- 00:00
- Ephesians 2 .1 tells us that we were once dead in the sins and trespasses in which we once walked. But when
- 00:05
- Christ came into our lives, we were brought from death to life. Did you know that the Spirit of God that dwells in you is the same
- 00:11
- Spirit that brought Christ back from the dead? When we understand the text. Many of the
- 00:25
- Bible stories and verses we think we know we don't. When we understand the text promotes sound doctrine while exposing the faulty.
- 00:32
- Here's your host, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. This is part two of our Monday twofer, two for the price of one.
- 00:40
- So we're at Romans chapter eight. I'm going to read again verses one through 11 to keep all these things in context.
- 00:47
- And today as we move on and where we're at in Romans eight, we'll be looking primarily at verses nine through 11, but let's start at verse one.
- 00:54
- Romans eight verse one, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
- 01:00
- For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
- 01:07
- For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin.
- 01:17
- He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
- 01:27
- For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit for the set the mind on the flesh is death.
- 01:40
- But to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God for it does not submit to God's law.
- 01:50
- Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you.
- 02:01
- Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.
- 02:14
- If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised
- 02:19
- Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.
- 02:27
- Going back then to verse nine, you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
- 02:40
- And I believe that Paul is delivering this statement both as a an assurance and as a challenge.
- 02:47
- It's an assurance in the sense that its opposite is true. Whoever does have the spirit of Christ does belong to him.
- 02:53
- But whoever does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. It's sort of a different way of stating what he did in verse one.
- 03:01
- There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So if you are in Christ, if you have the spirit of Christ dwelling within, there is no condemnation for you.
- 03:11
- But those who are not in Christ are condemned. John 3, 18, for God did not send the son to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
- 03:21
- Why is it that God did not send the son to condemn the world? Because the world was already condemned. There was no need for Christ to come to condemn the world because we were already self condemned in our sin.
- 03:32
- Those who are not in Christ still live in that condemnation. John 3, 36, he who has the son has life, but he who does not obey the son shall not see life.
- 03:45
- But the wrath of God remains on him. Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
- 03:54
- So if there is a person that is in that church, as Paul is writing to them and a person even today who is standing in an
- 04:01
- American church and they're singing praise songs to God and they're declaring Jesus is Lord with their mouths and they're sitting and listening to sermons and getting goosebumps and the whole bit.
- 04:12
- But if their heart is not truly repentant of their sin and is not truly glorifying God, so they worship
- 04:18
- God with their mouths, but their hearts are far from him. Then these things that they are doing are still in the flesh and their hearts are hostile to God.
- 04:28
- Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. So those who are reading their Bibles and praying and declaring praise songs, but they're doing this with some self -serving motivation, they're doing it for a religious experience or to punch their get out of hell free card or whatever reasons they might have for going to church that are fleshly and not to glorify
- 04:47
- God. They are not saved. And in fact, their hearts are still against God.
- 04:53
- And so this challenge would be issued to say that if you have the spirit of Christ dwelling within you, then you're not under that condemnation.
- 05:00
- If in fact the spirit of Christ dwells in you, but anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
- 05:06
- So this is sort of Paul's way of saying to those Roman Christians, examine yourselves to see that you are in the faith.
- 05:13
- If indeed you pass the test, if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, otherwise those who are there in the church singing praises to God and doing it with some self -serving motivation are still in the flesh and their hearts are hostile to God and they cannot please
- 05:31
- God. The spirit of Christ dwelling within us gives us the ability to keep the law of God in a way that is pleasing to God, where previously we could not.
- 05:41
- Now the law has never had any ability to save us, but prior to Christ, we were not even able to keep the law in a way that was pleasing to God.
- 05:50
- With the spirit of Christ dwelling within us, we are holy and acceptable in his sight and the praise that we lift up in his name, the prayers that we pray, the loves, sorry the loves, the acts of love and service that we do for one another.
- 06:07
- These things are now pleasing and acceptable to the Lord, where previously we could not do those things because we did not have the spirit of Christ.
- 06:14
- But if Christ is in you, verse 10, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness, the righteousness of Christ that dwells in us.
- 06:27
- Also this statement, although the body is dead because of sin. Now we've been saved by God through Jesus Christ and we have eternal life, but the body is still going to die because of sin, because all things in this world have been subjected to futility, which we're going to read coming up here in chapter eight by him who subjected it because of sin, all things are wasting away.
- 06:48
- All things are corruptible. They are perishing. Our bodies are among those things that are going to perish and die.
- 06:54
- But our spirit is eternal. Our spirit has been saved because we've been given eternal life through Jesus Christ.
- 07:01
- When we die, our spirit goes to be with God immediately. That's what I believe. And then when Christ returns, our bodies will be raised from the dead imperishable and our eternal spirit will be reunited with a body that has been made to be eternal.
- 07:16
- And then we will be forever with God in our glorified state. So there is yet going to be a reuniting of the body and the body being restored to a place that is incorruptible.
- 07:27
- But for now, as it exists in this perishable world, the body will die. It will go into the ground and it will decay.
- 07:35
- But the spirit is life because of the righteousness of Christ. And we know that we will live forever with God.
- 07:41
- Verse 11. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised
- 07:46
- Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.
- 07:55
- For me, there is not a passage of scripture that comes the closest to knocking me off my feet.
- 08:01
- Then Romans 8 11. And in fact, it has. I mean, there's been times where I've just been down on my face before God rejoicing in him for what he has done.
- 08:09
- Understand that. I mean, let me let me give you this again. If the spirit of him who raised
- 08:14
- Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.
- 08:27
- So the same spirit that brought Christ out of his tomb after he was crucified and laid there for three days, the same spirit that brought him back to life is the very same spirit that dwells in you and has brought you from death to life.
- 08:45
- Previously, your spirit was dead, could not please God, was hostile to God because you were living in the flesh.
- 08:50
- But it is by the spirit of God that your spirit has been brought back to life. You are able to please
- 08:56
- God. You live in his righteousness. And that spirit that brought Christ from death to life is the same spirit that has brought you from death to life.
- 09:06
- And now you have eternal life in your mortal body through his spirit that dwells in you.
- 09:13
- Amen. Praise the Lord for his wonderful work where previously we were dead.
- 09:19
- A dead person can't do anything. You had no ability in you to do anything that pleased
- 09:25
- God, even make a decision to follow him. But the spirit of Christ brought you from death to life, brought you into his righteousness, brought you into a place where you could repent of sin, where you could praise his name, where you could lift up offerings to him that were pleasing and acceptable because of the spirit of Christ that is within you.
- 09:50
- Amen. Lord, what a wonderful thing to read your word and know the power of God that is within us that has saved us from death and brought us into your marvelous light.
- 10:01
- The same spirit that brought Christ from the grave is the spirit that has rescued us from the grave.
- 10:09
- If in fact the spirit dwells in us, test us. Let us examine ourselves to see that we are really in the faith and that the spirit of Christ is in us, rescuing us from the wrath of God and delivering us into your eternal kingdom.
- 10:24
- Praise you for your great and marvelous works. In Jesus' name, amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.