Romans 225: Romans 8 - God is Cleaning Up Our Acts From the InsideWelcome To BARAH MINISTRIES a Christian Church Rory Clark Pastor-Teacher
Good Morning!
Welcome to Barah Ministries…a worldwide Christian Church based in Mesa, AZ…my name is Pastor Rory Clark.
Genesis, Chapter 3, Verses 6 to 8 say…
GEN 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
GEN 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made for themselves loin coverings.
GEN 3:8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
We know what happened to Adam and Eve through their surrender to Satan. Something spiritual happened inside of them, a change took place in their very nature. The Lord God had made them perfect…He had made them for union with Himself…unity…He had made them in the likeness of Himself… He had made them completely dependent on Him… He had made them to require total faith in Him… He had made them for a relationship with Him. Then their rebellion changed everything. They began to live for themselves. Genesis, Chapter 3, Verses 9 and 10…
GEN 3:9 Then the Lord God called to the man, Adam, and said to him, “Where are you?”
GEN 3:10 Adam said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
And so it is with our imperfections…we begin to think that we have to hide from God…we begin to think we CAN hide from God. But we can’t. Hebrews, Chapter 4, Verse 13…
HEB 4:13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Satan, the enemy of God offers disunity, independence, and a broken relationship with God. He wants us to cover our imperfection by “eye washing” the world…by covering our own iniquities…which we can’t do.
So when we think of our spiritual lives, it is not the externals and the religious rituals that should concern us…rather, we must be concerned about our very core…the inside, for it is the inside God is working on in us. We can deceive people, easily covering our total depravity and shaping their thoughts of us, but we can’t hide from God. God wants our heart. Mark, Chapter 12, Verse 30…
MAR 12:30 ‘…and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
And when we come to study the Word of God, it is to allow God to renovate our hearts…First Timothy, Chapter 1, Verse 5…
1TI 1:5 But the goal of our instruction is to help you reflect unconditional love from a pure heart and from a good conscience and from a sincere faith.
When we live this life, we are living a life of obedience, the real Christian Way of Living. Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verses 14 and 15 say…
2CO 5:14 For the unconditional love of Christ controls us believers in Christ, having concluded this, that Christ died for all, therefore all believers died when Christ died…
2CO 5:15 …and the Lord Jesus Christ died for all, so that they who live (believers in Christ) might no longer live for themselves, but that they might live for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
Welcome to a place where God can work on your insides.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ
Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
HOLY IS THE LORD Chris Tomlin
The opening song is HOLY IS THE LORD by Chris Tomlin.
OPENING PRAYER
Let us pray...
We’re grateful, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…
Thank you for making us holy…thank you for making us worthy because of our union with Your Son…thank you for sending Your Son to die on a Cross for us…shedding His blood for the payment of our sins…and thank you for proving that the Lord is God by resurrecting Him from the dead…
Help us to notice how you are changing us inside, and help us to embrace it by being obedient to Your every request…
We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit in Christ’s name...Amen.
TODAY’S STUDY God is Cleaning Up Our Acts From the Inside
Psalm 51, Verse 6…
Psalm 51:6 Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
We continue our study of Paul’s letter to the believers in Christ at first century Rome…a letter that is all about our salvation as believers in Christ. And the first eight chapters of the book build to a crescendo that introduces us to our Mentor, our Guide, and our Teacher, God the Holy Spirit.
Before studying Paul’s letter to the Romans, personally, I felt like I had lost my sense of conscience. The conscience is that part of the soul where we experience guilt. It is the “I should” place of the soul. We can only “I should” when we know right from wrong. “I should” clearly states that there is a thing “I should” be doing, and frankly I am not. I had lost my sense of right and wrong.
This is not to say that I had become a criminal, but it is to say that I had become expert in excusing my own conduct. Don’t be mistaken, the Christian Way of Living is a lifestyle that goes well beyond mere right and wrong…but as we remember from the end of Romans, Chapter 5, and the start of Romans, Chapter 6…
ROM 5:20 The Mosaic Law came in from God so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, God’s grace abounded all the more…
ROM 5:21 …so that, just as sin reigned as sovereign, resulting in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
ROM 6:1 What shall we believers in Christ say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
ROM 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
ROM 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Now I know that God is cleaning up my act for me…and as He does…He is making me acutely aware of everything evil I me…and assuring me that He is in charge of cleaning it all up. In this lesson, we’ll see what He means. First, a few announcements.
BARAH MINISTRIES ANNOUNCEMENTS
MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Next Deacon’s Meeting October 31, 2015 7:30AM MST
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TODAY’S STUDY God is Cleaning Up Our Acts From the Inside
In a previous lesson, I mentioned to you that I am certain after five decades of being a Christian that I don’t know what the Christian Way of Life and the Christian Way of Living are…well I misspoke. I do know what they are. What I meant to say is that I know I am not living them. I can’t really say I am living them when there is a spec of sin or a spec of untruth in me. Were it not for God’s grace, I would be worthless. So would you. Thank God that He is cleaning up our acts. Romans, Chapter 7, Verse 24 and following…
ROM 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
ROM 7:25 Thanks be to God the Father through Jesus Christ our Lord (for the deliverance)! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh I am serving the law of sin.
The deliverance is that the Lord has provided a divine way out of every human predicament. Thank God that He is cleaning up our acts. The return of my conscience, or perhaps the awakening of it, through the study of the book of Romans, makes me acutely aware of the evil in me, and I am grateful for God’s grace in that He is cleaning up my act from the inside. God the Father is perfecting me…He is conforming me to the image of His Son…He is conforming you and perfecting you in the same way. Thanks be to God! All praise to Him. I rest in Him knowing…Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 1…
ROM 8:1 Therefore there is now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are IN UNION WITH CHRIST JESUS.
You are in union with Christ Jesus, and so am I. This first passage in Romans, Chapter 8 reads like the Lord’s Last Will and testament…and sorry…I can’t get enough of it…
“I, the Lord Jesus Christ, being of sound mind and body, do hereby bequeath to every believer in Christ…no condemnation. It was my voluntary pleasure to go to the Cross, to shed my blood for all of you, and to create the possibility of relationship between you and the Godhead. And now that you have believed in Me, I have had my Holy Spirit place you in union with Me, and we will be unified forever and ever. And even though you may condemn yourself, I, the Lord Jesus Christ, don’t now, nor will I ever again condemn you.
Because of our union, you are forever identified with my death, my burial, my resurrection from the dead, my ascension, and my session…the fact that I have taken a seat at the right hand of my God and Father.
I did all of this so that you wouldn’t have to pay yourself, especially that you would not have to incur my Father’s wrath for your sins. I have expiated your guilt, so there is never a time in your life when you ever have to choose to feel guilty again. I have delivered you from all spiritual struggles. You will never have to worry about the Lake of Fire, the place reserved for those who have rejected a relationship with Me. You will not find your place with them at the Great White Throne Judgment.
You have a share in my resurrection life…(the ZOE Life as your Pastor likes to call it). You are a “stockholder” in heaven, and you hold an investment that will pay dividends for all eternity.
I will meet you in the future at the Judgment Seat of Christ, where I will compensate you for the deeds you have done in the body. At my Judgment Seat, all of your dead works will be burned up. I don’t want anything near you that is tainted by evil. All of your good works will be preserved for all eternity and they will be rewarded handsomely.
I am entrusting you to God the Holy Spirit until I meet you face-to-face.
MUSIC BREAK HE HAS MADE ME GLAD Various Artists
TODAY’S STUDY God is Cleaning Up Our Acts From the Inside
Now Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 2…
ROM 8:2 For THE LAW OF GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT OF THE RESURRECTION LIFE in union with Christ Jesus has set you free from THE LAW OF SIN AND OF DEATH.
“I, the Lord Jesus Christ, being of sound mind and body, do hereby bequeath to every believer in Christ…a Mentor, a Teacher, and a Guide…God the Holy Spirit, to lead you into all the truth. Follow His lead. You have been sanctified, that is, set apart for a tremendous set of privileges…and it is God the Holy Spirit’s job to reveal all those privileges to you and to show you how to use them. If you do what the Holy Spirit tells you to do, you will walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT
Indwelling GIVING YOU THE LIFE
Comforter GIVING YOU PEACE
Loving PLACING YOU IN THE SPHERE PROTECTION
Minister OF GRACE
God the Holy Spirit indwells you to give you the Resurrection Life…He will be your Comforter when you need to remember that I have nothing against you…you have My peace…He will love you unconditionally, just as I do, and He will keep you in a sphere of protection…and He will be a Minister, dispensing grace to you when you make mistakes. Listen to Him.
He is responsible for making you know that…
THE SPIRIT WANTS YOU TO KNOW… You are Elected to a Set of Privileges
You are Being Conformed to the Image of the Son
You are Beloved…a Divinely Loved One
THE SPIRIT WANTS YOU TO KNOW… You Will Never Be Separated from God
You are Dead to the Law
You are Under Grace
THE SPIRIT WANTS YOU TO KNOW… You are Dead to Sin
Sin is not Sovereign Over You
You are Free from the Body of this Death
The Spirit will do His work in you from the inside out, and you are to depend on Him for everything you need. He has everything you need because I have given it to Him for your benefit.
If you were an athlete, God the Holy Spirit would be considered your agent. He is the agent of the Resurrection Life. He is going to show you how to get the most out of your spiritual contract with Me. After all, for you, the old self things have passed away…the new self things have come. And even though your unredeemed body contains the flesh, and even though your flesh is stronger than your will, the Holy Spirit is stronger than both. He will work from inside of you, indwelling you, and He will do battle with your flesh while simultaneously conforming your will to obedience to God.
God the Holy Spirit will provide you with His enabling power. As you know…this enabling power is the power of omnipotence…there is NOTHING He can’t do for you…for nothing is impossible to Him. Of all the gifts I leave to you, He is probably the most important. If you let Him, He will make everything you do effective. He will give you a spiritual life that is equivalent to diplomatic immunity. Although there are consequences for your sins, He will use them to educate you through experience.
You are out of the prison of sin and death…you are on parole…you are free…do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh…use it as an opportunity for good. Let the Spirit make your righteousness shine throughout the darkness of Satan’s kingdom.
You are a child of God…Romans, Chapter 8, Verses 16 and 17…
ROM 8:16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God the Father…
ROM 8:17 …and if children, heirs also, heirs of God the Father and fellow heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him (and we do) so that we may also be glorified with Him.
We’ll learn more about our inheritance in the next lesson.
When the Lord Jesus Christ Promises Salvation, It’s a Guarantee!
ACT 16:31 “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”
ACT 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given to mankind by which we must be saved (except the name of the Lord Jesus Christ).”
LUK 19:10 “For the Son of Man (the Lord Jesus Christ) has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
CLOSING SONG BECAUSE HE LIVES June Murphy
CLOSING PRAYER Let us pray...
THANKS- INTERCESSION- PETITION
And we pray that You protect our steps as we go out into the world, Father…and that you keep us on the narrow way, completely dependent on You and Your Guiding, Mentoring Spirit…we ask this in Christ’s name, Amen.
Thanks for coming! Thanks for watching! Thanks for listening!
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