Romans 8:10-11 Pt 3

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Welcome everyone. It is Wednesday, September the twenty fifth, twenty twenty four. It is currently five eighteen pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, if you've been following our discussion about Romans chapter eight, if you've been following our discussion about the Six Secrets of the Christian Life, if you've been following all of this, you know that there are now two points I'm really really trying to emphasize.

0:46 Now we can take we can take the points given by one perspective and how to answer the points I'm making. But right now, I just want you to remember these two points. Are you ready? Right here are two points. I want you to write them down, and I want you I want you to just stand your ground on these two points. When you discuss things with other Christians, they are going to maybe try to argue with you, but these are just like dogmatic things. There should be no compromise with this. This is this is just fundamental reality. Forget Christianity. This is just reality. Here's the reality. Are you ready? Number one, no one can keep God's law, Christian or non Christian. We cannot keep God's law. For proof of that, the scriptures and the Old Testament and the New Testament says, be ye holy as He is holy, you will never be as holy as God as holy.

1:41 That is a commandment, that is a law. You never keep it. So you will never keep God's law. And then I can start adding additional laws. Love God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul, Love your neighbor as yourself, love your enemy turned the other cheek. I can just continue, continue, continue, do not come it, do not have a do not place anything before God, no idle. I mean, we can go on and on and on and on. Before you know it. You know that you never will obey God's law. So therefore number one, you will never keep God's law. No one can keep God's law. So number two, that means we are in a perpetual state of sin. Every single day you are sinning. You are a sinner, and you sin every single day because you are in constant disobedience to the law of God.

2:26 All right, So number one, you cannot keep the law. Number two you're in a perpetual state of sin. I guess we could add a number three then, and the number three is more of a question, why then, why do you continue to sin? Why cannot why can you not be perfect? Why can you not be as holy as God? As holy? There's got to be a reason, And Christianity tries to offer some reason for why you continue to sin, right, But sometimes they seem to contradict themselves in giving their reason because Christianity, on one hand says you're a new creature to pass away. Everything's become new. So basically they kind of give the idea, you have a new heart, you have a new spirit, all of this, and the spirit gives you power, and the spirit does this, and the spirit does this. But at the same time they turn around and say, but you're going to continue to sind, Well, why am I continuing to sin? If I have a new heart, new nature and all of these things. They know, their answers are bizarre. So we looked at the one system that said, the reason you are going to continue to sind is even though you have a new heart, new nature, and new spirit, even though you've been completely transformed internally, you still have a dead body, and the dead body cannot respond to the internal new nature and the internal heart and the spirit.

3:35 So then somehow you've got to wake your body up to be able to respond. And we've already seen how confusing that one is. We've listened to others and their way is just as confusing, so we've yet to get a good answer. In the last broadcast, we were reviewing a sermon on Romans chapter eight ten through eleven, which has become a key verse in this discussion in this particular case, mainly because the book Six Secrets of the Christian Life they utilize Romans eight ten through eleven as kind of their key text, at least for chapter one. So we're really kind of I mean, we're trying not to drown in all of this, trying to figure it out.

4:15 But because of those truths I just started with those dogmatic truths, no one can keep God's law, Christian or non Christian. Therefore, we are in a perpetual state of sin, and therefore we need to ask the question why do we continue to sin? Why is the problem? But in light of that reality that we continue to sin, I want to begin this episode as and I'm going to be doing this over and over and over because the early Church reminds us, but they understood that we're always in sin. So we've been grabbing confessions of sin that was written in church history. And for this evening we're going to wear Yeah six, it's five twenty two pm, so late afternoon, early evening, we're going to read this one.

4:58 Are you ready go? Oh Lord, no day of my life has passed that has not proven me guilty in your sight. I want you to hear those words again, Oh Lord, no day of my life has passed that has not proven me guilty in your sight. All things in me call for my rejection, All things in you call for my acceptance. Grant me to hear your voice assuring me that by your stripes I am healed, That you were bruised for my iniquities, That you have been made sin for me, that I might be righteousness righteous in you, That my grievous sins, my many sins, are all forgiven, buried in the ocean of your concealing blood.

5:46 Keep me always clinging to your cross. Flood me every moment with descending grace. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Let me read that confession again, all right, because I am more and more convinced that the evangelical world has lost its collective mind and everyone basically thinking that we I don't know that we're basically perfect. And if you commit a big sin and I guess somehow I don't know, it makes no sense. It's like Christians are unwilling to acknowledge the perpetual nature of the sin that we are in. But okay, I'm going to read this confession again. Oh Lord, no day of my life has passed that has not proven me guilty in your sight. All things in me call for my rejection. Everything inside of me calls for my rejection.

6:42 God should reject me because of what's in me. Well, that means there's still corruption inside of me. All things in you call for my acceptance. Grant me to hear your voice assuring me that by your stripes I am healed. That's referencing to my sin. All right. You were bruised for my iniquity, that you were made. You have been made sin for me that I might be righteous. And you that my grievous sins, My many sins are all forgiven, buried in the ocean of your concealing blood. Keep me always clinging to your cross. Flood me every moment with descending grace. We need we need. You need to in the morning, you need to in the afternoon, you need to in the evening, and you need to at night.

7:36 Have a specific time where you confess your sins to God. And this is not even about so that you'll be more spiritual. No, it's simply to humble you and remind you that whatever sin you point to, you're a sinner. Whatever sin you condemn, you're a sinner. It's to remind you that you are a sinner. We need that more than ever. And we got to stop with this nonsense of how Christians talk about no no, no, no, no no no. When you became saved, all the old is gone. Everything is new. You have a new heart, new everything, You have the spirit giving you power. Well, then why am I sinning? Someone explained this to me so far, the explanations and how Christians handle the reality of never ending sin and the life. Remember what I've said, the Christian life is a life of sin. That reality for some weird reason Christians do not truly want to acknowledge and accept. They will do so barely, but almost an immediately pivot and go no, no, no no. But as a Christian, and what have we heard now and the sermons that we have been reviewing, you can keep the law, you can keep the law. You can keep the law.

8:47 Well. If you can, then that means you can be perfect because if you break one point in the law, you're guilty of all of it. So the only way to keep the law would be to keep all of it perfectly, because any violation of it means you're not keeping the law. You have to keep it perfectly or you're not keeping it. You can't keep the law five ways, and we'll say I'm keeping those laws. What doesn't matter. You're still guilty of the law because the law demands perfection and you can't be perfect. So I don't know why Christians are convinced that we can keep the law. It's bizarre. So, well, this is what we're going to do. We're going to go back to the sermon that we were reviewing. He's worked on Romans chapter eight, verse ten, and if Christ be in you, and he's really focusing on the fact that Christ is in you, and he's looking at that that that means the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is in us. That's really what he's focusing on right now.

9:41 The if Christ be in you, and he says, the Christ is in us via the Holy Spirit, So the Holy Spirit is inside every believer. That's really his focus, and he's now kind of summarizing all the things the Holy Spirit supposedly does being inside of us. And basically the I mean, I can just paraphrase. You may say I'm not being you may be saying I'm being a little bit hyperbolic, but I think this is a pretty accurate the way Christians describe it. The Holy Spirit's in you, and guess what he does. He gives you, leads you to all truth, so you should understand the Bible. He gives you power, so you should be able to overcome sin. He makes you holy, he makes you righteous, he sanctifies you. So basically you should know there should be no disagreement on theology because the Holy Spirit's supposedly giving us all the information and we basically should be perfect because we have the omnipotent Spirit of God dwelling inside of us, empowering us, cleansing us, and making us holy. But yet we've not really been given an explanation why then we continue to sin. Nobody's been able to give us a definitive explanation to that other than the well, the first thing we looked at was Lordship's answer, and that just basically says people aren't saved, and we already know all the problems with that. The second one we looked at, basically was the argument, well, all of that's true. You have all of that power, that life, all of that inside.

11:04 The problem is your body can't respond to it. But then it doesn't explain how to get my body to respond to it. That one was all over the place as well. And then the sermons we've reviewed have they've just speaken so many circles that we really can't get anywhere. So we're going to go back to this. We're going to see if he goes a little further in the verse offers a little bit more information, and then we may look at some different ways of interpreting Romans chapter eight Versus five through say thirteen or fourteen. We may do a little bit of work here. We will see, I know it'll be a little disjointed, but it's all. If you've been listening, it all should fit together because these are things we have been discussing over and over and over and over and over again. Right here we go.

11:48 It's law, as we've noted several times in previous sermons. But in short, the Holy Spirit is the person of the Godead who communicates all spiritual life and grace and sanctifying influence in our souls, uniting us to the Lord Jesus Christ our head. And he is the fulfillment in this life of that great covenant promise that God. Said, I will dwell in my people. That great covenant promise is in Ezequiel thirty six. And that's for Israel. Okay, remember the last episode. I lost my mind because once again people go to Ezequiel thirty six, even though Israel's mentioned over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over in the chapter, Israel doesn't mean Israel. Land doesn't mean land, nations don't mean nations. And then just somehow magically we kick Israel out of it. Hey, you guys, sorry, you all trash.

12:47 We take over now and then somehow it all it's all about us. I don't understand the hermoneutic there. It makes absolutely no sense. But all right, So, but just if you heard all of those things. Basically, the Holy Spirit's the We've got the power, man, We've got the power, so we should be perfect. So how can we have the omnipotent power of God making us holy but yet we can never be holy? How can the Holy Spirit? Fell like? You tell me that the Holy Spirit's inside of me to sanctify me and make me holy, but he cannot get me to holiness because holiness would be without sin, it would be separate from sin, it would be perfect. So the Holy Spirit's making me holy, but just can't get me there. So the omnipotent God is incapable of getting me to holiness. You say, well, you're stopping it. So the omnipotent God is stopped by me.

13:41 And if the Spirit is in me and I have a new heart and a new nature, then what is convinced? What is getting me to stop the Holy Spirit? If I have a new nature and a new heart, why wouldn't my internal being be in agreement with what the spirit wants? The Spirit is inside of me. I supposedly have a new heart. I supposedly have a new nature. All three of those three things combined cannot get my want to to want to. The whole thing's broken. Now do we appreciate the blessedness of this brethren to have God the Spirit in dwell our souls and our bodies, That the God of heaven and Earth has taken up residence in the lights of us, that He's chosen us to be his home, his temple. This is an astounding reality, and his in dwelling is just the beginning, you see.

14:44 It's the down payment. He's the guarantee that all that Christ has purchased for us, that in eternal inheritance and glory is going to be ours in due time. Now, I absolutely you believe the Holy Spirit is the down payment, per se the engagement ring, the whatever you want to say it, the guarantee, the Holy the seal like however you want to describe it. I do believe the Holy Spirit is there saying I. Basically I I I'll use I'll just use this term. I own this person, this person belongs to me, This person has been purchased, this this is I am here to show that this person belongs to God by an imputed righteousness. They've been declared righteous, they've been declared perfect because of imputed righteousness.

15:41 I am here sealing them. I am here in dwelling them, and I am the guarantee that what they are positionally may not be what they are today, but I'm in dwelling them as the guarantee that they will become what they are positionally, because there will come a time where they will be completely glorified, and I'm the down payment of that. I do believe the Holy Spirit is in a sense of down payment, a guarantee, a seal of that fact. Everyone else wants to be the Holy Spirit's there, not just as a down payment, not just as a guarantee, not just to seal us, not just to ensure that as a guarantee of my eternal glorification. They always want the Holy Spirits actively doing a B, C, D, E, F, G H. Like they list all of these things the Holy Spirit is supposedly doing well. A Christianity at large has known there's something wrong, right. That's why a good certain portions of the Charismatic movement it was like, well, you have the Holy Spirit, but you need the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Or well, you have the Holy Spirit, but you need the filling of the Spirit, because just having the Spirit itself is not doing all of these things.

16:52 So some will say, you have the spirit, but now you need the felling of it. You need the baptism of it, so that then you'll get the Holy Spirit to then do it all of these things. Because people look around and go, We'll wait a minute. There's all these people who are Christians. Well, that means they're endult by the Holy Spirit. But yet they sin. They sin, they sin, they send the sin. Why do they keep sinning? If the Holy Spirit's doing all things? Oh, okay, so then they move it well, because they need the filling of it, They need the bast then the Holy Spirit will do those things. But those people who move it to that the baptism or the filling, well, then the people who supposedly have been baptized and the Holy Spirit are filled with the Holy Spirit, they commit the same sins of the people who weren't. So Christianity is always trying to answer because we are so convinced that the Spirit is doing all of these things, but we lack the evidence of all these things supposedly being done, because again it makes absolutely no sense. If the Holy Spirit's doing all of these things, we should be perfect. So Christianity, I mean, I think christian history proves me, that proves out that at least Christianity at large. It's like, well, we got a problem here. We had a problem here because we keep claiming all of these things, but the reality is sin. And so everyone comes with their solution. Well, see, you need the baptism of the Holy Spirit, then it'll work.

18:06 You need a feeling of the Holy Spirit, then it will work. Oh, you need a entire sanctification, you need another level of sanctification, then it will work. Everyone thinks that they have the answer to why it's happening. I think, well, we're trying to find an answer to maybe our complete misunderstanding of exactly how salvation works. But all right, let's see where this goes. He's the guarantee of every other spiritual blessing. We've been sealed with the Holy Spirit for our eternal inheritance. That's how important this is. But then notice also that the in dwelling of the Spirit is the infallible mark of all who know and belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, back in Romans eight nine, it says that yes, you are in the spirit of Indeed, the spirit of Christ God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. So that person doesn't belong to Christ if he doesn't possess the spirit of Christ. Now that's a categorical statement Paul makes here.

19:21 Every true Christian, every true believer, every true. Child of God, without any exception, has the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, dwelling within him. The commentator John Stotts put it this way. He said, the hallmark of the authentic believer is the possession or in dwelling of the Holy Spirit. In dwelling sin is the lot of all of the children of Adam. But the privilege of the children of God is to have the in dwelling spirit to fight and subdue in dwelling sin. Okay, no, wait wait, wait, wait wait wait, Now we got to back up. So now we have in dwelling sin. Now, earlier we heard we have a new heart, everything's been changed on the inside. Now we're told that we have in dwelling sin. So we have the Holy Spirit fighting in dwelling sin. So, if the Holy Spirit is inside of you, fighting the in dwelling sin inside of you, why can't the Holy Spirit just when the Holy spirits, they're fighting the in dwelling sin, but the Holy Spirit just can't eliminate it. The Holy Spirit just can't defeat it.

20:33 The in dwelling sin is obviously greater than the Holy Spirit, just by law logically following it to its conclusion. Right, why can you be perfect? No? Why can't you be perfect in dwelling sin? Well? What is fighting that in dwelling sin? The Holy Spirit? But the Holy Spirit cannot get you to perfection? Well, if I can't get to perfection, then whatever is inside of me is keeping the Holy Spirit from getting me to perfection. That would be in dwelling sin. Do you see the the logical dilemma you walk yourself into. No one ever stops to think, think, Wait, wait a minute, so earlier the inside is completely made new. Now we're saying no, we have in dwelling sin. Can someone make up their mind? Do I have in dwelling sin? Or do I not? All right? I do? All right? I do, but I have the Holy Spirit to fight it okay, Well, then that should be an easy fight, you know, ding ding ding round one, boom, sin knocked out.

21:25 I win. I mean I've got the Holy Spirit right, eternal, omnipotent God. Sin should be eradicated in two point three seconds, if even that instantaneously, the spirit should move in. Oh they're sin, I'm gonna fight it. You're good to go, now, go forth and be perfect. But it doesn't work that way. Why why is the spirit involved in an ongoing struggle with the sin inside of me? That makes no logical sense.

22:07 So we go from in one sermon, how you have a new heart, you have a new soul, you have a new everything, everything's new in the inside to now no, no, no, no, wait wait wait wait wait wait, you still have in dwelling sin. So the indwelling sin where is it? Because it's not in my heart because you said have a new heart. It can't be in my nature because you said the nature is changed. So then where is the indwelling sin at? Now? Are we going to revert back to the in dwelling sin is in my physical body? But inside everything is good? Well, then how does the then it's not in? Now we get into this weird confused separating body and almost a little Gnostic idea throne, and it gets really this kind of a dualistic weirdness that nobody can really define. So I and one sermon, we've gone that everything on the inside is changed. Now no no, no, no, no, you still have in dwelling sin.

23:03 But the Holy Spirit's there to fight it. Well, if the Holy Spirit's doing the fighting, then that means I'm not involved in it, right? Or does the Holy Spirit only fight it if I allow it to fight it? Well, then and then the Holy Spirit's not fighting in dwelling sin, it's fighting me. So then the Holy Spirit's getting defeated. Like all right, let's see if he offers any explanation. And this passage alone, just this statement alone exposes a number of serious errors, Beloved, It's clear from this passage that the popular teaching that the Holy Spirit the baptism of the Spirit, is what we would call a second blessing, and that some poor pathetic Christians miss out on that.

23:54 That's wrong and that's misleading. Now, I completely agreed that the second blessing teaching is wrong. But why does the second blessing teaching exist? Because you look around, and you see Christians who sincerely believe in Jesus, and they sin, and they sin and they sin, and they appear weak, are apathetic or complacent, or as in First Corinthians chapter three, they look they're carnal, they're fleshly. There's fighting, there's division, there's backbiting, there's lust, there's sexual sin. What is wrong, Well, they need the second blessing. See that is just an attempt to address the reality. Now he's saying the second blessing teaching is wrong. I completely agree, But how is he going to address Earlier he made it sound like we don't have any endwellings and now we have a dwellings in the spirit is fighting the dwelling sin. But he didn't offer any explanation to that.

24:52 Let's see what else he says, the other errors that we can learn or be warned about here. Where they tell us that you must have this estatic experience, and you must be able to speak in tongues, you must be able to pray in a secret language or perhaps prophesy. And if you're not able to do that, if you haven't had. That kind of experience of a quote baptism of the Spirit of God, you don't have the Spirit. What a horrible thing that is. That's terrible in misleading and discouraging to real Christians. Know, if you're a Christian. At all this morning, you possess the Spirit, and he dwells within you as much as he does in any other Christian.

25:38 You see, there is no such thing as an elite. Class of Christians who have the Spirit while others do not have the Spirit. No, no, The Spirit's main work in a believer is not to give charismatic gifts, but to make us more and more like Christ. So the Holy spirits is to make you more and more like Christ. So, but he can never get us all the way there. Now again, you understand logically where this leads. If it's the Holy Spirit's job to make me more and more like Christ in any way, I'm not like Christ. It's the Holy Spirit's fault. Because the Holy Spirit's doing the work internally, I can't do that work. Now.

26:33 I know Christians are gonna say, no, no, no, no, it's the Holy Spirit doing it. But you have to. Well, then if I have to, then it's not just the Holy Spirit doing it, then it's a synergistic idea. Well, then if it's a synergistic idea, you're telling me that I can overcome the will of the Spirit of God. I can overcome the will of God by simply saying I don't want to be like Christ. Well, why wouldn't the Holy Spirit? Since it's doing a work inside of me, why wouldn't the first work is to just make me want to be like Christ? Then the Holy Spirit would have my complete agreement because I want to be. And then how long does it take to get there? If I have the Holy Spirit for three years, why can't he get me to perfection in three years, two years, five years? How come there's Christians who've been saved for forty years who still sin. Well, because we all sin and we will all continue, you sin all the way until glorification. So maybe we are misunderstanding everything about this.

27:37 We need to understand that truth and that reality. But it also does away with the idea. That we can be true Christians but not participate in the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that we can somehow belong to Christ, that we can be saved, we can be justified and ultimately go to Heaven, but remain unsanctified and unchanged. That we can just go on in a life of sin. Oh, this is such. Do you hear the word the gaming played? Okay, look, this proves that you cannot be saved and not be sanctified. You just cannot continue in sin. Well, wait a minute, Wait a minute. No one keeps the law of God perfectly. So we're in a perpetual state of sin. That's why these confessions of confessions of sin throughout church history read like this. Oh Lord, no day of my life has passed that has not proven me guilty in your sight. The early Church knew that every single day we are sinners. So how can you say that you cannot be saved and continue in sin? Your entire life is continuation of sin, in sin, So I don't look. You have to redefine what sin is. Be holy?

28:59 Is He is? Are you holy as He is holy? No? Is that a law? Yes? Is that a command? Yes? Are you disobeying it? Therefore you are in sin? Love God with all your heart, my body, and soul. Do you do that? No, that's a command. If you don't do it, you are in sin. You're in a perpetual state of sin. So how can you say, Hey, what this passage teaches is that you cannot be saved and then continuance sin. No, if I cannot be saved and continuance sin. If you're telling me, if I continue in sin, I cannot be saved, will state it that way. If I continue in sin, I cannot be saved. No one is saved. No one is saved. What you mean by that is that no one can continue in sin to some subjective standard and not be saved. You're just making it like well, and basically, if you really think about it, what you're saying is, if you want to be saved, you can't sin. How do How am I saved? Not based on the finished work of Jesus Christ, say I'm.

30:04 What they're saying is my salvation is dependent on my sinlessness, not on the sinlessness of Jesus Christ. This is a complete rewriting of the gospel. This is not a salvation by imputed righteousness. This is a salvation somehow determined by how much sin is my life. If you say I cannot be saved and continue in sin, then you've got to define exactly how much sin you identifies me as continuing sin. So I would just ask you a question. If you sin every single day from the moment of salvation until your death. Did you continue in sin? Any logical person would say yes, well, then you're not saved. Therefore, no one is saved, because every single person sins every single day and their entire Christian life. This is just I don't understand.

30:57 Well, how can that be possible? Brethren? You see, if I belong to Christ, if I have the Holy Spirit dwelling within me, he isn't dwelling in me for nothing. He's there to change us. He's there to sanctify us. He's there to cause us to become more like the Lord Jesus. He's there to convict me of my sin is. He's there to move me to pray. He's there to help me, to mortify my sins, to help me to be more and more obedient to God, and to transform me from the inside out, preparing us for heaven. I see, this is even more confounding. He's transforming me from the inside out. You already earlier in this sermon said we were already transformed instantaneously at salvation because we had a new heart, new soul, new spirit, new nature, and that we're basically new creatures inside. Well, if all of that happened at salvation, what is he transforming? It's already been transformed. So could you make up your mind?

31:56 Have I been transformed or am I being transformed? And if I'm in the process of being tree transformed, that means I'm not all the way transformed, and that means there's still going to be sin. But you said I cannot continue to sin and be saved. Well, if I'm not completely transformed, I'm saying I'm still sinning. So therefore I'm continuing in sin. So either you can continue in sin, or you can't continue in sin, or you have to redefine what continuing in sin means. Hey, this has been the most This is once again where we're back with all the contradiction. You've been completely transformed on the inside, completely changed, new heart, new spirit, new nature. Everything has changed perfectly. Well, I mean you still have in dwelling sin. Well, the Holy Spirit's there to fight that. In dwelling sin well, I mean, now he's transforming you from the inside. Well, then if he's transforming me from the inside, then that means I wasn't transformed. So am I a new creature?

32:47 I'm not a new creature. You say I'm a new creature, and then you say I'm becoming a new creature. Well are you saying that I'm a new creature only in my position, but I'm not new at all practically? Well no, you you've already denied that teaching. Then which is it? And then you say, if I continue in sin, I'm not saved. But then at the same time you say, well, God, the Holy Spirit's they're changing me. Well, if he's changing me, that means I'm not all the way changed. If I'm not all the way changed, that means I'm going to still be continuing to sin. So how can I not be changed being changed? Yet, if I continue in sin, I'm not saved because if I'm being changed, that means I'm not all the way changed, meaning they're still going to be sin. You've already said that there's a dwelling sin, So how can there be in dwelling sin? Yet I can't continue in sin. It's just it's just like words just thrown out there and people just sit in churches going Amen, Amen, this is good teaching. And again, if you stand in the parking lit say come here, dis got some questions exactly how does this work? They would talk themselves into circles. They can't explain it. They what they have to acknowledge is, well, nobody can be perfect.

33:59 And everyone continues to sin. That contradicts everything we just heard in this sermon. If I continue in sin, I'm not saved. But then he goes on to acknowledge that we're in the process of being transformed. Well, that means there still would be sin. I just kind of want to give up right here. I kind of want to just give up. But we've got to go a little bit further. We got to go good. I just don't understand. Talking in these circles drives me crazy. And look, this is not and this isn't again I stated it last time.

34:44 I'm not criticizing this sermon, right because this is so standard, Like I've heard this same sermon nine thousand times, So I'm not criticizing this sermon. I'm criticizing all nine thousand sermons that I've heard that have said the the exact same words, almost the exact same way. Because no one stops to go, wait a minute, none of this makes any sense. We're talking circles, We're contradicting ourselves. Let's see if it gets any better. And that's what he. Does in every soul that he dwells. And if I'm a real Christian, that's what he's doing in me. If anyone has not the spirit of Christ within him, he's not his. And so the question becomes do I have the spirit of Christ? Because this is an indelible mark of every true Christian. This is the mark of the Christian.

35:45 They talk about the mark on our foreheads. Well, this is the ceiling of the spirit, the Spirit of God dwelling in the believer, causing them to pursue holiness. That's what that mark is all about. So does the Holy Spirit make us holy? Or does the Holy Spirit only cause us to pursue it? See, the language has to be precise. It's the Holy Spirit, the instrument, is the is the engine, is the a cause? Is the effective cause of me becoming holy? Or is it just says the Holy spiritual like, Okay, I'm now gonna motivate you to pursue it. Now. Wait, I've got to pursue it in a very dramatic way because if I'm if I'm continuing to sin, I'm not saved. But if I'm pursuing holiness. That means I'm not yet there, meaning I'm gonna continue to sin. So then then is it like, well, you'll sin less, okay, So sinning less is okay, it's so as long. And then you're gonna how are you gonna measure sinning less? You're gonna measure sinning less by measuring what someone's doing externally. But just because someone's not doing something externally doesn't mean they're sinning less.

37:00 That could be sinning now more internally. So none of that doesn't even answer any of these problems. I'm just gonna go a little bit, just a little bit further, and then I may circle back around here. I mean circle back around here to some discussion here, maybe about Romans eight. I don't know. We'll just go a little bit further. I think at this point we're just going to keep talking in circles. But I think he's he's not going to explain any of this. He's not going to try to there's not going to be any work on this. This is the problem with all the sermons. It's like they bought a commentary. Just get the basic comment you know, way it's supposed to be handled. Everyone just keeps repeating the same thing, and nobody will go, wait a minute, ladies and gentlemen, does any of this make any sense to it? Like I wish a passwords say, does any of this actually make any sense? And I think everybody will like, well, not really. I don't know if I really understand exactly how this is supposed to work.

38:01 I know this, you can say things from the pulpit and what the people will repeat back afterwards, You'll be like, I didn't preach that, and you'll go back and listen to the sermon. You almost want to go back to the people I didn't say that. I wonder what the people who hear these kinds of sermons actually think. I think they actually think then that somehow they basically can be perfect. I mean, I don't know how else you can interpret it any other way. So the first blessing that Paul points out here is not all Christians. That all Christians. Enjoy the Holy Spirit of God in dwelling them. That's our first blessing. Number two, they also enjoy the life of the Spirit of Life within them. Look at verse ten again. And this is complicated. So you need to hang with me now. If the spirit of I'm sorry if Christ is in you. The body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.

39:05 So appreciate the contrast. Paul is making here between the mortality of our physical bodies. On the one hand, the body is dead, it's mortal, it's dying, it's frail. The spirit, which is life, lives because of righteousness. Now that's a complex idea, and I've in. My mind gone over this and over this and over this, trying to make it as simple as I can. You're going to have to listen carefully, gird up the loins of your mind to think through this statement. There are different ways to understand it. But I'm going to ask three questions of the time. Let's try to make it easy. I'm going to ask three questions of our text and try to answer them all right. Number one question, what is the body, which Paul says is dead because of sin.

39:57 That's the easy one to our physical humanity, our bodies. And we can be pretty certain of that because verse eleven speaks of our mortal bodies being resurrected one day at the resurrection. More of that in a minute. So Paul is simply setting the obvious that because of sin, our involvement in Adam, sin which brought death into the entire human race. Remember, God said to Adam and Eve, the day you eat of the forbidden fruit, you shall die, and you shall die. And they did, and they are and we are. And because of our own sin, our physical bodies are mortal. Our outward man is perishing every day. The principle of death is at work in our fallen human bodies. Martin Lloyd Jones said this, the moment we enter this world talk about babies. The moment we enter this world and begin to live, we also begin to die.

40:53 That's true. And your first breath is one of the last you will ever take. That's a sobering thought, it is. But it's true, isn't it. We're often reminded of this grim reality that we are physically mortal. Our bodies are because of sin, perishing to the dust. We shall return. The wages of sin is death. In Adam, all die. Both spiritually and physically. Death is coming to each one of us, sooner or later. The body is dead. It's mortal because of sin. Now that's the easy part. Secondly, what is the spirit here? Which is life or lives.

41:40 It's the Holy Is it the Holy Spirit of God in us? Or is it our spirit that's been renewed by the Spirit of God? And most commentators argue that it's the human soul or spirit which has been given life by the Holy Spirit, as in contrast to the physical body, which is mortal. That's what a lot of commentators would teach us. But I personally agree with Professor John Murray and his wonderful commentary on Romans, who says in his commentary that Paul is stinking still of the indwelling Holy Spirit who communicates the life of Christ to us.

42:23 And his argument is. This, why would Paul use the term spirit in this context? And remember we talked about this back several weeks ago. They're like sixteen seventeen references to the Holy Spirit here in Romans eight, and there's several right here in this immediate context. So why would Paul use the term spirit in this context? He says ten or twelve times that. I'm laughing because he's going to argue, hey, this is the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit's been mentioned over and over and over in this chapter. But when he went to his qu thirty six even though Israel had been mentioned over and over and over and over, he made a verse about us, even though it's about Israel.

43:06 But in it weird how we care about context sometimes and then other times we don't. Now, I do agree here that you can make a great argument that this is referring to the Holy Spirit. All right, So I'm not disagreeing here. Just find it funny that he's so worried about the context here, But he completely ignored that very same hermoneutical principle in Ezequel thirty six, obliterated Ezequl thirty six, ripped it, just cut it into shreds. So like it's so, I find that hilarious. But all right, let's see what he's going to say. I'm curious what he's going to do with the word righteous, so all right, and how he's going to unders say I do believe that, Yeah, my body is dying and dead and now I have life.

43:50 Now everyone wants to say my spirit is alive, I have the Holy Spirit in me, and that we immediately try to make that mean, well, now I basically can be perfect. I just think it means now I have eternal life. I now have life in me. That when my body dies, I will live because I have eternal life. I have eternal life. Everyone wants to turn it into Well, now that I have this, then boom boom, I basically become a superhero. And we've already talked about all these problems. But let's see where he goes actually. More than that, to refer exclusively to the Holy Spirit and change the meaning here that is in this verse, in this one place, to our spirit. Now, that's a compelling argument, if you're following me. That's a compelling argument that he makes. In addition to that, the Holy Spirit is indeed the life giving spirit, is the spirit that gives life John six sixty three. He does bring life to us, and it's because the Holy Spirit dwells us that even when we died, and now think of this, even when we die physically, our souls remain spiritually alive.

45:03 We are united to Christ by the Spirit of Christ. And because we have His spirit dwelling within us, we possess eternal life, the life of God in our soul. That guarantees we're going to live forever with Christ in heaven, even when our mortal bodies are decayed in the ground. That's the contrast Paul's making here. So I believe this is the Holy Spirit who lives within us, who communicates the life of God to us, so that spiritually speaking, we're alive to God now and that we will never die as Jesus says, we will pass instantly from death unto life. That's a glorious thought if you can get your head around it.

45:49 But then question three, what does Paul mean when he says the Spirit is life because of righteousness. That's what he says, because of righteousness. Oh look, we're. Okay. Now, this is where I'm getting nervous. I think it's interesting that if the Holy Spirit is the thing that basically guarantees my eternal life and a lot of times, well, the Holy Spirit's there to do all of these other things. Well, doing all the other things, Nobody can explain why it does, all the different problems with it. But it makes perfect sense that the Holy Spirit's in me to sell me until the day of redemption. And the Holy Spirit in me is basically the mark, the guarantee, it is the source of my eternal life. All right, Then it makes then you can see what the Holy Spirit is doing other than all these supposed things the Holy Spirit is doing that no one can explain why it doesn't do what everyone says it's supposedly doing. That's where the problem is.

46:46 So all right, now the righteous though, I'm nervous about this one. I'm nervous about this one. So let's see what he's going to do here. IY to deal with the text as the Holy Spirit lays it out here. So that's a long, complicated stuff. I said, Well, I didn't write it. The apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God wrote it, but were required as preachers of God's word. To open up what the Bible says. Okay, all right, I believe it means the spirit. We have the spirit of life because of righteousness. I believe it means that we possess the Holy Spirit, who is life and the life that he brings, and that life we have because of on account of the righteousness of Christ.

47:40 It's not our righteousness. He wouldn't have said we have life because of our righteousness, so he must be talking about another righteousness, the only other righteousness, And the whole Book of Romans is what the righteousness of Christ. In fact, that's the primary theme of the entire epistle of Romans really the righteousness of Christ that becomes ours as believers, the perfect righteousness of God that Paul opens up so wonderfully in Romans three through five, that righteous life and righteous death of Christ, that the merits of which are imputed to us when we believe the gospel, that it's because of the righteousness that we are given eternal life, and we are granted the Holy Spirit.

48:24 Of Yes, the Holy Spirit is there because of imputed righteousness. So the Holy Spirit's not there because we are righteous or unrighteous. So how does the Holy Spirit dwell there? He's there because he is there based off my positional standing before God, that I am declared perfectly righteous. So therefore the Spirit can dwell in me because I have been declared righteous Positionally, practically we know that I'm not. So how can the Holy Spirit be there? Because he's there because I've beenen I have been declared righteous by God, a forensic justification, a legal declaration.

49:09 Of God. And so when Paul says in Romans that the Spirit is life because of righteousness, he's telling us that we are to trace the life giving activity and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in us. Back to the righteousness of our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He has procured the Holy Spirit and his ministry within us and for us. It's on account of Christ's righteousness that we enjoy the life of the Spirit in our souls and that we possess the eternal life. That the Spirit communicates to us. Is because Jesus is perfectly righteous and impuges that righteousness to us, that we now are able to have the spirit of life within us that will carry us all the way to Heaven.

50:26 But we save here the best for last, the promise. All right, we'll stop there. I love the fact that he mentioned imputation. I wish you would distinguish that between infused. We're not infused with a righteousness. The spirit is there because of an imputed righteousness. So therefore, but that means he's there not because I'm righteous. I'm not even being made righteous, and because I am still a sinner, the corruption is still there. Like the only problem with the sermon is it spoke two different realities and never explained the contradiction. Right, Hey, you've got a new heart, a new spirit, a new nature. Everything's been transformed, everything's been changed, you're completely new. But wait, wait, wait, wait wait, you still have in dwelling sin. Wait wait wait, the Holy Spirit's fighting that in dwelling say wait wait wait, the Holy Spirit's there to help you become more godly. But wait if you continue and say and you're not saved?

51:17 What what? So? I wanted to get into Romans eight five and following, but we'll do that next time. I wanted to that at least finishes the review. We didn't finish the whole sermon. But you know, that's okay, that's okay. We're only supposed to be surveying, is trying to just hear the different positions on Romans eight ten through eleven. Right, there's still a lot of questions like and a lot of this we don't ever still really really have answers because it's so many, so much circular contradiction, that it's very difficult to know. So exactly what does this do? Exactly how does this work? Now? I'm going to end with how it began. These are the reality. And you can take all of that word salad, you can take all of that, but this is what you have to walk away remembering this.

52:15 You cannot keep the Law of God. Even as a believer, you cannot the law says be holy as God is holy. You have never been that, you never will be that. You cannot be that. Therefore, right, so number one, you cannot keep the Law of God. Number two two, you are in a perpetual state of sin. Here's the law be perfect. You're not perfect. Therefore you're in a perpetual state of disobedience to the law. Whatever else anybody wants to say, whatever anybody else wants to claim, those claims mean nothing if they don't account with for the fact that you cannot keep the law and you're in a perpetual state of sin. And then number three, then the obvious reason is why are you any perpetual state of sin?

52:56 Why do you continue to sin? Considering the way Christianity sells all the things supposedly you have, which there's no explanation for where the sin is coming from. Because supposedly you have a new heart, new nature, all sin is gone, everything's great, you can keep the law. Supposedly you should be able to be one hundred percent perfect, even though Christians then will backtrack and say, well, you can't be perfect, But the way they sell it is you should be. But I know this. The early Church was completely convinced that we continue to sin even after conversion, and we are in a perpetual state of sin. Let me once again read the Confession of Sin for this evening, all right? And I basically I'm using the different quotes from the Church fathers and from different sources. This is in a book called Psalms and thirty Days, and for evening prayer they have the Confession of Sin. Every night has a confession of sin. Here we go, Oh Lord, no day of my life has passed that has not proven me guilty in your sight. All things in me call for my rejection. Everything inside of me calls from our rejection, meaning sin is still in me. All things in you call for my acceptance. Grant me to hear your voice assuring me that your stripes, by your stripes, I am healed.

54:18 That you are bruised for my iniquities, That you have been made sin for me, that I might be righteous in you, That my grievous sins, my many sins, are all forgiven, buried in the ocean of your concealing blood. Keep me always clinging to your cross. Flood me every moment with descending grace. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You were sinning earlier today, you were sinning in the midday, You're still sinning in some way right now, and you'll be sinning all the way to the time you go to bed. We need to confess our sin mourning, afternoon, evening, and night, simply to remind us that we're in a perpetual state of sin.

55:06 And all of these nonsensical things Christians try to say to deal with that reality are nonsensical and made up. All right, now, I'm gonna go downstairs. I'm gonna get something to drink, I'm gonna get a snack, and i'm gonna get ready for Indiana Fever playoff basketball, and probably in about an hour and a half two hours from now, I'm going to probably be very mad because my team is probably gonna get eliminated from the playoffs. You can say that's not very spiritual, and you may be very right.

55:48 All right, I don't know what else to say. Thanks for listening, Have a great evening, God bless Yeah.