[0:00] We welcome you to the media ministry of Bethel Community Church, knowing Jesus, making Jesus known. If you would turn with me to your Bibles to Romans chapter 8.
[0:16] We'll jump in to Romans chapter 8 here in just a minute. Tough news with Kim, that's hard.
[0:30] I'm not real close with Kim Garland, but her husband Scott, we go on a couple hunting trips each year together. And Scott's just a great guy. I mean, how old is she, 61-ish?
[0:43] Yeah, young. Man, it's just tough. For some reason, that diagnosis has kind of hit me hard the last 24 hours. So, you know, I just think, if you're giving news like that, how would you live, you know?
[0:56] I spend probably 95% of my day worried about things that don't matter, you know? So, anyway, I just wanted to throw that out there. But Romans.
[1:10] We're getting close to the middle of Romans. There's 16 chapters, and we're right in the middle of chapter 8. The transition from chapter 8 to chapter 9 is really a big one.
[1:21] We're not going to get there today. But, you know, the first half of Romans through chapter 8 really talks about four things in particular, which we're going to talk about in just a sec.
[1:33] But the second half of Romans really talks about Israel quite a bit. It talks about Israel and the Gentiles and kind of how the two are related and how the two have responded to the gospel.
[1:47] And then from beyond Israel and the Gentiles, it talks about just Christian living in general. It's kind of the second half of Romans. But the first half, where we're still at, kind of talks about four things, kind of four, you know, doctrines, if you will.
[2:00] And the first one, we all know, is total depravity, universal guilt. The whole world is guilty. You get verses like in chapter 1, 18, where it says that the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness.
[2:14] Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned. So you get that total depravity. And then the second one is you get salvation does not come by works. Right? Salvation could never come through the law.
[2:25] No one could fulfill the law except for Christ who established the law. But salvation is not by works. So you have total depravity. Salvation not by works. And then finally, you get salvation by faith.
[2:36] Right? That's the big one. Salvation by faith. Faith alone and Christ alone. You know, you think of verses like in chapter 5 where it talks about God demonstrated his love toward us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.
[2:51] You know, if the Bible were a building on fire, that's one of those verses you'd run in and save first. You know, nothing wrong with like Malachi or anything like that. But Romans 5, 8, I mean, that's, that is, man, that's, that's one of the real good ones.
[3:04] So salvation by faith, not by the law. We're all guilty. And then kind of chapter 6 through 8 talk about, so now what? How do we live as believers? As someone who is saved by faith, then what happens?
[3:19] And it's a battle, right? I mean, does anyone in here think that Christian living is easy? If so, you know, I'd like to shake your hand. It's a battle. And even Paul describes it as a battle.
[3:30] He says, you know, there's, there's these two, two things within me, the flesh and the spirit. And they're tugging back and forth, back and forth. And he says, the things I want to do, I don't do.
[3:40] And the things I don't want to do, I keep doing. Like, he, you know, son of a gun. He's, he's caught in this, this battle. And I mean, does anybody relate to that? You know, I mean, absolutely.
[3:52] Looking out, we have some old friends who are, who are now back with us. Some guests today, welcome. And Lance and I were just talking, I think we were first together at Turkey Hill like 20 years ago.
[4:03] And I'm still in my 20s. So that's, that's a long time ago, right? And, you know, the things I struggle with. Then as a early teen, still struggle with.
[4:16] It's like, well, what the heck, you know? But there's this war between the flesh and the spirit. And so Romans 6 and 7 and 8 really talk about that a lot. And we're not going to talk too much about that today. We are going to talk about the Holy Spirit quite a bit today.
[4:30] But it's messy, right? Christian living is messy. There's this battle. And really these passages, chapter 6 and chapter 7, chapter 8, they're kind of messy too. There's a lot of, a lot of terms Paul uses for the flesh.
[4:43] Like he'll say, my members, this body, this mortal body, my instruments. And then there's times where he's talking about the Holy Spirit, like the Spirit, but then His Spirit.
[4:55] So there's kind of some confusing things. Even that verse I quoted a minute ago, you know, if you read it out of Romans 7, it's kind of confusing. It says, what I'm doing, I do not understand.
[5:07] What I will to do, I do not practice. But what I hate, that I do. If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that is good. And there's a lot going on. Your head will start spinning if you read it too fast.
[5:19] And it's all good, right? It's all inspired by God. But the point is, it's complicated. It's hard and it's a battle. And it's a tug of war between the flesh and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
[5:31] And so, like I said, today the point is not to delve into that too much in regards to how to live as a Christian. But more along the lines of the Holy Spirit Himself.
[5:44] You know, as the third part of the Trinity, kind of what does the Holy Spirit do? What is His mechanism of action, if you will? What things does He accomplish for us?
[5:56] In light of that, then you can apply that to Christian living. So anyway, with that kind of introduction, let's pray real quick and then we'll get into it. Father God, we love you and we thank you that we have your word.
[6:10] We thank you that salvation comes by faith. Faith, we thank you that you give us guidelines as far as how to live, having been saved by faith. And God, we just pray you'd bless our time as we study your word and look at it.
[6:25] And we'll just again lift up Kim and the Garlands and the Smiths. Just lift them all up to you, Lord. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So my passage today starts in verse 12.
[6:39] But we're actually going to go back a little bit to verse 8. Verse 12 starts out with a therefore. And so just for context, and it's all kind of one thought.
[6:50] We really should start back at verse 8. So we're going to go backwards just a little bit. So Romans 8 verse 8 says, So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
[7:06] So we'll pause there. So anyone in this room, throwing this out there, is there anyone in here who does not want to live a life pleasing to God? Hopefully not.
[7:18] If you're wanting to live a life of pleasure and fun for yourself, then there are much better things to do than be here listening to me talk. And I mean that genuinely. This would be a waste of your time if you would want to be living for yourself.
[7:32] So we all agree. We all want to please God with our lives. Well, it says, So if you are a believer, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.
[7:53] And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he, that person, is not his. If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin.
[8:05] But the Spirit is life because of righteousness. You catch that in verse 10. It says, If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin.
[8:18] So it's almost a little bit of a paradox. In verse 8 it says, Those in the flesh cannot please God. So if we want to live this life that's pleasing to God, and if Christ is in you, the body is dead, how do you reconcile that?
[8:33] Right? There's a little bit of a paradox there. If the body is dead, how can we live a life pleasing to God? If the body is dead, how can we live? You see it there? It says, But the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
[8:49] Verse 11. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
[9:06] So if you want to live a life pleasing to God, even though your body is dead, the Spirit of God will give life to your mortal bodies. So while you're here on earth, the Spirit of God will give life to your mortal bodies.
[9:18] And so on your handout, that first, it says Spirit of and then a blank. I would write in there the Spirit of life. The Holy Spirit gave life to the Lord Jesus after He was crucified.
[9:33] It says that that was the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. It actually says it twice. That He raised Jesus from the dead. He raised Christ from the dead. That same Spirit will give life to your mortal bodies.
[9:45] If you jump down to number one on your handout, it says the Spirit of life and then blank. It will be empowers. The Spirit of life empowers us.
[10:00] What does it empower us to do? To live lives that are full of life. To live lives that have overcome the flesh and to live a holy and fruitful life, bearing fruit for the Lord, a life pleasing to God.
[10:13] In the flesh, we cannot please God, but with the Spirit of life, we can. And so then that brings us to verse 12, where we're supposed to start this week, where it says, Therefore, brethren, so with this in mind, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.
[10:32] So with this Spirit of life, having given our mortal bodies some life, we are indebted to it. It says we are debtors, not to the flesh.
[10:43] You know, Lydia and I, my wife and I, we do a little bit of premarital counseling with a few folks, and one of the sections of premarital counseling is always finances, right? What do the finances look like? And a couple of the questions, you know, that will be brought up is, you know, about what is your income?
[11:00] Do you have any outstanding debts? You know, what do your savings look like? Just so you can get on the same page and make sure you have a good financial plan going into marriage. And so when you get into the debt section, there's two questions you want to ask about debt.
[11:15] And if any of you listen to the Dave Ramsey program, he'll always ask two questions. Who do you owe and why do you owe them? Right? Those are the two things with debt. Who do you owe and why do you owe them?
[11:27] And so a common response might be, well, I owe the United States government $20,000 because I took out a student loan. Or I owe the bank, you know, $10,000 because I bought a car.
[11:39] So who do you owe and why do you owe them? And so in verse 12, it says, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
[11:50] And so the implication there is if we are not debtors to the flesh, we are debtors to the spirit. Excuse me. I do have my sense of taste and smell, I promise.
[12:09] Bill McDonald, who's a commentator, he talks about this indebtedness or this obligation where it says not to the flesh. And this is what he says.
[12:20] He says, we owe nothing to the flesh. We owe nothing to the flesh to live according to its dictates. The old, evil, corrupt nature has been nothing but a drag.
[12:31] I would agree with that. It says, it has never done us a bit of good. If Christ had not saved us, the flesh would have dragged us down to the deepest, darkest, hottest places in hell.
[12:42] Why should we feel indebted to such an enemy? Yeah, I agree with that. I think that's a pretty obvious point, right?
[12:53] We are not debtors to the flesh. We are not obligated to the flesh. But I've never really thought about, to be honest with you, I've never really thought about being indebted or being obligated to the Holy Spirit. You know, there's verses in Corinthians, like Corinthians 6.20 says, you were bought with a price, therefore glorify God with your body.
[13:10] You know, I think about that. Okay, yeah, God, you know, bought us with his son. Therefore, I owe him, you know, glory with my body. There's an old saying, you know, Christ died for you, so you should live for him.
[13:25] You think, yeah, that makes sense. But I've never really thought about it in regards to the Holy Spirit, as far as owing him any obligation or any debt. And so you think, well, what has it done for us?
[13:37] Well, lots of things, right? When we're unsaved, who convicts us? Who draws us? Who leads us to repentance? I mean, that's the Holy Spirit, right? At the point of salvation, who regenerates us?
[13:48] I mean, that's the blood of Jesus, but through the Holy Spirit. And then once you are a believer, how do you bear fruit? I mean, they call it the fruit of the Spirit, right? And so, yeah, we are absolutely indebted to the Spirit.
[14:02] Going on to 13, it says, You 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.
[14:17] And here again, you get this theme from 6, 7, and 8, the flesh and the Spirit, the two kind of playing tugs of war. And the ultimate outcome here, if you look at it, is if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
[14:31] If you live according to the Spirit, you will live. I mean, death and life, right? I mean, it's an easy choice. It's the doing of it that's hard, but it's an easy choice, right? The flesh, you will end up dead.
[14:43] If you live according to the Spirit, you will live. And so on your handout, I put a little table in there, and this comes from Romans chapter 6, where Paul really gets into it in regards to living a fleshly life, or living a Spirit-filled life.
[15:02] And for those of you that don't have a handout or at home, I'll just summarize it kind of to you. On the left-hand column is the fleshly life, the results of a fleshly life. And those folks are in bondage.
[15:12] It says they're dead. They're under death's domain. Their bodies are instruments of unrighteousness. If you live a fleshly life, you're under the law. You're on the road to death. You're unclean.
[15:23] It says you're dead for a second time, and then for a third time, it says you're dead. Not good. Then you compare that to the Spirit-led life. On the right-hand side, instead of being in bondage, you're free.
[15:35] Instead of being dead, you're alive. You're alive to God's domain. You're an instrument of righteousness. You're not under the law, but under grace. You're on the road to righteousness or holiness, and instead of being unclean, you're holy.
[15:50] Alive and bearing fruit, and instead of being dead, you're eternally alive. So how do you live a Spirit-led life?
[16:02] How do you live this life by the Spirit? It's an easy choice, like I said, right? No one would choose anything on the left-hand column. It makes no sense. Well, how do you do it?
[16:12] Look at the end of the verse 13. It says, By the Spirit you do what? Put to death the deeds of the body. So the Holy Spirit, again, I never thought about this, but it's the Spirit of death to the deeds of the body.
[16:27] So the second blank at the top of the page, it is the Spirit of death to the flesh, right? It's the Spirit of death. So we have the Spirit of life, which empowers us to live a life pleasing to God, but we also have the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of death to enable us to, you know, overcome the deeds of the flesh, and again, live a life pleasing to God.
[16:57] So number two on the handout, the Spirit of death enables us. I've never thought about the Holy Spirit this way. I've got to be honest with you. Moving on to verse 14, it says this, 14 and 15.
[17:13] As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage, again, to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, Abba, Father.
[17:31] It says, As many as are led by the Spirit, these are the sons of God. That word led means willingly led, to yield. So to yield yourself and allow yourself to be led.
[17:42] It's a willingly led. We went to the Cardinals game Friday night, and it was Daisy's first ball game with COVID last year. We didn't get to go, obviously, and then the year before, we went before she was born.
[17:57] So it was her first ever ball game, and she had a lot of fun. And we park at Shoto and Seventh, the old Kevin-style spot, right in front of Purina.
[18:08] And if you walk down to Seventh, that's where Eat Right is. And right there, you can park for 15 bucks, or you can park over here for free. It's a half a block. 15 bucks, you know, Ben and Jerry's in the stadium.
[18:20] You can get two small Ben and Jerry's for 13 bucks. So if you walk half a block, you get free ice cream, plus $2 back in your pocket. It's an easy choice. Anyway, that's right.
[18:31] So Lily, our three-year-old, the whole way, you know, she lets us hold her hand. She's very scared of cars, right? She, like, somehow is afraid she's going to get run over by a car.
[18:43] And so we held hands all the way down Shoto, all the way down Seventh, all the way up to our seats. I mean, hot human night, hands are sweating, but wouldn't let go. You know, she was willingly led.
[18:55] And then, you know, we moved down later in the game. We walked back to the car afterwards, and the poor thing had a blister on her heel. I mean, she probably walked like three miles. I mean, not exaggerating. She probably walked, and her little legs, you know, take a lot more steps than our legs.
[19:09] So Daisy, on the other hand, was in the carrier. She had no choice, right? That was not a willingly led situation. She was strapped in. She was in bondage, if you will, on the back.
[19:22] Difference between the two, right? But you also think, I mean, you can lead a horse, but you do it, I think, with a bit and bridle. Isn't there a bridle on a horse when you lead it? So, I mean, if it turns its head, it's going to be injured or hurt.
[19:36] So it's not willingly letting you do it. It's in bondage. A dog, you put a dog on the leash. It wants to go this way. You want to go that way, you know. Come on over here. It jerks the dog's neck this way, and now the dog's going this way.
[19:49] It's in bondage. It's different. It's not being led by a loving father. And that is how we are to be led by a spirit. A willingly yielded spirit to the Holy Spirit, allowing us to be led by the father.
[20:08] It's interesting that it talks about bondage because we're going to talk a little bit about slaves and sons next. It says, We receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father.
[20:20] If you want to write spirit of adoption up in the third blank at the top of the page, where it says verse 15, Spirit of adoption. You know, I think all of you know this, but the Abba, Father, that's the intimate form of father.
[20:39] That's like daddy or papa. That's the intimate form. You know, being on this side of fatherhood, it's cool to see that relationship, especially with girls, having two girls.
[20:54] And to think that God the Father wants that kind of relationship with me, you know, that's hard for me to wrap my head around. But, man, it's cool that he wants us to have that intimate daddy type of relationship with him.
[21:11] But the spirit of adoption, not the spirit of bondage. Verse 16, it says, The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
[21:26] And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.
[21:37] And just a quick note, that last if there, it sounds almost kind of conditional, doesn't it? Like we will be heirs if we suffer. It's probably a little bit better translated since we suffer, or in light of the fact of.
[21:50] So since indeed we suffer with him, we may also be glorified together. Just a note on that. But look at this here. It says that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs.
[22:03] We have an inheritance, right, with Christ. And so going back to that spirit of bondage, you think about a son. It says we're sons of God. That means an adult son, an adult male child, which obviously in this culture was super important, right?
[22:20] I mean, that was the prized possession was an adult male child. And that adult male child would have responsibility, right? It would be to get work done. Whatever the father's mission was, it would be to accomplish that, to serve alongside him, to work for him, you know, to support the family, grow the family business, whatever that would be like.
[22:39] But if you think about it, a slave would basically have the same responsibility, right? It would be to work, to do whatever the master wanted, to grow the business, to serve the master however he needed to be served.
[22:50] So the son and the slave, really the difference there is one's doing it willingly and one is in bondage, right? They have the same responsibility to the father or to the master.
[23:02] But the other difference between the slave and the son is that the son gets a reward, right? The son gets an inheritance. The son gets his share of the estate someday where the slave wouldn't.
[23:15] If you go to Galatians chapter 4, very similar verses here. It talks about our sonship with the Lord.
[23:36] Galatians 4, verse 6. It says, Because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father.
[23:48] Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. So there again, slaves, they don't get an inheritance.
[23:59] They don't get their share of the reward, but sons do. So not only do we have responsibility as a son of God, we also get the reward. So that last line, number three, down at the bottom of the page, the spirit of adoption enriches us.
[24:17] we get an inheritance someday with the Lord. Now you know, the three big things through Romans, really Romans 1 through 8, are kind of the three parts of our salvation.
[24:32] You have justification, or being declared right, saying your debt is paid, you are now holy and just in the sight of the Lord, you are not guilty. That is justification, that's a one-time act when you're saved.
[24:47] The second part, right, would be sanctification, which happens when you're saved and then is an ongoing process of holiness and becoming, you know, more like God throughout your life.
[24:58] So you have sanctification. But then the third part is this glorification, this glorified state. In the rest of Romans chapter 8, well actually not the rest, but the next section, whoever's got it next week, they're going to talk about this, this glorification of the believers.
[25:17] So we're not going to really talk about it today. But that's what's coming next, right? This idea that we suffer with the Lord now and we will be glorified with Him one day. So we're justified, we're being sanctified, and we will be glorified.
[25:31] You know, at the end of the chapter, verse 24, it says, we don't hope for things we have, but we hope for things that we will have, and that's the redemption of our body, a glorified body with the Lord.
[25:45] So if the musicians want to come up, just kind of in closing here, you think about the flesh as it battles against the spirit, and if you feel that battle and you feel, man, I'm like Paul, I keep doing the things I don't want to do and the things I want to do, you know, I know I should get up early, I know I should spend more time with the Lord.
[26:09] You're not alone, right? I mean, everyone in this room would agree that that's the battle of life as a believer. And Paul dealt with it 2,000 years ago, and here we are still dealing with it today. So be encouraged by that.
[26:21] But know that the spirit of God, you know, it's more than just this kind of forgotten about third person of the Trinity. There's so much more than that. He's the spirit of life, giving life to our body to live life's pleasing to God.
[26:34] He's the spirit of death to the flesh. We can put to death the flesh with the Holy Spirit. And not only that, he has adopted us as sons, giving us not only responsibility to serve God, but also a reward someday to come, an inheritance shared with Christ.
[26:50] So, Father God, we just love you, we thank you, we thank you for your plan of salvation. Lord, I don't know why you would draw any of us to yourself, but thankful that you did and thankful that you do.
[27:02] We just pray we would live lives worthy of you. Lord, whatever that looks like. But we thank you that you give us life and that you've made us your sons and daughters.
[27:15] We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
[27:25] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[27:36] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.