Lots going on at First Baptist as the season changes.
- Food Pantry continues every Tuesday evening, with this year’s last “Prayze Dogs” hot dog grilling outside (weather permitting) on October 19.
- Wednesday night Bible Study is finishing up Titus, and about to move on to Jeremiah.
- Board Meeting on Thursday 10/14 at 4:30 pm
- On Saturday 10/16, women meet at church at 10 am to fill Shoe Boxes for Operation Christmas Child. A special lunch will be served.
- Adult Sunday School continues Sundays 9:45 am studying Matthew, while Kid’s Sunday School is on hold until further notice due to Covid transmission rates.
Welcome to church! As Pastor Steve finally gets a short vacation, we heard a special message today from Bible translator Dave Riggs.
Message for Sunday 10/10: “Greatest Chapter in the Bible – Romans 8”
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Rm 8.1
Last time I spoke about Hebrews 11 one of my favorite chapters; today I want to talk with you about another favorite chapter and perhaps the
Greatest Chapter in the Bible – Romans 8
Our opening verse today was short but is the central verse of our talk today and a good one to memorize.
An image you’ve seen. Draw this image in your mind: a person with a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. Each of these are whispering (at sometimes shouting) into this poor person’s ear. This person has to choose, and usually the devil is the one the person listens to.
There is something similar in the Bible, but not the same. In Eph 4:22-23 Paul talks about two selves, the old self and the new self. Each of us Christians has two natures. We’ll see more of this in the greatest chapter of the Bible.
A friend years ago challenged me to memorize Bible verses. I said I couldn’t memorize. I really didn’t want to put forth the effort. But the challenge was in front of me and I started small. Memorization is neat because then this truth is always available. Eventually, I was memorizing bigger sections of text rather than just single verses. This is one of the chapters I memorized. I’m saying this not to brag but to encourage you if the Spirit is leading you to do this.
Now we’re going to read Romans 8. But wait, we need some context for this… so let’s start in Rm 7:21…
| 21So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in Godʼs law; 23but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to Godʼs law, but in my sinful natured a slave to the law of sin. | two meanings of law (God’s law and guiding principle natural man is a prisoner of sin body of death, strapped on, so not just sitting on the shoulder We all find ourselves in a dank, dark, stinky slippery muddy well. w/o Jesus there is no hope the answer is only in Jesus. The old nature means we’re a slave to sin, no way to please God Maybe Rom 8 should have started here. |
| 1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. | What is it there for? How do we feel condemned: by myself, by others, by the world system, by Satan. When we feel that way, let’s shout this verse. “It is for freedom that Christ set us free” Gal 5.1 GOD DID WHAT WE COULDN’T what we remember in communion, we’ll celebrate later we walk by the Spirit because of what God has done for us. |
| 5Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to Godʼs law, nor can it do so. 8Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. | mind set = what we desire cf 2 Cor 4.18 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Heb12.1b And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. flesh = death vs. spirit = life and peace GOD HAS TO DO IT, WE ARE NOT ABLE |
| 9You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. | So only Christians can please God and the Spirit isn’t sitting on our shoulder, but in our hearts. And he comes only to those who have decided to trust Jesus Isn’t it interesting – our bodies are important but our bodies have to die because of sin Regeneration of the body |
| 12Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13For 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. | unregenerate humanity’s course leads to real death. 1 life + 2 deaths or 2 lives and 1 death How do we put to death the deeds of our bodies; pray and hope? |
| 14For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15The 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. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are Godʼs children. 17Now 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. | not all people are God’s children The term is for a full legal adop. an heir Abba, not just a musical group, but “daddy”. Do you ever start a prayer that way? Instead of desiring the world, let’s set our desires on what we’re going to inherit: -life, -glory, -God’s nature, eternity |
| 18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. | God’s kingdom is worth everything. Don’t find your satisfaction in wealth, power, sex – all the “pleasures” of the world. cf Ex Heb 11.25-26 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. When J comes we’ll be seen as children of God – revealed for what we actually are now. Creation is beautiful now, even after suffering millennia post-curse. Now we have wildfires, draught, extinction of species (15 in 2020), etc. Is 24.5-6 says 5The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. 6Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left. If the creation we currently see is so beautiful, what was unfallen creation like? What will God’s new creation be like? I’m excited! |
| 23Not 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. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. | We have an inner testimony, things aren’t right now: injustice, disease, death. CS Lewis “Wrong will be right when Aslan comes in sight” Hope and wait are the same word in Greek. Hope isn’t like: I hope I win a million dollars. It is expectation and the waiting for it knowing it will happen – this is the Christian hope. |
| 26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for Godʼs people in accordance with the will of God. | Do you ever feel you don’t know how to pray? The Spirit knows and is already praying for us! Ministries of the Spirit: -awakens us –frees us –confirms God in us –and now prays for us Did you see the Trinity here? |
| 28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For 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. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. | Why do we know all things workout for us – because God will listen to his own prayers! He answers according to his purpose. Difficulties – ten Boom God’s weaving. There are in the past tense – already done! God’s future and present kingdom, we see it as a process over time; he sees it as completed and an actuality |
| 31What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. | goes back to v1 – Before God, there is “no condemnation”. From the world there is: our neighbor or co-worker, the government, radical religionists, or Satan himself? God is a giving God and even gives his own self NO ONE! “ It doesn’t even matter if they kill us. True reality is not what happens here in the shadow lands. Jesus says: John 637All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40For my Fatherʼs will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” |
Let’s say this together:
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
This is true for all who have trusted Jesus. If you haven’t yet trusted him, these promises aren’t for you. But the good news is God is ready to meet with you today and for you to become his child. If you’d like to talk about this with me, let me know at the end of the service.
Benediction:
There is now no condemnation for you who are in Christ Jesus! Nothing will be able to separate you from God’s love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus your Lord.
Goal:
-No condemnation – nothing separates us from God’s love – memorization – keep our eyes fixed on Jesus