Sermon Tone Analysis

Good evening, well turn with me in your Bibles to .

I cant believe we are already in chapter 8.

We saw back in the beginning of this series how the apsotle Paul began to talk about the problem of sin.

By the time he got to chapter 7 last week, the whole issue of sin had escalated to the point where Paul kind of just blurted out OH WRETCHED MAN THAT I AM

WHO IS GONNA SAVE ME FROM THIS BODY OF DEATH?

The reason there is such a big problem is bc last week Paul brought the fact that there is a big problem, and that is that the law is spiritual but we a re fleshly.

We are very carnal people, do you know thta about you?I hope so bc we are all very carnal people.

We are very tied to the flesh.Bc of that we can do nothing to keep the law.

Thats the same thing Paul realized,you cant keep the law, the law is spiritual and i am fleshly so the only thing the law does is condemn me.

I inherited that from my forefather Adam and we all did we inherited condemnation.

Thats basically where were at, we are all condemned by the law, so what are we gonna do about that?

Paul asks the question: WHOSE GONNA SAVE ME?

Well today we get the answer:

Romans 8:

Romans 8:2-

(Let’s pray) “Lord please open our hearts and minds to understand your word....”

Paul begins this chapter with a verse that for alot of people is probably a verse that is their favorite verse in all the Bible.

Some people like to adopt what they like to call a life verse...

This is a huge statement for Paul to make!

THERE IS NOW THEREFORE NO CONDEMNATION FOR THOSE IN CHRIST JESUS

Why is this so important?

BC He has been spending 11 chapters that were condemned!

In fact he has ben showing us that the law has a right to condemn us in fact.

He has bene explaining the right of the law and he has been saying that we prove everyday that the law has every right to condemn us by our actions.

By failure to keep the law I basically prove the law is right in its judgement of me that truth that we are condemned and now Paul drops this grace bomb on us and he says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We are all kinda like WOW thats really good news whats that all about?

How are we no longer condemned by the law?

He explains

Now to understand this verse you gotta understand that when Paul uses the word law in verse 2 he isn’t talking about the law of Moses but He is describing the law of a power over you.

It would be like the law of gravity, if you climb up on the roof and jump off the law of gravity will have the power over you to bring you to the ground.

So you could literally put the word power in here over the word lawe.

Let me read the verse that way.

FOR THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT HAS SET YOU FREE IN CHRIST JESUS FROM THE POWER OF SIN AND DEATH.

THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT this is the essence of Paul message here, and it is important because we have been dealing with the futility of the flesh.

Paul has just mentioned his power his might and his ability something like 40 times in the previous verses and he ends it with WHO IS GONNA SAVE ME!

Now he is making a drastic shift of thought in this study of Romans.

The answer to this question of who is going to save you and I THE HOLY SPIRIT.

So lets look at what abilities and blessings and benefits the Holy Spirit brings to us.

Now Paul has already said nothing is wrong with the law but it was weakened in that my flesh couldn’t follow it.

The law came out and said do this, well I couldn’t so my flesh weakened the ability of the law to change my life.

The law tells you things but it doesn’t empower you, legalism doesn’t work in changing our lives I keep repeating that bc in the body of Christ we keep repeating the error.

We keep on thinking it can!

How many times over the years that the church has been around how many times have we fallen into legalism?

How many times have we relied on rules to get us through.

do this dont do that...

It doesn’t work, it never will work.

So its only through the power of God’s Spirit that you and I can live a Christian life.

rules dont work, all they do is tell you what you should be doing or shouldn’t be doing but you cant

Thats why Paul launches into that statment the things I wanna do, those arent the things I do, its the things I hate that I end up doing.

So god has done what the law couldn’t do, through the spirit.

Jesus didn’t come as sinful flesh He came in the likeness of sinful flesh.

He came in the likeness of sinful flesh but he himself was not sinful he took on our sin.

But it says that bc he was sinless God the father could then put the penalty of our sin on him.

Why did Jesus have to be sinless?

bc if he sinned he would have had to pay for his own sin, but bc he was sinless he was free to pay for yours when you dont owe the debt yourself you can offer to pay someone elses debt.

but if you go to the bank and say I wanna pay off so and so’s debt, they will go Im sorry pal but you owe a debt yourself.

so this dq’s you from paying someone elses debt bc you owe a debt yourself.

thats the way it is with sin, Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh he looked like us, but he was not sinful, he was sinless therefore he could take our sin, and our sin was condemned in him for us.

he just answered the question of why you and me are no longer under condemnation.

You and I are not under condemnation anymore bc Jesus bore that for us! he was condemned FOR YOU AND FOR ME AND WHEN WE TAKE THA UPON OURSELVES AND NOW THERE IS NO CONDEMNATION FOR US BC HE WAS CONDEMNED IN OUR PLACE!

But it doesn’t stop there!

This is amazing, you Christians you dont keep the law… people will say to us.

Paul says the righteous requirements of the law are fufilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit I want you to notice Paul did not say the righteous reqirments of the law are fulfilled by us he said they are fulfu=illed in us very important

You see the legalist thinks the righteous requirements have to be fulfilled by their actions.

We dont believe that we believe they have been fulfilled in us by God as we walk and keep in step with the spirit.

so whats the point?

THE SPIRIT DOES THE WORK IN OUR LIVES IT IS NO BASED ON OUR OWQN ACTIONS

The only way the righteous requirements of the law can be kept is by Jesus living in you!

How does this work?

There are alot of churches that are scared to death of the Holy Spirit they are afraid that the Holy Spirit will bring chaos and people will be runnin around screaming, but the Holy Spirit does not do that but brings peace and order to the chaos, and joy and understanding.

So the Spirit of God within us the Holy Spirit within us, I want you to remember something.

He is the Spirit of Jesus, he goes by many names, Spirit of the living god, Spirit of Christ.

He now lives within you, what did Jesus do when he came to this Earth?

He lived a perfectly righteous life, guess who now lives within us?

Jesus lives inside of you through the person fo the HS

What you and I couldnt do He did, and now He lives in us.

He lives in you, you are a temple of the HS that is mind blowing!

But theres more

He is now able to empower us as well, its not just Jesus lives in us and He fulfills the law, but He enables us to live according to the law.

It hasn’t been very long ago where i had a very serious diuscussions with someone about keeping the sabbath and dietary laws and this man was serious when He said we as Cristians were not keeping the law and I am here to tell you we are not under the Mosaic covenant we are under the New covenant of the blood of the lamb!

this is what Paul is describing for us here

The HS now living in you can enable you to live the life that is in keeping with the law, how?

Galatians 5:

Didn’t Jesus say the same thing when they were talking to Him about you know what is the best and greatest commandment?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart mind soul and strength andf love your neighbor as yourself all the law and the prophets rest on those.

The power of the Spirit has now come to live inside you and me to enable us to do those things.

As we do we live according to the law.

When we love God and love our neighbor thats the law right there.

That is why we cannot say we love God if we do not love our neighbor.

When we live according to the Spirit we can do these things.

Do not tell me you are walking by the spirit if you dont love other people.

Yeah we mess up but when we do we can always come to Jesus and get it right.

There is this constant flow of cleansing happening that comes from the cross.

We mess up sure but there is a continual spring of life and cleansing!

We come to Jesus and we say Lord I messed up and I need your forgiveness cleanse me from this and let me start over again.

bc it is totally fixated on pleasing self and thats why he says those who ar ein the flesh canot please God.

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO BE SINGLE MINDEDLEY focused on the flesh and please God

Your focused on gratifying the flesh, and there is no way you can live a life that is pleasing to God you cannot do it.

But Paul says

If the Spirit of God isnt living within you then you are not a Christian simple as that.