Calvary Church is
dedicated to doctrine, and we want you to experience
the life change that comes from knowing God's word
and applying it to your life. So we explain the
Bible verse by verse, every chapter, every book. This is Expound. So good to see
your faces tonight. So glad you could
come to church. Way to go in the middle of the
week to gather for fellowship, to gather for a spiritual meal,
to gather for encouragement. I still don't like the
fact that we can't hug. Well, they say we
can't hug, but-- but can't wait till we can. Romans chapter 8. Father, we want to thank
you for the opportunity to gather to look at your word,
to apply it to our hearts. We find that we are
in a very unique time, but we also find, Lord, that we
are in a unique setting, where we as a church regularly
gather to go verse by verse, chapter by
chapter, through every book of the Bible. It's an opportunity
that most in the world either don't have or
don't take advantage of. So we consider ourselves blessed
that we have the time afforded to us or intentioned by us
to make sure that we dig deep and make application of
these truths to our lives. We pray that you
will strengthen us. We pray that you will direct us. You know the issues
that we deal with. You know the
direction that we're looking for from
you, the strength that we need to serve you,
the discernment the health all our needs. And we're so grateful, Lord,
that we can roll them over onto you, and you will provide. In Jesus' name, Amen. On January 1, 1863, the
President of the United States then, Abraham Lincoln,
signed an edict proclaiming that the slaves
in the Confederate states were free. What he signed was called the
Emancipation Proclamation. 2,000 years ago, God signed
our Emancipation Proclamation on a cross just outside of
the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem when His son went
to die for our sins. We who were slaves of sin. Anyone, anyone who would
be born a slave of sin and would desire
freedom, emancipation, could have it from
that moment onward. The edict was signed by blood. Romans chapter 8 I
said was a chapter that I have been waiting
to get to because it is one of the greatest
chapters in all of holy writ, in all of scripture. It is what one guy called-- remember, I talked this
weekend about all dead guys. So here's another quote of an
old dead guy, Griffith Thomas, a name not many know, but
he was really responsible, he and a couple other guys for
Dallas Theological Seminary. He ran around with
the likes of DL Moody and wrote on
theology, et cetera. He said Romans chapter
8 is the chapter of chapters for the believer. I suppose if scripture
were a golden ring, that the Book of Romans
would be the diamond on that golden ring. And Romans chapter 8 would
be the sparkle on the diamond of that golden ring. It's a chapter that if you
spend any time at all reading through the book of Romans
you have come to dearly love. By God's grace, I'm going
to attempt to go through just this one chapter tonight. You've heard me make
promises like that before, and I've been unable
to fulfill them, but we're going
to give it a try. One of the reasons we love
this chapter is how it begins and how it ends, and everything
in between just adds to it. It begins with no condemnation. It ends with no separation. We have no condemnation
before God. We can't be separated
from the love of God. No condemnation,
that's one bookend. No separation, that's
the other bookend. So verse 1, "There is
therefore now no condemnation to those who are
in Christ Jesus who do not walk according
to the flesh but according to the Spirit." And then verse 38-- don't worry. I'm going to go back and
read the other verses. "For I am persuaded that neither
death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other
created thing shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." No condemnation, no separation. Though the chapter begins,
"There is therefore now no condemnation,"
the therefore takes us back a few verses. And the thought really
begins around verse 22, but I'm just going to
have you look at verse 24, just to give you a contrast
because chapter 7 was a pretty miserable chapter. Really is. It's just like, man, he's
painting a dark picture of himself, of humanity. So he says in verse 24, "Oh
wretched man that I am." What a statement. "Who will deliver me
from this body of death?" It's as if Paul is carrying
around a dead rotting carcass strapped to his back, what he
refers to as the body of death, his old nature, the
nature he was born with, the nature that is
separated from God, the nature that every
believer still has that fights his new nature. "Oh wretched man that I
am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" That sort of sums up-- that's
sort of the pinnacle remark of chapter 7. Chapter is filled
with desperation. It's filled with defeat. And no sooner did
he ask that question than he answers the question. "Who will deliver me
from this body of death?" Verse 25 is the answer
to that question. "I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord." That's the answer. I'm a wretched man,
who will deliver me? Jesus Christ our Lord
will deliver you. He's the one. And then, "There is therefore
now no condemnation." Just a little bit of a review. Go back a few verses in
chapter 7 and look at verse 15. If you remember last
week, I mentioned that Paul, the apostle, uses
about 47 personal pronouns in chapter 7, I, me, mine. He's very, very self-focused. Verse 15, I'll emphasize them. "For what I am doing
I do not understand for what I will to do
that I do not practice, but what I hate I do. If then I do what I will not
to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no
longer I who do it but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me,
that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells for
to will is present with me but how to perform what
is good, I do not find. For the good that I
will to do I do not do." And so it goes. This guy has an I
disease, I, I, I, I. He has an overdose of vitamin
I, very, very self-focused. As we mentioned
last time, Paul is being very honest about the
struggle that he himself had with the old nature
that we all have. So chapter 7, especially with
that pinnacle verse of verse 24 becomes one of the most
depressing sections of scripture that
exists, especially in the book of Romans. Chapter 7 is all about the
chains of bondage, the slavery that we have to the past. But in chapter 8, you hear
those chains falling down. They break. And right out of
the gate, he begins. "There is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are
in Christ Jesus who do not walk according
to the flesh but according to the Spirit." The literal way to
write verse 1 would be "There is therefore now
not one condemnation." It's not great English,
but it's great theology. There's not one
ounce of condemnation that can be leveled against the
child of God whose slate has been wiped clean through
Jesus Christ our Lord, our great emancipator. No condemnation. Now, what you should do is
after Jesus, where there is a comma in my Bible
and probably yours if you have my translation,
the New King James, where it has a comma, you should
put a period, not a comma. Because the verse
really ends there. The second part of the verse
some of us don't believe belongs there. I include it. I think the way it
read in the original that Paul penned, the original
letter to the Romans is this. "There is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in
Christ Jesus," period. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, well, then
why is that second part there? "Who do not walk
according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." You're wondering
why is it there. Are you wondering that? Good. You should be wondering it. And I'm glad you asked
because the answer for you is found in verse 4, "that
the righteous requirement of the law might
be fulfilled in us who do not walk
according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." It's the same little phrase. So what we believe happened is
that it was originally written, "There's therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in
Christ Jesus," period. And then Paul kept writing,
and he got to verse 4, and he wrote legitimately
that in verse 4, "Who do not walk according
to the flesh but according to the Spirit." But in ancient times, they
didn't have Microsoft Word. They couldn't highlight a
verse and copy it and paste it. So they had to write or copy
every manuscript by hand, and it would seem the
way it is believed is that a scribe took the end of
verse 4 and wrote in the margin on the side like a
footnote, "who do not walk according to the
flesh but according to the Spirit" in
the margin of verse 1 to show the reader that there
is a relationship between those who are not condemned in verse
1 and those who walk according to the Spirit in
verse 4, that he's describing the same person. So he wrote that in the margin. And then later on, since there
still wasn't Microsoft Word, and you couldn't
highlight, copy, and paste, but you had to write
everything by hand, that another scribe in seeing
the note in the margins thought, oh, somebody left it
out when it should be in verse 1, so included it in verse 1. Now you're wondering,
well, how do you know that? You could have
just made that up. We know that because we
have, collectively, humanity has found older manuscripts. And the older
manuscripts, none of them have that second
part in verse 1. All of them say,
"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who
are in Christ Jesus," period. And it's important that
you make the distinction because if you keep
that little phrase in, you're going to
be looking inward. And you're going to
be wondering, well, there's no condemnation if
I'm walking in the Spirit? But four hours ago, I
didn't walk in the Spirit when I gave that guy who cut
in front of me that sign. I shouldn't have. I know I shouldn't
have, but I did it. So maybe there's no
condemnation for me because of what
happened four hours ago. You know how it is. We're up and down. So you're going to
be looking inward. But if you omit
that phrase, you're not going to be looking inward. You're going to
be looking upward. "There is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in
Christ Jesus," period. Are you in Christ? No condemnation. So that's why it's important
to make note of that. Probably that was
added by a scribe later on because older
manuscripts don't include that, "Those who work
according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Now I know I'm still in
verse 1, but bear with me. Notice what it doesn't say. It doesn't say, "There
is therefore now no failure for those who
are in Christ Jesus." Well, that's not true
because four hours ago, you failed when that guy
pulled out in front of you. It doesn't say there's
no mistakes for those who are in Christ
Jesus, nor does it say there is therefore now
no consequence for those who are in Christ Jesus because
you could do something, you could sin in a
certain area and bear a temporal consequence for it. It says, "There's therefore
now no condemnation." That is judgment. It's a very strong
word for judgment. There is no strong
divine judgment for those who are
in Christ Jesus. Yes, the believer will one
day stand before the judgment seat of Christ, the reward
seat, the Bema seat of Christ, and receive a reward for things
done in the body, Paul said. Yes, there are consequences
for unbelievers, who will be judged and condemned
before God because they didn't let Jesus take their sin. But for those of us who
are in Christ Jesus, judgment's over man. Judgment's passed, past tense. In John chapter 5,
Jesus said these words, "Most assuredly I say to you, he
who hears my words and believes in Him who sent me." Let me ask you a question. Have you heard the
words of Jesus? Yes. Do you believe in Jesus and
the one that Jesus was sent by? Yes. OK, so this is now for you. "He who hears my
words and believes in Him who sent me
has everlasting life," has it, not will have it, has
it right now, present tense, "and shall not
come into judgment but has passed from
death into life." Judgment's over. There's a horrible phrase I
sometimes hear believers use. Something bad will happen,
something unfortunate will happen, life takes
a turn, and they'll say, God's punishing me. I've got this sickness,
God must be punishing me, or this happened to me. It's because God's punishing me. God's not punishing you. God punished Christ for
you, so that you never have to be punished or condemned. That's past tense. "There is therefore now
not one condemnation, no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus." Well, we made it
through one verse. "For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from
the law of sin and death. For what the law could
not do in that it was weak through
the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in
the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh
that the righteous requirement of the law might be
fulfilled in us," not by us, "in us who do not walk
according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." Remember all those
personal pronouns in the previous chapter? I, me, my, 47 of them. They're absent in this
section, and in their place is a reference to the Spirit,
capital S, Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit up until
now is mentioned twice in the entire book of Romans. In this section, the Holy
Spirit is mentioned or referred to 20 times. So you're starting now
to see the contrast. Here's me struggling, working
hard, I, I, me, me, my, my. Now there's no condemnation,
Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit. Now we have a new capacity
because of the Holy Spirit, and now we understand
what Jesus meant when he said to his disciples
who were all bent out of shape that Jesus would
be leaving them. No, you can't leave us. You just said you were
going to leave us, and He goes it is to your
advantage that I go away. For if I do not go, I
can't send the Holy Spirit. But if I go, I will send
the Holy Spirit to you. And Jesus went on to
describe the glorious work of the Holy Spirit bringing
things to remembrance, empowering us for service. So it's to our advantage. Now, Paul is tapping
into that advantage. As he says, law of the Spirit,
capital S. And verse 4, "Not according to the flesh
but according to the Spirit," capital S. That is
the Holy Spirit. Now I have to unravel
something for you because it can be a little bit mystifying. In verses, two, three, and
four, Paul uses the term law-- notice it in your Bibles. But he uses it in
two different ways. But he means two
different things by it. So when we think
of law, we think of something that is a
dictate, a regulation, a regulatory principle, a
legal regulatory principle. Like you can't go
over the speed limit. There's a law. You can't do this. There's a law. Or we think of it in
terms of the law of Moses. You shall do this,
you shall not do this, all of the stipulations
written in legal parlance. But there's another way in
which the word law is used, and that is it means principal
or driving force or that which motivates or controls. So in verse 2, he says,
"The law of the Spirit." That's not the law of Moses. That's not a legal mandate,
a legal requirement. He's speaking here about
the driving principle. "The law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the
law of sin and death," the driving principle
of sin and death. So we speak of the
law of gravity. It doesn't mean that the United
States Constitution wrote gravity into law and
therefore gravity exists because it's one of
the laws in our country. Not that kind of law. It's a principle. Or we speak of Coulomb's
law of electrostatic or electromagnetic
force or we speak of the law of self-preservation. We mean something
different by that, right? So there is an impulse
in us naturally, a principle that
drives us to do wrong. But now, now by the
Holy Spirit, there's an impulse, a principle,
that drives us to do right. That's the idea of the law. But it's used a second way. And that is in verse
3, he's speaking now of the law of Moses, what we
know as the Old Testament law. "For what the law
could not do in that it was weak
through the flesh God did by sending His
own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. On account of sin, He
condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous
requirements of the law," that is the law of Moses,
"might be fulfilled in us who do not walk
according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." So God gave a law, but
the law couldn't fix me. Like he said in the
previous chapter, the problem wasn't with the law. The problem was with me. And somebody said, amen, right? The problem is with you,
Skip, and she's right. It is. So the law is spiritual. But Paul said, I am carnal. I am fleshly. I'm not as spiritual. So the law was unable to fix me. The law could point
out I had a problem. The law, like a mirror,
could point out I'm dirty, but the law cannot cleanse
what I see, can't fix me. God made that apparent
even from the beginning. When the children of Israel-- when Moses said,
I'm going to go up and I'm going to hear from
God, the children of Israel who did not want to get
near that mountain because of the lightning and
the thunder and the noise, they said, yeah, Mo, you go. You go, go, buddy. Go up there. We're not coming near. You go up, and
you listen to God, and you tell us what God
says, and you come back down and give us the word. And whatever God
tells us we will do. That's what they said,
famous last words. And God responded, and
said oh, that my people had such a heart to obey. God recognized they
couldn't do it. They wouldn't be able to do it. He was giving the law
as a standard whereby we have a standard of reference
that shows us how far we fall, but it can't fix us. It was temporary. Yes, there were sacrifices that
covered over the issue, covered over sin, dealt with it
on a temporary basis, until the fullness of the
time, Galatians 4:4, when God would send His own Son. Verse 5, "For those who
live according to the flesh set their mind on the
things of the flesh. But those who live according
to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit, for to be
carnally minded," fleshly minded, only thinking of
gratifying your flesh, "to be carnally minded is death. To be spiritually minded
is life and peace, because the carnal mind," the
fleshly mind, the old you, the old man, the
unregenerate self, "the carnal mind is enmity
or hostile against God for it is not subject to the
law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the
flesh cannot please God." That's a pretty good
description of you and me BC, before Christ. Before we were saved, we lived
with the mind on the flesh, to gratify fleshly desires,
to gratify ourselves. Jesus in the Sermon
on the Mount said don't worry about
what you're going to eat, what you're
going to drink, what you're going to wear,
"For after all these things the Gentiles seek." That's how the
unbelieving world lives. It only lives to
fulfill fleshly desires. Now, you have certain
biological drives, what they call primary
biological drives and secondary drives. Among your primary drives
is you have the air drive, the need to breathe. And when you breathe, you
oxygenate your bloodstream. So you have that basic drive. You're underwater
for a while, you got to get up because
you got to do that, got to bring oxygen to those cells. You also have the
drive for water. You have to keep hydrated. Otherwise, because your
body is so much water, you'll die without it. You also have a drive
to eat, a food drive, which replenishes energy
for your cells in your body, helps you grow. You have a sex drive. God put that drive
within all of us, so that you can have posterity. You have future generations. All of those things drive
biologically a human being. Nothing wrong with them. But if those things control
you, they can be problematic. If the sex drive controls
you, if you live only for sexual experiences or
only culinary experiences, or your desire to drink causes
you to imbibe substances that are detrimental to
you over a long haul, they can be problematic. We talked last week about
body, soul, and spirit and having the mind, the soul
dominated either by this Spirit or by the flesh. He's just continuing on that and
explaining that a bit further. "So then those who are in
the flesh cannot please God, but--" now this is the new you. That's the old you. That's you BC, before Christ. "But you are not in the
flesh, but in the Spirit if indeed the Holy Spirit
of God or the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not
have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His." When you say yes to Jesus, the
Holy Spirit comes within you. "And if Christ is in
you, the body is dead," the flesh, the fleshly
control, the body control. You don't have to be controlled
by the old impulses anymore. "If Christ is in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who
raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who
raised Christ from the dead will also give life
to your mortal bodies through His Spirit
who dwells in you." Now things have changed. Now you live differently. Now you think differently. Now you want to please God. You want to serve God. Man, I remember that as one
of the first indications that my life was changing. I didn't want to go to
church before I was saved. I had to go to church. And when I was a teenager,
I would go to church stoned, high just to get through it. I would tell my friends
I saw the priest fly up in the room with all the
altar boys and kind of float. It was a spiritual experience. But it was brought on
not by the Holy Spirit but by the unholy Spirit of
lysergic acid diethylamid, LSD. But suddenly, I gave
my life to Christ, and I remember the
afternoon that I did that. And all of a sudden, I
remember having the impulse, I got to get to church. I know of this church. I was up in San Jose. I know of this crazy church down
in SoCal called Calvary Chapel. I'm going to go there. All my friends were going there. All of a sudden, I
wanted to read the Bible. I didn't want to read
the Bible before. I wouldn't have understood
it had I tried to read it. But I had such a craving for it. So I think differently. We think and live differently. We have a new desire, but
also not only a desire. We have a capability, a
capacity put within us by the Holy Spirit to
do that which we desire. We desire what we desire
now in Christ because he put that desire in us. He put that desire
in us so that he might fulfill that desire in us
by giving us the Holy Spirit. So we have new desires to
please Him, to serve Him, and a new capacity
to do those things. So you kind of mix
all these things. There's no condemnation. You add the no condemnation to
the Holy Spirit's invigoration, and that spells
life transformation, total change by the Holy Spirit. And he's making that
evident, that this is what should be in
every child of God, controlled by the Spirit. If Christ is in you, the
body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness. Somebody once said, "If your
religion doesn't change you, then you should
change your religion." Wise thinking. I've always believed this. I've always had
this is my religion. Really, has it really
helped you or done any good? Because if not, you may want
to think about switching. And you'll find that
Jesus, unlike a religion, gives you the capacity to
serve Him, love Him, be changed by Him, walk in Him, enjoy Him. And he puts the Holy Spirit
within you to do that. He makes you holy. By the way, that's the purpose
of the Holy Spirit living in you. Well, why is there
a Holy Spirit? To make you holy. Wait a minute. I thought God's job
was to make me happy. No, that's not his job. The purpose of the Spirit
is to make you holy. But I guarantee you, when
you're holy, you'll be happy. Best quickest way to
happiness is holiness. Live to serve and
please God, you'll be the happiest person in town. Well, it gets better. "Therefore brethren, we are
debtors, not to the flesh. To live according to the flesh,
for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit,
you put to death--" the old word was mortify. I'll get to that. "If you put to death the deeds
of the body, you will live." Paul is simply saying,
look, you have no obligation to your old self, to your
sinful fallen nature, even though it wants
you to know it's there and demand that you do
something for it every day. Your old nature will
say, what about me? What about my needs? Feed me, feed me, feed me. You don't owe it anything. However, you do have
a responsibility and an accountability to the
Holy Spirit who lives in you and is working in you. He was the one that led you
to Jesus Christ for salvation. You're a child of God
because of his work. So you owe the old nature
nothing, the flesh nothing. But we do have a
responsibility, what you might say an obligation,
to the Holy Spirit. Now, here's how it works. And I think you've
discovered this to be true. We are either progressing in
our relationship with Christ, or we are regressing. I've discovered that
following Jesus is sort of like riding a bicycle uphill. When I stop pedaling, I go back. So stay at it, just one
foot in front of the other. Keep going. Keep walking in the Lord. There was an old Native
American gentleman who was trying to describe
after he came to Christ what it was like living
after the Spirit but also having the flesh. And he said, "I have
two dogs living inside of me, a little
one and a big one. And they're always
fighting each other." And his friend said, "Well,
huh, which one wins?" The old gentleman said,
"Whichever one I feed." The little one, he meant
the spiritual life. The big one had been
there a long time. That's his sinful flesh. But if you feed the Spirit,
then essentially you're starving the flesh. If you feed the flesh,
you starve the Spirit. So feed the Spirit. It'll win. You'll find more
spiritual dominance than fleshly dominance
in your life. You know, it's also like this. Our spiritual lives are like
planting a flower garden. If you want beautiful
flowers, you have to do a little
gardening work, right? You have to use the right
fertilizer, the right kind of soil, right
kind of conditions of the soil, the
right temperatures to get them to grow right. Now, a weed, on the other hand,
you don't have to worry about. You never have to plant a weed. You don't have to
cultivate a weed. You don't have to really
try to get it to grow. All you got to do is walk away. It grows naturally. Your old nature grows naturally. We were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others, Paul said in Ephesians 2. It's our nature. That's what grows naturally, the
old you, that big dog barking. So feed the Spirit because you
don't owe the flesh anything. You have no
obligation whatsoever. So he says, put it to death. The old theologians called
it mortifying the flesh. That's sort of a Puritan term
based on this language of Paul in the Old King James version. Put it to death,
mortify it, kill it. If you are struggling with
areas of your old nature, and you're saying,
well, you know, I've been dealing with
this for a long time. And so I'm going to cut
back on those activities. I'm going to do it less. You'll never win. You have to starve it. You have to close the door,
lock it, walk away from it, and feed the Spirit. That's the key to victory. Starve that puppy
that is barking. Let it die. "For as many," verse 14,
"as are led by the Spirit, these are the sons of
God, children of God, sons and daughters of God. For you did not receive
the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you
received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry
out, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears
witness with our Spirit that we are children of God." Notice how the language
changes, sons of God, adoption, children of God. The term adoption is a very
important New Testament term. Paul uses it five
times in his writings. And it means to be placed as
an adult son or an adult child. In the Roman world, adoption
had interesting ramifications. If you were adopted
into a Roman family, you immediately, as the adopted
son, lost all of the rights and privileges and debts
of your previous family. And you were given all
the rights and privileges in the new family. In fact, you have the same
right as an adopted child as a natural born child
in a Roman household. You even became a co-heir when
there were inheritance laws or land passed out. If the children would
inherit an estate, the adopted child would get as
much as the natural born child. So we became children of God. We were born again. Jesus uses that language. Paul uses the language of
adoption, placed as adult sons. So we've received the Spirit
of adoption, verse 15, by whom we cry Abba, Father. That's in Aramaic term, but
also a Hebrew term, Abba. If you go to Israel, you
will hear that frequently in the street. In fact, if you're
in Jerusalem, you'll hear these little kids
crying out, and you'll go, I know what that word is. It's because you've
read your Bible. You know Romans. It's like, Abba, which
is Daddy, Father. Now that's how Jesus
taught us to pray to God. He said, when you
pray, say our Father. It's very different
from Jews before Jesus. Rabbis before Jesus never
taught their Talmudene, their students, to have
personal relationship with God in heaven. It was very formal. It was very distant. It was very remote. God was put off by that. And so when they pray, they
didn't even call God God. They didn't call Him
by His name, Yahweh. What they did-- you'll
still hear it today in the orthodox community. They will refer to the Lord
or God as Hashem, Hashem. Hashem is Hebrew for the name. So when you want
to talk about God, you say the name said
this, the name did that. How different from when you pray
say our Father, Daddy, Abba. So intimate, so different. And the Jews when they pray,
it's very, very formal. I've told you before, the
typical Jewish prayer-- [SPEAKING HEBREW] Blessed
are You, Lord God, King of the universe. It's recognizing sovereignty. It's recognizing deity. It's recognizing control and
immensity but not intimacy. You want intimacy, you
do this, Abba, Father. Well, we've been adopted. So before you came to
Christ, the relationship you had with God was
a Hashem relation, [SPEAKING HEBREW] relationship. There was God and human. But now the relationship
has changed. In Christ, you're
adopted into the family. So it's not God and human. It's Father, child, son or
daughter of the living God. What a privilege. We cry, Abba, Father. "The Spirit Himself bears
witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God,
and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ." There's that Roman
adoption idea. "If indeed we suffer
with Him that we may also be glorified together,
for I consider that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be
compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Let me translate
that idea for you. Everything Jesus
received by divine right, you and I have received
by divine grace. You could study that
the rest of your life. Everything Jesus has
received by divine right as the unique son
of God, you and I have received by divine
grace, as adopted sons and daughters of God. That includes
glory, future glory. Even though we suffer
temporarily, as he said, "I consider the sufferings of
this present time not worthy to be compared with the glory
which will be revealed in us." In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul said,
"For our light affliction, which is for a moment,"
will become far exceeding an eternal weight of glory. So here we are. We have this affliction. Paul says it's a
light affliction. Oh, you don't know
my affliction. It's pretty heavy. Well, Paul got beat up a whole
bunch and beheaded eventually. That's pretty heavy, right? Probably harder than yours. So he called it a
light affliction, but he said it's going to work
an eternal weight of glory. So when you put our
suffering and His glory that we're going to also
experience on a scale, that's the idea of this verse. Eternal eight or glory. Or the 2 Corinthians 4 verse
that I quoted, not this verse. But sort of like
this verse, "it's not worthy to be compared
with the glory that will be revealed in us." Verse 19, "For the earnest
expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the
revealing of the sons of God, for the creation was subjected
to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who
subjected it in hope. Because the creation
itself also will be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty
of the children of God, for we know that the whole
creation groans and labors with birth pangs
together until now." Now notice some of the
wording in these verses that we just read, verse 18
sufferings, verse 20 futility, verse 21 bondage of corruption. When God created the
world, the universe, what did he say
after he made it? He looked at it and said what? It's good. But it didn't stay good. What was good
experienced a fall. Sin was introduced because
a serpent, Satan, enticed the humans, the first
humans to disobey God. And Paul put it in Romans
5, "By one man's sin entered the world and
death through sin and death spread to all men
because all have sinned." Now, that's not creations
fault. That was Adam's fault. But the creation was subjected
to futility, to emptiness, to the curse. And Paul says it groans. The bondage, verse
21, of corruption. One of the most plain
examples of this is in physics, in the second
law of thermodynamics, which is entropy, that in
an isolated system, energy is lost over time,
that things don't stay in their constant state,
but they deteriorate, they degenerate over time. We experience that daily, daily. We look in the mirror, entropy. It's happening all around us. Second law of thermodynamics. It's in action. We are now subjected
to futility, verse 23. "And not only they,
but we also who have the first
fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves
groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting
for the adoption, the redemption of our body." So we have been
given a foretaste, what he calls here the
first fruits, a foretaste. That's how the New Living
Translation I think puts it, a foretaste, a preview
of coming attractions. All I can say is I still
remember and I still experience what it
was like to come into a relationship with Christ. It was real. It was transformative. It was awesome. It's all I could think about. And the Holy Spirit did that. He was giving me a
foretaste of what heaven is going to be like. Now I see through a glass
darkly, but I've tasted it. And one of the
reasons I keep going, why I am motivated
to keep going is because, man, I've tasted it. I know what it tastes like. So I grew up on
Hamburger Helper. My mom loved that because
you could just whip it up really quickly. You know, it's in a box. And so I pretty much lived
off of that for years. But then I remember when my
parents took me to dinner, and I had steak and lobster. Do you know how hard it
was to go back and eat Hamburger Helper? Because I've tasted
something different. So if somebody says,
you know, heaven is all the steak and
lobster you can eat. Really? Well, I know what that's like. I've tasted it. It's so awesome. I'm not saying it is. But you're going, it's not? No, I hope you're
not doing that. But anyway, so we have a taste. We've been given the first
fruits of the Spirit. Think of it this
way, first fruits. Remember the 12 spies who were
sent into the land of Canaan, and they got fruit of the land,
the big huge bunch of grapes that a couple of guys carried
between their shoulders. They brought it back to the
camp of Israel and said, this is the land flowing
with milk and honey. We've tasted it, and
here's the first fruits. Well, that means when we
get into the land that's, what we're going to have. We're going to eat that stuff. We're going to enjoy that stuff. So what the Holy Spirit does
in the life of the believer, in that experience initially
and in an ongoing way, is lets us give a
foretaste of what heaven is going to be like. We've tasted it. Now we're waiting for
the full adoption. So it says, verse 23,
"We ourselves groan, eagerly waiting
for the adoption, the redemption of our body." In other words, we've been
adopted into the family, but the full reward
of the adoption is a whole new body,
a resurrected body. That's the idea of verse 11. "He will also give life
to your mortal bodies through His Spirit
who dwells in you." Remember how Paul in 2
Corinthians 5 described death. He said, "If our earthly bodies,
these tents, our earthly tent, these bodies, are
destroyed, we have a building from God made without
hands eternal in the heavens." And right after that, he
said, "We groan for that." We've tasted and now we are
groaning for the full adoption the transformation even
of our physical body because he has put
eternity in our hearts. So verse 24, "For we
were saved in this hope, but hope that is
seen is not hope. For why does one still
hope for what he sees?" If it's been given to
you, and you see it, you don't have to hope for it. It's yours. "But if we hope for
what we do not see, then we eagerly wait for
it with perseverance. Likewise, this Spirit
also helps our weaknesses for we do not know what we
should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit Himself makes
intercession for us with groanings, which
cannot be uttered. Now He who searches
the hearts knows what the mind of the
Spirit is because he makes intercession
for the Saints according to the will of God." So far in what we have read,
there are three groanings. Did you notice them? Creation groans. Creation is waiting for
the curse to be lifted. We groan. Believers groan and
more so as we get older, especially when we're
promised a brand new body. You get up in the morning,
[GROANING],, all day long for some of us. We groan. We long for, we hope for. And now we have the
Holy Spirit groaning. I just want you to notice
all those groaning, Paul kind of repeats
that theme, and he says, "The Spirit makes intercession
for us with groanings, which cannot be uttered." What does that mean exactly? Well, I'm looking
at the time, and I'm going to just give you a
little bit of a shot at this and see how far I get. Number one, it could refer to
the Holy Spirit's groanings. That's how some interpret
it, that the Holy Spirit makes some form of inarticulate
groan, inner Trinitarian communication. It's the Holy
Spirit communicating to the Father, the Son. We don't know what we should
pray for as we are to. God certainly
knows what we need. So we might pray,
but the Holy Spirit will interpret that correctly,
according to the will of God. So here's an example. Paul said, "I prayed three
times that I might have my thorn in the flesh taken away." Remember that 2 Corinthians
chapter 12 passage? I've got a thorn in the flesh. It's a messenger. Satan always buffets me. I prayed for that three times. He didn't get what
he prayed for. Finally, he said the Lord told
me my grace is enough for you. I'm going to give
you the ability to handle the
thorn in the flesh. You're going to
get perseverance. You're going to get patience. You're going to get endurance. So Paul is saying, Lord,
I pray for the removal of the thorn in the flesh. The Holy Spirit
says to the Father, ignore what Paul
just prayed, Father. Don't deliver him
from the thorn. Give him the ability
to trust you so that he won't depend on himself. I remember when I prayed for
a new car as a kid or a car. Now, I was thinking completely
different from what I got. I was a new believer. I prayed. I was saving up. I had something in mind. What I ended up getting
for $47 from my brother was a car, which second
gear did not work in. It had first,
third, and reverse. It was bondoed, so it
was just kind of beat up, and spray painted, and bondoed. And it was an eyesore. It was the neighborhood eyesore. But it did get me around. And it was a lesson in humility. Lord, I'm praying for that. I would never pray for a Pinto. I might have prayed for
like a Camaro or a Mustang, and God said, no. Holy Spirit said, Father,
give him that old gray beater that his brother has. That's perfect for
Skip's first car. It could mean that. It could mean that it's
the Holy Spirit's groaning to the Father. That's one possibility. Here's another possibility. It could be my groaning. The New English Bible
translates it with that in mind. It says, "Through our
inarticulate groans." He could be referring
possibly to what Paul will mention in Corinthians
when he talks about praying in the Spirit, what we would
call the gift of tongues, that part of that is
that our language is a direct link, our
prayer language, our ability to communicate
directly from our Spirit to God's Spirit. So you know that language
is a pact, right? It's an agreement. It's a covenant. The covenant that you
and I share together is called English. There are other
languages, of course, but you and I, we don't
have that agreement. We don't have that
pact, that covenant. But if we did. We could do this in
a multilingual way. We could do all sorts
of different languages. I suppose heaven
will be that way. But we have a very narrow pact. If in English, I were
to say the word low, it means the opposite of high. But if you're a Hebrew speaker,
and I say the word low, it means the opposite of yes. Yes in Hebrew is ken. No in Hebrew is low. It's because it's
a different pact. So if I say low to
you, you go down there. If I say to a Hebrew, low,
they're going like, no, why? Different pact,
different covenant, different understanding. So let's say I have an
understanding with you, a code, we're going to come up
with our own language. So I'm going to see you after
church, and I'm going to say, uzza wuzza, jazza wazza. And when I say, uzza
wuzza, jazza wazza to you, that will mean let's
go and find a restaurant and sit down and have a meal. Nobody else will know that. So I say uzza wuzza, jazza
wazza, and then your response will be, surfus murfus
calorex flex, which means the governor hasn't
allowed restaurants to be open, so just throw that
out the window. But when it does open,
we'll go, but you're buying. It means all that. So nobody knows it means that. So I say uzza
wuzza, jazza wazza. Surfus murfus calorex flex. Now, we come up with a whole
different way of communication. Nobody gets it,
but we do, right? Do you know that, in
the Spirit, you and I are afforded a way
to communicate to God that bypasses our intellect? This is one of
the reasons people don't like praying in
the Spirit because they don't understand it. Paul said, "My
understanding is unfruitful when I pray in tongues,"
pray in the Spirit. I can't understand it. Nobody can understand,
unless there's a gift of interpretation. But it's a means by which your
Spirit can directly communicate according to the will of God. Amazing, huh? So it could mean the Holy
Spirit will interpret it, or it could mean we,
through that pact, that spiritual prayer language,
called the gift of tongues, is how the Holy Spirit
does the groaning. So we have a couple of
different interpretations. But it says, verse 27,
"He searches the hearts, knows what the
mind of the Spirit is because He makes
intercession for the Saints according to the will of God." And verse 28 is just so rich. It's one of your
favorite verses. That if I were just to go
over it and close the chapter, which even I couldn't-- I'm over time as it is-- it would do injustice to it. So I didn't make it
through chapter 8. But nice try. We took a stab at it. And we know that
the problem is me. So we've learned a lot. We learned a lot
in this session. Father, thank you for
these incredible truths that Paul so brilliantly, by
your Spirit, articulated to us. We know these experiences. We know the problem of
I, I, me, me, my my. We know the struggle
in the flesh, and we know that we are
incapable of overcoming it. But we also know that incredible
truth of your Holy Spirit that is the down
payment, that lets us give a foretaste of
heaven when we were adopted into the family,
that helps us even in our suffering, our trials
because we have tasted glory. I pray you will strengthen your
flock, strengthen your people, strengths them in the faith,
encourage them, give them your joy, bring them your peace. May they live in it throughout
the rest of this week. In Jesus' name, amen. For more resources from Calvary
Church and Skip Heitzig, visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining us from
this teaching in our series Expound.
