Classic Christianity – Book of Romans P34 (01-27-19)
Synopsis
In this mortal body of ours, you, who are in Christ, being born again, have the Spirit of God living in you. This body of flesh and blood is not suited for heaven, being weakened by the fall of man, and will go the grave. But God sealed in you the Holy Spirit of promise, to one day be raised, with a new body, an immortal body designed for heaven. We long to be clothed in our new body, but while we are on this fallen world, where even all creation groans for its redemption, we live by faith.
The same Spirit, in the earthly body of Jesus, is the same Spirit living in us. As Jesus lived by faith, with the Spirit living in him, doing only what he saw his Father doing and only saying what is Father told him to say and how to say it, is the perfect model of how man was designed to function. That is why he is referred to as the second Adam. We are designed to walk in the same manner of faith as he did.
God, seeing the fallen state of mankind, as a result of the sin of the one man Adam, sent His only Son, Christ Jesus, into this world to reconcile mankind unto Himself. The Spirit of God vacated Adam due to sin, and all of us are born dead in the image of sinful Adam, without the Spirit of God. All men being born dead in sin, were without hope and without God. So Jesus came to take away the sins of the world, which caused our death, in order that the life that raised him from the dead will raise you and me from the dead also. At the moment you believed, by faith alone in what Jesus accomplished for you, by his death, burial and resurrection, the life of God was put back into you, and you now are on a marvelous journey, learning how to live in the new way of the Spirit.
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Before, you were enslaved to sin, with a mind hostile to God, lost, living according to the desires of the flesh. Now, you have been made into a new creation, a mind at peace with God, and set free from the law of sin and death. You now are free to live in the new way of the Spirit, a life of grace by which you can boldly go to the throne of grace for help in your time of need. We also have a living relationship with God, in good times and in bad. The Spirit lives in you to guide you into all truth, to teach you internally from within, the things of God. You have become a child of God, and you now relate to God as your Father. The Spirit living in you testifies that you are a child of God.
But for now, when you go through such difficulties in this life, that you do not even know what to pray, the Spirit intervenes for you, speaking through you, when you have no words to express. Your life is hidden in Christ and Christ is living in you. The Spirit will never leave you or forsake you. Even in those terrible times of life that happen, a fallen world with sinful man, making sinful choices of the will, or the natural things of life, such as the death of a father, mother or friend, that inevitably will or must happen in this fallen world, God causes all things to happen for the good to those who love Him and are called to His good purposes. God does not cause evil, but He works things out in a manner in which good would come through it. In this world, all of us will have trials and tribulations, but Jesus told us to take heart, to not be afraid, for He has overcome the world.
As we study God’s word, relying on the Spirit to teach us truth, we are being prepared to respond to such hardships in this world. As our body ages, we are reminded that, although outwardly we are wasting away, our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all, the trials and tribulations and things of life, that come our way. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is seen is eternal. Through the things we suffer, we learn patience and perseverance, where character is built, so we grab a hold of hope that does not disappoint. We learn to look at life from God’s perspective. That is why we can live by faith, and have joy in our hearts, abiding in God who produces such fruit in and through us. Those are the things we learn while we are longing for the day we will meet Jesus in the air, either while we are still alive or have already died, when He comes. For God has prepared a place for us, and if it were not so, He would have told us. When we meet Him, we shall be changed in a twinkling of an eye, and be given a new immortal body that never fades or gets sick. For now, we only see Him as through a dim mirror, but one day we shall see Him face to face and see Him as He really is. We will be in the presence of God where there will be no more sorrow or pain. All things will become new. There will even be a new heaven and an new earth, and we will forever be with the Lord.
Transcript
There is a balance as a Christian. The balance is your number one priority is what is going on inside and then what is going on outside. Prior to my heart attack was exercise profited little. I had to reverse that a little bit.
Romans 8:10-11
the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, [born again] he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
What is that a promise of? Your body is dead because of sin yet the Spirit of God, who lives in you, is going to give life to this mortal body. Do we understand? What kind of a body is the going to give us? It is called a spiritual body. What does a spiritual body look like? I don’t know. Do you know? But we do know one thing. This body will go to the grave but we will get a new body. What else do we know about this body of ours? Flesh and blood will never inherit the kingdom of God. Are we together on this passage? Flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God. What is this body? Flesh and blood. What are my ears? Flesh and blood. What are my eyes? Flesh and blood. What is this whole body made of? Flesh and blood. Is this body going to heaven? It is going to the grave. If you get thrown in the ocean, then you will be whale food. If you get to be buried, you will become worm food. But flesh and blood will not inherit kingdom of God. Why do people think this thing will inherit the kingdom of God? It is going into the grace and decay. You came from the grave. You are going to return to the grave. You came from dust. You will return to dust. But he said He is going to give us a new body. That is the good news. We are going to receive a new body.
2 Corinthians 5:1-5
1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
The issue comes down to when? That is debatable to people. If you think you are not going to get a body until a hundred years. But what I believe is absent from the body and present with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:8
8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
Does it make any sense while here on this earth you have a home, but when you die you are homeless? I do not believe that is true. That is why in Thessalonians, at the rapture, those of us who remain behind will not proceed those who have fallen asleep before us. The ones who have fallen asleep are already there. And those who are alive on earth, will meet the Lord in the air.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
I think we will get our bodies immediately. That is why it says absent from the body and present with the Lord. That could be debatable I assume. So you have to decide where you want to go on that. It is just difficult for me to imagine that we are floating around with no body. So I am going to go with the body. I am thankful this is going to go to the dust. I am going to get a new one. The older you get, you are more grateful for that. When you are young you kind of like the one you have. So he is going to give life to our mortal bodies who lives in you. We will talk about that in more detail in Romans.
Romans 8:12
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation – but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.
You have the old you, without the Holy Spirit living in him. You have no obligation to obey that old guy. He is dead. You have no obligation to him at all. It is like an owner of a place of business or an apartment complex. You have this owner there who is mean as a hornet, and you are renting from him. You have an obligation to pay the rent to him. He is bugging you every week. He is banging on your door complaining how you live. One day someone comes in, and says he has to do what he has to do. We have a new owner. Really? What kind of a guy is this new owner? Terrific. Full of heart and a wonderful person. Besides that he is going to cut your rent. That is something else. Incidentally where is the old guy going to live who was the owner before? He lives next door. The old owner starts knocking on your door and says, “Where is your rent?” You left some dirt outside door. Clean it up. Do you have any obligation at all to obey him? None at all. But you could, couldn’t you? You could. You are in such a habit listening to him, doing what he wants you to do, living in fear of him, that you could get back right into him. Okay sir, I will get the things picked up. Could you listen to him? Yes. But do you have an obligation to listen to him? No. You share under new ownership.
Guys you have been bought with a price, haven’t you? We are under brand new ownership. You are not under the ownership of Satan and your old flesh. Therefore, you have no obligation at all to obey that old guy, the Bob George without the Holy Spirit living in him. I do not have any obligation to obey him. I can. I can listen to him. Sometimes, do we do that? Yes. Hey, do you not remember how fun that used to be before you had the Spirit. Next thing you know you are listening to him and going back to doing those things you used to do before you were saved. Any body doing that? You do not have to lift up your hands.
People live in terrible guilt many times. They are living terrible guilt because we are out trying to live the Christian life and we find ourselves falling on our face. Have any of you experienced that? Have any of you experienced that the things I want to do I do not do and the things I do not want to do, these things I keep on doing? Have any of you experienced going through that? If I am doing what I do not want to do, then it is sin living in me. Do you have any obligation to that sin that lives in you? No. But can you grab a hold of it and listen to it? Yes. Do we do it? Yes.
Then here are people who live in terrible guilt. The issue is, what kind of an attitude do we have to have as we walk through life? You have to walk through life like this. James says if you kept the whole law and violated it in just one point you have violated all of it.
James 2:10
10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it
What does that do to us? In other words, am I going to have acceptance in the sight of God through my good works, what does that do for you? Does it annihilate you or are you pleased with that statement. All you have to do is violate one and you are guilty of all of it? Is that encouraging? What does that tell you? You know what people tell you? You have got to try. That is like trying to jump over a cliff. You can try but you are not going to make. Well, that is better than not trying. Well, I would tell you that a person who tries will probably live somewhat a better lifestyle here on earth but as far as God is concerned it has not impressed God at all. Oh, that can’t be. He has to be impressed with me. Can you imagine God being impressed with you, saying “Oh, Bob, that impressed me”. We are so arrogant that we think we can impress God. You do not have a chance in the world of acceptance in the sight of God apart from being clothed in the righteousness of My Son. So get rid of all your self righteous attitudes and realize that you are not as good as you think you are. That you too are not going to heaven for only one reason and that is because you are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. So might as well as put your self righteousness aside and enjoy your clothing. That is what He is getting at here. You have no obligation to the flesh at all.
Romans 8:13-14
13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
That is the only way to put aside misdeeds of the body is through the Spirit. When that happens you will live. Why are you going to live? Because you are a son of God. Do you have any ability to put aside the misdeeds of the body when you are lost? You can control them temporarily, but put them away? No way.
Romans 8:15
15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.
Again, perfect love casts out how much fear? All fear. What does fear cast away? Perfect love. Does God want us to function in perfect love? Yes. What does Satan use to keep us from it? Fear. When you are experiencing fear, you are not being led by the Spirit. Why? Because God did not give you a Spirit of fear. We have to understand the truth of that. How many of you have fearful thoughts in your head? We all do. Where do they come from? Satan. We have to understand that. So do not sit around trying to analyze the thoughts. Recognize where they are coming from and give them back to him. It is like the old landlord. Tell him to get lost. I am not under your ownership any more. You do not own this place any more. Go back to your apartment and starve to death. Get out of here. Get away from me. That is what you have to do when you recognize who is putting that fear in you. That old guy banging on the door, putting fear in you. Wait a minute. He does not own this place any more. You are not owned any more by Satan. You are owned by God. He says He did give you a Spirit of fear. You received the Spirit of sonship. You have been made a Son of God.
Romans 8:15
And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
Abba is Greek for daddy. You call God your daddy because that is who He is.
Romans 8:16
16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
How do you know you are saved? Well, if you do not know you are saved, something is wrong. Your Spirit should be testifying you are saved. But if you get the idea you are saved only if you behave properly, and you are taught that, then you would say, “maybe I am not saved”. Or if you think you are one of the elect, and so I think maybe I am saved, but then I started acting wrong, then I wonder if I was one of the elect. You may not know the exact date, but do you know the approximate time you were saved? I do not remember the time, but I remember it was back in grade school. Do you know if you are saved? If you do, your Spirit wil testify you are God’s child.
Romans 8:17
17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
We are heirs of everything God provided for us. Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. What does that tell us? Does that mean if you come to Jesus, all your problems will go away? No. How many of you heard that? I did too. I found out that was not true.
John 16:33
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
In this world, you are going to have tribulation. If you live long enough, you will probably see your parents die. I was orphaned at 36 or so. I saw my dad die. You can see your brothers and sisters die. You can see friends die. Someone said to Amy one time, “we ought to live to be 120”. Amy said, “Why should I live that long? All my friends will be dead.”
The whole issue is that we are going to have suffering and trials and tribulations in this world. But what did He say. “Fear not because I have overcome the world.” So whatever we are going through, can God take it and work it together for your good? Yes, if you look on that side of it. Sometimes we are so negative in our thinking, it is unbelievable. Some people see everything negative. They never see a positive. It is all a negative. God is saying, “Get a life. Get off that negative kick and start seeing things from My perspective.” That is man down here, seeing everything bad. Start seeing things from God’s perspective.
Romans 8:28
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Will God cause it? No, that does not mean He will make bad, good. It just says He will cause it to work together for good. When some tragedy in life happens, you learn something from that. That does not mean you wreck your car so you learn how to respond when your car is wrecked. It just means if you get in a wreck, you learn how to respond. If you get sick, then you learn how to respond. How you respond depends on how well you are equipped. How you respond to trials and tribulations is totally predicated on how well trained you are on truth. When you go through trials and tribulations, that is too late to try to be trained. That is why it is important to know and study the word of God, and mature in the word of God, because some day you will be going to need this. Some people have told me they never had a trial or tribulation. I tell them just to hold on, for you will. Are you prepared for it?
Romans 8:18
18 I consider that our present sufferings
Paul is talking about some of the suffering they were going through.
Romans 8:18
18 are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
My body is going through trials and tribulations. There may be some of you going through trials and tribulations physically.
Romans 8:19
19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
Even nature groans. Even nature struggles with decay and with death, doesn’t it? So the whole world is under this area of suffering. But I do not see it even worthy to compare with the glory that will be revealed.
Romans 8:22-23
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
This body is going downhill. It is aging. In Paul’s case, his body was beaten half to death. Too many of those who have gone through suffering, those in wars over there, and coming back with broken bodies. They have been through tragedies where their bodies are suffering.
Romans 8:24
24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all.
I do not see my glorified body. I just see my real one.
Romans 8:24-26
Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for,
How many of you experienced that? I do not even know what to pray for. Anybody? You are just so burdened, you do not even know what to ask God. The best prayer you can say is “Help”. You just do not know what to say. He says, “that is okay”.
Romans 8:26
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
That does not mean you need to be sitting around groaning for Jesus. Some people say, “That means to groan for Jesus”. It is not talking about that. It is talking about the Spirit interceding for you when you are so burdened that you have no words to express.
Romans 8:27
27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit,
1 Corinthians 2:10-11
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them?
No one knows what another man is thinking except the Spirit living within him. I have no idea what you are thinking right now except your Spirit knows.
1 Corinthians 2:12
In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.
How am I going to know what God is thinking? Keep reading. God has not given us a Spirit of fear. He has given us His Spirit so we may know and comprehend what God has freely given us. We have the Holy Spirit of God living in us, and because He lives in us, we have the mind of the Spirit living in us. He who searches the heart knows the mind of the Spirit. Why?
Romans 8:27
because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
When you do not know what to pray about, do not worry about it, for the Spirit does. The Spirit knows what you are thinking. The Spirit knows your heartaches, your trials and tribulations, and He intercedes for you when you do not even know what to ask God for. Does that help you realize it is all of Jesus and none of us? When we understand the truth of this, that it is all of Jesus, and none of us, how do we respond to that?
There are some people who are so rebellious in their nature that they will never respond to anything. That is pride, the man who thinks he is too smart for God. The man who thinks he is too bright for God. There are a lot of people like that. There is nothing more disgusting in the heart of God than a prideful heart. There are some people who are too prideful for Jesus. If that pride continues on, and a person continues in that, do you know where you will end up? In the pit of hell. You say you do not believe that. What basis do you have for your unbelief?
You get all kinds of people who say “I believe this“. Where did you get that information? You were not born with that. Where did you come up with this idea that there is no hell or there is no heaven? Where did you come up with that idea? The bible says there is a hell. The bible also says there is a heaven. Where you live eternally is your choice. You can either come to Christ, not to be a Presbyterian or a Methodist, or People to People, but you come to Jesus for life or remain dead. There is your choice.
2 Thessalonians 1:8-10
8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed.
Quite frankly, you have to be very stupid to remain dead. That is what I call stupidity when a person chooses to remain dead instead of choosing to receive life. Jesus said he cleaned up your sins. “There is not a sin in the world that you will be responsible for. I have taken them away. I did that to offer you eternal life. Do you want life or do you want to remain dead?” There is your choice.
John 3:18
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Matthew 13:41-43
41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.
Let us pray together. We want to thank you, Father, for the Lord Jesus Christ and His love for us. This is not religion we are talking about. It is a practical solution to a human being. We are humans. We were born into this world fallen. You came to raise us up. It is not a religion. It is practical. The God of this universe looked down on His creation and saw that we needed life and the only way He could give us eternal life was by taking away, eternally, the cause of death, which is sin, by the cross. After the cross is the resurrection. That is where we come to You to receive what we do not have, life, life eternal, and the journey begins. We thank You for this in Jesus name. Amen.
Romans 8:28-30
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
