The Resurrected Life

 It feels like you're ready to hear the word this morning and there's one of you, so maybe I'm wrong. It feels like, I'm not looking for a clap, it feels like you're ready to hear the word and I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you in advance you're gonna buckle up. And I don't mean that because I'm gonna be ranting and raving. I mean it because we're going to be touching into some of the greatest, most beautiful passage that we can imagine and we're going to stand in awe of. It will be in the Book of Romans, chapter eight in just a few moments. Now here's my concern. My concern is sometimes that life in Jesus is misunderstood. Lemme explain what I mean. A lot of times when I talk to people about life in Jesus or they're trying to explain what life in Jesus is, what they're really saying is life in Jesus is kind of like an effort to make their life a little bit better, that that's kind of what for them is life in Jesus. You know, maybe they've made some mistakes in their life or their life's not exactly what they were hoping for. And so they want a little bit of better version of themselves. They're hoping that they can improve themselves a little bit so they figured they would just add Jesus to the portfolio of other things that can help them improve their lives just a little bit. That somehow, life in Jesus is oftentimes misunderstood as an effort to make our lives a little bit better. Well, if that's the case, lemme just ask you a quick question. Why did Jesus have to get up from the dead for that? Couldn't Jesus just have taught some good stuff and stayed dead and then you get to be a little bit inspired so that you can make your life like 5% better? Because ultimately that's kind of what we're saying when we say that. I mean, if I wanted to push it even further, I might just ask this question. If really what you're thinking about is just wanting to improve your life a little bit, why do you even need Jesus? Maybe you could just get a, you know, a growth expert or a life coach or something and maybe see if you can improve your life by 5% or 10% or 20% to make things go a little bit better for you. Friends, life in Jesus is not about making average people a little bit better marginally. Life in Jesus is not even about making bad people good. Life in Jesus is about bringing dead people to life. That's actually what life in Jesus is. It's about bringing people who are dead in their sins and trespasses to life in Him. So Paul talks about that idea in the Book of Romans and he's going to make it crystal clear. In fact, throughout the course of the Book of Romans, Paul is often talking about sin and its effects and the condemnation that comes as a result of sin. He makes it clear in Romans 3 that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's nobody that doesn't touch. Everybody has sinned and come short of the glory of God. He tells us in chapter six that the payment or the wages of sin is actually death. It's not just physical death eventually, but it's spiritual death. It's separation from God in terms of relationship. He tells us in another part of Romans that in Adam all die. Everybody that's in Adam is going to die not only physically but spiritually separated because Adam's curse of sin has affected all of us. He makes sure that we understand that the judgment of God against sin is holy and righteous and just, and that He should do this and that we are all guilty before God as sinners. But even while he describes all of those things, Paul also gives us an articulation of what the resurrected life in Jesus is actually all about. And if the New Testament was a mountain range, Romans might be one of the highest peaks and on the high peak of the Book of Romans, chapter eight might be at the summit. And that's where we're going to look here for a few moments in Romans 8. Let me just be honest with you. This is a text that can be overwhelming. And I don't mean that for you, I mean it for me. It can be overwhelming to those who are preaching it because of the incredible encouragement and the glorious joy and the almost unfathomable truth that we are presented with in this chapter. And if I was going to just simply give you a summary, my job is going to be to cover 11 verses this morning. And I was really nervous about that when our teaching team kind of broke this up and I was gonna be taking this message and they said, "We're gonna deal with chapter eight verses one through 11." And I began studying through that and I thought to myself, I'm not gonna be able to get past verse one. I'm gonna be stuck on verse one the whole time. So I'm gonna do my dead level best to get through all 11 verses, but you'll have to forgive me if I camp out in verse one for just a little bit. Now, if I were summarizing verses one through 11, here's what I would say. In Christ, we are assured of a resurrected life both now and forever. That's how I would summarize it. All right, in Christ, notice what I said, in Christ we are assured of a resurrected life both now and forever. So here's what I wanna do. I, we don't have time to cover everything I want to cover. And in this series, when we walk through all of this in the next number of weeks, we won't have time to exhaust everything about Romans 8. It's too glorious for us. But in this time, what I wanna do is I wanna just ask a question and it's this, what does a resurrected life look like? And let Paul speak to us about what that kind of life actually looks like. Life in Christ, life in Jesus. What does a resurrected life look like? Well, here's the first aspect of what a resurrected life looks like. Our life is not under condemnation. Our life is not under condemnation. Here's what verse one says, "Therefore," Paul says, "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." I know that there are, the whole word of God is inspired, is inerrant, is beautiful for our instruction. But I can tell you this, there may be no greater verse of encouragement in the entirety of scripture than this. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I'm not sure if I could think of a more encouraging, I could think of loads of encouraging verses, but maybe nothing that's even more encouraging than this. It is astonishing. If you are one to give yourself to scripture memory, put this one at the forefront of your mind. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. What a glorious truth that is. The resurrected life is characterized by a life that's not under condemnation. Now Paul says, he kicks that verse off there in English with therefore. It's not kicked off that way in Greek, but in English it's kicked off with the word therefore. And you guys know, you've been around here a long time, that whenever we see a therefore we ask what is it?

- [Congregation] There for.

- There for, right. And some of you're going, oh that's cool. I have not heard that before, right? Whenever you see a therefore, you ask what is it there for? Because therefore is setting up, this came before it and now it's a therefore, you should do the following, right? What Paul's doing is not just talking about what came before it in the few verses at the end of chapter seven. Paul's talking about what came before it in the writing all the way up to chapter eight from chapter one to chapter eight. And what he makes really clear to us is the effects. He's building a case for the effects and the condemnation that sin brings in our lives. That word condemn, where he says there's now no condemnation and where other places he talks about condemnation. That word condemn means this. It means a down judgment. Some of you may remember the movie "Gladiator" and it the, Commodus, you remember Commodus in that movie where he would be like this and they would be fighting. And if he wanted somebody to die, he would give a down judgment, right? That's the idea behind the word condemn. It is a down judgment. And what Paul does is the language of Romans 2 and 3, he's using language around condemnation. He talks about condemnation in chapter two. He talks about it in chapter three and then most specifically, he talks about it in chapter five. Here's what he says, Chapter five, beginning in verse number 16. He said, "Nor can the gift of God," he's talking about the gift of Jesus dying for our sin. "Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man's sin. The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if by the trespass of the one man death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people." You see what Paul's doing is he's contrasting life in Adam and life in Christ. And he talks about this idea as one where now we understand that the justice of God has been satisfied in Jesus Christ because Jesus, the sinless one, went to a cross to die for our sin and took upon himself the wrath of God against our sin. And then rose from the grave, demonstrating that his sacrifice was sufficient. That in doing that, Jesus has fully paid for sin and its penalty and its power over our lives. This is a beautiful reminder. Here's why. Because we are no longer in a place, listen to this, when we are in Jesus, we don't owe in reference to our sin. It's been paid. In fact, Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. That means the overpayment. He's not just paid, He didn't barely just make it. He's overpaid. He's paid in such full detail for our sin that listen to this, there's not a requirement for us to pay anymore. By the way, we couldn't pay for our sin even if we wanted to. So we couldn't do it anyway, but we don't owe it. And if God would require us to do that, He would be unjust because the payment's been made in full. Now think about it this way. You're a parent and when your child, you know, was young, they checked out a library book and they forgot to return it but you didn't know. 30 years later, you're cleaning up your house and you find a library book from when your son or daughter, probably your son, 'cause that's what dudes do, they just don't do it, forgot to return the library book. And you're like, oh man, this is a long overdue, three decades. So you call the library and you say, "I found the book," 'cause I'm, you know, I'm gonna do the right thing. "I found the book, what are the fees?" And they were expensive. It's been 30 years since you didn't return that book. It is expensive. You're like, okay, this is crazy, crazy expensive, but you pay it. But then a week later, your 38-year-old adult, let's call him a son, your 38 adult year old adult son gets a note from the library that says, "Because you are the one who did this, you have to pay too." Is that just? Of course it's not, it's unjust. It's been paid in full and it doesn't matter that the guilty one didn't pay, it just got paid. That's what Jesus has done on our behalf. Jesus, the innocent one paid for our sins at the cross and we don't owe anything more. And even if we did, we couldn't pay it but we don't because God is just and He has received the payment for our sin, the price is paid in full. Listen to this, your past sins, your present sins and your future sins have all been taken care of at the cross. Now here's the thing, some people are like, ah, I can grasp a little bit of that but not fully. Like I think I can deal, the past sins, I get that, like my past is forgiven because of what Jesus has done. Like I get that, and maybe I can wrap my head around a little bit like the future's forgiven. Like you know, Jesus is gonna make me fit for eternity where He's gonna gimme new clothes and I'm gonna be washed clean and all those kinds of things. Like, I kind of get that as well. But now, now in the present, I know that there's times where I'm wrestling with sin and that I'll sin and I'll do some of that stuff, right? I know some of that in my own life. And you start feeling like Paul felt in Romans 7. Paul actually articulated it this way in Romans 7. So I find this law at work, this is the Apostle Paul writing. I find this law at work, although I wanna do good, evil is right there with me for in my inner being, I delight in God's law but 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 in within me. Paul says this, the good I wanna do, I don't end up doing, but the very thing I don't wanna do is what I end up doing. Does anybody else understand that? Yeah. And there are times where we try to wrap our heads around, look, I can kind of deal with the past sins. I get that Jesus forgave those and I kind of understand what he's doing for my future, but it's the now, man. Like, I'm messing up and I feel condemnation. Well, let me ask you a quick question, friend. How many, practically speaking, how many sins had you committed when Jesus died for them? None of them. He took care of everything before you had a past, before you had a future. And it means He can take care of the present. Listen, listen, Paul said this, "There is therefore now no condemnation." Now, see that means two different things, right? It means our present is also taken care of along with our past and our future but he's also saying now there's no condemnation. That means there used to be. There used to be condemnation. You remember John 3, you know this because you've watched football games and seen a guy hold the sign up. God so loved the world, we sang it earlier. God so loved the world that He gave his only son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. Then it goes on to say for the Son of Man did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Then it says, if you believe in the Son you are not condemned. But if you do not believe, you are condemned already because you have not believed in the name of the Son of God. See, that's why when we are in Christ, Paul says there is therefore now no condemnation. Now the beautiful thing, and ah man, I will get stuck right here on this verse for a long time if I'm not careful. The beautiful thing about this is that what Paul is helping us to see is that what Jesus has done on our behalf actually carries with it the idea of not only dealing with our justification, which is our right standing before God, but also helps us in our sanctification, which is how we are separated from sin and separated in holiness to God and how we grow in our faith, right? Listen to what Paul says, the because of why we have no condemnation in verse number two. We, there's no for no condemnation because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. So here what Paul's talking about is two different laws. Now, Paul uses the word law. Stay with me here for a moment. Paul uses the word law in a few different ways. Sometimes, he's talking about what we would call a principle, like the principle of sin and death, right? Other times, Paul is referring to the law as in the Torah, the Mosaic law, right? Kind of what we read in the early Old Testament, the Old Testament law. And sometimes he does it like all, you know, he talks about it in different ways like he does here. Now, the two laws he talks about are what? The law of the spirit of life and the law of sin and death. Now here's the thing, listen, when we talk about justification, stay with me here. We're gonna learn something. When we talk about the idea of justification, here's what the spirit of life does for us. It frees us from the penalty of sin. In other words, the law of sin and death that was going to penalize us ultimately with death and destruction and separation from God, that is now gone. The law of the spirit of life means there is no condemnation. We are not anymore under the penalty of sin because of our faith in what Jesus has done on our behalf. Beautiful truth. But the law of sin and death still is around when it comes to our sanctification, like Paul was talking about. Paul was talking about the very good I wanna do, I don't end up doing, but the what I don't want to do, I end up doing. It's this force that's with me. It's almost like it keeps pulling me down. Answer a question. What law did you just see? Gravity. That is like the law of sin and death, gravity. You know, gravity is always there. Like, it doesn't matter where you go, it doesn't matter how far from Earth you go, by the way, gravity still exists. It may just not have a hold on you the further away you go, but gravity still exists. You're like, well, I don't know, you know? No, no, even when they're, astronauts are doing their thing, you know, in the spaceship and they're kind of floating around, they're like, yeah, it's no gravity. They're only doing things to counteract gravity. Gravity still exists because they are in a ship that's traveling so fast in its orbit that it's now countering gravity. Like I did this in a, you know, 'cause I worked at NASA. No, no, because. Because I went to an amusement park when I was little. I went to Six Flags and there's this ride called Free Fall. Guess what it does? Right, just like that. It's like 180 or 200 feet high. And you go up in this and you're strapped in, like I'm just sitting in this ride and you just strap in like this and I'm, you know, I'm a teenager or whatever and I love it 'cause you know, your stomach feels like it's on top of your head when you just drop. What we used to do is we used to take two pennies and we'd put 'em on our knees and we're at the top of that thing. We get to the top of it and we're just sitting there and then it kind of juts you out and it's gonna, it always, you know, freaks you out. You never know when it's gonna let you go. It doesn't go three, two, one. It just, you sit there and you're just like, I don't know when, they're gone, right? That's what happens. So we're just, I put two pennies there and it lets you go and those pennies just float up in front of you until you turn and then they smash you in the face. And that's what stupid teenage dudes do, right? So gravity is existing the whole time, but it's almost like gravity got counteracted because now listen, gravity existed. We all felt weightless. The pennies looked weightless, but we were just falling at the same time. Gravity still existed. Think of a plane. It is a huge, huge chunk of metal. I'm assuming you guys are going like, I'm getting on a plane soon, could you not? Like, could you not? It's just a massive, like heavy, multi-ton chunk of metal. And if that plane were on the ground and needed to be moved somewhere and a few cranes grabbed that plane and began to move it, but the chain snapped on the plane, what would happen? Gravity, right? It would just crash into a, just a big chunk of steel mess. That's what it would do. But built into a plane, there are some different laws at work that counteract the laws of gravity called the law of aerodynamics. And one of the laws of aerodynamics is the law of lift. Now, I'm not gonna try and act like I'm a physics genius. I am, but I'm not gonna act like that because I'm humble. I'm not a physics genius. Here's what I know. The propulsion that is built in to this plane allows it to counteract the law of gravity such that it can get up and it can actually fly in the air. It's a remarkable achievement, actually. But let me remind you the law of gravity, I've got some pilots that are in the room. I'm looking at a couple right now. The law of gravity still is in play. And I can tell you how you can confirm it. Turn the engine off, right? But what is within it is the ability, the ability to counteract its effects. There's a power greater than gravity that's allowing that to fly. The law of the spirit of life gives us the ability to counteract the law of spirit of death because we have a propulsion in our life called the Holy Spirit of God that allows us to be victorious over, listen, over the power of sin in our lives. You see, with justification, God has eradicated the law of sin and death because that's about the penalty of our sin. We're set free from it, we're done with that. But in our everyday living, our sanctification, there is still the power of the Spirit that even though the gravity of sin and death continue, wants to pull us down, there is a power that is greater than that that allows us to fly in victory. How about that? These are encouraging truths from the word of God that we should always be reminded of. Now, notice what Paul then goes on to say in verse three. He says, "For what law, 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." Reason we have no condemnation in Jesus is because God condemned sin in the flesh, in the person of Jesus, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Now, there's so much to say here. Paul has now given attention to the law as in the Mosaic law, as in the law of Moses, so to speak, the Old Testament law. And here's what Paul says. He says that the law was powerless to give us life because it was weakened by the flesh. Now some of you're thinking to yourselves, yeah man, the law that's not good, you know? Yeah, the law is good, actually. God gave it, right? The law is good. And the law's intent for our lives was to help us walk in true life, the life of God. That was the intent of the law. Paul says it in the previous chapter. Listen to what he said. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment deceived me and through the commandment put me to death. So then the law is holy and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. You see, the law is actually good, but what the law did is it got face to face with us and because we are all stained by sin and we are all weak in our flesh, in our flesh meaning our sinful nature, our selfish nature, right? Because of that, the law is powerless to give us life. But that's what it wanted to do, but it can't because we're living in this sinful existence, right? But God knew that, sent his Son as a sin offering in the likeness of sinful flesh so that God could condemn sin in the likeness of Jesus' own flesh. Not Jesus' sin, but our sin in the likeness of His flesh so that the Spirit could take up residence in our heart. And now that the Spirit takes up residence in our heart, we now have, because of the life of God in us, by the Spirit of Christ, we now have the ability to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law even though beforehand, we could not have done that because we were weakened in our sinful flesh. So it's as if now the law, which is good, stands to the side and applauds. This is what I wanted from the outset. I came from God and was intended to give life and now I'm just clapping because the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of Jesus who has fully fulfilled the law, now lives in us and gives us the power to be in right standing before it. I know this is dense and I know this is rich, and I know that sometimes it's hard to keep up. I get it. But let me ask you a quick question. Do you ever feel condemned? And if you do, where do you think that came from? Did it come from God the Father? No, because God the Father sent His Son to be a sacrifice, a sin offering in your place. So the condemnation's not coming from God. Well, the condemnation's coming from the law. No, it's not. The law's standing to the side clapping. Like, now this is what I was hoping for. This is exactly, you couldn't do this on your own but now God has helped you and you can do this so I'm clapping for you. So the law's not condemning you. It used to, but it's not anymore. So where's it coming from? It's coming from the enemy of your soul. That's where it's coming from, your condemnation. It's coming sometimes, listen, from your lack of understanding of the truth of what God has done for you in Jesus Christ. That's where it's coming from. So some of you that are wrestling with condemnation in your life, if you truly have been regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit and have turned in faith to Jesus Christ, know this, there is therefore now no condemnation ever for any reason for those who are in Christ Jesus. I told you it was gonna be hard to get by verse one. 
- God the Father sent his Son to be a sacrifice, a sin offering in your place. So the condemnation's not coming from God. Well, the condemnation's coming from the law. No, it's not. The law's standing to the side clapping, like now this is what I was hoping for. This is exactly, you couldn't do this on your own but now God has helped you and you can do this. So I'm clapping for you. So the law's not condemning you. It used to, but it's not anymore. So where's it coming from? It's coming from the enemy of your soul. That's where it's coming from, your condemnation. It's coming sometimes, listen, from your lack of understanding of the truth of what God has done for you in Jesus Christ. That's where it's coming from. So some of you that are wrestling with condemnation in your life, if you truly have been regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit and have turned in faith to Jesus Christ, know this, there is therefore now no condemnation ever for any reason for those who are in Christ Jesus. I told you it was gonna be hard to get by verse one. Lemme give you just a couple of other thoughts here before I conclude. Here's the second, second aspect of what the resurrected life is like that Paul teaches us. Our mind is set on the Spirit's desires. Our mind is set on the Spirit's desires. Notice what verse five says. Those who live according to the flesh have their mind set on what the flesh desires, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what? What the Spirit desires. Notice, I want you to take note of that. Their minds are set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. It doesn't submit to God's law, nor can it do so. See, the mind of the flesh is in an impossible situation because it simply cannot ultimately get to a place where it is putting its mind upon the affections of the Spirit. Can't do it. But notice what Paul said, and notice what he didn't say. Paul did not say that he wanted our minds to be set on the Spirit. He said he wanted our minds set on what the Spirit desires. Listen carefully to that. He didn't want it just mind on the Spirit, but mind on what the Spirit desires. Do you know why? Because Paul knew what Jesus said was absolutely true. That the ministry of the Holy Spirit is not calling attention to himself. He's calling attention to Jesus. That's, that is in large part what the ministry of the Holy Spirit is, calling attention and magnifying the Son of God, what He's done for us, what kind of life we have now as a result of that, how it was the Father and the Son that sent the Spirit to us. The Spirit is certainly God, but Paul is not telling us to set our mind on the Spirit as if, you know, some people do this. They're like, you know what? Woo, I had chills, that must have been the Spirit. Maybe, could be cold. Right? But possibly though, right? Woo, man, they were singing woo, woo, woo. They were singing, that was just the Holy Spirit. Maybe, maybe they had Wheaties this morning. Maybe they worked out right before they came. You can't, listen, you can't just always ascribe feelings and expressions, although sometimes that's true. When we're in the presence of God, feelings come along with that, which is a beautiful thing. But sometimes we get all sideways. You know, there are people that talked about man, the Spirit really broke out and it was a Spirit of laughter. People could, they were uncontrollably laughing the whole time, couldn't even preach, and they just uncontrollably laughed. And I'm going, what? What are you talking about? That's not the Spirit of God. That's not the Spirit of Jesus. Paul, by the way, talks about the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Jesus, and he's referring to the same Spirit. And the reason he does that is because both the Father and the Son sent the Spirit, and listen carefully. Do you think Jesus would be in a meeting where everybody's just cackling and laying on the ground or barking like dogs and all that stuff and He would say, "Yeah, that's exactly what I was hoping for?" No, He wouldn't do that. But somehow we make this caricature of the Holy Spirit, right? Paul doesn't say set your mind on the Spirit. He says set your mind on what the Spirit desires. And what did Jesus tell us in John 15? When the advocate comes, who I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. See, what the Spirit does is testifies about Jesus. And do you know how predominantly, mostly, not only, but mostly how the Spirit testifies about Jesus? He inspired a book to reveal Him to us. That's how He does it. So let me make sure that you understand what I believe Paul is teaching us here. That those who have their minds on what the Spirit desires, it means that they have minds that are saturated with the word of God. Because the word of God is the very sword of the Spirit. A mind that's saturated with the word of God, that means that we are gonna be saturated with truth. It means we are gonna be saturated on thinking about loving God, loving others, loving enemies, because this is what the scripture reveals. It's gonna be saturated with the idea of unity in the body of Christ. It's gonna be saturated with the idea of forgiveness of our brothers and sisters. It's gonna be saturated with all the truths of scripture that the Holy Spirit has given us and inspired through the apostles and prophets. But a mind on the flesh, a mind on the flesh is a mind on self, self will, self glory, all of that. That's what the mind of the flesh is. That can't please God ultimately. But a mind on the Spirit is thinking differently. And the fruit of our life demonstrates when our minds are desiring what the Spirit desires because our lives are characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. I think I got 'em all. That's what our lives are characterized by. So let me ask you a question. Are you putting yourself in a position to be saturated by the word not just on a Sunday but in your life? Because that's what it means to live a resurrected life, to have our minds set on what the Spirit desires. Lemme give you a third truth. The resurrected life looks like this. It's a life that pleases God. Now I wanna show you what I mean by that. Some of you are going, oh no, I'm nervous about that. I'm not sure that my life has been perfect this week. And listen carefully to what Paul's teaching us, verses eight and nine, those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, you who are in Christ Jesus, you who have been transformed by Jesus, you, 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. Now, what Paul's doing here is he's reminding us that a life in the flesh or a life that's kind of filled with self, that cannot please God because it's in the realm of the flesh. But he says, but you're not in that realm. You're in a different realm. But don't misunderstand. Some of you may hear that and you may say, wait a minute, are you saying like unbelievers, whose lives are lives in the realm of the flesh, are you saying they can't do anything good? 'Cause it says you cannot please God. So you're saying that they can't do any good thing? It's not what I'm saying. You need to uncouple idea of doing good things and pleasing. Lemme explain. A pastor that I saw an illustration from one time and I kind of hung onto it, pastor in North Carolina named JD Greear and he was talking about this particular truth. And I was like, oh, that's a really interesting way to look at it. He said let's imagine that you've got a good, true, rightful king, right? He is a good, true and rightful king. But there's a group of people that rebel against the king. And in that group of rebellious people against the king, there are soldiers, right? And one of those soldiers is really brave. I think that's a good thing. He's prompt. He's always where his commanding officer tells him to be. I think that's a good thing. He watches out for his fellow soldiers. I think that's a good thing, right? All those things are good things. But let me ask you a question. Do you think the good, rightful and true king is pleased with that soldier? Of course he's not. You know why? Because the essence of his life is rebellion even though he's doing some things that are understood to be good. So, he's not pleasing to the king even when doing some good things. A life in the flesh apart from God, you can still do some good things but still not be pleasing to God because you're in the realm of the flesh, which is the realm of rebellion and condemnation already. But you, friend, listen, you, if you've put your faith and your trust in Jesus, if you've genuinely been transformed by the beauty of the gospel, do you know what we know? We know that you are in the realm of the Spirit. And you know this because of the Spirit that testifies and lives inside of us. Paul says if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not have Christ. Period, end of story. Here's why that's important for us, because when we get or receive the Spirit is when we are converted. When we are regenerated by God, that is how we receive the Spirit because the Spirit is who baptizes us into the family of God. That is how we are regenerated. The Spirit comes to live inside of us at our conversion when we come to faith in Jesus Christ. Because anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not have Christ. But when we put our faith in Jesus, the Spirit of God comes to live inside of us as a down payment guaranteeing what is to come in our future inheritance. And so here's the good news, listen carefully. If the Spirit of Jesus lives inside of us, God is already pleased with us because of Him, He's already pleased. Here's what that means, listen carefully. This will change your life. It means you can stop performing. You can give that up. I've gotta perform for God's approval. God's already taken care of everything for your approval and He did it himself. It wasn't just dependent upon you. Well, but when I sin, is God happy with that? No, He's not happy with that. Of course He's not. But it doesn't change the fact that He's pleased with your life because your life is now characterized, your life is characterized by the realm of the Spirit instead of the realm of the flesh. Here's what that means, listen carefully. It means that you are pleasing to God, period. If you're in Christ, you're pleasing to God because of His Son and because of the Spirit of Christ that lives inside of us. You're pleasing to Him, period, end of story. Yeah, but every now and then I'll make mistakes. Yes, and when you do, you confess your sin and He's faithful and just to forgive you for sin because He has already taken care of it. And now He's just gonna restore that relationship. That's what He's doing. It doesn't mean you're lost, doesn't mean you don't have the assurance of a resurrected type of life, 'cause you're now going back to trying to prove that you can live this kind of life. You can't. You cannot do it. Only one person lived this life and they named the whole thing after Him. It was Jesus, by the way, in case anyone was confused. Christ, you can't live the Christian life. That's why Christ has on your behalf. And now He lives in you and gives you the power as you recognize that you are in Christ and you live from that place. Lemme give you a last and I'll finish. What's the resurrected life like? It's our life extends beyond death. This is what Paul tells us in the last couple of verses, that our life actually extends beyond death. Look at verse 10 and 11. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And 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. You see friends, here's the beautiful truth here, is that our bodies will decay and die. That's not necessarily a beautiful truth, but it's still the same, right? One out of every one person is going to die. Our bodies will decay and die. But that is not the end because the life of the Spirit is an enduring life. But it's not just, listen, it's not just an enduring life that like exists in this kind of spiritual realm that's real ethereal and you can't wrap your head around or whatever. No, no, no, Paul says very clearly that just as Jesus was raised from the dead, the same Spirit that raised Him is going to give life, listen to this, to your mortal bodies. Woo, that's a different thing. So what is Paul talking about here? Well, Paul actually expounds on this idea in 1 Corinthians 15. Notice what he says. He said Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who've fallen asleep for since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, all will be made alive. But each in turn, Christ the first fruits, then when He comes, those who belong to Him. Here's the beauty of this. Jesus is the first fruits from the resurrection of the dead. You're like, no, He is not. He raised some people, you know, back to life. Yeah, who died again. So maybe you call that a resuscitation, right? They were dead, He raised 'em back to life, but they died again. Jesus was dead, raised to life, never to die again. Only one, that's Him. He then is the first fruits. You know what first fruits are, right? You look at a tree, it's an apple tree. You see the first apples, you recognize this is what all the apples are gonna look like 'cause it's coming from the same tree. Jesus is the first fruits of resurrection, which means we now look at Jesus and go, that's what I'm going to be. Yeah, you're gonna be like that. You're gonna be made like that. In other words, you're gonna be embodied, but it's going to be in an imperishable body. This happens when Jesus comes, right? Not until then. When Jesus comes, we will be resurrected and we will get an imperishable, immortal body like Jesus, one that can eat stuff like Jesus ate fish, but also is not encumbered with walls. We can walk through them. I don't know what all that's gonna be like. I just can't wait for it. It's gonna be incredible. And it's almost beyond my mind to think that this is going to occur for us, how gracious God is. This is going to be an embodied existence. And what will that body be like? Well, Paul says something about it a little bit later on. He says, I declare to you brothers and sisters that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery, we will not all sleep, we'll all be changed in a flash of the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, can't die, and will be changed for the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality. And when the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to God. He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Or as Paul would say elsewhere, therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. In Christ, we are assured of a resurrected life now and forever. I don't know that I can encourage you any more than that. Here's what you just gotta stop doing. Stop trying to achieve this and just receive this. Stop trying to achieve it and start receiving it by faith. And then here's what you'll do. You'll live from it. Instead of trying to capture it and going back into the realm of the flesh to try and do so, you need to receive what God has said about you and I and begin to live from it. Because what the world needs to see is they need to see people who have the life of the Spirit in them because they need to be touched by the very life of God in His people. In Christ, we are assured of a resurrected life now and forever. Let's bow our heads together. In a moment, we'll be walking out. But if you're here and you've yet to put your faith in Jesus, as I said a few moments ago, scripture has a stark reminder for us all that we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God and that the wages of our sin is death. And as was said in John 3, that we stand condemned already because of our sin. But God has made a way for us. Paul writes in Romans that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. What a glorious, beautiful truth. And if you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus and had your life made new to experience the forgiveness of your sins in the now, to have the penalty of sin removed from your life, to have the power of sin that can be actually overwhelmed by the life of the Spirit inside of you, if you've never come to that place, then in just a moment there'll be some men and women that'll be standing right down front that would love to take a moment and pray with you about what it means to know Jesus. And I hope that you'll do it. Father, for those of us that do know You, I pray that this would be an encouraging reminder but also a challenge to our lives, that on those days where we are condemning of ourselves, that we are actually speaking a language that You aren't speaking. That we are in some way in our hearts and in our minds, we're offending the beauty, the glory and the magnitude of the work of Jesus on our behalf. We don't desire to sin. We want to be rescued from it by the power of your Spirit in us, so would You help us to cooperate by allowing our minds to be fixed on what the Spirit desires, to be saturated in the word of God so that Your Spirit has the atmosphere from which to work and shape and mold us more into the very likeness of Jesus? And I pray, God, that people around us would experience and see the life of Jesus in us, that they may come to know You. I pray this now in Jesus' name. Amen.