Living in the Spirit: Assurance and Suffering

I think the reason for the bad news in verses 5-8 was to make clear why the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do what had to be done and so he gets down to 5-8 he says here's what I meant by weakened by the flesh the law couldn't do those things because the mind of the flesh is so insubordinate to God when it meets the law it produces law breaking not lawke keeping therefore the only hope in the universe was that the Son of God would be sent into the world verse three I think that's how it all hangs together it's it's all meant to to give you tremendous confidence that there's no condemnation for you in spite of the fact that there's war going on between spirit and flesh in your life because Christ has done the decisive work of taking our sin upon him in his flesh. [00:00:39]

You however are not in the flesh but in the spirit so all that horrible stuff that was spoken about inability in verses 5 to8 is not true of you in Christ you are not in the flesh you are in the spirit if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you so what's the difference between being it in you and you in it my understanding of that would be paraphrase like this you however are not in the sway and control of the flesh you are in the sway in the current of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus if he's in you so if he's in you you're in his control that's my paraphrase to make sense out of the in you and in him anyone who does not have so have is like in you anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ whoa shift spirit of God to Spirit of Christ interesting why why would he do that does not have the spirit of Christ clearly the the logic demands that they Be The Same Spirit right you however are not in the flesh you are in the spirit if the spirit dwells in you anyone who does not have the same spirit Spirit of God but he says Spirit of Christ which is just chock full of implications trinitarian wise but why would he do it wh why the shift he's free to the spirit of God and the spirit of Christ are the one spirit of God and spirit of Christ maybe anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. [00:02:28]

Although our sins are forgiven and our righteous standing before God is secure, we still face physical death as a consequence of sin. However, the Spirit promises life and resurrection, reminding us that our salvation is a process. Your Righteous standing before God could not be more perfect than it is but you're going to die which was a consequence of sin and the fall so that part of the consequence has not been overcome by the cross so let's read it but if if Christ is in you though your your body is dead dead because of sin the spirit is life because of righteousness and you you could say well I thought you took care of the sin problem on the cross and his answer would be I did but you will benefit from it in due time your sins are gone righteousness is provided wrath is removed moved everything decisive to secure your future is done it is finished but The Last Enemy will be death and we'll do that later you're going through it it's a sobering and he means for it to be sobering but the spirit is life you with me the spirit is life because of righteousness. [00:08:19]

Christians are really practically righteous and need to be if you don't put to death the Deeds of the body by the spirit you go to hell we'll get to that at verse 13 real righteousness happens we do walk by the spirit we do bear the fruits of love joy peace patience goodness kindness if we don't we don't have the spirit this could be be my righteousness in principle is it or it could be God's righteousness in Christ count it is mine which is part of the teaching of Paul in Philippians 3 and 2 Corinthians 5:21 and uh early parts of chapter 4 and 1 Corinthians chapter 1:30 the Glorious doctrine of Christ's finished work counted as mine both his atoning death and his perfect love life counted as mind could be that which is it and again the way you answer something like that is by trying to follow the thought because one of the aners I don't think will work here it says the spirit um is life I think that is a good translation by the way the the old translations used to say um our Spirits are alive because of righteousness that's not theologically false but the main argument is that this word is not alive it's life it's just a little awkward to say our Spirits are life it's not awkward to say the spirit is life because we already said he's the spirit of life back in verse two so I think this is a good translation the spirit is life because of righteous now that means if you take righteousness to be my righteousness lived out that the argument goes the reason the holy spirit is at work in you with lifegiving power is that you have become righteous that's just totally doesn't work it doesn't work on Paul's terms you might make it work it just doesn't work cuz he said the Holy Spirit was poor out because Christ died for us so that we would be righteous that's verse three and four and the logic between them so my answer here is this is God's righteousness not this is not my lived out righteousness this really is justification this is imputation. [00:09:43]

Take heart you must die and you will live again and your body will not be thrown away we are not platonists who want to be set free from the body we don't want to be naked we want our bodies and we want them glorious and you're going to get it I want it to be covered with hair on top not so much saggy right here and fewer wrinkles and better eyesight and don't want my wife complaining about my hearing anymore and and I'd like to just be so amazing that you would be tempted to worship me because it says in Matthew 13:43 that we will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of our father you can't look at the son you can't look at the son until your body is glorified so you you've got to have glorified eyes to see me that's chapter 8: 18- 25 so I shouldn't be talking about it but it's here this is resurrection and so he he introduces death in verse 10 right there and then he lifts that burden from us in part by saying he'll raise you so take heart can see what I'm skipping here. [00:13:44]

Brothers after all that amazing work of Christ on the cross and the work of the spirit in our lives and the promise of Resurrection so then Brothers we are debtors not not to the flesh he don't owe the flesh anything it has done nothing but ruin you defeat you prepare you for Everlasting torture don't live to the flesh why would you live to your murderer you don't owe it anything don't get up in the morning and yield to your killer we are debtors and you would expect him to finish the sentence so then Brothers we are debtors not to the flesh but to the spirit and he never gets around to that this is Paul does this several times just kind of breaks off doesn't finish his parallel which which would cause you to ask why and the why is pretty significant here he something comes to his mind and I believe divine inspiration works that Incarnation that God doesn't cause Paul never to have rabbit trails in his thinking just guard charge the rabbit Trails so that they're always true so then Brothers we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh break off instead of saying but to the spirit to live according to the spirit which is what you would expect instead of that he just stops that and feels the need to say something shocking and Urgent about why you better be vigilant against your flesh because how easy it would be for you to say he died for me I'm perfect in Christ my resurrection is guaranteed those of me Justified he glorified home free no fight no danger be easy to go there as a nice Protestant lover of the doctrine of imputation like me and he won't let me go there I can remember taking Romans in seminary I being shocked by verse 13 shocked I just had been so oblivious to the flow of thought up until then up up until I was 22 I thought of the Bible as a String of Pearls but I loved them pearls served me well and I never noticed there were Chains It's a chain it's not a String of Pearls it's a chain with links of brass steel and it's pretty shocking a lot of times so there I was staring at this the reason for the reason you better not live according to the flesh is if you live according to the flesh you die what does that mean it doesn't mean physically die because everybody physically dies and he just said you're going to physically die and then be raised so it doesn't mean physically die well it does it mean it means forever it means hell it means judgment means Wrath brothers and everything you know in your theological body or mind Rises up and says you didn't talk that way to Brothers the whole point of this chapter is security those who be justified he glorified you are Rock Solid safe elect yes you are that is the point of the chap boldness nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus but if you don't kill the Deeds of the body you're going to hell brother that's true I preach that way I believe every Pastor should look out look out on his congregation and warn them they could go to hell because Paul does pastors who don't create a sense of urgency in their people about what their lives mean and what's at stake in their lives aren't doing their job if you well how can that work I mean verse 30 of chapter 8 make another little attempt here to jump around which I shouldn't do those I mean verse 30 at the bottom Those whom he predestined he called and Those whom he called he also Justified and Those whom he justified he glorified nobody falls out no no predestined person fails to be called No called person fails to be justified no Justified person fails to be glorified you are absolutely secure and if you live according to the flesh you will go to hell now one of the ways people do theology is that they see things that look intention and they throw one away they throw one of them away to make it work that's a bad idea the problem with your is with your brain not the word and until you take three four five years to work on that I'm not going to I'm not going to encourage you that you've done your job when you throw one of them away if you can't figure that out just preach it preach it teach it teach it to your kids here's the way I put the two together so you got absolute certainty for God's elect over here all the predestined called all the called Justified all the Justified will be glorified no dropouts and here's a warning to the brothers if you live according to the flesh you will go to hell not contradictory because if you live according to the flesh you show you have the mind of the Flesh and you are not in the spirit and we're never born again and are not among the elect which turns Sunday morning into a pretty serious moment I really believe that I used to say to people every one of my sermons is a Salvation sermon I'm keeping people saved my preaching is an instrument of God to preserve the elect and one of the ways you preserve the elect is to talk like Paul talks you tell them you live according to the flesh you go to hell if you are elect and you full of the Holy Spirit you hear that you tremble and with fear and trembling you work out your salvation and go to heaven that's the way he keeps you it's not automatic it's vital it's living the word of God that was the point of last night the word of God is used by God to keep you and one of the ways he keeps you is with warnings and if pastors say I can't give warnings to my people like this because they'll they'll start being afraid of falling short they're supposed to be afraid of falling short and the fear sends them flying to the gospel and to Jesus so if you live according to the flesh you will die but so what's the alternative I don't want to die if by the spirit this may be among the most important things we'll see if by the spirit you put to death the Deeds of the body you won't die you'll live forever yes you will which means we need to come to terms with what in the world that means what is putting to death the Deeds of the body first of all what are the Deeds of the body everything is a deed of my body that right no well you wouldn't like use my body to take Soup to a neighbor don't put that one to death what is he talking about back in chapter six he says do not yield your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness so sin is the real culprit here not body sin is the real culprit and what does Sin do in us what is the old remnants of the Flesh and the old man the old nature that's trying to war against the spirit what does it do it takes my hand it takes my eyes it takes my sexual inclinations it takes my body and tries to make it an instrument of sin in the world kill those kill those and the way you kill them is by going for the root which is why John Owen who wrote a whole book on this verse called mortification of sin whole book on verse 13 said be killing sin or it will be killing you perfect paraphrase be killing sin or it will be killing you and he said be killing sin not the Deeds of the body because he knew the root of the body's problem the body's not body's just fesh the body's just flesh it's it's skin it has no moral quality like that's not a moral thing there's bone and there's blood and there's skin that's a Moral Moral is my sin making this punch you that's moral therefore you going to fight that deed you go for sin or you don't go for anything so how do you do that he tells us how he says by the spirit oh how precious and important is life in the spirit by the spirit so how would you do that I'm going to take you on a little quick sequence of thought this this is one of the most important little sequences of thought in my life this is how I live I try to live my life first clue Ephesians 6 17 in all circumstances take up the shield of Faith with with which you can extinguish all the Flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God now why do I go there because it said put to death the Deeds of the body by the spirit okay you're going to kill something in the armor of Ephesians 6 there's only one weapon for killing usually don't kill people with a with a shield like helmet you you kill people with a sword in this war kill the Devil with a sword and the sword is the sword of the spirit and it is the word of God so that's my first clue okay Paul is saying put to Death kill sin Kill The Temptations to be selfish kill the temptation to be greedy Kill The Temptations to be Covetous Kill The Temptations to be lustful Kill The Temptations to be violent kill him kill him by the spirit well he's God I don't wield him what do you mean by the spirit like Spirit bang I he's God I he picks me up I don't pick him up I mean that's that's that's the way I struggle with these verses no you don't pick him up but you pick his sword up when you pick up his sword he's at work mightily so that's first clue here's second clue Galatians 3:5 okay there's the sword right there in front of you it's the word of God what do you do with it Galatians 3:5 does he who supplies the spirit to you that's crucial I need that because he said by the spirit put to death the Deeds of the body does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law answer no how with the hearing of Faith so now I've got the hearing which is the word and I got faith aha so what do you do with the word you got the you got the spirit he's got a sword it's the word use it how trust it is that what it says by hearing with faith the holy spirit is supplied that's an that that verse is just about as important as it gets in the Bible as far as living okay I want the supply of the holy spirit this afternoon in dealing with some tough issues so that I don't sin but rather be used by the spirit to bear fruit the just requirement of the law fulfilled love this afternoon not selfishness and anger and greed and mean-spiritedness and fear and self-pity I want all that stuff dead so Holy Spirit how do I get you it's right there he who supplies the spirit how does he do it he does it by hearing with faith hearing with faith hearing with faith hear what word Word of Promise word of God word of gospel word word word hear it but when you hear it the the way you wield it to kill Satan and sin is I trust you I trust you next clue 2 Thessalonians 2:13 we ought always to give thanks to God for you Brothers beloved by the Lord because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification just pause that is a paraphrase of what I was trying to say about how security and warnings relate we are saved through being changed you know uh I grew up in a tradition where eternal security was as mechanical as it could be pray to receive Jesus when you're six you're going to heaven live like the devil not through sanctification that never I never saw that in 25 years nobody's saved except through sanctification nobody there is a Holiness without which you will not see the Lord Hebrews 12:14 never saw it that's what we're talking about right now the sanctification of putting to death sin so that you don't die but live be saved happens how by the spirit and belief in the truth it's all there the spirit has a sword you wield the sword by trusting it you will know the truth truth will set free sanctify them by the truth your word is truth only if you believe it trust it illustration this is Hebrews so what I'm going to do now with Hebrews is just give you a glimpse of how does that work we're we're we're just illustrating how does verse vers 13 of Romans 8 happen if you put to death the Deeds of the body by the spirit you will go to heaven if you live by the flesh you will go to hell that's urgent we need to know this we need to live this or we perish we're not mechanical I don't care if you prayed a prayer when you were six you can perish if you give all the evidences by living according to the flesh you're not his you don't belong to him this is urgent people need to feel urgent about this most important things in the world and most people live their lives as though nothing were big and horribly real and unbelievably important day by day hour by hour it is so here is how you do it with the temptation to steal because you love money all right I want to kill the deed of the body called stealing and I need to do it by killing covetousness which is the sin underneath stealing okay here here's how it happens keep your life free from the love of money so keep your life free from the love of money and be content oh yes that would free me from so many sins be content with what you have instead of being greedy and Covetous and I just got to have that new iPhone for he has said said said said he has said I will never leave you or forsake you do you believe that does he who supplies the spirit to you right now to free you from the Love of Money does he who supplies the spirit to you do so by works of the law I can do this or by hearing that with Faith No Doubt what the answer is I will never leave you so we can confidently say the Lord is my helper I will not fear what can man do to me I am free from the craving love of money to have more security because I've got a promise I've got a word from God I've got a sword with which to slay covetousness if I believe it that's how you live your life so what's what's the Temptation you facing this afternoon tomorrow or when you go home what temptation to sin to Greed to anger to covetousness to lust what what are your besetting Temptations this is you got to kill them not Perfection that we've made that that clear in the first hour we're not talking about perfection we're talking a Bonafide New Direction of Warfare by which you are getting victory over sin not perfectly but significantly enough that you see I'm indwelt by the Holy Spirit who enables me to put sin to death how you going to do it this I commend to you is how you kill sin. 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For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to us for the creation Waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God for the creation was subjected to futility not of its own will but by the will of him who subducted it in hope that the whole creation will be set free for its bondage to corruption and obtain the Glorious uh the freedom of the glory of the children of god let's let's keep going for the creation was all the creation have been groaning together until now in the Pains of child birth and not the creation only but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Holy Spirit grown inwardly waiting for our adoption the r Redemption of our bodies so you put that together versus um 18 to 23 what's the suffering persecution is not even mentioned in that paragraph I'm sure it's included what's mentioned is we live in a world where you can count on it you're going to groan waiting the Redemption of your bodies so 57 years old Moore Oklahoma he cut her head off yesterday welcome to America IIs I don't know whether that's true or not just what I feel that's going to happen that's going to happen and when it comes we will groan maybe not long and the reason we will grown is because that's what can happen to bodies that are not yet redeemed you won't be able to cut my head off in heaven it will be indestructible a body is sown in weakness raised in power nobody can kill me on the other side but here I can die of cancer ALS leukemia and beheading it's all the sufferings of this present time which means that what he's saying is this when he said provided you suffer with him you will be glorified with him he doesn't mean now go out and make sure you get your quotient of pain today he means it's coming and if you suffer it with him in Reliance on him for his glory received from his hand as your Sovereign surgeon and therapist you'll make it but if you if you make suffering an occasion to get in God's face and tell him off and say if that's the way you treat your children I'm out of here you will perish it really matters how you deal with suffering really matters provided you suffer with him not against him you will be glorified I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to us what what glory is that it's going to be revealed to us what glory is that is it God's glory Your Glory Glory of the universe keep reading worth comparing to the glory that be revealed to us for the creation Waits with eager longing for the revealing ah clue clue revealed revealing so this is probably this right the revealed is what's being revealed here for the revealing of the sons of God whoa so the glory that is about to be revealed to us is our Glory that's in no sense a belittlement or a diminishment of the centrality of the glory of God it just mean God means to share it that's what verse 17 said you will be glorified with him glorified with him and I consider that the sufferings of this present world are not worth compared to what's going to happen at that moment when we are glorified with him as the sons of God and we come into being like suns in the sky that nobody can look at that will make it all worth it that's what he means revealing of the sons of God but but notice something else in verse 19 the creation is waiting like on tiptoes waiting with eager longing for that I mean I had in my mind for years that God would make a new creation like a playground and then he would fit me for that well in a sense that's right but it's the other way around just make this so off the charts incredible it's the other way around the creation I mean verse 19 the creation is waiting with eager longing till we shine like the sun and they say all the galaxies say can I get in that is amazing the creation verse 20 was subjected to futility not willingly the creation didn't didn't want to have famines and pestilence and earthquakes and tsunamis and viruses and Ebola the creation was subjected to horrible futility and bondage to corruption not willingly but by the will of him who subjected it who's that I used to say well it was Adam or the devil that won't work because the word in hope there's only one person who could subject it and hope that the creation itself would be set free free from its bondage and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God so he said it twice now he said it in verse 19 the creation Waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God and he says it again now here the creation is going to be set free from its bondage to corruption this this this verb here is is just a preposition in the Greek into into the freedom of the glory of the children of God you get your freedom from sin and freedom from bondage and freedom from suffering and freedom from groaning and a glorious glorification with Jesus and then and then the universe jumps in to share it the creation will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain your Freedom Your Glory as the children of God you need to pray hard when you read that okay we're going to make it this is the end for this session Best is Yet come verse 22 for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the Pains of childbirth until now this four therefore goes back and explains why the creation will come into the enjoyment of the freedom of the glory of the children of God because its groaning is not the throws of death but labor pains that's the argument you watch a woman whose child is still born and a woman who's almost ready to give birth to a live baby they may sound exactly the same it hurts and so Paul is clarifying what is this that we're looking at what is this horrible horrible world that we're looking at death throws Universe collapsing into meaningless nothingness or birth pains and he's crystal clear the groaning of this awful world is the groaning of birth pains where' he get that Jesus Nation will rise against Nation Kingdom against Kingdom there will be earthquakes in various places and there will be famines these are the beginning of the birth pains Paul didn't make that up earthquakes 250,000 people dead after the tsunami what is the meaning of that they're birth pains that's what they are and not only the creation oh this is just and not only the creation but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Holy Spirit grown inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption of sons the Redemption of our bodies you can almost see it in English you can see it in English when he says not only not only the creation but we ourselves it's really emphatic in Greek we ourselves even we and you can hear what he's doing he's talking to Prosperity gospelers seriously people who believed well sure the world has to grown sure the creation has to grown but the King's kids don't have to grown we got the spirit we got the cross we got the righteousness we got the inheritance we got the power our wives don't miscarry our cattle don't die and we get our pickup truck you don't even we even we even we even we who have yes yes we do have the first fruits the rest is coming our position is secure but even we who have the first fruits grown cuz we're waiting life is a wait it's a wait we don't have it now the prosperity gospel's main problem is over realized heaven heaven is later now is suffering groaning aching cancer beheadings dying we are being counted as sheep to be slaughtered we're being killed all day long what this Prosperity crap no we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him we wait for our adoption you're already adopted yes we are but the full experience of it the Redemption of our bodies that's what we want I don't want my body to be an instrument of unrighteousness I don't want it to be an agent of sin I'm tired of its yielding to the law of sin well take heart because you will be saved final verse we'll quit we read this for in this hope hope hope we were saved we've been saved now and then he's talking to these same people again hope that is seen if you can see all the power if you can see see all the healing if you can see all the prosperity you don't need a hope now hope that is seen it's not hope but for who hopes for he sees I'm telling you you've been saved in hope not hate saved in seeing we walk by faith and not by sight but if we hope if we hope for what we do not see and we do what what a glory what an inheritance we wait and we wait patiently in the hands of our Sovereign god father as we break and listen to all the small talks this afternoon and pray and deal with you about the sufferings of our own lives come and move on us separate pray in power in Jesus name amen. 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