Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Well, let's hear God's word now
from Romans Chapter Eight, and this will
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be this will be the text for
the sermon this morning. Romans Eight,
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versus one through eleven. Let us
fix our minds and hearts on hearing the
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word of God Romans Eight. There
is therefout. There is therefore now no
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condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus, for the law of the spirit,
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of life, has set you free
in Christ Jesus, from the Law
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of sin and death. For God
has done what the law, weakened by
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the flesh, could not do by
sending his own son in the likeness of
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sinful flesh and for sin. He
condemned sin in the flesh in order that
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the righteous requirements of the law might
be fulfilled in us who walk not according
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to the flesh but according to the
spirit. For those who live according to
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the flesh set their minds on the
things of the flesh, but those who
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live according to the spirits set their
minds on the things of the spirit.
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For to set the mind on the
flesh is death, but to set the
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mind on the spirit is life and
peace. For the mind that is set
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on the flesh is hostile to God. For it does not submit to God's
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law. Indeed it cannot. Those
who are in the flesh cannot please God.
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You, however, are not in
the flesh but in the spirit.
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If in fact, the spirit of
God dwells in you, anyone who does
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not have the spirit of Christ does
not belong to him. But if Christ
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is in you, although the body
is dead because of sin, the spirit
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is life because of righteousness. If
the spirit of him who raised Jesus from
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the dead dwells in you, he
who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will
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also give life to your model mortal
bodies. Through his spirit, who dwells
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in you, a God, bless
his word, may be seated. There
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are various ways in which people think
about what it means to be a Christian
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and oftentimes their definitions of what it
means to be a Christian are taken from
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not so great places, unfortunately,
sometimes even Christians. But these definitions are
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often based on their experiences in some
might be accurate, some not so accurate.
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They might be all over the place. I'm some people think of Christians
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just as religious people or church goers. Maybe people think of Christians as Nice
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people, or maybe selfrighteous people or
maybe Republicans, or maybe white people,
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or maybe givers or moralists, or
the list can go on and on and
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on. What is a Christian?
It's a really important question, because to
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be a Christian means to belong to
Christ, and to belong to Christ means
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several very important things that Paul talks
about here in Romans, a things that
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are a matter of life or death. And so when we think about what
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it means to be a Christian,
we're not just defining defining a certain social
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group, a part of our culture. We're defining what life is itself and
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what it means to not have Christ
and to die. So where do we
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get a true definition of a Christian? Well, we find it here in
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Romans, eight many other places in
scripture as well. But here there are
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some wonderful things that God teaches us
about who you are in Christ or who
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you may be if you trust and
belief in him. So Paul, under
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the inspiration of the spirit of Christ, teaches us here what it means to
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be a Christian. He gives us
three things. He says that when we
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are Christians, when God saves a
sinner, they receive a new verdict,
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a new way of living and a
new body to live in. Well,
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think about each of these three things. A new verdict, a new way
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or walk of life and a new
body. Now, before we jump into
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those, let me just point out
the logic of the chapter and what is
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beginning here, so we can ground
ourselves a little bit. And it's really
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an easy thing to do, because
we just sang it in verse four of
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and can it be, we saying
long my imprisoned spirit lay fast, bound
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in sin and nature's night thine.
I diffused a quickening ray. I woke
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the dungeon flamed with light, my
chains fell off, my heart was free.
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I rose, went forth and followed
thee. This is, you might
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say, Romans six and seven.
God Paul has been describing here what it
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means to be released from the law, what it means to be free,
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to be under grace. He's been
showing us that we are not released so
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that we might walk back into the
Dungeon, or release so that we might
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walk out in blindness and wander around
the earth, but we're released so that
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we might walk forth in freedom and
follow the Lord. So that's verse for
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in and can it be? Then
verse five continues and says, no condemnation.
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Now I dread Jesus and all in
him is mine, and that's how
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Romans eight starts. There is therefore
now no condemnation for those who are in
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Christ Jesus, for the law of
the spirit of life, with the hymn
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calls that quickening ray. The law
of the spirit of life has set you
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free in Christ Jesus. No longer
are you a fast bound in sin and
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nature's night. Or is verse two
says here? No longer are you bound
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according to the law of sin and
death, because verse three, God has
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done what the law, we can
buy the flesh, could not do.
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You were in Chage, you were
in a dungeon, you could not do
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anything, but God has saved you, and now no more condemnation. You're
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not sitting in a jail cell waiting
for the punishment to come, waiting for
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the day when the king will put
you under his wrath. No, you're
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set free and declared justified. Well, that takes us to the first point
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here. As a Christian, what
it means to be a Christian? It
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means that we have received a new
verdict. To be condemned is to have
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a judgment placed on you, and
Paul says here, is a Christian.
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There is therefore now no condemnation,
not a little bit, not tiny slice,
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not halfway, part we part way. No condemnation now. This implicitly
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tells us what he's told us back
in chapter five, that under Adam we
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are all born under condemnation. Were
each of us born into a family that
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is condemned? Take it at back
to a level that you expective experienced in
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a more earthly way. Each of
you have been born into a family.
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Maybe you were born into a wealthy
family or poor family. Maybe you were
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born into a family with good genes
and a lot of beauty, maybe not.
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Maybe you were born into a loving
family, or maybe you don't know
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who your parents are. Well,
in Adam we were born into a family
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and we belong to that. We
received certain things by virtue of our birth
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and belonging to him, and that
was not a good family. There was
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a sense, in which there is, a sense in which we are made
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in God's image and which we have
bivid gain even all these good things from
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God. But to belong to the
family of Adam, to belong to the
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human race, means that we've taken
all those gifts. God's good law is
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covenant with us, and we've spat
on them and we've despised them. A
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bad family and a family that is
condemned righteously by God. God says you
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are sinful, you are hostile to
me, you have fallen away from me.
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Each and every person that has been
born, apart from Jesus, because
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of his miraculous and divine birth,
we are all born under the law and
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in this fallen state we have a
father, but we hate him, we
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have major attachment problems with him.
We fight him, we struggle against him,
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we sin against him in every way, and it's always going to be
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that way as long as we remain
in this state, as long as we
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remain under the law, in our
sin and fast bound, we find ourselves
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under condemnation. And so in this
way, he's not just the one who
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made us, but each and every
person in the world is also under God
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as judge, who will condemn us
for our sins. This is what it
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means to be under the law.
But then we have verse three. But
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God did what the law, weakened
by the flesh, could not do.
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What did he do? He took
away our condemnation. He's going to go
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on in the next passage, in
verses twelve through seventeen, to talk about
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that adoption, to talk about the
ways in which he brings us close and
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blesses us with all kinds of wonderful
things in which he overcomes that hostility.
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But here he focuses first in chapter
eight, the beginning there, on this
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change of verdict. What does it
mean to be a Christian? It means
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to have a new verdict, to
not be condemned any longer. Once we
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received a verdict you are bad,
you will be punished, and now the
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verdict is you are good and you
will be rewarded. That's what it means
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to be a Christian. Well,
how does that happen? How does a
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sinful, hostile enemy of God change
and become a lover of God, someone
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at peace with God? Paul explains, he says, by sending his own
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son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and for sin. He condemned sin in
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the flesh in order that the righteous
requirements of the law might be fulfilled in
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us. You know what he's talking
about here, don't you? He's talking
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about the father sending the son into
the world, to take on human flesh
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and to take a part in our
family, the human family, the condemned
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family, to stand, under condemnation, that he didn't deserve to take our
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sins and punishment on himself, and
then, in turn for that, in
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turn for taking our sins, he
gives to us his righteousness. When it
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says he condemned sin in the flesh, he's not talking about his sin,
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he's talking about arson your sin.
As a Christian, he condemned sin in
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the flesh in order that the righteous
requirements of the law might be fulfilled.
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He paid the penalty that was coming. We were waiting in the dungeon,
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waiting for God's wrath to be poured
out honest the execution, the eternal execution,
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to take place, and Jesus said
here, give me those chains,
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give me that execution, I'll take
it for you and you, you go
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free. Now. This would be
the saddest thing in the world if it
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weren't for the past fact of the
power of Jesus's life, the divinity of
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his nature, and that he too
went forth and he too rows up out
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of the grave, as Paul goes
on to say here, it was the
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spirit who raised him, up raised
him from the dead, that same spirit
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who dwells in US and raises us
as well. This is what God has
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done for us. So when we
stand okay, when we stand under this
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new verdict, no condemnation or,
to put it positively, justification, when
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your file that has your name on
it is stamped justified and your transferred to
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a new pile, that's a wonderful
thing, an amazing thing. It means
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that you no longer will face the
eternal wrath of God but, unto said,
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you walk in the life that Jesus
walks even now. That's one.
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That's the first thing it means to
be a new Christian. It means to
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have a new verdict. It well, second thing Paul mentions here, for
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being under grace, for being in
Christ, is not just a new verdict
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but also a new way of living
a spiritual life. And that word spiritual
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there is not to mean etherial or
non physical or mystical, but think of
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that word with a capital s,
as in Holy Spirit, jual life.
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You remember what he says here.
He says that the spirit dwells in us.
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God Not only justifies us on the
cross, but he unites us with
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his spirit. God himself dwells in
US and brings about a new way of
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living. Just like v the letter
V comes before the letter w, the
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verdict comes before the walk, justification
comes before sanctification. God declares US justified,
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but he doesn't just leave us there. He begins to work in our
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hearts. He begins to root out
all that Yuckiness, all that sinfulness,
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all those things that did wrong.
He causes us to really be born again.
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is how Jesus describes it in John
Three, and he describes the work
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of the spirit in our lives.
He says that those who are no longer
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condemned because they are in Christ are
those, this is that the end of
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verse four, who walk not according
to the flesh but according to the spirit.
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This is what describes a Christian.
In other words, this is the
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definition he gives. A Christian is
one who has a new verdict, no
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more condemnation, but they also have
a new walk. A Christian is one
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who walks not according to the flesh
but according to the spirit. And then
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he explains this. He describes how
this works in the spiritual life, how
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this works inside of us. In
verses five and following and there's a contrast
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here to pay attention to, for
those who live according to the flesh set
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their minds on the things of the
flesh, but those who live according to
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the spirit set their minds on the
things of the spirit. Now this word
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mind here in Greek doesn't just mean
that the intellect, but it has something
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more fully in in mind. It
has the heart and the affections and the
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will combined here. This the self, really what you are setting oneself into,
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the same way that we use that
phrase in English. I put my
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mind to it. It's not merely
an intellectual exercise right, it's a I'm
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putting myself to it everything in me. I'm attaching myself to this thing.
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Well, back to the contrast.
Those who live according to the flesh set
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their mind on the things of the
flesh, but those who live according to
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the spirit set their minds on the
things of the spirit. And then he
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says what the result of this is, or the equivalent, for to set
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the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the
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spirit is life and peace. For
the mind that is set on the flesh
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is hostile to God, for it
does not submit to God's law. Indeed,
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it cannot. Those who are in
the flesh cannot please God. So
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you see what he's saying here,
that those chains that we describe in the
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hymn, the dungeon, the power
of the law, the person who is
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bound up. We describe it in
that way because of what the Bible says.
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A person who lives in the flesh, whose spirit, who's the spirit
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of God, is not in them. They walk according to the flesh,
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they set their minds on the things
of the flesh, and it's ultimately death
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because they are disobedient to God,
hostile to him, and indeed there is
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no other way for them to be. That's what it means to be fallen.
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That what's what it means to be
in an estate of sin and misery,
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to be in a position where you
cannot please God, and you cannot
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because you don't want to. You
hate it, you are hostile against the
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things of God, you don't want
to do the things of God. It
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doesn't please you to do the things
of God. That is what it means
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to not be a Christian. To
be a Christian is to de be the
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opposite of these things. It means
that we set our minds on the things
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of the spirit. What are the
things of the spirit? They are the
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things that he's spoken in his word. They're the works that God has done.
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They're the things that he calls us
to do, the fruit that he
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produces in us. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
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gentleness, self control. These are
spiritual things, capital as holy,
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spiritual things that he produces in us, and we, as Christians, set
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our minds on those things and that's
how we walk. You can imagine a
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person who is walking with a map
and a guide. They trust the map,
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they trust the guide and they move
forward on a particular course. They
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they might get off every now and
then. They might mean it misread the
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map may be the course that they're
walking isn't always as consistent with the map
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and the guide, the the instructions
they're receiving, but that's the way things
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work and it's like that inwardly.
It's like that in our relationship to God.
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Those who are in the flesh walk
a particular course, a fleshly course,
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a worldly course, a sinful course, being hostile to God. It's
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a course away from heaven, it's
a course away from God, it's a
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course to hell, into destruction.
And what is their guide? What is
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their map? It's their own sinful
hearts. It's the temptations of Satan,
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it's worldly desire. But when the
spirit comes in us, that changes.
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To be a Christian is not just
to have a new verdict, but it
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had us to have a new way
of life, a new walk, a
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new course. And it's a new
course because it's a new map and a
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new guide, the Holy Spirit dwelling
in US saying no, not that way
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any more. That's the way of
the sinful passions, that's the way of
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the world. You are no longer
of this world. You're a citizen of
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the Kingdom of Heaven. You belong
to Christ. Jesus remember, no more
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condemnation for you. You're not in
judgment anymore, you're not under judgment anymore,
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you're no longer fearing wrath. You're
on your way to heaven. The
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spirit guides us, lives in us, dwells in us, and that's why
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we walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit who lives
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and dwells in us, the spirit
of Christ, given to us that we
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might please him and know him and
be in him. By the way,
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come to Sunday school, because we're
going to be talking a lot about a
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lot more about what it means to
have the spirit of the Lord, what
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it means that the spirit is from
Christ. So there you have one and
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two, a new verdict and a
new way of living. The third thing
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Paul Mentions is having a new body. Being a Christian, in other words,
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is not just about being reborn in
our souls. There is a renewal
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that will happen in our very physical
bodies, these bodies. It's easy to
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think that when our bodies are sick
and ti hired and breaking, whether we
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are skinning our knee or getting a
knee replacement, from beginning to end we
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feel the weakness of our bodies.
But God promises something new, not just
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inwardly, but outwardly, to he
wants all of you. When he says
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you are now no longer under therefore, there is now no condemnation. When
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he says that, he is not
just talking about your inward self, he's
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talking about your outward self, to
your physical self, he's talking about all
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of you. All of you is
a Christian, and he promises this in
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verses nine and eleven. Nine through
eleven or, I'm sorry, ten and
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eleven, he says. But if
Christ is in you, although the body
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is dead because of sin, the
spirit is life because of righteousness. If
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the spirit of him who raised Jesus
from the dead dwells in you, he
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who raised Christ Jesus from the dead
will also give life to your mortal bodies
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through his spirit who dwells in you. The promise of the Resurrection, the
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promise of a new body for you
is a Christian, is already guaranteed by
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the spirit's indwelling. Do you see
what Paul is saying? He's saying that
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the very same spirit who resurrected Jesus
from the dead is the same spirit who
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will cause you to be resurrected from
the dead. And that's not a spirit
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that is going to come at some
future point in time. It's a spirit
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who dwells in you now. So
this is what it means to be a
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Christian. It means to have no
longer a verdict of justification or, I'm
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sorry, of condemnation, but one
of justification. It means to no longer
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walk according to the flesh, but
now according to the spirit of Christ,
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and it means no longer just being
means no longer being confined and knowing that
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the eternal destruction of your body is
close at hand, but instead the eternal
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living and blessedness of your body is
close at hand when the Lord returns.
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This is what it means to be
a Christian. Of course, all the
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opposite of this is true for those
who are not in Christ. Sin,
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death, hostility, destructtion, not
life for your immortal bodies, but death
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for your mortal bodies, condemnation,
imprisonment. That's what it means to be
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outside of Christ and that's why it's
true, as I said at the beginning,
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knowing what it means to be a
Christian is everything, because you must
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be a Christian if you are to
live, if you are to know God.
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But it's something that happens and only
works in one way. You don't
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go out and start walking so that
God can then say, all right,
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now, justify to you walking,
verdict before walk, the before w this
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is what God gives to us and
it's what he has done. I'll finish
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by reading verse three. For God
has done what the law we can by
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the flesh, could not do by
sending his son. May God continue this
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work in our lives, and may
we often go to him in prayer and
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ask that people, when they ask
what is a Christian, would learn it
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from us by seeing that we are
no longer under condemnation, that we walk
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in the newness of life and we
hope in the resurrection of the dead.
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Let us pray
