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Psalms 69:1-13 A Psalm of
David. Save me, O
God! For the waters have come up to my
neck. I sink in deep mire, Where there
is no standing; I have come into deep waters, Where the floods overflow
me. I am weary with my crying; My throat is dry; My eyes fail while I wait for
my God. Those who hate me without a cause Are more than the hairs of my head;
They are mighty who would destroy me, Being
my enemies wrongfully; Though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it.
O God, You know my foolishness; And my sins are not hidden from You. Let not
those who wait for You, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed because of me; Let not
those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel. Because for
Your sake I have borne reproach; Shame has covered my face. I have become a
stranger to my brothers, And an alien to my mother's children; Because zeal for
Your house has eaten me up, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have
fallen on me. When I wept and
chastened my soul with fasting, That became my reproach. I also made
sackcloth my garment; I became a byword to them. Those who sit in the gate
speak against me, And I am the
song of the drunkards. But as for me, my prayer is to You, O LORD, in
the acceptable time; O God, in the multitude of Your mercy, Hear me in the
truth of Your salvation. Father
I come before you in the name of Jesus. We thank you for the much needed rain
that you have sent us. We give you all the glory and praise. Amen!
Romans 8:1-4 NKJV
We
left Chapter 7 which is about what happens to us after we become believers; the
battle that goes on inside us when it comes to right and wrong; the old nature battling
the new nature pertaining to God’s laws. That impregnated evil sin nature,
whose roots are of Satan that we received at our water birth vs. our grace nature,
whose roots are of God that is granted to us when we have a Spiritual birth. John 3:5-6 Jesus answered, "Most
assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot
enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the
flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
I want
to leave you with one more example of how laws affect us in our daily life and
the arguments we have within at times. A person living in the suburbs of a
large city has to deal with traffic congestion every morning when he goes to
work. In this one particular area he is always caught up in traffic every day
for half of his commute time to work. Then one day as he approaches the area he
notices an alley behind a shopping mall and wonders if it would bring him out
to a road that he needs to take to get to work. So the next day he leaves a
little early to investigate. He turns down the alley and starts weaving around
dumpsters, pallets, etc. and to his amazement he comes out to a street that
takes him to his work route minutes ahead of everyone else. He is so proud of
himself he starts patting himself on the back and thinking what a great
navigator he is. A few weeks go by and he starts wondering why no one else takes
this route? He can’t figure it out, then one day his wife is with him and as he
approaches the alley he start bragging to his wife about his navigational
skills. How he found this secret passage that no one else knows about. He is
ecstatic and as he turns into the alley and weaves through it and come out the
other end, he asks his wife what she thought. She just calmly states, “you have
broken the law”. He goes what, what do you mean? She said at the other end of
the alley there is a sign stating this is, “ONE WAY DO NOT ENTER”. He goes
what, no it doesn’t, but sure enough the next day he sees the sign. Then the
battle begins within him, each day he is tempted to turn. He rationalizes I
turned and went that way for a month and no one said a thing. I never got
caught or even saw a police officer. You see before the law was pointed out to
him he had no conviction that he was doing wrong. Laws are to point us in the
right direction if we heed them. It is the same with God’s Laws, the Bible, we
have to believe in what the Bibles says and live it, and not bend the rules for
our self satisfaction just because we haven’t gotten caught or think we won’t
get caught because no one is watching. The fact of the matter is our life is
being recorded in God’s accounting book that has our name on it and one day we
will stand before Him and give an account.
Chapter
8 takes us on a journey of Holiness. How God makes a believer holy and there is
no condemnation for anyone who is in Christ. It is about how we can have
victory over sin with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The indwelling of the
Holy Spirit is vital in a believer’s life to have victory over sin. In this
chapter alone the Holy Spirit is referred to no less than 20 times. 8:1 walking
by the Spirit; 8:2 the law of the Spirit; 8:4 walking according to the Spirit;
8:5 living according to the Spirit; 8:5 the things of the Spirit; 8:6 Spiritually
minded; 8:9 You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit; 8:9 Indeed the Spirit
of God dwells in you; 8:9 If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he is
not His; 8:10 The Spirit is life because of righteousness; 8:11 The Spirit of
Him who raised Jesus…dwells in you; 8:11 Will also give life to your mortal
bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you; 8:13 If by the Spirit you put to
death the deeds of the body, you will live; 8:14 For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, these are the sons of God; 8:15 You have received the Spirit of
adoption by whom we cry out Abba Father; 8:16The Spirit Himself bears witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God; 8:23 We also who have the
firstfruits of the Spirit; 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our
weaknesses; 8:26 The Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groaning
which cannot be uttered; 8:27 He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of
the Spirit is. Just reading these verse segments tells us that we cannot do
anything of our flesh to conquer our inherited sin nature. Without the Holy
Spirit we are doomed to Hell if we haven’t repented of our sins, asked Jesus to
forgive us, and submitted our lives to Him.
A
person doesn’t have to read very far in scripture to discover sin is a destructive
and deadly force.
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Sin
is congenital; Psalms
51:5 Behold, I was brought forth
in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.
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·
Sin
is universal; Romans
3:23 for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God,
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Sin
is natural; Ephesians
2:3 among whom also we all once
conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the
others.
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·
Sin
is hereditary; John
8:41-44 You
do the deeds of your father."
Then they said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one
Father—God." 42 Jesus said to them, "If
God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from
God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. 43 Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not
able to listen to My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and the
desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he
speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources,
for he is a liar and the father of it.
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Sin
is fearful; Hebrews
10:27 but a certain fearful
expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the
adversaries.
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Sin
is fatal; 1 Corinthians
16:22 If anyone does not love the
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord, come! 2 Thessalonians
1:8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and
on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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In summary, Gods word
teaches that all human beings are sinners by birth and sinners by choice. The choice
being, whether one chooses to live a lifestyle pleasing self, or God. Romans 2:6-8 who "WILL RENDER TO EACH ONE ACCORDING TO
HIS DEEDS": 7 eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good
seek for glory, honor, and immortality; 8 but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey
the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath,
8:1-4
1 There
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who
do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Chapter 8 starts out with a statement
by Paul that sounds like it would fit in chapter seven and it is very much
related to seven and a good lead into this chapter. The first phrase of verse
one refers back to Romans
6:3-5 Or do you not know that as
many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into
death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in
the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His
resurrection.
If we
are truly in Christ and have had that regeneration of life which is produced
when we have a Spiritual Birth, then we should be walking a life modeled after
Jesus. With the Holy Spirit living within us we are guided down that trail of righteousness/sanctification.
We are living according to the Spirit and not our flesh. We are aware of sin
that is produce within by a simple thought and with the power of the Holy
Spirit we can take the fork in the trail that delivers us from the temptation.
Will we still make wrong decisions and sin? Yes, but being in Jesus and Jesus
in us we are under His umbrella of blood that he shed for us and we are viewed
as justified in our Fathers eyes. It is through God’s eyes we have no
condemnation because we are washed clean and covered in the blood of Jesus, if
we are Born Again, if we have had that regeneration of new life that comes with
a Spiritual Birth.
Does this
mean that sin in believers is not to be condemned? No, but what it does mean is
that, the Cross of Christ does not pronounce condemnation like the Law. Its
function is to pardon, the function of Law is to condemn. A life according to Law
never affords deliverance, but always condemns; the object of living by faith
in Jesus and what was done on the Cross, sets us free from condemnation.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
The
law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ simply means it is God’s Prescribed
Order of Victory over sin. It is God’s plan of salvation and there is nothing
else but the precious blood of Christ that will give us victory. 1 Peter 1:18-20 knowing that you were not redeemed with
corruptible things, like silver
or gold, from your aimless conduct received
by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a
lamb without blemish and without spot. 20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you It is the purpose of the Holy Spirit
to come and live within a believer to guide them. John 16:13-15 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will
guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He
will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and
declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said
that He will take of Mine and declare it
to you. These
two laws, “the Law of Spirit of Life” and “the Law of Sin and Death” are the two
greatest laws in all of creation. The greater of the two laws is the Law of
Spirit of Life and is the only way a person can have victory over the Law of
Sin and Death, that being, believing in what Jesus did for us on the Cross.
3 For what the law could not do in that it was
weak through the flesh, God did
by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He
condemned sin in the flesh, The
first phrase of this verse is telling us as human beings we are so weak and
insufficient that we can’t keep the law no matter how hard we try. Our
willpower does not have the horsepower to keep the law, we are doomed. So what
we couldn’t do under our own power God put a plan in operation by sending His only
Son Jesus to be our saviour so that we can be redeemed. God sent him in the
likeness of sinful flesh meaning in human form, but without sin. If you would
like to see what sinful flesh is, just go look in the mirror. Take a good look
at it, because in God’s eyes it is sinful flesh. How humbling!
God
sent Jesus to atone for our sin so that we can have a chance to be saved and
sanctified if we choose to. Only through the Cross of Christ can we obtain the
power to say no to sin and defeat the sin nature.
4 that the righteous requirement of the law might
be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the
Spirit. With the
redeeming blood of Jesus Christ we are made right with God by believing and
placing our faith in Jesus. With this Spiritual Birth we now have the
capabilities with the help of the Holy Spirit to walk according to the Spirit
of God, to fulfill the requirements of the law. Nothing we can do or believe in,
other than Jesus Christ, will enable us victory.
For I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God
to salvation for everyone who believes,
Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a
steadfast spirit within me.
Unless you are Born Again,
you cannot enter into Heaven, the Kingdom of God."
Bill Wiesbrock
Last Week’s Trivia: Why did Joshua send 2 spies to
Jericho?
Answer: If you recall the event the two spies entered
Jericho and the focus is on Rahab the harlot. Our human minds lead us to
believe they were sent there to bring back info to Joshua so they could set up
a plan for attack, but God took care of that attack plan and brought the wall
of Jericho down. What other information they brought back is vague. Here is the
real reason two spies went there. They were guided by God and met up with Rahab
who was a believer in God Almighty. She and her father’s household were the
only survivors because God protects and provides for his believers. Read the
following verse and see for yourself. God provided a plan so that Rahab’s
family could survive. I would venture to say that she was delivered from her
life of prostitution when she proclaimed God is the only God of Heaven and
Earth, thus placing her faith in God.
Joshua
2:11 And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted;
neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the
LORD your God, He is God in
heaven above and on earth beneath.
This week’s Trivia: What is the significance of the
folded napkin and the placement of it in the tomb where Jesus was laid?
Verse List:
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Romans
3:19
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Romans
5:20
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Romans
7:13
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Galatians
3:10, 21
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