:23.519 --> 00:36:28.480 Um so there's this there's this balance that we need to hold here. 00:36:28.559 --> 00:36:38.239 By the Spirit, we're aiming at putting to death completely the sin that entangles us, the practical experiences of the sin that entangles us. 00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:40.079 That is our hope. 00:36:40.239 --> 00:36:58.400 And then at the same time, we're understanding that on this side of our death and resurrection, that God has sought fit to bind us up in a way that requires us to only remain dependent on Christ and Christ's accomplishment to understand our justification before Him. 00:36:58.559 --> 00:37:06.880 That we will never be able to point at our own lives, despite our efforts to experience our own justification, that that comes from Christ alone. 00:37:07.039 --> 00:37:07.920 It's put to death. 00:37:08.079 --> 00:37:10.239 Next is by the Spirit. 00:37:10.480 --> 00:37:21.280 Now, by the Spirit means that God Himself is granting us a supernatural power in ourselves to defeat sin in our lives. 00:37:21.599 --> 00:37:33.440 So we are working from a place of dependence on God as our means of conquering the sin that entangles us. 00:37:34.480 --> 00:37:51.840 So when we have this language of put to death the deeds of the body, these practical language where you think, okay, I'm just gonna stop doing that, it's easy for us to start to retreat inward and try and muster this strength in ourselves that we'll then be able to use to squash the sin that's in our lives. 00:37:52.079 --> 00:38:03.039 But this clause by the Spirit prevents that retreat inward and instead teaches us to cultivate a dependence on God for that strength. 00:38:03.360 --> 00:38:08.239 So this changes the way that we relate to our weakness. 00:38:08.880 --> 00:38:19.440 When we look at our weakness, we don't plunge ourselves into self-deceit by saying, the strength is in me, I'll go ahead and defeat the sin that I've been going after. 00:38:19.760 --> 00:38:22.559 We know the strength is not in us. 00:38:22.719 --> 00:38:25.119 Our hearts are fundamentally corrupted. 00:38:25.280 --> 00:38:29.679 And so we will only agree with the sins that are presented to us. 00:38:30.960 --> 00:38:38.239 Instead, but neither will we look at our weakness and in despair and say, of course, this is hopeless. 00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:42.079 Of course, I should never try and war against these sins. 00:38:42.239 --> 00:38:43.280 There's no point. 00:38:43.440 --> 00:38:48.400 Justification is just on the other side of my death and resurrection. 00:38:48.559 --> 00:38:50.960 Uh no, that is not the case. 00:38:51.119 --> 00:38:58.719 Uh, we are called by the power of the Spirit to make war against our sin and put it to death. 00:38:58.880 --> 00:39:07.199 So that the Christian experience is one of becoming more and more Christ-like in our dependence. 00:39:07.440 --> 00:39:16.480 So this often means that we will become more and more acquainted with our weakness while we are becoming stronger in the spirit. 00:39:16.719 --> 00:39:29.280 So this is neither self uh uh this is neither self-deception of saying I actually am strong enough, nor is it despair, which says that there is no help, there's no hope in fighting. 00:39:29.440 --> 00:39:33.440 But this is a war by the spirit in the strength that God has given us. 00:39:33.679 --> 00:39:36.320 That is the power of the spirit. 00:39:36.639 --> 00:39:39.840 Okay, uh two things that I want to address really quick. 00:39:40.079 --> 00:39:50.480 If I'm saved by Christ alone, uh then why would I be striving to have any sort of experience of victory over sin? 00:39:50.639 --> 00:39:51.519 Does it really matter? 00:39:51.679 --> 00:39:59.199 Shouldn't I just try and uh satisfy all the desires of the flesh anyway, eat, drink, be merry, uh, for tomorrow we die? 00:39:59.599 --> 00:40:14.239 Uh well there are there are two reasons uh why the Christian should be fighting by the spirit against the sin that wars in our hearts. 00:40:15.119 --> 00:40:22.000 The first one, by the way, both of these are from John Owen in Mortification of Sin. 00:40:22.480 --> 00:40:26.719 Uh you can pick it up in our bookstore at Amazon.com. 00:40:27.039 --> 00:40:34.480 Uh first, this is the theologically geeky one. 00:40:36.239 --> 00:40:45.119 God has appointed our putting to death by the Spirit, the sins that are in us in this present moment. 00:40:45.280 --> 00:40:58.639 God has appointed that as a means that He uses to preserve us in Christ, so that when we die, we will be finally justified by Jesus. 00:40:59.840 --> 00:41:15.440 Now it's important not to confuse that and say God has appointed our putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit as the cause of our being justified. 00:41:15.679 --> 00:41:23.519 It is not a cause, it does not functionally accomplish our justification before Christ. 00:41:23.679 --> 00:41:26.559 Instead, uh the or excuse me, before the Lord. 00:41:26.639 --> 00:41:31.440 What accomplishes that is only what Jesus did on the cross. 00:41:31.679 --> 00:41:35.440 That is where our justification rests and comes from. 00:41:35.679 --> 00:41:38.719 In Christ alone, my hope is found. 00:41:39.039 --> 00:41:46.639 Only nothing but the blood of Jesus can satisfy the wrath of God so that we might be free in his presence. 00:41:46.719 --> 00:41:49.519 It is all and only in Christ alone. 00:41:49.840 --> 00:41:57.599 But God has appointed this means of our preservation, which we do well to attend to. 00:42:00.320 --> 00:42:05.440 Consider this in in uh sort of like with evangelism. 00:42:06.239 --> 00:42:15.119 You know, we know that God calls people, but the way that God calls people is by us sharing the gospel with them. 00:42:15.679 --> 00:42:20.559 And so the means is not the cause of them being saved. 00:42:20.639 --> 00:42:23.119 Uh, it is merely the instrument that is used. 00:42:23.280 --> 00:42:32.320 In the same way, our mortifying the sins that take place in our hearts is the instrument that God uses to preserve us in Christ. 00:42:32.639 --> 00:42:40.079 Next reason is actually three reasons: vigor, power, and comfort. 00:42:41.280 --> 00:42:49.440 There is nothing when you are in Christ, there is nothing that can snatch you out of the hand of God. 00:42:50.159 --> 00:42:52.559 There is nothing that can take you away. 00:42:53.360 --> 00:42:54.559 Absolutely nothing. 00:42:54.800 --> 00:42:57.920 You are completely secure in Christ's love. 00:42:58.159 --> 00:43:02.239 If God is the one who justifies, who is the one who could condemn? 00:43:02.400 --> 00:43:05.519 You know, the answer to that question is no one could condemn. 00:43:07.119 --> 00:43:10.239 So what can our sin take from us in this present moment? 00:43:11.039 --> 00:43:12.960 It takes away our vigor. 00:43:13.760 --> 00:43:41.360 You know, that that that sense of life that you receive in your faith and in your worship, that that sense of purpose that you experience when uh you move into your job or when you decide to serve your spouse, uh, or when you actually love someone sacrificially, when you're considering how you want to raise your children, uh our sin robs us of that and it turns us inward on ourselves. 00:43:41.599 --> 00:43:43.280 Second, our power. 00:43:43.920 --> 00:43:59.599 You know, I I think how many people aren't moving in the power of the gospel that's been purchased for you on the cross, given to you freely in the spirit, and yet you limp along in this petty type of Christianity. 00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:03.519 That results in just a total powerlessness. 00:44:04.079 --> 00:44:05.920 It's ineffective in the world. 00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:10.480 And because you look out and you see its ineffectiveness, you're constantly waffling back and forth. 00:44:10.639 --> 00:44:11.280 Am I in Christ? 00:44:11.360 --> 00:44:11.760 Am I not? 00:44:11.920 --> 00:44:12.639 Am I really saved? 00:44:12.800 --> 00:44:13.280 Am I not? 00:44:13.519 --> 00:44:17.920 And your life is plagued by this unsteadiness and this constant questioning. 00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:19.679 And it's because of sin. 00:44:19.920 --> 00:44:40.719 If there's one thing that I've become so certain of in uh my my time as a pastor now, I used to think that uh everything flowed from your philosophy, everything flowed from your ideas about the way the world worked. 00:44:40.880 --> 00:44:43.360 And then that crafted how you lived. 00:44:43.440 --> 00:44:48.800 And so if you got your ideas right, then you would you would live properly. 00:44:49.199 --> 00:45:05.599 Now, after seeing the patterns, uh in observing the patterns in others' lives and in mine as well, the twist in the ideas begins in the deeds of the body. 00:45:16.880 --> 00:45:26.800