The Normal Christian Life: Part 2 - Living By the Spirit
May 2, 2021 Series: Easter
Topic: Holy Week & Easter Scripture: Romans 8:1–17
Transcript (By MS Word)
This morning we will look at Romans 8 verses one. To 7. To 17.
And we are in a short series looking at the resurrection.
We obviously started that on Easter Sunday, the 1st week of Easter.
And every subsequent week of Easter which mirrors Jesus is 40 days before his ascension.
And what we are doing is we're looking at.
I think, a really challenging concept and that is what?
What does the resurrection mean for you?
And I in this life we know what it means in glory.
We understand what it means in our justification, that is, that he conquered death.
So the the penalty of the law has been removed.
But what does it mean in the medium in the middle time?
Of sanctification, that's what we're examining.
And so we started with Second Corinthians, first Corinthians 15, towards the end, where Paul says the sting of death is sin.
And the power of sin is the law.
And what he's saying there and what we need to keep ourselves reminded of, is that death.
Is not that last moment of a flat line on a screen at the hospital?
It's the.
It's the separation from God.
And that separation begins with Adam and Eve and is passed on to everybody that's descended from Adam and Eve.
So we are born in a way, dead in our trespasses.
We are born apart from God.
And yet what Christ has done is rescued us and saved us.
And that's what we want to process.
What does that mean then, if this mystery?
Of life has been given to us, how does.
Now look so we've been looking at Romans 6, seven and eight last week.
In chapter Seven, we looked at Paul really wrestling with the law, and once the law became real to him, he wasn't aware or he he was a he was aware of his own sin and his wrestling with the law.
And he cries out.
Who will rescue me toward the end of seven?
Who will rescue me? This wretched man that I am who will save me and deliver me this body of death and he answers in verse 25 of Chapter 7 thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Bird.
So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
What he's saying is so important that for the rest of our lives we are in a war.
We are in a battle.
There is good news though.
The flesh, though our sinful flesh doesn't diminish, that is the that the old man, our actual ability, our bodies to follow the law increases.
He says that in Chapter 8 that he brings life to your mortal bodies that we are actually able to follow God, but never.
In such a way that stands alone from the.
Lord
And so the mystery of mysteries is that we were never designed to go it alone, and that really is the essence of death.
And that's quite honestly the essence of what most of us think of in the Christian life.
I'm going to figure this out.
I'm going to do this and so.
I'm going to just mention a couple of statements from one of my mentors, Jack Miller.
He says cheer up, he wrote.
He would say these over and over, cheer up gods.
Grace is greater than you ever hoped.
But cheer up, you are far worse.
Than you ever imagined.
Cheer up the spirit works mightily in your weakness, and that's where we come today.
The normal Christian life.
Last week we talked about the battle, the warfare.
This week, we're going to talk about the normal Christian life.
Is life in the spirit?
And for Romans 8 to make any sense, especially verse one, we have to have come to this place where we've seen both the glory of God and his law has come to life, and equally that the the depth of sin we struggle with that battle has to be real.
For Romans 8 one to make any sense.
So let's read these verses together.
Romans 8 verses 1 to 17.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of Life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and Death.
For God is done with the law weakened by the flesh, could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and four sin.
He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walked, not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit.
Set their minds on the things of the spirit.
For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot.
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You however.
Sure.
And he's talking now to Christians.
You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.
If in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, he leaves open this possibility, though that there are people who aren't Christians.
He goes on to say anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.
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.
So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
For all who are led by the spirit of God, our Sons of God.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as Sons, by whom we cry, ABBA, father.
The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
And the children then heirs, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ.
Provided we suffer with him in order that we might also be glorified with him, this is the word of the Lord.
Please pray with me Heavenly Father.
What rich and glorious language?
We could read this and meditate this on for the rest of our lives here on Earth and continue to be fed by the truths seeing new vistas and new Heights of glory.
In these words, I pray for these next few minutes.
There would be some clarity that your spirit would would open the eyes.
Of our hearts, wherever we are spiritually, whether believer needing nourishment or an unbeliever needing Salvation, open the eyes.
Holy Spirit, we pray Amen.
The real key I think, to to understanding what Paul is getting at in this spirit, is found in verse.
11 when he says.
If you walk in the spirit, the spirit will give life to your mortal bodies.
Now.
The final result of the human life in heaven is immortality.
In first Corinthians, Paul covers that the goal is not our mortal bodies to be made alive here, but rather we want the immortal body.
However, this side of heaven we live in our bodies and we're never going to be disembodied people.
Spirits floating around.
We want our heavenly.
Body.
Right, and so Paul is teaching this radical concept that, though this side of heaven, you'll never be made perfect, that happens when we go to heaven or Christ returns.
You can have growth.
You can't have healing.
You can have redemption, though it will always fall short of perfection, but that doesn't matter because we're not under the law.
So I was.
There's so many thoughts and ways I'm trying to express this.
The illustration and I ran it by Jason for his approval.
Is this all my life?
Whether it was through movies, especially movies or TV shows, I've been terrified of prison.
And if you don't know, Jason has been in prison, that's part of his testimony segment Jesus.
He's very open and willing to talk, and I would recommend you ask him questions about it.
We have very many conversations about that time of his life.
But my experience of it's only through movies or maybe through news articles or news shows and it just is terrifying to have your freedoms taken away.
And that's really how Paul describes this life.
If you, if you look, he says.
We are led by the Spirit to not fall back into captivity and back.
End of fear.
What are you saying?
Is your your state when you're born on this planet is captivity, we are in prison.
And when Christ comes, he sets us free from that prison.
We're just not yet free to leave the prison.
This is a metaphor I'm trying to work on it, so the idea is you're in prison.
And you have a sentence, but let's pretend you don't know when that ends.
It has like a range.
But the warden comes to you and says, OK, this is a little bit of a nod.
It has some like things that aren't realistic at all.
Hey, when you get out.
Like everything you lost is wiped away.
You don't.
You get your years back, you get your missed birthdays and all the things you missed from that all is back.
So you walk out as good, if not better than before.
I know that's not a perfect picture of glory, but just follow me, but the problem is you're still here.
And there's a lot of things they'd be scared of in prison.
The second beauty is you've been given like 3.
People to guard you.
In your life here.
So you can't be hurt in prison anymore.
Now you're kind of like.
OK, I'm gonna get out and I'm safe.
And your prison cell looks a little better and you start to get like furniture and some nice things that reminds you of home.
OK, here's the point.
Live this side of heaven.
Is a longing for leaving, but it's also an escape or a release from the prison we're in.
The problem with the prison that that this world exists in or that exists in this world is that everyone seems to not mind it at all.
They seem to love it, and yet the Christian wakes up and looks around and says no, like there is so much more freedom.
There's so much more goodness.
There's so much more holiness.
And yet we're in a bind, and the bind is.
It's not all here yet.
But it's partially here.
The spirit has come and and the spirit will progressively change you and shape you.
And so the primary shift that's happening in Romans 8 from the rest of Romans is this.
Chapters one to five.
Paul does a beautiful job of explaining how all have fallen short, how how the wrath of God as a punishment for our sin has fallen on all of mankind and everyone needs the gospel.
They need faith and he does such a profound job on that that in chapter six he anticipates the question.
Can we go on sinning that grace may abound, and so 6-7 and eight? He's really fleshing out what it means, particularly these gospel truths of one through 5 and then 8.
Seven and eight, especially 8.
He's saying what you need and the and the secret sauce to understanding all this is you need the Holy Spirit.
And when you have the Holy Spirit, something has changed fundamentally about you and about me.
And that's what we're going to look at.
I'm going to try to process that with us this morning quickly.
I know there's a lot of questions, but the Holy Spirit brings heaven to us partially, not all what we're going to get in heaven comes, but he's the first fruits we get heaven to us, and specifically bringing life to our mortal bodies.
So let's look at that.
The two broad points are who is the Holy Spirit and what does he do?
There are a lot of misunderstandings in our culture about the Holy Spirit.
And I can't fix them.
All I can do is tell you what the scriptures teach about the spirit and hope you'll believe that's the truth.
Right, the Holy Spirit.
Is how we are saved when you study theology and you say what Jesus did and you study who Christ is in the Gospel.
You you come away with beautiful information but it has to become applied.
How does that come into you?
And so Paul is very clear.
The Holy Spirit is who applies it to you.
So who is the Holy Spirit?
Well, let's look at a few other verses in the middle of our passage.
I don't know if you can pull it back up.
We're going to be looking parts of nine.
And Tim.
In verse nine, he says.
Uhm, you however are not in the flesh, but you're in the spirit, so there's this concept of being in the spirit.
But then he says this fascinating thing, if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you.
So not only are you in the spirit.
The spirit dwells in you.
You hear some mystery going on, but the other mystery is it's the spirit of God.
And he says that a few times.
In verse 11, he says if the spirit of him who raised Christ or raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you and he says it again, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give you life.
So now he's saying the spirit is the one who raised Christ Jesus from the dead, so it's still God the Father.
So the spirit of the God the Father dwells in you.
In union him.
But in the very same verse 9 after saying the spirit of God dwells in you, he says anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ.
Does not belong to him.
Do you hear the Trinitarian formula?
Christ.
Spirit dwells in you.
And then look at verse 10 and just mystery upon mystery.
He says simply.
But if Christ is in you.
Do you hear that Christ?
Is in you, so why does that matter?
Theology can often water down things we can often miss.
Things with our theology if it's not healthy.
So we come to the Trinity and we know that you're never supposed to consider one person in the Trinity in isolation from the other members.
Right, so whatever we do with the Trinity, it's so mysterious we never want to do is tear down the power and the beauty and the reality that the Holy Spirit in you means you now have the triune God.
Mysteriously dwelling in your soul.
And that is the truth of any person that is in Christ.
That is a Christian.
There is no such thing as a Christian without that.
If you don't have that, you're playing a game.
But if you have the Holy Spirit, you are a Christian.
Now, if you remember in John 14 Phillip, you know Jesus is preparing his disciples.
He's going to go away.
I'm going to the father.
And what does Phillip say?
Show us the father and that will be enough.
And Jesus says.
And Jesus.
Silip, I've been with you.
So might I invite us to please when we think of the spirit picture, if you will at least Jesus.
He is the visible image of an invisible God.
So though we can imagine the Holy Father and the Holy Spirit, those are hard to imagine.
We do want to remember the triune God.
Please understand Jesus, who is the image of the invisible God walks and dwells and is in your soul.
And that is what Christianity is.
Anything short of that.
And we're doing an injustice to it.
We sang this song abide with me.
And what does Jesus preparing his disciples for there as well?
And what are we singing that the normal human life that needs to come to all human beings is a reunification to the way we were designed, which is a perfect union with the trying God?
That's what was taken away at the fall and anything.
Short of that, is it just?
Putting makeup on a pig, it attempts to get better, but the problem still remains.
And what Jesus is offering us in his spirit is union.
To himself.
And it's completely purchased for us by the cross.
Now in our passage, you'll see a little bit later.
We have these.
What does the spirit do?
This is now that was who the spirit is.
The rest of our time is, what does he do?
He applies redemption to our lives, OK, and I just want to warn us all that the normal Christian life is one of conflict.
That's why we sang this song by John Newton.
I asked the Lord that I might grow.
I love that song.
We've seen we've sung it with different tunes, but the words written by John oh, I don't know that John Newton wrote the tune.
But he wrote the original words, of course.
He talks about in that song how he asked the Lord for Growth, which is a great beginning.
The spirit shows you the law.
You see the law, Paul understood coveting and long to not covet.
You see that you ask the Lord to help you.
And he prays for that.
And then he says, he draws it almost drove me to despair.
He says I hoped that in some favored hour at once, the Lord would answer my request and by his love constraining power, subdue my sin and give me rest.
So I see the law.
I see the law and the beauty of God.
And I see my struggle. My son and I say God take that away, and John hope Newton's like, hoping that God would say got this and just brush it away and you give the double thumbs up and walk on.
Says no, that's not how we do it.
'cause your problem, he says, or your schemes.
We design schemes. That's the law. That's what Paul's been saying. We we create a, you know again using the prison theme, you go to prison like you see these Mafia movies. Or maybe actual stories if you watch true crime they go to prison and just do the same stuff they did out here.
Just in here they start having their little you know groups and methods and it's the same schemes we all have.
And when the spirit comes, he calls us to no longer use those schemes, because those are the law of sin and death.
These ways we try to feel better about ourselves.
These methods we employ to improve are simply man-made laws, or we're trying to follow certain things that feel better about ourselves.
And they don't work.
So what does the spirit do?
First, the spirit comes and says, here's the law.
And he brings it to life. In Romans 7, Paul brings up the law of coveting. That's a profound law. I can't spend a lot of time on it this week. You can listen to last week's sermon.
But do not murder.
Do not steal.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not bear false witness.
At least have the illusion of you can keep those which Jesus tells us in the sermon on the Mount your they're much larger than you realize.
But coveting like, how do I stop?
If you read that law in Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy, five of the 10 Commandments the 10th, it's you not covet your neighbors wife, you know oxen home property or anything.
It's this open-ended.
Don't want anything with an inordinate desire, so the law comes to life and it's beautiful and you have hope, and that's what the spirit does.
But our problem, Romans 7 tells us is our flesh is like.
Condemn, I mean, they're fascists like you, you didn't keep any of this.
India.
Do you see this?
You're failing.
And our temptation.
Is to dumb down the law.
And make it achievable like the Pharisees or we go out and just say forget the whole thing, which is another type of law.
And what the Spirit offers us.
Verse one of Chapter 8 is no condemnation, but why, because Christ Jesus came.
And he kept the law, and as a sacrifice his sacrifice paid the penalty.
For our sin, and when the spirit comes on us and applies the blood of Christ.
You are no longer under law.
Nothing can condemn you.
He cancels the penalty of sin.
OK, that's what the Lord.
That's what the Holy Spirit does.
But I just want to remind us that though the penalty of sin is there, the actuality of our bodies temptation and actual committing of sins still exists.
So we're in this battle.
We're in this war, aren't we?
Last week we had a few quotes by JC Ryle. I just wanted to read a one or two just to kind of remind us of.
Uhm, this got over and I think we forget.
He says to be at peace with the world, the flesh and the devil is to be at enmity with God.
And in the Broadway that lead us to destruction, we have no choice or option.
We must either fight.
Or be lost.
He adds this JC row.
By the way was a.
Late mid to late 1800s Bishop in England reformed a got just an amazing preacher. Listen to what this from the same book on Holiness. He says the saddest symptom about many so called Christians is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight in their Christianity. They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves.
They get money, they spend money. They go through a scanty round of formal religious service once or twice every week, but the great spiritual warfare. It's watchings and Struggling's, it's agonies and anxieties, its battles and contests of all this. They appear to do nothing at all.
That's a problem.
Brothers and sisters, that's a problem.
If we are in Christ, we're in a battle.
We don't get to go read the Bible and it says love your neighbor and we go.
That would be lovely.
Someday when Jesus just makes that happen for me, no.
God saying now.
How is that going to?
Work well, he's cancelled the law.
So when you struggle, you're not condemned, but he's also adopted you.
He's come inside of you, he's adopted you and he's giving you his spirit.
In verse 15 of eight you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry.
ABBA father.
So here's the here's the reality.
To live in the flesh is to live by myself in isolation.
I may look like I'm with people.
I may appear to be interacting with other humans.
I may be married.
All this stuff.
I have kids, but I'm trying to.
Get my life to work the way I have planned it according to my schemes.
That's the flush.
The flush.
The.
I'm in my own head in my own body.
Your design for community you're designed to be known.
In Jeremiah
It says I knew you before I formed you in the womb.
God wants to know you.
And when you are fully known by God and you know that you're fully loved by him.
There's a freedom that comes in the rest of our lives in the spirit when we're walking in the spirit when we aren't, we repent, we confess it or forgive me.
That's the normal Christian life.
I asked for forgiveness, but when we're in this spirit, we're in partnership.
We we we can interact with the Lord he's our, he's with us everywhere we go.
I saw a sign that said if God is your auto part of Jesus is your autopilot.
Do you wanna see this?
If Jesus is your autopilot, switch seats, I thought was really good.
You're in the wrong seat.
He needs to be driving the car.
And so we go to the Lord in prayer, Paul invites us, for example, to pray without ceasing.
And I've read that, and I would say my entire Christian life.
I thought, oh.
Ah.
It's a burden.
Do you hear the burden in that?
What's the burden?
Well, that's because I'm.
Living out the flesh, I feel like it's a lot.
It's not a law, it's an invitation.
See we love our cellphones.
We love our social media.
We are more connected to humans than we've ever been before.
If I told you hey from now on starting tomorrow I need you to call.
And talk on the phone for 45 minutes tomorrow. Since 75 texts snap 42 people, you know it's overwhelming, but you do it. You do it anyway.
Do you hear the difference?
One is fun and it seems to be life giving.
The others are burdened and so when the spirit comes in you and says hey, I love you, you're adopted and all of your sins have been removed and B.
I'm actually going to help you like bring life to all these problem areas of your body.
Let's get it.
Let's get at it.
All you have to do is begin to pray and repent and we'll work together.
That's a glorious promise that Jesus has given us.
In our adoption, so how does this work? Just for the last few moments, I'm going to try to maybe explain some of this. What do we do to see life brought to our mortal bodies wherein point #2 as the spirit? Do he brings the law to life through our effectual calling? That's the doctrine.
He, through our justification, removes all the penalty of our sin and gives us the imputed righteousness of Christ.
That is the record of right righteousness.
Were adopted, so now we're not only counted as righteous, we're actually brought into the family of God.
Where were heirs were sons or daughters of the King?
But he also said he also invites us.
To put the death of these of the body, and that's our battle.
What do you think of when you come to this verse?
It says so then brothers, we are debtors, not to the flush to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
But if by the spirit you put the death the deeds of the body, you will live.
What do you make of that?
Let me be clear, he's not saying you will die if you live according to the flesh, like the moment you live according to flesh you're.
Just going to just fall flat.
He's saying you're going to be living out of the posture of that death we've talked about.
Isolation, autonomy.
I'm on my own.
I'm making all the decisions on my own.
He's saying if you live out there flush that's what's going to happen.
But when you live by the spirit, you're going to have life breathed into.
You're going to be tapping into the resource of the spirit, but how do you do that?
So you follow Paul and he says, well, you you put to death the deeds of the body.
How do I do that?
What are the deeds of the body?
When we first ask you, are you aware of the your deeds that flow from your sin from your flesh?
So that I think one of the steps would be to pay attention.
To my sin like where am I sinning?
Where am I greedy struggling a ****** sin I'm using the seven deadly sins.
Anger, gossip and laziness and lying and but where do I do these things particularly well?
What I want to do?
That because you're not condemned.
You're free.
Remember last time we talked about your not the pixel our job is to go?
Jesus, I think I'm struggling.
Look what I did.
Will you forgive me?
I confess that I did this but will you show me why I'm doing it?
When you track Paul in Romans 8, listen to the listen to how he tells you to put the deeds of the body to death.
Verse 14 I'm ready for the technique of Paul.
Please tell me Paul what I'm supposed to do.
For all who are led by the spirit of God, our Sons of God.
OK, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.
But you ever see the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ABBA, father?
Have you heard a technique?
What do you do?
How do you put the death well?
Apparently all of my sin flows out of fear driven by my flesh that I am not safe that God is not for me.
And when I can name that and confess that and turn back to the truth that I am.
Adopted a son.
I'm in Christ.
The spirit dwells in me.
He goes on in verse 16.
The spirit himself bears witness with your spirit that your children of God.
What is Paul teaching that by faith we realize?
OK, wait a minute.
All of the things I need are in Christ.
And I am safe.
And there is life in that, because once you know you're safe, once you know you're not going to be condemned.
Once you know in a moment, like you can't do it once and for all, this side of heaven.
But in moments or by faith, I'm believing these truths.
It takes all of the lifeblood out of your sin.
It it becomes completely.
Undesirable.
An example.
Have you ever?
Been in an argument.
And then a flash of love came over you for the person you're arguing with.
And it took every desire.
Out of the argument.
It's just like Oh my God, I love that person.
You know what happened?
Well, the law of love which is the Lord your God, love your neighbor, this is what the spirit brings and when we actually can realize that person is not going to Take Me Out I'm in Christ.
In fact, that person I can begin to have mercy on grace and care for them because I'm already saved.
Just like if I've crossed over and I'm going to help them get over some impediment, I want to actually be the voice of love and care for them.
'cause I'm safe because Christ loves me and dwells in me and I am safe.
That is one of the primary ways we put the law, the deeds of the flesh out, and that's where life comes in.
So the good news is you are adopted. The good news is Christ's righteousness has been applied to you and your justification. All these benefits are yours and cheer up. It's a battle you're in.
So I'm gonna turn back to Romans 5 just for a second as we conclude.
I just want you to hear what Paul tells us is coming in Romans 5, which we're now studying in chapter eight.
He says therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God.
3rd Lord Jesus Christ.
3rd Lord.
Jesus Christ, that's the doc.
That's the doctrine justification.
We have peace with God.
OK, through him he goes on.
So on.
So.
We have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.
So there's this moment by moment access to grace that we've been talking about.
And then he goes ahead.
And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, the hope for what that one day.
Someday he will return, and or he will.
We will go to be with him as we await their return.
Does that make sense?
That's the glory, OK?
But what what?
This is beautiful, and it goes on.
Not only that.
There's more here.
See those infomercials?
There's more what we rejoice, ready for it and our sufferings.
Knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us a shame.
He says, for God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us that Chapter 5 and in chapter 80, cycling all the way back to those very same truths, the Holy Spirit dwells in you, the spirit of God is in you. You have all of the resources you could ever need or want.
So what does it mean to suffer?
What's so wrong with that?
Here's what's wrong with it.
God doesn't mean no one likes suffering. By the way, it's not like, hey, Christians like suffering. What Christians say, what Paul's teaching is. This your alternative to suffering?
Is choosing schemes to relieve the tension?
Have you ever been in the moment of a temptation?
I'd love a show of hands.
How about this week don't show, don't raise your hand.
A temptation came on you and you decided I'm going to fight this one.
Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
That is miserable.
That is suffering.
Why?
Because the promise of the sin is rescue.
Isn't it?
Yeah.
If you do this?
You will live, that's what Satan told Adam and Eve, and that's what the flesh and the devil and the world try to tell you.
I'm feeling stressed.
This thing seems like it's going to help.
I don't want to fight it guess what I'm doing?
I'm suffering.
And he says suffer as well with patients and the rest of Chapter 8, which we're going to look at in two weeks, really rounds out the fact that we live in this space where our flesh is constantly saying, I don't think God's for you. I think there's some things you can do to take care of yourself.
And we're like no, what do we do?
We go to the Lord Jesus site I need you right now.
Will you help me know that I have a deep, deep desire that only you can meet?
And in that relationship to the triune God because of his dwelling in your soul that is abiding in him and he and you and we can endure the suffering as Paul finishes.
And all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, that neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor rulers, nor things present nor.
Things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else, and all of creation will separate us from the love of God and Christ our Lord.
Will you do these things?
Look at your SIM patterns.
Because they're trying to kill you.
I don't care what it is and if you think no, this helps me.
This same pattern.
Actually sometimes people need this kind of treatment or whatever is killing you.
It's your flesh going.
We got this.
Let's take him out it's the devil conspiring with you in the flesh.
Will you name that?
Take it to the Lord.
Confess it.
And pray that the spirit would give you a love of the law behind it.
The love of your neighbor, the love of God.
There's something that's glorious that is in opposition to that sin powder.
Pray that the spirit will give you that.
That's Roman 7.
Pray that you'll also understand you're not condemned Romans 8 by that sin.
And that now, because you're not condemned and you're adopted, you can begin to go to the spirit for the nourishment you were seeking to get from the sin.
That is what sanctification looks like.
And I invite that.
To be your process, if you're sitting here and you're going not interested.
You need to really begin to question if you know Jesus.
To real question, it's not just in the 1800s with JC Row, it's a severe issue in our present day, a lot of people go through the steps and play the game.
But they don't have that relationship with the Holy Spirit.
The good news is you can.
If that even means anything to you right now, you can ask him to come in your heart.
You can't be born again.
His spirit will come in.
And make us home with you.
And you will have.
Peace that you've never known before.
Let's pray.
Lord, this gospel is too much, too much to put into simple words, but you did it, you did it through Jesus.
Through your spirit, giving the words to the writers of Scripture.
Through your spirit illuminating those words to the lives of those you've saved.
But Lord, I pray any word that I've said that it's not been in conformity with your gospel would be removed.
Let the truth of your gospel sinking that you seek and save your own.
You are the Good Shepherd.
And Lord, we don't have to jump around and do all sorts of schemes to get in.
We simply rest in you and confess you are.
God, you are the son of God, we believe.
We ask you to enter our lives in the Lord, for Christians who already believe.
Help us to really see our repentance feels very much the same that we come to these places where we're fighting and we're trying to do it on our own just like an unbeliever in those places, even though we're already saved.
There's a temptation so often to live as if we're not.
Teach us to repent even as if it was the first time.
To come to you and just.
Cry out for your mercy.
And for you to give us life to our mortal bodies while we long for our immortality in you.
Hey man.
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