Deliverance, Slavery, & The Difference
The Romans Road • Sermon • Submitted
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Transcript
Open your Bibles with me, if you will to Romans 8:
Introduction:
ILLUSTRATION: For a mustang to be a mustang, it needs the right engine.
*In the 1970’s Ford started building a four cylinder mustang
*it looked like a mustang, but it didn’t drive like one
*As years have gone by, they have gotten better, but the truth remains that a mustang needs a v8
*Take the same frame and put a different engine into it and you have a VERY DIFFERENT car.
FOCUS: You and I are not cars, and yet this analogy applies to our lives. You and I are spiritual beings. The spirit that is in us is like the engine that drives us: it determines who we are and what we do.
Last week, we talked about our natural selves, that we are born with two natures: spirit and flesh
We are made in the image of God
Your spirit recognizes the truth when you hear it
Your spirit even longs to do good things
BUT: We sold ourselves into slavery to sin
All of us have sinned and fall short of God’s glory
You sold yourself to sin and death
So, even though your spirit may want to do good, it can’t because you are a slave to sin
Your flesh pursues the will of its master...
In fact, in recap, we saw in the back part of Romans 7 that...
My actions are controlled by my master, and the master I chose is sin,
My service to sin proves that there is no good in me
And that making Jesus my Master is the only way I can make good fruit
TRANSITION:
There is fruit in your life: good or bad, there is fruit. Since we have become slave to sin, if you and I are going to make good fruit, we need a new spirit. Let’s look at Romans 8:
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,
and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of Him who raised 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.
Pray, Invite the church to sit
***Listening Guides out
Last week, I used an illustration of the phrase, “that’s just the way I am” as an excuse to sin
If you are not saved, there is some truth to that phrase!
The unsaved person cannot change themselves to stop sinful behavior
For you and I to do something different, we need a new master, we need a new Spirit inside of us
We need a Savior & King that can free us from our slavery to sin and be our new MASTER.
We need a new Spirit that is strong enough to put our fleshly desires to death
AND We find both of these things in a relationship with Jesus Christ
Look at the first four verses with me:
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
You and I need a new Spirit, and through Christ we can have one! If you’ve got your listening guide, the first point I would have you remember today is this:
Freedom from sin and death comes through Christ, who fulfilled the Law to give us a new Spirit
Freedom from sin and death comes through Christ, who fulfilled the Law to give us a new Spirit
Romans 8:1-2 proclaim one of the sweetest truths found in all of Scripture
Those who are in Christ face no condemnation!
Hell is no longer a threat to the Christ follower because Jesus has freed you from sin and death
The life that you lived before Christ was your prison of death and if you are in Christ, you have been freed from it
You can only have freedom from sin if Jesus Christ has given you a new Spirit
Romans 8:3 tells us why
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
The Law pointed us to righteousness, but it could never make us righteous
We were slaves to sin
The law showed us what was righteous and good; but even though our Spirit agreed with it, we were still slaves to a master that wouldn’t let us obey
some of us, this morning, are still slaves to that master of sin
This morning you can be freed from it
The law can’t free you from sin, but Jesus can
This is why Jesus had to come. This is why salvation couldn’t come to mankind any other way.
Jesus is fully a man-He has two natures just like you and me
His flesh is just like our flesh-it feels pleasure and pain and temptation and desire
His Spirit, though, is the greater Spirit, it is the Spirit of God
His Spirit was able to do what your Spirit and my Spirit could not do-OBEY
The Law is good and right, but it cannot force anyone to obey it, BUT JESUS CHRIST was able to live in absolute and utter obedience to the Law of God because His Spirit was able to control the flesh.
His flesh was the only flesh that did not die because of sin-Jesus wasn’t dead in His sin and trespasses. Jesus was fully alive, and willingly died to pay the debt of your sin in the ultimate act of obedience to God the Father.
Now, those who choose to follow Christ are freed from sin and death because they have been given a new Spirit!
Look at verse 4
so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
This is the key piece: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we have access to a new Spirit. You can have a new Spirit, you no longer have to walk according to the flesh.
While this is not something you can earn, it is something you must choose to take on-you still have to choose between masters-Sin or Christ!
If you choose to follow Christ, and to walk after Him, you will receive His Spirit! He will make you alive in Him!
IF you are alive in Christ Jesus, your life WILL begin to look different.
You will make good fruit in your life.
IF YOU ARE SAVED, YOU WILL OBEY
YOU WILL SHARE THE GOSPEL. YOU WILL SHARE THE GOSPEL. YOU WILL DO GOOD WORKS.
IF YOU DO NOT DO THESE THINGS, IF THESE FRUITS ARE NOT IN YOUR LIFE, IT IS BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT SAVED!
These things don’t save you, they show that you are saved. Look at verse 5
For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,
and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
This points us to the next thing I would have you to remember this morning is this:
You can only please God through obedience, and you can only obey if the Spirit is in you.
You can only please God through obedience, and you can only obey if the Spirit is in you.
You cannot serve two masters.
If you are serving sin, your mind will be set on the things of this world, and those things will be what you do
Your life will only be centered on the Kingdom of God and His promises when His Spirit is in you.
REMEMBER: you and I chose on our own to make ourselves slaves to sin, but we can do nothing on our own to change this
Even if you wanted to do good, you can’t do it while you are still a slave to sin
This makes you an enemy of God because God hates sin and has set it for destruction
The only way that you can seek life and to have peace is to be filled with His Spirit. Until you have His Spirit living in you, you cannot do good.
It is impossible to please God with rotten fruit!
What this means is that saying you are a Christian doesn’t make you one: You need a new Spirit!
This is what Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:
Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
If you are a Christian, it means that you have been born again. You have been given a NEW SPIRIT.
That new Spirit in you will produce the fruit of obedience in your life
How do you enter into the Kingdom of God? By taking on His Spirit, the only Spirit that can bring you deliverance from slavery and into obedience.
Look at verse 9-11
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of Him who raised 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.
Friends, these verses in Romans 8 are some of the sweetest promises in Scripture to the believer
If Christ is in you, you have new life...
If Christ is in you, your dead body is being given new life...
If Christ’s Spirit dwells in you, you will live new life in obedience...
These are sweet words, friends! To have no condemnation is sweet! The promise of heaven and forgiveness is sweet! But hear that these things are conditional...
IF... CHRIST... IS... IN... YOU
These things are true of you, only if you are truly saved.
See, the last thing we need to remember this morning is this:
What you do proves if you are saved or if you are not saved
What you do proves if you are saved or if you are not saved
As it turns out, your life and not your mouth, will tell you the answer to this question
IF you are in Christ
sin will decrease and all but disappear in your life
you will still sin, but you will be quick to repent and move passed it
Good fruit will abound in your life
You will share the Gospel and make disciples
You will do good works of righteousness
You will give sacrificially
Your flesh that is now dead to sin will be made alive, as you use it in the power of His Spirit to obey the Lord Jesus Christ.
INVITATION:
This morning, you have the opportunity to be freed from condemnation forever
This morning, you can put your flesh to death towards sin, and take on a new Spirit that can only come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
Today, you can see the fruit of your life begin to change, because the One that is in you is greater than the master of this earth
Today, won’t you choose life over death? Won’t you choose to follow Jesus? Let your fruit show you where you are. And let Jesus become the engine that drives you.
PRAY