[0:00] be able to give you a copy. So we're going to read this morning from chapter 8, verses 1 to 4.
[0:28] And then 12 to 17. So we're going to read and then I'll pray. Romans 8, starting at verse 1. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
[0:47] Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.
[1:10] And so he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
[1:26] Down to verse 12. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation. But it is not to the flesh to live according to it.
[1:38] For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
[1:49] For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you receive does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again.
[2:04] Rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father.
[2:15] The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs.
[2:30] Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. If indeed we share in his sufferings, in order that we may also share in his glory.
[2:42] Well, let's pray together. Father, we are weak.
[2:53] We are helpless. And we need the power of your Holy Spirit to help us to understand your word.
[3:03] But more than that, we ask that by your Spirit you would shine your light upon the Lord Jesus so that we may understand all that he has done and the work that he continues to do in our life today as we live for him.
[3:25] So please encourage and equip us all today, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, these last few weeks we've been asking the big question, what is a Christian?
[3:41] Or to put it another way, what are the marks of a Christian? Well, today we're going to see that a Christian is somebody who kills off sin.
[3:52] In other words, we're to consciously and intentionally put sin to death. Now, as we talk about sin, it's perhaps not very popular, or you're thinking, gosh, I don't really like the look of this subject.
[4:09] Well, follow with me, because it's extremely important. We're going to define sin like this as we go through our talk. Sin is the desires within us that stand opposed to God and are not yet renewed by God.
[4:27] So it's not just the bad things we do or the good things we don't do. It are the desires within us that stand opposed to God and are not yet renewed by God.
[4:41] You see, if you're a Christian here this morning, you're in a battle. Let me explain. Before we became a Christian, our sinful nature ruled our hearts.
[4:54] So we lived and we did as we wanted. Our sinful desires were unopposed. There was no battle going on. We just did whatever we wanted. But when we became a Christian, the Spirit of God moved into our hearts and the Spirit now rules and gives us new God desires.
[5:18] And although we now have a new nature, the old sinful nature has not gone away. It still remains opposed to God and is fighting against what is good and what is pure.
[5:31] That's the battle. If you're a Christian, that's the battle, what goes on inside of us 24-7. God gives us his Spirit to live his way.
[5:44] But yet the old sinful nature is still there. He hasn't gone away and is fighting against all that is good and right.
[5:54] Paul, who writes Romans, is a Christian and he shows us what this fight looks like. You can probably relate to it.
[6:04] Chapter 7, verse 19. So go back to chapter 7, verse 19. Look how he describes the fight. Verse 19, For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do.
[6:25] This I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living within me that does it.
[6:40] Have you ever experienced that? You want to do the right thing, but you end up doing the wrong thing. That's our sinful desires battling against our new God desires.
[6:56] He explains it further, verse 22. For in my inner being, I delight in God's law. I want to do the right thing. Verse 23, But I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
[7:23] What a terrible, verse 24, what a wretched man I am. I can't seem to do the right thing. I keep falling and failing.
[7:34] Who's going to rescue me from this body that is subject to death? We fight this battle and we often feel we're losing.
[7:46] Are we going to get anywhere? But this morning is a message of hope. Don't despair. Verse 25, Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
[8:04] Jesus Christ delivers us and helps us and enables us to fight sin. So three things we're going to look at this morning from Romans chapter 8 that's going to help us all kill off sin or put sin to death.
[8:24] And if we can grasp these three things, we will see changes and transformations in our life. Maybe you've been in this battle a long time and you seem to be making no progress.
[8:39] Well, I think if we can grasp these three things today, it's going to help us. We're going to look at the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and the presence of sin.
[8:50] The penalty, power, and presence. So first, good news. We have been set free from the penalty of sin.
[9:03] Set free from the penalty of sin. Chapter 8, verse 1. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
[9:16] This week, I was reading the news about a Mrs. Bergen who is 73 years old. For the last 28 years, Mrs. Bergen has been claiming her dead father-in-law's pension.
[9:32] Now, when you tot up the weekly claims, Mrs. Bergen had received a tidy sum of, guess what? £270,000. Not a bad little scheme, was it?
[9:47] Apparently, someone came across the file of the father-in-law and discovered that if he was still alive, he was past 110 years old. So, they went investigating and discovered Mrs. Bergen who was found guilty.
[10:03] The penalty? A fine and a sentence. All to be paid by Mrs. Bergen. She is under condemnation.
[10:16] Now, before we became a Christian, that's our spiritual state before God. we've broken God's law. We've desired what we want and we've been found guilty.
[10:29] And the penalty is death and separation from God. We are under condemnation. But look what the text is saying to us, verse 1.
[10:44] Therefore, there is now what? No condemnation. condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Imagine that you are in the courtroom where Mrs. Bergen is facing the judge.
[11:02] The evidence has all been presented, the verdict is guilty, and the penalty is read out. But just as Mrs. Bergen is being led out to begin her sentence, the judge stands up representing the state and calls her back in.
[11:22] Mrs. Bergen, I have some good news for you. I will cover your fine, and I will take your sentence.
[11:35] I will pay the penalty. You are free. You can go. at that point, Mrs. Bergen is declared not guilty.
[11:51] No condemnation. Now, we don't have to imagine what God would do for us because he has already done it.
[12:02] Read again verse 1. There is now no condemnation for who? For those who are in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
[12:21] We have been set free from the penalty of our sins. Well, how can that possibly happen? Well, look at the middle of verse 3. it tells us there, God did it by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.
[12:43] And so he condemned sin in the flesh in Christ. God in the person of Jesus came and took on our sin and was condemned for us.
[13:00] On the cross, the penalty for our sins was completely and utterly paid. And in its place, God now declares us not guilty.
[13:15] Not guilty. That declaration of not guilty can't be chained or revoked. It's a permanent, irreversible action.
[13:27] Look at verse 1. Literally it's saying, therefore there is now no more condemnation. That means all of our sins, not just our past sins, but every sin in the future has already been paid for by God.
[13:49] God will never ever judge you or condemn you. He's never going to punish you for any of your sins if you are a Christian.
[14:03] It's like we've been given a credit card from the bank of God. And every time we sin, we can present that card to God and say, thank you.
[14:15] Thank you for paying the penalty for my sin. You see, in our battle with sin, as we seek to kill off sin, we need to know that every one of our sins is no longer held against us.
[14:34] If our sins were held against us, we would just give up, wouldn't we? There would be no point fighting our sin because our sins would pile up one on top of the other and crush us.
[14:47] But praise God, Jesus has paid it all. We have been set free from the penalty of sin.
[14:59] That's the first big thing we need to know as a Christian. We've been set free from the penalty, never to face condemnation. Second, we are being set free.
[15:14] So the first woman was a past tense work of God. Second, we are being present, set free from the power of sin.
[15:25] Now having our sins paid for is wonderful news. No more condemnation. Well that must mean I can live however I like and do whatever I please and all I have to do is just go to God and say, please forgive me and he'll forgive me.
[15:42] No. God has given us a new nature. No condemnation, that's true, but he's moved into our life and he's given us new desires, a new way to live.
[15:56] Chapter 8, verse 5. Those who live according to the flesh, so when you see the word flesh, you might have a note at the bottom of your Bible, underneath the notes that you have there.
[16:13] flesh is the sin desiring nature that's in opposition to God. The sin desiring nature in opposition to God.
[16:24] So, keep that in mind. Verse 5, those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires.
[16:35] But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires. Verse 9, you, however, are not in the realm of the flesh, but in the realm of the spirit.
[16:55] You see, God has given us a brand new life. A new ruler now reigns in our hearts. And God lives in us by the power of his Holy Spirit.
[17:07] Verse 12, therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it is not to the sinful desires to live according to it.
[17:22] You see, our obligation when we stand back and see what God has done for us through Christ, how he's given us his Holy Spirit and has given us a completely new way to live, we have an obligation.
[17:36] It's not to go back to the old life and to start following our sin desires. Instead, we now live as new people who've been set free. And what's our obligation?
[17:49] What's our response? Verse 13, verse 13, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
[18:00] But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. You see, the key phrase in verse 13 is this, put to death death, the misdeeds of the body.
[18:22] It's a call to war. It's a command to fight. If you're a Christian, he's saying, I want you now as a new person in Christ to kill off sin.
[18:35] Those unwanted desires that stand opposed to God, we're to put them to death. death. One past theologian summarised verse 13 like this, be killing sin or sin will kill you.
[18:55] You see, there's no neutral ground here. Either we're being killed by sin or we are killing sin.
[19:07] What one is it? We're either fighting or we're surrendering. There's no neutral ground because our old sinful nature never ever gives up.
[19:21] It longs to come back at us. So the command is put sin to death. That's our obligation. That's our response as Christians.
[19:35] But how do we go about killing sin? How do we break its power? It's hold over us. Well, the message is not, I want you to go home and fight harder or I want you to battle stronger.
[19:53] No, we're to turn to God who empowers us and enables us to fight sin and to kill it off. So three ways we can fight sin.
[20:07] because we all have a sin problem. Here's the first one. In our battle with sin, look at the beauty of the sun.
[20:19] Look at the beauty of the sun. Not the S-U-N but the S-O-N. Verse 14. For those who are led by the spirit of God are the children of God.
[20:36] You know, the primary role of the spirit in scripture is to put the spotlight on Jesus. His job, the spirit's job, is to show the glory and greatness of who Jesus is.
[20:53] It's a little bit like going to the theatre. You watch on stage. There's many different characters, many things happening, and they're all vying for our attention.
[21:04] But then all of a sudden, the spotlight is turned on, and the light focuses down on the main character, and we're drawn to that character, and everything else on the stage fades off into the background.
[21:23] Well, verse 14. The spirit of God leads the children of God to gaze at the beauty of the son of God.
[21:34] God that's the spirit's work. He leads us as children to gaze at the beauty of the son of God. The spirit puts the focus on Jesus and says, marvel and wonder at who he is and all that he has for you.
[21:51] Don't look at sin and think about it and dwell on it and let it roll around in your minds. Don't look at sin, look at the son. And the way in which we see Jesus in all his glory is as we open up the pages of scripture and we pray, spirit of God, shine your light on Jesus and help me to see that he is more satisfying, more fulfilling than any of my sin.
[22:24] One writer put it like this, when our hearts redirect their gaze to the Jesus of the Bible in all his glorious gentleness and dazzling love, sin gets starved and begins to wilt.
[22:47] How do we kill off sin? Well, we look at the beauty of who Jesus is and all that he has done for you and all that he offers you.
[23:01] Second, live in or enjoy the intimacy of the Father. Live in the intimacy of the Father.
[23:12] Verse 15, the spirit you receive does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again. Rather, the spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship and by him we cry, Abba, or Father.
[23:31] It's a wonderful truth. If we're Christians, God has adopted us into his family. We now have the privilege and joy of being able to run to God as our father.
[23:45] But yet, remember how Adam and Eve reacted to God when they sinned? Do you remember what they did? They hid. And God said, why are you hiding?
[23:58] Well, we're afraid. Well, because there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, guess what?
[24:08] We no longer need to hide. We no longer dread punishment. Verse 15, we've been set free from fear.
[24:21] We can run to the father and know that he will embrace us rather than reject us. We can enjoy intimacy with the father, even though we are coming to him with all our mess and guilt and shame.
[24:37] This means two things. First, because of our father God, we are free to admit our sin and ask for forgiveness.
[24:51] That's the wonder of knowing the father, free to admit our sin and to ask for forgiveness. You see, when we give in to our sin desires, we try to cover it up.
[25:06] We hide behind the good deeds that we do in our acts of service. We're afraid to come before God and be honest before him.
[25:18] Well, as children, we can freely admit all our sins to the father and ask him to forgive us and he will forgive. So we're free to admit our sin, but second implication, we're also free to admit our weaknesses and to ask for strength.
[25:41] You see, so often we live the Christian life as if it's all up to me. God saves me and now it's up to me to keep my life and I battle away and I keep falling and we think weakness or helplessness is sinful itself.
[25:57] No, knowing our weakness is a good thing and we come to the father and we could admit our struggle and say I find it so difficult and so hard we can ask for his power and he will help us to follow his desires.
[26:18] So we look at the son and we live in the intimacy of the father. The third way we battle against sin is to listen to the testimony of the spirit.
[26:34] look at verse 16. The spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
[26:48] When I sin or when I become conscious of sin this is the way it goes in my mind. Johnny you're a hypocrite.
[27:00] How can you be a Christian? I'm useless. There's no way God can still love me. How can God forgive me again for this same sin?
[27:17] Again and again I'm coming to him. Do you ever feel or think like that? Well when we do that we're listening to the whispering schemes of Satan.
[27:30] instead we're to listen to the testimony of the spirit. Hear the spirit's truth not Satan's lies.
[27:42] You say how can I hear the spirit? Well the spirit of God uses the word of God to do the work of God. So again as I read the Bible the spirit takes that truth as I look to him and ask for his help and he presses that truth deep into my heart giving me a reassurance and a renewed confidence Johnny you are a child of God.
[28:11] Yes you've messed up again but you are God's child. So Christian do you feel a defeated hypocrite today?
[28:25] Maybe you're here this morning and you're thinking I'm just a useless failure. I'm a mess. You're ready to throw in the towel and say I can't fight anymore.
[28:38] Well listen to the spirit's testimony. Listen to what he has to tell you. What's he telling us? Well jump ahead to verse 33. Chapter 8 verse 33.
[28:52] You ready? who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? Who's going to push all your sins in your face and hold you guilty?
[29:08] It is God who justifies. Remember there's no condemnation. He's declared you not guilty. Verse 34. Who then is the one who condemns?
[29:21] Who's going to stand up and point the finger? No one. Christ Jesus who died more than that was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is interceding for us.
[29:38] Can you see it? The testimony of the spirit speaking that truth to your heart and encouraging you today to say you are God's child.
[29:49] Keep going. I'm with you. So third we kill off sin by listening to the testimony of the spirit.
[30:01] You see putting sin to death is ongoing so we must fight it to the end. Sin is like a fire and if it's not extinguished it'll spread and cause devastation in our life.
[30:16] And one way that you kill a fire is to starve it of oxygen. That's why you close your doors at night by the way in case there's a fire in a room. It won't spread. You keep the oxygen out.
[30:28] Fires need to breathe to keep burning. Well the fire of sin is suffocated as we look at the beauty of the sun, live in the intimacy of the father and listen to the testimony of the spirit.
[30:46] it. So second, we are being set free from the power of sin. It's an ongoing work.
[30:58] Third, and this is very short, we will be set free from the presence of sin. Future, we will be set free from the presence of sin.
[31:11] You see, when we become Christians, God gives us his Holy Spirit to live within us. And from the moment he enters our lives, he begins to renew our desires.
[31:24] It's like taking an old crumbled down house and you renovate each room one by one. But there's an old lodger in there who doesn't seem to want to get out.
[31:39] Well God moves into our house and he begins to do up each room. But the old lodger is still in the corner hiding and won't give up and won't get out.
[31:53] That battle will continue throughout our lives. Our desires may weaken, our rebellious hearts will slowly change, but the presence of sin will remain until the day we die.
[32:09] but one day when we enter God's glory we will be free from sin's struggle. Verse 17 Now if we are children then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
[32:39] We're children of God, that makes us heirs or co-heirs with Christ, that is we will receive the inheritance of God's glory.
[32:51] The presence of sin is very real in our life now, but the day is coming when you and I will not only think about the sun, but we will see the sun with our own eyes and we will be like him and we will enjoy the father without any guilt or any shame and we will delight in the spirit's work as he leads us again to glory and worship God.
[33:26] One day you and I will be transformed into sinless beauty. but until that day the fight goes on.
[33:42] But remember this, we have been freed from the penalty of sin. There is no condemnation, no judgment you will ever face.
[33:54] We are being freed by the power of sin as God works within us and one day we will be free from the presence of sin.
[34:06] Let's pray together. Our father God, we know that you look into our hearts and you know exactly the fight and the struggle each one of us have.
[34:43] We thank you, father God, that even now, as we trust in Christ, there is now no more condemnation. Thank you for your forgiveness.
[34:58] Thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit at work in our life, helping us to look to the Son, to enjoy the Father.
[35:10] Help us that we would listen to the Spirit reminding us of truth of all that you have done. Father, help us to go into this week with a renewed confidence and assurance that we can live your way with your help.
[35:34] Help us to say no to sin and yes to God desires. We pray this in Jesus' name.
[35:45] Amen. Well, we're going to sing together a song which reminds us of, in the light of who we are, how great and awesome God's love is and his mercy towards his children.
[36:04] And as we sing this, use these words to prepare us and enjoy