WWUTT 1266 The Righteous Requirement of the Law (Romans 8:4)

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Romans 8 verse 4 says that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the

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Spirit. Well, what does that look like? We recognize it when we understand the text.

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This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program. Here once again is

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. Well, we come back to our study of the book of Romans chapter 8.

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Picking up where we left off last week, I'm going to read this same section that we were looking at last week.

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In fact, I'll go through verse 11 here. Romans chapter 8, the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome.

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There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

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For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do, by sending his own

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Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. 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

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Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.

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But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set 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 is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

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Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please

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God. You however are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the

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Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

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But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

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If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised

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Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

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Amen to that. I just love that verse, floors me every time I read it.

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So I'm going to come back here, I think how far did we get last week, I know we got through verse four, 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

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Spirit. And the best way to understand this really is to come back to Galatians chapter five. And I'm going to do this again.

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I know we did this, I think when we were in chapter seven, but I want to look at the fruit of the

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Spirit again. In Galatians chapter five, verses 22 and 23, the fruit of the

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Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

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Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

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So against these things, that which is produced in the believer, who is walking according to the

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Spirit and not according to the flesh, they produce what Paul has termed in Galatians five as the fruit of the

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Spirit, not fruits of the Spirit. This is not plural, but a person who is a believer will be producing all of these things.

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You don't pick and choose. This isn't like the gifts of the Spirit. You don't go, well, I'm pretty good at love,

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I'm good at patience, I struggle with gentleness and self -control.

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So let's go with that. Love and joy and peace and patience. And so I'm going to thrive and I'm going to excel in those fruits.

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That's not how this works. It is the fruit of the Spirit. You as a believer must excel in all of these.

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We must be producing this kind of character as we grow in sanctification in Christ Jesus, because Jesus exhibited all of these.

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And so we must exhibit this fruit, bearing fruit in keeping with repentance.

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If we have if we have repented of our sin and we've done, as John the

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Baptist said, you must bear fruit in keeping with repentance, then this is that fruit, not fruits.

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But we're bearing fruit that looks like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

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And why does Paul then say against such things there is no law? Because if you're doing these things, then you are keeping the law.

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Now, Paul does not say it here. He doesn't bring it up until we get to Romans 13.

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But he does make this statement that love is the fulfilling of the law.

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Let me read to you here from Romans 13, 8 through 10. Oh, no one anything except to love each other for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

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Once again, Romans 8, 4, we walk according to. Well, yeah, to get this right,

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I have to start at the beginning of the sentence, which is in verse three, by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin.

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God 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.

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So he condemned sin in the flesh that we might fulfill that righteous requirement in the law, walking according to the spirit and not according to the flesh.

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So what Christ accomplished in his what we refer to again,

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I talked about this in Romans seven, his active and his passive obedience, what he accomplished in that is through the spirit being fulfilled in us as walking according to the righteous requirement of the law.

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Now, when we say the righteous requirement of the law, we're talking about the love, which is the fulfilling of the law.

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So if we are loving our neighbor, if we are loving God and we are loving our neighbor, we are fulfilling the law because those two commandments,

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Jesus said, were the greatest commandments as they exhibited. They were the summary of what are referred to as the first and second table of the law.

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So love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

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Jesus said these were the two greatest commandments. The second one is like it for these two commandments are the summation of the law.

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You look at the ten commandments and the first four commandments all have to do with loving God. You'll have no other gods before me.

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You will not raise up a graven image. You will not disrespect my name. Don't take the name of the Lord your God in vain, and you will not disrespect my day.

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And then the next six commandments are the second table of the law. They deal with how we love each other.

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You have honor your father and your mother. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal.

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Do not lie or bear false witness and do not covet. So these commandments are summarized in love

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God, love your neighbor. Love God is the first table of the law. Love others is the second table of the law.

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And if you are loving, then you are fulfilling the righteous requirement of the law.

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The law does not simply mean that you abstain from these sins and therefore you're keeping the law.

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You would just simply not be committing those errors, but you're not fulfilling the righteous requirement of the law.

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Does that make sense? So like do not murder. Let's use that one. For example, do not murder. Well, you could not kill anybody, and therefore you think that you're keeping the law.

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But Jesus says in Matthew chapter five that if you've even hated your brother, if you have called him names, then you are guilty of the fires of hell.

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It's the same as if you murdered your brother in your heart. So you think that you're keeping the law just by not killing your brother, but you're not doing it righteously.

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You have not fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law, which you cannot do unless you have the spirit of God.

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So once again, we are incapable of keeping the law. Isaiah 64, six, even our best deeds are as filthy rags before a holy

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God. All of our good works were not righteousness would have been self -righteousness, not

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God's righteousness. The true righteousness that is needed for the fulfillment of the law comes not from ourselves.

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It comes from Christ. Hence the statement here again in Romans eight, three,

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God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. The law couldn't do it.

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The law could not grant a salvation, could not even give us righteousness. You're keeping the law did not make you righteous.

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So by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,

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Christ died on the cross for our sins. He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.

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We would not be able to fulfill that righteous requirement if we did not have a true righteousness and the true righteousness that we are given is the righteousness of Christ.

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So we have this beautiful truth stated for us in second Corinthians five, 21, for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.

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And we wear Christ's righteousness. Jesus saying to the church in Laodicea, Revelation chapter three, buy from me, righteous robes, robes that have been washed in white.

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These are this is a picture of the righteousness of Christ that we are to wear.

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And if we're wearing Christ's righteousness, then we will desire to live righteously. And that righteous requirement of the law that is to be fulfilled in us is simply love.

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Love God. Love others. I didn't finish that section in Romans 13, eight through 10.

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Let me come back to that again. Romans 13, eight, oh, no one, anything except to love each other for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law for the commandments.

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You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal.

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You shall not covet and any other commandment. They are summed up in this word.

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You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor.

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Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. So coming back to that statement again in Galatians 5, 23 against such things, there is no law.

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So Romans 13, 10, love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

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It is it is actively keeping the law for you are loving somebody.

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And therefore, if you're loving someone, you're not murdering them. You're not lusting after them.

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You're not stealing their stuff, coveting their things. You are righteously fulfilling the law through the righteousness of Christ that has been given to us.

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Now, when we understand that we're living in righteousness, we're talking about righteousness that has been granted to us by God.

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We're not talking about doing right as the world says is right. I mean, right now, what the world says is right is to go out and riot in the streets and and loot and destroy property.

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That's what the world says is right. And very, very scary to consider. There are even some

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Christian entities and ministers out there that are not outright condemning this kind of behavior is wrong.

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But they're saying something to the effect of we need to listen to these rioters and see what it is that they really want before we just outright condemn any of this as ill gotten behavior.

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See, there's a reason. There's like a good reason why a person would go out and riot and loot and stuff like that.

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That to me, that sounds like you're flirting with Pelagian ism that everybody's just like inherently good.

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So if somebody is going to go out and riot, then they have a good reason to go out and riot. And we really need to listen to what it is that they have to say before we find out what before we're going to condemn them.

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If they give us an answer that's like, oh, that's bad, then we can say rioting is bad. But we can't just automatically assume that they have bad intentions when they go out and riot and loot and destroy property.

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That's very worldly. That's that's the world's concept of righteousness, that there's got to be a good cause behind every single behavior that a person wants to engage in.

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Except, of course, to live in holiness and uprightness before God that can't have good intentions.

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That's legalism, you know, something like that, that that's what they're going to say about it or you're you're being intolerant.

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This is the territory that Peter warned us about in First Peter, Chapter four.

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They're going to they're going to hate you just because you want to live a life of godliness because you won't join them in their debauchery.

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So they're going to malign you. That's the way the world thinks about righteousness. When the when the world uses love.

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Surely, you know this. I mean, you know how the world thinks about that word love and they think

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LGBTQ is love. So they say true love is when a man loves another man.

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And so if you're going to tell that man that he can't have a homoerotic relationship with another man, well, then you're unloving.

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If you tell that guy that what he's doing is sin. This is what the world says about righteousness.

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The world does have like a like a moral statement.

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There's creeds and confessions that you can find out there that are even made by the world that that declare this is love.

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That is not the world has their own definitions of love. So it cannot be righteousness that the world says is righteousness.

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When we're talking about a righteous requirement of the law, it is righteousness as God defines righteousness, not as the world defines righteousness.

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So we have in Romans 12 to do not conform to the pattern of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

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And then you will be able to test and approve what God's will for you is his good, pleasing and perfect will what

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God says we are to do. Not what the world calls love or righteousness, what

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God defines as love. God is love. What does he say is loving? That's how we are to love.

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And that is fulfilling the righteous requirement of the law who are and we walk not according to the flesh, but we walk according to the spirit.

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Let me come back again to Galatians chapter five. So Paul says in Galatians 5 19.

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Now the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these a whole other litany of fleshly sins that he doesn't go on listing.

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He says, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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They live according to the flesh, just as Paul is talking about here in Romans chapter eight.

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But the fruit of the spirit we should demonstrate is love. We love one another.

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We would consider others needs ahead of our own. We're willing to sacrifice for somebody else.

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We do, as Paul says in Romans 12, associating with the lowly, so not sticking with our clicks or those people who can benefit us, but we even care for and love those who cannot give us anything in return.

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And we don't expect anything in return. Joy, the fruit of the spirit is love.

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It is joy. It is thankfulness toward God. And in fact, in first Thessalonians chapter five, it says, be thankful for this is

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God's will for you in Christ Jesus to have joy, to have a hopefulness, an outlook of the future, and even to know and trust and rely on God that in these circumstances, in the present, in the stuff that I'm going through now,

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God is ultimately working this out for my good and for his glory. And so in knowing that I have joy.

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Joy is to know that God is in control, that he is sovereign over all things.

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Nothing is outside of his reach or his ordination. Peace. Well, we have peace with God, the forgiveness of sins.

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We're no longer at enmity with God, but we have fellowship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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And that peace, which surpasses all understanding, as Paul defines it in Philippians chapter four, also is demonstrated in the earthly relationships that we have.

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We desire peace with one another, not strife and conflict. As much as it depends on you,

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Paul will say in Romans 12, keep the peace with everyone. Patience. That's one of the definers of love.

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In fact, the very first descriptor of love that Paul gives in first Corinthians 13. Love is patient.

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We don't fly off the handle against somebody when something doesn't go our way, but we're also patient in our circumstances, not just throwing up our hands and going, oh, this is hopeless.

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Everything's so crazy. What's going on? We demonstrate a patience, knowing that God is working in these times.

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And even if we don't come to understand what that will is now, we know that we will see his will perfectly on the other side.

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Kindness. The fruit of the spirit is kindness. We show kindness to each other.

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I think that should be pretty self explanatory.

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I was looking for the word there. Kindness, just being kind to people, not name calling, not being prejudiced or bigoted against somebody else, not thinking that you're better than someone else.

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You're even actively looking for ways that you might encourage another individual. And to strangers whom you don't know, you're not just going to walk up to somebody and say something nice out of the blue, perhaps.

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But you can still show good manners. You can still be mindful of like your space that you are in and how you might show kindness toward another person.

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You see someone in need, you know how to care for a person who is in need of something. That's kindness.

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Goodness. We would be filled with the good things of God, the pure things that he has given to us in his word.

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We rejoice in him for those things and we delight to keep them and walk in them as well. Purity and holiness.

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That's all wrapped up there in goodness. Faithfulness. We are true to the word of God, not shifting to the left or to the right.

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But we listen to what God has had to say to us and whatever he says we do. Whatever he has said, we trust.

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That's faithfulness. He will be faithful to us. We must be faithful to God. That's a fruit of the spirit.

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Gentleness. We're gentle with one another. God was gentle toward us.

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Amen. What we deserve. What did we deserve for our sin? We deserved the judgment of God, but he was gentle with us.

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Even in the discipline that he gives to us. He gently applies that discipline for we could have the breath snatched out of us at any moment.

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But instead, he is loving and patient and gentle with us, shaping us in the image of Christ.

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And we also must have self -control. This is one of the this. This is among the fruit of the spirit that we not whenever we're tempted with something, just give into that sin every time or the moment a bad thought pops into our head.

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We're we're entertaining that thought. We're angry toward people. We're we're keeping grudges. We are we're attempting to feed our flesh, even our worldly appetites for stuff and things and and fantasizing about how we can make ourselves greater, have all of the things that I need in this life in order to be comfortable, have some self -control, especially don't let yourself go crazy on any wild thought that gets presented to you by some false teacher.

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And you hear that and you go, boy, that sounds pretty good to me. Exercise some self -control. These are among the fruit of the spirit.

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And against such things, there is no law. So walk in these things that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

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And we got that far last week. We had done Romans eight four already. So here you got a repeat of Romans eight four.

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We're going to continue on tomorrow with our study of Romans eight. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the goodness that you have shown to us.

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Your kindness, your faithfulness, your peace, your love.

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It is all so good. And let it be a comfort to our spirits. Help us to exhibit these godly qualities to one another and grow in them, maturing in them.

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Peter says in second Peter chapter one, that if these things are in you and increasing, then it keeps you from being unfruitful.

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And we demonstrate the love of God in our hearts when we love one another, as Christ has shown his love for us.

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Forgive us our sins. Help us to be convicted of those things that we need to repent of today, that we may walk in holiness this day.

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And help us to fulfill that righteous requirement of the law by loving one another as God has loved us.

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We love God. We love each other. Out of our love for God, we show love for one another.

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And help our delight to be in delighting God. In Jesus name we pray.

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Amen. You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .utt