WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.839 Okay, we're going to go back for a little while this morning to Romans chapter 8 that 00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:06.839 we've just read. 00:00:06.839 --> 00:00:10.919 If you're visiting with us today in our morning worship, we're looking through Romans. 00:00:10.919 --> 00:00:16.199 We looked at it before the summer and then we took it up after the summer and we're looking 00:00:16.199 --> 00:00:25.839 at chapters 5.5 through to the end of 11 right up until the end of the year. 00:00:25.839 --> 00:00:34.240 And last week we wrestled together as Thomas preached on this difficult passage in Romans 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:40.640 chapter 7 about the battle that there is for us as Christians. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:43.519 And we're going to follow on from that today by looking at the first. 00:00:43.519 --> 00:00:47.960 We're going to spend a few weeks in Romans chapter 8, it's one of the best chapters in 00:00:47.960 --> 00:00:50.719 the whole Bible. 00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:56.640 And I think one of the reasons we struggle as Christians sometimes, struggle with the 00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:02.079 Christian faith and maybe even struggle with church and worship, is that it's very difficult 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:07.840 for us not to deal with the big issues of life as Christians. 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:15.519 And it can be tough for us to always be focusing on the really big issues of life and death. 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:20.719 The Bible is full of teaching about life and death and the significance and meaning and 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:21.719 reason. 00:01:21.719 --> 00:01:31.359 And you might find that tough sometimes because all of us sometimes find it unnerving and 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:40.879 we're looking for a quiet life and we can sometimes just avoid talking about these things. 00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:43.479 We'll find that when we're in our general chat. 00:01:43.480 --> 00:01:47.920 We're not so good at going into deep and meaningful and in many ways we try and avoid them in 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:53.520 our lives, maybe especially the men among us, because that is a struggle. 00:01:53.520 --> 00:02:00.200 But yeah, it's hugely significant to found a struggle on really great and wonderful 00:02:00.200 --> 00:02:01.200 good news. 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:05.240 Last week we looked at the struggle of being a Christian and the internal battle between 00:02:05.240 --> 00:02:09.800 doing what we hated and didn't want to do but having this love of Christ and the desire 00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:13.040 of Christ within us, that internal conflict. 00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:17.479 And what helps us through these battles is knowing that we are loved and recognizing 00:02:17.479 --> 00:02:21.239 the Christian life is a life of daily joy. 00:02:21.239 --> 00:02:25.439 You may have noticed my emphasis on that in our prayers today. 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:29.840 And at the end of Romans chapter 15, Paul speaks about joy. 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:33.759 It's very important to him. 00:02:33.759 --> 00:02:42.199 And he says this because he wants people to be full of joy in 15 verse 13. 00:02:42.199 --> 00:02:44.799 He gives us benediction, which I'll use at the end of the service. 00:02:44.799 --> 00:02:49.599 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:57.319 And also in verse 32 of that same chapter, he speaks about the importance of having joy. 00:02:57.319 --> 00:03:02.319 May there be joy and refreshment in our company together. 00:03:02.319 --> 00:03:08.199 And joy really is what comes all towards the end of this letter, and he speaks about it 00:03:08.199 --> 00:03:16.280 in other places as well, as what's really important for us as Christians to bed us in 00:03:16.280 --> 00:03:18.399 when we are struggling with battle. 00:03:18.399 --> 00:03:23.159 And so you may say, well, why doesn't it feel very joyful? 00:03:23.159 --> 00:03:28.599 Why don't I feel very good in my Christian life, which is often the case? 00:03:28.599 --> 00:03:36.159 And it may be that our minds are not fixed in the right place, and we therefore have 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:39.879 a wrong view of God and a wrong view of ourselves. 00:03:39.879 --> 00:03:45.280 So for a few moments in this chapter, I want to think about these early verses of Romans 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:49.639 chapter 8, which is the foundation for our Christian lives. 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:52.519 It's the ground that we stand on. 00:03:52.519 --> 00:03:59.240 It's what enables us to be joyful when we think of the internal battles and struggles we often 00:03:59.240 --> 00:04:02.680 have and the difficulties, maybe externally as well. 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:07.159 And I simply want to highlight two things for us as Christians today. 00:04:07.159 --> 00:04:10.439 And if you're not a Christian, this can be yours in Jesus Christ. 00:04:10.439 --> 00:04:13.200 First thing is there is no condemnation. 00:04:13.200 --> 00:04:14.920 There is no condemnation. 00:04:14.920 --> 00:04:17.480 And the second thing is there is freedom. 00:04:17.480 --> 00:04:18.480 Okay? 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:21.840 So we are going to talk about the big things, and we are going to deal with these issues 00:04:21.840 --> 00:04:30.120 because they interface with our daily lives, with the everyday mentality that we go into 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:31.120 the day with. 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:32.759 And secondly, there is no condemnation. 00:04:32.759 --> 00:04:35.319 It's a great verse in the New Testament, isn't it? 00:04:35.319 --> 00:04:43.319 At the end of all these deep theological unfolding of our condition before God in the glory of 00:04:43.319 --> 00:04:50.639 the gospel, He says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those in Jesus Christ. 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:51.800 So what am I saying? 00:04:51.800 --> 00:04:54.160 What do we say? 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:56.600 What do you go from here today thinking? 00:04:56.600 --> 00:05:01.720 I don't need to prove myself. 00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:03.960 That's what it means. 00:05:03.960 --> 00:05:06.439 Therefore in Christ there is no condemnation. 00:05:06.439 --> 00:05:12.879 It means we don't need to prove ourselves day in and day out when we get out of bed and 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:15.280 when we go and do what we do. 00:05:15.280 --> 00:05:23.760 Because isn't that what is the mindset that so often entraps and we spend our lives thinking 00:05:23.760 --> 00:05:24.760 over? 00:05:24.759 --> 00:05:26.920 Am I good enough? 00:05:26.920 --> 00:05:28.959 Do I work hard enough? 00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:29.959 Am I pretty enough? 00:05:29.959 --> 00:05:31.800 It's not me, obviously. 00:05:31.800 --> 00:05:33.560 Am I funny enough? 00:05:33.560 --> 00:05:34.879 Am I competent enough? 00:05:34.879 --> 00:05:37.959 Am I decent enough? 00:05:37.959 --> 00:05:44.599 And we're spending our lives constantly proving ourselves, wanting to prove ourselves, wanting 00:05:44.599 --> 00:05:48.159 to be better, wanting to be right with somebody. 00:05:48.159 --> 00:05:53.599 And often our lack or low self-esteem as people is because we have this weight of failure 00:05:53.600 --> 00:06:02.120 and guilt and pressure to be something and to prove ourselves. 00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:08.040 And that spills in our Christian thinking so that often we think that God loves us as 00:06:08.040 --> 00:06:12.560 long as we, as it's dependent on how good we do. 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:17.840 But God is saying, look, you don't slip in and out of condemnation as a Christian. 00:06:17.840 --> 00:06:21.320 You're not condemned to one day because you have a bad day and you're innocent the next 00:06:21.320 --> 00:06:22.320 day. 00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:26.680 There is now, therefore, there is therefore now. 00:06:26.680 --> 00:06:27.680 Now it's happened. 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:28.879 There's no condemnation. 00:06:28.879 --> 00:06:36.920 The verdict on us has been passed by God the judge as we come to Him in Jesus Christ. 00:06:36.920 --> 00:06:43.159 He has, God finds nothing against us because of Jesus. 00:06:43.159 --> 00:06:46.680 As believers we have a new, you know that, we've discussed this, we've preached on it 00:06:46.680 --> 00:06:47.680 from this time. 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:52.280 We have nothing, we have a new standing before God. 00:06:52.280 --> 00:06:58.280 We don't need to prove ourselves today to God, to other Christians, to the minister, 00:06:58.280 --> 00:06:59.840 to your wife, to your husband. 00:06:59.840 --> 00:07:01.920 We are not condemned. 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:04.920 We don't need to prove ourselves. 00:07:04.920 --> 00:07:06.399 And how can it be? 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:07.399 How can that be? 00:07:07.399 --> 00:07:09.319 Well, of course, that's the focus of our worship today. 00:07:09.319 --> 00:07:12.199 It's the focus of our worship every time we meet. 00:07:12.199 --> 00:07:17.360 But it's specifically the focus when we have the Lord's Supper together because we recognize 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:18.759 what God has done. 00:07:18.759 --> 00:07:19.759 How can it be? 00:07:19.759 --> 00:07:25.000 Well, because in verse 3 we say, God has done it. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:26.439 That's why there's no condemnation. 00:07:26.439 --> 00:07:31.319 Now you need, and I need to get that into my head, that God has done it. 00:07:31.319 --> 00:07:37.480 Verse 3, God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending His own 00:07:37.480 --> 00:07:40.240 Son in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin. 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:43.160 He condemned sin in the flesh. 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:47.680 So what have we got? we've got no condemnation, and we've got condemnation. 00:07:47.680 --> 00:07:49.320 We are not condemned. 00:07:49.320 --> 00:07:51.640 Our sin is condemned in Jesus. 00:07:51.640 --> 00:07:56.600 There's this opposites come together in this passage. 00:07:56.600 --> 00:08:02.320 So what we have and are reminded of, and you need to remember, and I need to remember, 00:08:02.320 --> 00:08:06.160 God doesn't just talk a good game. 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:08.800 He doesn't just talk a good game. 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:13.520 You know, we talk about God as the living word, and we speak about the Bible, and we 00:08:13.520 --> 00:08:17.600 talk about the law of God and the Ten Commandments, and we have done. 00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:21.720 And the prophets say, thus says the Lord. 00:08:21.720 --> 00:08:24.480 But He's done more than that, hasn't He? 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:26.240 He doesn't just talk a good game. 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:29.199 He has acted on our behalf. 00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:35.840 Now just as an aside, I think that's often where we fail as Christians, isn't it? 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:36.840 We talk a good game. 00:08:36.840 --> 00:08:41.320 Sometimes not such a good game, but sometimes we talk a good game spiritually, but we don't 00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:47.280 let grace govern our hands and our feet and our mouths and our actions. 00:08:47.280 --> 00:08:48.800 But that's not like God. 00:08:48.800 --> 00:08:52.360 God talks a good game, but God has done it. 00:08:52.360 --> 00:08:54.320 What has He done? 00:08:54.320 --> 00:08:58.320 Well God has sent His Son Jesus Christ. 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:02.639 And Jesus, you know, in that lovely little verse there, we have the summary of the atoning 00:09:02.639 --> 00:09:07.279 work of Jesus Christ on the cross, that He has become one of us. 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:11.080 God, the infinite and eternal one, becomes flesh. 00:09:11.080 --> 00:09:20.439 And He condemns your sin and my sin in Himself on the cross so that we might belong. 00:09:20.439 --> 00:09:26.919 And then He sends His Spirit into the lives of every believer. 00:09:26.919 --> 00:09:34.639 That's where we have belonging when we know and come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:09:34.639 --> 00:09:35.639 You know that. 00:09:35.639 --> 00:09:37.240 That's what we celebrate when we celebrate. 00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:43.039 That's what we remember in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:44.799 This is what changes us. 00:09:44.799 --> 00:09:50.679 But I want to ask, did they really have to do that? 00:09:50.679 --> 00:09:52.959 Did they have to do that? 00:09:52.960 --> 00:10:01.720 Well, what He says here, He says, God has done what the law and ourselves weakened by 00:10:01.720 --> 00:10:04.080 the flesh could not do. 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:06.960 Did they have to do it? 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:10.740 We were powerless to do anything. 00:10:10.740 --> 00:10:16.080 This is the one divine initiative that there is in the universe. 00:10:16.080 --> 00:10:19.560 This is the one way God has said. 00:10:19.559 --> 00:10:26.079 Finally God the Father sends the Son, goes and the Spirit indwells. 00:10:26.079 --> 00:10:33.639 There's this clear, trinitarian conclave that has happened before the creation of the world 00:10:33.639 --> 00:10:38.919 in order with all the mystery of that to provide the way of salvation. 00:10:38.919 --> 00:10:41.719 There's a fantastic picture in Revelation 5. 00:10:41.719 --> 00:10:44.199 You get time, go home and read it. 00:10:44.199 --> 00:10:45.199 Revelation 5. 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:53.920 You've got this amazing symbolism and pictures in this great last book of the Bible and awesome 00:10:53.920 --> 00:11:01.040 stories which speak about real history and real realities and real future. 00:11:01.040 --> 00:11:06.840 And you've got this scroll in Revelation 5 which really symbolizes God's eternal plan 00:11:06.840 --> 00:11:07.840 of salvation. 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:15.680 And it says, who is worthy to open the scroll? 00:11:15.680 --> 00:11:19.440 And the author says, there's no one. 00:11:19.440 --> 00:11:21.440 There's no mighty angel. 00:11:21.440 --> 00:11:23.440 There's no one in heaven and on earth. 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:27.200 And John, as he hears that, no one, no one, no one. 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:32.720 He weeps and he weeps and he weeps because there's no one who's worthy to do this great 00:11:32.720 --> 00:11:42.519 work until we have this, I will go, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb of God, this 00:11:42.519 --> 00:11:48.480 great paradoxical mixed metaphor of Jesus Christ, the lion of the tribe of Judah. 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:50.320 He is the one who is worthy. 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:54.040 Jesus Christ, is there another way? 00:11:54.040 --> 00:11:56.960 Is there any hint of another way in Scripture? 00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:00.960 Can you bring another way of salvation to us? 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:08.600 Did God not have come in the person of Jesus and lived and died and rose again? 00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:14.080 Just before the cross, he says, this cup, can I not pass from it? 00:12:14.080 --> 00:12:17.800 Is there not another way of salvation? 00:12:17.800 --> 00:12:20.759 Can Derek Lammon not get another way to get to heaven? 00:12:20.759 --> 00:12:24.200 Does it really have to be through what I'm going to do right now on the cross? 00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:27.160 I say, ah, but not my will. 00:12:27.160 --> 00:12:28.160 But yours be done. 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:30.919 Because God, the Son knows that there's no other way. 00:12:30.919 --> 00:12:37.120 He had to face the cross, the death and the resurrection that we've remembered in the 00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:40.719 Lord's Supper is the only way. 00:12:40.719 --> 00:12:44.039 And can I just say as we think about that, and I hope you go and think about it as we 00:12:44.039 --> 00:12:54.120 participate in not too long a time, that the cross, it subsumes every reality that makes 00:12:54.120 --> 00:12:55.120 us human. 00:12:55.120 --> 00:13:03.480 It involves every passion, every thought, every reality that you experience, and I experience 00:13:03.480 --> 00:13:05.000 day in, day out. 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:10.360 It encompasses all the themes of our lives that a million Hollywood films would try and 00:13:10.360 --> 00:13:11.960 cover also. 00:13:11.960 --> 00:13:17.799 Themes of love and of loss, of hope, of darkness, of death, of encouragement, forsakenness, 00:13:17.799 --> 00:13:24.639 suffering, injustice, justice, family, the greatest love, guilt, innocence, poverty, mystery, 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:30.960 divinity, power, weakness, purpose, despair, hope, tears, and inexpressible joy. 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:36.240 All of these things, all of these things we can find in the cross and find in what is 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:37.879 happening at the cross. 00:13:37.879 --> 00:13:45.279 All the realities that you wrestle with day to day, we find them being dealt with and 00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:49.559 finding their solution and hope in the cross. 00:13:49.559 --> 00:13:54.279 So that we can say today, no condemnation. 00:13:54.279 --> 00:13:57.600 You don't need to prove yourself before God. 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:00.240 Christ is our sin offering. 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:09.519 He has fully met His own just requirements of perfection in Himself and yet taken our 00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:15.120 failed abilities on Himself in punishment. 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:22.919 And in Him, as you remember that as a Christian, you will stand before Him in judgment. 00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:25.159 You will say no condemnation. 00:14:25.159 --> 00:14:28.559 There is no condemnation. 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:29.559 We are accepted. 00:14:29.559 --> 00:14:34.559 We will not on that day need to prove ourselves because we are covered in the righteousness 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:38.839 of Jesus, our sin condemned in Him. 00:14:38.839 --> 00:14:40.559 That's why it matters. 00:14:40.559 --> 00:14:42.719 That's why we talk about the big things. 00:14:42.719 --> 00:14:52.039 That's why we refocus weekly on these things because ultimately flower arranging won't 00:14:52.039 --> 00:14:54.319 cut it. 00:14:54.319 --> 00:15:01.519 We need to know and think of and remember these huge issues. 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:03.639 We're innocent, no condemnation. 00:15:03.639 --> 00:15:04.639 That's the first thing. 00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:09.839 And the second thing I want to speak briefly about is freedom. 00:15:09.839 --> 00:15:16.759 Freedom because that is very much the theme of this section and also the word generally. 00:15:16.759 --> 00:15:20.360 And you take the first two verses as summarizing this whole section. 00:15:20.360 --> 00:15:23.399 We've looked at the verse one which is no condemnation. 00:15:23.399 --> 00:15:28.320 And then verse two says, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ 00:15:28.320 --> 00:15:35.360 Jesus from the law of sin and death. 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:39.000 The law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus. 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:45.399 So it's always remembering who Christ Jesus is because it's in Christ Jesus there's freedom. 00:15:45.399 --> 00:15:50.120 And so we spring back to a couple of statements that Jesus made in the gospels where He said, 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:55.039 I am the way, the truth and the life. 00:15:55.039 --> 00:15:57.039 No one comes to the Father except through me. 00:15:57.039 --> 00:16:00.960 You know that very well known verse from John 14. 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:05.759 But also from John 8 where Jesus says, know the truth. 00:16:05.759 --> 00:16:06.759 He says I am the truth. 00:16:06.759 --> 00:16:08.799 He says, know the truth, know me. 00:16:08.799 --> 00:16:13.000 He says, and the truth will set you free. 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:19.560 And that all feeds into this description of the freedom that we have as Christians in 00:16:19.559 --> 00:16:20.559 Jesus Christ. 00:16:20.559 --> 00:16:26.439 You see the only place that is freedom, and I'm not very good at getting this across. 00:16:26.439 --> 00:16:28.639 I tried a couple of weeks ago and I failed miserably. 00:16:28.639 --> 00:16:32.279 The only place where there's freedom is where there's truth. 00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:33.519 Isn't that right? 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:41.919 You can only be free if you're facing and if you know truth. 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:48.559 If we don't know the truth in our lives, then we find ourselves wallowing in that kind 00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:52.919 of web of deceit and duplicity and lies and cover-ups. 00:16:52.919 --> 00:16:59.039 It's what we increasingly experience in a society which has abandoned any kind of absolute 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:06.519 truth and any real truth so that there isn't anything you can found and call truth. 00:17:06.519 --> 00:17:13.079 So we are finding ourselves with the phenomenon of fake news and alternative truth. 00:17:13.079 --> 00:17:22.359 People will not say that they will deny lying by saying there's an alternative truth and 00:17:22.359 --> 00:17:30.240 our politicians quite often are exemplary in that way, some more than others. 00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:35.519 And fake news and the reality of the world we live in, what, you know, if Pilate was 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:37.960 around today he would ask the same question, wouldn't he? 00:17:37.960 --> 00:17:41.240 What is truth? 00:17:41.240 --> 00:17:48.359 If truth is only within us, if there is no truth out there, if truth is only something 00:17:48.359 --> 00:17:55.240 that's subjective, then everything is truth and nothing is truth and everything is permissible 00:17:55.240 --> 00:17:58.160 and nothing is forbidden, isn't that right? 00:17:58.160 --> 00:18:03.759 If there is no standard, if there is no truth, if there is no objectivity, then anything goes. 00:18:03.759 --> 00:18:06.839 And Jesus says, I am the truth. 00:18:06.839 --> 00:18:09.279 He claims the truth. 00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:14.519 He claims to be the expression of the truth and the reality of the truth and only knowing 00:18:14.519 --> 00:18:18.359 Him will we be set free because the truth sets us free. 00:18:18.359 --> 00:18:26.359 Christ claims to be the standard bearer, the revealer, the author, the genesis of truth 00:18:26.359 --> 00:18:32.000 as truth is the standard by which we are judged. 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:39.079 And it's only when we acknowledge Him and confess our self-deception and our cover, 00:18:39.079 --> 00:18:48.759 God in His righteousness, can we be free to be honest about ourselves and free to be forgiven 00:18:48.759 --> 00:19:00.399 and released from condemnation and empowered to live in the truth, which is freedom. 00:19:00.399 --> 00:19:05.839 That's what we are told that it is in Christ and following Christ and in the Spirit we 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:07.240 find true freedom. 00:19:07.240 --> 00:19:09.039 What does that freedom look like? 00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:14.599 What does true freedom look like as it's revealed to us here in Scripture? 00:19:14.599 --> 00:19:17.519 Well it's God in us, isn't it? 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:18.759 God in us. 00:19:18.759 --> 00:19:19.879 God in our lives. 00:19:19.879 --> 00:19:23.599 Verse 9, you, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:29.119 If in fact God dwells in you, it's God in us. 00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:31.519 It's being in Christ. 00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:33.799 It's the indwelling Spirit of God. 00:19:33.799 --> 00:19:35.599 God lives this new principle of life. 00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:41.439 Jesus has been born from above, Christ came and gives us a new beginning in order to be 00:19:41.439 --> 00:19:46.399 holy, in order to live according to the Spirit. 00:19:46.399 --> 00:19:48.319 So this is an interesting fact. 00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:55.439 Jesus came, Jesus came died for you and for me to be holy. 00:19:55.439 --> 00:19:56.719 We don't think that sometimes, do we? 00:19:56.719 --> 00:20:00.359 We think Jesus Christ came to forgive us and all these things, which is all right. 00:20:00.359 --> 00:20:03.079 But He came to help us to live according to the Spirit. 00:20:03.079 --> 00:20:05.199 That is to be holy. 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:08.960 So our holiness is His goal. 00:20:08.960 --> 00:20:15.160 In coming to walk on the paths and the ground in Galilee is to make us whole. 00:20:15.160 --> 00:20:21.840 To be nailed to a tree, to make us holy, to know what it is, to have God's Spirit in 00:20:21.840 --> 00:20:29.160 order to be distinct, to be like Him, to be set apart for Him. 00:20:29.160 --> 00:20:32.519 We're to live according to the Spirit of God. 00:20:32.519 --> 00:20:39.879 Now if we don't have the Spirit and evidence of God's Spirit, we don't belong. 00:20:39.879 --> 00:20:43.839 Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. 00:20:43.839 --> 00:20:48.440 So there's a solemnity about that for us this morning. 00:20:48.440 --> 00:20:49.440 What is your profession? 00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:51.240 What's my profession? 00:20:51.240 --> 00:20:53.279 What do we believe? 00:20:53.279 --> 00:20:59.519 What we need to believe and know and experience is the freedom that comes from the Spirit 00:20:59.519 --> 00:21:00.680 in our lives. 00:21:00.680 --> 00:21:08.440 That resurrection power to overcome in the internal battles that we face and to recognize 00:21:08.440 --> 00:21:14.480 that what we have is already eternal life. 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:20.200 So that if we die today, if I die today, my body goes in the grave, but the sting of 00:21:20.200 --> 00:21:21.920 death has been removed. 00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:27.480 I continue to live in my Spirit with Christ and my body will be resurrected to a newness 00:21:27.480 --> 00:21:31.079 of life, a spiritual body at that last great day. 00:21:31.079 --> 00:21:36.839 So it means God in us, it means spiritual life and peace, which he speaks about in verse 00:21:36.839 --> 00:21:44.839 6, for the mindset on the flesh is death, but the mindset on the Spirit is life and 00:21:44.839 --> 00:21:46.079 peace. 00:21:46.079 --> 00:21:58.119 So we have this great reality of tension and newness and blessing and peace and life. 00:21:58.119 --> 00:22:08.240 Yes, what we recognize is that there is a hostility towards God in our sinful, defeated 00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:16.960 natures, that's important to recognize and that hostility towards God fights against 00:22:16.960 --> 00:22:23.599 the life of the Spirit in us, but that is ameliorated for us when we recognize that he offers us 00:22:23.599 --> 00:22:28.880 strength and that peace of knowing him. 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:34.799 As part of that is then going from here and being an encourager and speaking kind words, 00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:40.319 because what does kind words do? Kind words turn away wrath. 00:22:40.319 --> 00:22:46.039 And we seek, as Paul says in Romans 12 later on in the more practical bits about this, 00:22:46.039 --> 00:22:52.240 as long as much as it's up to us, live at peace with everyone, because peace is the 00:22:52.240 --> 00:22:57.359 fruit of the sin-dwelling Spirit and it's the freedom. 00:22:57.359 --> 00:23:04.680 We are not bound by our sinful natures, by our enmity towards God and towards one another. 00:23:04.680 --> 00:23:09.160 And lastly, it means our desires change also. 00:23:09.160 --> 00:23:15.920 Verse 5, you know, for those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:19.000 of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:20.360 of the Spirit. 00:23:20.360 --> 00:23:24.080 So there's this whole thing about desires here and that's the crunch. 00:23:24.080 --> 00:23:29.039 I think this is where we really miss out on joy and it's where we miss out on the core 00:23:29.039 --> 00:23:33.080 of it for ourselves, that maybe we don't see the need to change our desires. 00:23:33.079 --> 00:23:36.199 Our desires are okay, they're fine, no problem. 00:23:36.199 --> 00:23:43.599 And maybe we resist God's work within us or we don't ask God to help us change our desires. 00:23:43.599 --> 00:23:46.679 And the result is we're miserable. 00:23:46.679 --> 00:23:50.439 There's nothing more miserable than a Christian who's a Christian but don't really want to 00:23:50.439 --> 00:23:55.960 be and their desires haven't changed, but somehow they're gritting their teeth, gritting 00:23:55.960 --> 00:23:56.960 their teeth Christians. 00:23:56.960 --> 00:23:57.960 How often are we like that? 00:23:57.960 --> 00:23:59.759 We're gritting our teeth Christians. 00:23:59.759 --> 00:24:02.839 It's all a bit forced and medicinal. 00:24:02.839 --> 00:24:04.919 It must be good. 00:24:04.919 --> 00:24:08.079 It should be good some of the people and we're gritting our teeth but there's not much joy. 00:24:08.079 --> 00:24:14.959 There's a lot of legalism and there's a lot of law keeping but it's not with a changed 00:24:14.959 --> 00:24:15.959 heart. 00:24:15.959 --> 00:24:22.159 It's not desiring what God desires and it's not living according to the Spirit from within 00:24:22.159 --> 00:24:26.159 our soul because we have not recognized the internal battle. 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:34.120 And it's recognizing that fundamental, the two mindsets that there is, the mindset against 00:24:34.120 --> 00:24:40.320 God and the mindset that is a new mindset that is for God and that is a miracle for 00:24:40.320 --> 00:24:42.720 us in our lives. 00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:46.200 And that means at least two things. 00:24:46.200 --> 00:24:51.640 If we are going to have a new heart, new desires which gives us a foundation of joy rather 00:24:51.640 --> 00:24:57.640 than joyless, grumpy Christianity. 00:24:57.640 --> 00:24:58.920 It means at least two things. 00:24:58.920 --> 00:24:59.920 With this we close. 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:03.280 One, it means keeping in step with the Spirit. 00:25:03.280 --> 00:25:05.520 We must keep in step with the Spirit. 00:25:05.520 --> 00:25:09.800 In verse 4 he talks about we are to walk according to the Spirit. 00:25:09.800 --> 00:25:17.200 And Galatians 5, beautifully, you could slip Galatians 5 into this passage right here because 00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:22.279 it speaks about the importance of keeping in step with the Spirit and what it means. 00:25:22.279 --> 00:25:29.000 That whole passage in Galatians is a further exposition of the freedom in Christ. 00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:32.519 And he's really saying it's like a bit of a three-legged race in that sense. 00:25:32.519 --> 00:25:36.640 I know it's not a great illustration. 00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:37.640 But there is that. 00:25:37.640 --> 00:25:44.759 If we're in a three-legged race we need to be cooperating, we need to be submitting and 00:25:44.759 --> 00:25:50.119 just working together with the person beside you. 00:25:50.119 --> 00:25:52.839 And if you love them, then all the better. 00:25:52.839 --> 00:25:57.720 And in Christ it's keeping in step with the Spirit and having this desire to follow Him 00:25:57.720 --> 00:26:04.559 and obey Him and knowing Him and knowing why He's good and knowing the life and the peace 00:26:04.559 --> 00:26:06.039 and the freedom we have in Him. 00:26:06.039 --> 00:26:13.000 Martin Lloyd-Jones who wrote a huge amount of pages about Romans, like volumes and sermons. 00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:20.640 He would preach like three words on a sermon that lasted for about 130 years, the series 00:26:20.640 --> 00:26:21.640 on Romans. 00:26:21.640 --> 00:26:25.960 But he preached fantastic sermons and wonderful insights. 00:26:25.960 --> 00:26:32.200 But he said when he's speaking about the difference between serving and keeping in step with the 00:26:32.200 --> 00:26:37.039 Spirit because our hearts are changed, he said, it's like the difference between breaking 00:26:37.039 --> 00:26:43.119 a parking law as someone and breaking your marriage vows. 00:26:43.119 --> 00:26:47.559 You break a parking law, it's a kind of legalistic thing, it's a law of the state, you don't 00:26:47.559 --> 00:26:53.119 feel tremendously moved in your heart by it. 00:26:53.119 --> 00:27:01.680 But when you break faith with your wife or your husband, it's law-breaking at that level. 00:27:01.680 --> 00:27:05.599 But it's hurtful because it's someone you love. 00:27:05.599 --> 00:27:08.839 And it's someone that you've given your love to and your life to. 00:27:08.839 --> 00:27:16.399 And there's this, can you see the difference between the two in that relationship? 00:27:16.399 --> 00:27:24.679 And that is as we keep in step with the Spirit, that is where we begin to see the importance 00:27:24.679 --> 00:27:28.879 of obedience from desire rather than duty. 00:27:28.879 --> 00:27:30.719 So it's keeping in step with the Spirit. 00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:37.559 And as we do so, it's reminding ourselves that the primary battle for us as Christians 00:27:37.559 --> 00:27:39.640 today is internal. 00:27:39.640 --> 00:27:40.880 It's an internal battle. 00:27:40.880 --> 00:27:45.880 See verse 9 says, you, however, are not on the flesh but in the Spirit. 00:27:45.880 --> 00:27:54.640 If in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you, it's about you and you as a being, as an internal 00:27:54.640 --> 00:27:56.480 being, as a real being. 00:27:56.480 --> 00:28:03.920 And the primary battleground is who we are, the philosophy of like, you know, when it 00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:10.200 speaks about changing our mind, it's not just intellectual, it's not just our brain. 00:28:10.200 --> 00:28:14.960 It's the mind as the seat of the will and of the emotions and of everything so that 00:28:14.960 --> 00:28:17.759 we change that and it becomes the core of our life. 00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:23.400 And that's the, you know, the mind is what preoccupies us, what we spend our time and 00:28:23.400 --> 00:28:29.480 our energies on our thinking, our motivation, and that's an invisible work, isn't it? 00:28:29.480 --> 00:28:35.080 You're not going to come into churches and say, oh, I can see Spirit of God's really 00:28:35.080 --> 00:28:38.400 working and that guy's mind, that girl's mind. 00:28:38.400 --> 00:28:39.400 It's impossible. 00:28:39.400 --> 00:28:45.759 It's still miraculous, still incredibly powerful because it's the life of the Spirit transforming 00:28:45.759 --> 00:28:46.880 our desires. 00:28:46.880 --> 00:28:48.440 Can you change your desires? 00:28:48.440 --> 00:28:49.440 Can I? 00:28:49.440 --> 00:28:52.840 No, it's recognizing. 00:28:52.839 --> 00:29:00.199 This is the Spirit of God at work in us, in our daily walk, daily learning, daily prayer, 00:29:00.199 --> 00:29:08.679 rechanneling the control center of our lives, our basic nature, our internal life with God 00:29:08.679 --> 00:29:13.599 so that on a daily basis you're not saying, I wish my circumstances would change or I 00:29:13.599 --> 00:29:17.519 wish other people would change, however much we desire that. 00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:28.200 We're saying, I know that the Spirit of God miraculously needs to change me and my desires. 00:29:28.200 --> 00:29:33.519 That is where I think we will find joy in our Christian lives. 00:29:33.519 --> 00:29:49.519 Amen.